Sierra's classic adventure series King's Quest has officially turned 40, according to its creators Roberta and Ken Williams.
The series that primarily focused on the adventures of King Graham and his family in the land of Daventry got its start on the IBM PCjr back in 1984 with the original AGI version of King's Quest. However, it didn't find widespread success until it was ported over to the Tandy 1000, and the Apple IIe & IIc following the failure of the IBM machine.
Encouraged by its popularity on these other platforms, Sierra later released even more ports of the game for the Apple IIGS, Atari ST, Commodore Amiga, MS-DOS, Macintosh, and the Sega Master System throughout the mid-to-late 80s, and also created an SCI-enhanced remake (titled King's Quest I: Quest For The Crown) in 1990 for both DOS and Amiga.
In total, the series contains 8 unique entries, with the main standouts (in our opinion) being King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella, King's Quest V: Absence Makes The Heart Go Yonder, and King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow.
In 2015, The Odd Gentlemen, together with Activision, also released an episodic reimagining of the series, which retold various events depicted in the original games, though this was made without Ken and Roberta's involvement (besides an initial passing of the torch at The Game Awards in 2014) as they were busy sailing the world at the time.
To celebrate the 40th anniversary, Ken Williams has released a 35-minute video on his Twitter account, where Roberta goes over her own personal collection of King's Quest boxes and answers some frequently asked questions about the series. This includes an update on her thoughts about whether she would ever return to create a King's Quest IX if given the chance.
Previously Roberta told us in an interview last year that it "won't be the same" to work on a King's Quest title that they don't own, but her opinion on this seems to have softened slightly due to her positive experiences working on Colossal Cave:
"You know I’ve thought about this. I don’t think they’re going to call. I just really don’t. I don’t think they’re going to do that, but if they did, I don’t know. I might think about it. I actually enjoyed going back to games again with the modern version of Colossal Cave. It had been 25 years between my last game, which was King’s Quest VIII, to Colossal Cave. 25 years before I got back into gaming design at all. Again, it’s circular. Going back. I kind of enjoyed it. So you never know. Never say never."
What do you make of this news? Would you like to see a new entry with Roberta at the helm? Comment below and let us know!
[source twitter.com]
Comments 11
I had a cousin who was really into the King’s Quest games and while his family lived a great distance from mine, we did visit occasionally and one of my favorite memories is of playing those early games on his computer.
He also had a Black Cauldron game that i believe Roberta worked on with Al Lowe.
I was quite young and we would usually get hopelessly stuck, but the fantasy aesthetic and fun writing always saw to it that we had a blast.
I did play King’s Quest: Mask of Eternity, and if i recall correctly, it didn’t blow my socks off, but i enjoyed playing through another of Roberta’s games.
I would totally be down for playing another King’s Quest (or whatever) game designed by Roberta.
I would just love to see Roberta Williams make a new game on a new IP. She really did push storytelling concepts and capabilities within early video games. I don't think enough credit is given to her in how she handled UI, character interaction and even dialog that laid the foundation of what is now common standards in how games work.
I think I would most welcome her to do another mystery series. I really enjoyed The Colonel's Bequest and always hoped that would turn into a series. Laura Bow was good too, but I remember liking the earlier CB game better. It's been decades since I've played any of them. My point is, I think a mystery series would give her a lot of canvas to design and tell a wonderful story with interesting characters and unique set pieces. I hope she decides to return to form. I'm fine if she leaves KQ behind. It stands tall, and she has plenty of energy to start anew.
I never played the early ones (despite now owning them), but King's Quest V, VI, and VII were enjoyable. Sierra pushed a lot of concepts we take for granted, but they also could be punishingly brutal (and inventive) in their killing you. I would recommend the remakes that remove some of that sting if you want to play them (of course, buy the originals to support the creators).
I will always be thankful for King's Quest, Quest for Glory, Gabriel Knight, and other franchises that were part of my childhood.
@Darknyht Would be kinda hard to go back and ease the sting. Instead you'd just go watch a walkthru video. Seen some speed walks and while it was neat to get the beat of the game, uuggghh, watching that really ruins the exploration of the game and neat interactions throughout the game world. It really took a lot of the soul out of the game.
Even Roberta doesn’t own KQ8! Lulz
Happy 40th Anniversary, King's Quest!
And what better way to celebrate than going swimming in the moat...
There was an NES version of KQ5, too. I agree about 4-6 being the good ones!
Jane Jensen (Gabriel knight) deserves a lot of credit for her work on KQ6…
@Daggot the fan remake removes the ability to get stuck by misusing an item. That alone takes a lot of sting out of it. My first play through of KQ5 had one of those moments where I had to start over because I misused and item and didn’t have it when I needed it.
Happy 40th anniversary King's Quest!
Ahhh, the "man do I feel old or what" feeling. Its been awhile...
The only King's Quest I played as a child was Mixed-Up Mother Goose, which was like a toddler version of the game.
On the daycare's Tandy of some kind.
Uh... the Tandy 1000 was a clone of the IBM PC Jr.? I guess RadioShack saw more market potential in that then IBM did.
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