Background[]
Like the original King's Quest Classic and it’s various remakes and ports (see Prologue (KQ1)), and some versions of KQ2 (see Prologue (KQ2));
Wizard and Princess (and Adventure on Serenia) was ported across several platforms with more than one variant manual and backstory (see Wizard and the Princess prologues). The King's Quest Companion, 2nd Edition added an additional interpretation of the story tieing it into the greater King's Quest V: Absence Makes The Heart Go Yonder! backstory.
This article attempts to compare these potential variant stories (Game realities).
This wiki acknowledges these different variations of the game and its stories but tends to lean on the not all being mutually exclusive.
Prologues[]
Original backstory[]
The original Apple II/II Plus release the backstory was simple. As the front cover explains:
- In this adventure you find you must do battle against an evil wizard in order to save the life of the princess. To find the wizard and his castle you must first cross deserts, oceans, moun-tains, travel to an island and encounter many strange beasts. You will be forced to learn magic, navigate at sea and dig for treasure.
The hero rescues the princess, and is declared a junior-master adventurer (given a title or certificate).
On the back of the cover/manual for original Atari II (and later Atari 400-800 release) and a few other re-releases) of Wizard and the Princess includes a longer story:
The hero is just a happy wanderer who is passing though Serenia when he enters a village in that land. He hears a mission from the Town cryer offering a reward from King George to rescue his daughter Priscilla who has been recently kidnapped by evil Harlin the Malevolent. He is promised half the kingdom and daughters hand in marriage. The hero takes up the quest rescues the princess, and is declared a junior-master adventurer. It’s left unclear if he took the reward or just received a silly title (and certificate).
Note: This version introduces the computer as “puppet” (avatar) idea but isn’t as specific about it as a lore explanation as some later versions take it.
Second Backstory[]
The Commodore 64 version (and some other re-releases) include a second backstory. This version of the story is the only backstory for certain versions ( C64 version for example, and in Roberta William’s Anthology/King's Quest Collections). In C64 version the box itself makes reference to his backstory.
- Become the hearty and steadfast adventurer who rescues the fair princess from the dreadful wizard, Harlin. He has taken her to his towering castle beyond the Great Mountains. You must outwit and outmaneuver the mystical power of the wizard which has grown dark and potent through time. Begin your adventure in the small village of Serenia, but take heed, everything is not as it may appear...
In this version the one known as the Wanderer defeated Harlin as per the events of the game. For Harlin was defeated by someone he knows as the wanderer. Over the centuries he regained his power finds a person in future (present, mid-20th century) decides to send him back in time in an attempt to change his own fate. He mentions he may have sent others but most have failed, only one has defeated him. He inadvertently sends the person who becomes the wanderer… The hero is then given a vision of Priscilla (an astral projection or psychic phenomena it’s unclear) who gives him a computer, some words of advice, a few supplies to help him on his way, asking him to rescue her, before fading away, and then he is sent back in time. The game happens the same way as usual. The hero’s outcome is left vague.
In C64 version the computer acts, as his way of interacting with the past, and also a way to return back to past if he makes a mistake (save and restore). See WIZARD AND THE PRINCESS PLAYER GUIDE COMMODORE 64 BY BOBBIT included with the game.
Atari re-release backstory[]
The Atari 400/800 extends the second backstory somewhat.
In this version the computer acts as his time machine into the past, and, his way of interacting with the past, and also a way to return back to past if he makes a mistake (save and restore).
This version also includes the happy wanderer backstory as well.
Adventure in Serenia backstory[]
Adventure in Serenia included a third alternate backstory. In this one a hero is magically transported into Serenia with the help of their computer.
- …you are magically transported to the land of Serenia, where the evil Wizard Harlin has made off with the beautiful Princess Priscilla. It has been rumored that the Wizard has taken the Princess to his castle beyond the mountains to the North. It is your task in this game to rescue Princess Priscilla and return her safely to the village where you originally began your adventure.
The computer acts as a puppet allowing the hero to interact with the world. The implication maybe that the hero remains in present (but is controlling a kind of avatar/golem who saves the princess in proxy). In the end the hero is just given title junior-master adventurer, leaves his computer and goes back to his everyday mundane life in the present…
Not mutually exclusive[]
Some releases (apple IIe/IIc rerelease and Atari re-release for example), both the original happy wanderer backstory and the second longer backstory are included together, suggesting both are true for those releases: the time travel backstory leads into the original backstory with hero entering village and hearing missive from the town crier after having seen vision of the princess.
Companion backstory[]
After release of King's Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder, Peter Spear wrote the second edition of The King's Quest Companion.
Since KQV reused ideas and the land from Wizard and the Princess, the author ties the game back into KQ5’s history and backstory.
He made references to the second release backstory (perhaps the only version he had access to), and there is no indication of time travel.
In this version the wanderer (whose backstory is said to be a barbarian) takes up George IV’a missive and rescues the princess. He refuses the reward of half the kingdom and marriage to the princess deciding he wants to continue his adventures. He travels into the desert and unfortunately loses his way and dies of dehydration. He becomes a desiccated skeleton out in desert (only his bones and a single shoe is all that is left of him).
Meanwhile, Priscilla marries another man named Kenneth the Huge, they become king and queen (after George IV died) and rule over Serenia mandating happiness (possibly as a nod to the “happy wanderer”).
Not long after a few years or so Graham travels to Serenia to rescue who’s family and discovers the barbarians body and takes the lone shoe.
Alternate Ending?[]
Some ports include an alternate ending in the files in which the wanderer takes half the kingdom as his reward. It is unclear if this ending is accessible in any version, or unused data. Not all versions include this ending text and text for original ending is included as well…