Sometimes It Is Wise To Think Backwards - Let's Play the King's Quest Series!

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > Sometimes It Is Wise To Think Backwards - Let's Play the King's Quest Series!

Poil: Mar 17, 2007

Restore, Restart or Quit is pretty much the Sierra slogan.

One of the worst moments in these kind of games was one where you were a naval officer (I think) and the game had you sitting in the driver's seat of a submarine with the captain barking navigation orders at you. If you didn't type in the orders correctly and quickly enough, instant loss. These games were very clearly not intended for non-native english speakers.

# ¿ Jun 6, 2017 19:06

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 21:07

Poil: Mar 17, 2007

Ze Pollack posted:

So you're aware, while Defias Pillager currently tops the list of all-time causes of death in PC gaming courtesy of World of Warcraft exploding and somebody not understanding how math worked, The Moat Of Castle Daventry claimed an easy victory for the first ~15 years of video game history.

Y'see, once upon a time, you pushed arrow button to move, and you needed to push arrow button in another direction to stop moving.

Leaving Castle Daventry, you had about a quarter of a second to press left, or else fall into the moat and die.

Entering Castle Daventry, you had about a quarter of a second to press up, or else fall into the moat and die.

These games defined PC gaming for a decade. Castle Daventry never stopped killing people.

Wasn't it the same arrow button? Or did it differ from game to game?

OAquinas posted:

Codename: Iceman, made by Jim Walls, aka "ex-cop who thinks he knows how to design games." He's actually right, so long as he remembers to include "really, really bad" as a modifier in there somewhere.

Yes, that's the one. It's pretty much the only thing I remember though.

# ¿ Jun 7, 2017 00:11

Poil: Mar 17, 2007

DoubleNegative posted:

That puzzle is the worst point of an already bad game. Rather than do something intelligent like create a timer for the firecracker, they tied its fuse to your processor clock speed.

They did that crap in other games as well. For example in Ports of Call where the time to get your ship in or out of a port was very generous with a slow CPU or instant fail with a faster. Or in Highway Hunter where the entire game's speed was tied and trying to play on anything above very slow would make it impossible with a good computer back in those days. It's a good thing things has advanced enough that programmers aren't tying poo poo to the CPU or FPS speeds anymore so games don't break if you change them.

# ¿ Jun 7, 2017 14:34

Poil: Mar 17, 2007

Sierra did the Police Quest series too, right? One of my friends was/is into that.

My favorite "death" from the first of those games was when you pull over a girl who was speeding and let her off in exchange for sex. She gives you her number and speeds off leaving you to find a phone. After entering the number, which you had to write down on a piece of paper of course, the main character opens up the call with some dirty talk. Three things become very clear very quickly.
1. It wasn't actually her number.
2. The Commissioner's wife is not pleased.
3. She recognized his voice.
:cawg:

Poil fucked around with this message at 19:17 on Jun 8, 2017

# ¿ Jun 8, 2017 19:13

Poil: Mar 17, 2007

OAquinas posted:

Yeah, PQ could get away with being more silly since its schtick was trying to be quasi-real w/r/t police procedures. Playing it straight was the emphasis, and it worked fairly well. Jim Walls was brought in because he was off active duty due to a shooting, and Sierra basically made him "lead designer" with no prior programming experience.
Makes me wonder who really did the heavy lifting, since PQ1-3 were actually playable. After Daryl Gates (of the goddamn LA Riots fame) was handed the series, Walls felt he could still do game design and made Blue Force. You haven't heard of it, because even by 1993 standards it was utter poo poo. He tried game design again with a Kickstarter for another police game, which was ended early since he couldn't break $90K.

Edit: Good writeup here: http://www.linehollis.com/2014/02/08/line-on-sierra-police-quest-i/

Good times. :v:

Thanks for linking that, it's great.

# ¿ Jun 8, 2017 20:33

Poil: Mar 17, 2007

I'm not sure that witches brew should actually contain any witches.

# ¿ Jun 10, 2017 21:51

Poil: Mar 17, 2007

Can you type "drown" instead?

# ¿ Jun 26, 2017 19:11

Poil: Mar 17, 2007

Given what the wizard said it can probably be used to cast a magic spell. Like for example... uh... growing a mustache or turning yourself into a hamster. Who knows?

# ¿ Jul 17, 2017 18:38

Poil: Mar 17, 2007

I think you have one in your post as well. :pseudo:

# ¿ Jul 21, 2017 20:54

Poil: Mar 17, 2007

MagusofStars posted:

I don't know if this is true in this game, but traditional mythologies and legends usually give Royalty and Noble Blood more value and magical power than random commoners. Blood sacrifices in particular are usually stated or implied to be much more effective with a noble (typically a virgin princess) than just a nameless peasant.

It's more messy work but it would be a lot easier to just kidnap ten goons from their basements than a royal family member.

# ¿ Jul 30, 2017 09:14

Poil: Mar 17, 2007

Simon The Sorcerer 2 has a boat part as well but once you're done doing all the stuff you need to the main character takes a nap and wakes up in time for the event that lets you off the boat. Granted it might have been because of this horrible wait. :v:

idonotlikepeas posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9bXjttMxKY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiyEP02KNZw

# ¿ Aug 4, 2017 11:26

Poil: Mar 17, 2007

Abandon all hope ye who enter text here.

# ¿ Sep 3, 2017 07:44

Poil: Mar 17, 2007

Couldn't that easily have backfired with Lolette falling in love with Rosella?

# ¿ Sep 4, 2017 17:36

Poil: Mar 17, 2007

Fat Samurai posted:

This was my second adventure game, right after Monkey Island. The design philosophy completely blindsided me, to put it midly.

Well it's no wonder since you play like a dairy farmer.

# ¿ Sep 9, 2017 14:05

Poil: Mar 17, 2007

Cedric should :frogooooout:

I remember this game from another LP years ago. All those years and I can still hear Cedric's horrendous voice whenever Graham died.

# ¿ Sep 11, 2017 20:28

Poil: Mar 17, 2007

someone awful. posted:

Are you gonna be the one to tell that bear that isn't its shade?

Bears are easy to deal with. Just sneak up behind it, gut it and wear its skin as a disguise so you can stalk and kill more bears.

# ¿ Sep 15, 2017 20:55

Poil: Mar 17, 2007

Yeah after spending a whole life with convoluted crap that makes no sense he might have just stopped giving a poo poo. Oh, the coffee machine is broken? Sigh. Time to grab a gardening rake and wander up in the mountains to look for goats so I can have some breakfast.

# ¿ Sep 17, 2017 10:01

Poil: Mar 17, 2007

YggiDee posted:

Apparently the golden needle can be interchanged with the gold coin, but only in certain versions of the game.

Why? Just, whyyyy?

# ¿ Sep 20, 2017 22:57

Poil: Mar 17, 2007

I don't suppose that if you attempt to cross without Cedric the wolf kills Graham instead? At least he was useful in the end. Now let's keep trucking to... evil wizards and whatnot.

# ¿ Oct 11, 2017 16:11

Poil: Mar 17, 2007

Psion posted:

if he's Sir Greywolf, who's the other, identical wolf?

He is Sir Graywolf of course.

# ¿ Oct 13, 2017 23:39

Poil: Mar 17, 2007

The vizier is evil? No! Really? :rolleyes:

where the red fern gropes posted:

mordack is actually pretty hot, not sure why he needs to resort to abduction here

That haircut/cap is not doing him any favors.

# ¿ Oct 24, 2017 23:12

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 21:07

Poil: Mar 17, 2007

Turning him into a cat wouldn't be using violence, just saying. :v:

# ¿ Nov 4, 2017 23:11

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > Sometimes It Is Wise To Think Backwards - Let's Play the King's Quest Series!