Customer Reviews

King's Quest: Collection Series (King's Quest I-VII / The Colonel's Bequest / The Dagger of Amon Ra / Mixed-Up Mother Goose)

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a collection of the first 7 King's Quest game covering a history going back to the mid-80s. Therefore the earliest of these games are quite primative, but have a nostalgic charm to them, and all the games have fun fantasy stories with a wonderful, light sense of humour.

When the first King's Quest came out it was at the vanguard of game design. Unlike the text adventure games common at the time (some of which had a few static graphics), here you could see your character moving around an actual environment and interacting with objects. The games themselves are quite simple (basically, they are just treasure hunts where you have to find the right object and take it back to the correct character to trade for another object, etc.) but charming. The interface on these earliest games are parser, as opposed to point and click, meaning (with the exception of movement by cursor keys) you have to type in commands in order to tell the character what to do. This had its disadvantages (at times, you know what to do but not how to say it), but it also had its advantages (there was less room for guessing by just clicking your inventory objects on the hotspot one at a time).

In KQ1 and 2, the puzzles are mainly based on remembering rhymes and fairy tales (e.g., you know Little Red Riding Hood needs a basket to take to her Grandma's house), but with KQ 3, the storylines start to become more complex and original and interesting, and actual problem solving starts to come into play. And with KQ4, the graphics start to become more artistic (although still primitive by today's standards).

KQ5 is the first one with a point-and-click interface, and suffers from the problem that it is easy to solve puzzles by just clicking inventory items at random instead of by thinking, (and many of the puzzles are obvious at any rate, especially when you find the right object) but the enjoyable storyline makes up for this. KQ6 (designed with the help of Gabriel Knight's Jane Jensen) is clearly the best story-wise, and has some challenging puzzles (save often to avoid frustration). KQ7, the first designed for release exclusively on cd-rom, has the best graphics of the series (even better than the 3D crap in #8) and includes a world straight out of a Tim Burton movie that is especially fun to explore, but is geared towards a younger audience (even then, I enjoyed the story and interesting puzzles with multiple solutions). Unlike Lucasfilm games, the characters in KQ can die and, if this happens, you have to restart from a saved game, but it is sometimes fun to see how many different ways they can die (for #7 it is the most entertaining part of the game).

Included is the newer version of Mixed Up Mother Goose where young players help to recreate mother goose rhymes by reuniting characters with lost objects (no death in this one). The original MUMG had a certain charm, but only toddlers will fail to find this one annoying. Also included are both Laura Bow mysteries (about a girl detective in the 1930s), which are fun to play but are convoluted and very frustrating to solve (especially since they are in real time, so while you observe something important in one room, you often miss something else important in another room). Several text games that came out pre-KQ1 are also included (which will help newer players understand why KQ1 was so revolutionary).

Most of these games would no longer be worthwhile on their own except as nostalgia (KQ6 and 7 (and maybe 5) being the exceptions), but as one package this is a wonderful buy and leaves one hoping that a KQ9 will come out and repair the damage caused by that travesty, KQ8.

I've been playing King's Quest since I was 4 years old, starting obviously with the first one. I can honestly say that KQ1-KQ6 were absolute masterpieces. If you love fantasy, you will love these games. The only one I can't praise is the 7th one. It was sort of experimental, and the graphics were far too cartoonish (for my taste, anyway). But the rest of them are really pieces of art. Although the earlier ones do not have state of the art graphics (when compared to current games) they are nonetheless enjoyable. In fact, the graphics were amazing for their time. I think my favorite one would have to be KQ4: The Perils of Rosella. You journey through the mystical land of Tamir as Princess Rosella on a quest to find a magical fruit that will heal your dying father and a talisman that will heal a dying fairy. These games are for those of us who would rather test our wit than our reflexes. Both the Laura Bow mysteries are also incredible. I find myself replaying them often, and noticing things I hadn't before. And both of them, even the first one with its EGA graphics, have spooky moments. Roberta Williams created the first ever non-"text only" computer adventure game. I think anyone would want to play one of her games based on that fact alone.

I won't bother repeating how wonderful ALL of the games are, because everyone has either said it or already knows it. I am writing this in response to the review that says you cannot run it on XP- you can. You must change the compatibility settings to windows 95. Right click, and go to properties. You will see the compatibility tab. Just change the settings to windows 95 and check all the boxes.

The Kings Quest collection is, in my opinion, the best adventure series ever but these prices that the people are selling them at are utterly and stupidly ridiculous! Now as far as the games are concerned, EVERY game in the series is great and awesome there really isn't a bad game in the whole series and the way each game connects from the last is done perfectly and brilliant. I think the best way to describe this series is like playing a awesome novel that always keeps ahold of your attention. Now as far as the price concerns obviously these greedy jackasses are asking for WAY too much. Mainly because these games are meant to be played on older systems, KQ 1-4 are DOS games and KQ 5-7 were designed for WIN 3.1. I have a Pentium II processor and run WIN98SE and I sometimes have problems running KQ 5-7 so I could imagine this collection wouldn't work too well if at all on more modern systems. Even if you do have an older computer and want to purchase this collection you could find it for alot cheaper on ebay (little hard to find but be patient there's usually someone selling it.) So to summarize, Awesome, kick ass, rocking games but overpriced by greedy jackasses so check Ebay.

I was addicted to king's quest (and the space quest series, for that matter, also by sierra) when I played the first four on my old apple IIgs, but that computer was no good and kept breaking, and I only had a chance to finish the first game. But since then I've played all of them, and I have to say, this series is full of the most clever and exciting computer games I've ever played. Sure, the graphics aren't trememndous in the first few, but what's so great about these games is their plots. You need to use wit, logic, knowledge of fairytales, you name it. I truly think that these games facilitate creative thinking and problem solving. I wouldn't go as far as to say they're educational, because they're too much fun and you can't really apply anything from them to life, but they're especially great for kids. I'd much rather have my children play one of these games than an action shoot-em-up. But, since I'm barely an adult now (18), I still enjoy them as much as any kid. I used to get so wrapped up in each game when I was a kid. My heart would speed up every time I saw the wizard in the third game. Buy this collection...I promise you won't regret it unless you have bad taste.

I learned to spell from playing these games. I loved the Laura Bows and Kings Quest 4,5, and 6. In second grade, I used to bug my parents to play Space Quest every night. I earned Kings quest 4 for getting all A's on my report card in 3rd grade. Roberta Williams is a genius and it is really a shame that Sierra no longer makes adventure games. I think the last one that I ever played was Gabriel Knight 3 (also a great game, by the way). But I loved the little shredded mountain and the theme music that would always precede the beginning of their games. It was the gateway to new worlds.
Individual commentary about the games
I started playing the King's Quests with King's Quest four. The king's quest's games draw from mythology, fairy tales and folklore. What I especially liked about this game was the well fleshed out story. I believe it would make a great story even now if the graphics were revamped and it would be absolutely stunning in 3-d.
My other favorite was the colonel's bequest. The aptmosphere is a grim island off Lousiana. What could be a better setting? Lousiana in the 20's. From what I saw of the game and from what I know now, this game appeared pretty well researched, and the characters were fascinating and well drawn out. They were carictures at first, but then they grew in depth and you never really knew what they would do next. And one of them was bad. The ending was especially well done and it didn't leave you with the feeling you played the game for nothing. The characters- A sexy french maid, a mysterious withdrawn butler, a Civil War Colonel with a fortune, His scheming niece and nephews, a cajun cook, an old doctor with a guilty streak and a scheming lawyer. Then theres Laura's friend, a rebellious flapper and her alcoholic mother. The game is played out in chapters, as Laura you basically spy on people and gather clues. Each chapter is punctuated by clock chimes, which I think is a good touch. For what this game could do when it was made, it was really amazing. It's really a shame adventure games are going off the market, because I will always view Sierra as the master.

I have tried installing this game on Windows XP after I was told by the seller of this product that it would be compatible. On the first attempt, the install screen did show up and went through the tests, but then said it could not read a file in the program. Now when I try to install the game, it won't even display the install screen. This is a huge dissapointment because the games are such huge classics.

It was great to revisit the old Sierra King's Quest games, but my favorites have always been the Laura Bow series. It was great to be able to play The Dagger of Amon Ra on a new, faster computer than the one I had five years ago when I bought the game originally. But beware - you can't finish the game. There is an explanation with the game that they couldn't fully convert it to work on today's computers, and you completely forget about it until the killer begins to chase you at the end, and you realize that the game freezes and you can't do anything. It is very disappointing. I wish they would revamp it and make it work for today's computers - it's such a good game. Otherwise the set is great - and it is hilarious to see the primitive graphics that we used to think were so cool. :)

The Kings Quest series are probably the most memorable adventure games in existance. They appeal to children, adults, men, and women alike. The games are serious, slapstick, romantic, dashing, and so many other things all rolled into one. I really loved this series and I'm glad that someone decided to package them.

Each game follows a member of the Daventry family in one manner or another. As an added bonys, girls.. sometimes the hero is actually a heroine! As the series progress you can watch the Daventry family grow, have children, and suffer tradgedy through at least three generations.

The only thing that might be a problem is that as some of these games are old they might not work on newer machines. Make sure that you have all the patches from Sierra and read the documentation thoroughly in case the games don't function your first try. With a little bit of computer coaxing you should get them going again, but you also might decide it's not worth the trouble.

Where do I start? 'King's Quest' is one of, if not THE best adventure game series of all time. My favorite is 'KQ7', but 'KQ6' was close. All the others are also wonderful, even the ones with really primitive graphics. They are all colorful and whimsical and full of interesting and hilarious characters. I especially like that the pack doesn't include 'KQ8: Mask of Eternity'. If you like any of these games, you most likely will despise that one.

Anyway, I suggest you buy this pack before it's discontinued. It's worth every penny and so much more.