A Video Chat with Roberta Williams interview

Roberta Williams. Co-founder of Sierra On-Line, legendary game designer, famed boat adventurer, author, and a genuinely lovely individual. In this interview we get to see a side of Roberta that isn't often seen, as she waxes poetic both about her time at Sierra and her wonderful new book entitled Farewell to Tara. Of course, in typical Roberta form, she is charming from beginning to end.

If you are an adventure game fan, you will no doubt be as captivated as I was for all 35 minutes of this video chat. Roberta was very candid in answering questions about her favorite games, her struggles with King’s Quest 8, her vision for Phantasmagoria, Sierra dead ends, and much more.

Roberta’s time at Sierra may not have ended as she’d wished, but she has certainly been enjoying her “retirement” ever since. Not to be outdone by her husband Ken, who recently released a book of his own (Not All Fairy Tales Have Happy Endings), Roberta has just published her first novel, Farewell To Tara, and her enthusiasm for it is infectious. The research, the time, and the love she put into melding fictional storytelling with accurate Irish history will surely attract fans of her games as well as those of us who simply enjoy a good book from a unique perspective.

So sit back, get comfortable, and enjoy the next half hour with the one and only Roberta Williams.
 

Note: Thumbnail idea courtesy of Ken Williams, in honor of Roberta’s disappointment that she was never included in a Leisure Suit Larry game!