King's Quest

King's Quest

"King's Quest" Logo
Genres Adventure
Developers Sierra Entertainment
Publishers Sierra Entertainment
Creators Roberta Williams
First release King's Quest: Quest for the Crown
May 10, 1984
Latest release King's Quest: Mask of Eternity
1998

King's Quest is a graphic 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 first game was released in 1984, and the latest came in 1998.

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.

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.[1]

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 (and a knight like Graham from the first game) 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, and is later shown restored in the ending.

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. The famous adventure game 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. 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

Main series

Upcoming titles

Ports and spin-offs

Geography

Castle Daventry, the opening scene from King's Quest: Quest for the Crown

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. However, the player would become lost, and traveling east could lead to endless desert screens, until the magic map was used to return to the main map.

According to the manual for the King's Quest IBM for PCjr, 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 and details of next screen, such as trees, rocks, lakes, the castle, rivers, islands, etc.). In KQ3 in particular from Manannan's mountain, elements that lie to the south in the magic map, can be seen to the north of the mountain from the top of the mountain, and from the windows of Manannan's house. For example the town is shown to be south east of the mountain on the map, but can be seen to the northeast from various locations on the mountain. Another example in the same game is that the Three Bear's house is shown to be south of the mountain on the magic map (and the mountain can be seen behind the house). Yet the house can be seen to the north in the distance from the top of the mountain itself. In KQ2 there are three major landmarks that have details that connect into each (the beach, the poisoned lake, and the bottomless chasm) and due to the way they are staggered across the land, there is no way to divide the land up without splitting one of the landmarks into two halves (one laying to the north, and the other laying to the south). In KQ4 while there are more details to north of each screen (as in landmarks that can be seen to the 'north' from the screen to the south) it is the least dramatic as far as wrap around affecting the landmarks. There are two rocky barriers on the far right side of the land one to the north of the skull cave, and one to the south of the start of the trail leading up to Lolotte's castle (these barriers prevent travel to the north and to the south respectively, and are one of the few areas that do not have full 'wrap around'). Using those as a boundary places island within the bounds of the 'map', without splitting the landmark in half. However the beach and meadow areas still has one aspect that gets split across the north and south: the bay and river can be seen far to the north in one screen, but lies far to the south if the map is placed between the two rocky barriers. If the screens corresponding to the bay and rivers is placed to the south of the main river screens, it splits the two screens showing the ogre's house and the sections of the spooky forest to the north and south of the map. Any other attempts to split edges of the map, to align landmarks correctly causes Genesta's island to be split into two halves in the north and south. In other words in each of the games where wrap around exists, the designers never designed the lands to lie within any specific boundaries, but actually intentionally designed the artwork to 'wrap around' to the corresponding directions as well.

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. 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, via a magical "law of containment". This was actually a 'guiding' attempt to reconcile the game world with the novels in The King's Quest Companion, which as a strategy guide was designed to tell the player how to navigate by reading along and following the actions described in the story. Since the author was taking advantage of short cuts by using the "wrap around", to stay in character (and avoid the 4th Wall), the novels introduce the explanation from an in-universe perspective.

Other guides such as the Official Book of King's Quest series by David Trivette also comments on this phenomena in relation to 'lands on a globe' concept (much like the PCjr manual): Rather than saying the countries are large, it says they are 'small', however "As in the real world, Daventry wraps around itself. If you go far enough east, you'll end up in the west." The book suggests characters such as Graham, Gwydion, or Rosella are just traveling 'far enough' to return to the kingdoms (and in later games barriers prevent them from traveling 'far enough' to return to the kingdoms from the east or west).

Beginning with KQ V, looping was eliminated entirely, and all game regions had boundaries in all four directions. Where physical boundaries didn't exist, logical obstacles (such as an vast desert or a wide ocean), were used to prevent the player from wandering.

Mythology

Much of King's Quest was inspired by fairy tales, which designer Roberta Williams loved reading.[5] In particular the Andrew Lang's Fairy Books.[6] Many creatures, characters and situations from mythology, fairy tales, folklore & classic literature 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, Celts and 17th-century Romanticism (Druids and Samhain).

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.[7] The game versions followed the exploits of unnamed hero known only as the "wanderer", in later versions said to be a time traveler from the future. The game's connection to the King's Quest series led to its inclusion as one of the King's Quest trivia questions.[8] 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.[9]

In most of the series, it is said that the games take place, 'a long time ago' a few centuries in our past,[10] in a time when mermaids and unicorns existed (an easter egg in KQ8 suggests sometime after year 1000).

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.
—Roberta Williams, Mask of Eternity TalkSpot Interview, Part 1, December 9, 1998 (1:20:40 to 1:59:58)

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

The Quest

The "King's Quest" (for which the series takes its name) often involves the hero saving the king of Daventry or becoming a king during the adventure. To save Daventry often involves adventuring in other lands. Often the quest is given to the protagonist through the realm's magic mirror (the first game involves obtaining the magic mirror, that becomes an important feature in the later games).

In King's Quest I, the young knight Sir Graham is sent on a quest to find three treasures to save King Edward and his kingdom. He became the new king in the process. During the journey Graham finds the magic mirror, one of the treasures, it also shows him he will be the new king. In King's Quest II, the quest is for the new king to find his queen (he learned about through the magic mirror), and save her so that there will be heirs to the kingdom. The fifth game returns to the king, in his attempt to save his kingdom and family from an evil wizard (this is the first game which doesn't include the magic mirror).

The third and fourth games do not star a king, but involve the protagonists who ultimately end up saving King Graham and/or the kingdom from threats such as a dragon and untimely death. Gwydion is portrayed as a poor slave and peasant of Llewdor, who ultimately discovers he is the long lost son of the king Graham (Alexander), and discovers he has a sister. After he saves his sister (Rosella) and father from the ravages of the dragon (and restoring the magic mirror), Rosella travels to another land (after learning about it through the magic mirror) on a quest to save her father, the king.

King's Quest VI follows Alexander's attempt to save his true love, marry her, and ultimately becoming king of the Land of the Green Isles. The magic mirror pointed him in the right direction to finding the kingdom.

King's Quest VIII[11] is similar to King's Quest I, in that it involves a young knight attempting to save the king Graham (who stands in place of Edward), his queen Valanice, and the kingdom of Daventry from harm. Again the magic mirror shares a prominent role telling of the doom that befell the kingdom.

King's Quest VII is the only game in the series that does not involve King Graham (he is missing entirely from the story), Castle Daventry, or saving the kingdom of Daventry (only a small portion of the land is shown briefly in the introduction), nor the magic mirror. Rather, the plot involves the protagonists Valanice and Rosella attempting to save another land. Rosella ultimately finds a romantic interest with the implication that she may be married in the future (perhaps continuing the family line).

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 necessarily evil, nonlethal 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 wooden stake. In KQ3, Alexander kills Medusa (using her own appearance against her), and later 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 minotaur to fall into a pit of fire. This drastically changes in King's Quest VIII, where every villain the player encounters is killed with the exception of Lucreto, who cannot be killed and is therefore banished into the Black Abyss.

Characters of the King's Quest series

Protagonists

Villains

There are various villains in the official games.

Harlin is portrayed as a particularly powerful wizard, at least so far that the manual explains he magically divided the land of Serenia in two, and created most of the obstacles encountered by the Wanderer throughout the game, partially explaining the different geography in Serenia, and the Daventry continent between the game, KQ3 and KQ5.

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 the 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.[24]

In KQ8, though not related to Graham's family, Connor was 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 constant 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.[25]

The Companion explains that Manannan chose to kidnap the baby Alexander in retaliation for Graham taking Valanice from his sister. KQ5 and the companion both explains that the Graham's family and castle were taken by Mordack in revenge for Alexander having turned Manannan into a cat. The companion suggests that both Hagatha and Manannan have disappeared (Hagatha was no longer in Kolyma and Manannan was no longer at Mordack's Island) and are likely plotting future revenge against Daventry for the death of Mordack.

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 all wizards, though they prefer those with good and ethical standards. In the game, Crispin mentions that he is a member (Cedric his familiar maybe as well), and Mordack as well. Most of those in the society take a dim view of Mordack and his abuse of power, and have put him on suspension a few times, but it never seemed to do any good.[26]

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.[12] 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. 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.
—Roberta Williams, SierraGamers interview (6-9-2003)

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. The Magicians' Guild is a guild of magicians, enchanters and sorcerers. Manannan and the Enchanter (Sorcerer) 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, they tend to leave the guild, thereby amplifying the notion that the guild is just a collection of amateurs.[27] For whatever reason although Manannan is an extremely powerful wizard, he is still a member of the guild.

The information concerning the Magician's Guild 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. Malicia was once a member of the Faierie Court before she was cast down to the realms below.

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 or bundles through the years (often packed with bonus material).

Contains I (AGI & SCI versions) through VI, 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 I (AGI & SCI versions) through VI, 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.
A special bundle sold through Sierra during the release of King's Quest Mask of Eternity. It included both the 1997 King's Quest Collection, and King's Quest 8 at a discounted price. It included King's Quest Mask of Eternity™ , plus the first seven games in the King's Quest Collection.[28] Both products came in separate boxes.
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 front end. 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 32-bit versions but is incompatible with 64-bit windows.
Missing in the collection are the original AGI version of King's Quest I, 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)[29] released 2010, and the later games King's Quest 4–5–6 on Vista.[30] The final collection contains King's Quest 7 (2.0 version) and 8 designed to work on Vista and Windows 7 32-bit and 64-bit. The collections come with assorted bonus material such as windows background artwork. All three sets can be bought as a bundle; the "King's Quest Bundle" at 30% off the regular price of all three separately.

Collection bonus material

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. Short cut scenes are shown near the ticker when certain objectives are met, and the ticker lists narrative or objective information..

Hoyle's Official Book of Games (series)

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). Lightning 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, but it contained fully digitized speech.

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.

Cancelled games

King's Quest II & III remakes (1990)

In 1990 the developers at Sierra redeveloped King's Quest with a new interface and up-to-date technology. The plan was to redevelop King's Quest II and King's Quest III[35] but due to rather disappointing sales of the 1990 remake of King's Quest I, the prospect of officially remaking and re-releasing the sequels was scrapped.

Davidson version of King's Quest 8 (1996–97)

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.[36][37] While Roberta continued to work on her own ideas 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 Roberta to believe she had lost control of the game during that period; she even thought about removing her name from the product.

Davidsons intervention was ultimately stopped (Davidson left the company in January 1997[38]) and Roberta reasserted her control. But this was not without its damage to 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.

Cancelled King's Quest IX games

There have been several attempts to create a ninth installment in the King's Quest series, all of which have been cancelled before going into production.

All three development attempts never went past announcement or concept stages nor received official titles. They were described as the next game in the "King's Quest" franchise in known released information. King's Quest 9 or Kings's Quest IX are more unofficial designation for being the next game in the franchise used by the media in regards to released information. The idea of a King's Quest 9 goes back to some of the discussions with Roberta Williams after the release of King's Quest: Mask of Eternity.[39]

The King's Quest: Mask of Eternity Prima's Official Strategy Guide by Rick Barba made reference to King's Quest IX as the next title in the series if a new one was made (or at least as a description of the ninth game in the series).[40] "...start checking the Sierra website, looking for word of King's Quest IX."

Roberta Williams offered a few ideas for a King's Quest IX following the release of KQ8 in 1998-1999, her version never saw development. The ninth game has been in development four times since then with three different developers, Vivendi Games, Silicon Knights, and Telltale Games between 2001 and 2013, and currently The Odd Gentlemen (with a scheduled 2015 release).

Roberta Williams/Sierra

Following the release of King's Quest VIII, King's Quest:Mask of Eternity, Roberta occasionally alluded to ideas if she was allowed to make the followup game or ideas that would influence the direction of any followup games, or ideas that were cut during the process of KQ8 that she would have liked to have introduced in the following game. Though she was generally tightlipped on the subject when it came to the next game, there are a few details. But these never evolved into anything. The game was neither started nor cancelled.[41]

Primarily it was decided during the production of KQ8, that Graham was now too old to go on adventures, and that Alexander would be less likely to go on adventures as he now had his own concerns as king of the Green Isles. This led to Roberta introducing a new playable character into the series (which started with Connor), which probably would have had similar impact in future games in the series had she had the chance to develop them.[42]

Rosella was still potentially a possibility for use in future games, and she tossed out the idea that Connor might even meet the princess.[43] This idea grew to include the idea that Rosella would possibly fall in love with Connor, or Connor would fall in love with Rosella and initiate some kind of love triangle between them and Rosella's other love interest, Edgar (KQ4/KQ7).[44]

In addition she had ideas to add multiplayer as early as KQ8 early development, but these were cut and she hoped to introduce them into future games in the series. Some of the ideas were an MMO (massive multiplayer online) adventure game, with the ability for players to collect and swap items to help each other solve puzzles,[45] or fight monsters together.[46][47]

Vivendi Games

There was a ninth installment in development by Vivendi Games (under the Sierra branding) between 2001 and 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.[48]

The renders show what looks like an older and bearded King Graham, wielding a giant sword, wearing full armor, and having the ability to flip in the air. Suggesting that it may have been a third-person action-adventure game, similar to the 3-d Legend of Zelda games.

This like later attempts at producing a new game, were described as the new King's Quest, and not necessarily KQ9 (though news media referred to it as King's Quest 9).

Silicon Knights

Silicon Knights worked on a prototype for a King's Quest game at some point before Telltale Games acquired the rights. This information was released to the public through documents on the Silicon Knights suit against Epic Games.[49]

This also was discussed as a new King's Quest rather than specifically called KQ9.

Telltale Games

Telltale's take on the ninth installment of the King's Quest franchise was first announced at a press event on February 17, 2011.[50] Telltale announced that they had entered into an agreement with Activision, the current owner of the rights to the classic Sierra On-Line adventure franchises, to create new episodic games based on those series. The first Sierra intellectual property they intended to work on was King’s Quest.[51]

The game was to follow the format of previous Telltale Games series such as Tales of Monkey Island, as a continuation of the series with all new episodic games and multiple series.[52][53] It was intended to preserve the back story of King's Quest, and fit into the established canon. It was intended to include the challenge and possibilities of death of the original games, but the gameplay was going to be adapted to relieve some of the frustration present in the original games.[53]

Telltale approached Roberta Williams, the originator of the series, and one of the designers on all 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, which was "very valuable," according to developer Dave Grossman.[54][55] In May 2012, Dan Connors confirmed that Dave Grossman was in charge of the King's Quest project, and Telltale was working on how to proceed.[56]

The game was confirmed to be cancelled by Telltale senior vice president of publishing, Steve Allison, on April 3, 2013.[57]

As development never went far, the game never received a title beyond the reference to the franchise name (but was referred to as King's Quest 9 in some news reports).

Activision

Activision holds the rights to any potential new King's Quest games. When Paul Trowe at Replay Games attempted to negotiate with Activision for King's Quest licensing, they were turned down and were told that Activision already had plans for the series; "No, we're pulling it because we’re going to do it ourselves".[58]

Fan-created episodes

There have been several fan-created King's 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 in-jokes, 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.

References

Notes
  1. ↑ Wagner, Roy (June–July 1987). "King's Quest III". Computer Gaming World. pp. 18–20.
  2. ↑
  3. ↑ Ken Williams Official Website
  4. ↑ http://www.dualshockers.com/2014/08/12/sierra-games-returns-with-a-new-kings-quest-and-geometry-wars-3-dimensions/
  5. ↑ Scorpia (December 1988). "Interview with Roberta Williams". Computer Gaming World. p. 21.
  6. ↑ WIZARD AND THE PRINCESS Computer Fantasy Comes True by ROBERT DEWITT Managing Editor
  7. ↑ Interaction Magazine, Fall 1994
  8. ↑ 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 No. 2, d. The Princess and the Wizard
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Spear 1991, pp. 506–07
  10. ↑ Interaction Magazine, Fall 1992, p. 29.
  11. ↑ White Silhouette. "King's Quest 7+8 for download $9.99". GOG.com. Retrieved 2013-04-22.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 Spear 1991
  13. ↑ The Book of King's Quest, 3rd Edition, pg 178, 242
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Spear 1991, p. 449
  15. ↑ KQ2 Manual, pg
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Spear 1991, pp. 474–75
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 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.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 The King's Quest Companion, 3rd edition
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 "...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.", The King's Quest Companion, 3rd edition, p. 306
  20. ↑ The Official Book of King's Quest, Third Edition, pg
  21. ↑ "mythostomes.com". mythostomes.com. Retrieved 2011-02-03.
  22. ↑ "mythostomes.com". mythostomes.com. Retrieved 2011-02-03.
  23. ↑ "The myth of Samhain: Celtic God of the Dead". Religioustolerance.org. Retrieved 2013-04-22.
  24. ↑ KQC, 2E, pg
  25. ↑ Spear 1991, p. 490
  26. ↑ Crispin: "The Society of Wizards has always taken a dim view of Mordack and his abuse of his power. Why, he's even been put on suspension a few times. It never seems to do any good, though."
  27. ↑ Spear 1991, p. 484
  28. ↑ "Sierra". Web.archive.org. 1998-12-06. Retrieved 2013-04-22.
  29. ↑ DoctorMcFist. "King's Quest 1+2+3". GOG.com. Retrieved 2011-02-10.
  30. ↑ "King's Quest 4+5+6". GOG.com. Retrieved 2011-06-01.
  31. ↑ Game listing
  32. ↑ "King's Quest 1: The Floating Castle". Amazon.com. Archived from the original on 19 January 2014. Retrieved 19 January 2014.
  33. ↑ "King's Quest 2: Kingdom of Sorrow (King's Quest/Kenyon Morr, Vol 2)". Amazon.com. Archived from the original on 2 July 2013. Retrieved 19 January 2014.
  34. ↑ "King's Quest 3: See No Weevil". Amazon.com. Archived from the original on 19 January 2014. Retrieved 19 January 2014.
  35. ↑ The Official Book of King's Quest, 3rd edition, p. 9
  36. ↑ All Your Base Are Belong To Us: How Fifty Years of Video Games Conquered Pop Culture by Harold Goldberg, pg 157, 158
  37. ↑ "(Message Board) Davidson & Blizzard: Hi Ken Seeing as you". Sierragamers.com. 2006-07-29. Retrieved 2013-04-22.
  38. ↑ "CUC International Inc. Announces Senior Management Changes in Software Division". Business Wire. 1997.
  39. ↑ King's Quest IX ideas by Roberta Williams
  40. ↑ King's Quest: Mask of Eternity: Prima's Official Strategy Guide, pg VIII
  41. ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20130310053850/http://www.adventureclassicgaming.com/index.php/site/interviews/198/ King's Quest IX ideas by Roberta Williams
  42. ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20120331214945/http://www.sierragamers.com/uploads/49/8414..rm Mask of Eternity Talkspot Interview, part 1
  43. ↑ http://www.justadventure.com/Interviews/Roberta_Williams/Roberta_Williams_Interview_1.shtm Just Adventure Interview: "I felt that it was time to feature a new character to the saga of King's Quest as long as we were updating the whole look and feel of the series. And--who knows? Perhaps in some future King's Quest game, Connor will at least meet Rosella!"
  44. ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20120331214945/http://www.sierragamers.com/uploads/49/8414..rm "What if Connor met Rosella? That would be good... We got that problem with Edgar... Love triangles are always interesting." Roberta Williams -Mask of Eternity Talkspot Interview, Part 1.
  45. ↑ http://verbosity.wiw.org/issue2/kenw.html pervasive universes... the ken williams interview
  46. ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20120331214945/http://www.sierragamers.com/uploads/49/8414..rm Mask of Eternity Talkspot Interview, part 1: "When I started development on King's Quest Mask of Eternity, we also decided, we were thinking at the time to make it multiplayer, and also 3-d, but we dropped the multiplayer aspect of it. It was just too much to try to develop, and also develop 3-d."
  47. ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20120331214854/http://www.sierragamers.com/uploads/49/8413..rm "...and also I, Mark and I entertained the idea of making it multiplayer also, but that was nixed. It was like, well were doing 3-d, and that's enough, you know, for now. Maybe Multiplayer later." -Roberta Williams, Talkspot part 2.
  48. ↑ "Blog : Leaked pictures reveal cancelled King's Quest 9". Adventure Gamers. 2008-01-24. Retrieved 2011-02-03.
  49. ↑ "Epic Wins Advantage in Too Human Lawsuit". Escapist Magazine. 2011-12-27. Retrieved 2011-12-31.
  50. ↑ "King's Quest 9 in development at Telltale Games as a new reboot". Video Games Blogger. 2011-02-22. Retrieved 2013-04-04.
  51. ↑ http://www.adventuregamers.com/news/view/21058 Report of the Telltale 2011 press event
  52. ↑ "King's Quest reboot coming courtesy of Telltale - Joystiq". I.joystiq.com. 2011-02-18. Retrieved 2012-09-07.
  53. ↑ 53.0 53.1 "Telltale Games - Dave Grossman and Dave Felton". AdventureGamers.com. Retrieved 2012-09-07.
  54. ↑ "E3 2011: First King's Quest Details - IGN". Pc.ign.com. 2011-06-08. Retrieved 2012-09-07.
  55. ↑ "E3: Roberta Williams advised Telltale on King's Quest". Retrieved 2013-02-06.
  56. ↑ http://www.siliconera.com/2012/05/16/how-telltale-wants-to-evolve-the-adventure-game-genre/ Interview
  57. ↑ "Activision is planning something for King's Quest After Recovering the Rights From Telltale Games". Digital Trends. 2013-04-03. Retrieved 2013-04-03.
  58. ↑ Activision is planning something for ‘King’s Quest’ after recovering the rights from Telltale Games
Bibliography

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