King's Quest I
King's Quest I: Quest for the Crown (English for search of the crown), a computer game, originally published for the IBM PCjr as King's Quest. The history and design of the game was developed by Roberta Williams. Williams was the main developer of the King's Quest series to the last official episode, King's Quest 8: Mask of Eternity.
Action
The Kingdom of Daventry is in serious trouble because its precious heirlooms - the magic mirror, the magic shield and the magic chest - were stolen. Sir Graham they should bring them back.
Prehistory
A long, long time ago, when there were unicorns and mermaids, as ruled in the kingdom of Daventry, King Edward the Benevolent and his wife. The people were happy and lived in peace. However, the royal couple was childless, so it sought the advice of a magician. He promised them a child if they would give him for the magic mirror. However, this mirror was most precious, because he had the power to predict the future, and thus helped to protect Daventry from harm. Therefore, the two went to her room to inquire of the mirror. In him they saw the image of a young man with a crown on his head, which they held for her son, so she gave the Wizards their mirrors.
But the queen gave birth to a child and the crops in the kingdom were destroyed by storms, since they lacked the mirror that she could have warned. The people were hungry now and the queen became very ill. Then came a dwarf who said he could cure them. As payment for this he demanded of the king shield that had the ability to make its wearer invincible. He got him, but the queen was not healthy, but died a short time later. The country was attacked by its neighbors fell into disrepair and the Kingdom.
The years passed and King Edward was very lonely. Once he rode out and freed a young woman who had been threatened by wolves. Her name was Princess Dahlia from Cumberland. The king took her to his palace and asked her if she would marry him. But the night before the wedding, she stole him his keys, opened his treasury and stole the last of the magical treasures Daventrys, the small treasure chest full of gold, which was never empty, no matter how much you took out.
Now Daventry was finally doomed, impoverished, defenseless and ruled by a feeble old king without heirs. Therefore King Edward called his most faithful and courageous knight, Sir Graham, to him and gave him the task of searching for the three treasures of the country and return. Should he succeed, he would be the next king of this kingdom.
Genesis
Published by IBM as a demonstration product for their IBM PCjr 1984 was King's Quest I not only the first animated to more of adventure game, it was also the first game by Sierra Entertainment, which (II designated as only from King's Quest ) the Adventure game interpreter ( AGI ) engine used.
In a time were usually written as computer games by a single person within a few weeks, was King's Quest I one of the most ambitious, the most risky and costly projects. In addition to Williams six full-time salaried programmers working for 18 months to complete the game for development costs of more than $ 700,000.
Because of the poor sales of the PCjr played only few people King's Quest, and it took a whole year until the game was a commercial success. The sales figures increased with the introduction of the IBM home computer Tandy 1000 and other more affordable IBM clones. The growth continued when the game was ported to other popular platforms such as the Apple II, Amiga, Atari ST, and finally the Sega Master System.
Technology
King's Quest I was innovative in its use of 16 - color graphics on the PCjr and Tandy 1000; even owners of CGA graphics cards were able to enjoy 16 colors when they used a composite video monitor or a TV. The interaction with the graphics was a huge jump over the rare animated graphics former graphic adventure games. In previous games there was any room from a static pre- recorded background graphics and a text description which own character was not normally visible. Movement took place by entering compass directions, so you were immediately transported into adjacent rooms. In King's Quest I Sir Graham is a fully animated character that went through graphical worlds that were filled with other actors is included. Pressing an arrow key causes Sir Graham goes in that direction. Compass commands were no longer necessary. One went into adjacent premises by allowing Graham to go near the edge of the screen. The typing " OPEN DOORS " not effected in King's Quest I, in contrast to previously published Adventures that a static pre- recorded image of a castle entrance will be replaced with a static pre-drawn picture of a castle entrance with open doors, instead the doors open visible by playing an animation sequence.
The player interacts mainly by inputting text, which is interpreted by a parser with the game. Critics argue often that this type of interaction is time-consuming and frustrating to play. Proponents argue that it is more thinking from the players ask than the point-and- click method. A review noted, " things must be formulated in a certain way. You could see a brown lump on the floor and with, ' want to pick up, but the error message, You can not do that - at least, not now ' PICK UP ROCK receive. But a little patience and a logical mind can overcome this limitation forever., LOOK AT THE GROUND '. It will be seen that it is not a stone, but a walnut. One should not strive to be wordy, because the parser used is not as smart as the AI technology in today's games or even how Infocom's classic Parserinterfaces. You can not just, Offer to help the woodcutter with his poverty issues ' without typing the error message, I do not understand ' offer '. ' To get, but with HELP MAN ' one obtains the desired result. "
Versions
In addition to the original version (AGI ), there is a new edition of 1990, which used the Sierra Creative Interpreter ( SCI). The new edition is distinguished by a more detailed graph of ( still EGA, the screen resolution has been increased ) and supports sound cards. In 2001 was published by AGD Interactive free an unofficial remake with VGA graphics, which also offers a speech. The speaker is the same one who has already worked for Sierra in the parts of King's Quest V and VI.