The Official Book of King's Quest, 3rd Edition (aka The Official Book of King's Quest VI). It is the third edition of The Official Book of King's Quest series, which added material related to King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow. Note: There are apparently two versions of the cover, it is not known which was published first.
Details[]
The book treats King's Quest I SCI as having replaced the original with many sketches showing elements from the game, and puzzle clues, and walkthroughs focusing on the remake (see The Official Book of King's Quest VI Artwork). It indicates that remakes for KQII and KQ3 would replace those games as well in the 'future' (unfortunately Sierra ultimately ended plans to make those remakes). So in a way this guide exists in a kind of merged timeline sharing elements of both the original continuity, and the changes of the remake (in contrast to the King's Quest Companion which chose to remain true to the original versions of the game).
As the book is not largely intended to be a source of lore however, this distinction is fairly moot. That being said there are a few references that explain or add to the known lore, or general background knowledge of story details (the most significant of these references being a rough explanation of Rumplestiltkin's history from KQ1-KQ5, which first appeared in the 2nd edition).
The book removes the crossword puzzles from earlier editions, adds in general walkthrough sections, adds in artwork, new updated maps (Note: one editorial mistake repeating the KQ5 Snow Mountain map), material concerning the making of KQ6, and updated Character and Location pronunciation guide.
Index[]
Acknowledgements[]
There are quite a few people at Sierra On-Line who took the time to help me with this book. Chief among them are Wanda Smith, Bill Linn, Anita Greene, and, of course, the sorceress herself, Roberta Williams. Without their help I would have surely been lost in the woods of Daventry and stranded in the Garden of the Beast.
Early tests by the publisher confirmed that black-and-white screen shots did not have the clarity and definition we wanted, and publishing costs being what they are, color screen shots were out of the question. To the rescue came Travis Getz with his clear, concise drawings that convey more hints than the proverbial thousand words.
Finally I gratefully acknowledge the patient work of my quality-control team. Byron Faler, Charles Smith, and, especially, Dan Southerland spent many hours falling down steps, plunging into chasms, and being devoured by dragons in search of my errors. I believe they found most of the cases where I wrote east when I really meant west. Thanks, guys.
Behind the scenes[]
In a strange misprint the map for the Snowy Mountains of KQ3 has the map of the mountains from KQ5. This printing mistake occurs in both cover variant versions.