King's Quest

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King's Quest IV (Screenshot)

King's Quest is an adventure game series made by the American computer game company Sierra Entertainment (formerly Sierra On-Line). It is widely considered a classic title of the golden era of adventure games and was the series which primarily built the reputation of the company following the success of the first installment, the first "3D" adventure game. The designer of all of the games was Roberta Williams, co-owner of Sierra.

Contents
1 Description
2 Games
3 Books
4 External links

Description

The world of the King's Quest games is not highly consistent and sophisticated, but it is immersive. It encompasses over ten different worlds, including Daventry (KQ I), Serenia (KQ V), Tamir (KQ IV), Kolyma (KQ II) and Llewdor (KQ III).

The main characters in each of the series are King Graham or members of his family. The only exception is KQ VIII, where the player has control of Sir Connor of Daventry, King Graham's knight (who makes a guest appearance in the KQ II remake, establishing a link between the two characters). Because of this, and because of the large focus on RPG and arcade elements in the last game, many fans refuse to consider it a true sequel and call it KQ:MOE (Mask of Eternity being its subtitle).

Many equivalents of famous characters from myths and legends make appearances, including Beauty and the Beast, Rumplestiltskin, Red Riding Hood and Count Dracula. They appear mainly in the earlier games, when the concept was simply about solving puzzles in a surrealistic fantasy world. The later sequels are more logical and have a better established storyline and realistic places and characters.

The first game takes place in a toroidal "doughnut" world—no matter what direction the player goes, he will return to the same screen where he began. This gives an impression of a spherical (albeit very small) world, and can be explained internally by saying that the character is trapped in the region magically. KQ II, III and IV held on to this design, although in a more realistic manner. The world becomes "cylindrical" and the looping occurs only when the character goes north or south (in the west and east there is the sea, or mountains, or deserts), thus giving an impression of making circles along an island. This layout was abandoned in KQ V, where a new policy of sophisticated and realistic storytelling and gameplay was adopted.

There have been eight King's Quest games released. A number of websites give plans for a ninth installment in the series (many just that, plans), but there is no official King's Quest IX. There is, however, a group of fans who have made extensive progress in creating an unofficial ninth game in the series.

Games

Books

Three books have been published by Boulevard Books.

The books haven't acclaimed high reviews, but King's Quest fans understand that although these books do not belong in the high fantasy genre generally, they are written and intended especially for them.

External links

King's Quest series

King's Quest I: Quest for the Crown (1984) | King's Quest II: Romancing the Throne (1985) | King's Quest III: To Heir Is Human (1986) | King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella (1988) | King's Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder! (1990) | King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow (1992) | King's Quest VII: The Princeless Bride (1994) | King's Quest VIII: The Mask of Eternity (1998)

See also: King's Quest, 1995, 1996, Adventure, Adventure game, Beauty and the Beast, Computer game, Count Dracula, High fantasy