AGDI Unveils King's Quest III Redux!

[MusicallyInspired]

After 8 years the secret is out. Play it this February! I've put a huge percentage of the last decade of my life into this game's soundtrack and I hope you'll all enjoy it when it's ready!

King's Quest III Redux

Check the AGDI forums for more information on the project.

[Marten]

Huzzah!

[jharris01]

I noticed the announcement says this is AGDI's "final masterpiece". Does this mean it's their last game?

[MusicallyInspired]

No, just their last game done very very well.




Yes, it's their last game. lol It's all Himalaya from here on out.

[jharris01]

No, just their last game done very very well.

I liked them more when they were humble. So what is next for you?

[MusicallyInspired]

I was poking fun. You said "is this AGDI's 'final masterpeice?'. It was a play on words.

AGDI isn't doing anything more after this, but I'm scoring Himalaya's next game.

[Marten]

There's an explanation about this on the site, I think I saw it in the forums.

Activision/Blizzard now holds the rights to Sierra's licenses, and they chose to permit AGDI to finish projects they had in progress, but forbid them from starting new remakes of Sierra games.  And, the team seems more interested now in telling their own, new, fresh stories rather than rehashing/remaking more old ones.

[jharris01]

No I said *they* wrote that in the advertisement. I was curious if they really meant it was their last or if it was just more hyperbole. Anyway it is just a nitpick. I am looking forward to it. Thanks for the heads up!

I was poking fun. You said "is this AGDI's 'final masterpeice?'. It was a play on words.

AGDI isn't doing anything more after this, but I'm scoring Himalaya's next game.

[Tom]

Egads...it's been so long that I had forgotten I did the Intro and a few other music pieces for this KQ3 project.  Wonder if they're still in the game.  I really didn't think this game would ever be released and I'm so happy to see that it finally is!

[MusicallyInspired]

Your themes are still very much present because they're fantastic.

[Tom]

Thanks, Brandon.  I'll have to hunt through my backups and take-a-listen again.  I started an 'official KQ3 soundtrack page' a few years ago, but that got put away during all the Himalaya workings. 

[Ari]

Yay! What a great birthday present!

Can't wait to have a try at it.

[Erpy]

We're aiming for the evening of February the 23rd to release the game. Stay tuned...

[Marten]

Of course you are.   

I knew it all along.   

... mostly because I am traveling out of town on February 23rd for a training seminar, and will not have time to download and play the game until sometime next month after I've taken the exam for which I'm training.

By releasing the game on Wednesday just after I hop on the train, you maximize the time I spend pining for it!   

 

[MusicallyInspired]

It's out! Refresh the page if you're still getting the cat eyes teaser website.

King's Quest III Redux Official Website

[endre1952]

Just downloaded it. Looks great.

Perhaps one day there will be a remake of something I actually played in the old days...Space Quest, Leisure Suit Larry, Police Quest, Conquest of Camelot, Code-Name Iceman.

I will love the Space Quest 2 remake, if it ever gets released.

I played King's Quest 4 and the VGA ones. I did not have the QFG games. At the time, you could not buy these games in Hungary. You had to get the illegally, there was no other way. I'm not kidding. Things had changed somewhat by 1993.

King's Quest 1 SCI0 and QFG 2 SCI0 are still pretty good I think, they do support the MT-32!

  Endre

[Great Hierophant]

When I look at the hardware requirements for these remakes, I roll my eyes and sigh 'utter insanity."  There is no particular reason why a game like this could not run perfectly with 1/10th of the specs!  The graphics are standard VGA 320x200x256.  Admittedly, all those audio streams do require a bit more processing power, other than that, the game is technologically on par with King's Quest VI.  Midi support should eliminate the need for a 32-bit environment.  Windows XP and above only get support?  There is nothing that DOS cannot run.  185MB for save games!?!  Thats half the size of the full game. 

[Mau1wurf1977]

Hmm I don't see an issue with the requirements.

It should run on a netbook, pretty much the weakest computer you can buy these days.

300 MHz...

LOL

[MusicallyInspired]

It doesn't run in DOS. It runs in AGS which is, admittedly, a pretty bloated engine and the author himself acknowledges that the size requirements are high but has no wish to change that since storage media today is more than ample enough to handle it.

The graphics are not 256 colours, they are 32-bit which means way more than 256 colours are available and it shows. If you played the game with only 256 colours you'd notice a huge drop in quality, ironically. Also, there is no MIDI soundtrack in the game. It's all digital. And it has far more advanced graphic techniques using Direct3D/DirectDraw than anything from the mid-90s. Support for animated alpha-channeled transparency sprites and gradual changes in light tinting of sprites as they move to different areas of a screen being only a couple examples of what's possible. All this requires much more than a 486 could ever provide. It's not that far-fetched. And I don't see the big deal with the file size seeing as modern games today are quadruple the size or more.

It may look the same, but you'd never get away with all this in SCI. It's like VGA-style but with the quality maxed out beyond what is necessary for a VGA game. Not that it's unnecessary, but just that if this was a paid project then the resolution would at least be upped to match the rest of the quality.

[Marten]

  at the complaints.

1) The game has a digital soundtrack.  Adding MIDI support would entail additional work for many persons involved in creating and providing this free game.
2) Think about what support means.  Support includes the developer's ability and willingness to test the software on different platforms and resolve customer difficulties.  That doesn't mean the game won't run on a 386*; it means the developer didn't attempt it, and isn't going to, and you are on your own if you want to try.  Did I mention the game is free?  You also get what you pay for.
3) AGDI's King's Quest III Redux is built upon the technology of AGS (Adventure Game Studio).  I expect the saved game size is more likely a consequence of how AGS saves games rather than any responsibility or fault of AGDI's.  The choice of AGS as a platform also limits the game to Windows operating systems... but there is no better DOS-compatible adventure game development platform available.

...  * Re: Running on a 386 - It probably won't.  

Now, I'll share Mau1's pain on one small detail.  I cringed when I saw the KQ3Redux site claim that the game features an "SVGA overhaul."  SVGA is generally understood to have an 800x600 resolution.  The whole area of VGA vs SVGA vs other such terms is muddy and they should probably just avoid it altogether as a way of explaining the graphics.  Hopefully that will be fixed at the same time the FAQ is fixed to no longer state that the game was released on "February XX, 2011."