Games that you can get for free are generally worth what you paid for them. There are exceptions to that rule, because some games, simple as they may be, are simply classics. For example, the King’s Quest series. 

Some of you may be too young to remember King’s Quest, but when it was first released by Sierra in 1984, it started a new revolution of gaming. It used a 2.5D world where you worked a character that could move north, south, east, west, and, in some cases, up-and-down. Your character was flat, and all the objects he/she moved around were flat, but back then, it was better graphics than the Xbox 360. 

Some Anonymous Game Developers (that’s what they are called, really!) decided to redo the graphics and added a voice track to the original King’s Quest game. Even though it still has the 2.5D look, it is a quantum leap from the now passé graphics that were originally there. There is no stinting on the game’s overall creativity, and the puzzles are still pretty tough. I’m not certain why anyone felt a need to redo the game, and it most have been a lot of work. However, I can only hope that the Anonymous Game Developers didn’t receive a non-anonymous lawsuit for their efforts. I think they were trying to refuel the adventure-game genre fad that died out in the nineties. 

PC gaming has grown much since then, but some things remain timeless. In King’s Quest, you play Sir Graham, a humble servant who is called by the King Edward. The king is dying, and his last wish is that three magic objects be found to restore the kingdom unto its former glory. If you succeed in finding these objects, he will name you as his successor. There begins an adventure with witches, giants, ogres, sorcerers, dwarves, leprechauns, trolls, gnomes, and a lot of other fairy-tale machinery. 

I managed to beat the game in a few hours, but they were challenging and fun hours. The game has a score of up to 158 points, and I only scored 122, but I still beat it. I’m not certain what I didn’t do, but there are a lot of treasures I found that didn’t really do anything I could see. 

You can download it here, and waste the time. It’s well worth it. 

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 8th, 2006 at 2:00 pm and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.