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Not All Fairy Tales Have Happy Endings


Captain Mystery

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Has anyone read this book by Ken Williams about the rise and fall of Sierra? https://kensbook.com/

 

Would love to hear your thoughts if you have!

 

I know, it's not LucasArts, but there's enough nostalgia in me for hours of fighting with my PC to play GK1-3, Laura Bow 1-2 and the Leisure Suit Larry series to think about this. Prefer print for books, but didn't want to commit to it if others have done so and found it to be a slog/boring/etc.

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I read it and I liked it! It’s Ken’s perspective on the rise and fall of Sierra and how they operated. While I can’t shake off the feeling that his way of telling it is a little coloured, and he does admit in the book that his memory is a little foggy sometimes, it’s great to read about his experiences firsthand. I definitely recommend it if you like Sierra games and other nineties games!

 

(BTW, I bought a printed copy through Amazon (when I still shopped there). Appearently it’s part of a program where they print every copy seperately after you buy it.)

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I'm definitely going to get it based off what you wrote, so we can have a Captain Mystery and Lagomorph01 book club discussion.

I recall also seeing some Kickstarter or similar project for a book that also claimed to be a compendium of Sierra history -- but the description was confusingly written, and it looked like mostly a picture book of Sierra video game boxes and screenshots with a short description blurb for a very steep price.

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Yikes. It's not great when someone wanting money for a book can't make it clear what they're trying to communicate.

 

Sentences like this don't help:

 

Quote

Sadly, a lot of this important history has already been lost or forgotten. I endeavor to remedy that.

 

How exactly are you going to remedy something that you've basically just said is beyond remedy?

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16 hours ago, ThunderPeel2001 said:

Yikes. It's not great when someone wanting money for a book can't make it clear what they're trying to communicate.

 

Sentences like this don't help:

 

 

How exactly are you going to remedy something that you've basically just said is beyond remedy?


That was my problem with it, hence my confusion! Like, show me a comprehensive book outline about Sierra and what I'm getting and I'll throw my (very limited) money at you. But if I can't even decipher from the Kickstarter and posts in this forum what the book does, I'm not going to pay for it.

Sidenote: I will still get Ken Williams' book so that @Lagomorph01 and I have can have book club about it, but in recent interviews I've read with him about masks, the need for the Police Quest series ("LA was full of junkies!") and certain other issues he seems like someone I do not politically agree with, hope that doesn't affect the read.

Edited by Captain Mystery
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Ken's quite the character and it shows in his writing. He's got a very spartan like business approach. (You've got A employees, B employees and C employees. Get the best of the best and if you can't get the best, don't get in the game. That kind of attitude.) While I don't like that stance on business, he does have some fascinating insights in what the Sierra business philosophy was, and where he got his inspiration. I can still recommend the book, even though I don't think Ken's the kind of guy I could have a particularly nice chat with.

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17 hours ago, Lagomorph01 said:

That's a great cover! It's so cool that you got to do that!

I like it much more than the American one! (This one actually has art design...) 😉

Thank you!!, there was a debate by the publisher since they didn't find the original cover too appealing so they asked me if I wanted to give it a shot :), and I thought about making it as a fairy tale book with subtle bright colors.

I hope Ken and Roberta get to see it.

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