King's Quest
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King's Quest Collection
(2006) -
King's Quest I+II+III
(2010) -
King's Quest: Collector's Edition
(1994)
Description official descriptions
Sir Graham is a brave knight who is sent on a quest to retrieve three treasures that were stolen by deception and stealth: a shield that protects its bearer from invaders, a mirror that foretells the future, and a treasure chest that is forever filled with gold. If Graham takes these treasures back to the royal castle, then the ailing King Edward the Benevolent of Daventry will hand over the crown. During his travels, Graham will meet characters that will either help or hinder him.
King's Quest is commonly considered the progenitor of third-person-perspective adventure games. As opposed to earlier graphic adventures, the player is able to navigate the protagonist on screen in eight directions, creating an effect of three-dimensional exploration. The player character can also be obscured from view when hiding behind an object, is subjected to gravity, and has different animations for actions such as picking up an item, falling, swimming, etc. Graham can be moved around with arrow keys and perform various actions when the player types commands, normally consisting of noun and verb combinations (e.g. "Take flower", "Talk man", etc.).
The game world consists of a cyclic outdoor area with places of interest (houses, characters, etc.) that must be found through exploration. Much of the kingdom is accessible to Graham from the beginning, and there are only a few restrictions imposed on traveling. In order to complete the game, the player has to procure certain items and use them in correct situations or with specific characters. Some of the puzzles rely on fairy tales, and a good knowledge of those makes them easier to solve.
The game awards the player points for most of the actions Graham performs. Since some of those are not crucial to completion, it is quite possible to finish the game without having attained the full score. Some of the tasks in the game have multiple solutions, though the game may grant the player less points if a simpler one is chosen. Many hazards await Graham on his journey, and death is frequent if the player is not careful. The game can also be rendered unwinnable by failing to collect a specific item or wasting it.
Groups +
Screenshots
Credits (PC Booter version)
11 People (8 developers, 3 thanks)
| Design | |
| Programming | |
| Graphics / Artwork | |
| Writing / Dialogue / Story | |
| Special Thanks To |
Reviews
Critics
Average score: 68% (based on 19 ratings)
Players
Average score: 3.5 out of 5 (based on 187 ratings with 12 reviews)
Sierra's first quest was the dawn of a new era
The Good
Sir Graham is sent by King Edward to find the three lost treasures of Daventry. Find them to become King yourself. The graphics are dated today obviously but at the time they were incredible. The story is simple & a knowledge of fairy tales will help in knowing what to do next. There are sometimes two different ways to solve a puzzle, an okay way & a good way for maximum points. A fun way to kill a few hours even today.
The Bad
The inane gnome puzzle, so bad it was simplified in later versions.
The Bottom Line
This piece of gaming history marked the point when PC games went from interactive fiction to graphical.
DOS · by Grumpy Quebecker (1089) · 2023
King's Quest 1: The first of a series that started it all
The Good
As Sir Graham, help King Edward recover the three lost treasures of Daventry - a magic mirror, a treasure chest of gold, and an enchanted shield, while meeting Rumplestiltskin, the Leprechaun Kingdom, Goliath, and the witch from Hansel and Gretel.
This game like Police Quest, used the "text to action" format. That works so well, but also had the point and click of such adventure games like "Monkey Island" and "The Flight of The Amazon Queen" (Both great games/game series check them out).
The Bad
This game was a bit repetitive and had a mediocre point scoring system, but that's understandable for the time this was designed and coded. It was the first adventure game to feature object blocking to allow a moving character on screen to go behind and in front of objects, thus creating Sierra's "3-D Animated Adventure".
The Bottom Line
This game, has great graphics for the time and it has rich sounds. This game will fill you with the same feeling as when you first play Zelda64 Ocarina of Time (I'm reffering to the lush deep graphics and bright forestry atmosphere)
Amiga · by phil buckley (19) · 2006
The Good
This is the game that started the ball rolling for the graphic adventure genre. It was the first game to include a controllable third person avatar AND text parser for interacting with the game environment. Bright and colorful, the game chronicles the efforts of Sir Graham to reclaim the three treasures of Daventry and take his place as heir to the throne.
The Bad
You really can't say anything bad about this game and get away with it. The game is so old, it can't be held to today's standards by any means. That's just the problem with it, though. Some of this game's contemporaries (Zork for one) are still revered and played today. King's Quest is practically unbearable to play anymore -- the characters move excruciatingly slow, the graphics are comical, and the plot/puzzles are not, in all honesty that deep or interesting. The game consists of a conglomeration of fairy tale characters who present puzzles that are mostly easily solved by common sense and folk-lore knowledge.
The Bottom Line
The best thing that can be said for this game is that it paved the way for a classic series and a revered genre. Appreciate it for what its worth, but leave it on the shelf. If you want to re-capture the magic of 25 years ago, download the amazing fan-made remake at agdinteractive.com
DOS · by jTrippy (58) · 2007
Discussion
| Subject | By | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Year PCjr? | Edwin Drost (10166) | Mar 21, 2017 |
| Any other adventure games like KQ1&3? | Lain Crowley (6629) | Mar 30, 2012 |
Trivia
Code Decryption
The developers used encryption to hide code from prying eyes. The encryption key was Avis Durgan. However, according to PC Gamer (July 2000), nobody can remember why this key was chosen or who Avis Durgen is -- not even Ken Williams!
.. but Al Lowe does remember:
Avis was Jeff Stephenson's wife's maiden name. I guess he was in love!
Development
Originally developed by Sierra On Line and produced by IBM as a show piece for the IBM PCjr. The game was later produced by Sierra and was the foundation of the best-selling King's Quest series.
Graham
Sir Graham was so named because of designer Roberta Williams' fondness for graham crackers.
IBM Front Cover
Check out the IBM box's front cover--it has a completely wrong description and picture of King's Quest; this is because the box ad copy was written before the game was completed.
Novels
From 1995 through 1996 Boulevard Books published a trilogy of novels inspired by the King's Quest game setting of Daventry and featuring members of its royal family as the main protagonists:
- The Floating Castle (1995), by
Craig Mills , dealing with adventures Prince Alexander experiences between the events ofKing's Quests V andVI ; - The Kingdom of Sorrow (1996), by
Kenyon Morr , filling in some blanks regarding King Graham's activities betweenKing's Quests II andIII ; and - See No Weevil (1996), also by Kenyon Morr, taking place seven years after the Kingdom of Sorrow and giving Graham's daughter, Princess Rosella, a chance to rule as regent during a crisis.
References
The flag of Daventry, as seen in the throne room, is in fact the flag of Sierra Leone. This is actually a pun referring to the development company, Sierra On-Line.
References to the Game
The website Homestarrunner.com created a game named Peasent's Quest quite similar to King's Quest. It has EGA graphics, text based typing, and the main character Rather Dashing is designed a little like Sir Graham.
Re-release
A complete version of King's Quest is available on Classic Games Collection CD featured with the July 2000 issue of PC Gamer Magazine.
Rumpelstilskin Puzzle
One puzzle, naming the gnome's real name must have been deemed too hard (or obscure) in the original version of King's Quest. I believe the clue was "Think back-wards" or something along those lines. The answer? The player had to write out the alphabet as follows:
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ ZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBASubstitute the letters from Rumplestiltskin with the letter below on the line. Of course most people entered Rumplestiltskin spelled backwards (logical) and this didn't work. In the SCI (1987) re-release of the game, the puzzle was made simpler with Rumplestiltskin backwards being the correct answer.
Technology
King's Quest was the first Sierra game to use the AGI game engine, which was used in Sierra's later games throughout the '80's. The way the engine was setup made it easy to port a game written with AGI to other computer platforms.
Awards
- GameStar (Germany)
- Issue 01/2007 - One of the "Ten Most Influential PC-Games". It managed to link texts and graphics and caused the rise of Graphic Adventures.
- The Strong National Museum of Play
- 2020 – Introduced into the World Video Game Hall of Fame
Information also contributed by Andrew Shepard; Indra, Joakim Möller, Pseudo_Intellectual, Ricky Derocher, rstevenson, Shai Greenberg, Tibes80, and Ye Olde Infocomme Shoppe.
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Related Sites +
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AGD Interactive
Download King's Quest 1 remake for free -
Game Map (Sega Master System)
Images with maps of all locations and their position to each other. -
King's Quest Realm
An interesting sight devoted to the entire King's Quest series. It offers hints, a message board and a superb section devoted to the history of these popular games. -
King's Quest at Wikipedia
Includes an entire history and list of creatures, games in the series and more. -
ScummVM
supports the DOS, Macintosh, Amiga, Atari ST, Apple IIgs versions of King's Quest under Windows, Linux, Macintosh and other platforms. -
Sierra Gamers
The Official Website of Ken Williams and King's Quest creator, Roberta Williams. -
The King's Quest series at Game Nostalgia
An illustrated overview of King’s Quest 1984 up to King's Quest: Mask of Eternity (including various fan games).
Identifiers +
Contribute
Are you familiar with this game? Help document and preserve this entry in video game history! If your contribution is approved, you will earn points and be credited as a contributor.
Contributors to this Entry
Game added by Andy Roark.
Amiga added by POMAH. Apple II added by KnockStump. Macintosh added by Martin Smith. SEGA Master System added by Katakis | カタキス. Apple IIgs added by Garcia. Atari ST added by Belboz.
Additional contributors: Trixter, Paul Budd, Indra was here, Katakis | カタキス, Jeanne, Guy Chapman, Andrew Shepard, game nostalgia, Macs Black, Picard, Patrick Bregger, Jo ST, SoMuchChaotix.
Game added May 18, 1999. Last modified May 7, 2024.