King's Quest I

Last updated

King's Quest
King's Quest I - Quest for the Crown Coverart.jpg
1987 re-release cover art
Developer(s) Sierra On-Line
Publisher(s) IBM, Sierra On-Line
Producer(s) Josh Mandel (1990 remake)
Designer(s) Roberta Williams
Programmer(s) Charles Tingley
Ken MacNeill
Sol Ackerman
Chris Iden
Jeff Stephenson
Jerry Shaw (1990 remake)
Artist(s) Doug MacNeill
Greg Rowland
William D. Skirvin (1990 remake)
Writer(s) Roberta Williams
Composer(s) Ken Allen
Series King's Quest
Engine Adventure Game Interpreter (original)
Sierra's Creative Interpreter (remake)
Platform(s) IBM PCjr, Tandy 1000, Apple II, Apple IIGS, Atari ST, Amiga, Macintosh, MS-DOS, Master System
ReleaseMay 10, 1984 [1]
July 1989 (SMS)
September 19, 1990 (remake)
Genre(s) Adventure
Mode(s) Single-player

King's Quest: Quest for the Crown is an adventure game developed by Sierra On-Line and published originally for the IBM PCjr in 1984 and later for several other systems between 1984 and 1989. The game was originally titled King's Quest; the subtitle was added to the games box art in the 1987 re-release, but did not appear in the game.

Contents

It is the first official part of the long King's Quest series (not counting 1980's Wizard and the Princess ), in which a young knight, Sir Graham, must save the Kingdom of Daventry to become the king. Designed by Roberta Williams, the game was revolutionary and highly influential in the evolution of the graphic adventure game genre by introducing more detailed graphics and animation.

An official remake titled King's Quest I: Quest for the Crown was released in 1990. An unofficial remake was released by Tierra Entertainment in 2001.

Gameplay

Opening scene Kings Quest Tandy.png
Opening scene

King's Quest features interactive graphics that were a leap over the mostly static rooms of previous graphical interactive fiction. Earlier typical adventure games present the player a pre-drawn scene, accompanied by a text description. The player's interaction consists entirely of typing commands into the game's parser, then reading the parser's response, because the on-screen graphics rarely change except when the player moves to a new location.

King's Quest is the first adventure game to integrate graphical animation into the player's view of the game world. [2] This shifts the focus away from the static scenery, to the player's character, which is animated on-screen. Animation sequences are in most player interactions reachable through the normal course of exploration. For example, animation sequences show Graham picking up objects from the ground, opening doors, and wading through water. Depth perspective is simulated; Graham can walk behind objects, causing his character to be hidden from view, or walk in front of them, obscuring the object. This attention to graphical animation, commonplace in action games, earned King's Quest the distinction as the first "3D-animated" adventure game.

The original version of the game relies primarily on textual input as its interface. As the player uses the keyboard to explore the game world, the on-screen character, Graham, is animated walking to the chosen destination. The fantasy world of Daventry consists of an 8×6 cyclic array of screens (or rooms) that make up the outdoor world in which the player can navigate freely, plus about 30 additional screens for indoor, sky, and underground places.

King's Quest's innovation includes 16-color graphics for the IBM PC platform. The game uses the PCjr and Tandy 1000's Video Gate Array and enhanced sound, and Color Graphics Adapter (CGA) computers can display 16-color graphics with artifact colors on a composite color monitor or television. Selecting RGBI mode at the title screen instead results in the usual 320×200 CGA graphics mode, limited to 4 colors. In this mode, dithering simulates extra colors. Like previous static-screen Sierra adventures, King's Quest uses vector graphics rather than pre-rendered bitmaps, which would take far too much disk space. Each screen is drawn line-by-line and painted in. This technique is in all Sierra adventure games up to King's Quest V .

Plot

King's Quest

In the original version for the IBM PCjr, the story is simple. The Kingdom of Daventry is suffering from recent disasters and hardship. King Edward calls his bravest knight, Sir Grahame, to his throne, and tells him he has heard of three legendary treasures hidden throughout the land that would end Daventry's troubles. If Grahame succeeds, he will become king. [3] In later releases, the knight's name was changed to Graham.

King's Quest: Quest for the Crown

Since the game's fourth release (1984) and the repackaged fifth release (1987), the backstory was greatly expanded. The Kingdom of Daventry is in serious trouble, after its precious magical items have been stolen. One day, King Edward the Benevolent rescued a beautiful young Princess Dahlia of Cumberland, but on the night of their wedding she was discovered to actually be an evil witch who stole the king's treasure. Knowing that he had to save the kingdom, the dying King Edward sends his bravest knight, Sir Graham, to Cumberland. His quest is to rid the land of the treacherous witch, outwit the other assorted villains, and retrieve the three lost treasures. Because he had no heir, if Graham should succeed, he would become the next king. [4]

Sir Graham embarked upon a quest for the items through Daventry, climbing a magic beanstalk to the Land of the Clouds where he recovered the chest of gold, facing leprechauns to retrieve the shield and a dragon to get back the mirror. After retrieving all the items, Graham returned to the throne room in time to present them to the king before he died. As the king died, he passed on rule of Daventry to Sir Graham as promised.

Development

In late 1982, IBM contacted Sierra On-Line for launch games for its forthcoming PCjr home computer, announced in November 1983. [5] Among the software Sierra developed was King's Quest, the first animated adventure game. [5] [6] To create the interactive animation, the King's Quest development process deployed a prototype version of what would eventually become the Adventure Game Interpreter (AGI) game engine. This prototype engine was developed by Arthur Abraham, who was released from the King's Quest project in the middle of development. Some early reporting on the game referred to the development system as the "Game Adaptation Language" (GAL). [7] In addition to the designer and writer Roberta Williams, six full-time programmers worked for 18 months to complete the game. [8]

IBM requested a sophisticated and replayable adventure game, and paid for much of the $850,000 development cost. [6] IBM stated in advertisements that King's Quest "runs on the IBM PCjr and makes good use of some special PCjr capabilities", with "unusually smooth and realistic" animation and "an impressive variety of sound effects". [9] Its discontinuation of the computer in March 1985 stunned Sierra. [10] Due to the PCjr's poor reception, King's Quest did not sell very well. With the advantage of the development system, Sierra was able to quickly release versions for the Tandy 1000, standard PCs, and the Apple IIe, which helped propel sales. [6]

IBM PC self-booting releases

Self-booting IBM PC compatible versions, requiring 128 KB of memory:

PlatformDatePublisherNotes
IBM PCjr May 10, 1984 [1] IBMPublished in hard plastic case. Includes full keyboard overlay template. Not compatible with Tandy 1000 machines with more than 128 KB of memory.
late 1984IBMPublished in hard plastic case. The keyboard overlay template is replaced with a small strip for use with the non-chiclet replacement keyboard. Not compatible with Tandy 1000 machines with more than 128 KB of memory.
IBM PC (CGA)May 31, 1984 [11] SierraPublished in gray cardboard box. Manual expands the backstory.
August 16, 1984 [11] SierraPublished by Sierra in gray cardboard box. Bug-fixed version, adds RGBI color mode.
IBM PCjr / Tandy 1000 May 25, 1985 [11] Tandy Corporation Published in gray clamshell plastic box. States "Licensed to Tandy Corp." at the Sierra logo screen.
September 4, 1985 [11] SierraIncluded as a second disk in package with the August 1984 PC CGA version.

MS-DOS releases

Identical places in the AGI (left, 1984-1987) and "Enhanced" SCI (right, 1990) versions of the game King's Quest I screenshot comparison.png
Identical places in the AGI (left, 1984–1987) and "Enhanced" SCI (right, 1990) versions of the game

The game was re-released for MS-DOS in 1986 using Sierra's updated AGI version 2 engine. The MS-DOS version lacks some sound effects present in the self-booting version, including birds chirping and distinct sounds for each enemy. It also adds some musical cues from King's Quest II , including "Greensleeves" replacing the original simple fanfare at the title screen (the original fanfare still plays when the doors of Castle Daventry open). Background pictures are now drawn into an off-screen buffer to avoid the painting effect of the original game. This was not done merely for the sake of tidiness, but because the self-booting version inadvertently reveals some puzzle solutions by drawing hidden objects first, followed by scenery.

MS-DOS versions require 256K memory. All versions were published by Sierra.

All floppy-disk based releases of the 128K and 256K versions use different forms of on-disk copy protection.

Other platforms

The game was also ported in 1986 to the Amiga and Atari ST at the same time, and in 1989 to the Master System.

King's Quest was not ported to the Commodore 64, the most important computer game platform. [6] Roberta Williams said that the limitations of its graphic system (three colors per 8x8 block) did not permit the level of graphics detail Sierra wanted. In addition, the computer's 64k of memory is too small for the complex AGI engine. She said that she had always wanted to make an adventure game with animation, but it was not possible up to then.

The 1989 Master System port uses its own engine, with a verb/noun interface similar to early LucasArts games. It has original tile and sprite-based graphics and was published by Parker Brothers, who in turn outsourced development to micro smiths, as had been done for Montezuma's Revenge . The game is based on the original King's Quest, and shares the puzzles and points-list of that game. Some of the puzzles and rooms have been modified a bit (for example, the boulder covering the dagger rolls a different direction than in PC). An extra item exists — it is now possible to pick up the three-leaf clovers. There are some extra places to die (including a dangerous staircase added to an exit of the Leprechauns' realm). It is non-linear, and the three treasures can be collected in any order, like in the original PC version. Game saves are done through passwords.

1990 remake

King's Quest I: Quest for the Crown is a 1990 remake of King's Quest. This release is the "Enhanced" version of King's Quest. It uses the Sierra's Creative Interpreter (SCI) engine, the same engine used in games such as King's Quest IV ; while it still uses 16-color graphics, it features twice the resolution, and music card support instead of the PC speaker. There are two different box variations for this release: one with the same gold slipcover box as the 1987 256K version 2.0F and a box created specifically for the remake.

The game is described as a 1.5 (1 1/2) remake of King's Quest I. [16]

The 1990 SCI EGA "Enhanced" version of King's Quest: Quest for the Crown was announced for the Atari ST line of computers and later canceled. [17] It was announced via Sierra News Magazine in spring 1991, saying owners could send disk #1 or the front cover of the manual along with a check or money order for $20 to upgrade their copy to the enhanced version.

Collections

Both versions of King's Quest I have been released in assorted collections beginning with the King's Quest 15th Anniversary Collector's Edition (1994), [18] followed by the King's Quest Collection (1995), [19] the King's Quest Collection Series (1996) [20] and Roberta Williams Anthology (1997). [21] The 2006 collection lacked the original AGI version of King's Quest, and contained only the SCI remake. This version was released on Steam in 2009. [22] The original AGI version appears in the KQ1+2+3 collection released on GOG, [23] but the SCI remake is not included.

Fan remake

In 2001, the group AGD Interactive (then known as Tierra Entertainment) released an unofficial remake based on Sierra's 1990 version, updating the graphics to use VGA colors, dropping the parser in favor of an interface that mimics that of King's Quest V , and full speech - including the voice of the original voice actor for King Graham in Sierra's official CD-ROM full-speech versions of King's Quest V and VI, Josh Mandel. [24] This was later updated with original hand-drawn artwork.

Reception

The Master System version was given an average score of 6 out of 10 by reviewers in Electronic Gaming Monthly, who highlighted its difficulty and its lack of appeal to Sega fans. [25]

French magazine Jeux & Stratégie rated the 1984 Apple II and PC Jr versions 3 out of 5, noting that the high system memory requirements would hinder many players. [26]

The 1990 enhanced version was described by critics and fans alike at the time as "destroying a classic", and was compared to the controversial practice of colorizing classic black and white movies.[ citation needed ] The remake was a critical failure and prevented the release of further remakes in the series.[ citation needed ]

In 2020, The Strong National Museum of Play inducted King’s Quest to its World Video Game Hall of Fame. [27]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tandy 1000</span> IBM PC compatible home computer system

The Tandy 1000 is the first in a line of IBM PC compatible home computer systems produced by the Tandy Corporation for sale in its Radio Shack and Radio Shack Computer Center chains of stores. Introduced in 1984, the product line was aimed at providing affordable but capable systems for home computing or education, with some of its Tandy specific features like graphics, sound and joystick port making it more appealing for home use.

<i>Kings Quest</i> Video game series

King's Quest is a graphic adventure game series, released between 1980 and 2016 and 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 installments, 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 until the series' reboot in 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roberta Williams</span> American video game designer (born 1953)

Roberta Lynn Williams is an American video game designer and writer, who co-founded Sierra On-Line with her husband, game developer Ken Williams. In 1980, her first game, Mystery House, became a modest commercial success; it is credited as the first graphic adventure game. She is also known for creating and maintaining the King's Quest series, as well as designing the full motion video game Phantasmagoria in 1995.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IBM PCjr</span> Home computer

The IBM PCjr was a home computer produced and marketed by IBM from March 1984 to May 1985, intended as a lower-cost variant of the IBM PC with hardware capabilities better suited for video games, in order to compete more directly with other home computers such as the Apple II and Commodore 64.

The Adventure Game Interpreter (AGI) is a game engine developed by Sierra On-Line. The company originally developed the engine for King's Quest (1984), an adventure game that Sierra and IBM wished to market in order to attract consumers to IBM's lower-cost home computer, the IBM PCjr.

<i>Kings Quest II</i> 1985 video game

King's Quest II: Romancing the Throne is the second installment in the King's Quest series of graphic adventure games by Sierra On-Line. It was originally released in 1985 for PC DOS/PCjr, and later made available for the Apple II/IIGS, Atari ST, and Amiga. It uses the same AGI game engine as King's Quest I: Quest for the Crown and features King Graham as the player character. The title is a spoof of the 1984 film Romancing the Stone.

<i>Kings Quest III</i> 1986 video game

King's Quest III: To Heir Is Human is the third installment in the King's Quest series of graphic adventure games developed and released by Sierra On-Line in 1986. The game was originally released for the Apple II and PC DOS, and later ported to several other computer systems. It was the first title game in the series not to feature King Graham as the player character.

<i>Kings Quest IV</i> 1988 video game

King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella is a graphic adventure game developed and released by Sierra On-Line for the MS-DOS, Amiga, Apple II, Apple IIGS, and Atari ST computers in 1988. The player takes on the role of Princess Rosella, daughter of King Graham of Daventry and the twin sister of Gwydion/Alexander, who must save her father and a good fairy and destroy an evil witch. Critically acclaimed, it was one of the first PC games to support a sound card.

<i>Kings Quest V</i> 1990 video game

King's Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder! is a 1990 graphic adventure game by Sierra On-Line. Originally released in November 1990, it featured a significant improvement in graphics. It was also the first King's Quest installment to replace the typing user interface with a point-and-click user interface. The title is a spoof on the proverb "Absence makes the heart grow fonder".

<i>Kings Quest VI</i> 1992 video game

King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow is a point-and-click adventure game, first released in 1992 as the sixth installment in the King's Quest series produced by Sierra On-Line. Written by Roberta Williams and Jane Jensen, King's Quest VI is widely recognized as the high point in the series for its landmark 3D graphic introduction movie and professional voice acting. King's Quest VI was programmed in Sierra's Creative Interpreter and was the last King's Quest game to be released on floppy disk. A CD-ROM version of the game was released in 1993, including more character voices, a slightly different opening movie and more detailed artwork and animation.

<i>Mixed-Up Mother Goose</i> 1987 video game

Roberta Williams' Mixed-Up Mother Goose is a computer game first released by Sierra On-Line in 1987. It is, in essence, an edutainment title, directed specifically at young gamers, as well as an adventure game. It was the first multimedia game released on CD-ROM in 1991. A second game in the series, Mixed-Up Fairy Tales, was released in 1991.

<i>Leisure Suit Larry Goes Looking for Love (in Several Wrong Places)</i> 1988 video game by Al Lowe

Leisure Suit Larry Goes Looking for Love (in Several Wrong Places) is the second game in the Leisure Suit Larry series of graphical adventure games, designed by Al Lowe and published by Sierra On-Line in 1988. Like its predecessor, Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards, it was developed for multiple platforms, including MS-DOS, Atari ST and Amiga. It utilizes Sierra's Creative Interpreter (SCI0) engine, featuring 16-color EGA graphics and a mouse-based interface for movement. The story continues the exploits of Larry Laffer, who becomes stranded on a tropical island during an ill-fated vacation.

<i>Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards</i> Adult video game

Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards is a graphic adventure game, developed by Sierra On-Line, and published in 1987. It was developed for the PC, DOS, and the Apple II and later ported to other platforms, such as the Amiga, Atari ST, Apple IIGS, Macintosh, and Tandy Color Computer 3. It utilizes the Adventure Game Interpreter (AGI) engine. In 1991, Sierra released a remake titled Leisure Suit Larry 1: In the Land of the Lounge Lizards for PC DOS, Apple Macintosh, and Amiga. This version used the Sierra's Creative Interpreter (SCI) engine, featuring 256 colors and a point-and-click, icon-driven user interface.

<i>Space Quest I</i> 1986 video game

Space Quest: Chapter I – The Sarien Encounter is a graphic adventure game, created by Scott Murphy and Mark Crowe, and released in October 1986 by Sierra On-Line. It is the first game in the Space Quest series, and sees players assume the role of a lowly janitor on a research ship, who becomes involved in stopping an alien race using a new form of technology for evil purposes.

<i>Space Quest III</i> 1989 video game

Space Quest III: The Pirates of Pestulon is a 1989 graphic adventure game by Sierra On-Line, and the third game in the Space Quest series. Players assume the role of Roger Wilco, a lowly space janitor, who becomes involved in rescuing a pair of computer programmers from a sinister video game company. The game received positive reviews from critics, and contributed further to the series' commercial success for Sierra. A sequel, Space Quest IV, was released in 1991.

<i>Wizard and the Princess</i> 1980 video game

Wizard and the Princess is a graphic adventure game written for the Apple II and published in 1980 by On-Line Systems. It was the second title released in the Hi-Res Adventures series after Mystery House. While Mystery House used monochrome drawings, Wizard and the Princess added color. Ports for the Atari 8-bit family and Commodore 64 were released in 1982 and 1984 respectively. The 1982 self-booting version for IBM PC compatibles was renamed Adventure in Serenia.

<i>Police Quest: In Pursuit of the Death Angel</i> 1987 video game

Police Quest: In Pursuit of the Death Angel is a 1987 police procedural adventure video game developed and published by Jim Walls and Sierra On-Line. Police Quest follows police officer Sonny Bonds as he investigates a drug cartel in the town of Lytton, California.

<i>Kings Quest: Mask of Eternity</i> 1998 video game

King's Quest: Mask of Eternity is a hybrid point-and-click adventure and action-adventure video game developed and published by Sierra Studios in 1998. It was the eighth official game in the King's Quest series, the first and only game in the main series where the main character is neither King Graham nor a member of his family, as well as the first in the series to use a full 3D engine as opposed to the 2D cartoon or pixel style of the earlier games and the first to omit the sequel numbering system on box artwork and title screen.

There have been several King's Quest fangames both original and retellings/remakes of the original games that have been released by various developers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tandy Graphics Adapter</span> Computer display standard for the Tandy 1000 series

Tandy Graphics Adapter is a computer display standard for the Tandy 1000 series of IBM PC compatibles, which has compatibility with the video subsystem of the IBM PCjr but became a standard in its own right.

References

  1. 1 2 USCO registration number TX0001393675. The 1994 King's Quest Collection claims a July 1983 release date, when the IBM PCjr computer had not even been announced.
  2. ↑ "NG Alphas: King's Quest: Mask of Eternity". Next Generation . No. 30. Imagine Media. June 1997. p. 72.
  3. ↑ King's Quest (1984) PCJR, pp. 9–10,
  4. ↑ KQ1 manual, pp. 1–10.
  5. 1 2 Wiswell, Phil (January 24, 1984). "Coming Soon: Games For The PCjr". PC. pp. 142–145. Retrieved January 26, 2015.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Maher, Jimmy (July 18, 2013). "The Unmaking and Remaking of Sierra On-Line". The Digital Antiquarian. Retrieved February 5, 2015.
  7. ↑ Trivette, Donald B. (February 1985). "Inside King's Quest". Compute! . Vol. 1, no. 57. ABC Publishing. pp. 136–139.
  8. ↑ "King's Quest Franchise Explained: Every Game & What Happened After". Screen Rant. July 15, 2020. Retrieved April 13, 2021.
  9. ↑ "Read Only". InfoWorld (advertisement). December 10, 1984. pp. 37–40. Retrieved January 5, 2015.
  10. ↑ Kennedy, Don (May 14, 1985). "Junior Axed By IBM". PC. p. 33. Retrieved January 21, 2015.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 Timestamp of executable file
  12. 1 2 Timestamp of data files
  13. ↑ The Sierra Newsletter, Volume 1, Issue 2, pg. 6
  14. ↑ The Sierra Newsletter, Volume 1, Issue 3, pg. 2
  15. ↑ "Top Secret! King's Quest". Electronic Gaming Monthly . Vol. 1, no. 2. EGM Media, LLC. July 1989. p. 68.
  16. ↑ John Williams describes as a King's Quest I 1/2... a conversion of the original AGI game to SCI...., Sierra News Magazine, Autumn 1989, pg 14
  17. ↑ "Staff (Spring 1991)" (PDF). Sierra On-Line. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 16, 2012. Retrieved November 28, 2018.
  18. ↑ "Video game:King's Quest: Collector's Edition - Celebrating Sierra On-Line's 15th Anniversary". Google Arts & Culture. Retrieved June 9, 2023.
  19. ↑ Sierra On-Line (1995), King's Quest - Collector's Edition (USA) , retrieved June 9, 2023
  20. ↑ "King's Quest: Collection Series (1997)". MobyGames. Retrieved June 9, 2023.
  21. ↑ "Roberta Williams Anthology". Sierra Gamers. Retrieved June 9, 2023.
  22. ↑ "King's Quest™ Collection on Steam". store.steampowered.com. Retrieved June 9, 2023.
  23. ↑ "King's Quest 1+2+3". GOG.com. Retrieved June 9, 2023.
  24. ↑ "AGDInteractive Studios". www.agdinteractive.com.
  25. ↑ "King's Quest (SMS) - EGM Review". Electronic Gaming Monthly . Vol. 1, no. 3. EGM Media, LLC. September 1989. p. 13.
  26. ↑ "King's Quest". Jeux & stratégie. April 28, 1985 – via Internet Archive.
  27. ↑ "King's Quest". The Strong National Museum of Play . The Strong . Retrieved May 6, 2022.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.