Game 42: King's Quest Remake - Final Rating

This is going to be tough. There are a couple of reasons why giving a rating to this game will be a struggle. Firstly, I’d played King’s Quest within the last three years prior to playing this time around, meaning I recalled exactly what to do in the vast majority of instances. It’s hard to judge how solvable puzzles are or how frustrating the interface is when you’re breezing through on memory. The second reason is that this is a remake. Judging a story now that was originally developed when the adventure genre was in its infancy is perhaps unfair, and the increase in technology doesn’t necessarily equate to a high score in that category since it needs to be compared with other games released around the same time. Oh well, I’ll just take each category as it comes and see where we end up!

Puzzles and Solvability
As mentioned above, it’s really hard to judge how difficult the game actually is, since I already knew the solutions to the puzzles going in. I can see many cases where changes have been made to the dialogue, graphics, and even the environment, to make puzzles that were once stupidly difficult easier. Are they now “fair”? I can’t know for sure. The Rumpelstiltskin riddle is a perfect example of this. Originally the player not only had to guess who the old man with the walking cane was, they were then expected to reverse the letters of the alphabet (a=z, b=y etc.) and type his name that way. In the remake, the player has much greater chance of figuring out who the man is, since he’s sitting next to a spinning wheel that has clearly turned straw into gold. The game will then accept his name merely backwards rather than reverse-alphabetized, making the whole thing reasonably solvable. Would I have solved this unassisted if I’d approached it for the first time? Perhaps, but I guess we’ll never know. One definite positive when discussing puzzles in the game is the large amount of alternate solutions. Quite a few puzzles can be solved in three or more different ways. For example, the dragon can be dealt with by throwing water at it, using the invisibility ring, being protected by the Fairy Godmother, or throwing a dagger at it. In typical Roberta Williams fashion, it’s generally the least violent approach that receives the most amount of points. Giving the player this sort of choice is praiseworthy, although it does result in a whole variety of items having no use whatsoever. The original got 6, but that was much more to do with its place in history than anything else. While things have been improved here, I can't go higher than a 5.
Rating: 5

Would you know who this man is?

Interface and Inventory
With the significant jump in technology, I was actually pretty surprised to find that the movement issues of the original had found their way back into the remake. Whenever I was required to climb anything, such as the beanstalk, I found myself dying over and over, and forced to resort to saving and restoring to get through within a reasonable amount of time. Eventually one of the readers informed me that using the mouse, which obviously wasn’t available in the original, makes things much easier, and from there on in I was fine. It also took a while to figure out that the movement detection was based on Sir Graham’s hands while climbing, which didn’t feel completely intuitive. While it’s difficult for me to fully judge the parser (since I generally knew what to type and when), what I saw was pretty impressive. Someone posted a YouTube video that displays the huge amount of things the player can type while still receiving a proper parser response, and this rings true to my experience. I received very clear and concise descriptions of surroundings and items, and custom responses to pretty much all my commands. Finally there’s the inventory, which was as good as you might expect, with detailed descriptions and attractive visual representations. It even plays a role in the solving of one puzzle in that you can clearly see the word FILL inside the bowl just by looking at the item in the inventory. All up the interface was pretty good, and if it wasn’t for the slightly clunky movement, I might have gone higher than the below rating.
Rating: 5

Maybe they were going for realism? After all, it can't be easy climbing a beanstalk!

Story and Setting
Back when King’s Quest was made, stories were more setups than full-scale plots. The small amount of disk space available meant that dialogue and narration always had to take a backseat to graphics and code. By 1990 that had well and truly changed, with games such as Loom placing as much importance on story as anything else. In this (more) modern environment the King’s Quest remake seems a bit primitive. The player is quickly informed that they need to find three treasures to gain control of the kingdom and then sent on their way. Things wrap up just as quickly at the end, with the King dying the moment the hero returns. It’s true that the dialogue has been greatly expanded upon in a couple of key sections, but that merely pads out what remains a simple and cliché tale.  All that was missing was a damsel in distress, but that would be resolved in the sequel soon enough (which never got remade after this game’s failure to sell). As for the setting, well Daventry is a fitting place for puzzles based on fairy tales and myths. Once again it’s all pretty cliché, with a predominately grassy land filled with forests, magic items and monsters, but that’s excusable in this instance. The original got a 4, but we've come a long way since then.
Rating: 3

Pretty much the entire story is made up of the intro and the outro.

Sound and Graphics
Alright, this is where you would expect the remake to be miles ahead of the original. If you put them side by side, then there’s no question that it is, but if I compare the remake to other games released around the same time, it’s less impressive. There’s nothing particularly wrong with the visuals, and now that I know that Jerry Shaw and co. were given the mandate to reproduce the original as much as possible, it has to be said that they did a fine job. However, there are much more impressive examples of the SCI0 engine being put to good use, including games released a year prior, such as Hero’s Quest and The Colonel’s Bequest. The main issue lies with the colour scheme (which is incessantly green) and the lack of variety in the environments. Still, it’s nice to be confronted by a dragon that actually looks like a dragon, unlike in the original. The animation isn’t too bad (the King falls to the ground at the end in a very convincing way), and the various animals that scurry and flutter around look pretty nice, so I won’t be too harsh. As for the sound, there’s no doubt that a great deal of effort was put into thematically linking the music into what was occurring in the game. I can’t say any of it was particularly memorable though, and my pet hate of wandering around in complete silence occurred more often than I would like. The use of digitized sound effects was a nice touch, but these sounds pop up rarely, and so can't play a large role in the result of this category. If the game had taken the best technology the industry could offer in 1984, and transitioned it to the best technology 1990 had to offer, I would have been forced to give it at least the same 5 I gave the original. As it is, I was a bit underwhelmed.
Rating: 4

Just a little reminder of how far we've come!

Now that's a dragon!

Environment and Atmosphere
As mentioned above, the developers’ mandate was to replicate the experience of the first game while adding a new coat of paint. They succeeded in that task, with a very similar look and feel throughout. It should come as no surprise though that this decision resulted in a lot of the original’s flaws being replicated in the remake. The environment becomes very samey after a while, with the vast majority of screens being grassy fields with a few “natural” details such as rocks, trees and rivers. There are a few darker, shadow drenched screens, but they were more filler than anything else, with little of note occurring there. As with the original, the regular random occurrences are annoying and stupid. I really thought the ability to walk on and off screens to make creatures appear and disappear would have been replaced by some other more realistic system. Unfortunately it came back with a vengeance, and actually caused me some drama. The dwarf appearing and stealing game-critical items was nasty, but I also had a fair bit of trouble figuring out how to find the third and final treasure due to the eagle only appearing randomly. It was fine that the eagle only appeared after I’d collected the first two items, but the fact I had to visit the cave screen multiple times before he arrived was unreasonable. Other things that I feel make for a strange and unmoving atmosphere were the numerous trinkets and treasures just left all over the place in an apparently struggling realm and creatures simply disappearing in a flash of light when they are no longer required. Still, the did ok with what they had to play with.
Rating: 5

It all starts to look a bit like this after a while.

Dialogue and Acting
There’s not much to say for this category. I’ve already covered off how much more dialogue there is while discussing the story, and talked about the huge amount of responses you can get from the parser while covering the interface. All that’s left is to talk about the actual quality of the writing, which is pretty much as you would expect in a King’s Quest game of this era. The descriptions get straight to the point (“You have encountered an old stone well in the middle of the woods”) and the little dialogue there is at least attempts to endow the inhabitants of Daventry with some character (“Gimme somethin’ valuable and maybe, JUST maybe, I’ll letcha cross dis bridge.”). There’s no doubt the dialogue expansion gives certain scenes a bit more gravitas, particularly the woodcutter expressing his wife’s plight, but there’s more silliness than effective drama on offer throughout the game. All up the word adequate is probably the best one to use, and I'll go with the same score I gave the original.
Rating: 4

I'm sure my experience caused me to miss innumerable eye-rollingly corny yet strangely entertaining death quotes though.

So that's 5 + 5 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 4, which equals 26, divided by 60 comes to 43 when rounded down. Hmmm, that feels low, but I'm not compelled to increase my individual scores. The original got 48 though! I guess this shows how much I'm taking into account when a game is released, which is why it's so important that I get the release dates as accurate as possible. I'm going to use my discretionary point to raise the score to a 44, for the simple reason that I probably didn't enjoy the game anywhere near as much as I would have had I gone in with no prior experience.

Did anyone pick 44? As is usually the case, someone nailed it! Congratulations TBD! He's won himself a copy of The Secret of Monkey Island, as donated by our amazing sponsor, Lars-Erik. His reasoning was spot on too: "I'll go with a 44. In my opinion, most other games were much more complex and interesting by 1990 so if time of release is taken into account it won't fare as well as the original did." Isn't that what I just said?!

55 CAPs for Lars-Erik
• Sponsor Award - 20 CAPs - For sponsoring the blog with free games
• Research Award – 10 CAPs – For helping me figure out when certain 1991 games were released
• Genre Support Award – 5 CAPs – For announcing a new adventure game on GOG
• Genre Support Award – 5 CAPs – For announcing a new adventure game sale on GOG
• Genre Support Award – 5 CAPs – For announcing a new adventure game on GOG
• Genre Support Award – 5 CAPs – For announcing a new adventure game on GOG
• Genre Support Award – 5 CAPs – For announcing a new adventure game sale on Steam

35 CAPs for Laukku
• Expertise Award – 20 CAPs – For informing me of all the alternate puzzle solutions
• True Companion Award – 10 CAPs – For playing along with me and finishing the game.
• Genre Support Award – 5 CAPs – For announcing a new adventure game on Steam

30 CAPs for Ilmari
• Dark Seed Award – 20 CAPs – For solving my Dark Seed riddle
• Billy Goat Award – 10 CAPs – For informing me of the original billy goat tale

20 CAPs for Corey Cole
• Industry Insight Award – 20 CAPs – For giving us priceless insight into the industry

20 CAPs for Jerry Shaw
• Industry Insight Award – 20 CAPs – For giving us priceless insight into the industry

20 CAPs for TBD
• Psychic Prediction Award – 10 CAPs - For correctly predicting what score I would give the game.
• Riddle of Awesome Award – 10 CAPs – For making a great riddle that trumped anything I’ve done.

20 CAPs for Aperama
• Research Award – 10 CAPs – For helping me figure out when certain 1991 games were released
• True Companion Award – 10 CAPs – For playing along with me and finishing the game.

20 CAPs for Canageek
• Genre Support Award – 5 CAPs – For announcing a new adventure game on Steam
• Genre Support Award – 5 CAPs – For announcing a new adventure game on Steam
• Genre Support Award – 5 CAPs – For announcing a new adventure game on Steam
• Genre Support Award – 5 CAPs – For announcing a new adventure game sale on Steam

10 CAPs for Kenny McCormick
• Genre Support Award – 5 CAPs – For announcing a new adventure game sale on Steam
• Bitterness Award – 5 CAPs – He’ll get over me not playing The Scoop one day

10 CAPs for Novacek
• Use the Frickin Mouse Award – 10 CAPs – For informing me that I really need to get with the times.

10 CAPs for Andy_Panthro
• True Companion Award – 10 CAPs – For playing along with me and finishing the game.

10 CAPs for Rowan Lipkovits
• Drawa Tebahpla – 10 CAPs – For reminding me just how nasty the original Rumpelstiltskin riddle was

5 CAPs for Charles
• Samara Award – 5 CAPs – For spotting my Ring reference

Game 42: King's Quest Remake - Won!

King Graham Journal Entry 3: "It saddens me to say that King Edward passed away today. After feeling such joy at having recovered the mirror (from a dragon), the chest (from a giant) and the shield (from the Leprechaun King), I returned to the castle to witness the King's final breath. At least he knew that the future of Daventry was assured as his crown was passed to me. I will do all I can to carry on his fine legacy!"

Haha! I have the chest! Ain't nobody gonna take it from me!

Well that’s that! Things wrap up pretty quickly in King’s Quest once the initial exploration phase is out of the way. At least it does when you know what to do. I did have a couple of hiccups on the way though, which shall be revealed soon enough. Right, so my last session finished with me having claimed the magic chest from the giant in the Land of the Clouds. I left his realm through a tunnel with a spiralling bridge leading down to the ground.  By now I knew that traversing branches, bridges and the like would be achieved far easier using the mouse than the keys, so I only fell once. However, the trip was not without drama! As I turned a corner I was confronted by the thieving dwarf that I’d seen earlier outside. “The sneaky little dwarf caught you by surprise. Did he steal anything from you?” I noticed that my score decreased by 8 points, which could only mean one thing. The bastard had stolen my magic chest! Checking my inventory proved this belief to be true, so I restored my game to see whether this event was scripted or random. It occurred again on the second attempt, and on the third, and then on the fourth! I couldn’t recall a similar event happening on the stairs leading down from the clouds in the original. What was I to make of this?

A winding path replaces the steep staircase of the original.

I literally had no way of avoiding him once he appeared!

I did recall having to get some items back from a thieving character in King’s Quest, but my memory was telling me that occurred in one of the sequels (King’s Quest III?). Maybe this was a whole new feature in the remake and I would be given the opportunity to reclaim my prize soon enough? I decided to continue down the pathway to see whether that chance would ever eventuate. At the bottom of the path I found a door, which of course turned out to be the one I’d seen built into the mountainside earlier on. I pondered what to do next, and got caught up on the fact I’d not found the dagger during my exploration. I needed the dagger to cut the rope at the bottom of the well, and I’d been quite certain that I’d find it hidden in a stump or under a rock or something like that. Hmmm…there’d been a large rock on the very first wilderness screen I’d visited, but examining it hadn’t revealed anything of interest. I made my way back there and had another go. I eventually tried “move rock”, only to watch as Sir Graham pulled the thing on top of himself and died! Restoring, I tried moving it from the other side, and this time successfully revealed a hole containing the dagger (2 points). I picked it up (5 points), then rather than heading straight for the well, took a detour to the woodcutter’s cottage.

It was anticlimactic to walk out of here without the chest.

Well how was I supposed to know it would move this way!?

This is another one of those puzzles that I found incredibly difficult when I was younger, but given I now know the solution, it’s hard to know how hard it would be for first time players of the remake. The key to feeding the family and therefore getting the fiddle is the bowl. Just giving the woodcutter an empty bowl wouldn’t achieve much though, so it needs to be filled with something. In the original the player could see the word FILL on the inside of the bowl if they typed “look in bowl”, but that didn’t automatically equate to typing “fill bowl” to all players (myself included). In the remake I could see the word FILL by selecting the bowl in my inventory, but that wouldn’t make the solution any clearer. Regardless, I filled the bowl with stew and gave it to the woodcutter. (3 points) “Thank you, thank you, Sir Knight! We shall never forget your kindness and generosity. Please take my fiddle as a small token of our thanks.” I took the fiddle from the table (3 points) and left to go pay the dragon a visit. I had the dagger this time, so was able to remove the bucket from the rope after descending into the well. (2 points) I filled the bucket with water before hopping out of the water (2 points), and then confronted the dragon prepared. (1 point)

Don't mind if I do!

Yes, I imagine filling a bucket with water while being submerged in water must be quite challenging.

I took a few steps towards it and then typed “throw water at dragon”. (5 points) Sir Graham did as I requested, with the end result being a fire breathing dragon that no longer had the ability to breathe fire. It stormed off with its tail between its legs, leaving me to collect the magic mirror! (8 points) I left the dragon’s lair (2 points), trying to remember where in Daventry the magic shield would be found. I still hadn’t visited the leprechaun’s hideout, but since I hadn’t figured out how to get the mushroom yet, couldn’t make myself small enough to enter it (or exit it as it might be). I was also starting to think that I somehow was supposed to avoid the thieving dwarf that stole the magic chest as soon as I’d found it. I was more certain than ever that the dwarf hadn’t taken it from me in the original, and hated to think that I’d get all the way to the end only to have to restore all the way back. I decided to restore now, and have a shot and leaving the Land of the Clouds while keeping the chest in my possession. I restored back to just after knocking the giant down, collected the chest, and then made my way down the spiralling path. Despite having attempted it numerous times prior without success, this time the dwarf just didn’t appear!!! I was both thrilled to get back to ground level with the chest and annoyed that the game had thrown such a random, game ending event at me!

Go on, tell me you weren't curious to find out what would happen!

The last adventurer had clearly been eating onions or beans!

No really, it was nothing. Just doing my job!

I replayed everything that I’d done since leaving through the door in the mountain, ending up with 118 points and two of the three treasures I needed. Now all I needed to do was figure out how to get to the mushroom. I was quite sure that a bird had taken me to the other side of the river in the original, but I hadn’t seen one on any of the screens throughout this play through (at least not one big enough to carry me). I zigzagged my way across the map, hoping that I’d stumble across what I needed, only to find the huge eagle on the very screen that I’d begun my search on. I thought they might have removed some of the randomness of events in the remake, but clearly they didn’t. While walking through the screen with the cave entrance on it, the bird flew back and forth across the screen. Typing “jump” at the right time resulted in Graham holding onto its feet and being carried off into the sky (3 points)! It flew across a couple of screens and then dropped me next to a large hole in the ground. I’d not seen the screen before, so figured it was the last remaining unmapped section of Daventry. That would mean that the mushroom was to the west, so I took a look before considering entering the hole. Thankfully I was right, and I soon had that pesky mushroom in my inventory (1 point).

As you do!

The effects of gravity appear to be inconsistent in Daventry.

Is this the third treasure? The Magic Mushroom? One can only hope!

The end couldn’t be far away, so I headed back to the large hole and purposely fell in. I found myself in a dark cave, with a tunnel leading off to the south. I followed it around to the west until I was confronted by a gigantic rat! I’d forgotten all about this bit, but immediately knew that the Swiss cheese was the answer. I offered it to the rat: “Cheese? Well, yeah, now that you mention it, I guess I am kinda hungry...” (2 points) Strangely, once it had gobbled it up, the rat simply vanished in a flash of light! With the beastly thing out of the way, I was able to pass through the door that had been behind it. Once in the next room, two leprechauns rapidly approached me with spears. I was momentarily concerned for my safety, but as they got close to me, my clover came into effect. “With a genuine four-leaf clover in your possession, the leprechauns fear and respect you. Rather than risk offending you, they decide to leave you entirely alone.” Just as the rat had done, the leprechauns vanished in sparkling green light. I wandered through the cavern and into a large chamber. There I found a bunch of other leprechauns, and what appeared to be their king sitting on a throne with a sceptre. “The Leprechauns, sensing the power of your four-leaf clover, begin to vanish.” Huh? I remembered this scene being completely different in the original!

The life of an adventurer contains many painful faceplants!

Holy crap! That's one nasty looking rat!

Stab first, ask questions later.

Everything seems to just vanish in this game after serving its purpose!

At this point I was able to collect the shield and complete my set of treasures, but something didn’t feel right. I’d not used the fiddle in any way, and I distinctly recalled doing so in the original. I restored my game, and after passing the rat, played the fiddle as soon as the leprechauns appeared. “Wonderful job! Leprechauns find fiddle music irresistible. The moment they hear the music, they begin dancing a frenzied jig. Finally, swept away by the snappy music, the Leprechaun guards poof right out of the room.” (3 points) A similar thing occurred when I entered the chamber: “Overhearing the fiddle music you played in the hallway, the Leprechauns have begun to dance! As they do, they pop away in a fit of merrymaking.” Their jigs, tumbles and turns were all quite humorous, and once the majority had vanished from sight, the king jigged off the screen to the west! I immediately noticed that extra points were not the only thing I gained by playing the fiddle. The king’s sceptre remained on his throne, and certainly hadn’t been there after clearing the room with the clover. I picked up both the magic shield (8 points) and the sceptre (6 points), and then left the chamber with the intention of taking my treasure set to King Edward. Before I could do that though, I was going to have to escape the leprechauns' home through a tiny hole in the end of the tunnel. I typed “eat mushroom”, and walked through the hole once Sir Graham was temporarily shrunken to minuscule size (Alice in Wonderland style). (2 points)

Now that's more like it!

I don't suppose the sceptre serves any purpose beyond points does it?

Set!

As I returned to normal size (1 point), I was congratulated for having found all three treasures. “Now don’t waste any time; bring the treasures straight back to King Edward before it’s too late.” I travelled north to the castle gates, where Graham wondered why there were no longer any guards located there (3 points). Heading inside, I was shown a view of the courtyard, which was also completely deserted! “This is highly unusual. You begin to feel deeply disturbed, as if all is not right within the castle.” The reason for the desertion was soon obvious though, as I found everyone standing in front of King Edward’s throne. A doctor was informing the King that his time was just about up. As I entered the room, his attention was drawn to me and whether or not I’d succeeded at my task. I informed him that I had, and Graham placed each of the items next to the throne to be admired. King Edward tried to stand, but fell to the ground, his crown rolling across the floor. “I...I am afraid it is a little too late for me. But you have done superbly, my Knight. As I promised, the kingdom is yours. I know you will serve her well.” With this final message, the king died! The doctor placed the crown on my head, marking my new standing as King of Daventry! “And thus ended Sir Graham’s great quest for the lost treasures of Daventry. Despite the loss of their beloved King Edward, the people of Daventry grew happy and prosperous and flourished for years to come.” Final Rating post to come shortly...

Work opportunities really picked up after Helmut's breakout role.

Either that or everyone is awaiting my glorious arrival!

Game 42: Complete!

Session Time: 1 hour 00 minutes
Total Time: 2 hours 30 minutes

Game 42: King's Quest Remake - noituloser elddir s'ypmur

Sir Graham Journal Entry 2: "I've got the magic chest! It hasn't been easy though, having to pass an angry troll, solve a near-impossible riddle, scare off a wicked witch, climb a magic beanstalk, and defeat an enormous giant! I fear that getting my hands on the next two treasures will be no easier, but after coming so far, there's no turning back now!"

Someone wasn't sure what description to apply to this screen here.

The first half of my Daventry exploration had been fairly uneventful. Apart from rediscovering the location of the magic mirror, I’d only managed to collect a few unimportant trinkets. The second half was where things really got moving, mostly because I had the items I needed when I reached the more critical points. My first post covered exactly half of the Daventry gameworld, ending when I came upon the goat pen without the carrot I needed to entice the goat to follow me. From there I continued my zigzag approach to the west, passing harmlessly through a screen containing a waterfall and then another with a stone bridge. This brought me to another bridge leading to the west, but my attempts to cross it were interrupted by a large, ugly troll. “Well, what’ve we got here? You think yer gonna cross my bridge do you? Not for FREE, you ain’t. Dat’s right. Gimme somethin’ valuable and maybe, JUST maybe, I’ll letcha cross dis bridge. If I feel like it. Which I ain’t sure I do.” I probably could have given him one of the gold items in my inventory at this point, but I recalled from the original that trolls are particularly frightened of goats. I decided to save my trinkets and to come back with a horny companion later on. I travelled south through three more screens where there was nothing to do (a river, a lake and the left side of the goat pen), before once again moving on to the west.

This is one of the prettier screens in the remake.

This is not one of the prettier characters in the remake.

So that’s five columns of Daventry down, three to go. The sixth one started with an uneventful lake, but on the second screen I came across another guarded bridge. The same troll came running up and blocked my way across. This halted my progress to the south, so I decided to head north to cover the rest of this column. The first new screen I arrived on at first seemed vacant, but after just a few steps a floating woman sparkled into view and had the following to say: “Gentle Sir Graham, I am your fairy godmother. Your quest is indeed noble. What little aid I can offer you is this protective magic spell, effective but a little while. I shall be watching over you, Sir Graham.” Waving her wand in my direction, she cast the spell on me, resulting in me being surrounded by little twirling lights. I knew that the spell wouldn’t last for long, so I took the most direct path I could back to the Gingerbread House. I’m not certain whether there are other uses for the Fairy Godmother’s spell, but I distinctly recalled using it to evade the witch. As soon as I entered the house, the witch disappeared in a flash of light: “Be thankful that you have a protective spell or the witch may have stuck around to try and catch you!” I was now able to explore her home, starting with the cupboard on the wall. (2 points) Within I discovered a piece of Swiss cheese, which I picked up (2 points).

Aren't fairies supposed to be really small?

I took this screenshot in the witch's house. Check out the steam above the pot!!! I swear it wasn't there when I took it!

There was a note on the table in the second room, so I wandered in and picked that up too (1 point). It read: “Sometimes it is wise to think backwards.” (2 points) I knew exactly what puzzle this was referring to of course, but I remember a time long ago when I didn’t (we’ll come back to this soon enough). Having searched the witch’s home, I made my way back to the screen where my Fairy Godmother had worked her magic, then headed off north. The next location contained a “fragrant patch of clover growing in this lush meadow”. I wandered over and typed “pick up clover”, watching as Graham bent down and picked up a lucky four leaf version. (2 points) Continuing north, I ran into yet another bridge that was guarded by the troll! This was the third bridge that I’d been unable to pass, and this one forced me to leave this column incomplete and move on to the west. Thankfully, the next screen I visited was the garden, where I was able to pick up a nice plump, orange carrot (2 points). At this point I could have made my way back to the goat pen, but I decided to finish mapping things out before I did so. However, the next three screens contained little of interest, with the last of them having some “treacherous whitewater rapids” running across it that blocked my way to the north. I made my way back down to the garden and then exited the screen to the west, entering what would turn out to be the final column of screens to explore in Daventry.

One neat addition to the game are the birds and butterflies that move around the screen.

The western half of the garden offered up nothing, but on the next screen to the north I found a little elf running around. I talked to him, and my friendliness impressed him so much that he handed over a small ring. “I’ve had my eye on ye, Sir Graham. Methinks you might enjoy this little trinket. For just a wee bit o’ time, it has the power to make ye invisible. May it give ye as much entertainment as ye has given me this day!” After this act of generosity, the elf literally vanished into thin air, leaving me to ponder what the ring of invisibility might be for. Either I was really struggling to remember my play through of the original or I never found a use for it. I wondered whether it might be an alternate way of getting past the witch in the Gingerbread House, but for now I set out to complete the last few screens of mapping. On the next screen to the north I found a small yellow and red item on the ground. I wasn’t quite sure what it was, so I right clicked on it. “There appears to be some sort of bowl on the ground.” Oh of course, it’s the bowl! I must say it didn’t really look like one, and I remember the original one being much larger. I picked it up (3 points), recalling that the bowl had writing on the inside. It was at this point that I realised I’d not yet checked out the game’s inventory!

Let's hope Mr McGregor isn't around here!

An easily pleased little fellow!

Well it didn't look like a bowl to me!

The inventory at first appeared to be just a list of items, but I soon realised I could either scroll up and down it using the arrow keys or simply click on an item with the mouse. Selecting an item brought up a small picture of it along with a brief description. When I came to the bowl it said “Inscribed on the inside of this empty ceramic bowl is the word Fill.” (1 point) Since there were only two screens left to check out, I rushed to the north to finish my initial exploration. The first one had a cliff, yet there was nothing to interact with. Tthe second one really tweaked my memory though. I found myself standing on the left bank of a river. I could see the castle to the north, but my passage in that direction was blocked. Across the river I could see a single white mushroom. I wasn’t able to get to it, but I knew I would need to later on. I wasn’t at all certain how I would get over there, but something told me it involved a bird (or was that in King’s Quest II or III?). Alright! After an hour of play, I’d finally mapped out all 48 screens of Daventry with the exception of two screens. The first one would only be accessed when I could get past the bridge troll, while the second one was behind the mushroom across the river. All I had to do now was decide what puzzle I would attack first!

This puzzle is certainly a lot easier to solve in the remake.

Hmmm...there really isn't mushroom on this side!

I made up my mind to go back to the goat pen with my carrot. I opened the gate and offered the vegetable to the goat, which eagerly followed me away from his enclosure (5 points). I made my way to one of the bridges that the troll had been guarding. As soon as the troll wandered onto the bridge, I received the following message. “It is a well known fact that goats hate trolls intensely. You move aside and let the goat take care of this wretched, nasty troll.” It was actually pretty funny to watch the little animal charge the ugly beast, knocking him from the bridge into the raging river. (4 points) Its job done, the goat left me to go back to its pen. I now had the opportunity to cross over the bridge for the first time, and to see what unvisited screen was waiting for me on the other side. Having played the original, I already knew that I’d find Rumpelstiltskin there, but this time he was actually sitting down turning straw into gold. At least in the remake a player has a chance of figuring out who he is (in the original he was just an old man with a walking stick, with no spinning wheel to hint at his identity). “Welcome, Sir Graham. I have been expecting you. I have something that will be of great use to you. But first, Sir Graham, you must answer this riddle. I’ll give you three guesses. What is my name?”

One little billy goat, one little billy goat, one little billy goat gruff!

Is the fear of goats from a fairy tale I missed as a kid?

For a guy that can turn straw into gold, he doesn't exactly live in luxury.

For those readers that have never played the original, it’s difficult to portray just how difficult this puzzle was. Not only was the player expected to figure out that the old man was Rumpelstiltskin (based on nothing more than the fact the character in the Brothers Grimm story asks a similar question), but they then had to type it backwards to solve the puzzle (which they were supposed to figure out based on the note in the witch’s house). I believe the remake will accept the name in either direction, but I typed “nikstlitslepmur” anyway, thinking that might give me more points. “That’s right! Outstanding! I didn’t think you were THAT clever. As a reward for your sharp intellect, here are some beans. They’re no ordinary beans, but it’s up to you to find out why.” (9 points) After handing over the beans, Rumpelstiltskin entered his home in the tree and was gone. I tried following him inside, but I was told that I couldn’t as I wasn’t invited. It was great that I now had the beans, and I knew exactly what would happen when I planted them, but I wasn’t entirely sure where I was actually supposed to do that. Looking at my map I figured the screen with the wildflowers was the most likely spot, since I’d not achieved anything else there, and the ground was obviously fertile. I headed straight for it, typing “plant beans” as soon as I arrived. (2 points) A beanstalk burst out of the ground and rapidly grew off into the sky!

I look forward to hearing a voice acted version of this event.

Rumpel's magic pills gave Graham a truly impressive erection!

I distinctly recalled struggling to climb up the beanstalk in the original, continually falling to my death. I figured the team behind the remake might have made some attempt to make it a bit easier this time around, but that thought was quickly put to rest. I fell over and over again, despite Sir Graham appearing to be well within the stalks outer edge at all times. In the end I was forced to save regularly until I finally reached the summit (a couple of readers have suggested using the mouse makes these movement tests much easier in the remake, but I read that after this session was complete). (2 points) Anyone that has read Jack and the Beanstalk would know what I found at the top. “You are in the Land of the Clouds. It is rumored that a giant lives up here.” I walked through the strange land until I set eyes on the bearded giant. “The enormous giant has been carrying that heavy chest for longer than he can remember.” I knew that a single pebble would be all it would take to bring him down (David and Goliath style), but I also knew that I still needed the sling to have any hope. I left the giant and walked east until I found a tree with a hole in the bottom of it. Inside I found the sling (2 points), and returning to the giant I typed “use sling on giant” and watched as Sir Graham sent a pebble straight into his head. (3 points) The giant fell over dead, leaving me to pilfer the magic chest!  (8 points) The first treasure was mine! Two more to go and I'm done...

If only this were Les Manley's quest. He'd have no trouble picking himself back up.

Save 9

Fee fie foe f....ooowww, that really hurt!!!!

Now to go into hiding and wait for old King Edward to kick the bucket.

Session Time: 0 hours 45 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Note Regarding Spoilers and Companion Assist Points: I've written a set of rules regarding spoilers and companion assist points. Please read it here before making any comments that could be considered a spoiler in any way. The short of it is that no points will be given for hints or spoilers given in advance of me requiring one. Please...try not to spoil any part of the game for me...unless I really obviously need the help...or I specifically request assistance. In this instance, I've not made any requests for assistance. Thanks!