King's Quest 1 Redux

The dedication of King's Quest fans never ceases to amaze me. Out of any group of fans of an old computer game, the KQ fans are the ones, who with love and skill and dedication keep the old games created by Roberta Williams alive. They have re-made old King's Quest titles, turning old parser driven games into a point and click games keeping up the flame of fairytale-inspired adventures alive. And now, a fan called Edenwaith has made a redux version of the old AGI King's Quest 1.

So, what does this mean, in terms of King's Quest 1 then? Well, for starters, it is more or less the same game as the original AGI game we all know and love, but with a couple of quality of life improvements and tweaks.

The most important improvements revolve around fixing out dead-end scenarios King's Quest games are very well known for. In the original game, you could get mugged by a dwarf, who'd steal all the treasures you've collected and the only way of getting them back was to restore a game. Now, there is a place, where you can get those items back in the same way KQ2 had. There is also a different way of getting a mushroom, which will help you escape the leprechauns caverns.

Another little change is a new title screen in a style similar to the other King's Quest games. This also includes the ever so familiar King's Quest fanfare. The infamous gnome riddle has also been altered so, that you can answer it the more obvious way rather than the obscure method KQ1 originally had. It still is a fairly hard puzzle, but at least it is now fair in the same way it was on Sierra's own KQ1 remake. Some smaller additions are fixed inventory items to match their appearance in the game world, fixing some game screens graphics, correcting typos and messages.

So, all in all, this fanmade Redux version is in many ways the best version to play of the old AGI version. It remains all the charm of the old game, in all its pixelated glory, but removes some of the design annoyances of it. Sure enough, it still has beanstalk climb, which is one of the most annoying bits ever designed, but considering you always could take another route, it's not that bad of a deal.

You can get the Redux version from Edenwaith's site.