King’s Quest Series
キングス・クエストシリーズ
Microsoft recently finalized its US$68.7 billion deal to acquire Activision Blizzard, the current owners of Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon IPs, along with the games made by Sierra On-Line… except for the licensed IPs (Hersheypark, Lionel, NASCAR…) that Sierra worked with, and now it’s official. This is the first Activision Blizzard/Sierra series post on
. I never grew up with ANY King’s Quest games, and I tried it but didn’t know how to type back then when we had a Windows 95/DOS computer. I’m “Emperor” Cory Roberts, and we will talk about the King’s Quest series, created by Roberta Williams!King’s Quest I: Quest for the Crown
The first order of business is King’s Quest, first released on the IBM PCjr in 1984 and later for several other systems between 1984 and 1989. In this game, you are Sir Graham (voiced by Josh Mandel, the designer of the 1990 remake, as well as reprising his role in the enhanced fan remake), the bravest and most honorable knight in the troubled realm of the fictional Daventry. The player’s interaction consists entirely of typing commands into the game’s parser (up until the fifth game) and then reading the parser’s response because the on-screen graphics rarely change except when the player moves to a new location. The Kingdom of Daventry is in serious trouble after its precious magical items have been stolen. One day, King Edward the Benevolent rescued a beautiful young Princess Dahlia of Cumberland, but on the night of their wedding, she was discovered to actually be an evil witch who stole the king’s treasure. Knowing that he had to save the kingdom, the dying King Edward sends his bravest knight, Sir Graham, to Cumberland. His quest is to rid the land of the treacherous witch, outwit the other assorted villains, and retrieve the three lost treasures. Because he had no heir, if Graham should succeed, he would become the next king.
The 1990 remake release is the “Enhanced” version of King’s Quest. It uses the Sierra’s Creative Interpreter (SCI) engine, the same engine used in games such as King’s Quest IV; while it still uses 16-color graphics, it features twice the resolution, and music card support instead of the PC speaker. There are two different box variations for this release: one with the same gold slipcover box as the 1987 256K version 2.0F and a box created specifically for the remake.
King’s Quest II: Romancing the Throne
The second installment of the series was originally released in 1985 for PC DOS/PCjr and later made available for the Apple II/IIGS, Atari ST, and Amiga. It uses the same AGI game engine as the first installment and the player returns to the role of King Graham. The title is a spoof of the 1984 film Romancing the Stone. Having killed the evil Dahlia and retrieved the three stolen treasures of Daventry, Sir Graham became the new king of Daventry. The mirror shows him a vision about a beautiful young woman, Valanice, in captivity on the top of an ivory crystal tower. Being charmed by her, King Graham travels to the world of Kolyma to rescue Valanice. There he must travel through sea, air, and even death to gain the keys that unlock the three doors to the enchanted island where the witch Hagatha has imprisoned Valanice. After meeting legendary figures such as Neptune, Little Red Riding Hood, and Count Dracula, the latter of whom he kills, Graham rescues Valanice. At the end of the game, they are married in a ceremony attended by many of Graham’s friends and several of his former enemies.
All puzzles in the game are solved through a parser. The player may type a phrase with a verb and noun, for example, ‘Look at’ or ‘Pick up’, the word list in the parser is fairly robust and understands quite a lot of non-important verbs which will result in unexpected replies. For example, the player could type, ‘dig’, or ‘dig the beach’ and receive messages about how pointless it is to be digging. Sometimes even illogical verb/noun combinations will net unique comments, such as typing ‘Pick up horse’ will mention the flying steed is too fast to catch. With this system, the player can collect many items using ‘pick up’ placed into the game's inventory. The items in the inventory have close-up pictures giving an idea of what the item looks like, or in some cases offering clues about the item. In a rare few examples, an item may be manipulated in some way.
King’s Quest III: To Heir is Human
The third installment was released in 1986. The game was originally released for the Apple II and PC DOS and later ported to several other computer systems. It was the first title game in the series not to feature King Graham as the player character. Most of the game’s various lands and locations appear on the magic map. Once the protagonist Gwydion reaches a new region, he can use the magic map to travel to a previous region. A real-time clock is displayed at the top of the screen, with certain actions occurring based on the clock. The player takes the role of 17-year-old Gwydion (in the middle of the game, he learns his true identity as Prince Alexander of Daventry), who must find a way to outsmart the evil wizard Manannan (three “A”s and four “N”s), rescue his twin sister Rosella, escape, and eventually discover the truth about his own identity. The Magic Mirror, which has been clouded by a mystical darkness since the night Prince Alexander was kidnapped, is restored and King Graham decides to pass on his adventurer’s cap to his children. As the game ends, King Graham tosses the cap to Alexander and Rosella who reach out to catch it.
King’s Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella
King’s Quest IV was released in 1988 for the MS-DOS, Amiga, Apple II, Apple IIGS, and Atari ST computers. This is the only chapter in the King’s Quest series where the action takes place in real-time and within the allotted time limit, as this game is on a 24-hour clock. The player takes on the role of Princess Rosella, daughter of King Graham of Daventry (the star of the series) and the twin sister of Gwydion/Alexander, who must save her father and a good fairy and destroy an evil witch. The primary goal? To retrieve the magic fruit, which is needed to save King Graham and retrieve the talisman and give it back to the good fairy Genesta, as well as the hen (female chicken).
Critically acclaimed, it was one of the first PC games to support a sound card. King’s Quest IV uses the Adventure Game Interpreter (AGI) and Sierra’s Creative Interpreter (SCI) systems.
Here’s the promotional video for the PC game (below).
King’s Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder!
The fifth installment was released in 1990 (which is my birth year) and featured a significant improvement in graphics (achieved through the introduction of VGA into the series). It was also the first King’s Quest installment to replace the typing user interface with a point-and-click user interface. King’s Quest V sold over half a million copies and won several awards. It was later released as a fully voiced “talkie” CD-ROM, done by members of the Sierra staff. This is the only King’s Quest game to be released in Japan… on a NEC PC-98. The player returns to the role of King Graham, who got his castle stolen by the evil wizard Mordack, who has imprisoned the castle and royal family of Daventry out of revenge and threatens to feed the royal family to Manannan (who last appeared in the third game) unless Prince Alexander agrees to restore him to his true form as the spell’s nature means that only Prince Alexander as the caster can reverse it. King Graham travels through the land of Serenia, gathering helpful items and information, and eventually makes his way to Mordack’s island, and to his castle lair, to save his family from their impending doom. Akiko Maeda-Skjellerup was responsible for translating some of the Sierra games into Japanese.
King’s Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow
King’s Quest VI was released in 1992. Written by Roberta Williams and Jane Jensen, King’s Quest VI is widely recognized as the high point in the series for its landmark 3D graphic introduction movie (created by Kronos Digital Entertainment) and professional voice acting (Hollywood actor Robby Benson provided the voice for Prince Alexander, the game’s protagonist). King’s Quest VI was programmed in Sierra’s Creative Interpreter and was the last King’s Quest game to be released on floppy disk. A CD-ROM version of the game was released in 1993, including more character voices, a slightly different opening movie, and more detailed artwork and animation. This game also includes the late Tony Jay (Judge Claude Frollo, Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame), David Fennoy (Lee Everett in the episodic video game The Walking Dead, Rodin in Bayonetta and its sequel…), among other voice actors. The game takes place almost entirely in a fictional kingdom called the Land of the Green Isles. The kingdom comprises several islands and is described as being largely isolated from the outside world. The player can travel between different islands after obtaining a magic map. This game also includes the song “Girl in the Tower” (below).
King’s Quest VII: The Princeless Bride
King’s Quest VII was released for the MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows, and Macintosh computers in 1994. It features high-resolution graphics in a style reminiscent of Disney animated films and is the only King’s Quest game with multiple protagonists: Queen Valanice (voiced by Carol Bach y Rita) and Princess Rosella (voiced by Maureen McVerry), who are both spirited away to the realm of Eldritch, and Rosella is transformed into a troll (no, not THAT troll). They must find a way to return Rosella to normal and find her true love, get rid of a powerful evil force threatening this realm, and get back to their kingdom Daventry. King’s Quest VII is the only game in the series to divide the story into chapters. Some puzzles have multiple solutions, and there are two possible endings. Critical reactions to the game were generally positive. This is also the only game the player takes the role of Queen Valanice, the wife of the King’s Quest star King Graham.
King’s Quest: Mask of Eternity
Also known as King’s Quest VIII: Mask of Eternity, it was released in 1998 and was the eighth official game in the King’s Quest series, the first and only game in the main series where the main character is neither King Graham nor a member of his family, as well as the first in the series to use a full 3D engine as opposed to the 2D cartoon or pixel style of the earlier games and the first to omit the sequel numbering system on box artwork and title screen. Connor may encounter hostile creatures and can fight them using his melee weapons or bow. Some portions of the game also include environmental hazards the protagonist has to avoid, or jumping puzzles reminiscent of platform games. RPG elements are present in character development: Connor gains experience points from vanquishing enemies and completing tasks, and eventually levels up, increasing his hit points and combat parameters. Weapons and armor can be found or bought for money obtained from defeated foes. This is also the first game to include a seven-digit scoring system, as opposed to the three-digit scoring system in the previous games.
Mary Kay Bergman (of South Park fame) sadly committed suicide by gunshot in late 1999, one year after the game’s release, and 22 years later after the game’s release, Philece Sampler (Queen Freesa and Swamp Wisp’s voice actress, as well as the first Mimi Tachikawa from Digimon Adventure up until tri. and the first Sabine Cheng from Miraculous Ladybug) passed away in mid-2021.
I also got a bonus for you… the many deaths of King’s Quest (first game and fan remake (parts one and two), second game, third game, fourth game, fifth game, sixth game, and seventh game). The King’s Quest collection is available for purchase at GOG.com unless your modern computer can handle the old games (which requires DOSBox).
That ends the collection of King’s Quest on Medium. I hope you’ve enjoyed the article, and Shinkansen Retrogamer will be temporarily halted. Thanks for reading.
