King's Quest: Quest for the Crown is a 1983 adventure game originally published on the IBM PC . The history and overall design of the game was developed by Roberta Williams . At first, the game was simply called King's Quest . The subtitle Quest for the Crown was added to it later.
| King's Quest: Quest for the Crown | |
|---|---|
| Developer | Sierra on-line |
| Publishers | IBM , Sierra On-Line, Parker Brothers (version for Sega Master System ) |
| Part of a series | King's quest |
| Release dates | July 1983 IBM PCjr [1]  1989 |
| Genre | quest |
| Creators | |
| Game designer | Roberta Williams |
| Technical details | |
| Platforms | PCjr , Tandy 1000 , Amiga , Apple II , Apple IIGS , DOS , Macintosh , Atari ST , Sega Master System |
| Game engine | Agi |
| Game mode | single player |
The game has survived at least eight reissues, some of which have significantly changed the graphical representation of the game and the soundtrack. Often, changes concerned changes in the gameplay, and the story was supplemented by new details.
King's Quest is the first quest with animated color graphics. The game has formed the genre of adventure games. Most of the popular quests created after King's Quest repeated the basic principles of the genre inherent in this game. Suffice it to say that it was this game that served as the starting point for the creation of such famous adventure game series as Space Quest and Police Quest , and this three series gave the name (quest) to the entire genre.
Content
Story
The plot of the game differed with the release of later improved versions of the game.
In the original version for 1983 PCjr , the plot was quite simple. The Kingdom of Deventry suffers from various misfortunes and tribulations. King Edward calls on the brave knight Sir Graham and tells him that he had heard of three legendary treasures hidden in the lands of the kingdom. Once found, these treasures will put an end to the suffering of Daventry. And if Sir Graham finds these treasures, he will become king. The player, acting as a knight, begins the search.
Since the fourth edition for the IBM PC and Apple II in 1984, the plot has been greatly expanded. Disasters began in the Kingdom of Deventry, immediately after magic items were stolen. Once, King Edward the Noble saved the beautiful young princess Dahlia of Cumberland and decided to marry her, but on the night before the wedding it turned out that the princess was actually an evil witch. She steals magic items. The dying king Edward sends the brave knight Sir Graham to Cumberland to deal with the witch and return the three stolen treasures. With no heir, King Edward promised that if successful, Sir Graham would be the next king.
Development
At the end of 1982, IBM began developing PCjr , a low-cost version of the IBM PC with a number of enhancements. IBM contracted Sierra to release a game that can demonstrate all the benefits of the new system [9] [10] . IBM as a customer has invested 850 thousand dollars in the development of the project. The goal of the project was to be a complex and replayable adventure game [10] .
A team of six programmers was led by Robert Williams , who also acted as a designer and screenwriter. Development took 18 months. The project was complex enough to write it in pure assembler , so Sierra first developed a game engine that was supposed to greatly simplify the further creation of the game. Subsequently, this engine was called Adventure Game Interpreter and was used to create 14 games.
PCjr was introduced in 1984, but its sales did not go well enough, as did King's Quest [11] . As a result, sales of the platform, which became IBM's next financial failure, were curtailed in 1985.
For Sierra On-Line, the situation was saved because King's Quest, thanks to the use of AGI, had the potential to port to other platforms. In 1984, ports were released for the Tandy 1000 clone, the standard IBM PC and Apple II . It is thanks to the growing popularity of Tandy 1000 that the game succeeded [10] - over half a million copies of the game were sold [12] .
In 1987, a reissue was released with the updated AGI V2 engine, which was simultaneously ported to Amiga and Atari ST , and later to the Sega Master System . In 1990, a remake of the game with support for VGA mode on the new SCI engine was released .
Versions and editions
The game has a rich history of reprints, which can conditionally be divided into the following categories:
- The original version (1983, IBM PCjr) - was released as a product to demonstrate the capabilities of the PCjr platform.
- The revised version (1984, Tandy 1000, IBM PC, Apple IIe, Apple IIc) is a revised edition with an expanded plot.
- Reprint (1987, DOS, Apple IIGS) - using the AGI V2 engine, support for EGA and HGC (DOS) modes, improved graphics and sound (Apple IIGS).
- Port on Sega Master System (1989) - the game has been completely redesigned.
- Remake (1990, PC, Amiga) - porting to the SCI engine, the game has been completely redesigned.
Sega Master System
For publishing on the Sega Master System, a proprietary engine was created that supported the point-and-click graphical user interface . The port is slightly different from the original edition in details - some puzzles have been slightly modified, additional items and ways to die have appeared. The game is non-linear - three quests for finding treasures can be performed in random order. To save and restore the gameplay, a password system is used.
SCI Remake
A remake on the SCI engine got the expanded name King's Quest I: Quest for the Crown as the first part of the King's Quest game series. The remake was released at about the same time as King's Quest IV , the first SCI game. The graphics were still 16-bit, but the screen resolution was doubled. In addition to this, support for sound cards has appeared.
The remake significantly expanded the plot of the game, cut scenes appeared in it explaining the story. The character dialogs were expanded, and new characters appeared. Some puzzles have been changed or completely removed, some items have been moved to other locations. Thanks to the support of sound cards, a full-fledged musical accompaniment has appeared.
Notes
- ↑ King's Quest Collection - Manual ( PDF) 4. Sierra On-Line (1997). Date of treatment September 28, 2012.
- ↑ King's Quest Release Information for Apple II . GameFAQs . Date of treatment September 28, 2012. Archived November 1, 2012.
- ↑ King's Quest: Quest for the Crown Release Information for Amiga . GameFAQs . Date of treatment September 28, 2012. Archived November 1, 2012.
- ↑ King's Quest I: Quest For The Crown (1990) Release Information for Amiga . GameFAQs . Date of treatment September 28, 2012. Archived November 1, 2012.
- ↑ King's Quest Release Information for Atari ST . GameFAQs . Date of treatment September 28, 2012. Archived November 1, 2012.
- ↑ 1 2 King's Quest I: Quest For The Crown (1990) Release Information for PC . GameFAQs . Date of treatment September 28, 2012. Archived November 1, 2012.
- ↑ King's Quest I: Quest For The Crown Release Information for Macintosh . GameFAQs . Date of treatment September 28, 2012. Archived November 1, 2012.
- ↑ King's Quest: Quest for the Crown Release Information for Sega Master System . GameFAQs . Date of treatment September 28, 2012. Archived November 1, 2012.
- ↑ Wiswell, Phil . Coming Soon: Games For The PCjr , PC (January 24, 1984), pp. 142–145. Date of treatment January 26, 2015.
- ↑ 1 2 3 Maher, Jimmy. The Unmaking and Remaking of Sierra On-Line . The Digital Antiquarian (July 18, 2013). Date of treatment February 5, 2015.
- ↑ Kennedy, Don . Junior Axed By IBM , PC (May 14, 1985), p. 33. Date of access January 21, 2015.
- ↑ AGI Development Site - Intro
Links
- Remake of the game from English by AGD Interactive
- The story of King's Quest: Quest for the Crown on the Adventure Classic Gaming website
- AGI Technical Reference at Sierra Help Pages
- SCI Technical Help on the Sierra Help Pages