In 1983, IBM was looking to release a home version of their Personal Computer known as the IBM PErsonal Computer Junior model# 4860, and were looking for software to showcase it's new extended capabilities such as the 16-color 160x200 and 320x200 graphics modes, as well as the 3-voice audio (paired up with the original internal speaker I might add). Roberta Williams, inspired by fairy tales and folklore, came up with what would become the first true Graphical Adventure game for computers on the market: King's Quest.

In King's Quest we play Sir Graham of Daventry, a kingdom in deep trouble with a king, King Edward, nearing his end of days. King Edward of course tasks Grayhame...grahm...graeme...however you spell it, with the task of finding a mirror, a shield, and some other mystical artifacts which he must explore the kingdom of Daventry to find, while solving puzzles to do it. Also, he needs to get rid of a witch that's been torturing everyone. This was the game that put Sierra On-Line (later just Sierra) on the map as a major game maker up until the late 1990's, and also was the game that gave them their notorious reputation for dying 1000 deaths trying to find your way through their games (an act that, along with a couple early LucasFilm titles) prompted Lucasfilm Games designer Ron Gilbert to pen his Why Adventure Games Suck, with a large part of these new guidelines - ALL of which used to create the game THe Secret of Monkey Island (1989), are likely a big reason The Secret of Monkey Island is starting to overshadow King's Quest and other Sierra franchises, because Sierra was known for BRUTALLY hard games, and King's Quest is where it all got started..

In these old Sierra Games, most of the story is in the manual, and the game itself pretty much drops you off somewhere to figure out how to get started. Sir Graham to me looks more like a 17 year old kid who just got off his shift at In-N-Out Burger to go see Sammy Hagar on the Three Lock Box tour judging by the acid washed denim pants and the red sleeveless while wearing his "Adventure Hat" - which really looks more like the hat they make you wear while serving up fresh french fried potatoes.

It suffers from some of the same problems a similar themed game of the time - Dragon's Lair (for the NES) - did. Just getting into that d*** castle is a PAIN when you're used to using the arrow keys. It might not be so bad on a IBM PC/XT machine without arrow keys and forced to use the numeric keypad, but dagnabbit that Tandy 1000 has Arrow keys and I'm gonna' use em'! That said, the game gives me a certain uneasiness that I have not felt since the day that I got to the final part of Monkey Island 2:LeChuck's Revenge (anyone whose beat MI2 knows the feeling), though it is augmented by a small tinge of maturity granted by being middle aged. There's constantly stuff that can turn up to hurt you: a wolf, a wizard, that blasted Witch, an orge, a giant......you never know what's going to show up and when, and your only warning is a "dudududud----deeeeeee!" - which then, you'd better start making tracks.