King's Quest I and II

Xings Quest I and II

by John Williams

Vice President of Marketing

I've been playing Roberta Williams' games for as long as she s been making them. I first experienced computer gaming through her very early work like Mystery House and Wizard and the Princess so I sort of grew up on her style of adventure game design. She has a clean and crisp style of design that states the goals of the game clearly and makes your challenges clear, which I find very refreshing. And, of course, Roberta's my sister-in-law, so some would say that my opinion comes with a natural prejudice.

All jokes about family favoritism aside, I really do think that King's Quest I was the finest computer game ever written, and the most fun to play, i Honest! i I also liked King's Quest II a lot. I think that both these games arc- great examples of the kinds of adventure games that I like to play and that started the whole adventure game following in the first place.

King's Quest I and // are unlike most computer games written nowadays. Frankly, thay don't feature the deep,

complex plots of games like Police Quest III and Conquests of the Long- bow and don't have the well-developed char- acters. Instead, these games are basically trea- sure hunts with lots of fun puzzles thrown in to add challenge. They feature simple goals - you know what it takes to win the contest with the computer. 1 or me, adventure games have always repres- ented a pleasant diversion - something that I could boot up and get lost in for a few hours at the end of a long day. I view them the way some people view a Rubies Cube or a crossword puzzle. I want simple goals - something I can jump right into the middle of and go - even if I haven't sat down with the game in weeks and have completely forgotten what went on in the in the last play session. I want hard puzzles - real mind benders - so that when I solve one 1 can sit smugly at the computer with a sense of satisfaction. This straightforward "goals and puzzles" approach to adventuring represents the oldest and purest approach to the artform.

Everyone at Sierra has their own opinion about how adventure games should work, of course, but as for me, give me that old time adventuring. Give me the early King's Quests.

King's Quest I (above) and

.„■ : Goodold-

f.ishioneil tieasure hunts.