Tor.com article about King's Quest's 30th anniversary

[KatieHal]

KQ turns 30 this July, and Tor.com posted a great article about the series and how it started the graphic adventure game genre. Nice little trip down memory lane!

http://www.tor.com/blogs/2013/06/kings-quest-30th-anniversary

[GrahamRocks!]

I thought KQ came out in 1984?

[Numbers]

It did. Then again, the "true" first game in King's Quest canon was "The Wizard and the Princess," released in 1980. The only problem is that a) it's only really set in the same world as King's Quest and doesn't have anything to do with the series proper, b) not as many people played the game, and c) those who did play it didn't like it much.

Spoiler (mouse over to reveal):

The hero of the game wanders out into the Serenia desert after the game is over and dies for no reason. Ugh.

Those are his remains that you find next to the boot in KQV, for those of you not in the know.

[KatieHal]

Hm. Well...happy 29th then!

[kyranthia]

Looks like the author did add a note regarding how it is the 30th year:

"Thanks for the correction. The official release date for King's Quest 1 is mid-1984; however the game was developed, completed, and made available outside of Sierra in late 1983. So perhaps we can still count ourselves within th 30th anniversary window. "

Eh...I'd still go with next year being the 30th myself since that's the official release date.

[stika]

but what day is the actual anniversary?

[kyranthia]

The author didn't say.  I also don't know how he knows there were some games sold in 1983 either.

[stika]

I see, so it's all bit questionable :\

[kyranthia]

Yeah, it definitely sounds it to me.  I'm still thinking it's really the 29th anniversary too. 

[wilco64256]

I'm inclined to agree with Rudy's comment on that article. If he says it wasn't for sale until '84 then he probably knows what he's talking about.

[snabbott]

If that's THE Rudy, then yeah, I think he knows a thing or two about Sierra. For those of you don't know,  Rudy Marchant is the creator of The Sierra Chest.