Hero's Quest: So You Want to Be a Hero

aka: Hero's Quest I: So You Want To Be A Hero, Quest For Glory: So You Want To Be A Hero
Moby ID: 168
DOS Specs
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Description official descriptions

The little town of Spielburg is populated mostly by beer-drinking humans and some centaurs who like working in the field. Spielburg is surrounded by forests and mountains, where all kinds of weird creatures dwell: ogres, goblins, talking foxes, stupid magicians, and others. Lately, Spielburg has been assaulted by brigands; besides, the witch Baba Yaga is not to be trusted. The town has everything it needs--even a Thieves Guild--except a strong, brave hero who would protect it. So when a wandering adventurer enters the town, he quickly realizes that his skills might be of use.

Hero's Quest: So You Want to Be a Hero is a hybrid game that contains Role-Playing and Adventure elements. It is visually very similar to other Quest titles by Sierra (such as for example Space Quest), but the gameplay--besides the usual exploration, conversations with characters, and the solving an occasional puzzle with the help of inventory items--also involves combat and character development. In the beginning of the game, the player chooses a character class for the protagonist--either a Fighter, a Mage, or a Thief. The choice of class will influence not only the combat, but also many other events in the game. Puzzles might have different solutions depending on the class and the amount of ability points in various categories.

The main character's skills and abilities are raised directly by repeatedly performing appropriate actions, e.g. fighting enemies, practicing, climbing, throwing objects, etc. Many of those activities are necessary to perform in order to successfully complete the game. Combat takes the player to a separate screen (represented by the enemy's picture) and involves timed selection of commands such as Attack, Parry, etc. The interaction with the game-world is performed by typing verb commands or conversation topics.

The game features a day/night cycle, which also includes character schedules. The main character can get hungry and tired, so feeding him and getting some rest is essential.

Spellings

  • הרצון לעוצמה - Hebrew spelling
  • クエスト・フォー・グローリィ - Japanese spelling
  • 英雄傳奇 - Traditional Chinese spelling

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Credits (DOS version)

19 People

Director
Writing / Dialogue / Story
Programming
Animation & Background Scenes
Music
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Reviews

Critics

Average score: 86% (based on 16 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 149 ratings with 13 reviews)

The first and quite possibly the best game I've ever played.

The Good
The game is great mix of RPG and adventure. Its well drawn and has good animation for its time. The Quest for Glory series is one of the funniest I have ever played and this is no exception. The combat system is simple and fun, and the story carries you along. With three uniques character options the game is very replayable.

The Bad
Beside a few moments when there was nothing going on in the story, as in most adventure games, I didn't dislike anything about it.

The Bottom Line
If you're looking for a good RPG or adventure game look no further, Quest for Glory is what you want. Hero's Quest: So You Want To Be A Hero? is the best place to start.

DOS · by Ryan Prendiville (689) · 2000

Quest for Glory (formerly known as Hero's Quest)

The Good
The story is very immersive, the characters are interesting to talk with, the puzzles are fun to figure out (while building your stats for your particular player,) beautiful midi music/soundfx, beautiful artwork, and entertaining animations (even if they only have 16 colors). I enjoyed the full experience and having 3 player options to choose from makes it all the better.

The Bad
I don't know if this could be considered a bad thing, but typing words in short phrases to advance in the game was a joy for me. It was a challenge to figure out the parsing system, but I loved it. I'm guessing not too many people have the patience for this. The simplicity of the graphics may turn many off as well. The combat system was difficult at times. The game is short and very linear.

The Bottom Line
The fact that this was my first adventure/RPG, already creates a huge bias with nostalgia! It's my all-time-favorite adventure game. If you haven't played this game, you're really missing out!

DOS · by Powerful Hero · 2023

15yrs old and I still replay this once per year

The Good
Invented a totally new genre of gaming... the adventure RPG. I was never a fond of hardcore RPG, neither Dungeon & Dragons board games nor computer games. But I liked fantasy a lot so this game was perfect. It mixed my two favorite genres... drama & fantasy. The humor is perfect (not over the top, not too corny) the RPG elements are just right and the live action battle system is great.

The Bad
For it's time... virtually everything is perfect.

The Bottom Line
The gaming market is lacking to have forgotten titles like these. A true classic, possibly my favorite Sierra game series of ALL TIME.

DOS · by Travis Owens (6) · 2004

[ View all 13 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
Problems with keyboard using DOSBox? Matt Neuteboom (976) Dec 26, 2009

Trivia

Balancing

Some people preferred to complete the game using this version -- opposed to the VGA remake -- because you could allocate magic points for any character class you chose, guaranteeing a somewhat powerful character for the rest of the series.

Development

From Hero's Quest I Hint Book:

You may be interested to know what goes into a game like Hero's Quest I: So You Want To Be A Hero. Development took over a year, with up to four programmers and four artists, a musician, and a designer-director. Hero's Quest I contains:
  • 111,000 lines of source code (well, so 30,000 of them are blank!)
  • 535,000 bytes of background pictures
  • 1,560,000 bytes of animation
  • 1,980,000 bytes of program code
  • 375,000 characters of text messages
  • 314,000 bytes of music and sound effects and over 200,000 bytes of compiled system code
And you thought this was easy!

Gags

  • The book that Kaspar, who runs the dry Goods store, is reading, is titled "Quest for Glory: A Hero's Death"
  • If you're a thief, try picking your nose with the lockpick.. but make sure you save your game first!
  • Attack the Antwerp with your sword and it will bounce high above your head and out of the area. However, when you leave the screen and enter a new one, a shadow will appear over you from above. Things aren't looking too good! If this Antwerp has it's way then he's gonna flatten you.. so, quickly pull out your dagger\sword and hold it above your head. the Antwerp will land on your blade and explode into lots of little baby Antwerps!
  • If you right-click on the scorpion walking across the main menu the message: "Congratulations! You have found the first bug in this game." will appear.

Title

Quest For Glory was originally named Hero's Quest, but the name was later changed due to a conflict with Milton Bradley over their board game Hero Quest.

References

  • Erasmus' house contains many 'relics' from other Sierra games:
    • A suit of armor bequeathed by Colonel Gulden Dijon (a reference the first Laura Bow game, The Colonel's Bequest).
    • A little chopper from the Lytton Police Department (a reference to Police Quest).
    • On the sarcophagus is a hieroglyph starring Rosella from King's Quest 4.
    • There is also a shield in the room that belonged to one of those "Once and Future" kings (a reference to the famous King Arthur novel "The Once And Future King" by writer T.H. White).
  • The moose head and 'Maltese Falcon' appear in this game, as they do in each Quest For Glory title (Courtesy of the Sierra prop department).
  • The Three Stooges make a minor cameo appearance in the game.
  • A creature called "Antwerp" appears in this game, which is the name of an actual city in Belgium (Europe).
  • The guildmaster of the Adventurer's Guild, Wolfgang Abentuerer, mentions "two guys from Andromeda" when you ask about the antwerp trophy. It is a reference to the two designers of Space Quest, another Sierra game
  • If you visit Mirror Lake twice a submarine will emerge on your second visit. This is a plug for the Sierra adventure Codename: ICEMAN. In the VGA remake the submarine is replaced by Delphineus (the dolphin from EcoQuest) and the monster of Loch Ness (a plug for Conquest of the Longbow).

Awards

  • Amiga Joker
    • Issue 01/1991 – #2 Best Role-Playing Game in 1990
  • Computer Gaming World
    • September 1990 (Issue #74) – Adventure Game of the Year
    • November 1996 (15th anniversary issue) - #73 in the “150 Best Games of All Time" list
    • November 1996 (15th anniversary issue) – #15 Most Innovative Computer Game

Information also contributed by Belboz, Boris Stovich; Itay Shahar, Jiguryo, PCGamer77, Roedie, Roger Wilco and Timo Takalo

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Eurythmic.

Amiga added by POMAH. Atari ST, PC-98 added by Terok Nor.

Additional contributors: Trixter, Ryan Prendiville, Unicorn Lynx, Jeanne, formercontrib, Cloudschatze, Paulus18950, Patrick Bregger, roy guy.

Game added July 18, 1999. Last modified February 19, 2024.