King's Quest III: A Fair and Balanced Retrospective 

I played these King's Quest games as they were released, and King's Quest 3 was my favorite. That wizard truly confounded my 9-year-old self, and I devoted months to pondering how to elude him. I thought I could escape on the pirate ship but he followed me! He immediately recognized my tainted cat cookie for the trap that it was. If I left but a single clue as to my meddling--a moved book or an unlocked cabinet--he'd vaporize me. I still recall the eureka moment in my bed when I thought about hiding the cat cookie in the porridge. The joy and relief of exploring the countryside without the wizard hunting me was unmatched by anything that came before or after in this series. I didn’t even mind the tedious spell preparation as I now had all the time in the world. I also enjoyed the first half mystery of not knowing how Gwydion connects to the Daventry installments.

i really feel kq 3 is where the " sierra hates you." meme started. so many of it's design choices are just sadistic.

I did some testing and learned a few things about the Wizard. (Using the Wiz Status debug to figure some stuff out) 1) If you do the chore he gives you at the start of the game, he will show up when the clock hits three minutes (provided you haven't pissed him) to see if you've done it. If not, he punishes you. 2) If you did your chore and didn't piss of the wizard by doing any illegal activites, the wizard will always appear at 0:05:00 and go away. Restoring a few times indicates that you are always given 25 minutes in this situation. Whether he goes on a journey or sleeps. 3) I did an illegal activity (trying to head down the mountain) while the clock was at 0:04:19. He sends me back to the house and still leaves at 0:05:00 and goes for 25 minutes. 4) I did a restore and at about the same time, pissed off the Wizard by being in a room he didn't like and he made me do a chore (feeding the chickens.) When I finished and went back in the house, the Wizard Status instead said that he would change after 5 minutes (In point 3, the wiz status still showed his time change at being at 0:05:00). Sure enough, he did not leave at 0:05:00. He ended up leaving at 0:09:04 instead. He was still stated to be gone for 25 minutes. I restored a few times just to be sure. 5) Decided to restart and not do the chore. The Wizard arrived at 0:03:00 and punished me by making me hang on the ceiling in the kitchen for a whole minute. Unlike with the Point 4, him leaving was not delayed. He left at 0:05:00 and was gone for 25 minutes. So as far as my testing can see, the wizard is consistently gone for 25 minutes. The only thing you can influence is delaying his leave by forcing him to give you a chore. After the wizard gives you a chore, the game always gives you 3 minutes to do it before the wizard checks on you. As for some other stuff, I wasn't able to find much interesting on mechanics other than you can look inside the bandits treehouse while outside to see if they are active or not. Apparently, TCRF says that the odds of them being active was raised in a later version. Also, for spell casting, I recommend saving right before the final step that leads into incantation. Saves time if you screw up. I found that in the King's Quest Companion, it does state that they launched a search campaign for Alexander that lasted years, but never found anything and he was eventually presumed dead. You don't get credit really for info that isn't in the game, but I felt it would be fun to share. I still kinda like KQ3 despite it's faults, I really like getting efficient at the wizard sections. I've actually been able to get rid of him after the first cycle and being able to do it as fast as possible is something I loved doing. I also like the idea of having to sneak out, do some stuff under a time limit, and get back to base and use those stuff to defeat guy, even if it wasn't executed the best. The stuff after you leave Llewdor is rather weak, admittedly and you don't really do much. Regardless, I found the game to be a bit charming in a way. Despite being born a while after the Sierra peak, I still enjoy some of their games and found KQ3 fun...for the MOST part. I enjoyed it more than KQ1 or 2, or some of the other AGI games. This was a good video, I mean you aren't wrong about some of the issues you had. It was nice to hear, even if I don't share some of the same views and you presented it in a funny way. I can't wait to see your thoughts on the rest, particularly 6.

I’m 100% captivated by these videos good job sir.

KQ3 was the first Sierra adventure I ever played. It was a complete pain in the Ass, and frustrating. but I still enjoyed 35 years ago. Fantastic video as is usual. Can't wait for KQ4 video which is my favorite of the series.

I absolutely loved the King's Quest games as a kid (and I still do today), so these videos should make me mad...but you make so many hilarious points xD keep up the good work! Lol.

Can I just say that I absolutely love this new format of videos? Your commentary is spot on hilarious. Having played pretty much all of these games when they came out, it's a huge nostalgia hit that I quite enjoy. Great job so far. Looking forward to more.

King’s Quest III: 17 Years a Slave

This is my favourite old school adventure game, but I thoroughly enjoyed your complete destruction of every facet of this game

There was a 'wizard status' option?!?!

Every other Sierra game: "There's no jumping in this game." KQIII: "Jump, you moron!"

I’ll never forget the nerve-racking experience of trying to make a cat cookie in the basement laboratory. Besides Nazi Gandalf, you had to worry about the order and accuracy of each spell component. The music was awesome. One of my first intense gaming experiences. Awesome!

Not sure if this has been noted before, but despite its flaws, the Odd Gentlemen’s KQ game actually addresses some of the narrative dissonance of the end of this story in chapter 4 of their game. Alexander in specific has a lot of problems attempting to integrate with his family, and it leads to some considerable tension between him and Graham. As far as the original game, I think Roberta was just basing everything upon classic fairy tales, where characters like Cinderella who has no problem whatsoever transitioning from abused peasant to princess. I’m really enjoying these videos and looking forward to the rest!!

Probably my favourite of this series. It's got enough of that old-school EGA vibe (and in my opinion, the best visuals of any AGI game), while also having the more original plot of the latter entries. Although the AGDI remake remains my favourite of all time in this series!

The sheer and utter contempt you have for the King's Quest series is a marvel to behold :D

I enjoy these videos an incredible amount. I can't remember how I stumbled across your channel but you have the perfect style to deal with 80s adventure games and all the wonderful bullsh*t.

I can't believe you image-searched "pirate sex slave" for this.

Haven't played this series in years since early 90's and many things have changed so I fully understand your view of it. Spell creation especially was frustrating part. By accident, learned a nice glitch related to it. It works in the Amiga version at least. Instead of typing the words on the text box, just press enter until you reach the end and it disappears. Spell is created successfully anyway. Made repeat runs searching for missing points much more enjoyable.

27:00-27:22 Perfection

I’m glad you’re experiencing this side of Sierra :) Space Quest also has a ton of dead ends and deaths but it has much more of a sense of humour about them. I did a play through of KQ3 myself a couple of years ago - davidn.dreamwidth.org/tag/king%27s+quest+iii - and the major thing I took away from it was the same thing you did - the malicious randomness that seeps from every crevice. Can’t pick up an acorn? Have to go and come back later. Can’t go into the treehouse? Then you have to yo-yo up and down the ladder until you suddenly can. I might have just been lucky in that Mannanannaan was pretty consistent in being away for almost exactly half an hour - but everything else in the game only had a 50% chance of working even if you were doing everything right.

Love this series! Can relate as I played the crap out of SQ and only ever played the ultra hyped kings quest 5 as a kid. Great to get your hilarious take on the KQ series.

I love KQ3. :) My favourite! I loved searching for the items, in the time brackets that Manannan was away. But I was just the right age, at the right time. Years later, Thief: The Dark Project was my favourite.

The description of "cute birthmark," always fucked me up.

Y'know I've heard people talk about Sierra adventure games having a "screw yourself over and not even know it" puzzle design philosophy. And I see bits and pieces of that from Space Quest, sure, there are a couple puzzles per game that basically say "if you aren't an obsessive compulsive kleptomaniac, you aren't going to have the piece that solves this." But this series on King's Quest is starting to show me what people really meant. This game in particular is the dictionary definition of "player-hostile"

Once again, loving the energy of these videos.

First off, yet another amazing video, thank you! Second, could Annette be writer for the ‘story’ (exposition) in the manual and not the writer of the games? If she’s not in the game credits maybe she just wrote the lure in the manuals?

The quality of the script is getting better and better. I laugh during the whole video

This series of videos is comedy gold, particularly for those of us who played these games growing up and have never considered them from an adult's perspective... absolutely hilarious! 😂

(heads to the KQ Wiki) "In his 'review', Trails Plibbert accused the creators of being full of hate, to whit, Satan. This accusation of Satanism in the games industry is part of a long trend of-"

Loving the funny reviews! I was hoping you'd mention "jiggle physics" as others called it when Rosella is rescued

Thing is, all the things you say are true and they're actually why KQ3 is my favourite in the series. It's a game where you're facing constant danger - trying to avoid being caught by Manannan, trying to cast spells without them backfiring, trying to sneak around the pirate ship without being caught. Somehow it makes it so much more satisfying when you really *do* defeat Manannan because you've gone from being completely powerless to a sorcerer who's as powerful as he is, turning his own spells against him. I don't expect everyone else to agree with me, but at least consider this: King's Quest 2 was very much just "another King's Quest 1". There wasn't anything particularly original about it; it was just another world with the same kind of puzzles - more of the same. They probably could have done the same again with King's Quest 3, but they didn't - they instead did something bold and original, turned the entire format on its head and really challenged the player. It's not everyone's cup of tea, but I love it.

So hilarious! I played this game when it first came out when I was 12 and loved it, but wow, never thought of these crazy details. Also, I bet if someone was really Alexander, and showed up at ruined Daventry, I'd just take the next ship out and find a better land to go to.

I vicariously had a minor panic attack when I saw your kid with some haphazardly-strewn Space Quest boxes.

As an avid Space Quest fan since before the days of the Virtual Broomcloset, I've often wondered if I missed out by not playing the King's Quest series... Your reviews have convinced me I missed nothing. 😁

I love this evil bastard. He’s everything I want in somebody who plays Sierra games.

My dad bought Kings Quest 1 for my sister and I. Then we played Kings Quest 3 only one time. Then my dad said: "That game doesn't work anymore." Now I see why that game 'broke'

26:55 Ah, you love us, you spoil us. (Actually it's kinda possible to tune yourself to ONE of the themes.)

13:06 “no reason at all”? What about the cat kicking?

>"Half a mile tops" between the coastal town and the desert Ever been to Chile, mate? Maybe Perth? Even San Diego isn't far-enough from some desert. The only thing that bugged me as a kid was that the coast was on the left and the desert on the right. Maybe the orientation was south up, north down. Or the tradewinds are messed up, like Somalia's.

Great video! I loved your text parser commentary too, funny stuff!

That ending cacophony sounds like every first time my high school music class tried practicing a song together. (yes, every song started that bad and only got slightly less drunk.

My first KQ game.. I thought I was not good enough to finish the game.. but I guess it was just too brutal..

Well you can make the cookie first then ignore the timer forever more.

until I learned about the fact Mannanan had like a timer when he'd leave and come back - and having spell items in my inventory instead of under my bed when he's back - was the most frustrating thing about the game - even more frustrating than walking down the cliffs from his magician's tower.

OMG Rosella has a jiggle algorithm.

Was it an old build of the game where you get hung up on the cloth line? I have never seen it again and 2 people in a let's play were saying the same. Did we all just think this did happen are is it real? Do any of you remember the cloth line?

After hearing your comment about Rosella and valleygirl speak, I immediately thought about KQ7 and how without playing the game yet, you had her PEGGED!

These series are awesome. It’s like cinemasins meets SQH review!

I'm looking forward to your retrospective of KQVI. Super high point in the series. I do have a soft spot for III because it was one of the first pieces of electronic entertainment I ever experienced. I didn't so much play it as I watched my mom play it, but it still left an impression.

RNGesus! 😆 I realise that my friend and I, at 9 years old (or ANY age, really!) - had absolutely NO chance! 🤦🏻‍♂️ Sierra REALLY needed some competition in this genre!!

this was the best of the whole series.

Well who's gonna stop Manannan from going about his child kidnapping business? He can teleport and literately disintegrate people by pointing at them.

I made it through 1 and 2 with only one hint each and had a great time. And then I played 3...

When it says Anette wrote the story in the manual I am guessing that's just it. She wrote the manual story, not the story of the game itself. That's why she does not appear in the game credits, only the manual.

Can't you make the magic essence and then just get the eagle feather later? I don't think it's involved in the preparation, only when you use it to transform

Actually playing the game in a time before RU-vid playthroughs, was ridiculous, Sierra should have thought through what they were doing a bit better. But if you watch someone beat it, wait a week so you sort of forget a few things, then play it, its a worthy game. The starting scenario, the opening song, the shot of the Wizards house with the land and sea below, it's got a real mood to it. Its funny comparing the art of this to the first 2 KQ games. Not sure if there is a change to the graphics technical capabilities, but they make much better use of the limited capabiltiies, big pixels and few color choices. KQ1+2 look like a whole earlier era, really, those are just a backdrop for some puzzles, 3 really looks good though.

DEAD at playing both soundtracks at the same time 😂😂😂

I loved KQ3! It was tense, constantly hoping Mannanan wouldn't show up. And turning him into a cat felt like a real victory. It was a different time where games were few and you took your time to play the game and solve the puzzles, talk to your friends and exchange ideas about possible solutions. I had no problem with the eagle feather, because while exploring and looking for a solution, I visited the screens many times over. When the eagle dropped the feather it felt like present. I think it's different now, where we want to solve puzzles as quickly as possible and are chasing the solutions and we need the quick gratification. I probably wouldn't like it today though.

I have found Kings Quest III to be much like Space Quest II, in the fact that the games began to introduce story elements, that have become plot points in future games. Mannanons downfall became influencing plot elements in KQ 5 and 6. Much like how Volhal was an issue SQ4.

Maybe Annette was in charge of printing the manuals, and decided to print her name in there... Got away with it the first time, but Part 3 got her in trouble

Crazily enough there are speedrunners who beat this game without ever killing Manannan because you have 8 seconds on any given screen before Manannan appears to kill you.

I'm not gonna lie, King's Quest 3 is my least favorite game. It's almost like a horror game, where in the beginning when you have no clue as to what to do, you are tiptoeing around Mannan who can easily kill you, as you're exploring all of Llewdor, figuring out what all of the items you find and the spells you made do. But ironically, the Redux version of this game happens to be one of my favorite remakes of a king's quest game. Sadly I never beat this game (save for the vga remake lol). So yeah, this game is my least favorite despite it having my most favorite protagonist and villain of any King's Quest game.

If Annette Childs was the manual writer, maybe she wrote the story that appears in the manual and credited herself for it?

“Ratsass” is the command to bring up the console?

Hahaha that damned cat! They really did go out of their way to make this one frustrating. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed this one as a kid in spite of the frustrations as it did have some really original and interesting mechanics and getting to make and cast spells was a really cool addition to the genre. Whereas the second game was really just more of the same, the third installment really did go into a whole new direction and for that it will always be memorable to me.

this was our first quest game. at the time it was amazing and seemed like this vast open ended world where anything was possible. as a little kid it seemed like it took several lifetimes to beat the game. its funny how few screens there actually are in the game looking back on it now. i remember the spells were hard because i had a hard time reading the cursive in the manual. anyway your take is hilarious! obviously you were raised by a naughty wizard 😂

So does the real-time clock not matter any more after you cat the Wizard, or are there things introduced to replace them?

"I don't know what mindset she was in when she came up with this story, but it can't have been a healthy one". I beg to differ. It's about beating the odds, overcoming evil, and rising up to the challenge. And it relates to many people in this world. Just look around. It's not a world made of goodness all around, alot of bad people out there, and people in terrible circumstances. Unlike most nihilistic grotesque, and morally relative games of our modern times, this story had honor, courage, and good values.

I like how your King's Quest trashing series videos are uncovering tidbits and interesting and bizarre facts that other "pro" KQ videos don't.

This is KQ3 meaning they have the mirror, Meaning the mirror told them of this but he was like no tell me when you got a girl in a tower then I might care.

Shout out to my Tandy 1000, that I played all of these games on. Anyone remember Gold Rush?? It was another game, just like these... Equally as frustrating and hilarious

How do you get out of the infinite drowning animation?

That was a fucking cool video, Can you do police quest next?, And then maybe leasuresuit larry?

I can't help but laugh at these videos because in hindsight it's true. Still, at the time, it's what we had and we loved it. We played it, we beat it, and we danced in celebration at the end.

my favourite kq game. the story was so removed from the previous 2, and that gave it a sense of mystery. the risk in casting spells made it feel more meaningful. when you discovered the oracle cave the world suddenly makes sense and opens up. i was 6.

It might be my favourite King's Quest game.

Where can I get the music playing at around 07:00? That sounds great.

My first kings quest game was 5. I ashtrays thought I had played all the kings quest games but these videos have proven me wrong!

not to mention the fucking magic shield. I mean where did that go Detroit? use that to protect yourself from the wizard's spells and the dragons fire and kick some butt.

is the song playing during your "concerned for Annett Child" from the game soundtrack? It sounds familiar but I can't name it

I checked that Annette Childs was credited in KQ3 original and the AGD remake. Bit of an oversight that she wasn't credited in the previous games unfortunately. I didn't replay any of these versions and just went to youtube videos cus I'm not into paranoid for getting glock'd by a grumpy old bastard for making a small mistake or cocking up the spell enchantments. I'm okay with brutal difficulty but not while under presure with some douchey RNG.

You totally missed the even more obscure and random (and optional) "puzzle" where if you stand around the mice long enough you might happen to overhear another obscure clue about where to dig up the pirates' buried treasure.

After seeing this game get a brutal beatdown, it's very cathartic watching polygon586's 18 minute speedrun, where half the nonsense can be skipped over (e.g. turning into an eagle on the pirate ship and flying past the yeti)

I played this back then. Was able to figure out all the spells and all on my own as a kid. :) You learn to try everything with everything for hours. The spells are listed in the book in the cellar if I remember correctly.

I kicked the cat waaaay too much out of frustration! The first time the wizard appeared and wanted to be fed and i was so happy but no... he still killed me. Totally agree with u on this.

I think calling Alexander an idiot is a bit harsh. He has spent his whole life in one house as a slave. Of course he doesn't know how the world works, he's never climbed a ladder before ; ). Joking aside, I really enjoyed this game when I played it when I was 14. I found casting the spells to be suspenseful. But when I replayed it as an adult it was kind of a pain in the ass.

KQ3 is my favorite KQ. It was outright oppressive and made you feel like you were really creating these weird, arcane spells. Regarding the inexplicable mythological creatures, I always felt like KQ was basically just Methed Up Mother Goose.

I've been playing this game for nearly 40 years, and this video is the first time I've noticed that Princess Rosella says Mom the British way. Despite this game being made by Americans, and the text parser itself being very unforgiving with non-American spelling.

Did Annette ever reach out!? Is she okay?

To be fair, if a wizard from across the sea teleports into your baby's nursery in the middle of the night and steals your child, leaving no evidence behind of who did it, there's not much of a trail to follow for any investigation. It's not so much bad parenting as it is that you can't prepare of every possible scenario.

Do Leisure Suit Larry!

This was the first adventure game I ever played, so I love it unconditionally. I actually disliked 1, 2, and 4, for NOT having spellcasting! What a divisive gimmick that was. These videos are amusing since the criticisms are all valid, but you still seem to be having an okay time playing through them. That ending theme, uh, mix. Wow. Thank you for sharing your pain lmao

Rosella: 21:52 *Mum* Me: Is she british?

My absolute favourite game from my youth. Genius level for it's time.

I had a good laugh at this...in my memory the King Quest games were hard but not insanely hard, but were of course. Time heals all wounds I guess :)

Just finished playing KQ3 Redux by AGD (and got 204 out of 210 points, found out online I shouldn't have been so quick with the obvious solution to the medusa problem -- funnily enough, it's the only thing you _could_ do in the original) and it's absolutely hilarious how much its version of the ending seems to be engineered specifically to resolve most of your complaints. The ship has pirates now that DON'T allow you to immediately get your shit back (yay for actual consequences of taking the first damn ship you see), and there's this island detour with the treasure hunt (also you don't wait _in real-fucking-time_ wtf was Sierra thinking), and then you get to find an artifact that can actually heal Daventry -- AND combined with their KQ2 remake you even get an explanation of why Graham did not try to slay the dragon himself. Even the damage is more fire and less whatever the fuck KQ3's version was showing, making it more directly attributable to the dragon. (Storm finish is still wack, but it's hard to make a proper epic battle out of virtually no material, so they basically stayed true to the original) Even the birthmark thing is handled differently, more funny than weird.

Wait... did you use an image of the Christchurch Wizard?

I can't wait until you get to Kings Quest 5

How did anyone originally figure out some of these?

you forgot about the town library and the dwellings in the village that can't be entered.. oh nevermind.. I'm thinking about the VGA remake