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!
