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 Hello everyone, welcome to King's Quest IV.  Well, no. Admittedly it is not. I think we should watch the ten minute introduction all the same. It does cover all the five pertinent questions.   : With the return of his long-lost son, Alexander, and the rescue of his daughter, Rosella, from the terrible dragon, old King Graham decides it's time to pass on his adventurer's hat to younger blood. With a flick of his wrist, the hat flies toward both children, while his wife, Queen Valanice, proudly looks on. : All eyes are on the hat as it all-too-slowly flies toward both children. In the moment, nobody notices the growing distress on Graham's face.  : The adventurer's hat lies, unclaimed, upon the floor... forgotten.  : I'm not reading that out loud. Who even says Father Death?   : Oh, father! You're still young; you should have many years ahead of you! Oh, I wish I could help you! : Do you really mean that?: Who's speaking to me?: Rosella looks up but sees no one. : I am. Look in the magic mirror. : Who are you? : I am the fairy, Genesta. In my land of Tamir there is a remarkable tree. This tiny tree needs one hundred years to bear a single fruit. But, this is no ordinary fruit; for if a person were to eat it, they would find that good health and well-being would be theirs for many years. : Where is the land of Tamir?: Rosella thought this was the best news she had heard since she had been rescued, just hours before.: Tamir is very far away. But with my magic, I can bring you here.: Rosella was no fool. Graham and Valanice both raised her to use her brain. She could see the mother of all catches coming.: But, I suppose there are some problems? : Yes, you are correct, Rosella. If you are willing to come to Tamir, I will explain the situation. However, once I bring you here, I can't send you back; you will have to help me first. : I don't know! What if I can't help you; or find the tree?: You must decide NOW, Rosella. My powers are growing weaker by the minute. : The image of the fairy has reduced to just a faint glimmer.: If you care for your father, say "yes" now!: With that final emotional twist, the image fades from the magic mirror.: What choice did Rosella have? With her teeth firmly set, she called out to the empty room.: YES! : I am the fairy, Genesta. Welcome to Tamir! : Rosella frowns at the fairy.: What is the matter?: You offer me the promise of a magical cure for my dying father, but won't tell me anything about the task you want me to accomplish in return. Instead you try to make it sound like any doubts I had were just me being an uncaring, unfeeling monster. At the very least, you owe me answers.: That's... fair.  Close up portraits are not King's Quest IV's strength. Good lord.: I'm losing my magical powers. Yesterday as I was strolling through the woods, Lolotte, the evil fairy, caught me unawares and stole my magic talisman. She yanked it from my neck and raced away screeching with laughter. Immediately I felt my powers diminishing and my body weakening. I will die in 24 hours if my talisman is not returned.: Lolotte is very evil and will use the talisman to bring more evil to Tamir. Now I fear it will contaminate my whole country! Further, I cannot send you home without my talisman.: I already made my decision to help, but how?: You can do more than you think, Rosella. I believe you will be able to penetrate Lolotte's domain. These portraits are not very flattering. Thankfully after this intro, they're gone until the end of the game. : Can you tell me where to find the magic fruit?: It will not be easy to reach the tree. It grows on a tiny island within a vast swamp on the other side of the great mountains.: And Lolotte, where can I find her?: The fairy points eastward, at the ominous mountains in the distance.: Lolotte's castle overlooks Tamir from the great mountains. There is not much more I can do, Rosella. As it is, it will be difficult for me to fly home again. There is one thing I must do for you, though. I shall disguise you as a peasant girl so as not to attract attention. : Thanks... I think.: It will be easier for you this way. Well, I must be off while I can still fly. I KNOW you can do it!  : Well, you're on your own Rosella.Now, I could cut it there. But let's have a little fun...  First off, the menu is much the same as it ever was. Speed is now an analog scale instead of four discrete settings.  I like to leave speed at two marks from the top. That way Rosella moves decently quick without feeling like she's out of control.   A screen north, there's a small cliff. So let's see how Rosella handles a 10 foot drop...   I already said portraits are not this game's strong suit. Meet the game over screen, where a really awful 16 color bitmap of Roberta Williams grins at you and tells you to "next time... be more careful." NEXT TIME: We'll actually get started by wandering around. Register of Deaths Cliff diving DoubleNegative fucked around with this message at 05:49 on Oct 16, 2017 |
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Aug 12, 2017 06:53
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| # ? May 10, 2024 18:43 |
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gently caress me, I have Gilbert Gottfried's voice stuck in my head where he says "ROZILLA! Or should I say, ROSERRA!!!!" from a roast stuck in my head. I shall keep it that way.
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Aug 12, 2017 07:03
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that's one way to get you to want to avoid getting a game over as much as possible. Too bad that's not really how these games work though
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Aug 12, 2017 07:05
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You called its bluff and suffered the consequences! 
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Aug 12, 2017 07:06
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This is probably the first KQ I'd bother linking the music.
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Aug 12, 2017 09:26
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"You must allow me to bring you to an entirely different country with no guarantee of being able to go back and having to defeat an extremely powerful enemy. But in exchange I can totally save your dad's life!" Sounds legit.
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Aug 12, 2017 10:16
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About as legit as fae would be. And Rosella is the protagonist anyway, they are by universl law required to be reckless.
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Aug 12, 2017 11:33
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Did nobody try putting the hat back on?
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Aug 12, 2017 11:47
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Mikl posted:"You must allow me to bring you to an entirely different country with no guarantee of being able to go back and having to defeat an extremely powerful enemy. But in exchange I can totally save your dad's life!" Her dad stopped a 1-headed dragon and offed a witch, and her brother turned a powerful wizard into a cat and offed a 3-headed dragon. She comes from good "problem solving" stock. It's in her genes. Hell, with the obvious Wizard of Oz connection (girl transported to a foreign land, where she's helped by a good fairy and has to stop an evil witch), she may be better suited for the task due to the power of references. And considering that the game was made before "shocking" plot twists became mandatory by law, the fairy is probably being truthful.
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Aug 12, 2017 13:11
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It's hard to say whether they changed much graphically from the AGI version of this game, which was released on the Apple IIgs because it couldn't handle the SCI engine. So those might just be 16-color images rather than 256.
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Aug 12, 2017 13:31
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The very earliest version of the SCI engine only supported EGA, and KQ3 was the first SCI game. KQ5 was the first VGA King's Quest game.
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Aug 12, 2017 14:14
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The puzzles in this game are really obtuse. It (and hugos haunted mansion) was my first adventure game back in the early '90s. I like to think that these messed up puzzles helped me learn how to think outside of the box.
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Aug 12, 2017 14:52
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Is Rosella the first female video game protagonist?
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Aug 12, 2017 16:12
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Outpost22 posted:Is Rosella the first female video game protagonist? No. KQ4 came out in 1988; Metroid came out in 1986 (1987 in the States), so even if you only count well-remembered games, Samus comes first. Edit: I'm pretty sure there's an Infocom game with an explicitly female protagonist before 1988 too (as opposed to gender-indeterminate characters or ones where you choose) which would probably be the first female adventure game protagonist, but I can't remember which one. Double edit: Plundered Hearts (1987). It's a romance text adventure. Prism fucked around with this message at 16:30 on Aug 12, 2017 |
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Aug 12, 2017 16:21
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Leather Goddesses of Phobos (1986), also by Infocom, let you pick a female protagonist. If you want to include non-story games, Ms. Pac-man was from 1981.
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Aug 12, 2017 16:41
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Outpost22 posted:Is Rosella the first female video game protagonist? She's one of the first. I think she might be the first female video game protagonist to be featured prominently. (Say what you want about Samus, but nobody knew what her sex was until they beat the game, or even if she was human and not a robot -- and the final reveal at the end was more fansevice-y than anything else.)
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Aug 12, 2017 16:42
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idonotlikepeas posted:Leather Goddesses of Phobos (1986), also by Infocom, let you pick a female protagonist. If you want to include non-story games, Ms. Pac-man was from 1981. Several let you pick a female protagonist. I skipped those or I'd have to go all the way back to Wizardry and Might and Magic-style games, which also let you pick the gender of your party. Bloops Crusts posted:She's one of the first. I think she might be the first female video game protagonist to be featured prominently. (Say what you want about Samus, but nobody knew what her sex was until they beat the game, or even if she was human and not a robot -- and the final reveal at the end was more fansevice-y than anything else.) At this time this was true, so that's fair (though of course Samus is well-established as a female lead by now).
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Aug 12, 2017 16:55
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Prism posted:Several let you pick a female protagonist. I skipped those or I'd have to go all the way back to Wizardry and Might and Magic-style games, which also let you pick the gender of your party. I don't think Leather Goddesses falls into the same camp, because you actually get a different story for picking a female protagonist; it's not just a cosmetic thing or a switch on a character sheet. Having poked around a bit now, though, the earliest one I can find is from a game called Lady Bug, also in 1981. If you restrict it to just human beings, the earliest one I've found so far is from Sega Ninja in 1985.
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Aug 12, 2017 17:02
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idonotlikepeas posted:I don't think Leather Goddesses falls into the same camp, because you actually get a different story for picking a female protagonist; it's not just a cosmetic thing or a switch on a character sheet. Having poked around a bit now, though, the earliest one I can find is from a game called Lady Bug, also in 1981. If you restrict it to just human beings, the earliest one I've found so far is from Sega Ninja in 1985. Might and Magic is actually easier with an all-female party because Portsmouth's ghosts don't drain women, so it's not quite just cosmetic but very close. I actually didn't know Leather Goddesses' story changed if you picked to be female, though, so that's cool.
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Aug 12, 2017 17:09
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Nidoking posted:It's hard to say whether they changed much graphically from the AGI version of this game, which was released on the Apple IIgs because it couldn't handle the SCI engine. So those might just be 16-color images rather than 256. Two versions of KQIV were released for PC with the engine change. One has the benefit of pausing when you type, the other has the benefit that the alt-D cheat codes work (and a silly easter egg, but that's not actually useful) I'm not at all sure why I had both.
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Aug 12, 2017 17:49
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idonotlikepeas posted:Leather Goddesses of Phobos (1986), also by Infocom, let you pick a female protagonist. If you want to include non-story games, Ms. Pac-man was from 1981. Metroid is also from 1986, and in that case the gender of the protagonist was fixed, but the player discovered it only at the end.
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Aug 12, 2017 19:47
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Infocom's Plundered Hearts (1987) featured a female protagonist. Critical reviews were good, but it sold poorly because the romance genre didn't really appeal to Infocom's largely male fanbase.
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Aug 12, 2017 21:01
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edit: never mind
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Aug 12, 2017 21:29
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I didn't play this one much as a child - III was borrowed from a friend and V available from local shops - but I do remember they bothered to have different responses for "undress" depending on if you were behind a tree or not (and neither was the Police Quest one).
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Aug 13, 2017 05:20
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The Lone Badger posted:Did nobody try putting the hat back on? alexander does it like 5 minutes later and graham jumps up spry as an acrobat "wait where'd rosella go"
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Aug 13, 2017 15:33
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I wonder why she wouldn't don the hat to go on an adventure. Then again it's probably a little disrespectful.
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Aug 14, 2017 02:30
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Glazius posted:I wonder why she wouldn't don the hat to go on an adventure. Then again it's probably a little disrespectful. She didn't really have the time to go pick it up while Genesta's magic was running out.
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Aug 14, 2017 02:51
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DoubleNegative posted:
It's like someone verbally described a human face to an alien that had never seen one before, and then the alien had to recreate it with MSPaint.
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Aug 14, 2017 03:46
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Bregor posted:It's like someone verbally described a human face to an alien that had never seen one before, and then the alien had to recreate it with MSPaint. I feel like all the Sierra games during the pre-VGA SCI era had portraits by Uncanny Valley Artists. See especially: Leisure Suit Larry 2.
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Aug 14, 2017 04:24
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I remember Police Quest 2 being particularly bad in the closeup portrait department.
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Aug 14, 2017 04:33
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mauman posted:I remember Police Quest 2 being particularly bad in the closeup portrait department. I have no idea what you could possibly mean. 
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Aug 14, 2017 05:17
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Welcome back to King's Quest IV. With that long intro out of the way, let's get down to business. You may recall that we were left on the shore with no direction. So let's just aimlessly wander around and see what we can find.  This unicorn randomly appears on many of the otherwise empty screens in the game. It runs off if we get in the same zip code, so we'll just deal with it later.  I mentioned this in the OP, but the game now pauses while we type in commands. This will come in handy in a several situations. Even just typing a letter brings up this box, which will give you all the time in the world to think or type. >look unicorn : Rosella sees a beautiful, wild unicorn in the meadow. Its coat is dapple-grey, and its horn shines like gold. Sensing her approach, the unicorn shies and runs away. Alright, hold on...  Here we go, a nice high quality map of Tamir. We started on the beach near the bottom left corner, and we're on the screen with the stump now. Screens in this game, as you can see, have a lot more variety between them so you don't really need a map. And I'm not really going to reference it past this point.  On the screen north of the stump, this little satyr will randomly show up. >look satyr : Rosella sees a lively creature who is, at the same time, both man and goat. This satyr, whose name is Pan, seems to be greatly enjoying his flute music.: The tune somehow seemed familiar to Rosella...>talk to pan : Rosella attempts to speak to Pan, but he pays her no mind; he's too wrapped up in his flute music.Pan is part of a future puzzle that we'll get to eventually.  Same with this screen. Though this screen being empty is admittedly more bad luck on my part than "we can't do this yet." It's a very nice looking screen, at least. A classical architecture pool just randomly out in the wilderness isn't something you're gonna see very often.  This screen is the first one we can potentially do something about. There's a small puzzle here that needs an item from a nearby screen. >look : Numerous water lillies float serenely upon the little pond nestled in the woods. Atop one of the bigger lily pads, Rosella notices a rather large frog... wearing a little gold crown!However, if we get in the pond, the frog gets scared off. So how do we re-enact the obvious fairy tale staring us in the face?  The answer to the riddle lies one screen south. See if you can't figure out what to do just from looking at this image. >look : A gentle stream meanders its way through the trees. A rustic stone bridge crosses its path.This was still 1980s Sierra. You have to be very specific about what you want to do. >look under bridge : Rosella kneels down and peers under the bridge. Aha! She finds a small golden ball that she takes with her. Sadly there's no item descriptions that I've been able to find. Anyway, with the ball in hand we can finish reenacting this fairy tale. >drop ball : Rosella "accidentally" drops the golden ball into the pond. From atop a lily pad, a large green frog leaps into the water, and disappears from view. A moment later, the frog emerges with... YES!... her lost ball in its mouth. It seems as if the frog is kindly returning Rosella's ball to her. If you look closely, you can see the frog and the small gold ball on the pond's northeastern shore. So let's >get frog : Scrunching up her nose in disgust, Rosella catches the large frog and holds it in her hand. It stares at her with its big bulgy eyes, and wobbles its throat. Yep... that's a frog alright. >kiss frog : Rosella looks at the frog's green lips. Mmmmm. Good. She feels silly doing this, as she slowly puts her mouth against the frog's. : Suddenly, the little green frog changes into a handsome prince! : Who are you? I thought you were supposed to be a princess?! Why, you're nothing more than a PEASANT girl!: Rosella blanches at the remark, but says nothing.: Well, ta-ta. I'm off. Here, you may keep THIS!: To her surprise, the prince tosses the little golden crown at her as he leaves.: Good riddance... We're now free to leave the ball on the edge of the pond, as we don't have any further use for it. But... >get ball It's our ball and we ain't giving that poo poo up.  Over to the east of the pond we find this creepy sight. >look : This run-down, gloomy cemetery gives Rosella the creeps! Many of the old tombstones have fallen over, and the entire place is overgrown with weeds.There's nothing we can do here until much, much later in the game. In fact, this cemetery is one of the last locations we're going to visit before we're locked into the endgame.  Like the cemetery on either side of it, this manor is the setpiece for the last bit of the game. There's a few things we can do in it this early on, but for the most part it's all relegated to the late game. It's, uh, also the ancestral home of the Wateley family, making this Whateley Manor. It's a creepy mansion surrounded by a creepy graveyard, named for the family from an HP Lovecraft story where the two children were sired by an elder god. No points for guessing that there's gonna be some spooky poo poo going down later. >look house : This is not a pleasant house; in fact, it's downright scary! It looks old and abandoned, and badly in need of tender-loving-care. To make matters worse, it sits right in the middle of an old cemetery.Let's go in!  This needs a little mood music. >look : This is the entry room of the old house. Downstairs, Rosella can see two open doorways, and upstairs two additional doors. The room is cobwebbed and dusty, with wallpaper peeling from the walls.>look clock : An old grandfather clock sits in the corner. With each swing of its pendulum, time relentlessly marches on...>read time : The time is: 8:10 A.M.Generally, time passes at a 1:1 ratio with the real world. Though I think the game fudges the details a little. The intro lasted 10 minutes by itself, and this is 3 minutes into the game proper. The game has a "strict" 24 hour time limit. That is to say, you have 24 real time hours to complete it or you get a nonstandard game over. Presumably. The manual claims this is the case, and I've seen some rumblings on the Internet that it's true. I don't really have the time or patience to leave the game running for that long to check, and we'll see much later on that the developers learned from the... boat segment... of the previous game. So while the game functionally has a time limit, even the slowest player on the slowest speed possible will win long before that point.  Moving on... the dining room is one of those rooms that you may never have to enter. There's no items to pick up in here, nor in the kitchen behind it. It also kind of reminds me of Mananarama's dining room, just without the picnic table in the middle of the room. >look : This old dining room has seen better days. The long table is littered with crumbs and dust, and against the wall, the empty hutch is covered with cobwebs. The kitchen I mentioned before. Seriously, this reminds me of Manacannon's house. >look : The old kitchen is quite bare. The fireplace has been cold for years, and the dusty pantry is empty but for old crumbs. This is on the west side of the entrance hall. This is the only room we really need to concern ourselves with for the moment. >look : Considering the disarray of the rest of the house, the parlor looks in relatively good order. However, the fireplace is cold and unsued, the bookshelves are almost bare, and the old furnishings are dusty.Mr. Payne there mentioned that the bookshelves were almost bare. Maybe there's something on them. >look bookshelf : Rosella examines the few remaining books on the bookshelves. Only one catches her attention; it is entitled "The Compleat Works of William Shakespeare." She pulls it from the shelf and carries it with her. That portrait hanging over the mantle also stands out. >look portrait : An interesting portrait of a young girl hangs over the firelace. Rosella gazes at it intently, and notices that her eyes seem to stare at the left wall of the parlor.>look wall : Rosella examines the left wall very closely and notices a little latch. She flips it and discoveres a secret door in the wall.  This shovel is something we won't need until the super late game, but having it means we won't have to come back later. There's also no point in climbing the stairs just yet. It's two screens tall, and all that's at the top is an old pipe organ. Like most things in this part of the map, we'll be back much, much later in the game. >get shovel  If you want a picture of hate and spite for this game, this is it. When the time comes, I'll cover exactly why. But for now, understand that this shovel is very much in the same boat as that bridge from King's Quest II.  Whateley Manor is behind us, and this screen is pretty much just for filling in space on the map. Though if you look, you can see a little bird pulling a worm out of the ground.  If you get close, the bird flies off and leaves the worm behind. We'll need this in the not too distant future, so... >get worm Does this mean that we walk with rhythm?   This cute little house under a tree is west of where we found the worm. The first screen with the cemetery is directly north, and the bridge where we found the golden ball is to the west. Tamir is a very cozy little country. With the exception of a small handful of screens, we've seen pretty much everything there is to see. NEXT TIME: Rosella the housekeeper List of Points +2 - A stray golden ball +5 - Kissed a frog +2 - Shakespeare Omnibus +4 - Secret door +2 - Shovel +2 - The worm Total: 17/230 Register of Deaths None this time! DoubleNegative fucked around with this message at 22:30 on Aug 16, 2017 |
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Aug 14, 2017 13:32
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I believe you can also just take the crown and leave the frog a frog. Given the result of kissing it, that might be the better outcome, but I think it's worth fewer points.
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Aug 14, 2017 14:04
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DoubleNegative posted:>get worm No, walking with rhythm means the worm gets you. Alternate response "In Tamir, you get worm. On Arrakis, worm gets you".
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Aug 14, 2017 14:05
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DoubleNegative posted:
What an rear end in a top hat.
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Aug 14, 2017 18:18
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DoubleNegative posted:If you want a picture of hate and spite for this game, this is it. When the time comes, I'll cover exactly why. Oh, no. The true picture of hatred and spite for King's Quest IV isn't this, but it's close. I forgot all about the shovel till now, though.
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Aug 14, 2017 21:51
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Snorb posted:Oh, no. The true picture of hatred and spite for King's Quest IV isn't this, but it's close. The true picture of hatred and spite for King's Quest IV is a mostly-black screen
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Aug 14, 2017 23:27
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Bloops Crusts posted:The true picture of hatred and spite for King's Quest IV is a mostly-black screen  I'm....not feeling good all of a sudden.
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Aug 15, 2017 00:25
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Bloops Crusts posted:The true picture of hatred and spite for King's Quest IV is a mostly-black screen Four mostly black screens.
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Aug 15, 2017 03:07
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| # ? May 10, 2024 18:43 |
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Sounds like someone wanted to see what lies at the intersection of pixel-hunting and limited durability.
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Aug 15, 2017 04:07
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