King's Quest: Collection Series

The Good
This collection is INCREDIBLY complete. It contains all seven King's Quest games (Mask of Eternity had not yet been released), which in and alone should be enough for the retail price ($29.99 when I bought it in '97), the two Laura Bow mystery games, Mixed-Up Mother Goose, and a few early Sierra titles that were originally released for the Apple II.

The King's Quest games are a must-play for anyone who loves adventure games, wants to wax-nostalgic, or just wants to see the roots of gaming. I can't think of a better way to demonstrate how gaming has changed over the years than with the King's Quest Collection, which covers ten years of gaming history.

The additional games are also a nice touch. Laura Bow is fun for the mystery fan, and for the kiddies there is the very simple Mixed Up Mother Goose, which is actually amusing to play even if you're not a kid. Throw in some old Apple games and you've got yourself literally years of fun (I got it in '97 and I still occasionally go back and play it).

Also, there are some really cool KQ related special features. There is a help file containing the entire history of the King's Quest games; how they were started, what the plots were, who worked on them, etc. Additionally, there is a trivia game which tests you on your King's Quest knowledge, a behind-the-scenes look at King's Quest creation (concept art and such), a press-clip viewer that has old reviews and articles pertaining to the series, and a couple videos, including a mini-documentary on the making of King's Quest 6 (one of the best KQ games, arguably THE best).

In short, I love how complete this collection is, the games that are included, and the special features that were thrown in.

The Bad
The King's Quest Collection has serious compatibility issues. While you can run all the games in Windows, running some of the DOS-specific games (namely KQ4, KQ1 remake, and Laura Bow 1) in Windows will probably not give you any sound, and even running them in DOS may not fix the problem.

The Windows specific games were designed for Win 3.x, and some of them can be quite finicky when run in Windows 98. Something as simple as clicking out of the game window or clicking a button on the Windows title bar will crash the game and completely lock up your system. Also, you MUST run the games in 256 color mode or the graphics will not be presented right. You will get inverted colors and missing backgrounds which looks absolutely hideous.

Another thing I dislike about this collection is that the copy protection for some of the games is still in place, which is quite obnoxious. For awhile I had lost my manual, and had I not made copies of the pages I needed before hand, I would have been locked out of King's Quest 4 and Laura Bow 1, both of which require manual-specific input to play.

Also, and it might just be in my case, but my CDs are so old now that they seem to have deteriorated a bit. While the CDs are not scratched up and have been taken care of over the years, CD drives have a terrible time trying to read them. I found that making a copy of the CD works just fine, however.

The Bottom Line
The King's Quest Collection is an excellent package which contains not only all the King's Quest games, but some additional (good) games and special features which give added value to an already spectacular package.

It must be taken as it is, however. You must realize before you buy/play it that there ARE going to be issues running the games and that because of the age of the games and because it was, for whatever reason, beyond Sierra to revamp the games to where they all at least work, this is unavoidable. Just realize that you have a ten year spectrum of gaming history and enjoy the games for what they are: simple at times, complex at others, incredibly fun overall.

If you are an adventure gamer, a classic gamer, or you enjoy simple fantasy tales, then the King's Quest Collection is for you.