King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow

aka: KQ6, King's Quest VI: Heute geerbt und morgen verschwunden
Moby ID: 131
DOS Specs
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Description official descriptions

For months Prince Alexander of Daventry has shut himself away from the world, thinking only of Princess Cassima, who he met while imprisoned in the previous game. Eventually he can take it no longer, and he hires a ship to search for the Land of the Green Isles located on the edge of the world. After months of searching he finally sets sight upon the island kingdom, only for a freak storm to strike the ship, destroying it and leaving him the only survivor. His troubles are far from over, however, as he soon finds out that the King and Queen have passed away, the Greens Isles are on the brink of war, and his beloved Princess Cassima may even be held prisoner by the royal vizier.

Like its predecessors in the series, King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow is a third-person puzzle-solving adventure game. For Alexander to save the Isles, he must travel between the Land's four magical islands, each based on myth and fables, and encounter people and strange beasts that will either help or hinder him. Alexander must be careful as well, because, as with all the King's Quest games, poor choices or missteps will often prove fatal for the Prince. Puzzles are solved linearly, although late in the game there are two completely different paths to take to reach the final confrontation. Like the previous game, actions are performed using a point-and-click interface with icons that represent verbs ("walk", "examine", "use", "talk", etc.).

The CD-ROM version of the game includes both DOS and Windows versions, full speech, a pre-rendered introduction, and the Girl in the Tower theme song.

Spellings

  • 國王密使 VI:希望之旅 - Traditional Chinese spelling

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Screenshots

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Credits (DOS version)

39 People (37 developers, 2 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 83% (based on 26 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 162 ratings with 11 reviews)

Ahh ... Romance ... ain't it grand?

The Good
There were 2 years separating this game and its predecessor, King's Quest 5, a game which was criticized by many, even though it was one of the first to introduce a mouse-driven interface. Because of all that criticism, it's no wonder Sierra decided to go "back" to what had been successful in the past - somewhat anyway.

The graphics, as others pointed out, are stunning. I found the music lovely and so very romantic. (We females tend to like mushy love stories, ya know.) I simply adore plots about heroes saving damsels in distress. This hero is handsome and the princess is beautiful. What good looking children they will make! And ... oooh ... the ending - you must see the ~kiss~. I remember getting goosebumps watching it. I was satisfied knowing they would live "happily ever after."

The Bad
I played KQ6 when it was new, so it is hard to remember. I don't recall anything about it I didn't like.

The Bottom Line
If you long for a classic tale of love and honor, this game's for you! This is the last game in the series that retained the original look and feel of the originals. Recommended for adults and children alike, it would make a fine addition to any collection.

DOS · by Jeanne (75962) · 2001

A great adventure from Sierra and one of the best IF not the best Kings Quest games!

The Good
The good points

The Graphics are highly detailed for their time and are filled with lush color.

The voice acting on the cd version is actually VERY well done compared to other voice acted games of the time. Kudos for sierra for giving a good cast!

Some puzzles are particularly devious. The cliffs of logic were rather tough and took time since you had to actually use that manual for something!

Alexander is a great main character and has quite a bit of intellect by him. You gotta admire the courage he has to meet a princess in a basically unknown land.

The Interface is great and easy to use. Out of all the interfaces sierra has this is my favorite.

The land of the green isles is varied and quite big for a adventure.

The game has TWO different endings!

The Bad
The game once beaten is very short and can be beat in about 20-30 minutes once you memorize all the puzzles and use the fastest route to beat the game.

the game does not have much replay value after you beat it and get both endings though you may want to replay it every few years to forget the puzzles and get the gameplay through again.

The Catacombs maze is rather annoying.

The Bottom Line
First a little backstory on how I came across this game

It was a beautiful day in 1996 when I was out getting the first family computer! Back in those days before I could get a computer of my own I was out in a computer expo and there I saw it! The cd version of Kings Quest VI Heir Today gone Tomorrow in a box brand new for four dollars! This being my first computer game I was completely awe struck at the colorful graphics and the great voice acting.

Now that the past is gone I still have this game and manual and pull it out every once in a while to relive the land of the green isles. The game as you know is a Sierra adventure game and goes with every other click game sierra made. You know Gabriel Knight, Eco Quest, Leisure Suit Larry, Police Quest, Quest for Glory and so forth. Great stuff.

If you love adventure games get this game which is a pinnacle of Sierra gaming! The best in my opinion of the kings quest series!

DOS · by Mr. Huh (105) · 2004

King's Quest II gets ramped up a notch

The Good
King's Quest VI was the first King's Quest game that I ever played, and this was back when I got my first PC. I only played the second game years later. KQ2 was released in 1985 and had you rescue a damsel in distress who was held captive in a quartz tower. Sierra decided to revisit the same theme seven years later, but this time round they created a much bigger game, with more puzzles, great graphics, a delightful soundtrack, and lots of dialogue.

Roberta Williams was the sole designer for the first five games, but that was to change during the production of the sixth game. Roberta teamed up with master storyteller Jane Jensen who was new at Sierra at the time. The KQ6 hint book has a lot of detail on the making of the game, and it's worth a read. Jane would later go on to create the Gabriel Knight series.

This game begins right where King's Quest V left off. For those who haven't played it yet, Cassima was also in the fifth game, working as a servant under Mordack. King Graham, along with his friend Crispin, helped her get back to the Land of the Green Isles (“the Green Isles”). Before this happened, Alexander develops a crush on her and said that he would visit her sometime. Alexander was true to his word and sets sail to the Green Isles. While en route, a storm arrives which leaves Alexander shipwrecked on the Isle of the Crown, which happens to be the same island where Cassima is being held.

This is all featured in the game's introduction, and there are different versions of this, depending on whether you have the CD-ROM or disk version. The introduction to the disk version was okay, but I was more impressed with the CD-ROM version's. It is 50mb long and just stunning, and you can see a lot of effort was put into it

KQ6 is, in some ways, similar to King's Quest III. You see, besides playing Alexander again, you use a magic map, but you are given the freedom to teleport to different areas (in this case, the islands), and therefore are not restricted to just exploring the one place. Every area has a certain theme. The Isle of the Crown has an Arabian Nights theme, while the Isle of the Sacred Mountain is based on classical mythology. Another similarity between the two games is the fact that depending on the path you take, you may or may not be required to prepare and cast spells. The easy thing about this is that you only have to put the ingredients together and use a spell book to cast the spell, rather than typing the incantation. 

What makes KQ6 stand out from the rest of the series is the way you can solve puzzles differently, as well as letting you choose the route that will get you inside the castle. I was more satisfied with going down the hardest route, which offers more locations and slightly harder puzzles. There are also several variations to the ending – mentioned in Peter Spear's “King's Quest Companion” - that are worth replaying the game for.

There are many ways to solve KQ6, using alternate solutions for some situations that you will face, and you will be awarded more points if you happen to take the best route. Your end goal is to get inside the castle, and there are multiple ways that you can get inside, and more points are also awarded if you choose to take the difficult path in. The multiple solutions make KQ6 highly replayable.

Like KQ5 before it, the game uses 256-color VGA graphics. The hand-drawn backgrounds in KQ6 are much better, and the environments that you walk around in are great, ranging from beaches to gardens. The characters that you encounter are well-drawn, and I can definitely relate to some of them. the portraits are good as well, and the lip-synching is excellent. Like all Sierra's games that uses their newer SCI engine, the icon-driven interface is quite colorful, although I didn't like how it looks in the CD-ROM version as it just doesn't blend in. One of the “About” pages (in the Control Panel) give you an overview of the previous King's Quest games, which is ideal for players who never played one of the previous games to go out and buy the game if they are interested.

The soundtrack is well composed, and each piece blending in with what sort of environment you are in. Each bit of music is excellent if you are playing the game with a General MIDI device such as the Roland SC-88. The sound effects are also great with a cartoony effect thrown in for good measure.

The CD-ROM version also featured the “Girl in the Tower” song, well suited to the game's theme. It was written by Mark Seibert, sung by a couple of nobodies, and praised by the majority of King's Quest fans. (Okay, the singers were never credited in the closing credits, so I stand by my statement.) A snippet of the song can be heard in the disk version, and players were encouraged to call their radio station and request its broadcast. Most radio stations refused to play the song, and Sierra was threatened with legal action. This version of the game also includes a video on the making of the game.

I like the humor in the game. There are amusing tidbits on each of the islands you visit, but I found a lot of the humor is triggered when you try to talk to everything you see. And Sierra added a talk icon in the inventory for a reason, and having said that, I enjoyed talking to Rotten Tomato as he has some funny things to say. ("I've got a lawyer, you know. There's some kidnapping laws in this here kingdom.")

There is one point in the game where you have to refer to the “Guidebook of the Land of the Green Isles” that came with the game to solve The Cliffs of Logic, otherwise you won't be able to progress through the game. Not only does it serve as the copy protection for the game, it also provides some useful information about the Green Isles and its flora and fauna.

The Bad
So Sierra made the effort of making the introductions of both disk- and CD-based versions different from the rest of the game. But why didn't they just bother doing the same thing to some parts of the game, what other companies did to their interactive movies. Sierra may have limited its cut-scenes to fit its files on a single disk, but back in the early 90's, CDs had a 650MB capacity, so there was no reason why Sierra didn't do this, especially to the CD version.

There are always inconsistencies among the voices in Sierra's CD-ROM games. Different actors have played the same role. The voice of Alexander is not the same voice that you hear in KQ6, and the same goes for Cassima, Rosella, and Valanice as well. The characters are played by two different people, and I don't think that's right. There should be the same actor playing a certain character throughout the series, like what Sierra did for Graham.

The Bottom Line
Although KQ6 has the "rescue the princess" theme, it has a much, deeper plot. The game is similar to KQ3, in which the tasks that you did in this game are also repeated here. It is worth getting the CD-ROM version? Yes, because you get to watch the stunning introduction, get to experience some top-notch voice acting, and enjoy some other bonuses. Can Sierra maintain the same quality for the rest of the King's Quest games? Play them and find out.

DOS · by Katakis | ă‚«ă‚żă‚­ă‚ą (43092) · 2015

[ View all 11 player reviews ]

Trivia

Amiga version

The back cover of the Amiga version contains information: "Beautiful graphics in 256 colours or 32 colours (two versions available)." but the game was released only in 32 colours version.

According to KQ VI reviews in Amiga Computing, Amiga Format and Amiga Power magazines Sierra originally planned to release a 256 colours version but decided that 32 colours version looked so good already so they shelved the idea.

The game was ported to the Amiga by Revolution Software, though the company wasn't credited on the box or in the manual. This is why this version uses Revolution's Virtual Theatre engine instead of SCI.

CD version

The CD version of King's Quest VI includes Girl in the Tower , the theme song to the game, composed by Mark Seibertm in full length. A sample of it can be heard on the floppy version for five seconds, then the game urges you to ring up radio stations that was listed in the manual and request it. Also the introduction was also extended in the CD version.

Music

Chris Braymen, the game's composer, quoted a Gregorian chant (Dies Irae) in the theme that plays when Prince Alexander is captured in the Catacombs of the Isle of the Sacred Mountain. It's a famous theme, quoted as well in many classical compositions such as Berlioz' Symphonie fantastique (5th part), in Stanley Kubrick's films The Shining and A Clockwork Orange, and also in Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (Room of the God Machine).

References

King's Quest VI's villain is named Abdul Alhazred; this name was taken from the work of horror and sci-fi writer H.P. Lovecraft. Abdul was a fictional character (also dubbed ''the Mad Arab'') who wrote the Necronomicon.

Technology

This was Sierra's first adventure game to feature their lipsyncing technology that they got when they bought out Bright Star Technology.

Awards

  • Power Play
    • Issue 02/1993 – #2 Best Presentation in 1992

Information also contributed by B14ck W01f, B.L. Stryker, game nostalgia and Jiguryo

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Related Sites +

  • Game Nostalgia
    Provides extensive background info for King’s Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow, pictures of the cast and examples of voice-overs, full credits with shots and info about the design team, demo of the game, specific details about the game, various goodies, all musical themes, shots of every location in the game, video clips, saved games, a list of reviews, including a "nostalgic" review and tech specs.
  • Hints for KQ6
    These hints will help you solve the game.

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  • MobyGames ID: 131
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Andy Roark.

Amiga added by POMAH. Windows 3.x added by Mr. Huh. Macintosh added by Terok Nor.

Additional contributors: Adam Baratz, Katakis | ă‚«ă‚żă‚­ă‚ą, Jeanne, formercontrib, game nostalgia, Paulus18950, Patrick Bregger.

Game added May 23, 1999. Last modified February 13, 2024.