The Black Cauldron

Background

This game shares a some KQ DNA Roberta Williams worked on it with Al Lowe (of King's Quest II, Torin's Passage and Troll's Tale). It was marketed to King's Quest fans on the box. And Annette Childs who wrote the manuals for King's Quest 1-3 wrote the documentation too.

It was released for Amiga, Apple II, Apple IIGS, Atari ST, MS-DOS, and Tandy 1000. With the Apple IIGS version having improved music and sound effects.

In Both

• The alligators sprites are the same sprites in both Black Cauldron and the 1987 versions of King's Quest... Technically KQ recycled from Black Cauldron game (1985).

Easter Eggs in King's Quest

• Black Cauldron is referenced in 1987 2.0 versions of King's Quest II on the note behind the tree.
• Black Cauldron is also referenced in the note in the glass bottle in KQ4.
• In The Floating Castle is a magic food wallet that never runs out of food. There was such a wallet in The Black Cauldron.
• The Black Cauldron is referenced in the KQ1 Hintbook under a false question.
• The Black Cauldron is referenced in the KQ3 Hintbook under a false question.
• The Black Cauldron is given a nod in the KQ4 Hintbook; If you have enjoyed this game, I'm sure that you will like our other animated adventure games: King's Quest IV's predecessors -King's Quest I, II, III; The Black Cauldron; Space Quest I, II, III; Police Quest I and II; Leisure Suit Larry: In the Land of the Lounge Lizards and Leisure Suit Larry: Looking for Love in Several Wrong Places; Gold Rush!; Manhunter; and last but not least, Mixed-up Mother Goose for the little ones.

Easter Eggs in Black Cauldron

• A message in Fflewddur's cell; "You peek through a crack in the wall, and see someone playing "King's Quest III" on the next disk. This puzzles you immensely!"
• In the scene where you bargain for the cauldron:
• "Al loves Marg" Marguerite Lowe is Al Lowe's wife, but the chosen spelling could be "Gram" backwards, or subliminal message to Graham. Marguerite Lowe also worked on some of the other games including King's Quest III.