King's Quest - Basics

The First Part will cover the basics of the series. King's Quest series has been around for a very long time. The original King's Quest came out in 1983. Sierra Entertainment ushered in this series alongside many other adventure games like Space Quest and Police Quest. Most of their games were revolutionary as they pushed on further and further with each rendition. These games continued until King's Quest 8 in 1998. Many people have tried to re-initiate the old flame through the use of community and creativity. These remakes, revivals, enhancements, new game+ , or "redux" as some coined were widely received as nice modern takes on otherwise abandoned games.

Quoted from the King's Quest companion: "If I have learned anything in my life, I have learned this: When in doubt, or in trouble, pick up anything that is not nailed down, and if it is, look for loose nails or boards. Check carefully into, under, above, below, and behind things. Read everything; you might learn something. Wear clean undergarments, brush after meals, and always remember: nothing is as it appears."

King's Quest series might be an adventure game but don't take it lightly. Even starting from the very first game of the series, the puzzles and riddles can be ruthless. Many of the puzzles will take lateral thinking to solve and some even require the manual. King's Quest 3 and 6 both require straight-up puzzles included in the manual while King's Quest 4 had a copy protection tool of inserting the right word from a page. I recall a word code wheel being included in some games. Before the days of the Internet, many users remember calling a helpline or sending a letter into the company for notoriously insane puzzles that no mere man would be able to solve. I think a lot of people coined this as "Sierra-logic"

Plug: Today, many people try to bring back beloved old games. My avatar comes from the old game Starcontrol 2 which has been remade with a 3D0, HD, music remixes, and voice-over additions. The most enjoyable remake of this is named Urquan Masters. Although Starcontrol 3 didn't spark many people's interests, Stardock has taken control to try and make a prequel. We will have to see if the maker of 4x games Galactic Civilizations and Sins of a Solar Empire can successfully bring back that game.

The first four games were text-based adventures. They included a Text Parcer where you would type words like "look" and "take" instead of clicking on the environment. King's Quest 5, 6, and 7 were all drastically different with the ability to click on objects, listening to voice-overs (reading text being optional), and higher detail graphics. Modern players have made remakes to the first three games to mirror what Sierra did to the latest of the King's Quest games. Sadly, King's Quest 4 has not been successfully remade.

King's Quest isn't a series new to me. Whether it be from my brother or other source, I recall a lot of little details. There is a big chance I played King's Quest 5 (that originally came out in 1990) all the way through sometime during my college years (between 2003 and 2008) when developers came out with news of the remake: The Silver Lining. Sadly Activision sent a cease-and-desist letter twice, once in 2005 and another in 2010. They rescinded both times and the game is actually free to download here. They only have 4 of the 5 episodes out but are persistent on finishing episode 5. Perhaps we will see it when someone finishes a remake of King's Quest 4 (which has been slowly being built for the past few years).

What many will enjoy is what AGD brought to the original classics. King's Quest 1-3 were remade in the style of King's Quest 5 while tweaking the maddening quests no one was able to solve. There were also many controversial story additions that many will see not in the originals. Infamous Games came out with their remake of King's Quest 3. Their style makes things stand-out while keeping very close to the original storyline.

...more details in the next part.

 

 6-4-2016