I previously recalled my experience with the Atari ST and how that machine introduced me to Sierra's King's Quest (and other graphical adventure) games. It took a while for me to figure out that these games were, in fact, horrible because they often required you to make a correct decision at some point that, if done incorrectly, would make it impossible to later finish the game. But no matter. I wasted a decade on King's Quest, Larry, Police Quest, and a bunch of other games before I realized what a sucker I'd been. Obviously I wasn't alone: Adventure Classic Gaming has a nice look back on the history of King's Quest:
The advent of King’s Quest series in the early 80s heralded in a new era for graphical adventure games. The original King’s Quest was a true classic and arguably the best of its genre. Since its first release in 1984, the game had undergone no fewer than 10 re-releases or remakes by its original developer. The game had also been heavily redeveloped by a large community of enthusiastic fans who released their fan made remakes for free. In fact, the 18 years of developments of King’s Quest had overseen great advances in both software and hardware on which the game was built, with improved graphic engines, higher screen resolutions, and enhanced display colours. Despite all these changes, the core of what made King’s Quest a timeless masterpiece had basically remained the same.
I'm guessing that core had nothing to do with the quality of the graphics or, for that matter, the text parser. But maybe I'm just jaded. :)
