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King's Quest 3
149 Plays4 days ago
Ben and Jess are trapped in the evil wizard's castle and have to sneak around to make this podcast, so that's why they're whispering and this is only in 15 minute increments.
Quest Quest podcast is Ben Vigeant and Jess Morrissette.
Editing by Ben Vigeant
Show art by Kevin "WilcoWeb" Wallace
Watch us on Twitch!
Ben: https://www.twitch.tv/ps_garak
Jess: https://www.twitch.tv/decafjedi
Give us a review, they help people find this show! Unless you hated it, in which case, don't.
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast
00:00:23
Speaker
It's like, oh, is that as weird as it's going to get? No. No, there's more. Okay. Yeah.
00:00:34
Speaker
Yeah.
Movie Experiences: Thunderbolts and Johnny Guitar
00:00:56
Speaker
Oh, all right. Hello. so Welcome to quest quest. The adventure game podcast. Well, if you're saying welcome to quest quest, then I say the adventure game podcast. You don't say okay. Well, let's let's do it again here.
00:01:08
Speaker
All right. Welcome to the adventure game podcast. Call on.
00:01:18
Speaker
uh i'm ben ps underscore garrick on twitch and youtube and i am just decaf jedi on both of those places aforementioned how you doing today jess i'm doing pretty good it was a it was a restful sunday i went out to see uh the thunderbolts movie uh was uh excellent uh marvel fun so uh yeah you know i haven't been to a movie in months and uh theaters are uh still theaters so Yeah. Was ah was it crowded? Were there people there?
00:01:47
Speaker
People out to see the latest ah Marvel movie? As we record this, it's been out for, I think, two or three weeks now. So it turned out yeah quite a bit. Yeah, you know, the 4.30 matinee in tiny little West Virginian theater is usually on a sunday pretty sparse on a Sunday.
00:02:08
Speaker
When everyone is spending Sunday with their mother, it's Mother's Day as we record this. yeah i uh i also saw a movie today i saw uh 1954's johnny guitar okay so that's an early entry in the mcu yeah that that's one of it it was uh joan crawford's first movie in the mcu
00:02:34
Speaker
Am I safe to assume that is where the song Johnny Guitar from Fallout New Vegas originates? I would assume that, yes, yes that that is from, ah like, yes, ah I would assume that is a correct assumption.
00:02:52
Speaker
dooooooo do do do do dodoo do that one? i think so yeah that sounds about yeah it's ah It's a Western starring Joan Crawford.
00:03:03
Speaker
Wow. Well known for being a great mother. That's one of the things that everyone, there's a whole movie about. It's called Mommy Dearest and it's about just what a great mom she is. yeah and proper closet organization.
00:03:20
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. It's pretty much a TED talk. it was before we had, ah Marie Kondo, we had Joan Crawford, ah and, uh, her, uh, you know, the, the magic of organized closets, but yeah, that's one way to celebrate mother's day is, is to watch a Joan Crawford Western.
00:03:46
Speaker
Do you think the children would say she is mother?
Candy Talk: Sneaking Snacks into Theaters
00:03:49
Speaker
Oh, ah Joan Crawford. Absolutely. um Okay. Yeah. Yeah. ah it Yes.
00:03:57
Speaker
Yes. Joan. She's definitely Joan Crawford. Yes. Oh my God. Yes. She does have, she is mother energy for sure. Oh, well, goodness. Yeah.
00:04:09
Speaker
have you seen her brows? she's got serious brows yeah oh she's incredible yeah so how many uh how many guitars out of uh out of five that's a five guitar flick that's a five how many guitars how many thunderbolts uh did he you give thunderbolts i would give thunderbolts four thunderbolts out of five uh there there was room for one thunderbolt worth of improvement So like an asterisk, you would say?
00:04:36
Speaker
that would put, that's right. Absolutely. um Was this a solo film outing or is this, was this the fam? This was the fam and ah the, the neighbors and their daughter. So this was like a big. oh ah Everyone's rolling out.
00:04:53
Speaker
That's right. I snuck a box of hot tamales into the theater, Ben. I feel like I need to confess that to someone. I saw ah big line outside of my neighborhood tamale place this morning.
00:05:07
Speaker
Now I'm talking about the crappy candies, hot tamales, not like an actual tamale. Man, Jess, I was so excited that you had snuck like an igloo container full of actual tamales. just had all my pockets stuffed with cornmeal tamales. Yeah, no, that's how I went in. I scooped them out and made them. I had this vision in my mind hot corn husks.
00:05:31
Speaker
corn hus yeah with delicious little little you know cornmeal and a protein just stuffed in your trench coat and you're you know handing them off to your wife and child and the neighbors and their kid yeah and just like this one's pork yeah this one's loaded with kahita cheese to sprinkle on top yeah no we were doing great yeah no but i do love the idea you would hear hot tamales at movie theater and jump to a proper uh tamale rather than the cinnamon uh jelly candy well i don't think i've ever enjoyed i don't my problem with a hot tamale parentheses candy parentheses derogatory is yeah parentheses derogatory is that
00:06:18
Speaker
it I, first off, I don't, I don't think I like those are like fireballs, like just kind of the like spicy cinnamon. Like that's just not my preferred flavor, but also it feels like only 25% of the time. Do you get a box of those?
00:06:34
Speaker
And like, I'll, I'll add in like dots, which are like the same, except, uh, Mike and Ike are in that category. Was it more in plenty? good and plenty good and plenty good and plenty like all those yeah it feels like only 25 20 of the time do you get one that is like properly chewy and not like completely solid yeah desiccated beyond beyond recognition no and this was a good fresh box so uh yeah i was right box okay
00:07:05
Speaker
yeah i was in tamale heaven you were in tamale tamale heaven parentheses the candy yeah now we'll say now that you say that god eating some tamales while watching a movie like proper tamales sounds dude of course i it would be a great tamales would be a delightful movie snack i don't know if they have them over at like uh alamo draft house i don't know like uh because you you have a ah menu there um so i'll have to check next time i'm at alamo draft house but like but did you say that and i'm now thinking it's like what wouldn't be a great environment for eating tamales i'm really like maybe a funeral no i mean it depends on who's who's dead um but yeah mean i can think of a few um but uh the
00:07:56
Speaker
i So in Chicago, tamale men. he specifically there's like one guy who I believe is like the canonical tamale guy and then like a bunch of imitators and so like a guy ah like you know kind of ah this middle-aged guy walks in and he has a cooler like a igloo cooler full of tamales and he just yells tamales and he walks into a bar and like sells like a little ziploc bag that you know he made
00:08:28
Speaker
yeah wherever ah with like three tamales and a little a little cup of like uh spicy salsa and it's i believe pork chicken and cheese are your options if i'm not mistaken i met this guy uh that's right i was going to say didn't you meet the tamale man yes i did meet the tamale man and you know looking back i ask myself why didn't i just get some tamales like yeah they're delicious here's here's another thing though when i was last in new orleans I was at a bar. Yeah, aka the Big Easy.
00:09:02
Speaker
um ah i was at a bar and ah with a friend of mine, and he turns to me and he goes, oh my god, Ben, you're going to love this. Check this out. And this guy walks in and he yells, tamales.
00:09:15
Speaker
And he's like, it's this guy. He's the tamale guy. He walks into bars and he has tamales. And I'm like, no, that's ours. And now I'm wondering... is Like, I'm going to assume maybe, like, a San Diego probably had.
00:09:30
Speaker
Like, but I don't know. did Did Chicago? This is something I, like, because I just kind of was walking around in my head of, like, oh, it's the canonical tamale man. But...
00:09:42
Speaker
Is it like, are there others? ah So tonight's quest quest, our quest quest is in uncovering the original Tamale Man.
The Longevity of Iconic Radio Shows
00:09:51
Speaker
The League of Tamale Men.
00:09:53
Speaker
Yeah. My report begins...
00:09:58
Speaker
yeah Five years ago, this american life was i was on a steamer ship bound to Morocco when I he entered into quite a scintillating conversation with known author Mark Twain.
00:10:15
Speaker
he began so my actual name is samuel clemens and i grew up on a on a on a steamboat on the mississippi um you have to you have to always join those interviews already in progress like you can yeah i mean that's that's the format absolutely absolutely and then if it's like real radio ah like you know there's like kind of like you hear like a ah but like a clink clink Yeah. you know If it's radio lab, you have like some really annoying sound effects and over processing layered on top of it. Also, that's right. We're putting you on notice this American life radio lab. Does radio lab still exist?
00:10:51
Speaker
I don't know. haven't listened to in like every now and again. I'm like, Oh, this American life. And then I, I'm like, Because I had a period, as I think we all did, i mean, maybe, like, where I intensely listened to American life.
00:11:06
Speaker
Like, I think probably, like, the first two or three hundred episodes, I know back to front. Yeah. And then I was like, all right, I've had enough. And then, like, every, like, five years, I'm like, oh, this American life, that still exists. And then it's like, and I look at it's like, now celebrating 800 to 1,000, I don't know how many episodes it has now, but it's, I'm like, holy shit.
00:11:28
Speaker
America only has like 400 interesting stories. Yeah.
Gaming Highlights: Overwatch and Rosewater
00:11:33
Speaker
Uh, you know, and there's one story I want to get out of you, Jess. Yeah. The story of what have you been playing?
00:11:42
Speaker
Wow, Ben. I'd like to come in here with a hot new game that's going excite and titillate all the listeners. Was it Overwatch? It's going Overwatch. But you see, Ben, the thing is, I've been playing more of Blizzard. Was it really? Yeah, I was. It's going to be. I wish I had a better game, but I i haven't had a lot of time to game him this week. And when I did, ah played Overwatch.
00:12:07
Speaker
And let me tell you, accomplished maybe one of the greatest gaming accomplishments of my lifetime this week in Overwatch, and I'm very proud of it.
00:12:19
Speaker
They have launched a new mode in Overwatch, which is called Stadium Mode. And the whole idea is it's a five versus five best of seven series of small maps.
00:12:31
Speaker
But between maps, you earn cash and can use them to upgrade and tweak and personalize all of your characters. So now there's a progression system in Overwatch. So you can make your character do all kinds of freaky new powers and stuff.
00:12:46
Speaker
So that's exciting. Do they call new modes in Overwatch, uh, mode for watches? No, they call them Move Overwatch because there's a brand new mode to play now. Yeah, there's a new mode in town. Yeah, that's right.
00:13:03
Speaker
But no, here's the thing. They had achievement in the game that if you could beat this mode with every hero in the game,
00:13:15
Speaker
you got this achievement. How many heroes are there? In this mode, I think there are maybe 18 out of the 40 or so are represented. So a lot of these are DPS heroes. I can't aim. I'm not young enough and spry enough to play damage roles.
00:13:33
Speaker
You're here in DPS days or behind you, Jess? I never had DPS days. there was never I've always been support. You never had a DPS? Yeah, no, that's right. That's right. But I did it, Ben. I beat it with all those characters. It's unthinkable. Some of these characters I had less than like 10 and 15 minutes on before I got in and started trying to grind out these victories. And now I've unlocked this tiny little challenge that doesn't matter in any sort of way, but I know I did it.
00:14:02
Speaker
And Ben, sometimes that's why you play video games is that sense of accomplishment. and I have it, and I'm going to lord it over anyone ever meet that actually has played Overwatch in the future, which there's a good chance that won't happen.
00:14:17
Speaker
It's a pretty popular game. I thought you'd be more impressed. I guess what I'm not getting right now is like I was really hoping there'd be a lot more like, great job, Jess, or you know, you should be really proud yourself. I'm gonna be honest, Jess, I don't understand a single word he just said.
00:14:31
Speaker
Yeah, well, i mean, you don't have to. just i'm sure there's some listeners. Sometimes when you talk about Overwatch, when people talk about the podcast and the Discord, they're they're like, oh, yeah, good job, Jess.
00:14:45
Speaker
You did. Let me say this. Let me say, like, imagine you're a flippy ninja guy and like you're cyber ninja. Yeah, and you have like shurikens that you can throw at people and do like flips and climb walls. And you have a katana that you can use for like finishing blows and stuff like that. got it. like But you are very weak. Like a few hits will just kill you.
00:15:08
Speaker
You have to somehow flip in and out of all of these opponents and hit them with your little tiny throwing. Some of these people have like rocket hammers and you had literal rocket launchers and all kinds of some of them are just magical.
00:15:23
Speaker
But you have like just some throwing stars and a little blade and like four health. And I did all the flips necessary to win round with that little flippy Cyber Ninja.
00:15:35
Speaker
It wasn't easy, Ben. How long did this take you? How long did this take you? It's not important how long things take or what one does with one's days. What is more embarrassing? That it didn't take you that long and you're just claiming that it was impressive, but it wasn't? Or are you not saying it because it took way, way, way too long?
00:15:57
Speaker
The ladder. It took way, way, way too long. And lots of grinding. And I will admit, on two of those characters, two of those damaged characters, the only reason I won was because someone else on the other team left, and it became a five versus four. So it didn't matter how badly I stunk. I could be just like twiddling my thumbs, and that match was going to be a win. So those are those have a Thunderbolts-esque asterisk aside. I see. I see.
00:16:22
Speaker
But you know, we've heard enough about Overwatch on this podcast. I'll never bring it up again. That's my vow to the listener. I think I've heard that vow at least to on two other occasions. well Well, we'll see, Ben, won't we? We'll just see. ben what have you been playing?
00:16:36
Speaker
I've been playing this game. You might have heard of it. It's called Rosewater. Oh Rosewater I've been Playing this game exclusively on my Steam Deck on my couch And and like with the Steam Deck click to my TV.
00:16:54
Speaker
So just with like an Xbox controller And like I've played
00:17:02
Speaker
Uh, like some, like I played locomotive a little bit, uh, uh, like using a controller, but this is like the first, I think like AGS designed, like, like kind of traditional point and click straightforward game made with a mouse in mind that I'm playing sitting on my couch, uh, with a game pad.
00:17:28
Speaker
And you know what? It actually feels great. yes It's a cozy game. I'm getting such a cozy vibe out off of Rosewater. But it might just be that I'm playing it like like just completely collapsed on my couch.
00:17:46
Speaker
i mean, that sounds lovely. Sitting next to me. And I'm having a great time I think the only adventure games I've ever played on the couch with a controller were probably the two Monkey Island Special Editions.
00:18:00
Speaker
ah When they came out for Xbox Live, i think I bought both of them there and played them from the couch. I will say it's a lovely way to experience an adventure game. It's ah it's a different, it has a different feel.
00:18:12
Speaker
Yeah. It has a different feel, I think, also not only being on the couch, but also... There's a different way that i I interact or like take in something if it's on a monitor than if it's on my TV. you if you If you get me, right? Yeah, you're more locked in on a monitor in a way that like I feel monopolizes more of your attention. Not always in a great way. it depends on the game. I think that some games require that lock in and maybe others don't.
00:18:42
Speaker
I'm going to disagree in that. Watching it or like playing it on the TV, I'm more tolerant of cutscenes. Oh, interesting. TVs are for watching. TVs are for watching. Computers are for for doing.
00:18:57
Speaker
TVs are for watching. And so there's like a lot of dialogue in an adventure game. A lot of people conversing, some cutscenes and stuff like that. and I'm just sitting there and I'm like... this is This is a television. It's for watching.
00:19:10
Speaker
You know, we probably should, for listeners who may not be familiar with Rosewater, tell them what this game is.
00:19:30
Speaker
It is... You are
00:19:34
Speaker
You're working for a newspaper and while tracking down a story for that newspaper, you get involved in this very like this, this kind of grand adventure to find this old man's gold.
00:19:51
Speaker
Oh. And- By the legend of Curly's gold? It is about the legend of Curly's gold. Wow. I didn't want to... This is, you know what, I'm kind of ruining all of Rosewater for everyone, but it is actually... The big twist of Rosewater is that it's a licensed game.
00:20:10
Speaker
But it's the rare licensed game where that's a surprise. Where you're playing it and it pretends that it's an original property, and then it's revealed to be the adventure game version of The Legend of Curly's Gold, City Slickers 2.
00:20:31
Speaker
and it was weird i mean i should have known when francisco got billy crystal uh like he has been talking about all the actors that he got i know i know that that should have been the first clue but no everyone be sure to go check out rosewater uh it's only been out now for a few weeks uh yeah ben how many uh rosewaters out of five you give it Uh, I give it one gallon of rose water.
00:20:57
Speaker
i would give it a 10 gallon hat of rose water. But yeah, I'm really enjoying it. I'm enjoying all the the characters. like um And,
00:21:09
Speaker
you know, I also have been playing, and I was talking to you about this before, Jess, the game that we're going to talk about next week.
Exploring King's Quest III
00:21:15
Speaker
And I played it all day today, and I'm so excited for next week's episode. But let's talk about today's.
00:21:24
Speaker
i know i mean yeah let's just buzz on past this one and talk about how great next week's episode is going to be yeah let's let's talk about how great but anyway no uh folks uh today ah is it's uh 10 episodes i believe after our last episode talking about this series we are now returning to king's quest with king's quest three uh to air is human
00:21:53
Speaker
did they uh redo the title on uh the the remake like they did when agd interactive redid king's quest 3 it now just becomes king's quest 3 redux colon to air is human anyway we're talking about king's quest 3 tear is human romancing the stones quest for the crown Because it's one of those, with each subsequent King's Quest, they just add to the previous King's Quest title.
00:22:27
Speaker
Did you know that? so unwieldy by the end of it. Yeah, I mean, yeah. The Mask of Eternity, colon, The Princess Bride. Colon. Colon. um is king's quest six oh no i just played this shit uh yeah come on uh i know five i like absence makes the heart go yonder's five yeah i know shit i don't want air today gone tomorrow air today gone tomorrow okay uh colon absence makes the the heart uh grow fun what go yonder go yonder call on the perils of rosella which kind of draws outside of the lines of like or is that a play on words the perils i think there's the perils of pauline is uh isn't that a thing that yeah maybe that's it uh calling perils of pauline was a 1933 serial
00:23:20
Speaker
ah So yeah, it sounds really good. I bet a lot of kids who were into 1930s American, uh, cereals. Uh, we're probably into adventure cereals.
00:23:35
Speaker
Uh, but anyway, um, romance quest three and how do you feel like ben let's lay our cards on the table king's quest three all right so i this one is going to be another one where i'm kind of talking to you about your experience with it i think because i think there's a lot of surprise about king's quest three and when i played king's quest three i knew spoilers if you're you know like assume this is all spoilers um if if that's something you sincerely care about for a game from what 1986 yes 20 years ago
00:24:12
Speaker
that's over twenty years ago yeah i think it's just about 20 years ago it's roughly 20 years yeah i think 1986 is 20 years ago um uh but uh as we record this yeah yeah when we record this so uh but anyway i knew when i played it that he was alexander i knew that like my actual My actual thing with King's Quest III is that I found it way, way, way too stressful and scary as a kid.
00:24:44
Speaker
This is a real thing. I think this is a experience a lot of people share. I i found it so stressful and scary ah as a kid that I never ah ah completed it because i like it was just stressing me out so much.
00:25:04
Speaker
um and like the timer and all of that. um So that was always, i was always just like, and yeah and in terms of where the stress comes, I think, I mean, I'm guessing a lot of our listeners know what King's Quest three is all about. you Yeah. What's the, yeah. What's the plot? What's the, you're, you're Gwydian, a young slave boy who lives in the home of a wizard by the name of Mananon.
00:25:28
Speaker
ah You toil under Mananon, ah day in day out doing chores around his house and little do you know at the beginning of the game you are actually a young Prince Alexander ah the son of King Graham and Queen Valenice of Daventry you were kidnapped as an infant babe taken to Luludor ah where you've been held captive by this wizard. And then as the game unfolds, you learn magic and eventually defeat this wizard and go off in search of your true heritage.
00:26:03
Speaker
it and And the stress comes in. I think there are two areas that that lend to this stress because yeah I know this is something I felt playing it. It's something I know you felt. Other people who have commented and chats while I've played King's Quest III mentioned this as well. On the one hand,
00:26:18
Speaker
manana and we'll go off on journeys uh during which time gwydian can gather scale spell components and sneak down to his secret laboratory and start brewing up various uh spells and things as a child i did not realize he is on a set timer even though there's a clock on the screen there's a clock on the screen but i never paid close enough attention just like oh it's just a clock have fun Yeah, I didn't realize he was leaving in like five or 10 or 15 minute increments or whatever it is.
00:26:47
Speaker
So for me, I thought it was just completely random. I thought it was a game where at any moment this wizard could appear, say something like, why do you have my wand in your pocket? and And just kill you game over right away. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
00:26:59
Speaker
The other thing I think that stresses a lot of people out is the copy protection. ah To brew these spells up to concoct them. you have to type in word for word every step of those spells. What happens if you don't get it exactly right? What happens if you put in a word? Like if you like put ah the wrong letter in, does it just say, Oh, a mistake. Check your spelling.
00:27:23
Speaker
yeah no yeah yeah what happens at that point is it's again game over usually there's some sort of wacky you cast this spell incorrectly effect like if you're trying to cast the i want to be able to understand the speech of animals and you get something slightly wrong it'll make gwydian's ears turn giant and i guess he dies from giant ears uh that point well it's happened they have a new cousin um really yeah yeah I don't like to talk.
00:27:50
Speaker
Well, he was he was doing spells in his basement lab, and um he mistyped the spell, and then he got big ears, and then he just fell over and died.
00:28:03
Speaker
Well, i mean, the weight of the ears is an issue. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. People think that if your ears were big, it'd just be, like, kind of inconvenient. No. No, yeah, not these if you lay down your side, it can crush your skull.
00:28:17
Speaker
Yeah, that's right. They're made out of heavy bone. um Now there are more bones in the air than any other part of the body. So you get big ears. So it's a lot of big bones. I watched today to prepare for this. I watched a full long play of ah of it, like just straight through to kind of refresh me ah for me.
00:28:38
Speaker
And I have a question for you. So you played this and beat it as a kid, correct? Yes. By yourself, like, well, like without hints? Without hints.
00:28:49
Speaker
but i Like with your neighbor? or no like this Yeah, this is one I played ah with with my neighbor and friend Andy growing up. And we eventually beat this one. It took a little while. This wasn't what one that came quickly to me. But we we polished it off without any help.
00:29:08
Speaker
That's crazy to me. One, two, i like I have this question for you. I know you like, if you're ever cooking something, if you're ever in the kitchen and you look at a recipe, does this pop into your head?
00:29:22
Speaker
Now,
00:29:26
Speaker
why would this induce anxiety? I don't get, I don't understand. Like, why would this be? But it's also just the tune. Like you're, because the first half of it, is also just writing down the the recipe stuff.
00:29:41
Speaker
Like it's like, you know, use feather on, you know, like stir feather in mortar, do this and that. So it's a recipe thing. And then you write the full incantation.
00:29:52
Speaker
yes that's why i was like you know it's like risk it's intense no i mean that that is the the sort of whatever the equivalent of a sleep paralysis demon might be that is my like music that plays in my head i'm in the midst of a very stressful situation i mean this game did scar me a tiny bit as kid i think it's the first game i ever had
00:30:15
Speaker
nightmare about i think it's the first game that ever gave me a stress dream as a kid i love a good stress dream i try to have at least one stress dream every night yeah they're they're good they're good for you yeah that's right that's right but and like all stress it keeps you on your toes uh especially yeah when you're laying on your back that's right that's that's the best time to be on your toes when you least expect it that's right um there is There's one thing that really jumped out at me, and I remember also you commenting on this when you you played, and we're talking about like the the original version. We'll talk about the remake, which you played recently in a little bit.
00:30:52
Speaker
There's one thing that really made me laugh ah when I was re-watching it today,
00:31:00
Speaker
which was i forgot about the very odd swings in tone the narration, which is unique to this game.
00:31:15
Speaker
Like the AGI games in general, and i don't think we talked about this, have kind of ah particular... authorial flair in ah the dialogue. And in some games, it's a little heavier. And in others, it's it's it's not as present.
00:31:37
Speaker
And like, and this isn't the tone in all of the the narration boxes, but this is the tone in enough that it really jumped out to me, which is, it's like, so here's one.
00:31:48
Speaker
You run a hand along the top of the closet. Suddenly, you touch something metallic. Grabbing it, you discover ellipses. A small brass key. What could it unlock?
00:31:59
Speaker
Yes. Like, i love i love that. Like, I don't know. It's it's kind of funny to me. ah Here's another one. i i Nothing like a little salt air to perk up a boy's spirits.
00:32:15
Speaker
Like, this is when you're on the the the the pirate ship. Yeah. That was one Now, ah this is where were. I remember when you were streaming ah the original last year, ah there were a lot of laughs. First off,
00:32:38
Speaker
uh this is so this is from when you rescue rosella at the end of the game first off rosella is very busty yes like she is the second bestiest character in this game she's stacked but it's the two women oh yeah this game literally really the only other woman alanine's are very busty in this game, which is very funny. All right.
00:33:06
Speaker
Anyway, so here's all of the dialogue when you rescue Rosella. So you are seeing for the very first time in your life, your sister after being a captive.
00:33:18
Speaker
I'll explain it all later. You continue realizing that this, that now is not the time for this. Just follow me. Let's go meet the folks. With mixed emotion, the girl agrees to follow you. It's kind of weird. like Let's go meet the folks.
00:33:34
Speaker
all right, now this is when ah you you two ah see the the castle in the distance. We make a note that like you kind of see Daventry and it looks really terrible now.
00:33:45
Speaker
yeah Here's home, yeah krista ah you krista your sister cries in delight. Mom and dad will be so happy.
00:33:56
Speaker
Now, mom and dad did just sacrifice her to a three headed dragon also. So there's that element that makes this all very odd. Here's another. yippee. You did it. Your majesty.
00:34:08
Speaker
there's a lot of exclamation points and liberal usage of, uh, uh, all caps. Uh, Oh, they ah this is ah has a typo in it. It's missing ah a quote, but whatever.
00:34:22
Speaker
So there's not a quote that says, oh, yippee, you did it, your majesty. And then I assume that there's supposed to be like an end quote and it doesn't do that. The gnome squeals in delight. Or maybe the gnome said that.
00:34:33
Speaker
Wow, the gnome squilled in blood. you could save us all. King Graham and Queen Valenice will be so overjoyed to see you two. He claps his gnarled hands. will just run ahead to announce your arrival.
00:34:46
Speaker
The gnome spryly scampers towards the castle. this It wasn't until this later version of the AGI engine that Sierra could include so many adverbs in a text bar. Like now now we have the ability to have like roughly three times as many adjectives and adverbs in any given text box. So you can really see them showing it off here. Yeah, they were having a lot of fun i'll also know one of my very favorite things so the the game ends with king graham tossing off his adventurer's cap uh-oh what will happen cliffhanger who who knows of the two uh kids what will happen i'm sure this will pay off in an interesting way in the next game
00:35:25
Speaker
um but so that's how the game ends the ah there's a dialogue box and it's the end and then like a line dash so an empty line and then just three centered question marks oh wow yeah well what happened next it's hard to say hard to say anything yeah what's going to happen next i'm i need to know Well, there's good news, Ben. We'll fill in that blank in a few more episodes.
00:35:55
Speaker
But yeah, I had to, I just had to call out As I said, the some of the AGI games have this tone in them, but it's especially noticeable in King's Quest 3, at least when I was... i was like It is an enthusiastic narrator at some level. And, you know, I do think that speaks to one of the biggest things that leapt out about King's Quest 3 for me when I played it for the first time in a really long time ah last year.
00:36:29
Speaker
Which is, is such, like by leaps and bounds, a step beyond what we see in King's Quest 1 and King's Quest 2. Oh yeah. I mean, this is in terms of narrative, in terms of story and some actual character development, the mechanics of the game by the time you add in spellcasting and the whole wizard coming and going on a schedule.
00:36:54
Speaker
Everything about this one, the fact that you change locations in a pretty major way, you go from little door to the pirate ship and eventually back to Daventry, whereas the previous games had largely taken place kind of in one locale, at least up until the end, I guess, of King's Quest two, when you go through the final door or or whatever.
00:37:15
Speaker
But I feel like this is a game that is really a huge leap forward for the series in kind of every way. And I think that's what really impressed me about it. I mean, there's lots to love here. By this point, Sierra had gotten very good with AGI art.
00:37:32
Speaker
There's some really gorgeous scenes in this game. ah Music is still not really a big part of what's going on here, right? I mean, this is... ah you guys That KQ3 opening tune is very good, though.
00:37:43
Speaker
It is very good. It is. And again, it's it's an improvement on what's come before. But, you know, you mentioned earlier when you first played this that you knew from the start that Gwydian was actually Prince Alexander. Yeah, so I wanted to ask you this. How did you feel about about this as a kid?
00:38:02
Speaker
Now you see, there were lots of good clues. You know, the title of the game, for instance, to err as human and would suggest that there's some sort of error involved in this.
00:38:13
Speaker
The fact that it's still a King's Quest game. Mysteries. I was a dumb kid when I played this. I was 10 or ah probably 10 years old, I think.
00:38:24
Speaker
um I did not see it coming. And it really was when the Oracle tells you of your true identity. it was like jaw on the floor for little Jess. I did not see this coming and it blew my mind. I was just like, I didn't know you could have a twist like this in a video game. Was it like finding out that Samus is actually a girl?
00:38:44
Speaker
Less hot. um But yeah, it was a lot like that. um and And suddenly I could also be like, oh, I actually care about this kid now. I didn't care if he lived or died before.
00:38:55
Speaker
But now that I know that he's part of the Daventry Royal family, yeah Now that you know that he has royal blood, you care about him. That's right. That's right. I realize he's capable of great things. Yeah. Before he was just some nobody with a stolen wand.
00:39:08
Speaker
But now, now I know he can accomplish anything. He had it in him all along. And by it, I mean, royal privilege. Yeah. The, um, I talked about this when we, we talked about King's quest two, I think, which is that,
00:39:25
Speaker
like so now you kind of see it like to your point like this is way more narrative focused uh than the the other ones and this is it's really funny this and four are like really transitions they're they're squishy transition games between like the first two games are a little more like here's a big open space and here's like kind of these couple tasks yeah you can do in whatever order um ah
00:39:56
Speaker
not really the case in two, but you kind of, you understand what I'm saying there. Yeah. And then this has that, except that it still has, like, it's really funny to me.
00:40:07
Speaker
Like it has one of the the notes that i I took when I was watching And here's a ah question I have for you. Is there an AGI i game that has as detailed and as cohesive a setting as Mananin's castle?
00:40:26
Speaker
Oh man, that's a great question. Because it's like there big central locations like in the Dark Crystal you're wandering around that castle forever. That's like enormous and just a lot of it is nothing.
00:40:37
Speaker
ah Black Cauldron, right? or Yeah, yeah, Black Cauldron. Same difference. um but ah But like in this, you know, every room is detailed and like it really has a very definitive sense of space.
00:40:56
Speaker
yeah And that's one thing I really love about this game. And like when I think about how it's kind of focused in comparison, ah like to its predecessors, but then it's really funny. You have this really cohesive space that the man in inhabits and he has an evil cat in.
00:41:16
Speaker
And then like you just kind of wander around and ah the like in the Goldilocks story is there and ah there's just a Medusa.
00:41:28
Speaker
Yeah, hanging out in the desert. There's just like a Medusa in the desert. where Maybe the Medusa. I don't know. it just seems like a Medusa, right? It seems like more of a Medusa.
00:41:40
Speaker
Yeah, no, I mean, I do love this. I mean, you're absolutely right about Manan's house. Like I was trying to think of other locations in Syria is like the Hall's asteroid in Space Quest 2 is largely copy and pasted in terms of design. It doesn't make a lot of logical sense and how you move around it you know, Mananin's house really does feel like a coherent space in a way. That's right.
00:42:08
Speaker
I would say as weird as it is that you mishmash, you know, again, Goldilocks and a little town and a Medusa area and all that. I do like the element that you can see parts of Lul'dor from up on top of the mountains and the map.
00:42:26
Speaker
You have the magic map that allows you to move around and seeing those screens sort of oriented together. Yep. The whole first part of the game really feels like a real space. and Yeah. And that's something think comes up in a lot of our episodes when we talk about games. Is that yeah something that we both respond, I think, pretty positively to. Right.
00:42:45
Speaker
but it feels like a real lived in kind of game world as ridiculous as this one is sometimes again three bears goldilocks uh that goes a long way toward making one of these games charming exactly like and uh You know, yeah, that's that's something I always like in these is is this feeling of, you know, it's like, yeah, you're and from the first scene, like the first screen that you have, like ah control, you're standing outside of the Manannins castle.
00:43:15
Speaker
You'd see the dock. You could see little town, you know? Yeah. Like you could see that there. But I love one of the things I noticed ah about the shop in the town is that it's kind of like an 18th century or like a 18th, 19th century store.
00:43:35
Speaker
It is. You notice that? It looks it could have been like taken from Gold Rush at some level. Because like there's a clerk there. So it's like a ah kind of a old timey general store where there's a counter and behind the counter are several shelves with stuff.
00:43:56
Speaker
And there's a ah clerk who is ah bald with hair on the sides. And he has like a white shirt with those little black, like thing.
00:44:07
Speaker
what What are almost like garters? Yeah. Like your arms. Yeah. uh armeders i yeah you know what they are like the thing that's like a bartender he's like wearing a gray vest over a white shirt right like he very much has like he also maybe yeah a bartender he might be a like a blackjack dealer looks like he could be in the opening of uh cheers like in the photos like in the opening credits of cheers yes this whole thing could be out of that uh
00:44:38
Speaker
but we Now, no, we're not talking about present day cheers, which is to say 1980s cheers. We're talking about all the photos of cheers from days past. I know this is going to be a very like easily like conjured image for those of you who are listening to this right now. It's not like the show cheers.
00:44:56
Speaker
It's like the old photos in the intro to the show cheers. Right? Yeah. yeah the again the style is kind of all over the place i mean the bandits tree house is oh then there's just pirates yeah there's some pirates here too when does king's a yeah it's an abominable snowman i'm sorry let me walk that back don't want to offend anyone in the community yeah uh when does like what is what what period of fantasy like analog is king's quest
00:45:32
Speaker
Like, because like there weren't pirates in like medieval times. yeah Yeah. Like there weren't like jousts. And then also like, and when I say, yes, there were probably people doing crimes on the ocean.
00:45:46
Speaker
Yeah. we're Were there like Jolly Roger? no uh pirates that's more of like a new world thing correct yeah that's like yeah that you'd have to play sid meyer's pirates to learn more about that yeah but no i mean this is like in my head king's quest is happening in like a classic medieval fantasy setting it is like in the same kind of setting that you might imagine like a default dungeons and dragons campaign this like a forgotten realm
00:46:18
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that yeah um that's where I put this. So yeah, anytime that King's Quest sort of steps outside of that, it's ah it's always interesting to me. Like even, you know, jumping ahead a few games, I love ah the the town in Serenia by the time you get to King's Quest V. But even it seems just slightly more modern than than I imagine the series based on like- It's a little, it is a little bit,
00:46:47
Speaker
like like pre-victorian yeah and i mean yeah i mean dracula is the most victorian creature imaginable outside like a sherlock holmes or a jack the ripper and he's there in king's quest 2g yeah this this is all over the place um this mean even at some point have possibly Rogers escape pod from the Arcata crash right into that moat. Now you got futuristic elements. What King Graham got ahold of that technology? anyway Wait, wait, wait, wait, hold on, Jess. Who, wait, who but showed up in the previous, what monster showed up in the previous game?
00:47:22
Speaker
Does that say Dracula?
00:47:33
Speaker
Oh my God. That Apple two GS version of that. It's so good. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then if he gets you... Now, i mean, we shouldn't talk too much about King's Quest 2, but if he gets you, then you get a wonderful slurp sound effect. It's like...
00:47:52
Speaker
I mean, it's amazing. It is amazing. And is there anything as good as that in King's Quest 3? Maybe not. I don't know. But overall, for me, King's Quest 3 is probably the better game. Now, something that did leap out at me as I played this last summer and then played the remake just ah just a week or so ago, this is a game that barely has puzzles in it.
00:48:17
Speaker
yeah like the puzzles are mostly just putting together spells and knowing when to use them it's a well it's like kind of a treasure hunt you're finding stuff that's right yeah i mean there's a puzzle and it's like you show a mirror to medusa like let's say like kind of the fairy tale like medusa isn't a fairy tale but like that's i mean she's real yeah she is real um medusas are real uh uh but um Like, yeah, I mean, you know, it is a lot of a scavenger hunt and of course an arcade action ah sequence.
00:48:53
Speaker
um yeah where why What am I wryly referring to? Let's see. Arcade action sequence. Are we talking ah about here?
00:49:06
Speaker
gosh, what is the arcade action? Are we talking about referring to the exiting and entering the castle? Oh, yeah, that element of it. Yeah. I mean, you have this amazing, know, the Manhattan's house sits atop a ah mountain with a windy, difficult to navigate narrow pathway that time includes blind turns because you walk behind rock of rock. Yeah. Yeah.
00:49:34
Speaker
Character isn't visible fully on screen. So you have to kind of guess where the path may ah may twist through that. This was something I mean, again, maybe that's the third element that makes this a stressful game is you have to do a lot of walking up and down that treacherous path.
00:49:52
Speaker
And there's a good chance, even after you've gotten good at doing it over the course of the game. There's a decent chance every time you step onto it, you may fall. It is so... i mean, if you're riding the clock in KQ3 and you're wrapping up and you have to get all the way up it... Because the thing is is that you get a magic map that lets you ah travel to any any anywhere, but...
00:50:22
Speaker
on top of the mountain, it always delivers you at the bottom of the mountain. Oh, it's brutal. It's brutal. I remember the first time I got that magic map and I was like, I'll never have to go up and down that path again.
00:50:33
Speaker
then the rude awakening of realizing that. I mean, this, this scene, it kind of, i guess in a funny way, this scene more than any other single scene is what inspired stair quest when uh when i set out to make that game even though these aren't stairs technically it's just a winding path um this was the scene that like technically you know what i'm gonna have to ask you to cancel stair quest just get rid of it please what what but it's because uh this is technical you were inspired and these weren't stairs this is ridiculous i want my money back what what was i supposed to call it like mountain path quest yes
00:51:18
Speaker
we i mean we recreated this level at some level you did some we recreated this level at some level in a level that we called brown mountain uh was the uh was the name of that level internally and we added the element that one point as your character walks around the level just a giant boulder falls out of the sky possibly crushing you uh because we were like this this doesn't feel unfair enough already but no This was a hallmark, of course, of these early King's Quest games. it would really end with King's Quest 4.
00:51:48
Speaker
or That would be the last one to really have difficult, you know, again, they are practically arcade sequences of having to navigate around these sorts of spaces, but In hindsight, I find it kind of charming. It's such a bizarre design choice.
00:52:03
Speaker
I can't help but be like, all right, you know, sure. that The idea that people just walk along paths that are several feet wide and just go careening off them occasionally.
00:52:14
Speaker
Why not? Yeah, that can be fine. So... so I'm really intrigued by this, it that it's not really ah game with like puzzles or that many puzzles. It's a because it's, it's like a survival game.
00:52:30
Speaker
It is like, you learn the schedule and you learn the locations of everything. ah And then ah how to do it. And then you like, and then,
00:52:43
Speaker
you have to navigate because this does have like, so it has that path out of ah the castle, but then it has the stairs, which a cat might be on. it has i climbing the mountain, ah which is the, like in the back half after you defeat Mananon.
00:53:02
Speaker
yeah ah You said this a bunch when you were streaming it. ah Like you, you said that when you would replay it, You would stop after defeating Mananin as a kid. is that Is that correct? That was the part of the game that I liked most. I loved this element of just going around this world, gathering all these spell components. It was like a checklist. Your instruction manual told you all the components.
00:53:28
Speaker
So it was like a shopping list. I would just go out and get all these components one by one, put together all the spells. I would turn Mananin into a cat, which is how you defeat him. And then usually for me, that was all I wanted to play. Like I found the pirate ship element and then the journey back to Daventry much less interesting. i don't know why. which i think the game kind of loses. I think that front half of the game is so and much better than the back half.
00:53:55
Speaker
You know, as we're talking about this, almost feel like King's Quest 3 has something in common with like a police quest game and that the procedural element is such a big part of what you do. The idea that you have processes you have to complete correctly in order to proceed more so than a puzzle where you trade one item to somebody to get another item to solve a problem that you're facing.
00:54:22
Speaker
It almost, you know, and there's something i think for my slightly OCD brain that really appreciates that sort of approach to puzzle this design. I mean, what I always liked to do as a kid was just see if I could get everything I needed to turn banana into a cat during his first outing.
00:54:42
Speaker
Like it became like a little speed run challenge for me. Did you did he watch the ah One Short Eye on ah King's Quest III? I did at some point. It's been a little while. but That one's a lot of fun because it is ah pain in the ass the street or to speed race.
00:54:58
Speaker
ah Yeah. yeah Speed race. Speed racer. you You got hop in your Mach 5. You got to head a little door.
00:55:08
Speaker
i guy in the Nobody can see that. i just did the cool speed racer post. I saw it. I loved it. It was very cool. i think it's the main thing we want to take away from that. But yeah. Have you seen that movie? You've seen that movie, right? I haven't seen that movie and i need to. Dude, you gotta see it. hear it's wonderful.
00:55:23
Speaker
It's a really good movie. Yeah. It might be my favorite Wiskowski movie. Wow. Love that movie. I've got tickets ah to go see you for the first time.
00:55:34
Speaker
ah The Wiskowski's, I think, first movie, Bound, with a Q&A from Lily Wiskowski afterwards. That sounds fantastic.
00:55:45
Speaker
I'm really excited. Unless I don't like it. But I think I'll probably like it. you don't like it, that's the perfect opportunity, though, to express that. Oh, and when one of the directors is there. Because, I mean, they aren't going to get better unless they get honest feedback.
00:56:02
Speaker
That's true. It's about time, ah you know, so like, ah finally those Kazakies get feedback. that yeah Everyone has just treated all of their work with such kid gloves. up Yeah, that's right.
00:56:16
Speaker
thanks Wow. So, yeah we were talking about King's Quest three, I think. I think so. yeah But we could have also been talking about I think I need to get new blinds.
00:56:34
Speaker
Like my blinds are fine, but, you know, they have like the cords and it just makes me nervous, you know? Yeah. That'll, I mean, with cats. Yeah. With cats. I mean, we have, I mean, speaking of blinds and, uh, and King's quest three, we have uh, a ah shop here in, uh, in the town where I live that sells blinds and window treatments.
00:56:57
Speaker
And their name is the blind wizard. And they just have like a wizard mascot guy who I guess sells you Venetian blinds for your, uh, for your windows and everything. So,
00:57:09
Speaker
much like banana and he has mastered the dark arts only he's channeled his abilities into you know interior decorating sun shading other sorts of uh of talents like that that's how he spec'd all his points the blind wizard the blind wizard but anyway ah do so so we were talking also about like do you think and i got kind of this sense like Is the back half like kind of an afterthought?
00:57:42
Speaker
Like, is it like, because that first part is so cohesive and all of Ludor is like this really cohesive part. And then it's like, you're in a pirate ship and then you like climb around some mountains and then, oh my God, it's like, you just so happen to come across this.
00:57:58
Speaker
Your sister. Yeah. he' like I mean, an entire kingdom. Now, great. Daventry is a pretty small kingdom, but you are pretty fortunate in that regard. Like the vibe I get, like to me, the pirate ship sort of feels like an act too. And it's horribly underdeveloped. There's a lot of waiting. There's a lot of hanging out.
00:58:17
Speaker
ah You know, there's there's not a lot going on to so really make it super engaging. And then the feeling always got as a kid playing it was that like once you set foot on Daventry, it almost becomes like the march to victory.
00:58:32
Speaker
Like it almost feels like you're taking this like victory lap. This is just you almost in like it almost feels like a montage. throw Yeah, yeah's right it's just a pleasant stroll through a few screens.
00:58:45
Speaker
you know, that ultimately leads you exactly where you need to go. you quickly defeat the, uh, the monster. And by that point, you're kind of also, if you're really thinking through this with, uh, with your puzzle brain, turn on, what are the steps to solving a puzzles? Like if we ask, uh, Mr. Puzzle, uh, I forget. It's like, look deduce or it's like observe uh deduce and like act or something like the symbol or so whatever it is i don't know i know by that point in the game as a kid i was like well the only two spells i haven't really used are invisibility and thunderstorm and it's like that's probably going to be how i beat this dragon so yeah
00:59:31
Speaker
this back end poses very little challenge it just sort of feels like him triumphantly strolling toward his cushy new bedroom at the palace is there um are there any so there are any red herring spells in the book i don't in loom there are uh red herring like there spells in the spell book i'm pretty sure in the book of patterns that uh that you never use if i i'm trying to remember do you need the talk to animals spell like is there any point at which that is necessary or is that more just like a charming
01:00:05
Speaker
little, uh, little opportunity to have, you know, find out what the chickens are saying about you behind your back, et cetera. I don't think that's necessary. I think it's just, yeah, but don't think there are any that go completely unused in any sort of way. So yeah, some level you get to the end there.
01:00:21
Speaker
You're what feels like the final scene. You kind of know right away what has to happen here. Yeah. This, a lot of this back end feels like an afterthought. I'm curious if that was the intention. Like if the bulk of the game was supposed to be what's happening in the little door,
01:00:35
Speaker
Or if it was just a you know, kind of like that meme that goes around with the sketch of the horse that starts out incredibly detailed and winds up as just like a very rough children's drawing of a horse.
01:00:49
Speaker
Yeah, well, you know, like it could have been time. There's part of me that just kind of wonders. it's It's like, did they even know how they wanted to end it? Or did they have this really great, you know, escape the wizard ah game? And then it was like, ah then he turns out to be Alexander.
01:01:09
Speaker
It's a good question. no I'm really not sure. But yeah, for me, again, when I played it the game might as well have ended when you boarded the ship. That was all I needed to do. It's like, yeah, he'll probably get to Daventry somehow from here. That's good enough for me.
01:01:25
Speaker
I don't know. I'm sure there are people who love some of the stuff on this backend. Like you have little scene where you're like crawling around on the cliff and everything. That's another fun arcade sequence. You're up in giants realm, except now there's a dragon.
01:01:39
Speaker
Yeah, that's right. yeah yeah i mean i wonder if they had even time to clean out in that 18 years uh the giant's body or if that had just you know like the dragon came in ate his giant bones i don't know they only addressed that we're we're we're towards the end of our discussion but we didn't talk too much about uh the the ag the uh remake redux Yeah, so you just
Review of King's Quest III Redux
01:02:07
Speaker
played that. What did you think of that?
01:02:09
Speaker
and And what were the different, like, 2 was like a totally different game yeah using, like, kind of the bones of 2. to What was this like? This one sticks much closer to the original. Now it adds, of course, VGA graphics, the point-and-click interface.
01:02:25
Speaker
Once again, some fantastic voice work. Josh Mandel has a brief appearance as Graham at the end of this thing, but you have... a voice for Gwydian slash Alexander that sounds convincingly like a younger version of Robbie Benson's performance as Alexander in King's Quest VI.
01:02:43
Speaker
The narrator that they used in King's Quest I II is once again Very professional, very you know very easy to listen to over the course of an entire game.
01:02:54
Speaker
um It's a game that looks great, sounds great. The music is is quite good. um Once again, they kind of stick pretty close to the original. There are a few little wrinkles here and there. For instance, one page of the spell book is missing and you have to complete a little puzzle ah to recover that.
01:03:13
Speaker
ah For some reason, they add ah the wandering minstrel, the bard. Yes. that you appears in King's Quest IV that Rosella meets. I'm assuming it's the same guy. It seems to be hinting that it is.
01:03:24
Speaker
um And you you have a little brief puzzle with him. Probably the area where we see the biggest divergence is on the pirate ship, which is good because this is the part of the game that needed something.
01:03:40
Speaker
You know, I would agree if I were looking at King's Quest III and trying to think about how do I make this a better game, figure out how to fix some of that, you know, maybe the act two and act three stuff is where I would go and act two in particular, because the pirate ship is just, it kills all momentum.
01:03:56
Speaker
There's so much momentum in this game, building up to escaping banana. And and then the pirate ship just slams on those breaks. You're just waiting there for like 14 minutes. That's right. Yeah. There's this long wait for land hoe before you get off in the AGD interactive version.
01:04:13
Speaker
on the pirate ship, there's a brief interlude where the pirates, uh, they, uh, they pull up on, uh, on treasure Island and they set, uh, Gwitty and ashore and tell him to brave all the booby traps and puzzles on his way to dig up a lost treasure.
01:04:32
Speaker
And it's pretty fun. I mean, these are just puzzly ass puzzles. They're very much just sort of environmental logic puzzle type things, uh, that, aren't that difficult that are pretty charming. And ultimately it adds a good 15 to 20 minutes of gameplay in a way that makes the pirate section seem like it belongs a little bit more justifies having a whole pirate bit. I feel like.
01:05:00
Speaker
Hmm. Now it does have a bit at the end where like you recover the treasure and it's like some lore stuff in there. There's some ancient spirit that shows up and he has all this lore dump. I mean, this is my one knock on the AGD interactive remakes in general, which I love is when they decide to go deep into lore for a series where I don't know that King's Quest needs a whole lot more lore than what's on screen. No, anything, the more you try to come with the lore explanation for what's going on in these games, I feel like the less sense it starts to make.
01:05:34
Speaker
So it does a little bit of that sort of stuff, but otherwise it sticks pretty close to the original, which makes sense. It didn't need the kind of maybe... fleshing out that King's Quest 2 arguably did. So yeah, this one stays pretty close, but it's still a great version to play. I mean, I know for some people out there, the text parser, um you know, the challenges of typing in all those spells, some of the navigating the mountain path, all those things we talked about that make this an annoying game.
01:06:03
Speaker
ah The VGA fan remake really fixes those. It also gives you a much clearer sense of when Mananin is returning. It will actually turn your clock first green yellow and yellow and red as like a warning. It's like you're getting close. you If you aren't back and have hidden all your stuff under the bed, you you'd better hurry. I mean, and that actually reminds me, that's something I wanted to mention.
01:06:27
Speaker
As a kid, this idea that as you gather spell components, if Mananin catches you with any of these spell components, it's game over right away. Yeah, it's a Don't Wake Daddy scenario. Yeah, it's a real Don't Wake Daddy scenario. hey They originally called Don't Wake Daddy, ah King's Quest 3, colon, Mananin, the board game, and then... um Colon, Romancing yeah yeah remember the Throne, colon, Quest for the Crown, yeah, as of the naming convention for the series. Right, right. and But ah unfortunately, Mattel did not go through the correct licensing channels, so...
01:07:01
Speaker
They instead went with a much more clunky and less memorable name. Don't wake daddy.
01:07:09
Speaker
Frankly is one of the biggest marketing boners of all time. I would say huge boner. um But yeah, um this element of hiding stuff under the bed.
01:07:23
Speaker
I love like as a kid, the notion that Gwydian is like hatching this plot and having to squirrel away all of these, you know, little atoms, including literally acorns at one point, squirreling away acorns, just like a squirrel.
01:07:39
Speaker
He's acorning away squirrels. but He's doing that too. At one point it's, it's troubling, but you know, everything about this, like just feels more,
01:07:50
Speaker
I don't know. It's so much. It feels like you're doing something. feels like you're doing something that a real person might do, which there's not a lot opportunity to do that. and he's quest one and two you know this graham very seldom has real person moments in either of those games he has adventure game protagonist moments and when gwydian's feeding chickens and dusting an office or in the the redex constantly making meals just porging up that wizard left and right yeah i know um
01:08:23
Speaker
Those sorts of things, hiding the spell components, having to you sneak around at some level. All of that just makes this feel so much more real than what we see in King's Quest 1 and 2, while still being a ridiculous fairy tale where Medusa can live like 150 yards away from Goldilocks. Yeah.
01:08:46
Speaker
Not far. Not far from like the bandits secret tree. The most beautiful waterfall. Yeah, and the most beautiful barmaid as well.
01:08:58
Speaker
Now, the the waterfall, I mean, I think we maybe mentioned this in our AGI episode, but the scene with the waterfall spilling down into a couple little pools, the the angle is shot from like within the waterfall. So the waterfall is kind in the foreground. It's it's there in Lulidor early in the game.
01:09:17
Speaker
I still think for my money, maybe... one of the most beautiful and most ambitious AGI scenes you're going find. Like, I think you probably have to go to like maybe a gold rush to find a much prettier scene than this.
01:09:32
Speaker
Yeah. I'm trying to think it is like that one. There's another waterfall later in the game that is also pretty cool. Yes, absolutely. Yeah. i mean this, the graphics in this game are on point for like what you imagine to be Sierra's you know, initial salvo of AGI games, King's Quest three is pretty hard to beat on a visual level.
01:09:56
Speaker
Yeah. So yeah, he's three. I love I will just say, i think this may be my favorite King's Quest game.
01:10:07
Speaker
Wow. Yeah, no, I'm willing to go that far in bed. I do think like, I don't know, you know, we'll probably eventually have to do a tournament bracket to know for sure.
01:10:20
Speaker
that's the only way to scientifically determine what we like and don't like. But ah think, I mean, i think it's like King's quest three. i think it's King's quest three for me. I think it's King's quest three. Then maybe King's quest five.
01:10:35
Speaker
five i really like i mean five even five five is riddled with problems i will be the first to admit this i think in terms of five of a game that charms me to death king's quest five is so charming and so nostalgic and just like a i think i connect so much of ah i can't believe computers can do this vibe with king's quest five that well what's your third my third oh man don't want to say it um it's best that don't because you'll just you'll just four no it's seven i get seven yeah i have messed up what do you have against six jesus christ six is probably next then four
01:11:24
Speaker
then two, then one. Six in the bottom half. Six in the bottom half. I know that is not a popular opinion, but famously, Ben, I only played King's Quest VI for the first time like last year. I just skipped that forever.
01:11:37
Speaker
I was like, I'm going to put that one on the back burner for a few decades. And I think I just didn't get a chance to get the same kind of emotional connection to it. But yeah, three is my favorite. I love this game. I don't know what it is.
01:11:49
Speaker
I mean, i've I think I've mentioned on the podcast before, yeah i Me and my friend tried to film like one afternoon like a little fan movie of King's Quest III, where we took his little rinky-dink camcorder out in his yard and tried to recreate King's Quest III as a little mini-movie.
01:12:09
Speaker
um That's how much I love this game. This was, for me, the... the you know, the ultimate, uh, as, as far as these early Sierra games went in a lot of ways, I think that it may be my favorite AGI yeah ah game, except of course for space quest to the funniest game ever made.
01:12:27
Speaker
Yeah, correct. All right. Well, folks, thank you so much for joining us as we discussed King's Quest 3. i Please leave us a review.
01:12:37
Speaker
A good one. It helps people find this. Five stars, etc. Do all that. You can send us an email at questquestpodcast at gmail.com. We'll read it at the start of the show.
01:12:50
Speaker
ah And you can watch us on ah our respective Twitches, PS underscore Garrick, Decaf Jedi. Also, those are our YouTubes.
01:13:02
Speaker
And finally, you can join us next week when we discuss Gumby, the adventure game, 58% less problematic than the Neverhood.
01:13:15
Speaker
Farewell.
01:13:51
Speaker
Bye.