Sierra On-Line

Ken and Roberta Williams founded On-Line Systems in 1979, and Mystery House (1980) was one of the first adventure games with graphics. The company moved to Oakhurst, near the Sierra Nevada, and renamed itself after the mountains. King's Quest (1984) was commissioned by IBM as a showcase for the PCjr and grew into a nine-game series, followed by Space Quest, Police Quest and Leisure Suit Larry.

Its AGI and later SCI engines supported sound cards such as the Roland MT-32 early on, which made Sierra titles a reason to buy the hardware. Where LucasArts made death impossible, Sierra killed you often and without warning. In 1996 the company was sold to CUC International, which after merging into Cendant turned out to be running a large accounting fraud. The founders left, and the studios were closed one by one.