King's Quest VI - All Game Overs
29,898
Published 2021-03-11
0:00:00 - Introduction and Explanations
0:01:42 - All Islands (Drowning)
0:07:47 - Isle of the Crown
0:09:13 - Isle of Wonder
0:25:58 - Isle of the Sacred Mountain
0:30:41 - The Catacombs
0:44:25 - Isle of the Beast
0:47:35 - Isle of the Mists
0:51:51 - Realm of the Dead
1:04:16 - Castle of the Crown (Magic Paint)
1:15:35 - Castle of the Crown (Beauty's Clothes)
1:32:51 - Did you know?
1:34:00 - Endgame
Raw footage version: • King's Quest VI - All Game Overs [Raw...
Why is the video so long?
Unlike the other King's Quest games, this one was written by Jane Jensen, who is a prolific writer with a penchant for long conversations and cutscenes. Instead of fighting it, I played into it, often showing an extra scene before losing to set up the context. So although it removes some redundant parts from the old series, it's still about 15 minutes longer.
Why does the video go all the way up to 4K?
Video encoders always try to blend pixels together, which messes up the look of games at this resolution. So careful upscaling was done to preserve the blocky pixels and thus the game's natural appearance. The math forces the footage to take up a very specific size on the screen. There should be enough room for you to see the text, but I recommend watching on as high a setting as you can, and it probably shows better on desktop.
Game version and footage
The footage is taken from the Windows 3.1 version which has the enhanced interface and portraits. For the most part, the video capture is natural to the gameplay, but is often edited slightly to improve viewing experience, such as smoother transitions between the clips, or paused to allow a full sound effect to play if it would normally cut off. Notably, the guard's line cuts off at "Tickets oh-" when you enter the Underworld, so the full line is edited in.
Music
The music was recorded on my Roland SC-8820, which includes four soundfonts: the SC-8820, the SC-88Pro, the SC-88, and the SC-55. Pre-recording the music allowed me to edit the footage in the way described above without disrupting the music. It also allowed me to select which soundfont I wanted for each piece, which was usually either the 8820 or 88Pro, but sometimes I preferred one of the older fonts. For example, I picked the SC-55 for the Isle of Wonder gnomes due to its goofy tone. However, editing the music in separately meant I had to do everything manually such as volume ducks when someone speaks.
Images
The background and many of the icons show high resolution images from KQ6. The Windows 3.1 version comes with a file named KQ6ART.AVI, which is a slideshow of most of the backgrounds of the game with a higher resolution (512x365) than the ones from the original DOS game (320x190). Perhaps these were initially meant to complement the upgraded interface and portraits, but I'm not sure. You can browse all the images here: kingsquest.fandom.com/wiki/KQ6_development
Two other images are from the physical Guidebook that comes with the game.
Clarifications
The way Regions and Events group clips together is more important than the labels and images themselves. For example, obviously the spider is what kills you in both the "Spider Web" and "Black Widow Spider" Events, but the two death messages require two Events, so the labels and art are merely aesthetic.
All Actions within an Event have the same Game Over message. That does not mean all Events have different Game Over messages.
The rules break down a bit in the castle. Technically, the Actions could be condensed into one Event for each path, but that seemed a bit boring.
With the exception of the Beast Curse, all audio narration from the black Game Over screen is missing from the game. I can't tell if this is a design decision or a production bug, so I edited it into this version but left it out in the raw footage version.
The skeleton key doesn't perfectly fit any of the three categories on the "Did you know?" screen. I would explain why I put it where I did but this description already hits the limit.
The Magic Map dead end is attained by trading it in just before rescuing Beauty, leaving you stranded on the Isle of the Beast. I figure this is a design bug, but it still counts.
I use the terms "unwinnable" and "dead end" interchangeably.
ABOUT ME
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All Comments (21)
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As long as the description is, there are still a couple things I couldn't fit in it. 1) Technically, there's one more way to fail the gnome sequence I didn't show. If you play the mechanical nightingale to the wrong gnome, the narrator gives the line, "Alexander winds the mechanical nightingale and plays it for the gnome." Other than that though, there is nothing unique to show, as the current gnome will continue with the same line as if you used any other wrong item (and playing the flute doesn't even come with a narrator line). Since this action can be done in multiple scenes but otherwise contributes nothing to any of them, it felt out of place to show. So it was intentionally excluded for the sake of the video flow. 2) slicknickxp has informed me that using the hole-in-the-wall on the door to the Minotaur's lair does not in fact trigger a dead end, since it will return after you leave and reenter the room. I have confirmed that this is correct. However, this is clearly a bug, because when you look through it, the narrator says there's nothing of interest on the other side. Had I known about this when making the video, I probably still would've included it with a note. Including a fake game over is far more acceptable than excluding a real one. Besides, the Action associated with this clip is still a valid one.
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Please help this video replace the old series in the search results by giving it a like and a comment! This is my favorite game from my childhood, so I spared no effort to give it the tribute it deserves. I've been wanting to remake this series for years, so I'm super excited to finally push it out.
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Sierra deaths used to creep me out so much as a kid, great video
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After watching so many Kings Quest videos from almost a decade ago, the quality difference is staggering.
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26:20 if you make Alexander fall at lower highs, he lands on his butt. Do it too many times and he tells the player to stop it XD
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You actually managed to get him to say "tickets only" instead of "tickets up"
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"And then there's some land I have for sale in the death bogs of Tamir..." That one always gets me.
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20:28 I love how the Black Widow's theme is based on the Song "I hear you knocking".
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I appreciate the little side details on this.
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I love how the game pauses briefly to explain that hand to hand combat with a minotaur is a bad idea.
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It is good to see this video finally come out. I know you put your blood, sweat, and tears into this video and it shows in the quality. I hope with this done you can finally have some time to relax and move to more great content. Here is to this video and whatever crazy and wonderful project you set yourself to next Shady!
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That death scene of Alexander taking his ticket is so nostalgic...
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I really like how this is structured. Thank you for this
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Nice work. I think the Realm of the Dead is my favorite area. It's hard to believe that after all the times I've played/watched this game I never knew you could die to Charon.
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Phenomenal - the amount of work and care you put into this is palpable, and you should be commended for it. Any King's Quest fan, and any fan of the work Sierra puts into their games should be overjoyed with what you've done here.
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This is really well made, well done!
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Very high quality!! Thank you for all this effort!
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The narration in this game is fantastic!
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Poor Alexander can't catch a break
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Wow, I gotta give a like just for the sheer amount of quality editing in this. And I'm not even that far in yet. Good job!
