Created by Sierra On-Line, the King’s Quest game series has a very large fanbase due to its humor, its character, and its utterly ridiculous “moon logic” puzzles that requires you to think outside the box and down the hall to your left. Or is it right? I’ve tried playing a couple different installments of this game. We had King’s Quest IV in the computer room at our high school and I think somebody I knew had King’s Quest II, but even my form of creative crazy isn’t enough to really connect with these games.
I do, however, find novelisations interesting. What was changed because of the transition between media, the latest available version of the script, and the whims of the author makes it a unique experience beyond “movie/game in book form”.
In the following video, Dave “Doggans” Ganssle does a deep dive into The King’s Quest Companion, a combination strategy guide and novelization that despite giving you the answer to all the puzzles you couldn’t figure out somehow finds a way to go even crazier than the games the book is based on, going as far as King’s Quest VII in the final edition. I hope you find this video as interesting as I did even if you never played the games. The decisions made are certainly unique for a strategy guide.
This link will take you to the first three editions as well as a series of manuals if you lost yours. This one is for the fourth edition PDF if you want to read that.
It’s too bad more video games don’t have novelizations. I think the Halo series had a few, or at least books set in that universe. The Worlds Of Power books were more like junior novelizations and if Ninja Gaiden is any indication…liberties were taken. That’s the one I have and though I have yet to obtain the skills to complete the game the story I have gotten to and what’s in the book doesn’t always match up, though at times it’s actually does translate the game mechanics to the story (like the Art Of Fire Wheel or why you keep slashing the lanterns on the wall for power-ups). I did the “adaptation” of War For Cybertron for Chapter By Chapter and there was a lot that book got wrong.
Any other video game novelizations you guys know about?
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