Womanfolk do Questing too! Let's Play Another King's Quest IV

Coming Soon

I have been waiting for this forever. Do not disappoint me.

I completely spaced having played V until I read that LP. I guess I didn't get far. But I remembered the ants' song. For some reason I cannot remember "A poisonous snake" though.

Looking forward!

You're not saying it right. It's . ..

"A POOOOOOOIISSONOUS SNAKE!!"

in a falsetto and a bad British accent. Or whatever kind of accent it was supposed to be.

Released in 1988, King's Quest IV (KQ4) was the first PC game to feature a woman as the protagonist. It was also the first, I think, to take place in real-time. The game takes place in about a 24 hour period. The game came on 4 3 1/2" or 6 5 1/4" floppy disks. As you can see from the blurb on the box there the code for the game took up over 3 megabytes?! And had a 10 minute cartoon introduction!

This is the first KQ's game that I played and the first that I beat. In 1988 I was 7 years old, and sat next to the computer "helping" my brother who was 11 figure the game out. Because my dad was uninterested in gaming Josh and I were left to figure the game out by ourselves... Well, Josh had other nerd friends and they probably helped him out with it... When I think of adventure games this is the first one that pops into my head. Everything looked amazing, the story was riveting (I have to save King Graham!), the music was engaging and emotion evoking... I love everything about this game: it's characters (even the stoic fisherman and his wife seem so real to me), setting, art-direction, puzzles.

This LP is going to be one big sloppy kiss. It's been three years since I played KQ4, maybe more? I'm playing it blind so we'll see if there is anything I forgot. Sadly, I'll be playing the last version of the game so I don't think I'll be able to do the big easter egg in KQ4, but'll I'll double check... I'll also include the music in this one as well. It's good enough to include and, like the box says, there's over 40 minutes of the stuff!

I'm not going to tell you the story the 10 minute intro will suffice.

Some advertisements for the game:




Welcome to a Talking Time Production of Let's Play King's Quest IV

Resources:

The Game Manual
The Hint Book

And as soon as I finish up that King's Quest III the real adventure can begin!

I know the kids are supposed to be trying to catch the adventurer's hat, but it looks like they're recoiling in fear. "NOT THE HAT!"

But first a map prepared by by Dan:



Rosella starts on the bottom row second screen from the right. This should help keep everyone oriented. Now as Genesta said Lollote (I always think Lolota or Lolita for some reason, even before I knew lolita was a word...) lives to the east in the mountains (the path to her castle is the last screen on the bottom row) but before we go introduce ourselves Rosella has some poking around to do!

Actually, the first thing we have to do is get past the copy protection:



With that out of the way we can start. I always go to the bridge first (two screens right, one up) and collect the golden ball underneath it:



What a beautiful unicorn! Too bad as soon as Rosella gets close it runs off (I wonder what that means? Hmmm?) Once to the bridge Rosella peeks underneath it and nabs the golden ball, and then goes one screen right:



SIDE NOTE: When I first played this game, and for some reason still to this day. I avoid stepping into the ring of flowers. Somewhere along the way I heard that it was a fairy ring and at random times if you step into it you will die. That is not the case:


Rosella head into the house, she's only just begun but she's already a hero barging into people's homes uninvited, if King Graham was conscious I'm sure he'd be proud! Noticing the place is a mess, and being a woman, the first thing that enters her head is to clean:

I never realized how seamlessly the screens fit together. Neat!

STAND BACK

With the "clean house" command entered the game takes over and Rosella gets cleaning:



Is that some kind of princess cleaning magic? Anyway as soon as she's done tidying the place up the residents come home, guess who it is?:



Rosella tries to start a conversation with the dwarves, but doesn't get very far:

As soon as the dwarves are done eating they head back to the mine. Do any of them bother to clean-up after themselves? Of course not! Why would they do that when there is a woman right there!



Looks like one of them left something:



??!?!?! Rosella being fabulously wealthy already, decides to return the pouch to its rightful owner. Now to find that mine. Rosella exits the house and goes right then down then left (for those familiar with the map, and directions, you've already noted that Rosella could have just gone down from the house, I had my reasons!)



You never know when a worm will come in handy! Rosella heads into the mine:

None of the dwarves seem interested in talking to her or talking back the pouch she heads deeper in:



Sweet! Rosella gets to keep the diamons and gets a sweet ass lamp. Rosella loves lamp.

Rosella is doing alright but there are still a few things I can think of to pick-up before we head up the mountain to meet that evil fairy (is that even a thing? Can you be an evil fairy?) From the mines Rosella right, down, right, right, down taking her to the shanty on the beach, she then heads out onto the dock:



The fish seem to be ignoring him... After a short while he heads back along the dock and into his shanty, Rosella follows:



Rosella tries talking to the woman, with little success, and then approaches the fisherman:



Rosella doesn't need the diamonds and these people seem pretty hard up... Rosella gives them to the fisherman (what is he going to do with them? Who knows... Trade them to Lolotte for food? Maybe with the Ogre? The economics of Tamir are beyond Rosella and me.)



Now that we have a fishing pole, we better bait it:



Now for some fishing:

I had to type "fish" four times before Rosella caught anything:



Rosella looking off into the distance spots a dark smudge on the horizon, recalling that Genesta flew off in that direction she dives into the water and begins swimming:



Here's the map of the island (thanks again to Dan!):



Rosella pokes around a bit:



Again, you never know when a peacock feather is going to come in handy! Rosella heads into the castle. Maybe Genesta will offer her tea?



Stupid tiny fairies! Spoiling my tea time!

With nothing else to do on Genesta's island Rosella returns to the mainland and heads for the pond (just up from the bridge):



Oh, Rosella! You're so clumsy, just like all women! (amiright, guys?)



We all know what comes next...



Class act, that one...

With the tiny crown (and her golden ball) in her possession Rosella heads north:

Pan ignores Rosella and continues playing at his flute. Rosella goes up and then down and then up and then down until:



"Boogah! Boogah! Boogah!"



Hahaha stupid demigod! Know I control the Power of Love!



up, right, right, up, up and we find ourselves outside the only other house in Tamir, Rosella heads in:



spooky? Right



Yoink!



Intriguing!

Okay, that's enough for now! Seeing as I can't seem to find anyplace that has KQ4 music already ripped and available for download or streaming, I'm going to have to do it myself. If anyone wants to be generous and offer to host it for me that'd also be great otherwise I'm going to have to pay to do it myself or... Make a music videos somehow and post to youtube.

Let me know!

Otherwise let's talk about what we've seen so far! Like the fact that I never realized I could approach the skull cave from the east until I looked at the full map... I've always came at it from below. Or the fact that looking at this map I don't see a screen that my brain insists is here. A wooded copse that the ogre appears in... brains are weird like that.

For next time: Rosella finishes fooling around and meets Lolita! While she is gothic, there is nothing sexy about her =< There might also be whaling... Who knows?

Can you not go to the island before you fish?
Isn't a pouch of diamonds overkill?

What about Tindeck?

Well, there's the Unseelie Court, and in fact, most classical depictions of faeries are quite malicious, nothing like the cutesy-poo depictions of today.

Not having played King's Quest a great deal (or any other Sierra adventure games), I am always impressed at their graphical quality. Even if some of the designs are a bit mundane, the use of color and detail is striking for games of this vintage. The cut-away style for interior shots is an excellent touch and also makes for some lovely scene framing. It also subtly reminds you of the fact that the scene takes place indoors, which is great for reinforcing your sense of place in the game world.

You can swim to the island whenever you want... That was simply when I chose to do so

Perhaps but as you saw it isn't as if they have a shortage of the things:





Looking in to it now.

EDIT: Probably not I don't want, people to have to download. I just want them to be able to listen...

I was thinking that the puzzles in this game seem utterly ridiculous and are based entirely around you doing things that no sensible player would consider as an option... but it's a Sierra game so... you just stay the course, pal.

At the very least, the puzzles so far seem to require a firm grasp of European fairy tales.

I just noticed that the box brags this game is part of a "New 3-D Adventure Series". That would be what we call "a blatant lie" where I come from. Unless they mean the 3 Ds of Sierra adventure games: Dead ends, Deaths, and Dismay.

Well, it's "3D" in the sense that the graphics depict a world with depth and sense of scale, which was no mean feat at the time.

Still, I agree they may have oversold it just a bit.

It was also a different era, back when 3D didn't mean polygons. Just having any kind of depth was enough to classify yourself as "3D", basically. Especially when most other games of the era were side-scrollers or top-down shooters.

I don't know what you guys are talking about at this point the game has been perfectly straight forward and easy! The weird stuff comes later.

Pan's Fluting:



Unicorn Sighting:



Dwarves' Theme (plays when they enter house and in mine):



Rosella Cleans:



Cupid Bathes:



Frog's Pond:

Awww, you haven't died yet. I suggest heading off to play in the cemetery or go visit those lovely ents near the skull cave. There's no way anything bad could happen, right?

Also, I can't help but wonder if "kill frog" registers as well as "kiss frog". Prince Prickton needs to be taught a lesson.

We'll get to that... But, first!

We last left Princess Rosella of Daventry in an abandoned home, searching a wall. Why? Well, because that's what adventurers do of course!

As you will recall she found a latch. It goes without saying that she flipped that latch. Flipped it good:



A SECRET DOOR?! I never would expected such a thing! Rosella investigates:



It goes without saying that Rosella swiped the shovel. At this point in the series half of the King's Quest games have shovels in them. How's that for useless trivia? Rosella will be doing something much, uh, cooler? with her shovel though... You'll see! With the shovel firmly secreted away somewhere Rosella ascends the tower:



Yes, you have to type "sit down" before you can "play organ"



She is pretty good too! Sadly, playing the organ does nothing... There is more to the old house and we'll eventually see all of it, but for now Rosella exits. Taking in the surrounding scenery (not pretty)



Nothing scary about the graveyards. I do wonder though why someone would build their house right in the middle of them though... And in front of a forest full of evil trees? Worst realtor ever!