King's Quest (1984)
Perhaps King’s Quest’s primitiveness is its major downfall, but for me it is also the game’s redeeming joy. Through the simple aesthetics and often frustrating gameplay, I find myself transported back to the era in which graphic adventures were born. Stripped of the cinematic elements that dominate new games, it is pure game.
Admittedly, the gameplay and puzzles don’t provide much satisfaction in terms of problem solving. But there is a satisfaction, at times ironic, in discovering how the genre’s first designers decided to craft a puzzle. I would find the difficulty of climbing stairs annoying in a game now, but here I can’t help but be amused. It’s as if watching a child take her first steps.
The writing of course is sparse and shallow. Yet it is interesting to see how an old narrative form such as the fairytale is merged with a new one such as the graphic adventure game. We see such parallels in film, where the first films often tried to adapt the narrative techniques of plays and novels. These early prototypes help us see what it is that separates new forms from old forms. One new thing that becomes apparent is the nonlinearity that adventure games offer. The game contains allusions to multiple fairytales, and those fairytales can arise in the game’s narrative in an order determined by the player. They can be interrupted and revisited and even be completed or left uncompleted to varying extents.
The graphics and music also promise new aesthetic possibilities. Some may shun the pixilation in old games, but I say it should be celebrated in the same way black and white photography and mosaics are. None perhaps offers the most “realistic” representation, but each offers us new ways to explore more personal and idiomatic representations of reality. Similarly, whenever the sounds of that PC speaker kick in, I fall instantly into a world like none other. When I play games I want to experience the unique things that they offer.
However, all of these things—these good things—still need refinement. Hopefully, future Sierra titles will offer me just that.
Additional Notes
It took me a long time to complete the game, but I did not find it overly difficult. Most of the difficulty comes through the finding of objects in the low-res environment and in the exactness that the parser demands. I did get some hints somewhat inadvertently. I found the layout of the world to be problematic. The fact that everything wraps around makes the world seem small and confining. It also makes it even harder to navigate.
Hardest puzzles:
Spoiler:*Guessing the gnome’s name—though it’s optional, and I had heard part of the solution before I played
*Killing the giant—I knew what to do, but couldn’t figure how to type it
*Jumping on the eagle
Dead ends:
None encountered.
Best part:
Spoiler:Climbing the beanstalk—well, it’s the most visually appealing anyway. I also loved anytime the screen shakes.
My final score (in the game): 112/158
