『 King's Quest Collection 』

If you want to get to know me and my gaming habits, you should know that I love good adventure games. I'm not one of those who will go hardcore and play the oldest of them. I want the game to be good, look good and sound good. That's why I will be eternally greatful to LucasArts, because even though they suck sweaty balls right now, with their Star Wars crap, they used to make top notch adventure games. And so did Sierra.


I love reeditions. Despite not looking like much, they usually offer the latest and most compatible versions of the games fitted with some additional patches. When I saw King's Quest Collection in a bargain bin and read that it was Windows XP compatible, I just bought it without thinking twice. Any adventure game fan should own this, if only for the sake of King's Quest V and VI, which are my personal favorites, with emphasis on the sixth game.


Pleased with myself and with my new purchase, I headed home. I wanted to see what this collection is worth and what did Sierra do to make the older DOS games compatible with Windows XP. I installed it, and as it turns out, Sierra didn't go out of their way at all. Their compatibility with current operating systems is ensured by the cunning use of DOSbox. That's right. King's Quest I - VI boot through DOSbox. Version 0.68 at that.


But who am I to complain. After all I bought seven games for a price of one. Or even below the regular price of a single retail title, since I found it in a bargain bin. Maybe all this is just for the better. Original DOS games should work better and better with the constantly improved DOSbox. I even run my King's Quest VI through the DoSbox 0.72 which I have installed, instead of the solution Sierra have supplied.


Is this collection worth buying then? Of course it is, and you should grab it while you still can. And while you're at it, make sure you grab the rest of them aswell - Larry, Space Quest and Police Quest. Sierra didn't overdo it and chose the easy way out by using a third party emulator. Despite this fact, everything works well, and that's what's important. This collection is worth its price for King's Quest V - VII alone. I never really liked the fourth game and first three had been re-made by fans and these versions not only look and sound so much better but use the point and click interface rather than text input, and that can only be viewed as something positive.

If you want to be able to play the remakes and still be okay by law, get this collection. If you want to experience the great King's Quest V and VI, get this collection. If you're a fan of point and click adventure games and you still haven't played King's Quest, get this collection. It even comes with a grainy video showing how King's Quest VI was made. Now that's what I call getting your moneys worth.


To wrap this nice blog entry up, I've decided to make a video comparing the original version of King's Quest III to its homebrew remake based on the AGS engine. As you can see, back in 1987 such exotic things as soundtrack, sound effects or a user friendly interface were unheard of. That's why I would choose the remake over the original any day, even though it's still amusing how limited the text input is in understanding what you, the player, are trying to do.






The banners above will take you to the re-made versions of the first three King's Quest games. King's Quest I and II+ were developed by AGDInteractive, while the third game was handled by Infamous Adventures. I highly recommend these versions, both for those who have played these games before and those who haven't had the chance. I know there are those who prefer "the real deal" but come on, at its core, it's the same game. Enjoy and support Sierra by buying their collections.