Quest for Glory I: So You Want to Be a Hero (VGA)

Quest for Glory I: So You Want To Be A Hero? (also known as Quest for Glory I Revision: So You Want To Be A Hero? or Quest For Glory I - Revised '  ) is a VGA remake of Quest for Glory: So You Want to Be a Hero that was developed and published by Sierra On-Line in July 1992 for DOS and Mac OS Classic, a month before the release of Quest for Glory III: Wages of War.

 

 

Story
As in the original game, the valley barony of Spielburg has been cursed by the evil ogress Baba Yaga as an act of vengeance for Baron Stefan von Spielburg's attempt to drive her from his realm. As a result, the two children of the Baron have vanished through magical means, and the land has slowly became overrun with monsters and brigands. Desperate to reverse this ills, the Valley of Spielburg puts out word that it requires a Hero to save it from ruin.

The game follows the Unknown Hero (Devon Aidendale in the novelized Authorized Strategy Guide), a customized adventurer whose name is chosen by player. This man goes on to battle monsters and assist the residents of the valley to the best of his ability, encountering a number of fantastical creatures from European mythology and quirky characters as he wanders - including a Frost Giant, a career hermit, a gaggle of Fairies and an eccentric wizard known as Erasmus.

In his journeys, the Hero eventually learns the particular's of Baba Yaga's curse against the Baron, and hears from a nearby Dryad that a dispel potion is necessary to undo the witches magic. While the game remains largely open-ended, allowing the character to participate in a number of optional quests depending on their class, the Hero ultimately discovers that the leader of the encroaching brigands is none other than the ensorceled daughter of the Baron: Elsa von Spielburg. He frees her from the enchantment through means of the completed potion, and is honored as the Hero of Spielburg.

While this is the only technical win condition for the game, it is canonically assumed that the Hero also managed to free Elsa's brother, Barnard, from his imprisonment under a Kobold Sorcerer who had transformed the Baronet into a bear. He also manages to drive Baba Yaga from the realm, using a magical mirror to transform the ogress into a frog - thereby fulfilling a prophecy designed to counteract her curse.

After a celebration thrown on his behalf by the jubilant Baron Stefan, the Hero departs Spielburg in the company of a merchant known as Abdulla Doo and his katta companions Shameen and Shema. Leaving on a magical carpet for the kingdom of Shapeir, the three hope to bring the newly proclaimed Hero of Spielburg to their homeland, hoping to counteract various ill-omens which have fallen open the realm following the rise of tyranny in within Raseir. This sets the stage for the game's sequel, Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire.

Credits

 * Executive Producer: Ken Williams
 * Creative Director: Bill Davis
 * Producer: Stuart Moulder
 * Director: Lori Ann Cole
 * Game Designers: Lori Ann Cole, Corey Cole
 * Art Designer: Arturo Sinclair
 * Lead Programmers: Tom DeSalvo, Robert Fischbach, Oliver Brelsford
 * Composer: Mark Seibert
 * Incredible Artwork: Jon Bock, Gerald Moore, Arturo Sinclair, Jeff Crowe, Gloria Garland, Willis Wong, Diana Wilson, Eric Kasner, Richard Powell, Roger Hardy Jr.
 * Original Music: Mark Seibert, Aubrey Hodges, Spike Jones
 * Bugbusters: Joe Carper, Dave Clingman, Mike Pickhinke
 * Programmers: Tom DeSalvo, Vana Baker, Richard Aronson, Juan Carlos Escobar, Robert L. Mallory, Oliver Brelsford, Brett Miller, Gary Kamigawachi, Sean Mooney, Robert Fischbach

Differences from the Original
Like many other Sierra remakes of older games, this version of Quest for Glory employed the 'point n'click' SCI1.1 interpreter. This limited much of the dialogue in the game to a series of clickable conversation trees, and excluded some of the text originally present in the original game which used the 'text parser' based SCI.0. As such, rather than having to type specific questions (e.g. "Ask about Potion"), the player must run through a series of interlinked dialogue to find new questions to ask (e.g. Asking about "Potion" will open up dialogue options for "Healing potion, Stamina potion, Dispel potion").

In this graphically enhanced game, the backgrounds and characters were hand drawn by artists and later scanned to produce in game sprites, while the talking portraits and monster fights were created using clay models and stop motion animation. Although this gave the game a far more polished look than its EGA predecessor, the shift in interface allowed for less freedom of movement for individual sprites, and the combat system was notably less smooth - allowing the player to frequently interrupt enemy attack animations through repeated attacks.

While the plot and dialogue of the game remained largely unchanged, some flavor text was updated to reflect contemporary Sierra products. For example: a sarcophagus in Erasmus's house featured a references in the original game to King's Quest IV (the "Rosella Stone"), whereas in the remake, it referenced The Dagger of Amon-Ra instead. Occasional bits of flavor text also made mention of Quest for Glory III: Wages of War (one of the Brigands is mentioned to be an African warrior from the game). The Spiegelsee is not visited by a submarine from Codename: ICEMAN, but by Nessie, making a reference to the Conquests of the Longbow.

Other differences include:


 * The introduction poorer compared to the original: there is no animation of the Hero hunting a saurus and then hunted by a Saurus Rex.
 * There is a new original soundtrack inside the Healer's Hut.
 * The interior of Baba Yaga's hut looks like a cave.
 * Erasmus's house is no longer a house, but an organic-shaped tower.
 * The graveyard has no northern exit.
 * All brigands have the same fighting sprite.
 * Boris is animated and looks like a hooded thief figure.
 * The Chief is easier to beat in Dag-Nab-It. Its mechanics are different, and perhaps can be played indefinitely.
 * Curiously, depleting stamina during combat resulted in instant death, making it necessary for players to carefully monitor their exertions.
 * In the original game the Hero can provoke a fight just by typing  or  . In this game only the Fighter can provoke a fight by using the sword (from the inventory) to an adversary. The Thief can't provoke a fight, as clicking the dagger on the adversary will simply throw it; as such, it's impossible to kill a Spirea plant or kill the falling Antwerp.
 * Once having eyes, Bonehead will automatically open the door each time the Hero visits the screen; therefore it's impossible to talk with him again (and learn the rhyme from him, if you haven't already)
 * Some minor textual differences, like Potion of Magic Power vs Power Potion or Wolf's Bane Mountains vs Wolf's Bane Peaks
 * The Ogre is now portrayed like a boar-faced minotaur.
 * The back of the Troll Cave, with the extra treasure, does not appear in this version of the game.
 * The final ceremony doesn't happen in the Castle Courtyard but in the Great Hall of the keep. The game designers are cameoing and can be examined with the Eye cursor.
 * The epilogue does not feature a bird's eye view of the Spielburg Valley; however such an image had been prepared and was stored in the game files (and is viewable with the help of extracting tools).

Glitches/Exploits

 * Gathering too many of any one item will cause a memory overflow bug with wide-ranging effects, including color palate corruption and cursor offset.

Patches

 * Quest for Glory I VGA Patch (QGEPAT): This patch fixes random Lockups, memory fragmentation errors, and palette problems. NOTE: After applying this patch all your old saved games will become obsolete.
 * Quest for Glory I VGA Patch (QfG1_NRS): This non-Sierra update is one of NewRisingSun's script level timer bugs patches. Fixes:
 * Healer's bird
 * Weapon Master
 * Erasmus conversation
 * Door in "Yorick's Maze"
 * Archers on cliffs