| King's Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder (VGA) | |
|---|---|
| |
| Developer(s) | Sierra On-Line |
| Publisher(s) | Sierra On-Line |
| Director(s) | Bill Davis |
| Producer(s) | Ken Williams |
| Designer(s) | Roberta Williams |
| Writer(s) | Roberta Williams |
| Lead Programmer(s) | Chris Iden |
| Lead Artist(s) | Andy Hoyos |
| Composer(s) | Ken Allen, Mark Seibert |
| Platform(s) | MS-DOS |
| Release | 1991 |
| Genre(s) | Adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
King's Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder (VGA) is an adventure game developed and published by Sierra On-Line in 1991, and it serves as the fifth game in the King's Quest series. Its graphics were groundbreaking and it became the best-selling computer game in history at that time. It was later re-released on CD-ROM that featured voice acting and other small changes. (King's Quest V: Absence Makes The Heart Go Yonder Multimedia).
The Story[]
The evil wizard Mordack, brother of Manannan, shrinks Daventry's castle and its inhabitants and imprisons them in a bottle. Mordack threatens to feed the royal family to Manannan, transformed into a cat during the events of KQIII, unless Prince Alexander can restore him to his human form. King Graham, out for a walk when Mordack shrank the castle, is the only one unaffected by the spell. With the help of the wizard Crispin and his familiar, Cedric the owl, Graham travels to Mordack's castle to free his family.
The Game[]
Some early releases of the box had a VGA sticker on them
The owl Cedric accompanies Graham through the entire game to provide commentary and advice. He has to be rescued from danger at several points, but the owl rarely says or does anything useful. He was designed to be a companion and story telling element, rather than a game mechanic.
The game KQV is infamous for, and designed to have a large amount of dead ends (which lead to special game over deaths) and difficult puzzles. Late in the game Graham must navigate a frustrating maze where each room is rotated according to the character's perspective rather than being shown with north always at the top of the screen. There are several actions the player can take that render the game impossible to finish if they are not careful. This makes KQV difficult to complete without resorting to hints if the gamer does not save often or uses items carelessly.
Interface and Content[]
The menu consists of two walk icons one for short distance and another that attempts to avoid obstacles (this was removed in some of the international releases such as the French/English release in Europe, and Amiga version).
The drop down menu also includes a 'stop' button for exiting the game, and a image of a floppy for saving and loading games. These options would be folded into seperate config menu in future SCIICON based games.
The game has a copy protection measure involving using the magic wand to cast spells at various points throughout the games. This requires using a spell book that came with the game to cast specific spells listed in the game.
Notably the copy protection is randomized, and it is possible save in a screen just before you enter a screen with a copy protection, and then keep loading until you can enter the tent, witch's house, move the boat, etc. Restoring only if you mess up the spell.
Antony, Beetrice and the Rat have huge expressive closeup images in which their hands move, or antennae in the case of the insects. Antony is even shown presenting the golden needle in one of these closeups (largely cropped and removed in the Multimedia version released a year later).
Most conversations have big pop up subtitle boxes with the character portraits appearing in the subtitle box itself.
The game includes a beautiful MT-32 sound track. There are some digital sound effects, that do not work with Soundlaster setting (lightning, water drip, snake rattle, a low mooing from the ox, dog scratching/growling/barking, river water (on most screens), door opening/closing sounds for example). Adlib also has some of the sound effects but obviously not digital quality (such as a snake rattle).
Easter Egg[]
This version (along with the EGA version) contains an easter egg which doesn't appear in CD-Rom and later versions. If player places the cape on the broken sled a sea monster rises up of the snow and eats Graham.
Behind the scenes[]
- The name of the wizard Manannan (named after a figure from Celtic mythology) is inconsistently spelled Manannan or Mannanan in this game (two times for each spelling).
Credits[]
- Game Designer / Producer: Roberta Williams
- Executive Producer: Ken Williams
- Creative Director: Bill Davis
- Art Designer: Andy Hoyos
- Artists: Deena Benz, Ernie Chan, Jeff Crowe, Richard D. Zeigler-Martin, Tamra Dayton, Dana Moody, Roger Hardy Jr., Douglas Herring, Eric Kasner, James Larsen, Cheryl Loyd, Hector Martinez, Harry McLaughlin, Gerald Moore, Maurice Morgan, Vasken Sayre, Jennifer Shontz, William D. Skirvin, Cheryl Sweeney, Barry T. Smith, Cindy Walker, Deanna Yhalkee
- Lead Programmer: Chris Iden
- Programmers: Chris Iden, Oliver Brelsford, Juan Carlos Escobar, Chris Hoyt, Doug Oldfield, Raoul Said, Robert W. Lindsley
- Development System: Dan Foy, Pablo Ghenis, Eric Hart, John Hartin, Robert Eric Heitman, Corey Cole, J. Mark Hood, John Rettig, Larry Scott, Jeff Stephenson
- Composers / Sound Effects: Ken Allen, Mark Seibert
- Creative Consultant: William D. Skirvin
- Documentation: Bridget McKenna
- Cover Design: John Gamache
FM Towns Staff[]
- Japanese Translation: Akiko Skjellerup (as Akiko Maeda Skjellerup)
- Special Thanks to: J. Mark Hood, Tomoyuki Shimada, Robin Bradley, and the rest of the QA staff
Manuals and Guides[]
- King's Quest V Manual
- King's Quest V Hint Book
- The King's Quest Companion
- The Official Book of King's Quest (Second Edition)
- The Official Book of King's Quest VI
- The Official Book of King's Quest VI Artwork
Patches[]
- King's Quest V Patch (KQ5FIX): This patch fixes the extremely rare restore problem in King's Quest V.
- King's Quest V CD XP Files (KQ5_BAT): Batch file to help run the Windows version of King's Quest V in Windows 2000/XP. Please see the King's Quest V XP Help Page for instructions.
- King's Quest V Save Game (KQ5SG): This Save Game is a work around for the "Out of heap" error. It will restore the game to just after the short movie that occurs when the cheese is placed in the machine. Mordack turns into a giant Dragonfly, and is hovering directly in front of Graham. You will have about two seconds to go into the inventory and click on the wand.
- King's Quest Collection DOSBox Update (KQCollectionDBUpdate): This patch will allow the use of greatly improved latest DOSBox over the version 0.63 that shipped with the Collection. It will upgrade King's Quest 7 to version 2.00b DOS. Also includes the NewRisingSun patch for King's Quest 1 SCI. The patch also restores the missing install files to configure the games' settings. After running the update, you will find new shortcuts in the "Sierra\King's Quest Collection" folder in the Start Menu. The launcher will no longer be needed. NOTE: If you do not have the latest DOSBox installed in "Program Files\DOSBox" for 32-bit Windows or "Program Files (x86)\DOSBox" for 64-bit Windows allow this updater to download and install the DOSBox for you.
External Links[]
Standard Links[]
- King's Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder at The Daventry Chronicles
- King's Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder Help at Sierra Help
- King's Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder at The Sierra Chest
- King's Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder at MobyGames
- King's Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder at Hardcore Gaming 101
- King's Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder at The Cutting Room Floor