Founded in 1979 as On-Line Systems by husband-and-wife team Ken and Roberta Williams, Sierra gained early fame for developing some of the first adventure games to feature graphics.

Other early notable series include King’s Quest, Leisure Suit Larry, and Space Quest.
Roberta Williams also did pioneering work with games featuring real-time video, such as Gabriel Knight and Phantasmagoria.

The height of Sierra’s success was marked by the publishing of the original Half-Life (developed by Valve Studios) in 1998 and Homeworld (developed by Relic) in 1999. Sierra was sold a number of times before Activision finally absorbed it in 2008.

Pictured: Box art for Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude

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