[lance_ewing]

I found it very difficult to find references to it online. There is a reference in the "Hackers" book by Steven Levy to Sierra On-Line having one (he uses the name "Form Master"), and former Sierra employees have mentioned it as well but with the two words run together as FormMaster. As I couldn't find much more, I'm not sure which form of spelling is correct.

https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Hackers/JwKHDwAAQBAJ?...

There is a photograph in a September 1983 issue of a Japanese magazine called "LOGiN" of one of Sierra On-Line's disk copying machines but the article doesn't mention it by name. I wonder if it is the FormMaster/Form Master machine.

https://archive.org/details/login-september-1983/LOGiN%20-%2...

As an aside, that September 1983 magazine is the earliest clear reference to the development of King's Quest that I could find. It isn't mentioned by name but it is obvious that it is King's Quest that is being referred to.

[jesprenj]

Thank you for the links! I kind of expected a machine with 10+ floppy slots (: I think I just wasn't really aware of the year this machine was produced.

[lance_ewing]

This video that Ken Williams put on Youtube a year or so back has got a short bit showing someone using the machine in the Sierra On-Line office:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oY_JbTYXVjg

It is at about 1:47 into the video. It is the same machine shown in that LOGiN magazine article. This one appears to only support the 5 1/4 inch floppies, since I think the 3 1/2 inch disks weren't around at the time, so they must have got a newer machine later on.

Ken's title for the video claims it was from 1983, but from my research, I think that a September 1982 date is more likely. The whole thing is an amazing video actually. Well worth watching. Incredible that it actually survived and is now preserved on Youtube.

[jesprenj]

Good catch! Thank you.