Random Game O' the Day: King's Quest V

[digitalpress]

The generator chose King's Quest V for the Nintendo NES today, let's open this up to ALL of the King's Quest games, including the PC versions.

A PC RPG series popular enough to spawn cartridge versions of the game? We thought it would never happen, and yet the NES managed to do this several times with titles like Bard's Tale, Wizardry, Ultima, and yes, King's Quest. So what did you think of the King's Quest series? How does the NES version stand up to the PC versions and in what ways was it better? Have you ever tried the Sega Master System King's Quest? Write your own mini-review here!

DP Guide sez:

King's Quest V (Nintendo NES, by Konami) $7/R5
Based on the 1991 Sierra adventure game. Released 6/92. #NES-8Q-USA.

King's Quest (Sega Master System, by Parker $18/R6
Bros)
One of the few "popular" third-party titles and PC conversions to be released for the SMS. With more titles like this, the SMS might have had a better chance of succeeding! #4360.

[Achika]

I've played all the PC versions and beat them all (except for the last "one"--where Alexander is the commander or whatever) I've played a few minutes of the SMS version, but found it too frustrating since IMO typing out your actions was key to the gameplay. KQ5 for NES is sitting right here until I get an NES in my apt, I can't play it.

Personally my favorites on PC were 3, 4, 6. IMO 7 was leading the KQ series downhill. The story telling was there, but the style of the game was so riddled with glitches you had to pray that it would get through to the next scene. The animation didn't mesh well in many spots, it reminded me of the old sticker books that tell a story when you put the stickers in.

I think 3's (Heir is Human) spell casting feature was the coolest part, so that's why it ranks up there. Other than that, it was so so I guess. Plus the thrill of sneaking about, you could get caught at any moment.

4 (Peril's of Rosella) was the first one I played. I was a nice long game that kept me trying and taught me how to type. There was so much to do, it will always have a special place in my heart.

6 was nice and long and simply gorgeous. Difficult and riddled with puzzles, the characters of the game were also beautiful and there was tons of mythology & fairy tales.

[Raedon]

http://www.justadventure.com/thejave/html/Games/GamesK/KQV/KQV_BF.JPG

Kings Quest V - Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder ... Bwahaha

Lets face it, one of the first games designed by a woman started out with a bang but this was a 3 out of 5 really, though it was the first game I played on the PC with real voices.. all 8bit mono of it.

http://www.justadventure.com/thejave/html/Games/GamesK/KQV/KQV2.jpg
Yes kids, were pretty f*cking far from Everquest..

Oh and DP, these were graphic Point-and-click (or type in the early early days) not RPG's.
From what I remember of the game I got stuck at some puzzle involving some harpys and moved on to playing Space Quest and Leasure suit Larry while calling up BBS's around my home town.

[zmeston]

Roberta Williams was an interesting broad, not least of which because she once posed topless on the cover of a Sierra On-Line game. I wonder if she doesn't get as many props as other old-school designers because she didn't do any of the programming (husband Ken did).

I was kind of sad when she fell under the full-motion video spell with Phantasmagoria, and I was really sad when King's Quest 8 ended up as one of the worst PC games ever made, an unfortunate denouement to the series.

A bunch of folks are working on a PC "homebrew" of King's Quest 9: http://www.kq9.org/

Anyone else here have the Roberta Williams Anthology for PC? It has KQs 1 through 7, her Apple II-era adventures, and a few others.

-- Z.

[WiseSalesman]

I only have one King's Quest game, but I really liked it, as far as those point and click adventures go. It's the one entitled "The Princeless Bride", but I can't remember the number.

Other favorite point and click games:
Day of the Tentacle
Sam and Max Hit the Road
Full Throttle (though all I have is a demo for it...)
Kyrandia I and II

[TheRedEye]

Why why WHY is this genre dead? Are people just fucking braindead or what?

Anywho. I'll semi-agree with Achika, as I think III and VI are the best in the series. I think with III, I just appreciated how unique it was, ESPECIALLY at the beginning when you don't know what's going on. I and II had you control Graham on his adventures to save the kingdom and find a bride, III started you off as...a slave boy emptying a magician's piss pot and feeding his chickens.

King's Quest VI, to me, is the end of an era. I view it as the last game true to the King's Quest name. King's Quest VII was a damned Disney cartoon, and VIII was...I don't know what VIII was, besides the worst purchase I've ever made.

I just loved the variety and non-linear aspect of King's Quest VI. The first time I beat it, I didn't even know about the Land of the Dead sequence! It's totally optional, and totally awesome. You make the LORD OF THE DEAD cry! Take that, bastard.

Also, the puzzles in VI were fairly logical, as opposed to all of the previous games in the series. The game was still tough, and you pretty much had to use a walkthrough to get the best ending possible without guessing and getting lucky, but I was at least able to get the worst possible ending without any help.

...and besides, it kind of holds a special place in my heart. I had beaten the others, but with a friend's help and on his computer. King's Quest VI was the first one I played and beat all by myself.

I'd love to stray into the other Sierra games, if anyone wants to start a thread.

[Arqueologia_Digital]

Why why WHY is this genre dead? Are people just fucking braindead or what?.
Yeah, you´re right man, i love this genre and i have to play always to the same games that i love (Kyrandia series, Day of the tentacle, Indy).
I never play a King quest adventure, i will download the V version soon... :D

[Achika]

IMO, the KQ series should NOT be put in the category with Maniac Mansion, Monkey Island, Loom, DotT, Indy, etc. The first 4 really weren't click adventures on the PC. 4 and the revamp of 1 had a shoddy clicking interface, but the key to the first four was your typing abilities and getting the correct thing typed in that the correct time.

[Zap!]

Sorry to revive such an old topic, but does anyone know how to get KQV to work on a modern computer? I have the game on CD-ROM and it won't run on my P4 2.4 ghz. :( Also, am I the only one that absolutely LOVES KQV?

[tylerwillis]

Sorry to revive such an old topic, but does anyone know how to get KQV to work on a modern computer? I have the game on CD-ROM and it won't run on my P4 2.4 ghz. :( Also, am I the only one that absolutely LOVES KQV?

I don't have experience with KQV in particular, but I've had good luck using dosbox to run old games on a modern machine.

http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/news.php?show_news=1

[roushimsx]

Lord, here's a series that went to hell in a handbasket as technology got better and Roberta Williams gradually got even more full of her own shit. The first few games were charming little hodge-podge mish-mashes of various childrens' stories and fairy tales. When 5 came out, I was just as eager as the next nerd to score a copy of "Roberta Williams' new masterpeice" and while it wasn't terrible, it never did hook me like the first 4. That and the owl needed to die.

King's Quest VI hooked me just like old times, but the poor intro and sometimes illogical puzzles (a halmark in Robert Williams game design!) really showed their age.

King's Quest VII is where the series dived right into the realms of unredeamable crap, and VIII...lord... I remember hearing all of the good buzz about the demo, how everyone was excited that this might be the big change that the series really needed...but in the end it turns out the demo was the only playable part of the game and everything else was a kick to the balls of anyone that actually spent money on the game. or downloaded it. or watched someone download it. or spent the time to read a full review of it.

I did enjoy the parser interface for the most part... but I really cut my teeth on text adventures so it really felt natural to me when I was playing the games, though in hindsight I can see where some of the word selections were pretty damn cheap. It's a toss up over which annoys me more, "clever" word selection or pixel hunting. I guess neither one bothers me too much as long as the puzzles are logical... *shrug*

[poe]

I've got the same hatred of Roberta Williams that the guys at Old Man Murray did, due mostly to my having to replay the entirety of KQ5, because some stupid crystal you need near the endgame is easily overlooked since it looks like part of the static background. And you don't know you need this crystal until about 5 hours after the point at which you can no longer go back for it :angry:

[Yago]

I loved these games and spent a good part of my growing up years playing them. 3 and 4 for sure are the best. KQ3 is still my favorite as mentioned above, the spell casting and mean wizard you have to stay away from. The first thing I usually did was just run screen to screen checking out the scenery. The graphics were great for the time and I always liked the puzzles and challenges these games offered. I was also hooked on Space Quest, Hero's Quest, Police Quest, and even Liesure Suite Larry. I remember the clue books you could get for the KQ series. They came with a "Magic Marker" that you could use to reveal the hints. Classic stuff right there. Too bad you won't see this style of gaming ever again. It seems that the newer gen just don't want to sit around figuring stuff out, they want to race, blow up, and beat up everything instead.

[calthaer]

I'd even go so far as to say that IV was the last good game in this series. I remember playing the first game and really trying to figure out how to solve the puzzles - I thought it immensely cool that you could either stab the dragon with the dagger (for less points) OR use the barrel of water on him (for more points).

By the time V had rolled around, everything was namby-pamby, and the puzzles that you "solved" often weren't logical at all. It wasn't like - "I'm tied up...I could use that sharp nail to wear away the bonds, then I need to squeeze through the window to get out of here..."

No, it was "that mouse that was running across the screen - almost too fast for me to throw a boot or whatever at the cat chasing it - he'll eventually come back to help me later, solving my puzzles for me." Help everybody out, because later they will most definitely come back around to help you? Please. Video game characters aren't that real yet.

I just remember being very disappointed. Very good graphics and sound for the time, but it wasn't anywhere near as good as Quest for Glory.

[boatofcar]

I've got the same hatred of Roberta Williams that the guys at Old Man Murray did, due mostly to my having to replay the entirety of KQ5, because some stupid crystal you need near the endgame is easily overlooked since it looks like part of the static background. And you don't know you need this crystal until about 5 hours after the point at which you can no longer go back for it :angry:


This is why I quit playing KQVI.

Well, first of all, I got the game on cd, and this was when it was fashionable for a cd game to not come with an actual manual, but a manual that was on the game disc. So that part where you have to climb the cliff, I actually had to call my friend who had the floppy version of the game to get her manual out and tell me how to get through it....damn copy protection built into the game....anyway, there is one part where you have to get this scythe when you come ashore on some island. If you don't get it the first time, it's not there when you go back, and if you've saved after you realize it, that's it. Game over, man game over!

I never played another KQ game after that.

[Garry Silljo]

I've got the same hatred of Roberta Williams that the guys at Old Man Murray did, due mostly to my having to replay the entirety of KQ5, because some stupid crystal you need near the endgame is easily overlooked since it looks like part of the static background. And you don't know you need this crystal until about 5 hours after the point at which you can no longer go back for it :angry:

Exactly. I love these games but am always pissed when this kind of thing is pulled. Also in 5, how the hell was I supposed to know you throw the boot at the cat? It's only on screen for like 5 seconds, barely time to think and on the nes you don't have the speed necessary to pull that off if you're not ready for it. I was stumped for days because I never saved that mouse to gnaw my ropes off.

Seperately in Space Quest, I went through the whole game without finding the code you need to blow up the enemy ship in the end. If it's that important they shouldnt let you leave without it.

[Lothars]

it's been along time since i've played any king quest, I think i played it on the nes

but I know I have definitly played and beat almost all of them on the pc

very good choice Joe :)

[Kim Possible]

KQV was my introduction to these kinds of games, pretty much. I'm not a big fan of Space Quest type games were syntax is king and you have to type everything, but I had a lot of fun with KQV on the NES, because you could just point and click. I thought the puzzles were pretty ok, but had a hell of a time beating the final guy.

Overall, though it was a thinking game more than an action game, and I was intrigued by it, but not captivated.

Shadowgate on the other hand....

[Snapple]

I loved 90% of Sierra's games. When I first got my computer, all I had to play with for years was a mess of Sierra and LucasArts point-and-click adventure games. So I have an eternal connection to games like this.

That being said, KQ5 for the NES was a pretty crappy port.

I loved KQ7, but I never actually finished it. Got stuck on the final chapter. Course, now I have the internet, so I could look up some hints, but I lost the game long ago. Oh well.

As a matter of fact, I don't have ANY of my old Sierra games anymore, which really bums me out.

But yeah, try DosBox for all old games that run too fast now.


I remember the backtracking thing in KQ6. I have a feeling you're talking about the bottle you're supposed to pick from the vendor. You have to get the one that's identical to the Genie bottle, which is purple if I remember right.

[Austin]

King's Quest 4 was where I stopped playing on the PC. I'd played the first three... I think I was too used to the typing interface and never got used to the cursors and such.

[Zap!]

King's Quest 4 was where I stopped playing on the PC. I'd played the first three... I think I was too used to the typing interface and never got used to the cursors and such.

I always though part IV was the greatest KQ of them all.