Hero's Quest: So You Want to Be a Hero
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
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Reviews
Critics
Average score: 85% (based on 17 ratings)
Players
Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 149 ratings with 13 reviews)
14 years old, but still fun to play.
The Good
There is something about a command line interface that is strangely enticing. For one, this is the game that shot my typing skills from 15 wpm to 50 wpm. I don't fully understand what so appeals to me about this game, but it and QFG 2 definitely had something the later sequels didn't.
I am also quite fond of the character import feature through the rest of the sequels. Too bad it never caught on with mainstream rpg gaming.
The Bad
Despite ancient graphics, I can't think of anything I didn't like about this game.
The Bottom Line
A true classic -- definitely check this out if you enjoy old games.
DOS · by Gutter Snipe (21) · 2003
I agree with him, 14 years later and I still play this game sometimes
The Good
This game was great! I think I only have the EGA version of it but it was still a very fun game with great drawings and animation. Im not exactly sure what it is about this game but it just had a really cool atmosphere to it, like the king's quest series but with some action and some elements of an RPG like exp and HP. Unlike most of the Sierra-Quest games, I though this one had a higher replay value than any other one mainly because the class selection drastically changes the course of events.
The Bad
Any complaint I have about this game would be due to the technological limitations of the time.
The Bottom Line
I would describe this game as GOOD. A DARN GOOD GAME :) Its a classic, in a day such as ours, when GPU's are pushing 10 trillion polygons a second using 48 gillion colors, this game is still just as fun to play to me... and it only used 16 colors
DOS · by OlSkool_Gamer (88) · 2004
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
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
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:And you thought this was easy!
- 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
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).
- A suit of armor bequeathed by Colonel Gulden Dijon (a reference the first Laura Bow game,
- 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 fromEcoQuest ) and the monster of Loch Ness (a plug forConquest 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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Related Sites +
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Quest for Glory Interactive
A page offering fan fiction in the Quest For Glory universe. -
UHS: Quest for Glory I Hints
Set up in question and answer format, this guide will give you nudges in the form of hints before the final solutions are revealed.
Identifiers +
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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.