Would it be possible to patch KQ7 to...?
Would it be possible for the fan community to make a patch for KQ7, that could reinclude the time based deaths that were removed in the 2.0 version like the death by the dragon (the one death in which Rosella mentions her father in an offhand remark), or the deaths in the volcano?
But adapt these deaths to modern machines, whereas they have their own countdown rather than tied to the cpu timings. Perhaps giving a minute or two before they kill you.
These were a big part of the KQ7 experience in the original versions, that were taken out rather than fixed in later versions. It would be great to see them reincorporated to make the game more 'complete'.
On a side note, there might actually be enough content in the files to actually make a 'deluxe' version of KQ7 with some new scenes, like add in the Rosella meets Attis scene for example. These were cut out due to time constraints. And with a little more work, create a complete scene from scratch to add in the Graham scene (one would need to create sprites for Graham in the similar style to KQ7)! Perhaps make it an easter egg epilogue at the end of the credits!
BTW, if people didn't know, KQ7 is one of the KQ games that really never lived up to the potential that was planned due to time, money and space limitation concerns... There were many ideas that were cut (including an additional chapter, and possilby more interactive final chapter);
http://kingsquest.wikia.com/wiki/KQ7_development
But adapt these deaths to modern machines, whereas they have their own countdown rather than tied to the cpu timings. Perhaps giving a minute or two before they kill you.
These were a big part of the KQ7 experience in the original versions, that were taken out rather than fixed in later versions. It would be great to see them reincorporated to make the game more 'complete'.
On a side note, there might actually be enough content in the files to actually make a 'deluxe' version of KQ7 with some new scenes, like add in the Rosella meets Attis scene for example. These were cut out due to time constraints. And with a little more work, create a complete scene from scratch to add in the Graham scene (one would need to create sprites for Graham in the similar style to KQ7)! Perhaps make it an easter egg epilogue at the end of the credits!
BTW, if people didn't know, KQ7 is one of the KQ games that really never lived up to the potential that was planned due to time, money and space limitation concerns... There were many ideas that were cut (including an additional chapter, and possilby more interactive final chapter);
http://kingsquest.wikia.com/wiki/KQ7_development
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Comments
Anything's possible. But you need time and knowhow.
I ran into this problem myself in KQVII -- dealing with the explosives at the treehouse, I found that I could get Valanice to walk a step farther each time before she blew up and was reincarnated. So some aspect of the check must be tied into the animation refresh cycle -- it does at least one player input/frame update before the timer realizes it has expired. I inched her painfully across the screen for quite a while this way before looking into whether this was a bug or known issue!
The observed behavior could mean that patching is just a matter of changing an opcode in the resource files, but things are rarely that simple. It may not even be possible to ramp up the number of cycles the countdown starts with in a customized way for any given PC -- the parameter is likely limited to a fixed bit-width and so its maximum possible value might not be nearly enough to compensate for the differences between computers then and now.
Clearly, the team with full access to the source code opted to just disable the timers, which implies this isn't a trivial fix. It's likely that modifying the troublesome routine breaks some OTHER behavior, making patching a more complicated job.
Could use Graham on this box as a starting point for a KQ7 style Graham:
Also, it's possible that all of the cut elements (incluing the additonal chapter and more interactive final chapter) could be reinstated. Roberta released all of her game design documents some months ago. Just read through them, see the cut parts, re-work them into the finished game. Since the blue prints for all the games are now out there, in theory, fans could create the ultimate versions of KQ7, or KQ8 including all of their cut parts.
BTW, I think KQ8 is a tad more difficult. As the story was essentially redesigned from scratch at least twice. There are at least three versions of the story... Roberta and Mark Seibert mentioned in an interview that the game literally went through three design documents!
It wouldn't be as simple as 'adding' the material back in, but in fact it probably would lead to three very different games! Three different characters with different background stories!
A statue that comes to life in the Castle Daventry by a wizard spell that turned everyone to stone, a fisherman from the sea near Daventry with ties to MacLyrr mythology (Manannan) who was fated to be a hero when a piece of the mask fell near his cradle when he was born, and the tanner (which I think has some very strong biblical signifigance, when associated by the kind of character Connor of Daventry turned out to be), found in the released game who became a hero when the mask fell at his feet.
http://kingsquest.wikia.com/wiki/Tanner
However, that's not to say, it wouldn't be cool if the game allowed you to choose from the three backgrounds ala QFG class-types! Each character woudl have its own unique perspective and path through the game. Think Castlevania 64 & Legacy of Darkness, where each character had their own journey through the castle, and had access to levels and bosses that the other characters didn't have! Infact, one of Roberta's ideas was to have a multiplayer option, and having three different characters might make for that possiblity! Some kind of co-op version of the story! So one way to work this out is have one known as The Statue, one known as Mac Lyrr, and the last one known as Connor, to differentiate them for multplayer purposes
"Some of the cut' stuff wasn't so much cut, but they couldn't decide what to include! Like one of the boss encounters may have turned out to be a leprechaun, or a red cap goblin (who more or less may appears to represent a special kind of zombie), but they ultimately decided on it being a Boss Spriggan, leader of the invading spriggans, who drops some Armor!