King's Quest II (remake by AGDI)

[Ghost_Rider]

Just wondering what everyone else thought of the remake of King's Quest II.  I think it is amazing, I'm just playing through it now.  

The graphics themselves are much improved, which was somewhat expected, going to VGA; and the sound is great too.  

The real surprises come with the actual storyline and gameplay, and how things just seem to make much more sense.  The original KQII was the version of King's Quest that made me stop paying attention to the series, because I thought it was a flop compared to the first one by Sierra.  

I went onto the AGD site to check out the updates on the remake coming up for QFGII... and saw the remakes of KQI & II there, free to download.  They are both great remakes, but I think KQII really stands out because it is so greatly improved... as I said, not just graphics and sound, but all of the puzzles, the storyline, and characters too.  It all comes together very nicely.  If you haven't played through it, go and download it, it is definitely worthwhile!

http://www.agdinteractive.com/

(... and no, I am not a salesperson)    :wink:

[Boogeyman]

I LOVED it!

[Ari]

It is, indeed, a great game! better than KQ1, KQ2 and KQ4 and maybe even KQ5, IMO.

I've probably said it a thousand times already, but the soundtrack is simply amazing!

[Alistair]

Yep.. totally agree. A lot of things I felt that were 'make or break' in terms of the game, were held together by Tom's soundtrack. Even when the plot sort of died, the music quality and inspiration NEVER did. I have a personal CD series going of assorted Sierra music CD's. KQ2+VGA seems to find at least a track on every CD..

I'm always impressed when I listen to music from the game.

Makes me very anxious to hear what Tom's cooked up for QFG2!!

- Alistair

[Wodball]

Did Tom say something like just remixing the old QFG2 themes? Or something to the effect of very little original new music? Of course, if the AGDI sampler a few months back was any indication, it will be making a great game better.

Of course, I'd much rather be beta testing than listening... I just hope I don't miss when they (AGDI) post that up there (AGDI forum).

--Woody

[Tom]

Hey, it's getting pretty close to QFG2VGA beta testing time!  

I've composed about 20 new songs thus far for QFG2.  Several of them are new battle themes, but most are situations that either didn't have music in the original game, or new areas of the game.  I just finished one today for Keapon Laffin -- a second theme that will be heard in Keapon's Magic Shop, but I can't say how you'll get to hear it...yet.  But this was my favorite thus far to compose; one of those "fun and silly" songs.  All of Chris Brayman's original music that is heard in the game (with very few exceptions) has been updated or enhanced to some degree.

AGDI's QFG2 VGA remake will stick VERY close to the original, but there are some added things that the Cole's left out because of time and space restrictions.  AGDI has implemented some of them.

The only thing I wish we could change is the digital track's compression ratio.  I've been encoding to Ogg Vorbis, at 70-80 kbps.  It still sounds okay ... almost as good as MP3's at 128 kbps ... but I wish we had room for higher bitrate music.  Of course, the soundtrack will be posted on this site, in a high quality format.

[Ghost_Rider]

The Quest for Glory series is definitely my favourite, so I was thrilled to hear a remake of QFG2 is in the works.  

I think I still have the old boxes with disks for QFG1 and QFG2 (EGA), as well as QFG3 (VGA).  I didn't get QFG4 when it first came out, but later bought the Collection Series CD, which has both versions of 1 (EGA&VGA), 2 (EGA), and 3 & 4.  I have 5 (Dragon Fire) too, but never really got into it.  It's just not the same feel as the first four.

[Tom]

I agree...I couldn't get into number 5, either.  It sadened me that the spark seemed to go out of the series with that sequel.  Oh well, nothing lasts forever.

[Alistair]

Hey, at least QFG5 was better than its' KQ counterpart, right?

Hey, it's getting pretty close to QFG2VGA beta testing time!

Sweet! Hopefully someone I know gets a gig.

I've composed about 20 new songs thus far for QFG2. Several of them are new battle themes,

Wasn't there like 5 battle themes in the game already?
'Brigand', 'Scorpion' (Battle Themes 1/2 from QFG1), 'Ghoul', 'Rakeesh/Khaveen', 'Training With Uhura'?
(By the way, I seem to remember you saying you'd get rid of the 'Uhura' piece and replace it.. is that the case?)

but most are situations that either didn't have music in the original game, or new areas of the game.

'Katta In Jail', I presume.

I just finished one today for Keapon Laffin -- a second theme that will be heard in Keapon's Magic Shop, but I can't say how you'll get to hear it...yet.

Can't wait!!

All of Chris Brayman's original music that is heard in the game (with very few exceptions) has been updated or enhanced to some degree.

All I can say is, about time. QFG2 soundtrack CD being MT-32 dissapointed me a great deal.. a lot of poor MT instruments, notably strings (although they did work in some pieces) and brasses.
Lot of *good* orchestral MT-32 instruments in QFG2 though.. love Braymen's MT works.

The only thing I wish we could change is the digital track's compression ratio. I've been encoding to Ogg Vorbis, at 70-80 kbps. It still sounds okay ... almost as good as MP3's at 128 kbps ... but I wish we had room for higher bitrate music. Of course, the soundtrack will be posted on this site, in a high quality format.
 

What do you mean by 'had room'?
And does this mean we can delete your tracks from the game and reupload the OGG's you put on the site, or something? (Could you make the non-looping tracks available?)

It does worry me that not the best quality music could make it in to the game, to save 1-10 MB of space..

But anyway. I'm absolutely looking forward to both the game, and Tom's musical enhancements/compositions. KQ2+ was better than I could have ever dreamt, and I assume this will too. Congratualtions in advance, Mr Lewandowski!

- Alistair

[Tom]

The game is huge, and the music will be 'digital-only'...no GM soundtrack.  The size difference in encoding at higher bitrates is substantial when all the music is totalled up.  Since the game is available by download only, it's always a top priority for AGDI to try to squeeze their games into the smallest size possible.  Music compression is one of the few areas we have available to help reduce the total file size.

Yes, the Uhura training music was redone; a demo of it was posted at AGDI's website some time ago.

We've added several more battle themes so that they're not so repetitive.  For instance, there's two different themes for the Jackalman battle; one for when you fight just one Jackalman, and one for when you fight a Jackalman pack.  Three of the original battle themes used are completely unchanged.

As far as I know, you'll be able to replace the digital sound file in the game with the individual song files I post here, in order to play the game with higher quality music.  I haven't heard about any changes in that part of the game's production.  Almost all of the music is designed to loop.

[Alistair]

Huge, eh?

I knew no GM soundtrack. Would be no point anyway with this game. Some tracks would not convert.. especially the sound effects.

I still think the average gamer would prefer a larger game for better quality music, but that's AGD's decisions.

Demo eh? I should probably visit the site (ever).. wish you'd post that stuff here, Tom.

I like the idea of less repetitive battle themes. Especially the pack one. Nice..

Thanks for all the info. Pretty excited..

- Alistair

[Tom]

HERE'S the "Uhura Training Music" demo...

[Ghost_Rider]

Sounds good  

Not many people have heard of ogg audio that I know.  I read what you have posted on your site for the different audio formats, as well as some of the stuff on the Vorbis site.  Also on the Litex Media site, they have a pretty good comparison between mp3, ogg, wma, etc.  Here's the link if anyone is interested, although Tom I'm sure you've seen this already.

http://www.litexmedia.com/

Ogg stands up pretty well.  I'm just thinking it would be pretty annoying to some people if it really took off, and blew mp3 out of the water.  So much for all those portable mp3 players!  But anyway, not likely it's going to happen in a heartbeat.  Even if it did, you can convert from one format to another.

[Alistair]

Oooh.. this is much, much better than I expected, Tom.
Real QFG2 feel.. now this is music! Great job.

- Alistair

[Tom]

Since discovering Ogg Vorbis, I've really come to appreciate the format.  It has gained a lot of ground in the past two years and I believe it won't be too long until it is accepted the same way MP3's are accepted.  A lot of digital players are supporting the format, and a couple of hardware CD players can now playback Ogg -- something unheard of two years ago.

Ogg Vorbis does compress better than MP3, but that's not the biggest benefit I see with Ogg.  I like the fact that nobody's getting rich by owning the format!  I used to upload a lot of MP3's at 192 kbps, but I have found that Ogg's at 160 kbps sound just as good or better, and use less space.  

Or maybe it's the fact, I just don't want to follow the MP3 crowd?  

Actually, I started using the Ogg format because Adventure Game Studio supported it, and it made smaller music files for the KQ2 soundtrack.  We tried the same music files in MP3 format and ended up with a soundtrack just over 80 MB's, compared to Ogg's 60 MB.  Same kbps used, too.  Anyway, I grew to really like the quality and have been using it ever since.  I still use MP3 compression from time to time, but Ogg is my preferred format for digital audio.

[Fancia]

Ogg stands up pretty well.  I'm just thinking it would be pretty annoying to some people if it really took off, and blew mp3 out of the water.  So much for all those portable mp3 players!

If the processor is powerful enough (as it's said to be in the fourth-generation iPod), support could very easily be added in with updated firmware. I think that's actually already happened for one player, although I can't quite remember which.

[Wodball]

The newer iRiver's and the Rio Karma should both support OGG. It was a latent obsession to research this, until I realized I didn't have any money to buy anything of the sort!

--Woody

[MusicallyInspired]

KQ2VGA+ is the best fangame I've ever played.

I still use MP3 compression from time to time, but Ogg is my preferred format for digital audio.

Amen to that.

[Kaminari]

Vorbis is already popular in the gaming industry. More and more games are using the format for their soundtracks. I've been using Ogg for three years now, I never came back to MP3. I can broadcast streams at 48 kbps with an outstanding quality and a very acceptable loss (considering anyone with a 56 kbps modem can listen to it). Just try to do that with MP3, you'll sure have a good laugh -- have you ever flushed the toilet and recorded the sound of it?

[Fancia]

have you ever flushed the toilet and recorded the sound of it?

No, I can honestly say that the thought has never so much as crossed my mind.