''King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow'' is a point-and-click
adventure game, first released in 1992 as the sixth installment in the ''
King's Quest
''King's Quest'' is a graphic adventure game series, released between 1980 and 2016 and created by the American software company Sierra Entertainment. It is widely considered a classic series from the golden era of adventure games. Following th ...
'' series produced by
Sierra On-Line
Sierra Entertainment, Inc. (formerly On-Line Systems and Sierra On-Line, Inc.) was an American video game developer and publisher founded in 1979 by Ken and Roberta Williams. The company is known for pioneering the graphic adventure game genr ...
. Written by
Roberta Williams
Roberta Lynn Williams (; born February 16, 1953) is an American video game designer and writer, who co-founded Sierra On-Line with her husband, game developer Ken Williams. In 1980, her first game, ''Mystery House'', became a modest commerci ...
and
Jane Jensen
Jane Jensen (born Jane Elizabeth Smith; January 28, 1963 in Palmerton, Pennsylvania) is an American video game designer and author. She is mostly known as the creator of the ''Gabriel Knight'' series of adventure games, and also co-founded Ober ...
, ''King's Quest VI'' is widely recognized as the high point in the series for its landmark 3D graphic introduction movie (created by
Kronos Digital Entertainment
Kronos Digital Entertainment was an American computer animation and video game developer founded by Stan Liu in 1992. They first began to develop original properties, beginning with their visually appealing early 3D fighting games, '' Criticom'', ...
) and professional voice acting (Hollywood actor
Robby Benson
Robby Benson (born Robin David Segal; January 21, 1956) is an American actor and director. He rose to prominence as a teen idol in the late 1970s, appearing in the sports films '' One on One'' (1977) and '' Ice Castles'' (1978). He subsequently ...
provided the voice for Prince Alexander, the game's protagonist). ''King's Quest VI'' was programmed in
Sierra's Creative Interpreter
Sierra Entertainment, Inc. (formerly On-Line Systems and Sierra On-Line, Inc.) was an American video game developer and publisher founded in 1979 by Ken and Roberta Williams. The company is known for pioneering the graphic adventure game genre ...
and was the last ''King's Quest'' game to be released on
floppy disk. A
CD-ROM version of the game was released in
1993
File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peacefu ...
, including more character voices, a slightly different opening movie and more detailed artwork and animation.
The name of this sequel is a pun on the common phrase "here today, gone tomorrow". This pun is related to the abrupt departure of Prince Alexander after the events of ''
King's Quest V'', where he was just rescued by King Graham along with Princess Cassima, who asked Alexander to come visit her at the end of that game.
Gameplay
''King's Quest VI'' is a 2D
graphic adventure
An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and/or puzzle-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based m ...
game with a
point-and-click
Point and click are the actions of a computer user moving a pointer to a certain location on a screen (''pointing'') and then pressing a button on a mouse, usually the left button (''click''), or other pointing device. An example of point and ...
interface. The player is given an icon-based toolbar at the top of the screen of selectable functions: walk, look (provides a description from the narrator of the object targeted), action and talk, respectively. It also includes the item inventory (the last selected item can be picked right away) and a game options menu. This is the second game in the series to feature this interface, which was introduced in its immediate predecessor ''
King's Quest V'' as a new feature of the SCI1 version of Sierra's Creative Interpreter engine; previous titles in the series featured a
text parser
{{Refimprove, date=August 2007
In adventure games, a text parser takes typed input (a command) from the player and simplifies it to something the game can understand. Usually, words with the same meaning are turned into the same word (e.g. "take" ...
where players had to type commands and actions instead of selecting them on the screen.
Gameplay involves solving puzzles. Those include logic puzzles and interacting with characters either by dialogue or usage of collected items.
One of the puzzles requires consulting the booklet "Guidebook to the Land of the Green Isles", which is included in the game's package.
Aside from providing additional background to the game's setting, this booklet serves as part of the game's
copy-protection
Copy protection, also known as content protection, copy prevention and copy restriction, describes measures to enforce copyright by preventing the reproduction of software, films, music, and other media.
Copy protection is most commonly found on ...
. The player will not be able to pass the puzzles on the Cliffs of Logic that guard the Isle of the Sacred Mountain without information from the booklet. The booklet also includes a poem encoding the solution to one of the puzzles in the labyrinth on the island. In the re-released edition, the guide is part of the manual released on the game CD.
Solving the puzzles in the game usually requires traveling between the islands that make up the game world, which is accomplished by means of a magic map. Although a magic map had been used in earlier games of the series such as ''
King's Quest III
''King's Quest III: To Heir Is Human'' is the third installment in the ''King's Quest'' series of graphic adventure games developed and released by Sierra On-Line in 1986. The game was originally released for the Apple II and PC DOS, and later po ...
'', its implementation in ''King's Quest VI'' was different from earlier games in that it was only used for travel between islands, which could not be reached using the walking interface.
Plot
The game takes place almost entirely in a fictional kingdom called the Land of the Green Isles. The kingdom comprises several islands, and is described as being largely isolated from the outside world.
The player can travel between different islands after obtaining a magic map.
The center of the kingdom is the Isle of the Crown, which has an
Arabian Nights theme. The Isle of Wonder is inspired by
Alice in Wonderland, and the Isle of the Sacred Mountain is inspired by
Classical mythology
Classical mythology, Greco-Roman mythology, or Greek and Roman mythology is both the body of and the study of myths from the ancient Greeks and ancient Romans as they are used or transformed by cultural reception. Along with philosophy and poli ...
. The Isle of the Beast, inspired by
Beauty and the Beast
''Beauty and the Beast'' (french: La Belle et la Bête) is a fairy tale written by French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740 in ''La Jeune Américaine et les contes marins'' (''The Young American and Marine ...
, is heavily forested and scattered with magical barriers. There also are additional hidden areas.
One of these is inhabited by a tribe of
druids
A druid was a member of the high-ranking class in ancient Celtic cultures. Druids were religious leaders as well as legal authorities, adjudicators, lorekeepers, medical professionals and political advisors. Druids left no written accounts. Whi ...
, while another gives the player the option to confront
Death
Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...
.
The game's opening cutscene shows Prince Alexander is haunted by memories of Princess Cassima, whom he met at the end of ''
King's Quest V'' when they were both rescued from the wizard Mordack. After seeing a vision of Cassima in the magical mirror that his father acquired in the first ''
King's Quest
''King's Quest'' is a graphic adventure game series, released between 1980 and 2016 and created by the American software company Sierra Entertainment. It is widely considered a classic series from the golden era of adventure games. Following th ...
'', he sails to find her. At the beginning of the game he is shipwrecked on the shore of the Isle of the Crown, where he learns that the
vizier
A vizier (; ar, وزير, wazīr; fa, وزیر, vazīr), or wazir, is a high-ranking political advisor or minister in the near east. The Abbasid caliphs gave the title ''wazir'' to a minister formerly called '' katib'' (secretary), who was ...
Abdul Alhazred
The ', also referred to as the ''Book of the Dead'', or under a purported original Arabic title of ', is a fictional grimoire (textbook of magic) appearing in stories by the horror writer H. P. Lovecraft and his followers. It was first menti ...
(named after the author of the fictional
Necronomicon
The ', also referred to as the ''Book of the Dead'', or under a purported original Arabic title of ', is a fictional grimoire (textbook of magic) appearing in stories by the horror writer H. P. Lovecraft and his followers. It was first men ...
) has assumed control in Cassima's absence, and plans to force her to marry him. Alexander must explore the Land of the Green Isles in order to find and learn what he needs to rescue Cassima from the vizier.
Multiple endings
A significant aspect of the story and gameplay is the option for the player to receive different endings based on choices made during the course of the game. Partway through the game, the player has the option to pursue either the short path, or the long path with more puzzles and a more satisfying ending. Upon completing either path, the player is given a clue about what choices would have led to the other ending. Endings contain many minor variables based on optional tasks.
Almost half of the game's quests are optional, many have multiple solutions, and the
open world design allows players to choose the order.
Development
''King's Quest'' creator and designer
Roberta Williams
Roberta Lynn Williams (; born February 16, 1953) is an American video game designer and writer, who co-founded Sierra On-Line with her husband, game developer Ken Williams. In 1980, her first game, ''Mystery House'', became a modest commerci ...
first met with
Sierra newcomer and co-designer
Jane Jensen
Jane Jensen (born Jane Elizabeth Smith; January 28, 1963 in Palmerton, Pennsylvania) is an American video game designer and author. She is mostly known as the creator of the ''Gabriel Knight'' series of adventure games, and also co-founded Ober ...
(who would go on to create the ''
Gabriel Knight
''Gabriel Knight'' is a series of point-and-click adventure games released by Sierra On-Line in the 1990s created by Jane Jensen. The titular character is an author and book store owner in New Orleans who is investigating a strange series of murde ...
'' series)
in May 1991 to discuss the design for the upcoming sixth title in the series. Williams began preliminary work on ''King's Quest VI'' in June, "laying out the basic story"
and worked alongside Jensen throughout July and August on coming up with design ideas; after five months, Williams and Jensen finished the documentation for the design.
Two key goals of the writers were to keep the game's tone consistent with its predecessors' while still making it a distinct title, and to make players connect emotionally with the game; Williams wrote the love story of Prince Alexander and Cassima specifically for this emotional attachment.
Storyboards and character sketches were created by co-director and project manager Bill Skirvin and the artist team. John Shroades sketched 80 background paintings.
Motion capture transcribed the movement of real-life actors shot on video to the more than 2000 character actions on computer. Williams and Skirvin chose the actors and costumes for the shootings, and Michael Hutchinson led the animation team that integrated the footage into Shroades's backgrounds. Chris Braymen composed the
MIDI
MIDI (; Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a technical standard that describes a communications protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, and ...
music and produced the sound effects. The 3D-animated introduction was produced by Stanley Liu of
Kronos Digital Entertainment
Kronos Digital Entertainment was an American computer animation and video game developer founded by Stan Liu in 1992. They first began to develop original properties, beginning with their visually appealing early 3D fighting games, '' Criticom'', ...
, a company that did special effects for such films as ''
Batman Returns
''Batman Returns'' is a 1992 American superhero film directed by Tim Burton and written by Daniel Waters. Based on the DC Comics character Batman, it is the sequel to ''Batman'' (1989) and the second installment in the 1989–1997 ''Batman ...
'' and ''
The Lawnmower Man
"The Lawnmower Man" is a short story by Stephen King, first published in the May 1975 issue of ''Cavalier'' and later included in King's 1978 collection '' Night Shift''.
Plot summary
Harold Parkette is in need of a new lawn mowing service. Th ...
''.
This sequence is present with different edits and narrations in each of the DOS, Windows, Amiga, and Macintosh versions.
Jensen scripted the game, defining for programmers the game's responses for the player's actions and the more than 6000 lines of written messages. Robert Lindsley served as the game's lead programmer. The game was coded on an updated version of the proprietary
Sierra Creative Interpreter engine named "SCI1". Robin Bradley served as the quality assurance tester; throughout July 1992 the game went through constant testing. Development wrapped in September, when Sierra's marketing and distribution departments began promoting and releasing the game. In an interview with ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', Williams estimated the budget to have been about and stated that the crew included more than 20 people working for 14 months.
''King's Quest VI'' was initially scheduled for release in September 1992, then delayed until mid-October. It was then shipped on October 6 and launched on October 13 on nine
floppy disks
A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, or a diskette) is an obsolescent type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined wi ...
for
DOS
DOS is shorthand for the MS-DOS and IBM PC DOS family of operating systems.
DOS may also refer to:
Computing
* Data over signalling (DoS), multiplexing data onto a signalling channel
* Denial-of-service attack (DoS), an attack on a communicat ...
and
Macintosh
The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and software en ...
. The
Amiga version was ported by
Revolution Software
Revolution Software Limited is a British video game developer based in York, founded in 1989 by Charles Cecil, Tony Warriner, David Sykes, and Noirin Carmody.
Company history 1992–1994: ''Lure of the Temptress'' and ''Beneath a Steel Sky' ...
.
Sierra, which itself converted its games for the Amiga prior to ''King's Quest VI'', announced in early 1993 that it would cease releasing games for the platform; however, Revolution co-founder
Charles Cecil offered his company to make the Amiga conversion instead. The port began development in March 1993 and was released for the Amiga in December.
It uses Revolution's
Virtual Theatre
The Virtual Theatre is a computer game engine designed by Revolution Software to produce adventure games for computer platforms. The engine allowed their team to script events, and move animated sprites against a drawn background with moving elem ...
engine instead of SCI1 due to better performance on the platform.
A CD-ROM version of ''King's Quest VI'', released in 1993 for DOS and
Microsoft Windows, features an extended version of the opening sequence, a full voiceover of every line of text in the game,
and a revised soundtrack with a full version of the ballad "
Girl in the Tower". The song was composed by
Mark Seibert
Mark Seibert (born 1960) is an American musician, composer, and producer best known for his work on various video games from Sierra Entertainment.
Biography
Siebert was born in California, U.S. From 1979 to 1986, he performed guitar and vocals f ...
with lyrics by Jane Jensen and serves as the game's love theme, playing in the end credits.
Sierra sent a CD with the song to various radio stations and bundled with the game a pamphlet listing these stations and suggested fans to call them and ask for the song to be played. This resulted in Sierra receiving legal threats from stations bothered by excessive requests from listeners. Sierra co-founder
Ken Williams responded to the stations by jokingly stating that the stations "were the criminals for ignoring their customers — something I believe no business should ever do".
The Windows version includes higher resolution character portraits in dialogue sequences.
Emmy-winning director
Stuart M. Rosen directed the voice cast of ''King's Quest VI'' for the CD-ROM version, which includes actor
Robby Benson
Robby Benson (born Robin David Segal; January 21, 1956) is an American actor and director. He rose to prominence as a teen idol in the late 1970s, appearing in the sports films '' One on One'' (1977) and '' Ice Castles'' (1978). He subsequently ...
(voice of the Beast in
Disney
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
's ''
Beauty and the Beast
''Beauty and the Beast'' (french: La Belle et la Bête) is a fairy tale written by French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740 in ''La Jeune Américaine et les contes marins'' (''The Young American and Marine ...
''), who voiced Prince Alexander.
Five additional people to the game's team were involved in the development of the CD-ROM version.
The second ''King's Quest Collection'' has a number of editions in which the CD with ''King's Quest VI'' do not include the "Girl in the Tower" theme song audio CD track, so the Windows version simply crash during the credits and the DOS version plays the credits with no music. The ''King's Quest Collection'' release by Vivendi in 2006 includes the Windows version of the game, but is set up to run the MS-DOS version with text and speech in DOSBox.
Release
Sales
According to Ken Williams, about 400,000 copies of ''King's Quest VI'' were sold in its first week of release
and it topped sales charts for DOS games upon release in September 1992, still holding the number one position in December that year. The CD-ROM version was the 5th best-selling CD-ROM game in November 1993. According to Sierra On-Line, combined sales of the ''King's Quest'' series surpassed 3.8 million units by the end of March 1996.
By November 2000,
PC Data
PC Data was an American market research and point of sale tracking firm founded in 1991 and based in Reston, Virginia. Its founder, Ann Stephens, had worked previously as the head researcher for the Software Publishers Association. Initially, t ...
reported that ''King's Quest VI''s sales in the United States alone had reached between 300,000 and 400,000 units.
Critical reception
''
Dragon'' gave the game 5 out of 5 stars, calling it "one of the best adventure games on the market" and writing that it has "enormous replay value".
Chuck Miller of ''
Computer Gaming World'' stated that the number and quality of puzzles made ''King's Quest VI'' the first Sierra adventure in which he did not miss the older games' text parser. The magazine stated that while the graphic and sound were as good as other Sierra games, the animation was especially lifelike. It concluded that the game was "the best of the ''King's Quest'' games to come out of Daventry, and Sierra's finest adventure to date ...
thas all the signs of becoming a classic".
''
PC Format
''PC Format'' was a computer magazine published in the United Kingdom by Future plc, and licensed to other publishers in countries around the world. In publication between 1991 and 2015, it was part of Future plc's ''Format'' series of magazines ...
'' magazine was less positive, giving the game a score of 72%. It liked the lushly drawn graphics and pleasing sound, but disliked the game for overuse of sudden death and being too limiting.
Barry Brenesal of ''
PC Magazine'' wrote: "''King's Quest''s latest sequel may be more of the same, but that's no cause for concern. A formula that's rooted in the likes of
Charles Perrault and the
Brothers Grimm
The Brothers Grimm ( or ), Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm (1786–1859), were a brother duo of German academics, philologists, cultural researchers, lexicographers, and authors who together collected and published folklore. They are among the ...
needs no excuse for its theme. And with Sierra at the design helm, it also needs no apology for its treatment".
''
Electronic Games
An electronic game is a game that uses electronics to create an interactive system with which a player can play. Video games are the most common form today, and for this reason the two terms are often used interchangeably. There are other common ...
reviewer Russ Ceccola wrote that the game "will fully satisfy fans of the series, inspiring them to a higher level of creativity with its almost-hidden sections and plot elements" and named it the "finest" installment in the series.
Writing for ''
Compute!
''Compute!'' (), often stylized as ''COMPUTE!'', was an American home computer magazine that was published from 1979 to 1994. Its origins can be traced to 1978 in Len Lindsay's ''PET Gazette'', one of the first magazines for the Commodore PET ...
'', Scott A. May said the game balances the story to attract all audiences and wrote that "those who love action will find plenty to pump their adrenaline, yet they won't be put off by the game's gentle, romantic side".
Just Adventure
''Just Adventure'' is a computer game website dedicated to the genre of adventure games. Founded in 1997, it publishes reviews and previews of adventure games, as well as opinion articles and interviews with game designers. The site was found ...
reviewer Adam Rodman gave the game an A.
When reviewing the CD-ROM version, ''Computer Gaming World''s
Charles Ardai compared the game and series to "vanilla ice cream", but praised the "incomparable" graphics and stated that the voice acting was "much stronger" than in the previous game. He concluded that "''King's Quest VI'' is a heartily inoffensive game full of light touches and not a great deal else"; however, "for plain vanilla, ''King's Quest VI'' on CD-ROM is about as good as it gets".
Ardai later described the game as "best-selling though somewhat vapid ... adventures of Princess Pubescent in the Land of Cute".
In April 1994 the magazine said that the CD version's "quality voice talent throughout ... audibly displays that Sierra learned from their previous error", and "a worthy heir to the ''King's Quest'' lineage".
Writing for ''
CD-ROM Today
''CD-ROM Today'' was an American magazine targeted at computer users. Published from 1993 to 1996 by Imagine Publishing (now Future US), the magazine was initially issued once every other month, before becoming a monthly. Each issue included soft ...
'', Neil Randall praised the CD version's addition of voice acting and the voices themselves, but expressed disappointment that it doesn't improve the game's graphical details.
''
CU Amiga
''Commodore User'', known to the readers as the abbreviated ''CU'', was one of the oldest British Commodore magazines. With a publishing history spanning over 15 years, it mixed content with technical and video game features. Incorporating ''Vi ...
'' gave a positive review of the Amiga version of the game, singling out praise for the mouse control interface, the graphics, characters and the conversion from PC done by Revolution, and gave it an 89% score. In an A−
review, Peter Olafson of ''
Amiga World
''Amiga World'' was a magazine dedicated to the Amiga computer platform. It was a prominent Amiga magazine, particularly in the United States, and was published by Massachusetts-based IDG Publishing from 1985 until April 1995. The first several iss ...
'' equally praised Revolution's conversion and also commended the story. ''
Amiga Power'' reviewer Jonathan Davies was less enthusiastic, comparing it unfavorably with other contemporary point-and-click games in terms of innovation, and rated it 70%;
''
Amiga Format
''Amiga Format'' was a British computer magazine for Amiga computers, published by Future plc. The magazine lasted 136 issues from 1989 to 2000. The magazine was formed when, in the wake of selling '' ACE'' to EMAP, Future split the dual-format ...
s Dave Golder gave a similar assessment and rated it 69%.
In retrospective reviews made in the late 2000s,
Allgame
RhythmOne , previously known as Blinkx, and also known as RhythmOne Group, is an American digital advertising technology company that owns and operates the web properties AllMusic, AllMovie, and SideReel.
Blinkx was founded in 2004, went publ ...
gave both the PC CD-ROM and Macintosh adaptations 2½ stars out of five, while
Adventure Gamers
''Adventure Gamers'' is a computer game website created by Marek Bronstring in March 1998 dedicated to the genre of adventure games. It publishes reviews and previews of adventure games, as well as opinion articles and interviews with game desi ...
gave the game 4½ stars out of 5.
''King's Quest VI'' is generally considered the best title in the series and is mentioned as one of the
greatest games of all time
This is a list of video games that multiple reputable video game journalists or magazines have considered to be among the best of all time. The games listed here are included on at least six separate "best/greatest of all time" lists from differ ...
. ''King's Quest VI'' was inducted into
GameSpot
''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...
's list of the greatest games of all time,
and ''
PC Gamer US
''PC Gamer'' is a magazine and website founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future plc. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games ma ...
'' named it the 48th best computer game ever in 1994.
''Adventure Gamers'' named it the 3rd best adventure game of all time,
GamesRadar placed it as the 5th best point-and-click adventure game in 2012, and
Kotaku included it in its list of the 10 adventure games "everyone must play".
In 2011,
Adventure Gamers
''Adventure Gamers'' is a computer game website created by Marek Bronstring in March 1998 dedicated to the genre of adventure games. It publishes reviews and previews of adventure games, as well as opinion articles and interviews with game desi ...
named ''King's Quest VI'' the 13th-best adventure game ever released.
See also
*''
Mysterioso Pizzicato''
References
Bibliography
*
*
External links
*
*
''King's Quest VI'' Technical Helpon the Sierra Help Pages
{{Authority control
1992 video games
Adventure games
Amiga games
DOS games
Classic Mac OS games
Windows games
King's Quest
Point-and-click adventure games
ScummVM-supported games
Sierra Entertainment games
Video games with alternate endings
Games commercially released with DOSBox
Video games developed in the United States