Save the Kingdom of Daventry in King’s Quest – Today in History – May 10th, 1984
The original King’s Quest was quite a game. For the time it was amazing, it still is in many respects. King’s Quest was a marvel for the period and something that was just not seen on computers. Up to the release of this harbinger of things to come title by Sierra Entertainment (later to become Sierra On-Line), gamers were mostly looking at still images and text on the screen. This title nearly single handedly catapulted Roberta Williams to the forefront of game development, at least in North America.
The story behind the first King’s Quest is all about keeping the family name alive. King Edward is dying so he sends valiant knight, Sir Graham (you) on a quest to kill the evil witch, Dahlia. Once you have defeated this mortal enemy of the crown you will need to acquire three items. Once you have completed all four tasks, you will be named king. One of those items is a priceless magic mirror that becomes the crux of the sequels.
Technologically speaking, King’s Quest was phenomenal in changing the way adventure games were played. Not just the first game but also in part seven Sierra forced things forward. The scenes are faux 3D, there are windows with text in them (status information, possessions list, etc) and the graphics were mostly full screen. No longer were gamers playing with half the screen being devoted to graphics while the other half is a text parser that was more annoying than fun most of the time.
The King’s Quest series has been kept alive over the years through sequels, fan remakes and official remakes. This is a series that has proven that it is truly a classic and one that more gamers should play.
If you want a physical copy of King’s Quest head over to Ebay or check Amazon
