By Audrey Wells

How many fan games have you downloaded and played before? No, I'm not just talking about free homemade adventure games, but free homemade adventure games based upon commercial series--fan games. Chances are not many, even if you are a fan game enthusiast. Most people assume it's because some cranky company has shut down the project prematurely. However, it's usually because the project has gone on indefinite hold or down the drain completely as team members lose interest and lack the energy required. You know, the ones that have been in development for years and where their last online update (at least three months ago) bemoans the resignation of a team member or that progress on the plot is currently 10% complete. Wow. At this point, progress on the game is about as swift as a snail drowning in molasses. That's when I stop visiting their web pages and sigh. Another great-looking fan game that'll never see the light of day ...

In spite of this, some teams are built for success. Their projects stand out like a diamond in the rough. One such team is a trio of "Anonymous Game Developers," and their project is actually comprised of two games--a remake of the original King's Quest I: Quest for the Crown and a parody of Quest for the Crown called Royal Quest I: Retrieving Lost Shit. The work has been divided between the three of them, and in a time span of less than a year, they are nearing completion on both the remake and the parody of King's Quest, which they will release as freeware under the company name Tierra.

The Tierra remake of Quest for the Crown adheres faithfully to the plot of the original. King Edward, dying King of Daventry, has summoned Sir Graham to his castle. The Kingdom of Daventry, weakened by the absence of three priceless magical items, is in a sad state of deterioration. Without the magic mirror that foretells the future, crops are failing. Without the magic chest that is forever filled with gold coins, the kingdom is impoverished. Without the magic shield that protects its bearer from mortal harm, Daventry is susceptible to attacks by malevolent neighbors. The elderly king bestows upon Graham a most noble quest--recover the three items in order to restore Daventry to its former glory, and Graham will be made King.

The Anonymous Game Developers have done an excellent job with the graphics in their games--obviously a lot of time went into perfecting the animations, backgrounds, and other graphical miscellany. I've played the Tierra King's Quest remake and can attest to the playability and beauty. It has lush VGA graphics--the backgrounds are essentially beautified reproductions from the SCI version of Quest for the Crown that Sierra released in the 1990s. Unlike most fan games I have played, the remake has managed to successfully capture the atmosphere of a classic Sierra adventure game. Even to the point of perfection!

A screenshot from Sierra's SCI remake of King's Quest I: Quest for the Crown. The real original had even fewer colors!	A screenshot from the Anonymous Game Developer's remake of King's Quest I, with attractive VGA graphics.

The remake of King's Quest I doesn't only look good, it also sounds good. Amazingly enough, Josh Mandel has lent his famous voice to the character of King Graham. That in itself ought to be reason enough to download the remake of KQ--as all KQ fans should know, Josh voiced Graham in Sierra's King's Quest V and VI. When I asked Josh what his reason was for agreeing to provide his voice, he replied that he had several. "For one, doing voices is just plain fun, and I especially enjoy doing them for games. For another, I think that the VGA remake is a great tribute to the original KQ series. And, lastly, because I was extremely flattered that they asked me to participate." The Anonymous Game Developers, who contacted Josh after the suggestion of a helpful fan, are equally flattered and honored, saying, "Josh has been really supportive, offering advice and giving us tips along the way ... It's been a real pleasure and learning experience working with him."

The AGD team has provided me with a fantastic voice clip of Josh's for the game, which you can listen to here on Just Adventure!

Soon after the release of the Anonymous Game Developers' KQ remake, they will release Royal Quest: Retrieving Lost Shit, the dark-humored parody of King's Quest: Quest for the Crown. The AGD's strategy is really quite ingenious. Knowing that the parody has a somewhat limited audience (they are quite clear that the parody will contain vulgarity, violence, and South Park-style humor), first releasing the KQ remake allows fans that are too "politically correct" for Royal Quest to still enjoy the AGD's efforts. It also allows adventure gamers who never played the original game (or any KQ games, for that matter) to experience it before playing Royal Quest, which is fundamental to understanding much of the humor of the parody. For instance, in Royal Quest, you may try to score as many "revenge points" as possible by solving puzzles that allow you to get even with the exasperating characters in Quest for the Crown--the gnome who stole your things, the ogre who pounded you, the evil sorcerer who cast a nasty spell on you, and so on. In order to find the revenge situations funny in Royal Quest, it's fairly important to have experienced the original game. While featuring nice VGA background graphics like the remake, the AGD team informed me that Royal Quest goes much more deeply into the lifestyles and personalities of the characters than the original game, and all of the puzzles and dialogue are new. Essentially, a whole new adventure game is at our feet--but with hilarious pizzazz!

Some people have balked at the idea of including violence and vulgarity in Royal Quest. However, that is obviously part of the parody. Roberta Williams, designer of the King's Quest series and former owner of Sierra, commented, "A parody would, as parodies do, poke fun at what [King's Quest] is, and that would probably include adding in some violence since King's Quest was not about violence. I think that I, and everybody else, probably need to understand that and not take too much offense." Those that continue to feel offended, the Anonymous Game Developers maintain, would be wise to steer clear of the parody and simply play the remake. It's really a win-win situation!

Graham puts his sidekick goat's fears to rest, "No, little guy, I haven't heard of any cases of Foot and Mouth around here. Don't worry, there will be no sick, mass slaughtering going on here in Daventry."	Graham shrieks, "Oh, what have I done? I'll save you Fairy God Fairy! I didn't mean for you to go to Hell!"

One of the biggest issues surrounding fan games is the potential for violating copyrights. The AGD King's Quest remake is, without a doubt, an enhanced reproduction of the original game that makes heavy use of Sierra graphics, characters, dialogue, etc. On the other hand, it is clear that Sierra is finished with the adventure genre (sad though that may be) and is no longer receiving any sort of compensation for the KQ series, let alone the first game that the Anonymous Game Developers are remaking.

"It's a shame how copyright issues have come up with the King's Quest VGA game," says the AGD team, "because mainly we're just making it to please the fans of the series and to renew an interest in adventure gaming. We're getting nothing from this. No credit, no money, nothing. Just the satisfaction that people can reexperience, or even experience for the first time, the old Sierra adventure games." I know, however, from experience in the world of fan games that even if Sierra does the dastardly deed of shutting down the remake, the game will probably be released underground. It is not hard to find copies of Monkey Island fan games that have supposedly been "shut down" by LucasArts, for example.

Do I think Sierra would be within their legal rights if they shut down the KQ remake? Yes. But that doesn't mean that I think they should--fan games are indisputably the proof that classic adventure games still have an audience, and I wholeheartedly support them. Roberta Williams told me, "It could be said that by fans producing these games that they are, in a way, keeping them alive. I kind of feel that, if Sierra isn't going to do it, then somebody should! I just hope they do a good job and portray these games in a good light so that people who have never experienced them will understand what they were all about. You never know, these fan games could be keeping the plate warm for if I ever return with another game!" (No, you don't need to get your eyes checked--perhaps Roberta is considering a return to adventure gaming!)

The parody of King's Quest, Royal Quest, is considerably safer from Sierra's legal axe because it supposedly fits into the legal definition of a parody--which, though necessarily using some copyrighted material, is still mostly original.

Josh Mandel made some very good points about fan games: "I'm all for fan games. The first adventure games--all of the first computer games, really--were not created for profit, but to explore the medium and test out possibilities. In many respects, they were like fan games. One of the first computer strategy games was, essentially, a fan game of Star Trek (this was the game that, many years later, was commercialized as Interstel's Star Fleet game and, later, the Wintrek shareware app). So the spirit that goes into creating fan games is the same spirit that created the industry.

"It might appear that creators of fan games put too much emphasis on using other people's characters, situations, and even styles. But a lot of great artists and successful entrepreneurs started off by imitating others. So while I wouldn't want to see the Royal Quest team doing nothing but Sierra parodies or remakes, I don't think there's much danger of that. I hope and expect that these games, as with many fan games, are simply a way for new game developers to get their feet wet ... and to develop a 'resume' that can give them a foot in the door and prove their potential."

As a college student seriously considering a potential career in the gaming industry, I can completely sympathize with the need to learn game design skills--and imitating a successful game is the ideal way. In fact, the Anonymous Game Developers describe their project as a "homemade internship" and originally had no intentions to release the game publicly--but the games were turning out so well that they felt they had to share their creative output with the rest of the world!

The Tierra remake of King's Quest I: Quest for the Crown is now available for download, with Royal Quest: Retrieving Lost Shit on its way. Head over to the official Royal Quest site for more information.

Be here next week as Audrey speaks with the anonymous developers of Tierra and finds out why they decided to remake one of adventure gaming's all-time classics. As if that weren't enough, we will also have an interview with Josh Mandel, the man behind the voices, and Roberta Williams, the founder of Sierra and creator of the original King's Quest. And learn what surprising role a Just Adventure fan played in the development of this remake.