King's Quest is a graphic adventure game series, released between 1980 and 2016 and created by the American software company Sierra Entertainment. It is widely considered a classic series from the golden era of adventure games. Following the success of its first installments, the series was primarily responsible for building the reputation of Sierra. Roberta Williams, co-founder and former co-owner of Sierra, designed all of the King's Quest games until the series' reboot in 2015.
The King's Quest series chronicles the saga of the royal family of the Kingdom of Daventry through their various trials and adventures. The story takes place over two generations and across many lands as the heroes and heroines fight villains such as evil witches and wizards.
Games
Wizard and the Princess (1980) / Adventure in Serenia (1982) King's Quest (PC, 1984) / King's Quest: Quest for the Crown (1984/1987) / King's Quest: Quest for the Crown (Sega Master System, 1989) / King's Quest I: Quest for the Crown (1990) King's Quest II: Romancing the Throne (1985/1987) King's Quest III: To Heir Is Human (1986) King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella (1988 – enhanced Sierra's Creative Interpreter) King's Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder! (1990) / King's Quest V (NES, 1992) King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow (1992) King's Quest VII: The Princeless Bride (1994) King's Quest: Mask of Eternity (also known as King's Quest VIII: Mask of Eternity) (1998) King's Quest, an episodical "re-imagining" by The Odd Gentlemen (2015–2016)
Original series The world of King's Quest encompasses many different kingdoms and supernatural realms. The main characters in the series are King Graham, originally a knight of Daventry who won the throne of the kingdom through questing, and members of his family: his wife Queen Valanice and his twin son and daughter, Prince Alexander and Princess Rosella. The exception is King's Quest: Mask of Eternity, where the protagonist is Connor of Daventry, a tanner (and a knight like Graham from the first game) who is unrelated to the royal family. The later sequels have more elaborate storylines, more complicated puzzles, and more original and well-developed characters.
Technologically, the series pioneered the use of animation and pseudo-3D environments in graphic adventure games, so that the main character could, for example, walk behind objects on-screen. The primary way in which characters solve puzzles and advance through the game is by using items found earlier in the game and stored in their inventory. Other puzzles include the mapping of labyrinths, deserts, or other inhospitable places; solving riddles; and tasks involving the use of logic or lateral thinking skills. It is important to use all one's character's senses to gather all the information available: look, listen, smell, taste, or touch whenever possible.
The Quest The "King's Quest" (for which the series takes its name) usually involves becoming a king or the adventures of members of the royal family of Daventry in other lands to save their kingdom. Often, the quest is given to the protagonist through the realm's magic mirror (the first game involves obtaining the magic mirror, which becomes an important feature in the later games).
In King's Quest I: Quest for the Crown, the young knight Sir Graham is sent by the dying King Edward on a quest to destroy the wicked witch Dahlia and find three treasures in order to become the new king. In King's Quest II: Romancing the Throne, the quest is for King Graham to find his queen. Through the magic mirror, retrieved in the first game, he learns of the beautiful Valanice captured by the witch Hagatha in the land of Kolyma.
The follow-ups King's Quest III: To Heir Is Human and King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella do not star Graham, but involve the protagonists who ultimately end up saving the king and/or the kingdom from threats such as a dragon and untimely death. Gwydion begins as a peasant of Llewdor and a slave of the wizard Manannan; he escapes by using the wizard's magic against him, and ultimately discovers he is really Alexander, the long-lost son of King Graham and Queen Valanice and brother of the Princess Rosella. After Alexander restores the magic mirror and saves Rosella and the kingdom from the ravages of the dragon, Graham is taken deathly ill; to obtain a cure for her father, Rosella must travel to the fairy land of Tamir (after learning about it through the magic mirror) and vanquish the witch Queen Lolotte.
King's Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder! returns to the King in his attempt to rescue both his kingdom and family from Mordack, Hagatha's and Manannan's brother and also an evil magician, who is seeking revenge against Alexander for Manannan's downfall, in the land of Serenia. This is the first game that does not include the magic mirror.
King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow follows Prince Alexander's attempt to save his true love, marry her, and ultimately becoming the king of the Land of the Green Isles. The magic mirror pointed him in the right direction to finding the kingdom.
King's Quest VII: The Princeless Bride is the only game in the series that does not involve King Graham (he is missing entirely from the story), Castle Daventry, or saving the kingdom of Daventry (only a small portion of the land is shown briefly in the introduction), nor the magic mirror. Rather, the plot involves the dual protagonists Queen Valanice and Princess Rosella attempting to save the realm of Eldritch from the evil enchantress Malicia. Rosella ultimately finds a romantic interest in Prince Edgar, whom she rescues with the implication that they may marry in the future.
King's Quest: Mask of Eternity is similar to King's Quest I, in that it involves a young knight attempting to save King Graham (who stands in place of Edward), Queen Valanice, and the kingdom of Daventry from harm. Again the magic mirror shares a prominent role in telling of the doom that befell the kingdom.
Development Much of King's Quest was inspired by fairy tales, which designer Roberta Williams loved reading, in particular the Andrew Lang's Fairy Books. Many creatures, characters and situations from world mythologies, fairy tales, folklore and classic literature are encountered within the world of King's Quest. Many of the puzzle solutions are inspired by various tales so that a player with knowledge of the stories beforehand would have an advantage.
The concept of the King's Quest series was derived from ideas first established in Wizard and the Princess (Adventure in Serenia) which was an early forerunner of the series.Interaction Magazine, Fall 1994. The game versions followed the exploits of an unnamed hero known only as the "wanderer", in later versions said to be a time traveler from the future. The game's connection to the King's Quest series led to its inclusion as one of the King's Quest trivia questions.King's Questions (2004), "The Wizard and the Princess" was made for the Apple computer. What was it called when released for the IBM PC? a. Hello, Daventry!, b. Adventure in Serenia, c. Hi-Res Adventure No. 2, d. The Princess and the Wizard. The fifth King's Quest game marked a return to Serenia, the land first seen during the game. The game's backstory was further tied into the King's Quest history through The King's Quest Companion. According to the Companion, in various periods of history people from the real world withdrew to Daventry, which explains how historical and mythical elements exist there. In most of the series, it is said that the games take place, 'a long time ago' a few centuries in our past.Interaction Magazine, Fall 1992, p. 29.
Many of the classic Sierra games series had in-jokes, cameos, or homages to characters, situations and elements of the King's Quest series. Cedric from KQV was often the brunt of several jokes found in Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist, Quest for Glory: Shadows of Darkness, and Space Quest VI. Rosella has appeared in or was mentioned in the Leisure Suit Larry series, Police Quest II, and Quest for Glory series. Graham is mentioned in or appears in several of the Space Quest, Police Quest, and Laura Bow games.
Other media releases Collections The games in the series have been released together in several collections or bundles through the years (often packed with bonus material). King's Quest 15th Anniversary Collector's Edition (1994): It contains KQI (AGI & SCI versions) through KQVI, King's Questions, and King Graham's Board Game Challenge. It also contains a French floppy version of KQV, and the German floppy version of KQVI, as well as a variety of concept material, artwork, documents, articles, and videos. King's Quest Collection (1995): It contains KQI (AGI & SCI versions) through KQVI, as well as all of the bonus material from the 15th Anniversary Collector's Edition, plus some additional ones including a playable demo of KQVII. Roberta Williams Anthology (1996): It contains KQI (AGI & SCI versions) through KQVII (2.0 version), plus Wizard and the Princess, Laura Bow Mysteries 1 & 2, Mixed-Up Mother Goose (AGI & VGA versions), Mystery House, Mission Asteroid, Time Zone, Dark Crystal, and Chapter 1 demo of Phantasmagoria, as well as a variety of bonuses. King's Quest Collection Series (1997): Also known as King's Quest Collection 2; it contains KQI (AGI & SCI versions) through KQVII (2.0 version), King's Questions, Graham's Board Game Challenge, Wizard and the Princess, Mixed-Up Mother Goose Deluxe, Laura Bow 1 & 2, Mystery House, Mission Asteroid, and Time Zone. It also contains most of the bonuses from the previous versions as well as some new ones. King's Quest MASK/Collection Bundle (1998): A special bundle sold through Sierra during the release of King's Quest Mask of Eternity. It included both the 1997 King's Quest Collection, and King's Quest VIII at a discounted price plus the first seven games. Both products came in separate boxes. King's Quest Collection (2006): Vivendi Universal released King's Quest Collection, a compilation CD for Windows XP encompassing games KQI–VII. Rather than porting the games directly, however, this release uses the original versions running under the DOSBox emulator and a Windows front end (as a result, it is also possible to run KQI–VI on other platforms with a little tweaking and ports of DOSBox). King's Quest VII is the earlier 16-bit Windows version, version 1.4, lacking DOS compatibility, but runs natively on Windows 32-bit versions but is incompatible with 64-bit windows. Missing in the collection are the original AGI version of King's Quest I, as well as installation for the Windows CD version of King's Quest VI with high-resolution character art (although the assets can be accessed through ScummVM), the 2.0 DOS and Windows versions of KQVII, and King's Quest: Mask of Eternity. It also lacks any of the bonus material from previous collections. This collection was released on Steam in 2009, but has been later removed, likely due to bugs and compatibility issues. King's Quest Bundle: King's Quest 1+2+3, 4+5+6, and 7+8 collections (2010): Three collections released by Activision through GOG.com. The first consists of the classic AGI versions of King's Quest I–III (the KQI remake is not included) released 2010, and the later games King's Quest 4–5–6 on Vista. The final collection contains King's Quest 7 (2.0 version) and 8 designed to work on Vista and Windows 7 32-bit and 64-bit. The collections come with assorted bonus material such as windows background artwork. All three sets can be bought as a bundle; the "King's Quest Bundle" at 30% off the regular price of all three separately. King's Quest: The Complete Collection (2015): Bundles the five chapters and a bonus playable episode of the reboot King's Quest series.
Collection bonus material