Your King's Quest Memories
Post here your memories of when you first discovered King's Quest 
and your fond memories about it.
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I was 8 or 9 years old, and I think I played it for the first time on the office PC of my father's friend. My first memories of KQI are about repeatedly falling into the moat
Then we got an 8088 with CGA at home, later upgraded with a hard disk and a VGA card. I played most early Sierra adventures on that PC.
Other assorted fond memories:
- The first Sierra game I completed was KQII
- Later I also completed KQI, and I had to do it in a single session because for some reason I couldn't get the savegames to work.
- I played Leisure Suit Larry I when I was 11 or 12, and I remember asking my babysitter: "What is a condom?". She explained it to me, but her answer didn't make much sense to me at the time yet
Bt
A Telltale remake of the original KQ would condense the land of Daventry into about 6 screens, remove the ability to interact with 90% of the scenery on the screen, make guessing the gnome's name multiple choice, and strip out the ability to complete tasks in whatever order you desired. Oh, but they might add some more dialog and expand the story of Graham's interactions with Edward, the woodcutter, the gnome, etc. That'd be a worthy trade-off, right?
It's a pity I never played any of the other KQ games as a child.
In any case, GOG.com had a sale on all the King's Quest games in about April 2011, so I did a bit of research and decided to buy them all for half price. Since then, I have been slowly playing through the entire series from start to finish. I'm really really loving it. I have just completed KQ7 and started MoE.
It has been weird condensing ten years of game development into a single year, but I've really enjoyed the graphical and gameplay changes over the course of the series. I played all three versions of KQ1 and I think the best part was when Graham looked in the mirror and saw himself on the throne (not sure which versions had that). The ending of KQ3, once you arrive in Daventry and get to explore parts of the first game. Hating, and then growing to like the owl Cedric in KQ5. Pretty much all of KQ6 (I'm still saving up the "short path"). I'm a bit torn about KQ7 -- it was so different and the puzzles so silly, but I still liked it overall. MoE is pretty grating -- I don't so much mind the different gameplay, nor that the main character is not a member of Graham's family. What is more annoying is that they have almost entirely abandoned all of the places and characters from the other games. But I'll keep playing it.
Looking forward to seeing what Telltale can contribute to the series.
This was back before I even knew how to go about solving puzzles. I can remember piddling about in KQ6, trying to get into the castle at the beginning, trying everything and...oh my God! When I clicked the ring on the guards, they let me in! Holy crap!
Then we got KQ7, and it was...okay. It didn't fascinate me in the same way as the previous games had.
Much later, I saw the 1997 King's Quest Collection in a software store and immediately bought it. Soon after, I found the KQ Companion and bought that as well. That book was awesome! It had novelizations of all the games, info about the world, and everything else you'd ever need.
King's Quest was my introduction to adventure games, a genre I've come to love. Because of that, it will always have a special place in my heart. Telltale, please, PLEASE get this one right!
Around this same time, he bought plenty of other games, like Terminal Velocity, Myst, The Manhole, Whiplash, and some others. We already had 3D Body Adventure, and Ski Free, which came pre-loaded into the computer. All caught my eye, but something about King's Quest V captured my imagination and interest more than any other game we had.
I can't remember when I first exactly played it, but I do remember being in my parents room with my father, on the computer. I remember me and him would play it together. I remember playing it once around Easter, because my mother brought home this fake Easter duckling or something, I forget now--I used to remember all of this so well. I remember once playing KQ5 on the computer with my dad in this period and the Toy Maker saying how he was going to be making new dolls for other "Kinder"--And my father said something like "Kinder, Kindergartener--like you." Those are probably not the exact words of course, but I remember the memory and something along those lines being said.
I became utterly obsessed with KQ not long after. My dad made me my own, customized King Graham doll, with appropriate costume and everything. It came to a point, I remember, in late 1995, where I had misbehaved for this academic counselor sort of woman--She was testing my IQ and other things. And my punishment for my misconduct, per my parents, was that I couldn't play King's Quest 5. That, to me, was a rather serious punishment.
Sometime over the next year, we bought KQ6--and I fell in love with it, actually. The music, the menus, everything. I honestly really loved that game. The menus and the coloring of them reminded me of the quaint peacefulness and tones of my grandparent's home. The game had such a cosy, comforting feel to it. But I was UTTERLY terrified by the Realm of the Dead. At 5 years old, the eerie music and landscape and zombies was too much for me, so I had my sister play out those parts for me. By this point, we had already had our first copy of the 3rd Editon King's Quest Companion, which sadly fell apart over years of much use.
Sometime around this period, 1995 or 1996, we were in Sears I believe--the Sears near where I lived sold computer games at the time--And came across the 1994 King's Quest Collection Series. It was quickly bought soon after and I remember--just barely--Watching the promo videos of Roberta and Ken included in the package, for KQ7, and wishing I could meet them someday. I remember seeing a little promo video entitled "Phantas" but didn't really pay it any mind until years later. I remember one time we were playing KQ4, in the same time period, and the game or the computer suffered some error--It was in the Swamp, right before we were going to get the fruit. We never did complete it together.
Sometime after, probably in 1996, I got KQ7. I think I got it for a birthday or Christmas. I remember loving the art, the music, the landscapes, the creatures, and being freaked out by the Werewoods. I have a vague memory of running into my parents' room screaming from that, actually.
By now, I had my King Graham doll, a custom made King Graham costume, and soon I was to have a custom made Cedric stuffed animal. 1995-1997/98 was all about KQ for me, really. And in 1997, I and my father discovered Space Quest, specificially SQ1VGA, in floppy form, in a bargain bin at a local store--but that's a different story.
I remember the long wait for KQ8. My dad would pick me up gaming magazines when he could which mentioned it. This was 1997 or early 1998 at most. I had one magazine, which had early screenshots from the game, screenshots of the Hydra, and a screenshot from the swordfight in KQ6 as contrast--I guess to illustrate the direction KQ8 was going to go in. I remember showing it to all my friends in school, who said how cool it looked.
I had seen the preview of KQ8 which came with the 1997 KQ Collection. I didn't have it, but a friend did, so I was excited.
But the wait was so long. When it finally came, I do remember liking it a lot, but it ran SO SLOW on our Hewlett Packet Windows 95 computer (we had replaced the Packard Bell after it finally stopped working, in 1997). It ran at a snail's pace on that system. We had the Prima or whatever it was called Strategy Guide. I only remember getting up to the Dimension of Death at that time.
Not long after, my interest in KQ waned and my interest in other games and software--SQ (I had gotten the 97 SQ Collection around June 1998), SimCity2000, Microsoft Flight Simulator '98, Encyclopedia Encarta, Terminal Velocity, some of the Sierra Card Game sets, etc, began. I got a Sony Playstation for Christmas 1998 and I was totally into that until 2000 or so, when I was introduced to Baldur's Gate I and II, which I loved, and Kingdom Hearts the next year. i remember being introduced to Diablo around this time, but never liking it. I don't remember when exactly I got back into KQ, but I think it was in mid 2001, because I started looking online to see if a KQ9 ever came out.....
My mother, I and my King Graham doll, 1996:
Figure out which KQ game is on my Packard Bell PC, late '96 or early 1997:
Me and my King Graham and Cedric dolls, 1997:
My King Graham costume, 1997: