After Wumpus was kind enough to post that article talking about the “good ol’ days” of CGW I started thinking about games and personalities lost in the sands of time. Every now and then something or someone will come to mind and a quick google search later the riddle is solved. For example, what happened to the world famous 1990 Nintendo World Champion Thor Aackerlund? Nintendo basically banished him after he sold his soul and started doing advertisements for an “unauthorized” publisher. He now lives in Texas, works for an accounting firm, and drives an '88 Honda Prelude. But what about some of the others?
What happened to Jim Walls of Police Quest fame? I know he’s done design work for games as recently as Pirates: Legend Of Black Kat, and Bladerunner. But what happened at Sierra that caused him to leave? All i’ve read is that there was some big internal explosion and he left in a huff. This was during the development of Codename: Iceman 2 from what I know(I’ve only ever been able to find one screenshot of it). After that he went to Tsunami Games and made Blue Force (which i have yet to even open). Just a bit curious what happened, this guy was like a god among my group of friends.
Oh my goodness. I loved it. It was hard as hell, sure, but I thought it was pretty nice. Although, I do remember that my friend and I played it for about a year because we got stuck so many times, hehe. We didn’t exactly know what walk-throughs were back then.
I’m waiting for the E! channel to do an expose on Sierra. Then all our questions will be answered. (Maybe you can play yourself Adam!)
It will be in three episodes:
Sierra Online: The Wonder Years
“Hey! These games suck!”: 1993-1998
The Return of the King, or How Sierra Got Its Groove Back
Or, if you wanted to do it from the corporate angle:
Mom and Pop: The Ken and Roberta Williams Story
Mom, Pop, and Cendant: “Hey! These games suck!” (1993-1998)
The French Years: “Les jouets son tres bien maintenant!”
[EDIT: As it turns out, CUC International bought Sierra in 1996, this company became Cendant after a merger in 1997, Havas purchased it in 1998, and Vivendi bought Havas shortly thereafter. I’ve updated my installments to reflect the facts. Here’s the website I found the info on if you’re interested.]
