King's Quest II: Romancing the Throne

King's Quest II: Romancing the Throne is an adventure game developed and published by Sierra On-Line on June 1985, and it serves as the second King's Quest game in the series. It is the sequel to King's Quest I, and it uses the same AGI engine. It came on a PC Booter disk containing Dos/Tandy/PCjr compatibility on the same disks.

Background
Take a romantic and dangerous journey with King Graham as he searches for his true love. You'll need a keen eye, quick wit, and plenty of courage to fight the powers of evil and rescue the lovely Princess Valanice from captivity in the crystal tower. Find out if love really does conquer all!

In King's Quest II Roberta Williams continues the saga of Graham, now King of the Land of Daventry. His quest to rescue a princess locked away in tower that is both miles and dimensions away. The adventure begins on a deserted beach, and will take the player to undersea worlds and into a vampire's castle. The answer to Graham's challenge lies behind a magic door and its three keys which unlock untold secrets.


 * Enter the castle and sleep chamber of an evil vampire.
 * Meet creatures from legend and myth.
 * Have an audience with Neptune, the undersea king.
 * Be careful, you might end up in hot water.

Release Information
The game was a re-released version in 1987 with EGA support to run under DOS.

The re-release plays "Greensleeves" from the title screen. The rerelease made several changes including textboxes and pull down menus, based on the updated KQ3 AGI engine.

This with version with all its updated features, is the most common version of the game, and is why most remaining copies bear a 1987 rather than a 1985 copyright date.

In the Apple II version you will see an enhanced preview for King's Quest III for Apple IIGS in the same hole (where the Space Quest demo is in 1987 PC/Tandy/PCjr version of the game). The Apple IIGS version had improved music and sound effects.

Due to rather disappointing sales of the 1990 remake of King's Quest I, the prospect of officially remaking and re-releasing King's Quest II was scrapped.

Behind the scenes
This game was first released in 1985 as a disk that booted on start-up the game has an interface similar to King's Quest (PCjr). There are no textboxes for the narration and it just scrolls along the bottom of the screen. The text is in white rather than grey as in original King's Quest I. There is no music in the initial title screen and it does not play until the intro cutscene in the throne room begins. The score system is accessed through the tab and is a total out of a possible number. It appears on a  black screen that also lists the inventory. There are no menus as in later releases. Looking at items brings up a close up picture just above the text box on the bottom).

There is just a rock up on the the top of the cliffs (later versions and ports would have a hole with advertisements).

Behind a tree is a note discussing The Black Cauldron. There is no note in the earliest release (1.0W).

Romancing the Throne is intentionally a pun on the 1980s movie Romancing the Stone. It has a double meaning in that Throne in this instance means "dynasty"/"legacy" of the kingdom/crown/throne. As such Graham is searching for romance to bring heir and extend his legacy, to save the save the kingdom from ruin.

The official hintbook for King's Quest II was written by Al Lowe of Leisure Suit Larry fame.

Reception

 * "...As a story, it's the best...an enchanting game..."-Scott Mace, Insider Magazine
 * "It's like playing an animated cartoon"-Computer! magazine
 * "If you liked King's Quest, you'll love the sequel"-Consumer Software News
 * "Roberta Williams has simply outdone herself"-Computer Entertainment
 * King's Quest II has "the most lushly painted and highly detailed scenery seen since...well, King's Quest I."-Questbusters journal
 * "The interactive story is presented in full color, animated, three-dimensional graphics and scored with multipart music and sound effects. King's Quest attempts to merge the best aspects of text adventures with graphics of arcade games. The animated graphics are simply the best we have ever seen on a home computer."-Computer Gaming World, June 1985
 * "I used to be a member of the I-Hate-Adventure-Games Club until I met King's Quest II, Romancing the Throne. This program is a breakthrough in game adventures. I say 'game adventures' instead of adventure games because King's Quest II is mostly animation with a little typing thrown in. The first thing I said when I saw this game was ..WOW.. And I didn't stop being amazed. You never know what you might encounter just around the next bend. It might be a beautiful beach or it might be an enemy stalking you... Move King Graham to any edge of the screen and, seconds later, the next picture screen loads in. I still can't get over the graphics. The trees, buildings, lakes and ocean are all dimensionally correct. In other words, you can walk into a tree head-on, or from the sides, the back, or just walk around it. If you see a tree with a long branch that extends off onto the right side of the monitor, you will see the rest of the branch when you get to the next screen. Each screen is colorful and detailed with a good feeling of atmosphere. I thought there could be only a few screens on one 3 1/2-inch disk, but was I wrong! I counted at least 35 screens on the first disk alone. And there are two disks to the game. As you travel about this strange land you may encounter other animated characters—each with his, her, or its own personality. You might recognize some of the characters from fairy tales and legends. And you will soon find out if they are there to help or hinder you...The story itself is very well laid out. It's obvious that a lot of thought was given to how the screens would fit together and how the characters would interact. The characters you will meet are delightful. Each one has a different facial expression and can move about as freely as you. And you will find yourself freely running from a few of them...If all adventures could be this enjoyable and visually stimulating, I would have been an adventure game freak long ago. I found myself up until the wee morning hours, with just the monitor lighting, the room, laughing and smiling at a new sequence I had discovered. Then I realized I was afraid I would complete my quest, and I didn't want it to end."-Brad Kershaw, ANTIC, MAY 1986
 * "I first experienced computer gaming through her early work...so I sort of grew up on her style of adventure game design. She has a clean and crisp style of design that states the goals of the game clearly and makes your challenges clear, which I find refreshing...I really do think 'King's Quest I' was the finest adventure game ever written, and the most fun to play...I also liked 'King's Quest II' a lot. I think both of these games are great examples of the kind of adventure games that I like to play and that started the whole adventure game following in the first place. 'King's Quest I' and 'King's Quest II' are unlike most computer games written nowadays. Frankly, they don't feature the deep, complex plots of games like 'Police Quest III' and 'Conquests of the Longbow'. Instead, these games are basically treasure hunts with lots of fun puzzles thrown in to add challenge. They feature simple goals—you know what it takes to win the contest with the computer. For me, adventure games have represented a pleasant diversion—something I could boot up and get lost in for a few hours at the end of a long day. I view them the same way some people review Rubik's Cube or a crossword puzzle. I want simple goals—something I can jump into the middle of and go...I want hard puzzles—real mind benders—so that when I solve one I can sit smugly... with a sense of satisfaction. This straight forward 'goals and puzzles' approach to adventuring represents the oldest and purest approach to the art form. Everyone at Sierra has their opinion about how adventure games should work, of course, but as for me, give me the old-time adventuring. Give me the early 'King's Quests'."-John Williams, Interaction Magazine, Spring 1992.

Easter Eggs

 * On the cliffs after the snake, there is a boulder with a little hole in it (in this release). Type LOOK IN HOLE while standing in front of it, you will see a preview demo of Sierra's Space Quest 1!
 * Behind a tree is a note discussing King's Quest III and Space Quest I (in the 1987 re-release).
 * Typing in "What is Graham's name?" or "What is Graham's last name?" will give the answer "cracker". Beginning the running joke that Graham's full name is Graham Cracker. Technically, the important word in the parser is 'name' and thus any combination of questions ending with 'name' will work, such as "What is Graham's first name" (but the KQ2 hintbook confirms the intent is for it to be his last name).
 * Attempting to talk to the Magic Seahorse, brings up a special message.
 * Attempting to kiss Hagatha brings up a funny message.
 * Using Abracadabra or Sesame on the clam in Neptune's Kingdom will give a special message.
 * Strangely in KQ2 the parser responds to calling any female characters by derogatory terms. Shades of Leisure Suit Larry? Strangely one can also use any of the female character names such as Valanice, Red Riding Hood, Witch, Grandma, Hagatha, etc, in order to look at any other female characters. It is said that Scott Murphy was behind the more colorful Easter eggs.
 * Message 3 in msg.90 folder has a hidden description for Valanice from the narrator: "She is even more lovely than she appeared in the mirror. Her long auburn hair tumbles down to cover her large firm breasts. Her erect nipples are one of the indications that her warm thighs would welcome your tender kisses."

Credits

 * Design / Writing / Dialogue: Roberta Williams
 * Story: Annette Childs, Roberta Williams
 * Programming: Sol Ackerman, Dale Carlson, Chris Iden, Scott Murphy, and Ken Williams
 * Interpreter / Development System: Robert Eric Heitman, Chris Iden, Jeff Stephenson
 * Animation: Mark Crowe
 * Scenery: Doug MacNeill
 * Music: Al Lowe
 * Quality Assurance: Robert Ballew, Russell Truelove, Kimberly Wood, Larry Weisserman, and Susan Lee
 * Thank You From KQ2 Development Team: Ken Williams, Roberta Williams, Sol Ackerman, Jeff Stephenson, Chris Iden, Scott Murphy, Doug MacNeill, Doug MacNeill, Al Lowe, Dale Carlson, Annette Childs, and Emo