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Hey Ken, so Vivendi actually now owns the rights to ALL of the game franchises you helped create? Does that mean that Vivendi owns the rights to Quest for Glory?
Barry has obviously rubbed Mr. Rodrigues and Mr. Bittar the wrong way, and even Barry can admit that his later posts are undoubtedly instigative… but, to be honest with you all, Barry does have an interesting point; albeit, in a goading manner. The one issue that he raised that I think actually deserves a response is “Why continue the King’s Quest saga? …why not make an original game?” I’m really curious as to what brought together a group of people to unofficially continue the series with a ninth installment. Was it simply a homage to Sierra’s efforts? …or were there things that the KQ9 team always wished Sierra would have done in the original games? …or is this a steppingstone to something even bigger? I’m actually curious… and I’m not trying to be a jerk.
And take this as you will…
A while ago I gathered people’s opinions on the idea of an online adventure game. I had all sorts of negative comments thrown at me throughout the thread. I received childish “Who’d want to play your stupid game?” responses to well thought out “I believe your game will not appeal to the masses because…” replies. Regardless of how articulate or crass the feedback was, I responded with genuine concern to the posts as to why the person did not like my gaming concept.
And you know what happened? Soon, the thread was teeming with constructive criticism… because the people who were just trying to ruffle my feathers didn’t get a rise out of me. In fact, I even had a few of the would-be troublemakers apologize to me later on in the thread because the topic kept taking interesting twists and they still wanted to participate in the discussion.
Basically, Barry obviously has something against the KQ9 project, but instead of trying to find out what it is; we have KQ9 people defending their game, and themselves to some degree, in a reactive manner. Not a good thing for anybody, if you ask me. In fact, Neil kind of treads close to shining a bad light on Sierra’s borrowed fairytale concepts, in my opinion. Definitely not a good thing… especially from the Assistant Director of Public Relations.
Anyway, everyone should take a pill. Besides, if people are actually going to take the time to respond to Barry’s comments, why not ask him why he’s making those comments instead of fueling the fire?
Food for thought.
— Cody
Someone emailed me today and asked if I could scan this. It’s a cute little manual. The edges are contoured to match the picture on the front cover, not square (the white background you see in the scans is the lid of my scanner).
I uploaded the whole manual. The last .jpg is a close-up of the codes… thought the smaller version might be hard to read.
-emily
ps I have a typo in my title and the edit feature won’t let me fix it. 🙁
castle of dr. brain – manual 1
castle of dr. brain – manual 2
castle of dr. brain – manual 3
castle of dr. brain – manual 4
castle of dr. brain – manual 5
castle of dr. brain – manual 6
castle of dr. brain – manual 7
castle of dr. brain – close-up of codesHello guys,
I’m César Bittar, Project Director of KQIX. I’m sure a couple of you know me already 😉
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“… (by Barry)I’m not a “customer” because I will probably never play this game. First of all, because I don’t like adventure games in 3D and secondly because I do not care for someone else’s view on what happens next in the KQ universe. If I play another KQ game it has to be written by Roberta Williams, the rest are just cheap knock-offs no matter how good they play or look. It’s like buying an imitation Rolex and pretending that it’s real, with the only difference being that it doesn’t take the manufacturer 4 years to make said Rolex…
…”
It took Sierra 3 years and a couple of delays to release Gabriel Knight 3 with a full paid staff. If you want to talk about professional companies’ products “release dates”, take a look at Sierra’s Half Life 2 or Square’s Final Fantasy XII. We didn’t know when HL2 was going to be released until basically the release date, and we still don’t know when Final Fantasy XII will be released after almost 4 years in production. Both of these projects had/have incredible high budgets to work with.
Also, we’ve received a nod from both Roberta and Ken on the little stuff they’ve seen from King’s Quest IX, and they are basically the two people we care the most when it comes to approving or disapproving what we are doing.
Sincerely,
César Bittar
Project Director
Unofficial KQIX Development Team
http://www.kq9.org Quote:
“… (by Ants Bull)
Barry, why is it that id Software had exactly the same approach with all their games in the Quake and Doom series? They are obviously not a proper company either. Wake up brother and stop being a troll….”Ehm, maybe it’s because ID Software (and Valve for that matter) wrote their own 3D engines? Most of the development time was spent on the engine, not on the game. Or maybe it’s because ID has already released high quality games in the past and you know what to expect from them?
I’m not sure why you’re calling me a troll, I may have an unpopular opinion but I feel that I have a valid point: why rip off someone else’s work when you can use your time and talent to create a new and original game?
Anyway, to each his own, discussing this any further seems like a waste of time, especially with the kind of replies I get from Yonkey (you can’t be serious).
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“… (by Barry)
What I don’t understand is that, on one side, your group claims to “work like a company” (quote from Saydmell Salazar, your PR Director) but on the other side cannot even set a decent deadline. I’m not sure what kind of experience you have with working for an actual company, but trust me, if you tell your boss or your customers that it’s done when it’s done without giving them at least an indication of a deadline, they won’t be happy.
…”Barry, why is it that id Software had exactly the same approach with all their games in the Quake and Doom series? They are obviously not a proper company either. Wake up brother and stop being a troll.
Hmm. Maybe I lucked out, then. 🙂
I just remember being annoyed about that one bug because I didn’t know about it ahead of time. By the time I applied the patch I was well into the game, so I started over from whatever chapter I was on, but my score at the end didn’t reflect my actual score because scoring only started at whichever chapter that was (maybe chapter 4… the one with the lava).
Anyway, sorry to hear you had such headaches with it. I hope you’re able to get it working and play through to the end. It’s not Sierra’s best game but it is worth playing, and makes much better use of the art style and interface than KQ7 did (in my opinion).
-emily
ps I’m pretty sure I played the Windows version.
My ol’ pappy had a saying that I believe applies here. He’d say…
“Son, there are two levers in life; lever A and lever B…
and sometimes you just gotta leave ‘er be.”— Cody
Hey, guys. I have already tried working on something like this. I am only missing one key point to this and that is a programmer on my team. We have been working with a MUSH server for several years and have gotten it to the point where it is ready to be released as a text adventure or converted into a graphical adventure game. However, we have been looking at server setups lately and have not been able to find and decent client/server systems for what we are looking to do.
I have thought that something like The Realm would be absolutely perfect for us, but none of us, as we have skulked and searched the entirety of the web, have not been able to find a system even similar to the SCIW system.
Perhaps one of you might know of an engine which is similar to SCIW/SCI32 so that we might attempt to keep the system familiar with those that have been playing these games forever, but might also attract fresh blood, so to speak, into the system as well.
Anybody know of a system like this or would I have to find a programmer who is willing to code the whole thing from scratch?
Wolverine@Space Quest Remakes
For someone that will probably never play the game, you seem to care an awful lot about our release date. Also, it’s been 7 years since Roberta’s last game. Wow, you must be almost twice as unhappy with her as you are with us!
Regarding Counter-Strike, King’s Quest IX is not a first person shooter or a Mod to Half-Life. If that’s the kind of game you want King’s Quest IX to be (you must, since that’s what you compare it to), then you right — you should probably never play our game, or any fan games for that matter.
Lastly, Sierra’s stories weren’t completely original, especially the King’s Quest ones. Many puzzles were “ripped off” from fairytales and mythology: Three Goats Gruff, Jack & the Beanstalk, Hansel & Gretel, Neptune, Little Red Riding Hood, Medusa, etc.
Since you don’t have anything constructive to say about us or fan games, I agree with Brandon because there is no point in continuing this discussion with you.
—
-=Yonkey=-
Neil Rodrigues
Assistant Director of Public Relations & Web
Director of Programming
Project Coordination
Unofficial King’s Quest IX
http://www.kq9.org Emily, I’ve tried to play through the game on various PC’s (with different versions of Windows and DOS) and have always encountered numerous random crashes. I’ve recently shifted the game back on to my TO PLAY list, so as soon as I have some time, I’m going to install and play it on my DOS PC (running FreeDOS). Hopefully it will be better behaved this time.
I have a boxed copy and the manual is still the a jewel-case insert. I don’t think there is an oversized manual for this game.
As for bugs – other than the saving bug (which is fixed by the patch), I didn’t run into any technical problems at all. I played on XP and enjoyed this game quite a bit. I’m not sure that setting to 256 colors and 640×480 resolution in compatibility mode will work for this game. You might have to do it manually (which is true of quite a few Sierra games) by going to the Settings tab in Display Properties and clicking Advanced / Adapter tab / List All Modes.
-emily
This one is great, thanks a lot!!!
Jan
PS: The opera scene is my favourite! They don’t make games like this one anymore…
Torin’s Passage was rereleased several years ago in a jewel case-only (i.e. no box) version. A game manual is included in the jc. As this is the one I own, I have no idea what else may have been included with the original boxed release.
Regarding buying it today, I have only ever ONCE found this game being sold in a store (new or second hand), and bought it immediately. Sadly, it isn’t anywhere near Sierra’s best work. And, even with the patch installed, the bugs will probably prevent you from ever playing all the way through it.
It’s still being sold by CDAccess. A search brings up the following entry:
Torin’s Passage – New Jewel Case from Sierra for Win95/Win98/WinXP $14.95 (138 in Stock)
I thought I had silenced them all. Curse the quick thinking of the Arch Authority, snatching the child away before his doom was sealed. Had the lad been with the rest, surely my suffering would have ceased years ago. At last I have found him but in a world of isolation and innocence. He has no idea of the twists and turns his life has taken thus far, nor the path I have planned for his very short future. Just let him try to discover the truth, and learn the secrets of Strata’s five nested worlds. Watching his struggle will be an amusement. Facing him will be horribly wonderful. *** For Windows XP do not perform any tests when installing (MY COMMENT: not just XP, avoid testing on all versions of Windows after 95) and set compatibility mode to 256 colors.
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“… (by Justin ) Roberta Williams: Are you going to do anymore games? …”Justin:
Roberta only comes on here on rare occasions. She likes the website, but really isn’t computer-centric. She doesn’t use message boards. She sometimes goes a couple days between checking her email (whereas I check my email every 10 minutes or so).
So, I’ll have to try to answer this question for her…
Roberta would say: “Yes, I would definitely consider doing another game someday, but have no current plans.”
Right now, she is working on something, but doesn’t know if it will finish as a book, a screenplay or a game. She’s in the early stages of the project where she is thinking about the world she’s trying to create, and the beings that live there. She is very early in the process, and my guess is that it will be several years before anything will emerge.
-Ken W
Hello my name is Justin, I am from Ontario Canada. I was not totally sure were to post this post but here looks good to me. I am a younger teen so I havent played all of the Kings Quest games. But I love all of your work (Roberta Williams). You are an amasing person and I was wondering. Are you going to do anymore games. Because I have never liked and other Medevil game like “kings Quest Mask of Eternity”. It’s the perfect game. and I was just courious if you will be writing anymore. Your games have adventure, realism, everything you need and it get’s me thinking….is this the last of this kind of game.
Thanks for your time.
P.s. A website said you would respond yourself…so that’s why I want to hear from you no one else.
-Justin
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“… (by Shawn Smith) Wanted to thank you for the help with Running the QFG Series…having a slight problem witht he sound not initializing (music plays though) with QFG3…but it did that on my old computer that ran all my old games.
Does anyone know if the VMS Sound Program runs the Ultima Programs, or will DosBox run them efficiently?
I will continue to read these message boards, but to make it wasier could someone point me in the right direction?Oh and by the way, THIS IS THE BEST FORUM I HAVE EVER SEEN, EVER!!!!
…”‘Unable to initialise audio’ error? Get this driver I’ve uploaded:
http://smc.sq7.org/miscfile/sb16drv.exe
If you replace your existing driver with this one, it *should* help things- let me know if it doesn’t work!– Alistair
Okay. Well, the QFG anthology, like some other Sierra collections, apparently has a buggy installer. To run the games, regardless of whether you’e running them natively/using DOSBOX/etc., you need to copy the game files to your appropriate folder. I think the QFG anthology has different games in diff. folders, right? if not, should be easy to find. Anyway.
Simply make them not read-only, after you’ve copied them, and proceed to run the install.exe file from there. From there you can now run DOSBOX, for example (though it’s only useful for QFG4).
– Alistair
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“… (by Yonkey )I’m sorry if you are an “unhappy customer”, but you shouldn’t make demands when you’re getting something for free.
…”I’m not a “customer” because I will probably never play this game. First of all, because I don’t like adventure games in 3D and secondly because I do not care for someone else’s view on what happens next in the KQ universe. If I play another KQ game it has to be written by Roberta Williams, the rest are just cheap knock-offs no matter how good they play or look. It’s like buying an imitation Rolex and pretending that it’s real, with the only difference being that it doesn’t take the manufacturer 4 years to make said Rolex…
Quote:
“… (by Yonkey )
In other words, you cannot compare KQ9 to KQ2VGA because they are two completely different games. We are using: 3D graphics and animations, a completely different game engine designed for first person shooters rather than adventure games, a massive 2000+ page script, completely original musical themes, and more!
…”It’s not like you have to write the entire 3D engine yourself. If you don’t want to compare yourself to AGDI then compare yourself to the groups that make Mods for FP shooters, I don’t remember Counterstrike taking 4 years to develop.
Anyway, I agree with Brandon that I should stop this discussion. I just have a strong opinion with regards to fanmade games. I think that it’s ok to do a spoof (i.e. QfG4.5), but that’s it. If the Sierra games have inspired you and you want to make your own game then why not make an original game, with it’s own story, world and characters? Sierra didn’t get where they (unfortunately) were by ripping off other stories, they were original, fangames are not.
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“… (by Barry)
What I don’t understand is that, on one side, your group claims to “work like a company” (quote from Saydmell Salazar, your PR Director) but on the other side cannot even set a decent deadline. I’m not sure what kind of experience you have with working for an actual company, but trust me, if you tell your boss or your customers that it’s done when it’s done without giving them at least an indication of a deadline, they won’t be happy….”I never said there was no deadline or release date for the game. I just said it will only be announced (publicly) when we are ready. Our team works through weekly assignments, deadlines, meetings and progress reports. One important thing to remember is that while we work like a company, we are not a company. Just like all the other fan groups out there, we are not being paid for our time and effort spent on creating this game, nor will we receive any income from this product once it is completed. Because of this, other real life priorities such as school and work always take precedence over development, which in turn affect deadlines. I’m sorry if you are an “unhappy customer”, but you shouldn’t make demands when you’re getting something for free. We are striving to create a very high-quality, cinematic-like game and trust me, it will be worth the wait.
Quote:
“… (by Barry)
I also noted some stabs at Tierra by your group members in the KQ9 forum (“you can’t compare the game production of them as the one we handle” or “we are working on a 3d engine with crystal space, with a complete indepth plot, very unlike what Tierra has released so far”), which I think is a bit childish. Personally, I do not care for Tierra’s games but at least they know how to release games, which is more than I can say for the KQ9 project. …”Those comments weren’t an attack on Tierra, they were reinforcing what our Project Director had said in the forum post just before it:
“Had we decided to use Tierra’s interface and graphics, this game would have been released a long while ago. However, because we are a full 3D game, with the best graphical quality we can give, it’ll take us longer.” – César Bittar
In other words, you cannot compare KQ9 to KQ2VGA because they are two completely different games. We are using: 3D graphics and animations, a completely different game engine designed for first person shooters rather than adventure games, a massive 2000+ page script, completely original musical themes, and more! We are good friends with AGDI and we highly respect them as a fan group. I enjoyed playing KQ2VGA, but comparing it to KQ9 is like comparing apples to oranges.
—
-=Yonkey=-
Neil Rodrigues
Assistant Director of Public Relations & Web
Director of Programming
Project Coordination
Unofficial King’s Quest IX
http://www.kq9.org “you can’t compare the game production of them as the one we handle”
That statement comparing KQIX with AGDI is probably true, as KQIX has a lot more staff and their game is a lot more complex in all departments than AGDI’s remakes.
“with a complete indepth plot, very unlike what Tierra has released so far”
I would disagree there, as I think AGDI did a good job with the plot on their KQ2VGA remake.
Anyway, I don’t know the context from which these quotes were lifted, but regardless this discussion continuing in this manner isn’t really constructive. If you have constructive comments to offer about KQIX or AGDI, that’s fine. If you want to get into other discussions, please do that on the KQIX or the AGDI forums.
Go to http://manuals.legendsofglory.com/
Which should have it.
When I use the dos install in dosbox, I can select my language choice, but when the games list comes up, the keyboard does not respond to commands.
Quote:
“…
The release date will be announced when we are ready.
…”What I don’t understand is that, on one side, your group claims to “work like a company” (quote from Saydmell Salazar, your PR Director) but on the other side cannot even set a decent deadline. I’m not sure what kind of experience you have with working for an actual company, but trust me, if you tell your boss or your customers that it’s done when it’s done without giving them at least an indication of a deadline, they won’t be happy.
I also noted some stabs at Tierra by your group members in the KQ9 forum (“you can’t compare the game production of them as the one we handle” or “we are working on a 3d engine with crystal space, with a complete indepth plot, very unlike what Tierra has released so far”), which I think is a bit childish. Personally, I do not care for Tierra’s games but at least they know how to release games, which is more than I can say for the KQ9 project.
