Sierra On-line Teaches Typing: Let's Play King's Quest III

Gwydion doesn't want to carry a dead fly around, but he's not above tearing the fly's wings off and stuffing those in his pockets? That's an odd double standard.

For that matter, Manannan takes issue if you possess such a simple thing as fly wings? That's... extreme.

You will soon see why Manannan has such a problem with fly's wings.

Noooo! You brought back Cedric! Why have you wrought such evil upon us!?

Wow. Amazing that Gwydion's survived so far without once being murdered by cranky wizard or teen clumsiness. So many precipices to topple off of, so little time.

I'm sure Gwydion's had to keep plenty of backup saves to survive this long living with Manannan.

Yeah, if you don't know what's going on you can be very surprised when picking up a seemingly innocuous items. It wasn't shown here (yet), but if you're holding certain things when the wizard shows up he blasts you out of existence. It's an odd twist for the genre where picking up anything not nailed down is generally how you win, and definitely part of the reason I always liked this game.

I was surprised that Gwydion knew that he'd want either of them in the future, though I get the gameplay reason for this.

Yay! Ugh, I'm suddenly remembering how anxious I was when playing any of this game. Whenever I did any little thing, I expected Mannanan to suddenly pop up and scold me. Painfully. I also hated going through things in his room with the cat in there. I always worried it would somehow let him know what I'd done...

It should be noted that, in certain versions, the "hazardous" items are marked with an asterisk on the inventory screen so that you know what's likely to cause the hurty deaths.

Hey! Stop stealing my 'Cedric helps' bits!

Ah, but that's actually useful to know! See, since it's Cedric, he should only be spouting totally worthless or obvious advice. Or complaining about things he doesn't like. Or insulting/demeaning Gwydion for not being clairvoyant.

Have I mentioned I don't have a very high opinion of Cedric?

I think I picked up on that fact somewhere... yes.

'Tis alright.

First thing I always did was make a mad dash for the kitchen, which might be the most item-plentiful room in Sierra history, outside of MAYBE some of those Police Quest II crime scenes where you can pick up a dozen pieces of evidence.

Also, Mananan's moon logic is weirder than the actual puzzles. There's only one other person in the house, you're on top of a mountain... but he'll not be able to figure out who stole his stuff as long as you hide it under the bed.

I swear, JK Rowling played a lot of King's Quest III before she came up with that "Harry has to stay with his aunt and uncle to avoid Voldemort" bs.

I always forget how much stuff is there. Also I don't grab the food until after MANANANAANANA the banana is a cat, cause he might ask me to feed him and I'm lazy and don't want to go up to my bed to get his food out from under it.

But... the POINTS! Sweet jesus, THE POINTS!

I think the cat trips you on the stairs, but maybe it's only MANANANA that does that after he's been feline-ified.

No the cat does that. Sorry there hasn't been an update yet...

My life is crazy. Sadly, it is the dull everyday life kind of crazy and not the cool "I'm on an adventure" kind.

I never get that kind of crazy...

First, This is what happens if Manannan finds Gwydion carrying certain items, here it was the fly wings:



Looks like the old man doesn't like Gwydion getting his hands on certain components that might be useful for something, who knows? Wizards are weird and creepy.

We last left Gwydion looting his master's personal bedroom after finding every possible item of value therein he heads down to the study and resume looting:



But, wait! What's this?



A grisly death (by cat)! But, also a secret chamber of some sorts. We'll come back to it later. Let's pretend that never happened. Except for the Kitchen Mannanan's house is pretty much stripped clean. Gwydion's lust for other people's property knows no bounds! So, he heads outside:



(That part where you go behind that big rock in the center of the screen? It always had me on needles and pins. I imagine the path is as wide as the boulder but you don't know that. You've just got to trust yourself and hold down and then right hoping you didn't mess up.)



Check it out! Looks like that faded old useless map isn't as useless as we thought! let's do some exploring, Gwydion heads west (or left) then south (or down):



Okay so we've uncovered that part of the map let's head back to Manannan's mountain and head south (down):



Awh, how cute! It's the three bears! Goldilock's aint't here so it'll be up to Gwydion to wreck these poor bear's shit up:



Back to exploring:



At this point. I think Gwydion has uncovered at least a third of the land of Llewdor but isn't any closer to freeing himself from Mannanan. Hrm... Guess he'll have to keep exploring and stealing other people's things!

KICK CAT

TAKE ANCHOR

THROW SELF AT SPIDER WEB

STEAL PORRIDGE FROM BEAR HOUSE

BREAK BABY BEAR'S CHAIR

Dunno what you can do, so just throwing some suggestions out there.

This is much more colorful than I remember it. Maybe I played it too soon after KQII and was still suffering from retinal damage.

Okay, Gwydion is on a roll! It won't be long til he's free of...



Now, I know that can't be Cedric cause he's actually being helpful. Mannanan's errands never last more or less than 25 minutes exactly. There isn't anything in the game to tell you this. You just have to pay attention to when he leaves and comes back. If he gets back before you get back home or have divested yourself of your items its "ZAP."

Anyway, back to Gwydion's exploration of Llewdor:



As I, and others mentioned before, * appear next to items in your inventory that will drive Mannanan to murder you. Gwydion could just hide those items under his bed but typing the command to do so with every item is a pain. It is just easier to hide it all and take it all whenever it is necessary to do so.



Well, I think that is the eastern (right) edge of the map. Gwydion goes to explore the western edge:



Wherein reside Medusa:



If you don't look at her she can't kill you, til she touches you:



Gwydion, though, is a keen reading of Greek myths and knows a little something about Medusa's and their weaknesses. With a little help from Mannanan's vanity mirror he puts an end to her predations:



And, our map is full! So what can we do with this map anyway? Why teleport of course! Gwydion need merely pick an explored spot on the map and he is miraculously whisked away to it:



Gwydion puts dew in the thimble because it is important to do so! Stop asking stupid questions. He then entered and exited the Three Bear's home until porridge magically appeared.



He then did some other seemingly random things before finding the bandit's hideout (they sometimes appear randomly in Llwedor, I haven't run into them yet. If I do and they steal stuff from me I'll can always return to their hideout to take it back. I had to exit and enter the upper tree screen repeatedly until the bandit fell asleep too. Gywdion hasn't need coin yet but he's sure to soon.

Now I have something a little embarrassing to admit. In the midst of doing some save-scrumming (scrubbing) I accidently copied over my latest save with a insta-kill save. So, I've got to replay up to here before we continue. Thankfully, this really only takes 30-45 minutes.

See, even people who have been playing these games for years can still learn from Sierra's number one rule: Save early, save often, and use numerous save files!

So what happens if you stay out of the house for more than 25 minutes? Does Mannannan teleport to where you and zap you? Are there 'sploitz? (For instance, can you wait right on the edge of the screen for him to start teleporting in, and quickly leave, and survive? Or do they deal with that?)

Let's find out! I know he just pops in and zaps you. I've never tried to avoid it.

Okay, so after catching back up to where I was before I saved over my game on a kill screen...you can push those F5 and F7 buttons too fast... Gwydion is back in the game collecting random items from around the Llewdorian countryside.

Now that the young lad has some money he returns to the town to see if he can spend it on anything:



"I'll take one of everything!"



Gwydion then wanders into the Tavern:



and right back out... Those folks don't look friendly. Using the spoon he took from Manannan's kitchen he gets a heaping spoonful of mud, you never know when that will come in handy!



After catching a fallen eagle feather (you can just see the quill there behind the rock) Gwydion check his watch and heads back up the mountain.

Checking the manual that came with his copy of King's Quest III: To Heir is Human, Gywdion sees that he has the ingredients he needs to cast some magic:



Here it is folks! Roberta William's and King's Quest Teaches Typing! Please type out the sentences found in your manual exactly as you see them there into the game!



The game will let you know when you've made a typing error! Don't forget you're being timed!



PS - I noticed I missed taking a screencap of what I typed to add the fish oil. For those of you who must know the correct sentence is: put two spoons of fish oil in the bowl

Gywdion has time to cook up one more spell before he goes:



I'm sorry that is incorrect! You forgot a comma:



(The game will let you ignore punctuation and capitalization, it isn't a very good type teaching program.)

Now with all that magicking done, Gywdion better clean this place up before Mannanan gets back from the Gay Pride Celebration in neighboring Green Isles.



Then to poison Manannan's next meal:



And to stash all his goods, sans the porridge:



Gwydion goes down to the dining room to wait for his master's arrival, and grab a little something for himself:



"Oh, yes master! I have something prepared for you right here!"



With Mannanan out of the way Gwydion is free to sleep in the master bedroom and stay up past 9 PM. This is going to be great guys! But first!



Wait, no that can't be right. I'm sure Gwydion's life didn't end when a giant spider ate him... hrm, let me try that again:



Gwydion uses his new magic essence to turn himself into an eagle and kills the spider. That eagle is smaller than Gwydion and the spider, how is it able to do this?



"yeah, thanks... Guess it was too much to ask you to help a guy out sometime in the last 17 years or so... It's cool I understand you've got a cave to live in... I was just a slave, no biggy, please go on!




PS - If for some reason Gywdion was compelled to eat the porridge that he knows is poisoned, he would find out that it wouldn't turn him into a cat!? No, for some reason he'd just choke to death on it:



PPS - Merus, I waited around outside the castle after the 25 minutes. As soon as Mannanan shows up the game locks the board so you can't move or type. In this example I had no items on me so he just zaps me back to the house (I wasn't going to wait another 25+ minutes to see what he'd do the next time.) If I have items he just ZOTS me like he does at home...

Okay, so some of the stuff Manannan will kill you over is:

• A feather
• A snake's shedded skin
• Some salt
• Some acorns
• Fish oil
• Salt water
• Lard
• A cactus
• Money
• A dog's fur
• A thimble with some dew
• Essence of rose
• Mistletoe
• A pouch with nothing in it
• Some friggin' mud
• A mirror

Just...Just...HOW THE FUCK HAS THIS POOR KID SURVIVED LIVING WITH THAT CRAZY ASSHOLE MAGE SO LONG WHEN HE'LL KILL HIM OVER THE SMALLEST, MOST INSIGNIFICANT THINGS?! Oh right, saving often.

I can understand the magic map or his stolen wand, sure, but that old man's a looney toon. I'm glad he's a cat now...Though it will set up the events for King's Quest V. =/

I can't remember - What does Mananana do if you don't feed him? Does he make you do calisthenics or does he just zap you into oblivion?

(Psst, will there be a Bizarro Gwydion?)

Manannan's general response to anything he doesn't like about Gwydion is "kill him", so yeah.

If I remember right, the justification for why the old wizard's so paranoid is that 1.) Gwydion is approaching 18 and will shortly be disposed of and 2.) Gwydion knows this and will likely do anything he can to escape the old wizard.

Making those magic materials seems to be a pretty cool way of sneaking copy protection into the game. Why couldn't more games do it organically like that? It's miles better than just asking "what's the third word of the second paragraph of page 8?"