Recently I stumbled across a Craigslist ad posted by someone giving away a bunch of old computer games. (Okay, I “stumbled across” it by typing “King’s Quest” into Craigslist’s search bar. I do this with alarming frequency. But I usually don’t find anything!) I picked them up today. Sadly no boxes, but I still scored some Sierra manuals I didn’t have yet, plus a bunch of other games from the same era.
First up: Disks and manuals for King’s Quest I, IV, and V, plus the first edition of the King’s Quest companion.
I have a boxed KQI but it was missing the manual, so now that’s complete. (Karma!) The disks say MS-SCI on them so I’m guessing they’re for the game’s 1990 remake…? I don’t have a 5.25″ floppy drive (yet) to check it out.
On a whim, I installed KQIV and was thrilled to discover that it’s the rare AGI version! This was the last game Sierra made with their AGI engine, and they simultaneously developed it with the new SCI engine. Legend has it that both versions were released, since Sierra wasn’t sure how well the SCI version would work on customers’ computers, but when it became clear that people were able to play the SCI version without issues they pulled the AGI version off the shelves. The Apple IIGS version that I played as a kid was based on the AGI version, so to me this one is more familiar. (There’s a screenshot comparison in my King’s Quest IV review here, if you’re curious.)
KQV and its manual, I already have, but I’ll hold onto the duplicates. I’m at the point in my life where I can’t bear to throw anything Sierra-related away… this stuff is just going to get harder and harder to find.
Next up: Hero’s Quest (a.k.a. Quest for Glory I) and Quest for Glory II: Trial By Fire. Floppies, manuals, and the Trial By Fire map.