In 1979 Ken Williams brought home a teletype terminal to write business software. His wife Roberta found Colossal Cave Adventure on it, got hooked, and wondered why a computer capable of graphics was only showing words. This episode traces how that distraction became Sierra On-Line, from Mystery House in May 1980, the first computer adventure game with graphics, traced with a VersaWriter tablet and sold by mail order for 167,000 dollars, through the move to Oakhurst, California, the 1983 crash that taught Ken about hardware obsolescence, and the IBM PCjr deal that funded the Adventure Game Interpreter engine and King's Quest in 1984.

The hosts explain how Ken stepped back from programming to become a talent incubator, greenlighting Space Quest from Mark Crowe and Scott Murphy, Leisure Suit Larry from Al Lowe, and Police Quest from retired h ...