King's Quest (9) was the undeveloped ninth game in venerable Roberta William's King's Quest series (aka King's Quest IX). This article discusses the version Roberta Williams would have designed. There were many attempts at making a ninth game, see King's Quest IX.[1]
Background[]

The official hint book for KQ8, makes reference to King's Quest IX being the next game to be released in the future, assuming that King's Quest 8 sold well, and that Roberta Williams was still going to be at its helm.
Like King’s Quest 8 at the time marketing didn’t allow sequel numerals to be added to games to avoid scaring away new customers who may have thought they had to play previous games to enjoy the series. The 8 was not in the title on the original box, because Marketing decreed that several other big companies' series were no longer including installment numbers, Sierra was following the naming trend.
So had it been released it would have been known as King’s Quest: insert subtitle. While references to it being the ninth game in the series limited to promotional material, manual, in mentioned in back of box blurbs.
Roberta Williams had her own conceptual ideas for King's Quest IX (or future King's Quest games) she mentioned around the release of KQ8 between 1998 and 1999. Though these never went into production.
Unfortunately, she was never able get Sierra greenlight development on a new game. Before she left Sierra (shortly before the release of KQ8), she forced to sign a non-competition agreement which prevented her from making computer games for the next five years, or anything that might compete with Sierra's products.[2] It took some further negotation, and a small list of changes before she even allowed her name to be put on the box.[3] She only came back to market the game, after its release. It was during this time, she discussed some potential ideas for KQ9 or later games in interviews. But at the time she had no idea if CUC would have contracted her to make the new game or not (and she knew it would only happen if the game had been a success, which she believed it was). However, CUC was not one for contracting or assigning work on classic series to previous employees (see Al Lowe with Leisure Suit Larry who wasn't assigned to work on Magna Cum Laude, and Jane Jensen who was given a pink slip after release of Gabriel Knight 3), so Roberta was never contacted again.
Thanks to Ken Williams and Roberta Williams we can have somewhat of an idea what King's Quest 9 (and King's Quest 10) might have been about in this summary design doc given (non-exclusively) to the King's Quest Wiki with both Roberta and Ken William's kind permission to publish[4]:
King's Quest (9) "design doc"[]
Here’s the next King’s Quest (9) overall story:
King Graham, now elderly, was very grateful to the local knight, Connor, for saving the Kingdom of Daventry from the evil Archarchon, Lucreto, and restoring the Mask of Eternity to its salubrious, protective powers. So grateful, in fact, that he had given Connor the title of Marquis of Daventry, with the responsibility of securing the kingdom’s borders from any outside attacks or evil intentions. In the interim, a charismatic ‘healer,’ Rasputris, had wandered into Daventry and had imbedded himself into the household of the elderly king and queen by ‘curing’ them of their stiff aches and pains -- most related to the aftereffects of having been turned to stone in King’s Quest 8.
Rasputris has made himself so important in the Daventry court that his powerful influence is now corrupting Daventry -- from the inside! Rosella has become very concerned about her parents and their sudden dependence on this itinerant drifter and she tries to evict him from the kingdom, but to no avail.
It’s obvious that they are both heavily influenced by Rasputris and, indeed, are overwhelmed by him. What has he done to them? Rosella then enlists the aid of her brother, Alexander – now the King of the Land of the Green Isles – and Connor, the new Marquis of Daventry, to help ‘rescue’ King Graham and Queen Valanice from Rasputris’s evil clutches.
But during their endeavors, they find that Rasputris is more than he seems – a dirty, unkempt wanderer with bright, hypnotic eyes. In reality he was an accomplice of Lucreto. Unfortunately, he had been accidentally blasted out of the Realm of the Sun when the Mask of Eternity was restored and is now in the process of taking over Daventry ‘from the inside’ in retaliation for Connor having defeated Lucreto and his evil plans. It will not be an easy task to root this powerful character out from Daventry!
And – you never know – maybe an affection will develop between Rosella and Connor? And poor Edgar? Hmmm….a struggle could commence between Edgar and Connor (but not in this game. In King's Quest 10)!
I think that Jane Jensen – if she would do it – but be the perfect designer for King’s Quest 9![5]
Other Details[]
For the most part Roberta Williams brushed away questions about any future sequels in the series. However she did discuss an idea or two about what a future game might hold if she could have produced another game in the series... Some of these thoughts includes; One of the ideas made for KQ8 that Graham was too old to go on adventures, and Alexander was now a king of another land, and less likely to go on Adventures on behalf of Daventry. Thus the need to introduce some new characters into the series. With KQ9, it appears Alexander would have returned to help save his homeland, on at least one final adventure. Another discussion for future game ideas in the King's Quest series (at the time of KQ6 between Roberta and Jane Jensen) was to include Mordack, Manannan, and Abdul Alhazred together as a group, KQ6 planted the hints of this future plot idea through the creation of the Society of the Black Cloak (but the series never went back to it). It is always possible it could have ended up as part of the greater plot line for future games as well. Would Mordack still have been alive, or just mentioned as a past member, with Shadrack filling in the third position.[6] Although this idea doesn't seem at first related to the plotline of Rasputris unless he is the true leader of the society (something Jane Jenson could have adapted into the story if she had been co-designer for the game). Would Shadrack, Manannan, and others appeared as lesser enemies in the game? While not specifically King's Quest related she has also said that the future of Adventure Gaming may have to rely on the multiplayer, and become something similar to MMORPG, but instead would be a Massively Multiplayer Online Adventure Game. In fact, she said originally there was a discussion for early on for KQ8 to have a multiplayer component, but it was something she had save for KQ9 instead (Talkspot Part I). Ken Williams had been discussing the idea of a Multiplayer King's Quest in InterAction Magazine before or during development of KQ8. If multiplayer was saved for King's Quest 9, it's possible that players may have been capable of choosing between Rosella, Alexander and Connor the primary protagonists of the game, in their attempt to stop Rasputris, and rescue King Graham and Valanice. It appears that King's Quest IX would have at least introduced the idea of Rosella developing an affection for Connor, but the outcome of this wouldn't have been touched upon until a later game (specifically King's Quest X).
- How much of a role will the royal family play in Mask of Eternity? Will Connor marry Rosella, or is she still dating Edgar from King's Quest 7?
- The only character from previous King's Quests will be a couple of cameo appearances by King Graham. I felt that it was time to feature a new character to the saga of King's Quest as long as we were updating the whole look and feel of the series. And--who knows? Perhaps in some future King's Quest game, Connor will at least meet Rosella! Don't worry, though. Connor is a very interesting character in his own right, and I'm sure he will win over many of the traditional King's Quest hearts.
- "What if Connor met Rosella? That would be good... We got that problem with Edgar... Love triangles are always interesting." Roberta Williams -Mask of Eternity Talkspot Interview, Part 1.
The idea that Rosella might start dating Connor (then "Brendan"?) appears to very early idea as early as 1995.
- "As far as King Graham, Alexander, Valanice, and Rosella are concerned -- they ARE in the game, but they are the poor victims of the evil sorcerer's spell. YOU -- as a "former" statue-turned-alive-knight -- are the main character of King's Quest 8. You can save the royal family from the evil spell they've been placed under. You -- as the knight -- can save them and then get the chance to become a "real man" in the end (a la Pinocchio). Princess Rosella might be SO grateful that he saved her and her family that...who knows?-1995 interview
She has also said that perhaps the fan game community is keeping the plate warm for her return. But later said she would have little involvement in future King's Quests ;
- As to a King's Quest IX: Since I will never design a King's Quest 9, it would be unfair of me to comment on any one else's endeavors in that area. However, if there were ever to be a King's Quest 9, I wish it luck and hope that it could revive interest in adventure gaming as a whole and in the original King's Quest games in general.
King's Quest: Mask of Eternity was relatively successful for an an adventure game (thought to be the bestselling adventure that year). While it was successful enough that Sierra green-lighted a follow-up game headed by Mark Seibert (as early as 1999), Roberta was never brought into its development. It was finally cancelled by 2002.
See also[]
- King's Quest IX
- King's Quest: Twins of Change
- King's Quest (Silicon Knights)
- King's Quest (Telltale Games)
- King's Quest: Adventures of Graham
References[]
- ↑ According to Cindy Vanous;
- 9 was not in the title, because Marketing decreed that several other big companies' series were no longer including installment numbers, so we should follow the naming trend, pers.comm. 10/11/2020
- ↑ Ken Williams, Not All Fairy Tales Have Happy Endings, pg 358: "I should probably mention that Roberta and I turned over all of our rights to everything associated with Sierra, to CUC, when we sold the company. The King’s Quest brand and all of the characters were now the property of CUC. Roberta could not do a King’s Quest game for anyone else. In fact, she couldn’t work for anyone else under any circumstance. Both her and I signed non-competition agreements when we sold the company. For some number of years (five, I think) we were prohibited contractually from working on any software that might compete with Sierra."
- ↑ ibid. "A compromise was finally reached. Sierra agreed to make some changes to the game (a very short list) and Roberta agreed to take some money and walk away. Sierra was allowed to put her name on the box, and most of the game inside was Roberta’s, but not all."
- ↑ Pers.Comm, 10/7/2020
- ↑ Licensing Information: Published with kind permission of Ken and Roberta Williams
- ↑ "The "Black Cloak Society" was never an actual term that I instigated or thought up. I'm not actually sure where that came from. The closest thought that I have on that subject is that: when I was working with Jane Jensen on King's Quest 6, and we thought up the evil vizier, we talked loosely about the possibility of putting Manannan, Mordack, and the vizier together as group -- possibly -- in a future King's Quest. There was loose reference to the possibility in King's Quest 6, although nothing was set in stone at that time. I think that it's possible that Jane Jensen might have mentioned the possibility (perhaps) in subsequent interviews on the subject, although, I'm not sure about that. Later on, I heard about the Black Cloak Society and kind of wondered where that phrase came from, but, I never refuted it as I thought it was kind of cool and, probably, would have gone on with the idea in future King's Quests had I had the chance. And, one final thing: Hagatha was never part in any discussion of a Black Cloak Society. - Roberta Williams at SierraGamers (6-9-2003)