Kings Quest on the Tandy 1000

[Unknown,Unknown]

The first adventure game that I ever played was King Quest I on the tandy 1000.  There were no text boxes but rather text that appeared at the bottom of the screen that automatically scrolled.  Does anybody remember this version?

[Unknown,Unknown]

Totally, mine came in a black and grey box when I first got it. With the treasures on the cover. Another thing about that one over the updates is there would be a 6 note loop through the whole game. I always thought of them as birds chirping throughout the game as a kid.

[Unknown,Unknown]

I remember the game well, because I had a Tandy 1000, too.  Quest for the Crown wasn’t the first game we got — To Heir is Human was the first.  My dad found To Heir is Human at the Radio Shack and bought it because he thought it looked like fun.  This was when the world was entering the age of computers.  You were always urged to save the game, but we couldn’t — our computer didn’t have enough memory.  We lost the game (I-IV) in a house fire, but I’ll forever remember the fun we had with them.

[Unknown,Unknown]

I don’t remember a scrolling text thingy at the bottom, but maybe it was. I know that in DOS text seems to disappear, but it is just the text scrolling down to the next line.

I also had the Tandy 1000. Big piece of expensive shtuff. That damn computer erased my disk for KQ1 or 2 because you couldn’t leave the disk in the drive on shutdown. It would erase the contents. I ended up getting a $5.00 replacement from Sierra back then. How cool was that? I was just a stupid 8-9 year old. I only knew I wanted to play the game—I cared nothing about the rest of the computer functionality. LOL

I miss the old days. I would spend hours/days/weeks on those games. I can honestly say it has made me nostalgic and I bought the reissues a couple of years ago. I just wish ViVendi had included ALL THE GAMES in the packs. Sheez.

[Unknown,Unknown]

I do remember this version because I owned it.  I have looked for this version for years.  I do remember being able to hand an empty bowl to the couple and then after they place it on their table you can type “fill” and then the couple would see that the bowl would fill up with stew.  This would provide them with food….forever. Does anybody remember doing that?

[Unknown,Unknown]

I had the PCjr versions of KQ1-4.  To me, they blew every other game on every other system away.  Greensleaves never sounded better than with those 3 polyphonic beeps in KQ2. 
I remember the “hate” letter I wrote to Sierra when I bought KQ4 with the new graphics engine…my glorious 16 color PCjr graphics support was dropped.  They sent me a version of KQ4 using the old graphics engine, and I was back in heaven.

[Unknown,Unknown]

By the way, that “six note loop” soundtrack in KQ1 had to be bird chirps.  The music when you opened the castle doors made it perfectly clear to me that Sierra could make music sound like music.  Those chirps to me were always birds.

[mike,mike_conway_org]

Ah, from the glory days of Radio Shack. King’s Quest, to me, made a Tandy 1000 worth having.

King’s quest was so confusing to me at first, though. After years of the “twitch” games on the Atari and the arcades, KQ was difficult to master for me, because I wanted to swing a sword and kill something, or dodge. But once I got past the “no violence” thing, I realized that I had more freedom to have fun. Typing in the commands took some getting used to, but then it was the only way I could have fun playing.

KQ incited my imagination like nothing else. Daventry was more real to me than any other video game world was, and I could explore it thanks to my Tandy 1000.

Then my dad bought KQ2…

[madnessmike,madnessmike_yahoo_com]

I owned the same game.  I have looked for years too.  Does anybody have an old copy?

[dixiedog,dixiedog_dixiebill_com]

I must be one of the few “oldies” around here, since I wasn’t a kid when I first encountered KQ, actually KQII, but in any event I remember precisely what it was that prompted me to buy a $999 original Tandy 1000 with 128K of memory and one 360K 5¼” disk drive during a jaunt through a Radio Shack in 1985. It happened to be a demo of of the recently released KQII running. I was amazed at the graphics and sound, having previously only owned one computer, a VIC20.

I was 20 at the time, in the military, and I decided to buy the machine along with both KQI and KQII, which were in essence the PCjr versions. Gaming heaven, indeed ;). I also recall that I often bought games from B. Dalton Booksellers during that era.

As others have already alluded to, and I implied above, the original Tandy 1000 was, in essence, a PCjr clone, as it had the same graphics hardware (a 16-color hybrid CGA or “CGA Plus”) and the same TI three-voice sound chip. However, it didn’t share the same keyboard or cartridge ports of the ill-fated PCjr, and also, unlike the PCjr, had great expandibility options.

[ymous,Anon]

I have a copy of it that I got off ebay but i’ve only played it on the KQ Collection since that was the first version I had.  I did play other games on it like conquests of camelot and gold rush.  Its hilarious to see the old version of windows I have on it, which looks like someone took the clock, notepad and other stuff and kept them always maximized and stuck together up on the screen like a program quilt.  If I had room I’d keep it plugged in, most reliable computer I ever had,

[drummindog,drummindog_yahoo_com]

I really remember that 6 note loop from this version. I wish that Sierra had put this in (as well as the original text version we all know and love with the text input instead of the mouse version) when they rereleased the series a few years ago.

You know it is funny. The older I get, the more I sometimes just want to go back in time for a little while. Nostalgia plain and simple.

[flesentine,flesentine_hotmail_com]

I remember the scroll version as well; I played on a Tandy 1000. At the time I was too young to read the text fast enough. Dosbox has a Tandy mode and these old Sierra games will play with polyvoice sound and the Tandy font… what fun.

[raulmd,raulmd_hotmail_com]

Hi all, how are you?
I’m from Lima, Peru and english is not my mother language so please excuse me for any errors I make writting here.

I’ve been looking around the internet for this old KQ1 version with the non-textbox-only-scroll-mesages and the 6 note loop.

I’ve found an apple version with the scroll messages and the drawing of the scene each time you change rooms (something I didn’t remember!!!)
It runs on an app called AppleWin but it has no sounds!

So my search is still on for that 6 tune version that I am eager to hear again!!

So if any of you guys can help me directing me to a link or sending me a copy of this booter version I’ll be very grateful.

Thanks in advance and best regards!
Raul

[billynsherman,billynsherman_yahoo_com]

I’ll never forget it.  6th grade sitting in the front of Radio Shack while my mom shopped in Sears.  All I wanted to do was walk around and explore this ‘virtual’ (was that even a word then) world.  Wild horses couldn’t drag me away from it.  My dad, however saw much more.  He saw an opportunity to get me into a much bigger world with a real future.  He roped my mom into getting me the Tandy 1000sx computer with a CM-11 monitor and their highest end Dot-Matrix printer for Christmas that year.  We would play KQ1 and 2 for hours, but we had to look at what else the computer could do for at least 10 to 20 minutes first.  I learned everything about it.  Anytime a game required an upgrade, he an I were in the case adding memory, installing a sound card and eventually getting newer and better PC’s just to play the latest King’s Quest or Space Quest.  I am now an IT professional at a fortune 500 company.  Thanks Dad and Thank you Sierra for all you introduced me to.

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