"Roberta Williams is the most influential woman in pre-2000 gaming history - or maybe ever?" -- What do you think? Fair call? Roberta Lynn Williams is an American video game designer and writer, best known as co-founder of Sierra On-Line and creator of the graphic adventure genre and the King’s Quest series. She was born February 16, 1953, in Los Angeles and grew up in La Verne, California. As a child she was quite shy and imaginative and invented fairy-tale adventures for her family. After high school she worked as a clerk and later as a computer operator and COBOL programmer. I assume most here have no clue what COBOL was/is. As so many legends from that golden era, Roberta did not have any formal training as a game programmer. In 1979 Ken brought home an Apple II. Roberta became hooked on the text adventure Colossal Cave Adventure and wanted a version with pictures. She designed the story, rooms, puzzles, and drawing, while Ken took care of the programming. The result was Mystery House (1980), widely credited as the first graphic adventure game. It sold well enough that they founded On-Line Systems that same year. The rest is history!