King's Quest

King's Quest
Genres Adventure
Developers Sierra Entertainment
Publishers Sierra Entertainment
Creators Roberta Williams

King's Quest is an adventure game series created by the American software company Sierra Entertainment. It is widely considered a classic series from the golden era of adventure games. Following the success of its first installment, the series was primarily responsible for building the reputation of Sierra. Roberta Williams, co-founder and former co-owner of Sierra, designed all of the King's Quest games.

The King's Quest series chronicles the saga of the royal family of the Kingdom of Daventry through their various trials and adventures. The story takes place over two generations and across many lands, including Daventry, Kolyma, Llewdor, Tamir, Serenia, Eldritch, Etheria, Land of the Green Isles, Realm of the Dead, The Swamp, Dimension of Death, Underground Realm of the Gnomes, Barren Region, Frozen Reaches, Paradise Lost, and Realm of the Sun.

In February 2011, it was announced that the series will be rebooted by Telltale Games.[1]

Contents

Description

The world of King's Quest encompasses many different kingdoms and supernatural realms. Technologically, the series pioneered the use of animation and pseudo-3D environments in graphic adventure games, so that the main character could, for example, walk behind objects on-screen.[2]

The main characters in the series are King Graham, originally a knight of Daventry who won the throne of the kingdom through questing, and members of his family: his wife Queen Valanice and his twin son and daughter, Prince Alexander and Princess Rosella. The exception is King's Quest: Mask of Eternity, where the protagonist is Connor of Daventry, a tanner from the Kingdom of Daventry who is unrelated to the royal family although in the opening sequence there is a brief moment where King Graham is shown and Connor later visits Castle Daventry and sees the King's statue form.

Many famous fictional characters make appearances in the series, including Beauty and the Beast, Rumpelstiltskin, Little Red Riding Hood and Count Dracula. They are featured most prominently in the earlier games, which focus on solving item-based puzzles in a fantasy setting. The later sequels have more elaborate story lines, more complicated puzzles, and more original and well-developed characters.

The primary way in which characters solve puzzles and advance through the game is by using items found earlier in the game and stored in their inventory. Even the most apparently useless item (a dead fish, a rotten tomato, or an old board) can have an unexpected and creative purpose in the right situation. King Graham's famous dictum, "Take anything that isn't nailed down," is generally a good rule of thumb, as is the fan addendum "And if it is nailed down, look for loose nails, or solve the nail-removing puzzle." When a situation looks completely impassable, a good idea is often to leave it and come back later with new items. Other puzzles include the mapping of labyrinths, deserts, or other inhospitable places; solving riddles; and tasks involving the use of logic or lateral thinking skills. People who play King's Quest should expect their characters to die rather frequently (due to the difficulty of many of the puzzles and encountering situations for which the character is not yet ready) and should use the "Save Game" option accordingly. Some parts of the game can only be solved by saving and restoring a character many times. Another important strategy is to use all one's character's senses to gather all the information available: look, listen, smell, taste, or touch whenever possible.

Series

Under Development

Geography

The region in which the first game takes place has no boundaries. Sir Graham can travel north, south, east, or west, but no matter what direction he goes, he will eventually loop back to the same screen where he began. This is the easiest way of programming a closed gamespace. King's Quest II, III, and parts of IV held on to this design, albeit in a more limited manner. The looping takes place only when the character goes north or south. Geographical barriers such as the sea, mountains, or deserts serve as boundaries to the east and west. The desert boundary in III was partially looped in one direction, one could continually travel west almost endlessly, until succumbing to dehydration. But travelling back east at any time, would always take the character back to the edge of the desert instantly.

In I-IV one could sometimes see elements of the next screen to the north in the distance. This gave the illusion that each location was connected to the next seamlessly despite the fact land was looping.

It was less defined in earlier games. In I the elements were the castle in the distance and some views of the rivers (most other areas were obscured by hills and trees). In II and IV this phenomenon was primarily seen along the beach (as trees and hills tended to block view inland). In IV one could see various elements scattered throughout various screens, such as the fisherman's shack, the pool, the old mansion, the ogre cottage, and river, in the distance in certain screens. For example, from the first screen the player begins the game they can see small cliffs to the north (the next screen is those cliffs). Traveling one screen north, one can see the Fisherman's shack in the distance (the next screen is the shack). One screen north of the fisherman's shack, one can see the river in the distance (the same river from the first screen). Heading east one screen from the back of the shack, one can see the pool in the distance (the pool is the next screen).

However, in III, it created an interesting situation. The magic map, for example, shows the topography for Llewdor.[3] It showed the Village of Llewdor and Three Bear's house as being south of Manannan's house (which is also supported by some of the ingame descriptions of each screen). One can see the mountain to the north from the Three Bear's house, supporting the topography in the magic map. Yet from Manannan's mountain, one would see the both the village and Bear's house to the north of the mountain.[4]

According to the manual for the King's Quest IBM, this phenomenon was described as such; "Daventry's world has a three-dimensional quality about it, places "wrap around" like countries on a globe. Imagine Daventry as a country so large it bends around the world."

The looping is also physically in the world's descriptions and artwork, as sections that connect to each other (such as the Raging River in KQ1) are often contain elements of the northern screen that can be seen in the distance (in KQ1 east and west edges had elements of next screen). For example in KQ2, areas such as the beach, the chasm, and the poisonous lake are made up of areas that take up several screens from north to south (visually connecting to each). Each of these areas when compared to each other are staggered with the beach lying somewhat north or south of the lake, and chasm screens lying both north and south of the lake. So no matter how someone may attempt to set boundaries, elements of the map will always be split in some way, with part of the landmark appearing in the north, and part of it appearing in the south.[5] So if for instance boundaries included the chasm and poison lake, the beach is cut in half. If the boundaries include the beach and the poison lake, the chasm is cut in half. If the boundaries include the beach and the chasm, the poison lake is cut in half. In in another examle KQ4, putting boundary edges near the definable boundaries south of Lolotte's Castle (a rocky wall), and north of the Skull Cave (another rocky wall), ends up splitting Genesta's Island in half.[6]

The 'wrap around' has affected the drawn artwork maps and diagrams in strategy guides and hint books. For example, various maps were drawn for the King's Quest Companion's first three editions, which tried to portray the various lands of the first four games. The looping caused each artist to portray the edges of their maps differently, and thus locations were shown in different places on each map.[7][8][9] The maps drawn for KQ3 more or less stuck to the geography defined by the magic map. The KQ1 maps show the most dramatic differences in interpretation. For example, the Door into Mountain being shown as being part of a mountain range in two of the maps, and as a central mountain in the third. The looping situation has been explained in The King's Quest Companion (retroactive continuity) by saying that the character is trapped in the region magically, "magical law of "containment".

Beginning with KQ V, looping was eliminated and all game regions had boundaries in all four directions. Where physical boundaries didn't exist, expanses such as an endless desert or the ocean were used where the character would usually be killed or die if they traveled too far.

Mythology

Much of King's Quest was inspired by fairy tales, which designer Roberta Williams loved reading.[10] Many creatures, characters and situations from mythology, fairy tales, and folklore are encountered within the world of King's Quest. A Minotaur, Pegasus, Pan, Pandora, Charon, Cupid, Ceres, Druids, Harpies, Oracles, Poseidon, Medusa, Fates, Djinn, Azrael, Goliath, and the Graeae appear in various games in the series. In general, the mythology and cultures of the King's Quest world is derived from that of the Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, Egyptian, Arabic, Biblical, Mesopotamian, and Celts.

Many of the puzzle solutions are inspired by various tales (so a player with knowledge of the stories beforehand would have an advantage).

Magic plays a large role in the King's Quest series. Wizards, witches, enchanters, sorcerers, and genies appear throughout. In some of the games (most prominently in KQIII), the main character must use magic spells or items to achieve a goal.

The concept of the King's Quest series was derived from ideas first established in Wizard and the Princess (Adventure in Serenia) which was an early forerunner of the series.[11] The backstory for the IBM version was setup as a sequel to the original Apple version. The game versions followed the exploits of unnamed hero known only as the "wanderer". The game's connection to the King's Quest series led to its inclusion as one of the King's Quest trivia questions.[12] The fifth King's Quest game marked a return to Serenia, the land first seen during the game. The game's backstory was further tied into the King's Quest history through The King's Quest Companion. According to the Companion, in various periods of history people from the real world withdrew to Daventry, which explains how historical and mythical elements exist there.[13]

In most of the series, it is said that the games take place, 'a long time ago', in a time when mermaids and unicorns existed.

According to Roberta Williams:

"Well, yeah, King's Quest is on Earth. Daventry is very old city from a long time ago. It's in ruins now and people aren't quite sure exactly where it used to be. There are some archaeologists searching through the ruins, they think they know it's Daventry. But it's somewhere on Earth." -Mask of Eternity Talkspot Interview, part 1, December 9, 1998 (1:20:40 to 1:59:58)[14][15][16][17]

In King's Quest Companion, the series takes place in a parallel universe.

Good and evil

In the series, the player, as the main character, always plays on the side of that which is right and fair. King Graham, Queen Valanice, Prince Alexander, Princess Rosella, and Connor strive to serve the greater good. The main character is often motivated by a desire to protect his or her loved ones or protect the innocent from evil. The villains of the series have been characters who threatened the safety of Daventry or sought to rule other kingdoms as tyrants. In the first seven games of the series, emphasis is placed upon avoiding violence whenever possible. Many of the villains are not killed but instead are magically imprisoned or otherwise neutralized. Sometimes, especially in the earlier entries, there are multiple methods of defeating adversaries. When dealing with adversaries who are dangerous but not truly evil, non-lethal methods are always rewarded with more points and sometimes more tangible rewards too (most notably the snake in King's Quest II). Still, violent methods are used against certain villains. In KQ1, Graham pushes the witch into a burning stove or cauldron. In KQII, he kills Dracula with a wood stake. In KQ3, Alexander slays the three-headed dragon. In KQIV, Rosella kills Lolotte with a love arrow. In KQV, Graham kills a Yeti (indirectly, by causing it to fall over a cliff), and he also kills Mordack during a magical duel. In KQVI, Alexander uses a red scarf to cause the mintaur to fall into a pit of fire. This drastically changes in King's Quest 8, where every villain the player encounters is killed with the exception of Lucreto, who cannot be killed and is therefore banished into a void.

Characters of the King's Quest series

Protagonists

Villains

There are various villains in the official games.

Others

Organizations

There are a number of organizations or alluded to in the King's Quest games and expanded material.

The Royal House of Daventry

In majority of the KQ games, the Royal House of Daventry, aka the Royal Family, are the protagonists of the series. They are the rulers of the Kingdom of Daventry. King Graham's family are the current Royal Family (formerly it was King Edward's family).

The King's Quest Companion suggests (or at least believed by Derek Karlavaegen) that the King of Daventry and his family are forever charged (although some might say cursed) to play a grave and crucial and essential role in the very existence of the universe of Daventry. King Graham and his family are for the side of Good and Manannan and all of his family (Mordack & Hagatha) are on the side of Evil. The final winner will determine the course of the world until the next crisis arrives, and the fight is renewed again with new players.[33]

By the end of KQ8, though not related to Graham's family, Connor became a Knight of Daventry.

Family of Evil

The family on the side of Evil. The family consists of Hagatha, Manannan, and Mordack. Manannan's family at least according to Derek Karlavaegen represent all that is Evil in the world. They are in a constanst struggle with the Royal Family (which represents the forces of Good). Neither side chose to be what they are nor understand why they were chosen. Both may influence the course of the world, and determine its fate. Good and Evil keeping the world in balance.

According to the theory, a powerfully evil family must exist in the universe in order to balance the presence of the powerful and good royal family of Daventry. Such conflict is part of the order of the universe not just to balance the forces, but to give purpose to existence. If this is correct then this means that good and evil (or whatever one wants to call the two) must exist—just to keep things interesting.[34]

The Crown

The Crown is the royal family of the Green Isles. They are based on the Isle of the Crown. It is currently ruled by King Alexander and his wife, Cassima. It was formerly ruled by Abdul Alhazred (in interim), and before that King Caliphim and his wife Allaria. The Crown has ruled the Islands for over three hundred years.

The Society of Wizards

In KQ5 the Wizard Crispin, makes reference to an organization called the Society of Wizards. It is apparently a society for good wizards. In the game, Crispin mentions that he is a member (Cedric his familiar maybe as well). he also mentions that Mordack was a former member until they took a dim view of his abuse of power, putting him on suspension a few times, until they finally threw him out for his use of dark magic.

The society was founded during the earliest days of Daventry, immediately after the first great withdrawal there, by the Grand Wizard Crispinophur. The identity of the Society's leader is kept secret, but rumor has it to be Crispin himself, and always has been.[35] The society is made up of the leading adepts, sorcerers, magicians, wizards and necromancers in the world of Daventry, it is dedicated to advancing the state of the magical Arts, historical and thaumaturgical research, and maintaining a strict set of ethical standards. One does not apply to join the Society—one is invited, and then only after the application is proposed by a current member in good standing. That application must be approved unanimously.

The Society of the Black Cloak

In King's Quest VI, Alexander discovers a letter that makes reference to an organization called the Society of the Black Cloak (often referred to as the "Black Cloak Society" by the fans). There is little official information known about the organization, it appears to be a shadowy brotherhood made up of malevolent wizards who desire to manipulate the Land of the Green Isles and conquer it.[36] This was an idea created by Jane Jensen (not Roberta Williams), and was not followed up in later games.

"The "Black Cloak Society" was never an actual term that I instigated or thought up. I'm not actually sure where that came from. The closest thought that I have on that subject is that: when I was working with Jane Jensen on King's Quest 6, and we thought up the evil vizier, we talked loosely about the possibility of putting Mannanan, Mordack, and the vizier together as group -- possibly -- in a future King's Quest. There was loose reference to the possibility in King's Quest 6, although nothing was set in stone at that time. I think that it's possible that Jane Jensen might have mentioned the possibility (perhaps) in subsequent interviews on the subject, although, I'm not sure about that. Later on, I heard about the Black Cloak Society and kind of wondered where that phrase came from, but, I never refuted it as I thought it was kind of cool and, probably, would have gone on with the idea in future King's Quests had I had the chance. And, one final thing: Hagatha was never part in any discussion of a Black Cloak Society.[37]

The note found in King's Quest VI only connects three as a group (Mordack, Shadrack, and Abdul Alhazred). Although in some cases such as Mordack, his direct involvement with the organization is not specifically clear. Shamir Shamazel as Abdul's genie and confident is also very much tied into the machinations of the Society, at least until Alexander becomes his new master, completely changing his personality.

Very little is known about the Society, and what is known concerns Abdul Alhazred's (or possibly Shadrack's) plan to take over or destroy the Land of the Green Isles. KQ6 primarily portrays the plan as Alhazred's plan to become the new King of the Green Isles (who asks for advice from Shadrack), and the Companion takes it further as the ultimate plan is to lead to the Land's destruction (possibly instigated by Shadrack himself, with Abdul Alhazred being Mordack's underling).

Magicians' Guild

The King's Quest Companion makes mention of another magical organization which various characters are connected to called the Magicians' Guild. Magicians' Guild. The Magicians' Guild is a guild of magicians, enchanters and sorcerers. Manannan and the Enchanter were members of the guild. Wandering magicians formed the loose organization, its members are easily recognized by their distinctive black and purple pointed hats decorated with the image of a crescent moon. The guild passes on information about different spells to its members, along with magical gossip. As magicians become powerful enough to be considered sorcerers, necromancers or thamaturgists, the tend to leave the guild, thereby amplifying the notion that the guild is just a collection of amateurs.[38] For whatever reason although Manannan is an extremely powerful wizard, he is still a member of the guild.

The information concerning the Magician's guilde ties together characters such as the Sorcerer from KQ1, the Enchanter from KQ2, and Manannan from KQ3 together as part of the same organization. Abdul Alhazred may even be tied into the group as he wears the crescent moon symbol of the organization on his turban.

Faerie Court

The Faerie Court are the rulers of the land of Etheria, and the whole of the Realm of Eldritch. They are ruled by Titania and Oberon.

Archons

The Archons are a mystical race and guardians of the sacred Mask of Eternity (an object that physically represents the power of God over the universe). The Archons uphold the precepts of Light, Truth, and Order in the universe. They maintain the world's peace, and try to keep Evil, Chaos and Darkness at bay.

Druids

Druids are the inhabitants of the secret Isle of the Mists of Land of the Green Isles. They are guardians of the weather of the kingdom. They maintain a constant spring season, and prevent storms from destroying the islands. They are knowledgeable about many of the secrets of the islands including the history of the Realm of the Dead (a dark nearby land).

Other media releases

Collections

The games in the series have been released together in several collections through the years (often packed with bonus material).

Contains 1 (AGI & SCI versions) through 6, The King's Questions, King Graham's Board Game Challenge. It also contains a french floppy version of KQ5, and the german floppy version of KQ6. It also contains Inside the Chest, Behind the Developer's Shield, A View from Inside the Mirror, Hold onto your Adventurer's Cap, and The Royal Scribe, programs which contain concept material, artwork, documents, magazine articles, etc.
It also contains assorted videos, including making of, interviews, anniversary material, promo videos for KQ7, etc. The Fun Has Just Begun, Sierra Technology History, 15 Years of Products, Roberta Williams's Inspiration Interview, Ken & Roberta Sierra Future Interview, Roberta Williams Designer Interview, the Making of KQ6, Intro Sequence, KQ6 Art Slideshow, KQ7 Promo (non-playable demo), and two About KQ7 interviews.
It contains 1 (AGI & SCI versions) through 6, King's Questions, Graham's Board Game Challenge. It contains all of the bonus material from the 15th Anniversary Collector's Edition, and added a playable demo of KQ7.
It contains KQ1 (AGI & SCI versions) through 7 (2.0 version), Wizard and the Princess. It also contains Laura Bow 1 & 2, Mixed-up Mother Goose (AGI & VGA versions), Mystery House, Mission Asteroid, Time Zone, Dark Crystal, and Chapter 1 Demo of Phantasmagoria.
It contains the Chest & Developer's Shield, as well as box covers, and KQ7 concept art. Videos contain some of the videos from the first collection (that were not included in the "Collection 2"), and more interviews from the development teams, and a different Mask of Eternity sneak preview.
Also known as King's Quest Collection 2; it contains 1 (AGI & SCI versions) through 7 (2.0 version), King's Questions, Graham's Board Game Challenge, Wizard and the Princess, Mixed-Up Mother Goose Deluxe, Laura Bow 1 & 2, Mystery House, Mission Asteroid, and Time Zone.
It contains most of the bonuses from the previous versions, including Developer's Shield, Royal Scribe, and Chest. It does not contain all of the videos from the previous versions. It contains making of and intro videos for KQ6, and the intro and ending videos for KQ7. It has an added sneak peek of KQ8: Mask of Eternity.
In September 2006 Vivendi Universal released King's Quest Collection, a compilation CD for Windows XP encompassing games I-VII. Rather than porting the games directly, however, this release uses the original versions running under the DOSBox emulator and a Windows frontend. As a result, it is also possible to run King's Quest I-VI on other platforms with a little tweaking and ports of DOSBox. King's Quest VII is the earlier 16-bit windows version, version 1.4. It lacks DOS compatibility, the improved save and restore functions, and character speed control found in version 2.0. It contains the dragon tail death that was removed from version 2.0, "Father always said to let sleeping dragons lie", and the volcano eruption deaths. It runs natively on Windows 32bit versions but is incompatible with 64bit windows.
Missing in the collection are the original AGI version of King's Quest 1, as well as installation for the Windows CD version of King's Quest VI with high-resolution character art (although the assets can be accessed through ScummVM), the 2.0 dos and windows versions of KQ VII, and King's Quest: Mask of Eternity. It also lacks any of the bonus material from previous collections.
This collection was released on Steam in July 2009.
Three collections released by Activison through GOG.com. The first consists of the classic AGI versions of King's Quest I-III (the KQ1 remake is not included) [39] released 2010, and the later games King's Quest 4-5-6 on Vista.[40] The final collection contains King's Quest 7 (2.0 version) and 8 designed to work on Vista and Windows 7 32bit and 64bit. The collections come with assorted bonus material such as windows background artwork.

Collection bonus material

King's Questions

King's Questions
Developer(s) Sierra Entertainment
Designer(s) Susan Frischer
Series King's Quest
Engine SCI
Platform(s) DOS
Genre(s) Quiz
Mode(s) Single-player

King's Questions is a game of King's Quest Trivia that was included with certain copies of the King's Quest Collection (originally with the 15th Anniversary Edition).

As stated in the manual and readme file;

Put on your thinking cap and play this trivia game based on the King's Quest series. You'll be challenged, intrigued, enlightened, and amused by this grab bag of profound, esoteric, and just plain silly multible choice King's Questions. Each game consists of twelve randomly selected questions so that it's never the same game twice! The rules are explained at the start of the game, so sharpen up your wits and test your knowledge of King's Quest trivia.

Each question is randomly generated, each game presents a different set of twelve questions (out of a little over forty questions). A point is earned for each question correctly answered. The player's ship moves forward one space on the map for each answer given (correct answer or not), showing the player's progress toward Daventry. If the player misses a question, they are given a chance to try again, but no points are awarded for second guesses. The player's score can be seen at any time during the game by clicking on the shop. The player receives his final score at the end of the game.

The game consists of multiple choice questions, each with four answers. The player uses the mouse to choose a specific answer. If the player makes a wrong answer, there is a choice to either retry (for no points) or move on to the next question.

The game's questions and answers are derived from various King's Quest sources including the games (including The Wizard and the Princess) and The King's Quest Companion (primarily from the Second Edition). The map artwork in the game is based on the map of the World of Daventry from the King's Quest Companion, 3rd Edition. The artwork is by Mike Hutchinson who was the senior artist on King's Quest 6.

All questions relate to Wizard and the Princess, and King's Quest 1-6, and/or the King's Quest Companion.

The backstory to the game is that;

You are Captain of the ship that carries Alexander and Cassima from the Green Isles to Daventry. To help pass the time, the three of you engage in a rousing game of "King's Questions," unaware that the magic waters through which you sail link the outcome of the game with the fate of your ship.

Depending on number of right or wrong answers the game has four outcomes. If the player misses most answers, the ship sinks within sight of land. It shows the ship sinking up to its mast. If the player earns the minimum number of correct answers the ship sprangs a few leaks and barely arrives in one piece. The ship is shown to be listing, and the crew is shown bailing out water. If the player is half successful, the player is brings the ship into safe harbor (and told they have done a good job). The ship is shown to be gently listing back and forth. If the player earns most of the points, the player is congragulated, and is told the ship made it back high and dry. The ship is shown bobbing up and down, and the crew is shown throwing confetti into the air.

The game includes obscure trivia and background information derived from other sources besides the games. For example it is one of the sources that states that Hagatha was Mordack and Manannan's sister. The manuals and adventure games never mention this fact.

While the game has a backstory within the King's Quest universe, most of the questions break the fourth wall in some way. Some of the references within questions are not related to King's Quest at all (usually presented as wrong answers, or correct answer when the answer is something not from 'King's Quest'). Many of the questions directly reference the games by their numbered titles, which would not fit into regular King's Quest universe (as characters do not discuss historical events by game name).

The credits for King's Questions includes;

Designer: Susan Frischer
Programmer: Greg Tomko-Pavia
Artist: Mike Hutchison
Quality Assurance: Judy Crites
Additional Questions: Josh Mandel

The game includes multiple references to information taken from The King's Quest Companion. These include;

King Graham's Board Game Challenge: Checkers and Backgammon

This was a King's Quest themed board game collection starring King Graham as the opponent was released as part of the Crazy Nick's Software Picks series of budget software. In includes two repackaged board games taken from Hoyle 3. King Graham is not just a good king, but a good game opponent. These represent two of King Graham's favorite games. This game was rereleased as part of several of the King's Quest collections.

Presented for your additional entertainment, herein lies a collection of computerized board games hand picked as King Grahams personal favorites.[41]

Credits:

Quest for Daventry

Quest for Daventry is a King's Quest V themed pinball board in Take a Break! Pinball, one of the first pinball games for Windows. Other boards in the game are also based on Sierra game characters like Leisure Suit Larry, Gir Draxon, Willy Beamish and Roger Wilco.

The pinball game follows a narrative story with objectives based on the KQV adventure game. The board transforms adding new locations as the player finishes missions.

Hoyle's Official Book of Games, Volume I

This game contains both King Graham and Rosella as opponents. They both are able to communicate with other players in the game, discussing various topics related to the Kingdom of Daventry. One notable aspect of the characters stories is that it introduces Rosella's Great-Grandfather, who "slew the Dragon of Herenna". Another discussion between royal family and Roger Wilco establishes that Roger once crashed a space ship into Castle Daventy's moat (a nod to an Easter egg in Space Quest: The Sarien Encounter).

Graham and Rosella along with two King's Quest villains Mordack and Lolotte would go on to appear in Hoyle 3: Board Games, although they weren't nearly as interactive, only commenting on moves in the game. Lolotte was given an updated higher resolution VGA close up image (KQ4 which she originated was EGA). Lightening would spark behind her whenever she got mad.

In Hoyle's Classic Card Games only Graham returned as an opponent representing King's Quest series characters, again comments were limited in interactivity.

Books

The Official Book of King's Quest: Daventry and Beyond, Forward by Roberta Williams, making of King's Quest IV.
The Official Book of King's Quest (Second Edition)
The Official Book of King's Quest VI/The Official Book of King's Quest (Third Edition), published with two different cover titles. Has an interview with Roberta Williams discussing development of King's Quest VI, material concerning making of King's Quest V, and line artwork.

Three original novels have been published by Boulevard Books.

King's Quest (in-development)

King's Quest
Developer(s) Telltale Games/Activision
Designer(s) Dave Grossman
Series King's Quest
Engine Telltale Game Engine
Platform(s) TBA
Genre(s) Adventure
Mode(s) Single-player

King's Quest is an upcoming ninth installment of the King's Quest Series. It is episodic video game based on Roberta Williams's King's Quest games. The game is under development by Telltale Games. It is the ninth official game in the series. The game will be a return to the Kingdom of Daventry with new adventures based on the classic adventure game series.

According to the developers the game will follow the format of previous Telltale Games series such as Tales of Monkey Island

"Much like we did with Tales of Monkey Island, we're rebooting King's Quest with all new episodic games and multiple series."[42]

This game is not to be a true 'reboot' as in starting the series over with new continuity, but rather it is a direct continuation (as Tales of Monkey Island was for the Monkey Island series). It's a 'revival' of a series that has lain dorment since 1997 (King's Quest: Mask of Eternity). As it is a continuation, it is conceptually King's Quest IX so to speak.

According to Dave Grossman;

"There’s a lot of great history in KQ, and we want to make a game that fits into the established canon, and that fans will actually want to play."[43]
"...preserve those elements of peril, challenge, and yes, death, but also hopefully do something to address the frustration that unfortunately tended to come along with them all too often and alienate some of the players (maybe if the game just saves and hits “restore” for you automatically that will be enough)."

At E3 2011;

Grossman said Telltale actually approached Roberta Williams, one of the designers of the original games, to see if she was interested in working on the new one. While she declined by saying she had retired from games, she did offer the development team advice, some of which was "very valuable," according to Grossman. When asked whether the new King's Quest would be a full reboot or more like a sequel, Grossman said there's "a lot of canon and it would be a shame to ignore it."[44]

Cancelled games

King's Quest II (1990)

In 1990 the developers at Sierra redeveloped Kings Quest with a new interface and up-to-date technology. The plan was to redevelop Kings Quest II but due to rather disappointing sales of the 1990 remake of King's Quest I, the prospect of officially remaking and re-releasing King's Quest II was scrapped.

King's Quest 8 (1996-1997)

Between September 1996 to January 21, 1997, due to conservative criticism over the content in Roberta's King's Quest: Mask of Eternity and Phantasmagoria by the Davidsons of Davidson & Associates, a team of managers was assigned to work above Roberta Williams. They began creating their own version of KQ8 while ignoring Roberta's version. Their version was purged of combat, violence and possibly religious themes.[45][46] While Roberta continued to work on her own game including its own script and puzzles, the Davidson's team of managers began to design their script and puzzles for their own version of KQ8.

This ultimately lead to Roberta to believe she had lost control of the game during that period; she even thought about removing her name from the product.[47]

Work on the Davidson version was ultimately cancelled (Davidsons left the company in January 1997[48]) and Roberta reasserted her control. But this was not without its damage to the Roberta's version of the game's final release (due to loss of time and funding), which was already hurting from other technical issues caused by Dynamix engine development problem and others.[49]

King's Quest 9 (2002)

There was a King's Quest 9 in development by Sierra during 2001-2002. It was cancelled before going into production. The game never made it past the prototype stage. Images of two renders of the playable character were leaked to the public.[50]

Silicon Knights

Silicon Knights worked on a prototype for a King's Quest game before Telltale Games acquired the rights. This information was released to the public through documents on to the Silicon Knights suit against Epic Games.[51]

Telltale Games

Currently Telltale Games holds the official license to continue the series beyond KQ8.[52]

Fan-created episodes

Main article: King's Quest (fan games)

There have been several fan-created Kings Quest games both original and retellings of the original games that have been released by various developers.

Satire

Many of the classic Sierra games series had injokes, cameos, or homages to characters, situations and elements of the King's Quest Series. Cedric from KQ5 was often the brunt of several jokes found in Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist, Quest for Glory: Shadows of Darkness, and Space Quest VI, etc. Rosella has appeared in or was mentioned in the Leisure Suit Larry series, Police Quest II, and Quest for Glory series. Graham is mentioned in or appears in several of the Space Quest, Police Quest, and Laura Bow games.

Mike and Matt Chapman, creators of the Homestar Runner series of cartoons and games, have created a game known as Peasant's Quest, mostly based on King's Quest I. However, there are allusions throughout the game to King's Quest II, King's Quest III, King's Quest IV, and The Black Cauldron.

Monkey Island also pokes fun at how easy it was to die in other adventure games, namely Sierra games.

See also

References

  1. ^ "King's Quest reboot coming courtesy of Telltale Games". Joystiq. 2011-02-18. http://www.joystiq.com/2011/02/18/kings-quest-reboot-coming-courtesy-of-telltale/. Retrieved 2011-02-18. 
  2. ^ Wagner, Roy (June–July 1987). "King's Quest III". Computer Gaming World: pp. 18–20 
  3. ^ "Game map". http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/kingsquest/images/e/ea/Llewdor.PNG. Retrieved 2011-02-03. 
  4. ^ "File:Manannanhouse.PNG - King's Quest Omnipedia". Kingsquest.wikia.com. http://kingsquest.wikia.com/wiki/File:Manannanhouse.PNG. Retrieved 2011-02-03. 
  5. ^ "File:Kolymabeachwrap.png - King's Quest Omnipedia". Kingsquest.wikia.com. 2010-11-24. http://kingsquest.wikia.com/wiki/File:Kolymabeachwrap.png. Retrieved 2011-02-03. 
  6. ^ "File:Tamirmap2.jpg - King's Quest Omnipedia". Kingsquest.wikia.com. 2010-12-04. http://kingsquest.wikia.com/wiki/File:Tamirmap2.jpg. Retrieved 2011-02-03. 
  7. ^ "1st Edition Maps - King's Quest Omnipedia". Kingsquest.wikia.com. http://kingsquest.wikia.com/wiki/1st_Edition_Maps. Retrieved 2011-02-03. 
  8. ^ "2nd Edition Maps - King's Quest Omnipedia". Kingsquest.wikia.com. http://kingsquest.wikia.com/wiki/2nd_Edition_Maps. Retrieved 2011-02-03. 
  9. ^ "3rd Edition Maps - King's Quest Omnipedia". Kingsquest.wikia.com. http://kingsquest.wikia.com/wiki/3rd_Edition_Maps. Retrieved 2011-02-03. 
  10. ^ Scorpia (December 1988). "Interview with Roberta Williams". Computer Gaming World: p. 21 
  11. ^ Interaction Magazine, Fall 1994
  12. ^ King's Questions (2004), "The Wizard and the Princess" was made for the Apple computer. What was it called when released for the IBM PC? a. Hello, Daventry!, b. Adventure in Serenia, c. Hi-Res Adventure #2, d. The Princess and the Wizard
  13. ^ a b The King's Quest Companion, 2nd Edition, 506-507
  14. ^ "Talkspot - The Leader in Interactive Broadcasting". TalkSpot.com. Archived from the original on 1998-12-12. http://web.archive.org/web/19981212033230/http://www.talkspot.com/. Retrieved 2011-02-10. 
  15. ^ "Talkspot - The Leader in Interactive Broadcasting". TalkSpot.com. Archived from the original on 1999-01-25. http://web.archive.org/web/19990125103715/http://www.talkspot.com/. Retrieved 2011-02-10. 
  16. ^ "File:Daventryisearth.ogg - King's Quest Omnipedia". Kingsquest.wikia.com. 2010-07-10. http://kingsquest.wikia.com/wiki/File:Daventryisearth.ogg. Retrieved 2011-02-10. 
  17. ^ "On the Origin of Daventry - King's Quest Omnipedia". Kingsquest.wikia.com. http://kingsquest.wikia.com/wiki/On_the_Origin_of_Daventry. Retrieved 2011-02-10. 
  18. ^ King's Quest Companion, 2nd Edition, pg ?
  19. ^ The King's Quest Companion, 2nd Edition, 449
  20. ^ King's Quest Companion, 2nd Edition, pg 449
  21. ^ KQC, 2nd Edition, pg
  22. ^ KQ2 Manual, pg
  23. ^ King's Quest Companion, 2nd Edition, pg
  24. ^ King's Quest Companion, 2nd Edition, pg 506-507
  25. ^ a b The King's Quest Companion, 2nd Edition, 474-475
  26. ^ a b King's Questions; a. Endora That's right! Endora is related to Samantha, Darren, and Tabitha. b. Manannan That is incorrect. Manannan is Hagatha and Mordack's brother. c. Hagatha No. Hagatha is Mordack and Manannan's sister. d. Mordack Sorry. Mordack is related to Manannan and Hagatha.
  27. ^ KQC3E, pg
  28. ^ King's Quest Companion, 3rd Edition, pg
  29. ^ a b "...Abdul Alhazred--vizier of the Isle of the Crown, minion of Mordack, murderer of Cassima's parents, jailer of Cassima, and sower of dissension among the land of the Green Isles.", King's Quest Companion, Third Edition, pg 306
  30. ^ "mythostomes.com". mythostomes.com. http://mythostomes.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=30&Itemid=70. Retrieved 2011-02-03. 
  31. ^ "mythostomes.com". mythostomes.com. http://mythostomes.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=12&Itemid=70. Retrieved 2011-02-03. 
  32. ^ http://www.religioustolerance.org/hallo_sa.htm
  33. ^ KQC, 2E, pg
  34. ^ King's Quest Companion, 2nd Edition, 490
  35. ^ King's Quest Companion, 2nd Edition, pg
  36. ^ "Society of the Black Cloak - King's Quest Omnipedia". Kingsquest.wikia.com. http://kingsquest.wikia.com/wiki/Society_of_the_Black_Cloak. Retrieved 2011-02-03. 
  37. ^ Roberta Williams at SierraGamers (6-9-2003)
  38. ^ King's Quest Companion, 2nd Edition, pg 484
  39. ^ by DoctorMcFist. "King's Quest 1+2+3". GOG.com. http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/kings_quest_1_2_3. Retrieved 2011-02-10. 
  40. ^ "King's Quest 4+5+6". GOG.com. http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/king's_quest_4_5_6. Retrieved 2011-06-01. 
  41. ^ 15th Anniversy Collection, Readme
  42. ^ http://i.joystiq.com/2011/02/18/kings-quest-reboot-coming-courtesy-of-telltale
  43. ^ http://www.adventuregamers.com/article/id,1286
  44. ^ http://pc.ign.com/articles/117/1174593p1.html
  45. ^ All Your Base Are Belong To Us: How Fifty Years of Video Games Conquered Pop Culture by Harold Goldberg, pg 157, 158
  46. ^ http://www.sierragamers.com/aspx/m/634063/bbs/Topic.13499.530202
  47. ^ http://kingsquest.wikia.com/wiki/King%27s_Quest_VIII_(Davidson_%26_Associates
  48. ^ http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_1997_Jan_21/ai_19048930/
  49. ^ http://kingsquest.wikia.com/wiki/KQ8_development
  50. ^ "Blog : Leaked pictures reveal cancelled King's Quest 9". Adventure Gamers. 2008-01-24. http://www.adventuregamers.com/blogitem.php?id=26. Retrieved 2011-02-03. 
  51. ^ "Epic Wins Advantage in Too Human Lawsuit". Escapist Magazine. 2011-12-27. http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/114960-Epic-Wins-Advantage-in-Too-Human-Lawsuit. Retrieved 2011-12-31. 
  52. ^ "Silicon Knights/Epic lawsuit turns in Epic's favor, reveals past SK projects including King's Quest". Joystick.com. 2011-12-28. http://www.joystiq.com/2011/12/28/silicon-knights-epic-lawsuit-turns-in-epics-favor-reveals-past/. Retrieved 2011-12-31. 

External links

King's Quest series
Main series
Related media
Fan games