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Kings Quest Memories

Started by waltzdancing, March 06, 2010, 11:58:07 PM

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waltzdancing

Hey everyone,

Another idea the Save TSL Movement is going to do is a collection of fond memories of fans playing Kings Quest as they were growing up. This thread will collect the memories of the many TSL supporters which will be placed into a word document, decorated accordingly and then professionally bound, placed in a box with all the letters I am collecting and sent to Activision. I didn't want to use a box, but we would also like to draw Activisions attention to the on line petition as well as all the letters.

These memories can be anything you liked or scared or just a fun memory about the game or how if impacted you later in life. What we are trying to do is touch the hearts of those who will eventually receive this 'present' and maybe the will even laugh at some of the memories we have and maybe realize that they were impacted more than they originally thought. Heck, they may even have the same ones.

Include the remakes as well. If we show them how much we liked the remakes by ADG then might think they have something. We need to make them smile and that will raise sympathy I think, not that we are looking for it but we walk a fine line.

As an example this is my memory to start us off with:

One of my favorite memories as a child growing up is at the start of Kings Quest V when Graham is flying away with Cedric the Owl. This magical moment touched me and made me reach for the stars. It made an eight year old believe in magic and inspired this TSL supported to reach for the sky. I am now working on an elementary education science teaching degree in hopes of instilling the magic KQV gave me to other students in hopes that they wo will reach for the sky and never let anything, monsters, witches, evil wizards, or even fear, stop you from achieving your goals.

This is how Kings Quest impacted my life.

oberonqa

Discussion thread started over on the Facebook Group (URL is http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=382202612795&topic=13079).

Feel free to post your memories here or over on the Facebook Group.
 
Chronicling the history of Sierra through the conversion of it's premiere magazine into an easy-to-use, searchable wiki format.

KatieHal

My first King's Quest memory is of KQ IV: The Perils of Rosella. I was maybe 8 years old at the time as well, and though I hadn't played too many computer games just yet, I was so excited to play one where the main character was a girl! All the other games I'd played had male main characters, and even without knowing how a female protagonist was indeed a rare and somewhat new thing in the industry at the time, getting to be the girl who went on adventures and saved her family and the world. That was who I wanted to be.

I was also very excited to get onto Disk 8 of 8 by walking into the ocean. Soon after I realized the disk I was on had nothing to do with my progress. :)

I was again proud of myself for figuring out that Gwydion was Alexander ahead of time when I noticed the brother in the beginning o f KQ4 looked just like the guy I was playing in KQ3. :)

And finally, I remember writing a college essay about what I would want to have done with my life ten years from then. One of the items was working for Sierra making computer games. I'm glad I've gotten to at least partially live that one out now. :)

Katie Hallahan
~Designer, PR Director~

"Change is the constant, the signal for rebirth, the egg of the phoenix." Christina Baldwin

I have a blog!

tessspoon

#3
Growing up we had King's Quest 7, which I remember playing together with my mom - which was special because she rarely played computer games and only adventure games at that. I particularly remember using the wrong item on Edgar at the very end and being upset that he died; I immediatly reloaded and tried again so that he would live.

I never knew of the rest of the games until 2006, during my senior year of high school, when I decided that there must be more given that ours was labeled number seven. I bought the collection that had just been released and that's when I truly discovered King's Quest, and I have loved the series fiercely ever since.

Haids1987

#4
To me, King's Quest is one of those things that was always just there, and I have very few memories before we played it. But I guess my specific memory of one of the first few times I played it was when I was about three years old, in 1990.

My mom was out with some of her friends, and my dad had brought home a new computer game that we (my brother and sister and I) had never played before--"King's Quest: Quest for the Crown."  We spent the whole evening playing, and I remember having so much fun.  My brother and sister took turns holding the mouse, and I sat on my dad's lap the whole time.  Of course, when Dahlia swoops down from the sky to grab Graham, I started screaming and my daddy held me, reassuring me that it was okay.  My sister took my hand and said, "It's okay, Hailey!  I'll protect you!"

We eventually beat that one, and it took us a few years to discover that there were other King's Quest games.  In 1993 Dad come home with "Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow," and the whole family was FIERCELY addicted to that one.  We'd spend hours playing during the evenings, and only stopped because my siblings and I had school the next morning.  Finally, after a few weeks of heavy-duty gameplay, we beat that one too.

I don't remember exactly what year--maybe 1994?--it was when Dad came home with the original King's Quest Collection (including games I-VII, and Mixed Up Mother Goose and Colonel's Bequest 1 and 2), but from that point on we were stuck on King's Quest, me especially.  We played through every single game several times, and loved all of them.  Periodically throughout life, somone in my family will just randomly decide to play a King's Quest game, and the whole family still gets involved in various incriments.  I have gotten to the point where I don't even need the Companion when I play through the sixth and seventh games anymore. 

King's Quest was so important to me because it was bonding for the family. We all got into it, and still use quotes in our everyday lives--"Egads!  Is that cold!", for instance.

What can I say?  King's Quest rocks!
STATUS:
-Drinking water
-Checking the forum. 

Perpetually. ;D
Erica Reed is Katie Hallahan.
Leader of the "I <3 Doon" Fanclub

crayauchtin

This is a great idea!!

The first game I remember playing and enjoying was King's Quest VI. My brother had DOOM and some other games that either scared me or bored me. But I had seen him play King's Quest II when I was very little -- something I still remember -- and when we finally purchases King's Quest VI (without actually getting any of the other ones in the series, for reasons I don't recall...) I jumped on the computer and played it as soon as it was installed.
I was still pretty young then and I had never played an adventure game before so I got stuck very easily. My brother, despite the fact that we spent most of our time fighting with each other, helped me through the whole game... up until the end when we snuck into the castle dressed as a cleaning girl and both got stumped! (Yes, the "hard" ending was easier for us to figure out, go figure!) KQ6 was actually the first time my brother and I actually worked together on something without being forced to by our parents.
After we finally beat KQ6 with full points, we also worked together to convince our parents to buy the Collection. (Admittedly, they were so delighted we weren't fighting over the computer it didn't take a lot of work.) These games led us into other adventure games and series -- Quest for Glory, Space Quest, Police Quest, and even Freddy Pharkas. Despite the variety those games offered, King's Quest was always near and dear to my heart.

(PS Tessie -- I wouldn't talk about the KQ3 remake, just because Activision doesn't seem to know that the group that made it exists and I think we'd all like to keep it that way!!)
"If your translation is correct, that was 'May a sleepy hippopotamus lie down on your house keys,' but you're not sure. Unfortunately, your fluency in griffin-speak is too low."

We're roleplaying in the King's Quest world: come join in the fun!

oberonqa

#6
I have so many memories of the King's Quest series... as I sit here at my computer typing this... I can recall all of them vividly... swirling around me as if possessed by a gentle breeze.  So many memories... and yet only one memory am I allowed to share.  I am thirty one years old and I keep in my heart twenty six years worth of memories.  Yes... twenty six years.  I wonder how many other game franchises have had a similar effect on people.

But I digress.  A memory among memories is what I am here to post.  More like a color amongst a myriad of colors... but there is one memory... one memory in paticular that stands out amongst the others.

Back in 1991, when I was twelve years old, King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow had come out.  I saw it at a Radio Shack one day when I went with my father to pick something up.  I held it in my hand, imagining the wonders that were within my grasp.  To my young mind, it was a Pandora's Box of potential.  But, Christmas was coming and in my house, no games were purchased in the weeks leading up to Christmas.  And so I put the game box back on the display rack, hoping beyond hoping that I would see it again underneath the Christmas tree.

Christmas came... and no King's Quest VI.  Oh sure, I got plenty of other games... but no King's Quest VI.  I remember being disappointed, but figured I would get it for my birthday, which was two weeks after Christmas.  My parents, ever crafty, often gave me what I wanted for my birthday what I didn't get for Christmas.  However, my thirteenth birthday came and went... and no King's Quest VI.

By this time I was convinced I was never to have the game that I so desperately wanted.  Did no one see how much I wanted it?  Did no one care?  Oh I'm sure they cared... but it fell to me to figure out how I was to get the game that I wanted so badly.  I had some relatives who lived across the country and one day I came home from school and there was an envelope addressed to me.  Inside I found a birthday card from my aunt, uncle, and cousins.  Inside that card was a crisp hundred dollar bill.  

Standing there, birthday card in one hand and hundred dollar bill in the other hand, I think I might have looked crestfallen, especially with what I can only imagine as a look of pure shock on my face.  My relatives back east had solved my problem!  In one fell swoop... I could get King's Quest VI and all would be right with the world.

I immediately ran to my parents and asked if we could go down to the Radio Shack so I could buy the game.  The powers that be must have been laughing at this point, because my parents said no.  They said we could go down to the Radio Shack during the weekend... which wasn't that far off.  After all, it was only TUESDAY!  

Of course I pleaded with them, making some rather good arguments, as I recall.  I mentioned supply might be limited and what if we got down there on Saturday only to find they were sold out?  They responded with pure parental logic...  they might already be sold out.  Oh the irony!  To have the means to buy the game only to be foiled at the last minute by lack of transportation!

Well... it wasn't that far of a walk to get to the Radio Shack.  Only ten miles.  And so... I walked down to the Radio Shack.  I left my house at around 2:30pm I think.  Oh what a grand walk.  It was actually not very hard to get there.  I lived right off of the main boulevard that went down to where the Radio Shack was, so I just followed the street.  By the time I got down there, it was starting to get dark.  But I proudly marched into that store, grabbed the game, and paid for it.  I remember the clerk giving me a rather odd look when I popped down a hundred... probably figured I stole it or something.  But he sold me the game.

And I began the march back to my house.  The cellophane wrapping was torn off in the parking lot, of course.  I walked home reading the manual to the game, gazing over the writings that described the world I was about to explore.  I didn't even notice how heavy my feet felt or the burning in my legs until I walked in the door of my house at around 8:30pm.  

Of course I missed dinner... and my parents were livid.  But when I showed them the game and told them where I went, they just laughed and understood.  I went hungry that night, but I had my game!  I had some extra chores around the house, but that didn't matter.  I didn't get to sleep until well past midnight that night, so engrossed was I in playing King's Quest VI that the passage of time never intruded itself on me.

Of all the games I have owned before and since, none have I felt so strong a connection to as King's Quest VI.  

And now I release this memory onto the world, freeing it from the confines of my mind like the storykeeper freed his stories unto the winds of the Savanna in Quest for Glory III.  It is free now to begin a new journey, much like Alexander made his own journey to find his true love.  Safe travels, dear memory!  
 
Chronicling the history of Sierra through the conversion of it's premiere magazine into an easy-to-use, searchable wiki format.

tessspoon

Quote from: crayauchtin on March 07, 2010, 12:25:20 PM
(PS Tessie -- I wouldn't talk about the KQ3 remake, just because Activision doesn't seem to know that the group that made it exists and I think we'd all like to keep it that way!!)
Waltz told me to. :P But I can take it out.

crayauchtin

Quote from: tessspoon on March 07, 2010, 02:20:58 PM
Quote from: crayauchtin on March 07, 2010, 12:25:20 PM
(PS Tessie -- I wouldn't talk about the KQ3 remake, just because Activision doesn't seem to know that the group that made it exists and I think we'd all like to keep it that way!!)
Waltz told me to. :P But I can take it out.
Yeah, I think they'd appreciate that if Activision is going to be reading these. We don't want them to suddenly go "KQ3 Remake? WHAT?" and go Googling it, y'know?
"If your translation is correct, that was 'May a sleepy hippopotamus lie down on your house keys,' but you're not sure. Unfortunately, your fluency in griffin-speak is too low."

We're roleplaying in the King's Quest world: come join in the fun!

mateo360

My memory is watching my dad play KQ7 and that was the only one I had played till I got the collection on cd at gamestop
\  |  /SUN           "For Peace and Justice!"
-(   )-KNIGHT     "A Solider in Blazing Armor!"
/  |  \POWER!    "Solar Knight!"
        BUILD UP! "In the Name of the Sun, I will destroy you!"

waltzdancing

The reason behind mentioning the remakes is to allow Activision to see how much their games are loved by the people, even the remakes which where popular too. I don't think that Activision can touch those games since they were released under Vivindi. I have fond memories of the remakes and I absolutely adore Kings Quest II now, when the original was me least favorite to play.

Also I feel that we can metion them because we have told Activision about the remakes in the form letter so they would already now. I will say in the KQ2 remake, I simply love Count Caldaur and how his character is represented. There is so much humor in those games that I think many will have memories of the remakes.

However the final decision will come down to what Oberonqa wants, if he feels it is to much of a threat then I will gladly remove it.

Haids1987

Quote from: crayauchtin on March 07, 2010, 12:25:20 PM
(Yes, the "hard" ending was easier for us to figure out, go figure!)
Dude, me too!  My brother and sister and I got inside the castle and we were like, "Okay...what now?"  Then, when we gave up on the "easy path" (WHATEVER!), we reloaded and went back to the Isle of the Sacred Mountain and saw Night Mare.  We beat the game that same night on the "hard path"...even though we didn't know at the time that you could beat it without killing the genie. :P
STATUS:
-Drinking water
-Checking the forum. 

Perpetually. ;D
Erica Reed is Katie Hallahan.
Leader of the "I <3 Doon" Fanclub

oberonqa

#12
Quote from: waltzdancing on March 07, 2010, 04:24:45 PM

However the final decision will come down to what Oberonqa wants, if he feels it is to much of a threat then I will gladly remove it.

I will defer to the community directors of the assorted remake projects on this one.  To my knowledge, IA hasn't made themselves known on these forums so until someone who can be verified as a member of the IA team comes here and says to please not mention it, it's OK to mention KQ3VGA.

As for KQ1VGA and KQ2VGA, I will defer to Erpy's judgement on this, as he is the community director for AGD Interactive.  If he asks people to not mention AGDI's remakes, I encourage people to honor his request, as he speaks for AGD Interactive.
 
Chronicling the history of Sierra through the conversion of it's premiere magazine into an easy-to-use, searchable wiki format.

crayauchtin

Quote from: waltzdancing on March 07, 2010, 04:24:45 PM
The reason behind mentioning the remakes is to allow Activision to see how much their games are loved by the people, even the remakes which where popular too. I don't think that Activision can touch those games since they were released under Vivindi. I have fond memories of the remakes and I absolutely adore Kings Quest II now, when the original was me least favorite to play.

Also I feel that we can metion them because we have told Activision about the remakes in the form letter so they would already now. I will say in the KQ2 remake, I simply love Count Caldaur and how his character is represented. There is so much humor in those games that I think many will have memories of the remakes.

However the final decision will come down to what Oberonqa wants, if he feels it is to much of a threat then I will gladly remove it.
Well, see, IA is also remaking SQ2, that's why I'm concerned. Rather than helping with this C&D, we may end up causing another one.
"If your translation is correct, that was 'May a sleepy hippopotamus lie down on your house keys,' but you're not sure. Unfortunately, your fluency in griffin-speak is too low."

We're roleplaying in the King's Quest world: come join in the fun!

oberonqa

Quote from: crayauchtin on March 08, 2010, 01:04:08 PM
Quote from: waltzdancing on March 07, 2010, 04:24:45 PM
The reason behind mentioning the remakes is to allow Activision to see how much their games are loved by the people, even the remakes which where popular too. I don't think that Activision can touch those games since they were released under Vivindi. I have fond memories of the remakes and I absolutely adore Kings Quest II now, when the original was me least favorite to play.

Also I feel that we can metion them because we have told Activision about the remakes in the form letter so they would already now. I will say in the KQ2 remake, I simply love Count Caldaur and how his character is represented. There is so much humor in those games that I think many will have memories of the remakes.

However the final decision will come down to what Oberonqa wants, if he feels it is to much of a threat then I will gladly remove it.
Well, see, IA is also remaking SQ2, that's why I'm concerned. Rather than helping with this C&D, we may end up causing another one.

Then I would say IA has good reason to make their wishes known.  Surely they know about what we are doing.  If they choose to remain silent, then that is their decision.  We don't have the right to arbitrarily make decisions for other teams, despite having the best of intentions.
 
Chronicling the history of Sierra through the conversion of it's premiere magazine into an easy-to-use, searchable wiki format.

tessspoon

Maybe we could get someone to ask on their forums?

crayauchtin

On the AGDI forums when someone asked "I wonder how this will effect SQ2 by IA?" they answered "We're not telling them. They don't even know we exist. We'd like to keep it that way."

Source.

I haven't checked on the IA forums, but I bet it's the same answer -- they want to keep themselves as far out of sight as possible on this one.

I fully agree that we should be talking about the popularity of the remakes -- the AGDI ones that Activision has decided can stay because they were already released. I know that AGDI doesn't really want to be dragged into this either but their games are out, they can be leaked with ease without having any action because it could have been anybody who made it or played it.
"If your translation is correct, that was 'May a sleepy hippopotamus lie down on your house keys,' but you're not sure. Unfortunately, your fluency in griffin-speak is too low."

We're roleplaying in the King's Quest world: come join in the fun!

oberonqa

Quote from: crayauchtin on March 08, 2010, 02:02:55 PM
On the AGDI forums when someone asked "I wonder how this will effect SQ2 by IA?" they answered "We're not telling them. They don't even know we exist. We'd like to keep it that way."

Source.

I haven't checked on the IA forums, but I bet it's the same answer -- they want to keep themselves as far out of sight as possible on this one.

I fully agree that we should be talking about the popularity of the remakes -- the AGDI ones that Activision has decided can stay because they were already released. I know that AGDI doesn't really want to be dragged into this either but their games are out, they can be leaked with ease without having any action because it could have been anybody who made it or played it.

Well, that being the case, IA and their projects is not to be mentioned.  I'm still waiting to hear Erpy's stance regarding people mentioning KQ1VGA and KQ2VGA.
 
Chronicling the history of Sierra through the conversion of it's premiere magazine into an easy-to-use, searchable wiki format.

crayauchtin

He wasn't especially thrilled with me for mentioning them in the form letter, though I think he understood the necessity of it. :-[
"If your translation is correct, that was 'May a sleepy hippopotamus lie down on your house keys,' but you're not sure. Unfortunately, your fluency in griffin-speak is too low."

We're roleplaying in the King's Quest world: come join in the fun!

waltzdancing

KQ1 and kq2 remakes are already out there. The form letter mentions them and People might have already mailed them in. We can restrict the memories but the form letter is already out there. The cat is out of the bag