King's Quest

King's Quest is an adventure game series made by the American computer game company Sierra Entertainment (formerly Sierra On-Line). It is widely considered a classic titles of the golden era of adventure games, and was the series which primarily built the reputation of the company following the success of the first installment, which was the first "3D" adventure game of its time. The designer of all of the games was Roberta Williams, co-owner of Sierra.

Description

The world of the King's Quest games is not highly consistent and sophisticated, but is indeed largely immersive. It encompasses over ten different and beautiful worlds. These include Serenia (KQ V), Tamir (KQ IV), Kolyma (KQ II) and Llewdor (KQ III).

The main characters in each of the series are persons of the family of King Graham or himself. The only exception is KQ VIII where the player has control of Sir Connor of Daventry, King Graham's kingdom (who makes a guest appearance in the KQ II remake, establishing thus a link between the two characters). Because of this, and because of the large focus on RPG and arcade in the last game, many fans refuse to consider it a true sequel and call it KQ:MOE (Mask of Eternity being its subtitle).

Many equivalents of famous characters from myths and legends make their appearance and relate themselves to the puzzles. Namely Beauty and the Beast, Rumplestiltskin, Red Riding Hood, Count Dracula and others appear in the tale, mainly in the earlier parts, when the concept was simply about solving puzzles in a surrealistic fantasy world. The later sequels have been more logical and have a better established storyline, and realistic places and characters.

The first game is known to take place in a toroidal 'doughnut' world, that means, no matter what direction the player goes, he will return to the same screen he began. This gave an impression of a spherical (albeit very small) world, and can be explained internally by saying that the character is trapped in the region magically. KQ II, III and IV held on this although in a more realistic manner. The world becomes 'cylindrical' and the looping occurs only when the characters goes north or south (in the west and east there is the sea, or mountains, or deserts), giving thus an impression of making circles along an island. This way of layout was abandoned in KQ V where a new policy of sophisticated and realistic storytelling and gameplay was adopted.

There have been eight King's Quest games released: There are a number of websites giving plans for a ninth installment in the series (many just that, plans), but there is no official King's Quest IX. There is, however, a group of fans that have made extensive progress creating a ninth game in the series.

Games

• King's Quest I: Quest for the Crown (1984)
• King's Quest II: Romancing the Throne (1985)
• King's Quest III: To Heir Is Human (1986)
• King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella (1988)
• King's Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder! (1990)
• King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow (1992)
• King's Quest VII: The Princeless Bride (1994)
• King's Quest VIII: The Mask of Eternity (1998)

Books

Three books have been published by Boulevard Books.

• The Floating Castle (1995): Written by Craig Mills, placed between KQ III and IV, it follows Alexander on a quest to discover what is behind the mysterious Floating Castle and the monstrous invasions over the kingdom.
• The Kingdom of Sorrow (1996): Written by Kenyon Morr, placed between II and III, it follows the adventures of Graham who moves to rescue an imprisoned Fairy Queen held by the giant Dunstan, in order to return balance in nature.
• See no Weevil (1996): Also written by Kenyon Morr and placed close to the previous book, it focuses on Rosella who on her 15 must run the kingdom of Daventry during an absence of her parents.

The books haven't acclaimed high reviews, but King's Quest fans understand that although these books do not belong in the high fantasy genre generally, they are written and intended especially for them.

External links

• "King's Quest: Past, Present and Future", a 1997 retrospective by Noah Koontz
• Sierra Planet, about Sierra's games designed by Roberta Williams, co-founder (with husband Ken Williams) of Sierra Entertainment
• King's Quest discussion forum
• The King's Quest Chronicles, a fan site
• Anonymous Game Developers Interactive
• Sierra On-Line Fan Site, run by the one and only Ken Williams
• Official King's Quest IX website – although the website is "official," the King's Quest 9 game is not; it is fan-made
• MobyGames' entry for the King's Quest series