NOTES: 02:40 Wizard and Princess was re-released for IBM PCs in 1982 as Adventure in Serenia, which only supported four-color CGA. 03:29 I suppose you could make an argument that the Atari game Adventure (1980) was the first adventure game where you "control the character." But your avatar in that game is just a square. 04:33 SCI stands for Sierra Creative Interpreter. 05:22 King's Quest IV had a cursor, but it could only be used for movement and looking at things. Entering commands beyond that was done with the text parser. 05:50 The first computer game distributed on CD-ROM is Cyan's The Manhole in 1989. 10:54 No, that's not what happens in the actual game. It's from this video, which everyone should watch immediately: ua-cam.com/video/Gj9rsgImF8M/v-deo.html 17:58 "Every 50 ticks [0.83 seconds] there's a 1 in 21 chance of Cedric appearing if there's no rock on screen and he hasn't already been killed by colliding with the player or getting shot by the farmer. The problem is that unless Cedric appears before the farmer, which is very unlikely, then the farmer's first bullet will kill Cedric off-screen due to incorrect collision testing." github.com/scummvm/scummvm/commit/43ab746a4519df096d3048b3194e7994c6533943 24:15 I found conflicting sources on the address of Seattle's Bellevue office. I sourced the address pictured from this article: www.historylink.org/File/20919 26:53 This is "Smart Money," financial management software released by Sierra in 1987. sierrachest.com/index.php?a=games&id=546&title=smart-money&fld=general 28:03 Christy Marx designed Conquests of Camelot and Conquests of the Longbow. 54:52 Tales of Chickenry uses copyrighted music, including songs from the anime Noir. Much as I like to preserve gaming history, I had to replace it with sound-a-like royalty-free music to avoid copyright claims. 01:10:09 That's PushingUpRoses.
You know that saying "If you explain a joke, it stops being funny"? Owl's Quest is the opposite. The more you have it explained, it gets sillier by exponential amounts as the absurdity settles in.
I really appreciate that Joel took elements from all the past KQ titles for Owl' Quest. Such as the menu interface from King's Quest VII, the completely hidden animal taming tools from King's Quest IV, and the object clipping from Mask of Eternity.
I think he understands that a lot of that comes down to game design. Cedric runs out of helpful tips pretty early, he has to be left out of a bunch of important areas for technical reasons, he keeps warning you of danger after it's too late to do anything...no vocal performance could save his reputation.
@@jleffel6969 Our family wasn't really part of the larger gaming conversations. Until stumbling across this, I hadn't realized people didn't like him very much. I just appreciated how much more friendly the game felt whenever he was onscreen (well, onscreen and healthy - it didn't seem more friendly when the poor owl was wounded).
"I wasn't talking to myself. I just accidentally clicked on me." is going to be my go-to answer whenever my monologues are interrupted. In Cedric's voice.
That interview with Joel is so wholesome :) As an indie dev, I have so much respect for the video game developers of the past. I can't imagine what it was like creating games with the technology of the time and without the history and communities gaming and game creation has these days. Great video, clearly a lot of time and love went into this one!
Did not expect to hear my voice as a 12 year old in a youtube video today. "I AM THE MASTER OF RIDDLES" T_T This is one of the most surreal things I have ever seen, and I did not expect to see people discussing, nay, deep diving on my cousin's little indie ags games from 15 years ago. Thank you for this video!
Wow! I feel blessed to have stumbled upon this video, and then upon this comment on said video. I feel like I'm voyeuristically participating in this really special, niche corner in video game history.
The satire of Owl's Quest really puts to shame the horrific and mean spirited Cedric gags from the retail games on display here. It may have been a different time, but it's hard to do much worse than "I showed that annoying character dying a violent death. Get it?"
And I didn't even mention an AGS game called "Let's Kill Cedric," a.k.a, "Cedric Shooter." kingsquest.fandom.com/wiki/King%27s_Quest:_Let%27s_Kill_Cedric
Peak millennial humor- faux-transgressiveness, edgy for the sake of being edgy. Putting swear words in the titles of books and everyday household items. "See this children's character? What if we do horrible things to it? 'Cause, you know, it's clever to take something harmless and defile it!" (Cards Against Humanity is the epitome of this. "Whoa, look at all these inappropriate words and phrases! Totally transgressive!") Like a stage play of Dora the Explorer selling drugs (this existed). It's not even satire, it's just hollow, nihilistic trope inversion.
"Is that a new dance, Graham? The BUGGALOOOOOOOOOOOO?" I unironically love Cedric, I quote him on the regular with my dad. He helped me figure out how to beat the game when I was really young, so its got a special place in my soul.
Holy smokes, this video _goes places!_ When I started watching what I thought was just going to be a video about a funny Cedric hate fangame, I did not properly parse its runtime. And even if I had, I could never have foreseen all the things it would touch on in that journey. The history of KQ, the rise and fall of Sierra, and the entire adventure game genre. Josh Mandel narrating! And then _Dave Gilbert_ crashes the party and we get the origins of Wadjet Eye?! All leading up to the incredible final interview, including OneShortEye’s poignant take on the value of small, personal art. And then out of left field, that closing monologue. I could never predict where this was going, and I feel enriched for the experience. Looking back on it, the through line seems to me to be about all adventure games, not just _Owl’s Quest._ It’s about why people make them, what that means to them, and what that’s lead them to do. It’s about how adventure games have persevered, even before most people knew what they were and after most people thought they were dead. It’s beautiful and one of my favorite videos on UA-cam. Thank you.
I mentioned this in another comment, but I felt the funniest thing I could do with Owl's Quest was to take it seriously. I think you've articulated my intentions very well. Thank you for the kind words. :)
@@OneShortEye You certainly succeeded at that! The absurdity of taking _Owl’s Quest_ so very seriously reflects its role in the community. But the serious content is actually enlightening and useful in its own right, not just for the joke.
Thank you, OneShortEye, thank you for everything. Your previous videos of course, but this one... phew... there's so much... I mean... Cedric's history... And Sierra's history, from the pages of The Sierra Adventure book... And, if that's not enough, interviews with Shawn Mills himself (who worked on some pretty good Sierra fangames himself, IIRC)... And Owl's Quest history, with Josh Mandel reprising his role as an absolute class act, like he's always been... And these nods to Santa and Karl Jobst that had me in stitches... And the AGS history and interview with Dave Gilbert, that took me down memory lane because I used to post on the AGS forums from 2003 to 2012. I downloaded and tried almost any AGS game I could get my hands onto back then (heck, everytime I watch a speedrun video, there's that voice in my head telling me I could get a WR in Tiltor (an old AGS puzzle game) if I learned how to screen capture and re-learned the puzzles) And then tracking down and interviewing Joel... You know Avengers Endgame? Twenty movies... twenty movies you've been sitting there silently watching as Marvel planted seeds, one at a time... twenty movies you've been patiently waiting as the seeds slowly grew into plants and trees... until Avengers Endgame happens, where all of the trees, all at the same time, decide to blossom in an explosion of superheroes for an epic climatic showdown and finale... and you're sitting there, stuck in awe at what's transpiring in front of your very eyes... Well, that's exactly how I felt watching this video. Thank you so much for making this video, OneShortEye. And thank you again for your previous videos. And thank you in advance for your next ones. :)
I want that Cedric the Owl sweater. *ok I've stopped crying. This is my favorite video from you. It's long, but I don't think there's much I would want to see cut. Thanks for reminding me that I'm a part of this, because sometimes it doesn't feel like it.
Author, not guy. I wrote "Eric and the Gazebo". It was inspired by an anecdote that in real life ended when Ed Whitchurch asked Eric Sorenson "Don't you know what a gazebo is?" Mine went much longer and ALL the jokes were written by me and at least two of them were funny. I also ran LA Mensa's RPG group for more than a decade, was a lead programmer, taught workshops at the Ren Faire, had loads of acting experience, and won a national title at the card game bridge with Corey Cole as my partner. There were REASONS why Sierra hired us (my wife is the real programmer in the family) and I hope Cedric was not one of them. Besides, Ramses Najeer was my favorite role at Sierra, probably followed by the Great Senator from Ecoquest. I mostly didn't audition for anything unless they were having trouble finding a good enough actor because I'd don't enough acting and so many employees really wanted the chance. Did I mention I was once on an improv stage with Robin Williams? Had I know voice game actor would become a career possibility, I'd have done every part they let me.
One of my favorite things of Cedric is Mandel's tone when Cedric is talking about turning back while at Mordrack's Castle and everything before you enter the grate unintentionally makes it seem like even the nice hero Graham has gotten completely sick of him.
Thanks for putting this together! The early AGS community was what got me into game dev, I'm as nostalgic for those days as I am for the old Sierra games. You captured the feeling of the ags community and the spirit of game dev back then wonderfully. Love all your videos, but this one is really special.
Joel seems like a really nice guy. I love his sense of humor and humility. That scene where the repaired bridge immediately breaks again had me laughing. I hope he manages to make some more games in the future!
12:56 Lmao that was my experience too, back in the day. I thought that by Cedric telling me to not go to those places, the game was trying to warn me, telling me that I might not have the required items to survive there yet. Which wasn't true, and got me stuck for a while.
That final was amazing. As an indie creator of games on my teenage years this stroke pretty close to home. It's like my memory was engraved on those games, regardless of how good they were.
This is a spectacular video, lot of fun, clearly a LOT of research went into it. Joel seems like a wonderful guy; I've got a couple of stalled gamedev projects at the moment and your interview is a nice bit of motivation to actually make another game
There aren't many quality channels talking about Sierra with such love, care and consideration. I watched the KQIII speedrun one never having played it. Glad I subscribed!
The amount of love and passion around these classic adventure games is incredible. So much passion and love for stories and characters. Even the writers and developers. Its incredible.
I was very active on the AGS forums back when this came out. Hearing someone talk about my niche interest (AGS) inside of an already niche interest (adventure games) blew my little mind
19:52 I know everyone thinks of Christopher Lloyd as Doc Brown, but he also was the voice of THE Hacker in Cyberchase, and that would've been something he would embellish in the earlier seasons had the show gotten the chance to be a bit more... risque.
"Crispin, i am literally gonna pull my pants down and shit ALL over your lawn and garden and house if you don't lift this damn curse off me!" "But Cerdric, you don't have pants." "That should tell you how ready i am if you don't comply!"
Owl mention what an attractive cat is in the wallpaper behind that stupid voice actor's interview. More seriously, it warmed my heart to see all those bad things happen to Cedric. The purpose of art is to invoke an emotional response, and people really had to respond strongly to Cedric for him to suffer so much harm in response.
Amateur projects like these always fascinate me because regardless of who made it or how old they are, they necessarily have a strange conflict of levels of competence going on. Making a game by yourself is hard and complicated, regardless of how it's made. Even using things like RPG maker or AGS require you to get to grips with a lot of internal systems, plan out how to make them interact and at bare minimum learn how programming works, even if you avoid writing code yourself. Being able to put together even something like Tales of Chickenry, but not realising that using the airbrush tool might not be the best way to colour in a triangle, places you in the centre of a strange venn diagram of ability.
I always refer to it as "talent points". If you spent all of yours on game creation, nobody should give you shit about typos. That's not where you put your points.
I had been an ASIFA (animation society) member when I started work at Sierra. At one ASIFA session, Bill Scott and June Foray showed us some voice techniques. For Super Chicken, Bill gripped his Adam's apple and rapidly moved it up and down to create the warble. I obviously stole that to voice Cedric. I think Joel Page (or whoever) just was unaware of it. The falsetto was me responding to Roberta's character description. I have had hundreds of people laughing at me. There are techniques to being a good actor. Owl's Quest made me laugh. That's good enough by my standards.
I absolutely *loved* this video. You had my subscription at your Quest of the Longbow video (my partner referred me to it, he couldn't stop gushing at the edit quality & effort you put into it) and now I can't get enough of your old school gaming videos. Owl's Quest is a gem and so is Joel. I hardly knew anything about Sierra before watching this, but man, so much heart went into their games. And that makes it appropriate subject matter, because clearly, so much heart goes into your creations. Not gonna lie, your final thoughts in this video had me a little choked up. I've been feeling disconnected lately myself and I really appreciate that thought experiment. I'm going to try it. Thank you for all your hard work. May it be rewarded by an ever-growing subscriber count.
As someone who knows almost nothing about King's Quest games and forgot who Cedric was in a previous OneShortEye video, I didn't know what to expect from this video. Having reached the end, I now want to see Joel create Owl's Quest 2: Something to Hoot About.
27:47 "...where computer operators once manufactured high tech, sophisticated games." "Ya see, a blank floppy comes down the assembly line here, I press a few keys on my keyboard, then Tommy down there *points*, he clicks a few buttons with his mouse, and wouldn't ya know it, there's a full fledged game on that disk, with a sticker on it too!"
Your message at the end made me happy! Even though some haven't played or speedran many of the games on your channel, you include us as members of these communities by exploring their history. Thank you!
16:45 - Awesome to see PUR turn up here! Two of the best channels for adventure games imo. and Columbo, PUR. Thank you both for all the effort this HAS to take.
I wasn't expecting how heartfelt this video would be about community effort and appreciating peoples creations and all the underlying things that made something possible. Wonderful.❤
Loved it. It's so fun to see the tertiary impact these games had. Me and my family grew up huddled around the computer shouting suggestions to each other for one adventure game or another. In the past few years we have been recreating that digitally where we use Parsec to take turns playing an adventure game (there's a lot of new ones that are just phenomenal) once a month or so. Anyway, it's a small thing that our family has bonded with each other with and it's one of those little things that's difficult to quantify and capture. So adventure games mean family to me.
30 minutes in and I forgot this was even about owls quest I thought I was watching a super interesting documentary on Sierra. Which it pretty much is as well. I was just as invested
When I saw a new OneShortEye video with the doofy clip art owl from Owl's Quest I clicked without looking at the title and I was not at all expecting what entailed, but I'm here for it. Fantastic video! The 52s and 51s record part was really funny
This is the magnum opus of adventure game historical content, speed-running content, and of celebrating small creators producing passionate outsider art. Bravo.
One of the best videos I've seen on UA-cam up to this day to be honest. Everything about this just lift my spirits. I mainly watch speedrunning content so I came to your channel for speedrunning, but I discovered so much more. Going to those lengths to explain a meme inside a small speedrunning community which is quite a niche genre itself is crazy in a positive way. Deep dive into Sierra lore? Making Josh Mandel do the narration? That amazing inspirational speech at the end? Chef's kiss. That interview with Dave Gilbert made me fangirl scream. I love Wadjet Eye Games. I've been obsessed about Gemini Rue for some time in my past. I've even commissioned fanart for Thechnobabylon few years ago. Now that I think about it this might not be the best idea to pay someone to create art of copyrighted characters from an indie game without asking permission first, but I was new to how this works in the US. Great thanks to Dave for making his own amazing games and helping others with publishing their own. Without him and his company I wouldn't know some of those gems existed. The maker of Owl's Quest and his other games, Joel, might've been just a kid messing around but I think the humor in these games is just top notch. If I didn't know they were created by a kid I would've thought they were made by an adult ironically. Like SBaHJ. Joel himself sounds so wholesome and self aware. He enjoyed making silly little games, had a great time with his family and friends and is happy about how his games make people laugh. That one line voiced by his friend that was apparently recorded with a toaster made me hysterical. OneShortEye, you got a lot of nerves to be drinking water during these, if that was me I'd choke to death. And Joel's sister made him a Cedric sweater? That's just adorable! That speech at the end boosted my dopamine. Just think about people making amazing games and other people giving them money to create more amazing games. Making videos like these, writing books, drawing fan art, creating speedruns, streams and gameplay commentary. Heck, even watching and commenting those will create more popularity for great things. We don't have to be game developers to help, together like bricks we make a building. This sense of community is inspiring. So thank you, kind sir, for creating this video! Keep up the good work!
I'm happy the video resonated with you so much. I knew this one wouldn't be for everyone, but I had a hope that, at least for a few people, it would hit hard. Thank you again for the kind words.
It always brightens my day to see a OneShortEye video in my sub box! I've binged all of your videos like 5 times now haha Funny thing is I've never played any early PC adventure games before finding your channel. The only video games my family bought me in the 90s were those CD-ROM 'Reader Rabbit' games. But your videos do such a good job sheding a light on the culture of speedrunning and early PC adventure games, it's got me fascinated! Keep up the good work!
Awesome video! This isn't really well suited for this video, and I know it's not really in the wheel house of what you usually cover, but I'd love to see a video from you talking about the Japanese adventure game scene, if only because what an adventure game even is over there can be wildly different. Games like Sakura Wars on Sega platforms were relatively close to the Western idea in some areas, but its overall very expansive and quite different and I think it'd be very interesting to see a viewpoint on them from someone who's mostly a fan of Western adventure games.
@@ultimapower6950 Yeah! Generally its what we call visual novels but there are plenty of games that many people would consider more than a vn thats thought of as an adventure game in Japan. Ace Attorney is a great example.
this is so well-organized and well-paced it had my jaw dropping on several occasions. the Reveal that you can use ANY object on rapunzel got me so bad i was still remembering it and laughing a whole minute later. definitely the highlight of the video for me, though, was watching for the 1st time with a friend, who upon seeing the stupid 3d chicken game shouted "I'VE SEEN THIS" with the volume and breath of someone who'd just been punched in the gut or, in his words, "hit like a gong."
14:30 I see what you did there. Interestingly enough Quest for Glory and Mass Effect are two of my all time favorite games series, in no small part because you can take your character from the first game to the last. Love the videos!
Second comment, but- the most striking thing about ALL of your videos is the level of care and dedication to fact checking and getting first hand accounts. It's always a treat to watch a video knowing that you most likely got as much information from as many people as possible!
There's an unintentional easter egg there, too. The first thing I say when TLJ is on screen is: "The market had shifted." A "shift" is the portal between worlds, April is a shifter, etc. I wish I could take credit for that, but it was entirely accidental and I didn't realize until after I edited that sequence.
Thanks to this video I just ordered "The Sierra Adventure" book that is featured here. I grew up with the Sierra games and this book sounds like an interesting insight into the company back then.
Great video. I really loved these wild old times off indie game making especially RPG maker. I especially enjoyed playing horror and adventure games. Brings back a lot of memories.
Petition to get Joel Page a deal with Wadjet Eye to do full professional on-sale-on-Steam remakes of all his games (asides Owl's Quest given that he doesn't own the rights to KQ, I'm pretty sure!)
I grew up in the 90's and I played king's quest 5. I never beat the game so I always wondered how thing played out. I have watched most of your king's quest videos, but when I saw this I knew I absolutely had to watch it. This entire thing about Cedric made laugh and smile kind of something I don't do often depending on who you talk to. However, it was that little bit that you had there at the end...everything you just said hit me really hard and I don't think you understand. You don't have to believe me not a single bit, but I started my research of characters in 2014. I had a small chart of 16 characters by 2016. I had to prove to myself that I could see what I see and everyone in my life said NO, they couldn't see what I see! I remember the prediction that I had made. I had anticipated that if I followed this pattern that every character moved into a different position would become a different type of character. I plotted it out and predicted 64 characters total. I put off Family and relationships saying to myself that I am going to finish this chart even if I die trying! It was about just last week Sunday 6:18am that I found the very last character. I have arrived at the foot of the mountain! You have NO idea how hard that last bit hit me about putting something together!
NOTES:
02:40 Wizard and Princess was re-released for IBM PCs in 1982 as Adventure in Serenia, which only supported four-color CGA.
03:29 I suppose you could make an argument that the Atari game Adventure (1980) was the first adventure game where you "control the character." But your avatar in that game is just a square.
04:33 SCI stands for Sierra Creative Interpreter.
05:22 King's Quest IV had a cursor, but it could only be used for movement and looking at things. Entering commands beyond that was done with the text parser.
05:50 The first computer game distributed on CD-ROM is Cyan's The Manhole in 1989.
10:54 No, that's not what happens in the actual game. It's from this video, which everyone should watch immediately: ua-cam.com/video/Gj9rsgImF8M/v-deo.html
17:58 "Every 50 ticks [0.83 seconds] there's a 1 in 21 chance of Cedric appearing if there's no rock on screen and he hasn't already been killed by colliding with the player or getting shot by the farmer. The problem is that unless Cedric appears before the farmer, which is very unlikely, then the farmer's first bullet will kill Cedric off-screen due to incorrect collision testing." github.com/scummvm/scummvm/commit/43ab746a4519df096d3048b3194e7994c6533943
24:15 I found conflicting sources on the address of Seattle's Bellevue office. I sourced the address pictured from this article: www.historylink.org/File/20919
26:53 This is "Smart Money," financial management software released by Sierra in 1987. sierrachest.com/index.php?a=games&id=546&title=smart-money&fld=general
28:03 Christy Marx designed Conquests of Camelot and Conquests of the Longbow.
54:52 Tales of Chickenry uses copyrighted music, including songs from the anime Noir. Much as I like to preserve gaming history, I had to replace it with sound-a-like royalty-free music to avoid copyright claims.
01:10:09 That's PushingUpRoses.
Did you get the same fiverr guy for SantaClaus lol
@@donwald3436 Yes!
I can't believe that "The bluebird is too busy taking a dump to answer Graham." was the thing that got me.
I love that old Yzzyxz video! My other favorite moment was "Princess Cassima, come over here! Begone you slithery varmint! Scat!"
24:21 What song is that? It isn't on the list. I recognize it, but I can't remember
You know that saying "If you explain a joke, it stops being funny"? Owl's Quest is the opposite. The more you have it explained, it gets sillier by exponential amounts as the absurdity settles in.
For real, the journey for this silly little fan game is so surreal
That's how you know it's good
oh so like homestuck
I really appreciate that Joel took elements from all the past KQ titles for Owl' Quest. Such as the menu interface from King's Quest VII, the completely hidden animal taming tools from King's Quest IV, and the object clipping from Mask of Eternity.
If only I could pin two comments...
@@OneShortEye what if you did
Did not expect to learn the history of Sierra’s demise in the middle of this. That interlude was like the Defunctland of graphical adventure gaming.
By the time that section ended I had completely forgotten I was watching an Owl's Quest video, I was like oh yeah that's why I'm here!
calling up Joel was definitely giving "Who Wrote the Disney Channel Theme"
always wondered what happened to them, just never got round to googling it.
Joel Page is a comedic genius. Putting the blanket and that stupid sock on the wagon and it slowly rolling off-screen had me in stitches.
I've gotta remember that for any future adventure games I hack together in an ill-advised game jam.
Time stamp? I'm watching this while cooking dinner and I missed it 😭
@@WobblesandBean36:25 ^.^
This King’s Quest rabbit hole sure is dee-
**Graham falling scream**
Whooo! Look our for that rabbit hole!
@@professorhaystacks6606 Ooooooooh! If you're going into that rabbit hole, I'll wait for you HERE! (ç v -)
Watch out, Graham! A pOooISONous hole!
As annoying as that sound is it still manages to get a chuckle out of me.
deez nutz
Do you think Christopher Lloyd was like "good lord why do they hate this owl so much?" after recording those lines?
I think he understands that a lot of that comes down to game design. Cedric runs out of helpful tips pretty early, he has to be left out of a bunch of important areas for technical reasons, he keeps warning you of danger after it's too late to do anything...no vocal performance could save his reputation.
@@timothymclean Christopher Lloyd was the voice of old Graham in the newer game.
I found him.
The single unironic Cedric fan.
@@jleffel6969 Our family wasn't really part of the larger gaming conversations. Until stumbling across this, I hadn't realized people didn't like him very much. I just appreciated how much more friendly the game felt whenever he was onscreen (well, onscreen and healthy - it didn't seem more friendly when the poor owl was wounded).
"Have you ever seen a chicken with two pieces of paper?" 😂
"I wasn't talking to myself. I just accidentally clicked on me." is going to be my go-to answer whenever my monologues are interrupted.
In Cedric's voice.
The fact you got Josh Mandel to voice it is amazing! Thanks for putting this together made my month!
Convincing a King's Quest VIP to contribute to this shitpost of a video essay must have been pretty awesome for ShortEye.
That interview with Joel is so wholesome :) As an indie dev, I have so much respect for the video game developers of the past. I can't imagine what it was like creating games with the technology of the time and without the history and communities gaming and game creation has these days.
Great video, clearly a lot of time and love went into this one!
Thank you for the kind words. I'm glad you enjoyed it!
The longest OneShortEye video to date, and it is for Owl Quest.
Every bit of this is amazing. And a huge thanks to Joel for making these games!
I figured the funniest thing I could do with Owl's Quest is take it seriously.
It has now been eclipsed by Conquests of the Longbow
@speabody
The conquest of the longbow video is amazing and a work of art
Did not expect to hear my voice as a 12 year old in a youtube video today.
"I AM THE MASTER OF RIDDLES" T_T
This is one of the most surreal things I have ever seen, and I did not expect to see people discussing, nay, deep diving on my cousin's little indie ags games from 15 years ago. Thank you for this video!
THE RIDDLE MASTER!!
Its incredibly charming and heartwarming to see people having fun like this. And your voice was really riddle-y!
Wow! I feel blessed to have stumbled upon this video, and then upon this comment on said video. I feel like I'm voyeuristically participating in this really special, niche corner in video game history.
Lol, you should be honored
Oh my gosh! This was a trip down memory lane watching Joel create when we were kids! Thanks!
Joel was extremely kind and I'm happy we had a chance to connect. :) Thanks for the comment!
The satire of Owl's Quest really puts to shame the horrific and mean spirited Cedric gags from the retail games on display here. It may have been a different time, but it's hard to do much worse than "I showed that annoying character dying a violent death. Get it?"
And I didn't even mention an AGS game called "Let's Kill Cedric," a.k.a, "Cedric Shooter." kingsquest.fandom.com/wiki/King%27s_Quest:_Let%27s_Kill_Cedric
Bro was a professional hater @@OneShortEye
Peak millennial humor- faux-transgressiveness, edgy for the sake of being edgy. Putting swear words in the titles of books and everyday household items. "See this children's character? What if we do horrible things to it? 'Cause, you know, it's clever to take something harmless and defile it!" (Cards Against Humanity is the epitome of this. "Whoa, look at all these inappropriate words and phrases! Totally transgressive!") Like a stage play of Dora the Explorer selling drugs (this existed). It's not even satire, it's just hollow, nihilistic trope inversion.
I love how 30 minutes into a documentary about Owl Quest OneShortEye just casually pulls out JOSH FREAKING MANDEL to do narration.
No Game, Movie or Song has ever made me cry but I was damn near close after watching Rapunzel ride her horse away.
"Is that a new dance, Graham? The BUGGALOOOOOOOOOOOO?"
I unironically love Cedric, I quote him on the regular with my dad. He helped me figure out how to beat the game when I was really young, so its got a special place in my soul.
Your monologue at the end made me cry a little, it's easy to forget about the little things but there's so much to be grateful for
There is a lot to be grateful for, but the part of about everyone "deserving" it is where we're supposed to draw the line.
Not me crying over a video about a fan game of the annoying owl from King's Quest.
The speedrun of owls quest segment had me dying. Best speed run race ever
Holy smokes, this video _goes places!_ When I started watching what I thought was just going to be a video about a funny Cedric hate fangame, I did not properly parse its runtime. And even if I had, I could never have foreseen all the things it would touch on in that journey. The history of KQ, the rise and fall of Sierra, and the entire adventure game genre. Josh Mandel narrating! And then _Dave Gilbert_ crashes the party and we get the origins of Wadjet Eye?! All leading up to the incredible final interview, including OneShortEye’s poignant take on the value of small, personal art. And then out of left field, that closing monologue. I could never predict where this was going, and I feel enriched for the experience.
Looking back on it, the through line seems to me to be about all adventure games, not just _Owl’s Quest._ It’s about why people make them, what that means to them, and what that’s lead them to do. It’s about how adventure games have persevered, even before most people knew what they were and after most people thought they were dead. It’s beautiful and one of my favorite videos on UA-cam. Thank you.
I mentioned this in another comment, but I felt the funniest thing I could do with Owl's Quest was to take it seriously. I think you've articulated my intentions very well. Thank you for the kind words. :)
@@OneShortEye You certainly succeeded at that! The absurdity of taking _Owl’s Quest_ so very seriously reflects its role in the community. But the serious content is actually enlightening and useful in its own right, not just for the joke.
The closing monologue made my eyes really wet...they still are 5 minutes after the video ended holy macaroni man !!!
Thank you, OneShortEye, thank you for everything.
Your previous videos of course, but this one... phew... there's so much... I mean...
Cedric's history...
And Sierra's history, from the pages of The Sierra Adventure book...
And, if that's not enough, interviews with Shawn Mills himself (who worked on some pretty good Sierra fangames himself, IIRC)...
And Owl's Quest history, with Josh Mandel reprising his role as an absolute class act, like he's always been...
And these nods to Santa and Karl Jobst that had me in stitches...
And the AGS history and interview with Dave Gilbert, that took me down memory lane because I used to post on the AGS forums from 2003 to 2012. I downloaded and tried almost any AGS game I could get my hands onto back then (heck, everytime I watch a speedrun video, there's that voice in my head telling me I could get a WR in Tiltor (an old AGS puzzle game) if I learned how to screen capture and re-learned the puzzles)
And then tracking down and interviewing Joel...
You know Avengers Endgame? Twenty movies... twenty movies you've been sitting there silently watching as Marvel planted seeds, one at a time... twenty movies you've been patiently waiting as the seeds slowly grew into plants and trees... until Avengers Endgame happens, where all of the trees, all at the same time, decide to blossom in an explosion of superheroes for an epic climatic showdown and finale... and you're sitting there, stuck in awe at what's transpiring in front of your very eyes...
Well, that's exactly how I felt watching this video.
Thank you so much for making this video, OneShortEye. And thank you again for your previous videos. And thank you in advance for your next ones. :)
This is one of the best comments I've received. Thank you. I can only hope my "post-Endgame" phase is better than the real one we got with the MCU...
Joel deserves an award for the sock horse. Like a nice bike or a Hawaiian island.
lol I thought you said "hawaiian salad" and I was like you know what, that does sound like a good award for doing something
I want that Cedric the Owl sweater. *ok I've stopped crying. This is my favorite video from you. It's long, but I don't think there's much I would want to see cut. Thanks for reminding me that I'm a part of this, because sometimes it doesn't feel like it.
Wait?! The voice actor for Cedric is the same guy from the infamous gazebo anecdote?!
Author, not guy. I wrote "Eric and the Gazebo". It was inspired by an anecdote that in real life ended when Ed Whitchurch asked Eric Sorenson "Don't you know what a gazebo is?" Mine went much longer and ALL the jokes were written by me and at least two of them were funny. I also ran LA Mensa's RPG group for more than a decade, was a lead programmer, taught workshops at the Ren Faire, had loads of acting experience, and won a national title at the card game bridge with Corey Cole as my partner. There were REASONS why Sierra hired us (my wife is the real programmer in the family) and I hope Cedric was not one of them. Besides, Ramses Najeer was my favorite role at Sierra, probably followed by the Great Senator from Ecoquest. I mostly didn't audition for anything unless they were having trouble finding a good enough actor because I'd don't enough acting and so many employees really wanted the chance. Did I mention I was once on an improv stage with Robin Williams?
Had I know voice game actor would become a career possibility, I'd have done every part they let me.
@@GazeboSlayer Sorry that Cedric destroyed your voice. Thank you for your service in delighting a generation.
One of my favorite things of Cedric is Mandel's tone when Cedric is talking about turning back while at Mordrack's Castle and everything before you enter the grate unintentionally makes it seem like even the nice hero Graham has gotten completely sick of him.
Thanks for putting this together! The early AGS community was what got me into game dev, I'm as nostalgic for those days as I am for the old Sierra games. You captured the feeling of the ags community and the spirit of game dev back then wonderfully. Love all your videos, but this one is really special.
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for the kind words.
Joel seems like a really nice guy. I love his sense of humor and humility. That scene where the repaired bridge immediately breaks again had me laughing. I hope he manages to make some more games in the future!
12:56 Lmao that was my experience too, back in the day. I thought that by Cedric telling me to not go to those places, the game was trying to warn me, telling me that I might not have the required items to survive there yet. Which wasn't true, and got me stuck for a while.
Incredible video. The outro was really touching as well! Thank you for your hard work!
Thank you for your kind words!
That final was amazing.
As an indie creator of games on my teenage years this stroke pretty close to home.
It's like my memory was engraved on those games, regardless of how good they were.
Joel's games are genuinely wonderfully creative, interesting and hilarious. I extremely enjoyed seeing them
The sigh and then Santa appearing is brilliant throwback comedic genius
I didn't expect to get weepy at the end of a video about an obscure fan game but here I am. I needed that reminder, thanks for that.
This is a spectacular video, lot of fun, clearly a LOT of research went into it. Joel seems like a wonderful guy; I've got a couple of stalled gamedev projects at the moment and your interview is a nice bit of motivation to actually make another game
Glad you enjoyed it! Joel was a pleasure to talk to, and very kind to me.
There aren't many quality channels talking about Sierra with such love, care and consideration. I watched the KQIII speedrun one never having played it. Glad I subscribed!
This is an awesome historical document. Extra props for the Wadjet Eye interview, always had massive respect for their games.
Truly awesome, as usual - so much passion and depth :) there is indeed something very special about things like Owl's Quest
The amount of love and passion around these classic adventure games is incredible. So much passion and love for stories and characters. Even the writers and developers. Its incredible.
Another kings quest community gathering 🤗
Can’t wait to see Roberta herself in one of the next episodes, speedrunning KQ7, singing the Frenzia Song
One can dream.
I was very active on the AGS forums back when this came out. Hearing someone talk about my niche interest (AGS) inside of an already niche interest (adventure games) blew my little mind
I loved the last scene, it moved me to actual tears. Thank you. 🦉
I'm glad you liked it! :)
The lad releasing bangers as per usual
That final message is something I really needed to hear right now. Thank you, it helped get me out of a pretty dark place.
19:52 I know everyone thinks of Christopher Lloyd as Doc Brown, but he also was the voice of THE Hacker in Cyberchase, and that would've been something he would embellish in the earlier seasons had the show gotten the chance to be a bit more... risque.
I was first introduced to Cedric probably in my early 20s and I honestly have always liked him. I find him genuinely funny
You know I expected just a short informational video on Owl's Quest but this is great. The Chickenry rat had me in stitches.
The sound quality is just so perfect. you’re absorbing the visual and then the audio kicks in
"Crispin, i am literally gonna pull my pants down and shit ALL over your lawn and garden and house if you don't lift this damn curse off me!"
"But Cerdric, you don't have pants."
"That should tell you how ready i am if you don't comply!"
I have never heard of Owl's quest but will gladly watch any OneShortEye video! Quality Content!
he's the character that you cry about dying in the first run, then about ten playthroughs later you cry tears of joy that he's gone
Owl mention what an attractive cat is in the wallpaper behind that stupid voice actor's interview. More seriously, it warmed my heart to see all those bad things happen to Cedric. The purpose of art is to invoke an emotional response, and people really had to respond strongly to Cedric for him to suffer so much harm in response.
Thanks for the comment, and I'm glad to see you here! I think that's a great way of looking at it.
Amateur projects like these always fascinate me because regardless of who made it or how old they are, they necessarily have a strange conflict of levels of competence going on. Making a game by yourself is hard and complicated, regardless of how it's made. Even using things like RPG maker or AGS require you to get to grips with a lot of internal systems, plan out how to make them interact and at bare minimum learn how programming works, even if you avoid writing code yourself. Being able to put together even something like Tales of Chickenry, but not realising that using the airbrush tool might not be the best way to colour in a triangle, places you in the centre of a strange venn diagram of ability.
I always refer to it as "talent points". If you spent all of yours on game creation, nobody should give you shit about typos. That's not where you put your points.
11:37 Cedric’s voice sounds like someone mocking Cedric’s voice.
I had been an ASIFA (animation society) member when I started work at Sierra. At one ASIFA session, Bill Scott and June Foray showed us some voice techniques. For Super Chicken, Bill gripped his Adam's apple and rapidly moved it up and down to create the warble. I obviously stole that to voice Cedric. I think Joel Page (or whoever) just was unaware of it. The falsetto was me responding to Roberta's character description. I have had hundreds of people laughing at me. There are techniques to being a good actor. Owl's Quest made me laugh. That's good enough by my standards.
Didn't expect the Wadjet Eye interview but that was awesome - i love their games and it's great to see how much of a passion project they are!
I absolutely *loved* this video. You had my subscription at your Quest of the Longbow video (my partner referred me to it, he couldn't stop gushing at the edit quality & effort you put into it) and now I can't get enough of your old school gaming videos. Owl's Quest is a gem and so is Joel. I hardly knew anything about Sierra before watching this, but man, so much heart went into their games. And that makes it appropriate subject matter, because clearly, so much heart goes into your creations.
Not gonna lie, your final thoughts in this video had me a little choked up. I've been feeling disconnected lately myself and I really appreciate that thought experiment. I'm going to try it. Thank you for all your hard work. May it be rewarded by an ever-growing subscriber count.
Excellent video as always. Thank you for all of the heard work you put in to making these.
Thank you for the kind words, and thanks for the support!
As someone who knows almost nothing about King's Quest games and forgot who Cedric was in a previous OneShortEye video, I didn't know what to expect from this video. Having reached the end, I now want to see Joel create Owl's Quest 2: Something to Hoot About.
27:47 "...where computer operators once manufactured high tech, sophisticated games."
"Ya see, a blank floppy comes down the assembly line here, I press a few keys on my keyboard, then Tommy down there *points*, he clicks a few buttons with his mouse, and wouldn't ya know it, there's a full fledged game on that disk, with a sticker on it too!"
The Fordist way of software developement.
You can have any game you like, as long as it's Owl's Quest.
Your message at the end made me happy! Even though some haven't played or speedran many of the games on your channel, you include us as members of these communities by exploring their history. Thank you!
16:45 - Awesome to see PUR turn up here! Two of the best channels for adventure games imo. and Columbo, PUR.
Thank you both for all the effort this HAS to take.
I can't believe The Reanimator is also so good at making fun and interesting adventure game vids. Thanks Weyoun!
Brilliant video as always! Thank you for including the most harrowing death in all of King’s Quest at 07:55, sends chills down my spine.
I wasn't expecting how heartfelt this video would be about community effort and appreciating peoples creations and all the underlying things that made something possible. Wonderful.❤
Loved it. It's so fun to see the tertiary impact these games had.
Me and my family grew up huddled around the computer shouting suggestions to each other for one adventure game or another. In the past few years we have been recreating that digitally where we use Parsec to take turns playing an adventure game (there's a lot of new ones that are just phenomenal) once a month or so.
Anyway, it's a small thing that our family has bonded with each other with and it's one of those little things that's difficult to quantify and capture.
So adventure games mean family to me.
21:30 I like to think that Roberta would take that as the highest compliment.
This channel just becoming a hub of adventure game speed runs, history, and lore is a massive win and a desperately underserved niche on youtube
30 minutes in and I forgot this was even about owls quest I thought I was watching a super interesting documentary on Sierra. Which it pretty much is as well. I was just as invested
When I saw a new OneShortEye video with the doofy clip art owl from Owl's Quest I clicked without looking at the title and I was not at all expecting what entailed, but I'm here for it. Fantastic video! The 52s and 51s record part was really funny
Hey, that's no clip art, that doofiness is hand drawn.
@@OneShortEye Apologies, you're right, or else Cedric would have never had that iconic saunter
@@smorrs Ahh, there's the perfect way to describe it. Thank you.
This is such a banger video, so important to keep the history alive :D
This is the magnum opus of adventure game historical content, speed-running content, and of celebrating small creators producing passionate outsider art. Bravo.
10/10 I really hope this one gets the love it deserves
Very cool to see the developer of Wadjet Games on here. I immensely enjoyed the Blackwell series.
Am thrilled you borrowed the "Mordac the Owl" clip from Pushing Up Roses! One of her classic moments.
She was kind enough to give permission, too!
One of the best videos I've seen on UA-cam up to this day to be honest. Everything about this just lift my spirits. I mainly watch speedrunning content so I came to your channel for speedrunning, but I discovered so much more. Going to those lengths to explain a meme inside a small speedrunning community which is quite a niche genre itself is crazy in a positive way. Deep dive into Sierra lore? Making Josh Mandel do the narration? That amazing inspirational speech at the end? Chef's kiss.
That interview with Dave Gilbert made me fangirl scream. I love Wadjet Eye Games. I've been obsessed about Gemini Rue for some time in my past. I've even commissioned fanart for Thechnobabylon few years ago. Now that I think about it this might not be the best idea to pay someone to create art of copyrighted characters from an indie game without asking permission first, but I was new to how this works in the US. Great thanks to Dave for making his own amazing games and helping others with publishing their own. Without him and his company I wouldn't know some of those gems existed.
The maker of Owl's Quest and his other games, Joel, might've been just a kid messing around but I think the humor in these games is just top notch. If I didn't know they were created by a kid I would've thought they were made by an adult ironically. Like SBaHJ. Joel himself sounds so wholesome and self aware. He enjoyed making silly little games, had a great time with his family and friends and is happy about how his games make people laugh. That one line voiced by his friend that was apparently recorded with a toaster made me hysterical. OneShortEye, you got a lot of nerves to be drinking water during these, if that was me I'd choke to death. And Joel's sister made him a Cedric sweater? That's just adorable!
That speech at the end boosted my dopamine. Just think about people making amazing games and other people giving them money to create more amazing games. Making videos like these, writing books, drawing fan art, creating speedruns, streams and gameplay commentary. Heck, even watching and commenting those will create more popularity for great things. We don't have to be game developers to help, together like bricks we make a building. This sense of community is inspiring.
So thank you, kind sir, for creating this video! Keep up the good work!
I'm happy the video resonated with you so much. I knew this one wouldn't be for everyone, but I had a hope that, at least for a few people, it would hit hard. Thank you again for the kind words.
It always brightens my day to see a OneShortEye video in my sub box!
I've binged all of your videos like 5 times now haha
Funny thing is I've never played any early PC adventure games before finding your channel. The only video games my family bought me in the 90s were those CD-ROM 'Reader Rabbit' games.
But your videos do such a good job sheding a light on the culture of speedrunning and early PC adventure games, it's got me fascinated!
Keep up the good work!
Wow this level of investigation goes above and beyond! Both the games and the video are a true labour of love. 👏
I'll happily wait 2 months for an upload if its a ShortEye video. ESPECIALLY if that video is over 1 hour long! 😍
hey it’s It’sJabo
Owl's Quest is not merely a game. It is an immersive art experience.
Awesome video! This isn't really well suited for this video, and I know it's not really in the wheel house of what you usually cover, but I'd love to see a video from you talking about the Japanese adventure game scene, if only because what an adventure game even is over there can be wildly different. Games like Sakura Wars on Sega platforms were relatively close to the Western idea in some areas, but its overall very expansive and quite different and I think it'd be very interesting to see a viewpoint on them from someone who's mostly a fan of Western adventure games.
Wait? Those exist?
@@ultimapower6950 Yeah! Generally its what we call visual novels but there are plenty of games that many people would consider more than a vn thats thought of as an adventure game in Japan. Ace Attorney is a great example.
It's really great to see the community appreciating your fantastic videos has grown considerably!
this is so well-organized and well-paced it had my jaw dropping on several occasions. the Reveal that you can use ANY object on rapunzel got me so bad i was still remembering it and laughing a whole minute later. definitely the highlight of the video for me, though, was watching for the 1st time with a friend, who upon seeing the stupid 3d chicken game shouted "I'VE SEEN THIS" with the volume and breath of someone who'd just been punched in the gut or, in his words, "hit like a gong."
As someone who watched the retsupurae of KQV, I'm so hyped for this.
Great video! I love the background info on Sierra and Owl's Quest.
It's cool knowing that the creator of Owl's Quest lives in my home town.
It just hits different.
Thank you! This was both inspiring and interesting!
Joel was a real gent. Wat a legend :)
Holy crap, this is absolutely amazing!
16:44 love the inclusion of PUR's clip.
14:30 I see what you did there.
Interestingly enough Quest for Glory and Mass Effect are two of my all time favorite games series, in no small part because you can take your character from the first game to the last. Love the videos!
Second comment, but- the most striking thing about ALL of your videos is the level of care and dedication to fact checking and getting first hand accounts. It's always a treat to watch a video knowing that you most likely got as much information from as many people as possible!
That's very kind of you to notice. Thanks!
The montage at 50:00, now that is what i call gaming!
I LOVED seeing The Longest Journey footage! Definitely not remembered enough
There's an unintentional easter egg there, too. The first thing I say when TLJ is on screen is: "The market had shifted." A "shift" is the portal between worlds, April is a shifter, etc.
I wish I could take credit for that, but it was entirely accidental and I didn't realize until after I edited that sequence.
@@OneShortEye sometimes the world just lets it all fall together
Your editing is getting better and better!
Thanks!
Thanks to this video I just ordered "The Sierra Adventure" book that is featured here. I grew up with the Sierra games and this book sounds like an interesting insight into the company back then.
I just found your channel and holy shit your stuff is so high quality
Great video. I really loved these wild old times off indie game making especially RPG maker. I especially enjoyed playing horror and adventure games. Brings back a lot of memories.
Petition to get Joel Page a deal with Wadjet Eye to do full professional on-sale-on-Steam remakes of all his games (asides Owl's Quest given that he doesn't own the rights to KQ, I'm pretty sure!)
I grew up in the 90's and I played king's quest 5. I never beat the game so I always wondered how thing played out. I have watched most of your king's quest videos, but when I saw this I knew I absolutely had to watch it.
This entire thing about Cedric made laugh and smile kind of something I don't do often depending on who you talk to.
However, it was that little bit that you had there at the end...everything you just said hit me really hard and I don't think you understand.
You don't have to believe me not a single bit, but I started my research of characters in 2014. I had a small chart of 16 characters by 2016. I had to prove to myself that I could see what I see and everyone in my life said NO, they couldn't see what I see!
I remember the prediction that I had made. I had anticipated that if I followed this pattern that every character moved into a different position would become a different type of character. I plotted it out and predicted 64 characters total.
I put off Family and relationships saying to myself that I am going to finish this chart even if I die trying!
It was about just last week Sunday 6:18am that I found the very last character. I have arrived at the foot of the mountain!
You have NO idea how hard that last bit hit me about putting something together!
This was great as always, Shorty! What an interesting and curious story!