Levy_S-Hackers-Heroes-Computer-Revolution

things to Ken about On-Line that he'd been too intimidated to say before. Evenmore things than he'd previously thought of: John later would shudder at thememory of it telling the president of the company which had done so much forhim that the company's products were garbage.John Harris, with all his lost programs, quirky source codes, perfectionist delays,and Atari 800 chauvinism, had been the hacker soul of Sierra On-Line. He hadbeen both the bane of Ken Williams' existence and the symbol of Ken'saccomplishments. His closeness with Ken had been representative of the newbenevolence which companies like On-Line would substitute for the usual chasmsbetween boss and worker. Now John Harris was gone, having delivered a jeremiadon the way On-Line had abandoned its original mission. What he left behind wasFrogger for weeks now the bestselling program on the Softsel Hot List.Far from being shaken by the loss of John Harris, Ken seemed ebullient in theaftermath. It was as if he had not been crowing several months back that JohnHarris' name on an Atari program would sell games. Ken was certain that the ageof the independent game-hacking auteur was over: "I think I have a view ofauthors which is different from authors' views of authors, and I pray I'm right.Which is, the [hackers] I'm dealing with now just happen to be in the right spot atthe right time. John Harris was. He's a mediocre programmer who's not creative atall who happened to be programming Atari at the right time."Instead of a hacker wasting time trying to make a product perfect, Ken preferredless polished programs that shipped on schedule, so he could start building an adcampaign around them. Not like Frogger, which was held up because one day JohnHarris decided he just didn't want to work. "You can't run a business on peoplewho get depressed when their stuff gets stolen. You need people who will deliverwhen they say they will, at the price they say they will, and are able to work theirproblems out by themselves. John Harris wants you to go drinking with him, geton the phone, go to Club Med, get him laid. I'm a real expert on John Harris andhis emotional problems. I wouldn't want to be basing my 1983 game plan andplacing orders for $300,000 in ROM cartridges based on a game John Harris issupposed to deliver. If his girlfriend didn't like him, or said he was bad in bed, he'dbe gone.""If you can do [Frogger] with the silly talent we have in place, imagine what'llhappen when we have a real company in place. We'll be unstoppable. If I go ondepending on guys who could leave me at any minute because somebody'soffering more, or could suddenly quit working one day because their girlfriends