Cade Peterson plays King's Quest 3 with Daniel Albu!

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Welcome to "Conversations With Curtis" -- where we unbox the archives of gaming history.
Please join actor Paul Morgan Stetler (the actor who played Curtis Craig in Sierra Online's Phantasmagoria 2) and game developer Daniel Albu (@danielalbu) as they track down and talk to, the actors, writers, directors, developers, and composers from all your favorite retro games from the 90's and beyond.
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[@MordacksOrgan]

King’s Quest 5 was my first exposure to the series, so King’s Quest 3 was the early KQ game I found the most intriguing due to its plot being directly related to that of KQ5. By the time I got my own copy of KQ3 in 1994, I had already played it a couple of times at a friend’s house. I went into it being told that the wizard disappears on a timer of 25 minute increments, that there’s a difficult mountain path to navigate and there are mandatory spells with typing precision. As a kid, I never questioned this game’s difficulty or absurdities, but instead took them all as axiomatic. I found the wizard somewhat scary, but not as much as if I was playing it blind. As a result, I probably did a lot less mythologizing of this game than other kids and, instead, approached it more methodically like you would see from a modern speed runner. Even as a kid, I would strategize on how to use my allotted 25 minutes most efficiently. Do I have enough time to get more spell components or should I start walking up the mountain path now? Do I have enough time to cast another spell? What can I do to make best use of my time before the wizard returns?
I believe this was the first “good” King’s Quest. The first two games were basic fetch quests: Find these 3 special objects and win. This was the first to have an interesting premise: You’re a slave boy trying to escape an evil wizard. In the process, you’re thrown a plot twist that you’re actually a kidnapped prince. I was never bothered by the timer, the mountain path, or the spell casting. I approached them all with the attitude that they were simply arcade sequences, no different than the skimmer sequence in Space Quest or the combat sequences in Quest for Glory. The added challenge made it more fun. Because this wasn’t my first Sierra game either, I took it for granted that there were potential walking dead scenarios and I axiomatically accepted that I needed to keep multiple save states. The Secret of Monkey Island was the only LucasArts game I ever had as a kid and I never really considered the possibility that Sierra games could have been conceptually designed in any other way. I still had fun playing them.
Do I think KQ3 is a “good” game by today’s standards? Probably not. It was good for the time though. It was created in a time when each game cost you between $40-$60 and you had few other games to distract you or to draw comparison. It was a time before the internet or smart phones, and if you were a kid, it was a time before you had a job. As a kid on summer break, I used to be able to throw myself into games with complete abandon and I had the drive and perseverance to actually complete them. In contrast, compare that to my adulthood experiences with Broken Sword or Day of the Tentacle, both of which I bought online 20+ years ago in 2003-04. I just completed Day of the Tentacle for the first time last year and I’ve still never completed Broken Sword. Approaching games - any games, not just adventures - is much more difficult as an adult. For another example, I bought Grand Theft Auto IV in 2012 and I’ve still never completed it either. Being an adult sucks.
I believe your stage in life affects playability much more than game play itself. I can go back and effortlessly play through childhood favorites by muscle memory, but “new” (to me) games are a chore to slog through. Objectively speaking, adventure games are now a niche genre played primarily by middle aged adults. If you’re creating a new adventure game targeting primarily that demographic, you should definitely avoid the early Sierra style. I definitely wouldn’t have the patience for KQ3 if I were to play it for the first time now as a 40 year old adult. As a kid back in 1994, however, with a 486 and a long summer break, KQ3 was a lot of fun. I believe your early exposure to these games will effect your enjoyment of them much more than anything else.
PS. you could have awakened Mannanan at any time by going into his bedroom and typing “wake wizard”. Surprisingly, he won’t kill you. At least not the first time you do it.

[@mikeforte]

My favorite!! 😊