Sunday, September 20, 2009

King's Quest Reinvigorated

It seems nowadays that the golden age of computer games has come to an end. Is anyone with me? Today computer games such as World of Warcraft and Spore exploit Artificial Intelligence and cutting-edge graphics to appeal to the public. However, does anyone remember the good old days before all that, the days of King's Quest? Does anyone even care anymore? Well, some people do and those people are the brains at Anonymous Game Developers Interactive.

According to AGDI's About Us page, these folks are "a group of highly motivated individuals determined to revive the adventure game genre. [Their] aim is to remake classic Sierra On-Line adventure games, enhance them to modern standards, and then offer them as free downloads." And this is exactly what AGD Interactive has done.

King's Quest I: Quest For The Crown is based on the original Sierra Entertainment game of the same name that was created by Roberta Williams in 1984. The developers at AGDI have revamped it giving it new life at an extreme makeover. The current version of AGDI's remake (Version 4.0) was released on January 17, 2009 and is available for free download at AGDI's web site.

King's Quest II: Romancing the Stones is based on King's Quest II: Romancing the Throne, which was created by Roberta Williams and released in 1985. As with the first King's Quest, AGDI has renovated and re-released this game. The current version is Version 3.0 and it is available for free download from AGDI's web site.

King's Quest III: To Heir is Human. Well, since AGDI can't do everything, the people at Infamous Adventures have stepped in to remake King's Quest III. The latest version is 2.0. Cruise over to IA's KQ3 download page to grab this game.

UPDATE: 12-Mar-2013: AGDI has now released their own remake of King's Quest III, King's Quest III Redux: To Heir is Human, to compete with Infamous Adventures' previously released version. Now you can choose which version of KQ3 you want to play... or just try them both!
King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella. At the current date, this game has not yet been remade. However, Magic Mirror Games is hard at work on this project. Hopefully we can expect a top-notch product from MMG before too long. In the meantime, try downloading the original King's Quest IV.

King's Quest V, King's Quest VI, and Beyond. The chances of these games being remade in the future are comparatively slim. This is because they don't need it. Try searching the Internet for the original versions of these games. They can be found on numerous abandon-ware sites.

It's nice to see the old games coming back.