Dragon's Lair comparisons

This article compares the differences between the Dragon's Lair in Daventry as it appears or referenced in various sources and games, and the upcoming KQ9. As such will ignore anything having to do with the Dragon's Lairs which appear in KQ7 and KQ8.

Background
The prologue to King's Quest 1 (King's Quest by Roberta Williams) states about the lair:


 * King Edward and his wife gazed into the Mirror's depths and saw a young princely figure with a gold crown upon his head. Imagining the youth to be the son they yearned for, the royal couple gladly bestowed the Mirror upon the sorcerer. He took it to his dwelling, where he set one of his beasts to guard over it.

The novel for King's Quest 1 in the King's Quest Companion paraphrases the prologue by stating:
 * The only leads to the missing treasures the young knight had to go on were slim. One: the dwarf who had taken the magic Shield of Achille had been seen disappearing into a hole in the ground. Two: the shape-changing witch who had stolen the Chest of Gold escaped on her broomstick into the clouds that clunk to the peaks above Daventry, solid-seeming masses like now cornices, impossible outcroppings poised out from the mountains with no support. Three : the nameless sorcerer who absconded with Merlin's Mirror had said it would be kept in a safe place, guarded by a fearsome beast. There were no easy answers in this list, but that was all anyone knew about the mystery.

Quest for the Crown: From the Chronicles of Daventry, Part I
Note: For full details see Quest for the Crown: From the Chronicles of Daventry, Part I

The novelization of KQ1 in The King's Quest companion is written by the unnamed Royal Scribe (as told to him by Graham). In it the three treasures are collected in the order of the Magic Mirror (from the Dragon's lair), then the Shield, and then the Magic Chest.

The entire story is based on events of the original King's Quest AGI, this includes the more active and constantly moving dragon in a larger sized cave. In the novelization it is described as constantly charging at Graham breathing fire and singing his hair (with Graham thinking of killing it with his dagger through its heart), but first distracting the dragon with the bucket.

Some artistic license is taken with the artwork in the third edition of the companion that shows a larger dragon in a smaller cave (somewhat like that of the remake), with the pool from the well bottom being very close to the Dragon (rather than at least one room away) that he is able to see the dragon in the image before he even gets out of the pool (in the story he doesn't see it, until he crawls through a tunnel into the dry cave). But the image, the dragon is drawn as a wingless wyrm with several horns on its head.

The King's Quest VII: Authorized Players Guide a companion to the Companion made the brief reference to the Dragon's Lair sequence in The Stories So Far (following the order the treasures were collected in the Companion):
 * Suitably motivated, Graham tromped off, defeated a fire-breathing dragon to retrieve the Magic Mirror...

The An Encyclopedia of Daventry in the first and second edition states:


 * Merlin's Mirror: One of the three great treasures of Daventry, along with the Shield of Achille and the Chest of Gold. The mirror has the power to foretell the future. Edward and the rulers before him used it mostly for weather and crop forecasting, but Edward and Maylie did use it at least once to look upon the image of Daventry's next king. The mirror was stolen from Edward and Maylie by a sorcerer, and the thief hid it in a cave guarded by a fire-breathing dragon. Graham was able to reach the dragon by climbing down a well and dousing the dragon's flame...

KQ1-3 AGI The Dragon's Lair and its Dragon in the Original Trilogy
An interesting side detail is that The Official Book of King's Quest suggests that these rocks and boulders may have been from remains of the Town of Daventry, and that nearby Door into the Mountain (yes this other landmark is a completely different location than it did in KQ1 for whatever odd reason) is also littered with the remains of the village.

KQ1 SCI remake defeating the Dragon in its lair
There are quite a few differences in the remake most concerning puzzle changes, and some narrative changes, and changes to the order the treasures are collected: The mirror or the chest can be picked up first, and the shield is the last treasure. However, the overall order of events within the Dragon's Lair remains the same.

Graham can cut the bucket from the rope as he did in the original at the top of the well, or he can do it at the bottom (in the original the narrator said it was too dangerous to cut while Graham was sitting in the bucket). The The Official Book of King's Quest VI went with the idea that Graham lowered himself in the bucket, and then cut the bucket while he was in the well (as implied by the related artwork, see below).

In the original Graham fills the bucket while still in the bottom of the moat, in the remake he fills it in a little pool in a small cave room that exits from the well bottom.

The dragon is less active in the remake, instead starting asleep, and waking up, and raising its head as Graham gets closer. It's ready to kill him if he gets too close, but makes very little movements, and only blasts Graham if he walks too close to the dragon. If graham chooses to kill the dragon he goes for its throat rather than its heart this version. There are some additional descriptions for the dead body including discussion of Dragon Tongue. As well as some changes to how the dragon escapes (and its embarrasement), and the descriptions of the steam which it now uses to hide its escape.

KQ1 SMS finding the Dragon's Lair
King's Quest for the SMS is based largely on the events from the Original KQ1 AGI, although most of the script has been modified (or rather simplified) and there is even less descriptions due to the fact that there are limited actions that can be taken with the games particular user interface ('verb action' menus). The Sega hint walkthrough has the order of collecting treasures as Shield, Chest, and then Mirror.

Graham must get the bucket at the top of the well, and then lower the rope. There is no way to jump into the bucket and ride it down to the bottom.

The well itself is shortened to just one screen, rather than two. With both the rope hanging and the well bottom on the same screen. The rope itself seems to be too high to climb back out of the well ('climb' option appears to not function, and there is no option for choosing 'rope', so no way to 'climb rope' as in the original game).

The cave is specifically described as the dragon's lair (for trivia sake the term Dragon's Lair is usually something that only appears on the grid maps in the hintbooks and strategy guides), and the exit cave is described as the giant cavern.

The dragon more or less acts in a similar way to its AGI counterpart, although it tends to stay in one place in the cave, and makes one step forward and one step back over and over (always facing Graham), rather than charging back and forth. Its animation shows it breathing fire from time to time.

To kill the dragon you have to walk up and literally touch the dragon (the fire doesn't seem to hurt Graham), and then throw the dagger, and piercing the dragon in the heart. Otherwise Graham misses whenever he tries to throw the dagger. If Graham attempts to walk past the dragon he will be killed, no matter where he is on the screen. But simply walking up to the dragon appears to be safe. But as mentioned its not easy to exit from the well (is this a dead end?).

After Graham scares the dragon away, it just shows the dragon and the boulder vanishing with no animation.

KQ9 raid on the Dragon's Lair
Despite the teams desire to avoid retelling familiar parts of Graham's adventures, the opening sequence is an exception. It reinterprets Graham's acquisition of the magic mirror from the dragon in the well from the first King's Quest.

Note: Current information comes from the trailer, and Game Informer February 2015 article.

The game begins with Graham walking down a forest path and toward a well in the woods. He walks up to a well. Old Graham narrates; "I had not been back there in years, but it was the last place to look."