Video game:Hoyle Classic Card Games

This item is part of a donation from Ken and Roberta Williams, founders of the influential video game company Sierra On-Line. This donation includes various pieces of game-related artwork, framed newspaper and magazine articles, press releases and catalogs, annual reports, game design documents, copies of Sierra's magazine Interaction, and around 140 video games.

Founded in 1979, Sierra grew into one of the largest computer game companies in the 1980s and 1990s, and they produced some of the most popular and influential games of the era. These include the first graphical computer adventure, Mystery House, the first third-person graphical adventure game, King's Quest (plus its many sequels). Other popular titles include The Black Cauldron, Mixed-Up Mother Goose, Leisure Suit Larry, Gabriel Knight, and Phantasmagoria. Sierra is also famous for pioneering the use of animation, video, and humor in computer games.

Roberta Williams, one of the most important female developers in the history of video games, served as Sierra's main game designer. Ken Williams, a computer programmer by training, wrote code for the initial games but spent most of his career as Sierra's CEO. This collection not only charts the history of Sierra but shows how many of the company's most successful games were produced.