King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella

KQ4 was the first adventure game with a female protagonist, Princess Rosella – the daughter of King Graham of the first two games, and sister of Gwydion/Alexander of the third.

This game was simultaneously produced and published in the AGI and SCI engines. The AGI engine was used in all earlier Sierra adventure games, the SCI in all later ones. The main advantages of SCI are a higher video resolution (320x200 rather than 160x200 in AGI), sound card support, mouse support, and a more versatile scripting system.

The AGI version was made because Sierra supposed that contemporary low-end systems would be unable to run the SCI version, thus requiring a 'lighter' version of the game. However, sales figures proved them wrong, and the AGI version was discontinued almost instantly. Because of its rarity, the AGI version could be considered a collector's item.

The two games are identical in gameplay, except that the SCI version was updated with some additional parser responses later on. However, the AGI version contains the famous 'beam me' easter egg (which transported Rosella to a Star Trek-esque room with all of the development team present). This easter egg is not present in the SCI version.

King Graham has suffered a heart attack and is on the brink of death. The Mirror sends Rosella a vision about the fairy Genesta in the land of Tamir. Teleported there, she learns about a fruit which can heal her father. However, Genesta herself will die soon if her talisman, stolen by her evil sister Lolotte, is not returned. Rosella must win Lolotte's trust by performing three tasks for her (specifically, capturing the unicorn, finding the hen that lays golden eggs, and recovering Pandora's box), and then she must defeat the evil fairy to recover the Talisman. Luckily, her enchanted and adopted son, Edgar, has a crush on Rosella and will aid her. Finding the magical fruit is optional, but failing to do so will not give a happy ending.