King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow
Encyclopedia
King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow is the sixth installment in the King's Quest
series of adventure game
s produced by Sierra Entertainment
. Written by Roberta Williams
and Jane Jensen
, KQVI is widely recognized as the high point in the series for its in-depth plot, landmark 3D graphic introduction movie (created by Kronos Digital Entertainment
), and professional voice acting (Hollywood actor Robby Benson
provided the voice for Prince Alexander, the game's protagonist). KQVI was programmed in Sierra's Creative Interpreter
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
, 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 sudden disappearance of Prince Alexander, who is the heir of King Graham. King's Quest III: To Heir Is Human
also contained the word "heir" in its title and also featured Prince Alexander (then known as the slave Gwydion) as the main character.
when Alexander's father King Graham freed his family and the kidnapped princess from the wizard Mordack, but have not seen each other since. Alexander can't even find someone who's heard of the Green Isles let alone knows where it is. The magic mirror sends Alexander a vision of Cassima at her home in the far-off Land of the Green Isles, calling out for Alexander. Alexander sets sail for the Green Isles using the stars shown in the vision, but is shipwrecked in a storm. Alexander washes up onshore alone with nothing but the clothes on his back and some ship wreckage.
He soon learns that Cassima is being held prisoner in her castle by Abdul Alhazred
, (named after the author of the fictional Necronomicon
in the stories of H. P. Lovecraft
) the evil Vizier
of the Green Isles. Abdul has murdered the King and Queen and plans to force Cassima to marry him so that he can rule the Land of the Green Isles himself. Alexander must expose the Vizier's plot, stop the wedding, and free Cassima. Alexander also discovers that the islands of the kingdom are on the verge of war. Precious artifacts from each island have been stolen, and the different leaders all blame each other. Can he solve the mystery and restore peace to the kingdom? Among his travels Alexander can travel to the Realm of the Dead and resurrect the King and Queen as well as cast a few spells which he must gather ingredients for. In the end, Alexander and Cassima defeat the Vizier and get married.
Depending on what the player has done there are two possible endings: the genie is destroyed, the King and Queen aren't resurrected and Alexander and Cassima have a small wedding where Jollo the Clown speaks for Cassima and Captain Saladin speaks for Alexander on behalf of the people of the Land of the Green Isles and Saladin asks Alexander and Cassima to rule which they accept. In that ending they have much work to do including figuring out what Alhazarad did to start the feud, repair the ferry and bring peace back to the islands.
In the other ending (the best possible one), Alexander travels to the Land of the Dead and revives the King and Queen. The genie has been turned to good by Alexander's capture of him during the last battle and he repairs the ferry allowing travel between the islands again. Peace is restored as Alexander located the stolen island treasures which Alhazared took and blamed it on the various other islands creating a major feud. Alexander gets married with the leaders of all the islands there including his parents and sister, apparently brought there by the genie and the resurrected King and Queen. After the two get married the King and Queen ask them to rule as they feel that they cannot rule again and Cassima is loved by the people and Alexander gained the respect of everyone during his quest to save Cassima. King Graham and Queen Valanice support Alexander's decision and give him their blessings and he plans to use the genie's powers to visit often. It's also revealed that the crew of his ship somehow survived and made their way back to Daventry. Both endings end with everyone in attendance cheering the new King and Queen led by Captain Saladin who supported Alexander towards the end of his quest and married the two. There is also a third ending that occurs if you destroy the genie instead of turning him good again when you have that choice: its mostly the same as the best possible ending except there are fewer people as the genie never repaired the ferry and also couldn't bring Alexander's family.
), The Isle of the Beast (Beauty and the Beast
-themed), and The Isle of the Sacred Mountain (Classical mythology
-themed). Later in the game Alexander will discover information that allows him to travel to one or two other hidden areas, including the mysterious Isle of Mists (Celtic mythology
-themed) and the Realm of the Dead (themed after Greco-Roman underworlds), which is only accessible using a spell that needs various ingredients to work including one on the Isle of the Mists, which, unlike the other lands, is only accessible by teleportation after completing the catacombs while the other four islands are also accessible by sea.
A booklet titled "Guidebook to the Land of the Green Isles" (written by Jane Jensen
) is included in the KQVI package. Aside from providing additional background to the game's setting, this booklet serves as part of the game's copy-protection. 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 Isle of the Sacred Mountain. In the re-released edition, the guide is part of the manual released on the game CD.
KQVI was designed with replayability in mind. The last portion of the game splits into two separate branches, leading to two different major endings. The "short branch" is easier to complete, but the more difficult "long branch" includes puzzles, locations, characters, and information that cannot be found in the short branch. In order to win full points and reach the best possible ending the player must take the long branch, but it is possible to defeat Abdul Alhazred and rescue Cassima at the end of both branches. There are minor variations on the endings of each branch, depending upon which optional tasks the player performs.
This is the first of the games to introduce the magic map as a way of travel to new areas. In KQIII, Gwydion can use it only to return to previously visited screens. In Mask of Eternity, Connor is given a magic map by a good wizard, but while it maps out the area the player is in, they can't teleport unless they've found a teleport circle in at least two lands. This feature is mostly only good for going back to re-visit a land, but there is one point in the game that the player can only reach the next land through teleporting and part of their mission is to trick the map so you can teleport there.
and industry newcomer Jane Jensen
, who would go on to write the critically acclaimed Gabriel Knight
games.
Some of the packaging for the game contained an audio CD featuring a song called "Girl in the Tower
", which was written and recorded for the game. There was also a pamphlet encouraging players to call a variety of radio stations and urge them to play the single; this campaign was unsuccessful, as many radio stations threatened to sue Sierra. At least one CD version of the game includes this track on the game CD (rather than as a separate CD single) and plays it accompanying the closing credits.
The package containing the original version of the game exists in four versions, varying based on the country and release : black, white, red and blue.
in 1992, on a then-staggering twelve floppy disks with dialogue and narration presented in text only (with the exception of the intro sequence, which was fully voiced). In 1993, an MPC
version on CD-ROM was released for Windows
and MS-DOS
. The Windows version contained higher-resolution character portraits seen when a character was speaking. This version also featured full voice-acting and a retouched interface (the icon bar and items were increased in detail and the text boxes were re-colored from yellow to brown). The game was also ported to the Commodore Amiga (released 1994) and Apple Macintosh.
Each version of the game had different versions of the intro video. The disk version panned around Daventry's entire throne room between conversations. The ship was in 2-d. The CD version had more cuts and fades showing less of the throne room. The ship was fully rendered in 3-D. Some of the other versions only show stills subtitles or text with no images.
The second King's Quest Collection had a number of editions in which the CD with King's Quest 6 did not include the "Girl in the Tower" theme song audio CD track, so the Windows version simply crashed during the credits and the DOS version played the credits with no music. http://www.sierrahelp.com/Games/KingsQuest/KQ6Help.html
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.
#192 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 5 out of 5 stars. PC Format
magazine was less kind in giving the game a score of 72%, praising the lushly drawn graphics and pleasing sound, but faulting the game for overuse of sudden death and being too limiting.
King's Quest VI was inducted into GameSpot's Greatest Games of All Time (http://www.gamespot.com/features/6144989/index.html).
King's Quest
King's Quest is an adventure game series created by the American software company Sierra Entertainment. It is widely considered a classic series from the golden era of adventure games. Following the success of its first installment, the series was primarily responsible for building the reputation...
series of adventure game
Adventure game
An adventure game is a video game in which the player assumes the role of protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and puzzle-solving instead of physical challenge. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media such as literature and film,...
s produced by Sierra Entertainment
Sierra Entertainment
Sierra Entertainment Inc. was an American video-game developer and publisher founded in 1979 as On-Line Systems by Ken and Roberta Williams...
. Written by Roberta Williams
Roberta Williams
Roberta Williams is an American video game designer. She is most famous for her pioneering work in graphical adventure games, particularly the King's Quest series.-Career:...
and Jane Jensen
Jane Jensen
Jane Jensen is the game designer of the popular and critically acclaimed Gabriel Knight adventure games and author of the novels Judgement Day and Dante's Equation....
, KQVI is widely recognized as the high point in the series for its in-depth plot, landmark 3D graphic introduction movie (created by Kronos Digital Entertainment
Kronos Digital Entertainment
Kronos Digital Entertainment was a U.S.–based video game developer founded by Stan Liu in 1992. They first garnered attention for their contract work for Sierra On-Line, most notably the groundbreaking intro sequence they created for King's Quest 6...
), and professional voice acting (Hollywood actor Robby Benson
Robby Benson
Robby Benson is an American film and television actor, television director, educator and singer.-Early life:Benson was born Robin David Segal in Dallas, Texas, the son of Freda Ann , a singer, actress, and business promotions manager, and Jerry Segal, a writer...
provided the voice for Prince Alexander, the game's protagonist). KQVI was programmed in Sierra's Creative Interpreter
Sierra's Creative Interpreter
Sierra's Creative Interpreter is the scripting language created by Jeff Stephenson of Sierra On-Line for its adventure games after the older AGI, and the runtime environment for such adventure games....
and was the last King's Quest game to be released on floppy disk
Floppy disk
A floppy disk is a disk storage medium composed of a disk of thin and flexible magnetic storage medium, sealed in a rectangular plastic carrier lined with fabric that removes dust particles...
. A CD-ROM
CD-ROM
A CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data....
version of the game was released in 1993
1993 in video gaming
-Events:*March — In Sweden, the Swedish video game magazine Super PLAY starts. The original name is Super Power.*Midway Games embroiled in controversy for its game Mortal Kombat from 1992 when the game is launched for video game consoles in 1993....
, 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 sudden disappearance of Prince Alexander, who is the heir of King Graham. King's Quest III: To Heir Is Human
King's Quest III: To Heir Is Human
King's Quest III: To Heir Is Human is the third installment in the King's Quest series of computer games produced by Sierra On-Line. It was the first game in the series not to feature King Graham as the player character....
also contained the word "heir" in its title and also featured Prince Alexander (then known as the slave Gwydion) as the main character.
Plot
Prince Alexander is haunted and tormented by his memories of the beautiful Princess Cassima. They met at the end of King's Quest VKing's Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder!
King's Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder! is a 1990 adventure game released by Sierra. Released in November 1990, it featured a significant improvement in graphics . It was also the first King's Quest installment to replace the typing user interface with a point-and-click user interface...
when Alexander's father King Graham freed his family and the kidnapped princess from the wizard Mordack, but have not seen each other since. Alexander can't even find someone who's heard of the Green Isles let alone knows where it is. The magic mirror sends Alexander a vision of Cassima at her home in the far-off Land of the Green Isles, calling out for Alexander. Alexander sets sail for the Green Isles using the stars shown in the vision, but is shipwrecked in a storm. Alexander washes up onshore alone with nothing but the clothes on his back and some ship wreckage.
He soon learns that Cassima is being held prisoner in her castle by Abdul Alhazred
Abdul Alhazred
Abdul Alhazred is a fictional character created by American horror writer H. P. Lovecraft. He is the so-called "Mad Arab" credited with authoring the imaginary book Kitab al-Azif , and as such an integral part of Cthulhu Mythos lore....
, (named after the author of the fictional Necronomicon
Necronomicon
The Necronomicon is a fictional grimoire appearing in the stories by horror writer H. P. Lovecraft and his followers. It was first mentioned in Lovecraft's 1924 short story "The Hound", written in 1922, though its purported author, the "Mad Arab" Abdul Alhazred, had been quoted a year earlier in...
in the stories of H. P. Lovecraft
H. P. Lovecraft
Howard Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....
) the evil Vizier
Vizier
A vizier or in Arabic script ; ; sometimes spelled vazir, vizir, vasir, wazir, vesir, or vezir) is a high-ranking political advisor or minister in a Muslim government....
of the Green Isles. Abdul has murdered the King and Queen and plans to force Cassima to marry him so that he can rule the Land of the Green Isles himself. Alexander must expose the Vizier's plot, stop the wedding, and free Cassima. Alexander also discovers that the islands of the kingdom are on the verge of war. Precious artifacts from each island have been stolen, and the different leaders all blame each other. Can he solve the mystery and restore peace to the kingdom? Among his travels Alexander can travel to the Realm of the Dead and resurrect the King and Queen as well as cast a few spells which he must gather ingredients for. In the end, Alexander and Cassima defeat the Vizier and get married.
Depending on what the player has done there are two possible endings: the genie is destroyed, the King and Queen aren't resurrected and Alexander and Cassima have a small wedding where Jollo the Clown speaks for Cassima and Captain Saladin speaks for Alexander on behalf of the people of the Land of the Green Isles and Saladin asks Alexander and Cassima to rule which they accept. In that ending they have much work to do including figuring out what Alhazarad did to start the feud, repair the ferry and bring peace back to the islands.
In the other ending (the best possible one), Alexander travels to the Land of the Dead and revives the King and Queen. The genie has been turned to good by Alexander's capture of him during the last battle and he repairs the ferry allowing travel between the islands again. Peace is restored as Alexander located the stolen island treasures which Alhazared took and blamed it on the various other islands creating a major feud. Alexander gets married with the leaders of all the islands there including his parents and sister, apparently brought there by the genie and the resurrected King and Queen. After the two get married the King and Queen ask them to rule as they feel that they cannot rule again and Cassima is loved by the people and Alexander gained the respect of everyone during his quest to save Cassima. King Graham and Queen Valanice support Alexander's decision and give him their blessings and he plans to use the genie's powers to visit often. It's also revealed that the crew of his ship somehow survived and made their way back to Daventry. Both endings end with everyone in attendance cheering the new King and Queen led by Captain Saladin who supported Alexander towards the end of his quest and married the two. There is also a third ending that occurs if you destroy the genie instead of turning him good again when you have that choice: its mostly the same as the best possible ending except there are fewer people as the genie never repaired the ferry and also couldn't bring Alexander's family.
Gameplay
Early in KQVI, Alexander discovers that the ferry between the islands of the kingdom is no longer running. To progress in the game, the player must obtain a magic map. This map allows Alexander to teleport instantly between the major islands: The Isle of the Crown (with an Arabian Nights theme), The Isle of Wonder (reminiscent of Alice's Adventures in WonderlandAlice's Adventures in Wonderland
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is an 1865 novel written by English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. It tells of a girl named Alice who falls down a rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures...
), The Isle of the Beast (Beauty and the Beast
Beauty and the Beast
Beauty and the Beast is a traditional fairy tale. The first published version of the fairy tale was a rendition by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, published in La jeune américaine, et les contes marins in 1740...
-themed), and The Isle of the Sacred Mountain (Classical mythology
Classical mythology
Classical mythology or Greco-Roman mythology is the cultural reception of myths from the ancient Greeks and Romans. Along with philosophy and political thought, mythology represents one of the major survivals of classical antiquity throughout later Western culture.Classical mythology has provided...
-themed). Later in the game Alexander will discover information that allows him to travel to one or two other hidden areas, including the mysterious Isle of Mists (Celtic mythology
Celtic mythology
Celtic mythology is the mythology of Celtic polytheism, apparently the religion of the Iron Age Celts. Like other Iron Age Europeans, the early Celts maintained a polytheistic mythology and religious structure...
-themed) and the Realm of the Dead (themed after Greco-Roman underworlds), which is only accessible using a spell that needs various ingredients to work including one on the Isle of the Mists, which, unlike the other lands, is only accessible by teleportation after completing the catacombs while the other four islands are also accessible by sea.
A booklet titled "Guidebook to the Land of the Green Isles" (written by Jane Jensen
Jane Jensen
Jane Jensen is the game designer of the popular and critically acclaimed Gabriel Knight adventure games and author of the novels Judgement Day and Dante's Equation....
) is included in the KQVI package. Aside from providing additional background to the game's setting, this booklet serves as part of the game's copy-protection. 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 Isle of the Sacred Mountain. In the re-released edition, the guide is part of the manual released on the game CD.
KQVI was designed with replayability in mind. The last portion of the game splits into two separate branches, leading to two different major endings. The "short branch" is easier to complete, but the more difficult "long branch" includes puzzles, locations, characters, and information that cannot be found in the short branch. In order to win full points and reach the best possible ending the player must take the long branch, but it is possible to defeat Abdul Alhazred and rescue Cassima at the end of both branches. There are minor variations on the endings of each branch, depending upon which optional tasks the player performs.
This is the first of the games to introduce the magic map as a way of travel to new areas. In KQIII, Gwydion can use it only to return to previously visited screens. In Mask of Eternity, Connor is given a magic map by a good wizard, but while it maps out the area the player is in, they can't teleport unless they've found a teleport circle in at least two lands. This feature is mostly only good for going back to re-visit a land, but there is one point in the game that the player can only reach the next land through teleporting and part of their mission is to trick the map so you can teleport there.
Development
King's Quest VI was a collaboration between veteran designer and King's Quest creator Roberta WilliamsRoberta Williams
Roberta Williams is an American video game designer. She is most famous for her pioneering work in graphical adventure games, particularly the King's Quest series.-Career:...
and industry newcomer Jane Jensen
Jane Jensen
Jane Jensen is the game designer of the popular and critically acclaimed Gabriel Knight adventure games and author of the novels Judgement Day and Dante's Equation....
, who would go on to write the critically acclaimed Gabriel Knight
Gabriel Knight
Gabriel Knight is a series of adventure games produced by Sierra On-Line in the 1990s. Three games were released in the series: Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers, The Beast Within: A Gabriel Knight Mystery and Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned.One compilation was...
games.
Some of the packaging for the game contained an audio CD featuring a song called "Girl in the Tower
Girl in the Tower
"Girl in the Tower" is a song from the soundtrack of the computer game King's Quest VI. Mark Seibert wrote the song in 1992. The song is a love ballad between two of the game's principal characters, Prince Alexander and Princess Cassima. Accordingly, the song elaborates upon Seibert's "Princess...
", which was written and recorded for the game. There was also a pamphlet encouraging players to call a variety of radio stations and urge them to play the single; this campaign was unsuccessful, as many radio stations threatened to sue Sierra. At least one CD version of the game includes this track on the game CD (rather than as a separate CD single) and plays it accompanying the closing credits.
The package containing the original version of the game exists in four versions, varying based on the country and release : black, white, red and blue.
Versions
KQVI was initially released for MS-DOSMS-DOS
MS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating...
in 1992, on a then-staggering twelve floppy disks with dialogue and narration presented in text only (with the exception of the intro sequence, which was fully voiced). In 1993, an MPC
MPC
-Astronomy:* Megaparsec, unit of length used in astronomy* Minor Planet Center, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory**Minor Planet Circulars, or astronomical publication from the Minor Planet Center...
version on CD-ROM was released for Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
and MS-DOS
MS-DOS
MS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating...
. The Windows version contained higher-resolution character portraits seen when a character was speaking. This version also featured full voice-acting and a retouched interface (the icon bar and items were increased in detail and the text boxes were re-colored from yellow to brown). The game was also ported to the Commodore Amiga (released 1994) and Apple Macintosh.
Each version of the game had different versions of the intro video. The disk version panned around Daventry's entire throne room between conversations. The ship was in 2-d. The CD version had more cuts and fades showing less of the throne room. The ship was fully rendered in 3-D. Some of the other versions only show stills subtitles or text with no images.
The second King's Quest Collection had a number of editions in which the CD with King's Quest 6 did not include the "Girl in the Tower" theme song audio CD track, so the Windows version simply crashed during the credits and the DOS version played the credits with no music. http://www.sierrahelp.com/Games/KingsQuest/KQ6Help.html
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.
Amiga Version
The Amiga version contains a slightly different plot than the PC versions, with a different ending. The final sequence is a combination of the short path and parts of the long path.Short quest
For the short quest, Alexander must sneak into the castle disguised as a serving girl with the clothes he receives from Beauty. However, he cannot leave the castle, and thus cannot visit any more islands. He will also be unable to discover where the sacred items are hidden.Good ending
The good ending results in all puzzles being solved throughout every land, the stolen items being discovered, and the genie being captured. This results in the genie bringing everyone to the wedding ceremony, and peace being restored throughout the kingdom.Bad ending
This results either as a result of the short ending or simply by killing the genie with the mint leaf. This results in the inability to transport everyone in the kingdom to the ceremony, as well as the inability to repair the ferry.Version differences
The disk version does not have voice acting (except in the introduction), and pans around the castle more than in the CD version.Reception
The game was reviewed in 1993 in DragonDragon (magazine)
Dragon is one of the two official magazines for source material for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game and associated products, the other being Dungeon. TSR, Inc. originally launched the monthly printed magazine in 1976 to succeed the company's earlier publication, The Strategic Review. The...
#192 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 5 out of 5 stars. PC Format
PC Format
PC Format is a computer magazine published in the United Kingdom by Future Publishing, and licensed to other publishers in countries around the world. In publication since 1991, it is part of Future Publishing's Format series of magazines that include articles about games, entertainment and how to...
magazine was less kind in giving the game a score of 72%, praising the lushly drawn graphics and pleasing sound, but faulting the game for overuse of sudden death and being too limiting.
King's Quest VI was inducted into GameSpot's Greatest Games of All Time (http://www.gamespot.com/features/6144989/index.html).
External links
- King's Quest VI Walkthrough
- Interview with Stan Liu of Kronos Digital, at GameCritics.com
- King's Quest VI Technical Help on the Sierra Help Pages
- King's Quest VI on the Sierra Chest