When it came to games like King's Quest or their like (the early versions), it seemed like it was really a guessing game on what commands to use. If you didn't use the exact verbage the game recognized, you were up the creek. You had to try and put your mind into the developer's brain to figure out their "language" and word-object association.
Graphic icons made it better BUT then you had to figure out the proper item combinations to get ahead. What was that game where you had to combine syrup (or something sticky) with cat hair (or something like that) to make a mustache for a disguise? And sometimes logic didn't work-in CoCo game "The Interbank Incident" there was a manhole cover that acted like you could manipulate it. However every logical tool you'd use would not open it.