With the sudden passing of friend and fellow Sierra On-Line fan, Roberta Vaughan, I decided that now might be the best time to revisit The Treasure of the Sierra On-Line. I am in the process of further exploring various memories of Sierra On-Line. Everything from Space Quest to You Don't Know Jack. From Police Quest to 3-D Ultra Pinball. From King's Quest to Quest for Glory. It may be thirteen years late, but here it is. The Treasure of the Sierra On-Line for Quest for Glory! Watch your step! The paint is still wet!
The New Treasure of the Sierra On-Line (Quest for Glory)
Hero or villian. The choice is yours.
So you want to be a hero? It takes more than a mere sword or the ability to conjure a spell to proclaim oneself a hero. It takes courage, determination and self sacrifice. The capacity to drop everything in a heartbeat in the pursuit of helping those in need. And being humble enough not to expect anything in return! A true hero will be judged not by the fancy cape adorned on their back, but by the contents of their character. A cool sounding name never hurts, however!
Quest for Glory: So You Want to Be a Hero?
As the 1990s were slowly drawing to a close, I suddenly found myself playing every single point and click adventure game I could get my grubby little hands on. My brother, on the other hand, had begun to develop a slightly different taste in gaming. He would often seek out games with complex role-playing elements. Games with deeper character customization, level progression, skill trees, turn-based combat and upgradable gear. What if we had the best of both worlds?
While browsing yet another store bargain bin, we happened across a Sierra On-Line game entitled Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness. A sticker was stamped on the back of the game's box that read, "VALUE PRICED MERCHANDISE - No tech support provided." Based upon the information printed on the box itself, we could infer that the game was indeed a hybrid between a point and click adventure game and a role-playing game.
Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness (Front of Box)
Courtesy of The Sierra Chest
Included among the bullet points were the following details, "Create your own unique character, selecting from over 15 different attributes, knowing each decision affects the game outcome," and "Unravel nearly three times as many puzzles as found in most other adventure games." It seemed as though my brother and I may have finally found a game that could bridge the gap between our ever polarizing tastes in games.
Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness left that dusty old store bargain bin behind and went somewhere where it could be truly appreciated. In our personal Sierra On-Line collection. Among the many other things printed on the back of the game's box was a brief marketing spiel(burg) about the game's designers. "Award-winning game designers Corey and Lori Cole return with their finest and most exhilarating achievement ever: Quest for Glory, Shadows of Darkness. Can you save Mordavia from the powerful magic that holds it captive? You must assume the role of a fighter, a magic user, or a thief in your quest to free this fantasy kingdom from the evil power of the Dark One. Then embark into this most innovative and imaginative adventure."
Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness (Back of Box)
Courtesy of The Sierra Chest
I was certainly sold on the game. The only question that remained was, which role should I assume after my brother and I installed the game? It was a question that continued to haunt me even after ultimately choosing the fighter class. I would come to key parts of Mordavia and just think to myself, "Gee, this would be so much more fun if I could use magic here," or "I would love to sneak around town in the dead of night and pick every lock as the thief."
I found myself restarting the game on more than one occasion. I eventually came to the realization that I had the most fun as the thief. I just really love sneaking around in the dead of night. Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness was a magical experience, and it was made even more so by the wonderful narration of John Rhys-Davies of Indiana Jones and Sliders fame. I could listen to him go on about caverns for hours. He has such a gentle sounding voice.
Portrait of John Rhys-Davies (Sliders)
Quest for Glory IV's combat system was fairly straightforward. The four arrow keys located on the keyboard controlled our hero's movement. Up corresponded to jump, down to duck, and left or right was used to move around the battle area. The mouse keys were used to initiate physical attacks. And various magic-based attacks could also be cast from the user interface near the bottom of the screen. It may not have been as deep as Final Fantasy's combat system, but it certainly got the job done.
In our travels across Mordavia, my brother and I quickly discovered that the kingdom was filled to the brim with peculiar characters. Everyone we met along the way seemed just a bit put off by our hero's presence there. I still remember waiting until after nightfall to break into the Burgomeister's office. Perhaps hoping to learn some dark secret about him. We would eventually come to find ourselves inside Castle Borgov. A very spooky, and if memory serves correctly, deadly place to be!
Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness (Game Introduction and Thievery)
Shadows of Darkness was very likely our first game with a day/night cycle. This led to more than a few personal adventure game blunders. There are certain events that only occur during the day or during the night, and certain events that only occur after a fixed number of days have passed in-game. Certain characters only appear at certain times, and certain characters can even die without the player's direct intervention.
For example, if the gravedigger Igor is not found in time after his unfortunate accident in the cemetery, the player might eventually find his rotting corpse beneath the collapsed tombstone. This happened to my brother and I during our very first Shadows of Darkness playthrough, and it was one of the most shocking discoveries we ever made in the game! We must have waited a day or two before finally returning to the cemetery. Igor dead. Dead for days. Where help when Igor need it? If Igor was not dead, Igor find better friends.
R.I.P. Igor the Gravedigger
One of the many challenges found within Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness included a slider puzzle. It was necessary to complete this puzzle in order to access Dr. Cranium's laboratory, but it was only half of the solution. A key was also necessary. The slider puzzle itself was fairly routine, but the pieces on the outer edges always seemed to cause a little trouble for my brother and I. Those pieces were far less pronounced than the center pieces depicting the much more prominent keyhole. We solved the slider puzzle a few times without the key, not knowing that the puzzle would reset upon our next visit.
Eventually, we learned how to T.R.A.P. an antwerp and went through the process of collecting the actual key that fit the door to Dr. Cranium's lab. That process involved a somewhat complex maze. Similar to a rat maze, but with antwerps. We then solved the slider puzzle one last time and we finally entered the lab. It felt like being on hallowed ground! Dr. Cranium appeared to be working on multiple experiments. If the sheet covered corpse resting on the operating table was any indication, he may have had a few Dr. Frankenstein aspirations.
Dr. Cranium's "Abby Normal" Laboratory
I honestly cannot recall if we ever actually finished Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness, but it certainly encouraged me to go back and check out the earlier games in the series. Quest for Glory I: So You Want to Be a Hero possessed a charming and welcoming vibe. It was a night and day difference from the rather omenous world of Mordavia in Shadows of Darkness. The townspeople were as friendly as could be. No apparent signs of apprehension to our hero being there. When I was not wandering the town of Spielburg, I was making ample use of the archery range just outside its gates. Even in this relatively peaceful land of Spielburg, you never know when you might need to be ready for a fight! Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire looked to be another grand adventure, but I unfortunately never progressed very far. I quickly became lost in the maze-like town of Shapeir. It would be some time before I explored the rest of the game.
Below, I have included an old photo taken of my physical Quest for Glory collection. It is not very glorified! Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness included a box, CD, manual, installation instructions sheet and a Hero magazine with various tips on heroism. I just realized that "IV" is nowhere to be seen in the printed materials. I have to wonder if the presence of the number four would have changed anything. I had bought numbered games before without having played the previous entries. Space Quest IV: Roger Wilco and the Time Rippers comes to mind.
Quest for Glory "Collection"
"You can't just be the Hero part, you've got to look and sound the Hero as well. So, develop those deltoids as well as your backswing, practice magical gestures in the mirror to improve your mysterious moody manner, and learn how to disarm deadly devious traps while smiling nonchalantly and juggling your spare lockpicks in your other hand. If you are going to do something, do it with panache. Oh, yeah, and change your name while you're at it."
-Hero (Special Hallowe'en Issue)
Shortly after my adventures in the realm of Mordavia in Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness, I learned about the "Sneak Peek!" demo for Quest for Glory V: Dragon Fire. It was a pre-release build of the game that included a multiplayer mode. A mode that would ultimately not appear in the finished game. Players could either connect directly using TCP/IP or connect to WON (World Opponent Network). A service that many other Sierra On-Line games were beginning to use at the time. Up to four players could join one another and battle it out together. The demo included two unique playable characters. Elsa von Spielburg and Magnum Opus. The demo also provided a preview of Quest for Glory V's brand new land, Silmaria. A land inspired by Ancient Greece and legends of old. A Mediterranean land teeming with secrets to be unraveled. Welcome to the world of Quest for Glory V: Dragon Fire. End of marketing spiel(burg). The future looked bright for the Quest for Glory series.
Quest for Glory V Demo (Connection Settings and Character Selection)
A decade came to pass in the blink of an eye. My adventures in Shadows of Darkness with my little brother now seemed like a distant memory. The names, the places. Fragments all but lost to time. Quest for Glory itself had been forgotten by the masses. Its last official release being Quest for Glory V: Dragon Fire in 1998. It seemed destined to join Space Quest in the bargain bin in the sky.
But to everyone's eventual delight, AGD Interactive published a VGA remake of Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire in 2008. They had no direct affiliation with Sierra On-Line, but they did have the blessing of the original designers. AGD Interactive had previously published VGA remakes of the first two King's Quest games. They were a group of very passionate adventure game fans!
Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire VGA (Game Introduction)
My time in Mordavia in Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness had turned me into quite the thief. I found myself looting anything and everything. No lock was too strong for the likes of me. When the time came to choose my character in Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire VGA, I made no hesitation. I quickly chose the thief class. The residents of Shapeir would have to sleep with one eye open while I was in town. I managed to break into nearly every dwelling in the city. Thievery never felt so good.
But even a thief like myself has to stop and fight a greater evil from time to time. A powerful wizard named Ad Avis was making trouble throughout the land of Shapeir. And it was really cutting into my thief profits! The townspeople were afraid to work, and so long as they were afraid to work, they were not earning dinars. No dinars, no profit.
Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire VGA (Thievery)
I gathered all the necessary equipment and travelled via saurus to Shapeir's neighboring city of Raseir. A city with boards nailed over its doors and windows. A city in a state of decay. A city that may soon be home to yet another Spirit Halloween!
In time, I would confront the wizard responsible for Shapeir's troubles and push his flaming carcass off a balcony high atop Raseir's palace. His corpse burned so brightly that it was briefly visible from Spielburg! Shapeir was safe at long last, and I could rest easy knowing that I was the only person terrorizing its citizens.
Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire VGA (Confronting Ad Avis)
I would eventually set my thieving ways aside for good and join the school for heroes in Corey and Lori Cole's Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption. It is never too late to go back to hero school. But that is a story for another time!
One of these days, I still intend to play through the entire Quest for Glory series in chronological order. For those that may not know, your save data can be carried with you throughout the entire series. It even unlocks a fourth character class. The Paladin. A character that strives for peace and carries a sword that channels their honor into a holy flame. Dealing extra damage to nearby enemies. It would be a joy to revisit all those magical lands. Yes, one of these days.
Up next, an Al Lowe game that was made for kids. Uh, oh.
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