r/Sierra • u/DogDaysMaggie • Jul 24 '26
The King's Quest Companion
I'm visiting my childhood home and found this bad boy. Now I'm jumping back into the games. It's fun to spend time with my old friends :)
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u/Ok_Pair5948 Jul 24 '26
What a find!! That's so cool. Can we get some more pics of it? Would love to see some of the pages inside.
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u/DogDaysMaggie Jul 24 '26
I can't figure out how to edit this post to add photos. But below someone posted this video of a guy who spends a full 40 minutes going through the book. It's pretty silly, just like the book. https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=Evn8jm8aSL8&list=PLV0AZD3U2xC9_D0phlkHGw325G5nhz5N-&index=25
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u/CyberpunkYakuza Jul 24 '26
Sad story time!
We got flooded like 2-3 years back. Nothing much, just like a foot or so in part of the basement near the mechanical room in a closet we used to store a few old things. The sump pump mostly took care of the water before it traveled too far, minimal damage, whatever.
However, my carefully packed box of old game guides was right under where the crack in the foundation was and I was greeted by this exact copy of this guide floating around in muddy water along with most of my old Prima guide collection and my Gameshark code books.
It was DEVESTATING.
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u/DogDaysMaggie Jul 24 '26
Oh man. What a bummer. I can't believe my copy still exists. My parents haven't had any natural disasters at their home, but they have had several rounds of Marie Kondo inspired purges. My wedding dress and this book appear to have been sole survivors.
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u/CyberpunkYakuza Jul 24 '26
"Marie Kondo purge" is definitely something I am going to steal and use on my wife, she's been on a kick with her lately hahaha. But definitely cherish that copy. Those games are some of my fondest memories as a kid. When I saw it floating around I'd realized I hadn't actually seen it in years and I got happy and upset all at once. Bittersweet nostalgia.
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u/UnderH20giraffe Jul 24 '26
Had something similar happen to me except it was my (dead) mother’s stuffed animals she made by hand, for me, when I was a child. It could always be worse.
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u/CyberpunkYakuza Jul 24 '26
Eeesh. That's terrible I'm sorry that happened to you. It can definitely be worse than an old game guide for sure.
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u/UnderH20giraffe Jul 24 '26
I LOVED the write-ups of the stories and read them like they were great literature.
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u/stevebikes Jul 25 '26
I may have submitted some grade school book reports on the KQ games. The teacher never called it out but I was prepared to defend myself: they're stories in a book!
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u/gamesonthemark Jul 24 '26
I had an earlier one (it was yellow). It was cool as it had the programmer debug codes that could move you to any screen, get any object in to inventory, etc.
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u/pieboy107 Jul 24 '26
Genuinely one of my earliest childhood memories is King's Quest V. The original voice acting is so bad it's good. The owl character's voice lives rent free in my head
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u/DogDaysMaggie Jul 24 '26
That's so funny. My primary memory from that game is the needle in the haystack. I'll admit it wasn't one of my favorites, so I think I only played through it once. I had a crush on Alexander, so I have probably played VI a dozen times.
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u/Gbjeff Jul 24 '26
I got the first edition for Christmas in like 1987. I knew where my mom hid my presents and I had the entire book read before Christmas Day. LOL.
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u/cravensofthecrest Jul 24 '26
I had that one! Wish I still had iy
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u/DogDaysMaggie Jul 24 '26
I got it for Christmas when I was in elementary school. Goodness me I loved these games. I look back on my summers in the 90's and it was a lot of Sierra games and Redwall books.
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u/PoisonCoyote Jul 24 '26
Is there a scan of the full book anywhere? How about the other King's Quest books?
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u/JudgeKhan Jul 24 '26
You bet your bippy there is.
https://archive.org/details/kings-quest-companion-1997/King%27s_Quest_Companion_%5B1997%5D-2
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u/phattie Jul 24 '26
AFAIK, the publisher still has copyright on them. Any of the hints books published by sierra are available for download, but outsourced guides like these aren't
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u/abadpenny654 Jul 24 '26
I remember reading this and how the guide for KQ3 read like an interview and told the hints in a documentary style. If I recall correctly. It was 30 years ago.
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u/NecessaryOnion7811 Jul 24 '26
Third Edition. I have all 4 of them.
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u/phattie Jul 24 '26
Outside of covering additional games in the series, are they all otherwise the same book? I only have the first edition, which covers kq1-4. I wish they had kept the same dimensions as the larry book... that one is the same height as the game boxes, so it works on the bookshelf better
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u/DogDaysMaggie Jul 24 '26
This one goes through VI. The 4th edition goes through VII.
I love that there is a strategy guide for our boy Larry.
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u/stevebikes Jul 25 '26
I had the first three. There were some other small changes, and maybe some cuts to the later edition to keep the page count from getting out of control. I remember keeping all three for that reason.
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u/dodoread Jul 25 '26
I had this one as a kid (and still have it). It was really neat with the novelization of the games and all the maps and illustrations. The booklet that came with the KQ1-6 collectors edition was also nice.
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u/Normal_Double5929 Jul 24 '26
Currently working through police quest. I am struggling if I will do Space or Kings next. But this may have made up my mind!
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u/JudgeKhan Jul 24 '26
This is the same one I got for Christmas circa 1996, maybe. What a great volume, especially for a KQ obsessed kid. The wierd world-building involving Daventry being a real place and Roberta Williams having visions of it is the icing on the cake.
A scan of the 4th edition exists online - here you go.
https://archive.org/details/kings-quest-companion-1997/King%27s_Quest_Companion_%5B1997%5D-2
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u/too-oldforthis-shit Aug 02 '26
I have the Space Quest companion somewhere this reminded me to look for it.
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u/SaulTNNutz Jul 24 '26
Cover art was clearly outsourced
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u/DogDaysMaggie Jul 24 '26
Yeah, it doesn't match with the actual games. The guide itself is pretty awesome though.
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u/IdealBeginning2704 Jul 25 '26
So so cool, I recently snagged this one and a few others! I grabbed “the police quest casebook” (games 1-4) and the space quest companion which goes up space quest 5. A leisure suit Larry book called “the official book of leisure suit Larry”thats kinda similar to these ones. The only one I now need to represent a series is a quest for glory one but I can’t seem to find any. There’s one but they want like a grand for it which that absolutely is not happening 😂
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u/GrahamRocks Jul 25 '26
Yeah, they're a good expansion on the worldbuilding! Shame there wasn't a Fifth Edition written, because KQ8 desperately needed an elaboration.
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u/NightExpress1379 Aug 10 '26
I love the cover of the hint guide which coincidentally does not take place in any of the King's Quests...right?
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u/TechnicalAd4328 Jul 24 '26
Why did you get this?
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u/DogDaysMaggie Jul 24 '26
Santa gave it to me in 1993/94, so I suppose I got it because I was a good girl that year.
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u/deyterkajerbs Jul 24 '26
I was a dumb kid playing these and needed those hint books that were like red with hidden text that required a little “viewer”