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- King's Quest: quest for the crown -  
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There was a time that Sierra was one of the largest and well
known game pusblishers/developers in the PC games market. They
churned out one adventure game after another, so much so that
my friends and I referred to adventure games as Quest games
like the title of many Sierra adventures. King's Quest : quest
for the crown is the first adventure in the longest running
adventure series from Sierra which spans eight games in total.
King's quest takes place in a magical world in the kingdom of
Daventry, the king is ill and without an heir he sends for Graham
the bravest knight in the kingdom. When Graham arrives the king
tells him about three magical treasures that once belonged to
Daventry but are now lost. This is the reason that Daventry
is now in such a poor state and the king tells Graham that if
he is able to regain all three treasures he will be crowned
as the heir and king. Graham ofcourse accepts this challenge
and goes off to find the treasures, a mirror that tells the
future, a shield that protects it wearer from all harm and a
chest of gold that will never go empty. The entire story is
told in far more detail in the manual so if you like to find
out the complete story I suggest you read it.
The game is played with you able to control Graham with the arrow keys or mouse
with which you can walk around the screen, if you walk to the edge of the screen
you go to the next location. Commands are issued by typing them in at the bottom
of the screen such as "open door" or "move rock". Sometimes
it can be difficult to word exactly what you are trying to do and it is not always
clear what the items on the screen are and if they can be used. That means it's
important to "examine" everything you might come across so that you
do not miss anything. The game can be very unforgiving because you can die from
the simplest of mistakes like at the very start you walk over the bridge and if
you happen to fall into the castle moat you get eaten by crocodiles and it's game
over. It can be very annoying especially when you have forgotten to save the game
and have to do many things over again so the motto is to save a lot. Also is has
one of the most annoying things that an adventure game can have and that is if
you fail to do something or get an item before certain events take place it is
impossible to finish the game. This is something that almost all Sierra adventures
have though and I learned to live with it after a while. Graham also walks painfully
slow and some versions include an option to make him faster but this does not
always work out well.
The graphics of all the versions are very blocky because they date from the very
first version released in 1983, it was either monochroom graphics or lowres CGA
4-color. The updated versions available here all have 16-colors but the graphics
haven't change much except for the Sega Master system which was released much
later and was adjusted to that machine's specification. Sierra released another
version of the game with all new graphics and although still in EGA format it
looks much better. A fan remake was also made recently by ADG
Interactive which support hi-res graphics and has support packs for digitized
music, sound and speech. The original music is nothing spectacular but the tunes
that are there fit the fantasy theme of the game very well.
Despite some annoying quircks like the things mentioned before the game is quite
enjoyable. It is however in my opinion not a game for the entire family like the
game states because of the ease you can die and some obscure puzzles. If you like
adventures games then this is a example of one the earlier and better games available.
I wouldn't believe it myself but the Sega Master System version,
a gameconsole, is actually the best (I believe) because you
can select actions from a menu instead of typing them in. This
makes the game a lot more accessable and you can concentrate
more on the puzzles instead of trying to figure out what to
type.
Overal rating: 7/10
Erde Kaiser
King's Quest: quest for the crown was released for five different systems here are some
notes:
| Apple |
Released in
1987.
Game has been tested but not completed with ActiveGSapp
R4.
Pretty similar to the other versions but this one has
digitized sound effects, for instance when you open the
door of the castle you can hear the door opening. |
| Amiga |
Released in
1986.
Game has been tested but not completed with winUAE v0.9.91.
Loading times are a bit annoying but otherwise the same
as the DOS version. |
| Atari
ST |
Released in
1986.
Game has been tested but not completed with Saint 1.10.
This is exactly the same as the Amiga version. |
| DOS |
First
released in 1983.
Game has been tested but not completed on a DOS and Win2k
PC.
There were a number of different versions released, the downloadable version
was released in 1987 and supports EGA graphics. The second re-release had
better graphics and sound and also there is a fan remake by AGD interactive
with windows support, SVGA graphics and digitized sound/music/speech. |
Sega
Master
System |
Released in
1989 by Parker Brothers.
Game has been tested but not completed with Dega 1.12.
I never knew this version even existed until I reviewed
this game but it is very good. The lack of a keyboard
means that you can select actions from a menu which makes
the game far more accessable. |
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Date added |
Dec-08-2004 19:34 |
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Name |
King's Quest: quest for the crown |
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Developer |
Sierra on-line
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Publisher |
Sierra on-line
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First released |
1983 |
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Genre |
Adventure
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Download |
Apple, filesize: 889 Kb
Atari ST, filesize: 254 Kb
Commodore Amiga, filesize: 334 Kb
MS-DOS, filesize: 264 Kb
Sega Master System, filesize: 77 Kb
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Links |
Vintage
Sierra - A great site about all Sierra classics |
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Manual |
Download manual for King's Quest: quest for the crown
, filesize: 2096 Kb
The zipfile contains the manual, ref. card and box cover in pdf format. |
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Solve / Docs |
Get solve here
No extra docs available |
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Sitestats
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03-Sep-2010
Games: 404
Utils: 30
Manuals: 193
Solves: 83
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