‘Trial by Fire’ Reborn
Two days ago, AGDInteractive released the full-color, completely re-coded version of Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire. After eight years of development, they have a right to celebrate right now. They got to experience all the wonders of the ‘Endless Sisyphean Nightmare Warren’ and they didn’t even get paid to do so! This was a labor of love, and they offer it free to everyone who wants to experience or remember this classic Adventure-Role-playing game.
Once upon a time many, many moons ago, when we were young and innocent, Corey and I designed and developed Trial by Fire for Sierra On-Line. Fresh with the success of “So You Want to Be a Hero,” we were ready to take our players to a new world of role-playing. We wanted to created a fantasy game based on the Arabian Nights tales. It would have all of the tropes and archetypes of the Persian stories and a strong elemental theme of Summer and fire. We subtitled it, “Trial by Fire.” We had no idea the name would be prophetic.
Fast-forward ten years. A group of Sierra adventure game fans calling themselves the “Anonymous Game Developers” decided that perhaps they could do what Sierra had chosen not to do. They decided to use an open-source adventure game development system to recreate a few of the classic 16-color Sierra games – starting with King’s Quest 1 and 2 – with 256-color VGA graphics. Quest for Glory 2: Trial by Fire was next on their list and they started in on the project with great energy in 2001. After several iterations and a long journey through the Sisyphean nightmare warren of game development, AGDI has now (August 2008) released the finished product. You can read more about the history of QG2 VGA on the AGDI web site.
Amazingly, the AGDI team was able to get a limited license from Sierra allowing them to distribute the game with its original name and characters as long as they give it away free and nobody distributes it for a profit. Knowing how much work went into the Quest for Glory 1 VGA conversion, our hats are off to this incredible team for creating QG2 VGA as a labor of love. Incidentally, we had no say on the license, since Sierra/Vivendi owns all the rights to our games, but we are fully behind the AGDI team and the QG2 VGA project.
So how is the game? Well, actually, it’s so new, we haven’t played much of it yet. Corey has spent a few hours trying out the thief and fighter characters. The 256-color graphics are beautiful, although you will find them much different from today’s 3D graphics environments. The game play seems very faithful to the original with several new features. AGDI adapted the menu and point-and-click systems from Quest for Glory 3 to give Trial by Fire much the same feel. They also give you a choice of a fully menu-based conversation system, the original parsed system (type in the keyword about which you want to ask), or a hybrid system that allows both options. I really like the hybrid system as it allows me to skip directly to a particular topic without having to follow the menus.
I found inventory use a little cumbersome at first, although that’s probably mostly because I didn’t remember how we did in in Quest for Glory 3! You use the hidden menu to access your inventory and select an item. The right mouse button toggles between possible actions (walk, use or attack, talk, or the chosen inventory item), then clicking the left button on a person or object tries to apply that action.
Compared to today’s no-brain interface (right-click on something to do whatever the game designer or programmer decided you should do with that person or object), it takes more thought and more time to take an action, but it also really opens up the user’s choices. If you’re lazy, you probably won’t like it. Playing QG2 VGA reminded me that adventure games used to be much more complex and difficult than today’s games.
By the way, Save your game early and often! Corey didn’t and was pretty embarrassed when he died in his first combat and had no saved game to which to restore. There does not appear to be an automatic save feature in QG2 VGA, as there almost certainly was none in the original version. So far, Corey has been unable to defeat any enemy in combat. He managed to get a brigand down to 50% of his health before the main character succumbed. A serious arcade gamer might have an easier time with the combat, but this could be a problem in an adventure RPG. Perhaps AGDI will release a patch later with an “easy mode” combat option for gamers who were already mature when QG2 first appeared.
Not only did ADGI include many of the fun Easter Eggs of the game like the Silly clown option with Harpo Marx running down the alleyways, but they brought back the Saurus Repair Shop that had to be cut from the release version of the game because it wouldn’t fit on the disk. I’m told they even added an Easter Egg or two. That just goes to show how much care and ‘professionalism beyond the call of duty’ ADGI has – they really went out of their way to add to the fun of the game.
Our recommendation: Visit AGDI’s web site and download your free copy of Quest for Glory 2: Trial by Fire. Make sure you read the included documentation before you start the game so that you’ll have an easier time with the interface and combat than Corey managed. Then let us and AGDI both know how you like the game… and if you love it, write to Vivendi and request they release a new edition of the rest of the Quest for Glory series. For some reason we can’t quite comprehend, Vivendi has rereleased King’s Quest, Space Quest, and Leisure Suit Larry, but has not repackaged the Quest for Glory series.
Two huge thumbs-up to AGDI for a fabulous piece of (an incredible amount of) work, the brand new Quest for Glory 2: Trial by Fire VGA remake!
The Heroes and the Carpet illustrations were based off the original sketches from the Trial by Fire manual drawn by Ernie Chan.
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Tags: Game Design, Quest for Glory
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jarod Says:
Its a whole new experience that I’m nostalgic-ly living
One impressive thing they have managed to do, is make you really play and experience the game as that character class and I don’t see much advantage to the full-stat maxed out hybrid character in this game (that always started as a Thief in HQ!).
Thanks Coles for the best games and growing up memories. I was hooked on Hero’s Quest original (when I was 8 or 9), and counted down the years, months and days of each sequel- always trying to guess what was coming next with the teasers at the end of each game. I even enjoyed QFG5, but it always felt unfinished (I believe an expansion was planned?) and certain elements didn’t have the trademark feel.
A fun/ironic part of the QFG games was the latest edition was usually the least fun to replay because you didn’t have the next game to take port your superstar over to so you loose that element of needing a reason to max yourself.
Super happy to see this excellent AGD remake.
Posted: April 11th, 2009
Alan Luckachina Says:
Longtime fan of Sierra and your work! I’m glad to see that y’all are still very active in the biz. Lori, I noticed you mentioned in a comment that you plan on blogging about Katrina. A friend and I are in the midst of working on a fanfic of sorts about Katrina, that starts pre-shadows. Would you be interested, if you have the time, to read some of our ideas?
Posted: April 1st, 2009
Shaminar the Blue Dragon Says:
This Dragon is getting Impaitent!
So release it, or else I’ll hit you with my tail!
Posted: January 2nd, 2009
Sami Says:
I really liked this remake, the new combat system is great and easy to use. Going to miss the extra moves when I play Wages… and Shadow. Great job to the guys and gals at AGDI for doing this game and sharing it with all of us Quest for glory heroes.
Thanx keep up the great work.
Posted: November 27th, 2008
Tyler Says:
Just wanted to thank you for all the hard work you guys put into those games that made them so fun for me play (and replay.)
Posted: November 4th, 2008
Burn Says:
I remember the thrill of playing “Hero’s Quest” for the first time and, after finishing it, searching frantically for the next in the series at a computer show while I was visiting family in Hawaii, only to find QFG 3 instead of QFG 2. It had just been released, and there was only one copy left, so I snatched it up. It wasn’t until purchasing the Anthology a hundred years later that I finally got to play QFG 2 for the first time, at which point I had already played through 1, 3, and 4 at least a dozen times as each class.
The original version of Quest for Glory 2 quickly became my second favorite in the series, next to QFG 4 for its characters, atmosphere, music, etc. which still particularly appeals to me even to this day. I have just recently discovered this AGDI remake of QFG 2, and I have fallen in love with the series all over again for what is now probably the umpteenth time. Great work all-around, and I’m very happy that you, the Coles, wholeheartedly endorse it.
Cheers.
Posted: October 21st, 2008
Tifas Revenge Says:
I’m honored to be here and stuff. Last month or so, I did a complete “Let’s Play” of Quest for Glory 2 VGA Remake by AGDI. I am now currently working on a second “Let’s Play” of the game, this time as a thief. I tell ya though, it was pretty difficult to get through the first time around, but not impossible.
I did my Let’s Play because I am so glad that AGDI put the time and effort into this project. I just wish Youtube had better quality than it does, although I upgraded both hardware and software on my computer just to get better quality than some of my past Let’s Plays, including King’s Quests 1-3.
Check out the Links:
Fighter Playthrough (done):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbhMxl-4IsA&feature=PlayList&p=B51FAB186ADA303B&index=0&playnext=1
(Same link as on the AGDI Forum)
Ways to DIE! (done):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D–DOgxjVec&feature=PlayList&p=CBCF12B8E2271B15&index=0&playnext=1
Thief Playthrough (in progress as of this post):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMJukdMrrKM&feature=PlayList&p=8E45B03CF873DDA8&index=0&playnext=1
Enjoy, all! And nice to know Lori and Corey are still alive and kicking!
- Tifas Revenge
Posted: October 14th, 2008
Ian Watson Says:
Lori: <3 Fantastic. If there’s anything I can do to be a part of this, please let me know.
Posted: October 14th, 2008
Lori Says:
The Backstory and retelling of the Quest for Glory stories will be part of this website and blog. Katrina’s story will definitely be told at a future blog.
In terms of the story world of The School for Heroes, Katrina is alive and well. However, unlike the games where the player had to make a choice between rescuing Katrina or rescuing Erana from Hades, in the world of Glorianna, both are alive. The Queen of Silmaria is none other than Elsa von Spielburg. And all of these women are quite happy with the love of their lives at the time when the school opens.
So there shall be much more revealing of the past and of the present. The story of the Quest for Glory has not yet come to the final chapter.
Posted: October 14th, 2008
Binder Says:
Thanks Coles for creating such an incredible world. Qfg is my favorite game/series since the first moment I put my eyes on it (QFG1 Remake).
Thanks AGDI for remembering all of us that the magic still goes on. After so many years I am playing again all the games (Thanks DosBox!!!) because of your work of love.
Posted: October 8th, 2008
Kimmo Says:
Do you know anything more about how other players were supposed to interact with you (or the game world) in Lost Continents?
MMOs seem to be the critical step that risk breaking the teams that are trying to push content-heavy designs. MMOs that rely on new content appearing regularly are putting a hard burden on themselves from the get-go. That’s why we see so many of them fail. Even though I don’t know anything about Lost Continents, I’m willing to bet this contributed to their failure as well.
Being a part of a small team, I’m trying to think of ways to avoid costly stuff, so ideas like evolving the game world based on the collaborative actions of all players are very intriguing. For example, an MMO where any given day (or moment) you’d be able to take a role of a hunter-gatherer, soldier or politician. Hunter-gatherers are food providers, soldiers guard and expand your territory (safety zone) and politicians attempt to affect people’s choice of action and roles. You would have NPCs as the “meat” of the simulation; they would essentially be workers who act based on what’s made available by the players. Finally, you would have competing societies.
In short, MMOs need to take a more holistic approach to interaction to be viable: player affecting other players affecting the world affecting the player. As cool as great epic story-scenes are, the larger the game production the more important it is to just leave the one-off content to Hollywood.
Posted: October 6th, 2008
Kimmo Says:
As with anything creative, people will always find a meaning beyond the original intention. You pour all of your relevant knowledge and experience into a creative work sometimes knowingly, sometimes by intuition. You end up with something that people find compelling and then the same people are suddenly trying to figure out what it is that draws them. What they find is probably highly subjective, often so far-fetched to be silly and yet quite useful. It’s great, because it attempts to formulate and pass on what once was just one person’s intuition.
Sorry if this is straying further off-topic, but I actually think game developers focus far too little on design in game postmortems. If they wrote more about what they attempted to achieve, by what means and how well they thought they succeeded, it would give a great starting point for the analyses and discussions I mentioned above.
It’s curious how the benchmark regarding difficulty and putting up with stuff has moved over the years. I too believe the alleyways of QFG2 would be a showstopper for quite a few more players nowadays than they were back then. Game design principles have matured and sophisticated, and most of it is for the best. However, now that game designers are getting a hang of it and can make games that are zone-inducing, rewarding and all that, would it be time for more people to start experimenting with evoking certain emotions and feelings through game mechanics? Deliberately making people feel frustrated, angry, lost, sick or regretful. Jason Rohrer’s Game Design Sketchbook over at Escapist Magazine has a few attempts at that. It would be sort of like getting back to the roots, but this time on purpose.
I agree on World of Warcraft. The idea of having different world views for each player is pretty interesting and I can see it working for the most part if you’re out there on your own, but what about groups/clans? You’d have to somehow deal with the problems of players not being in sync with each other regarding some NPCs or just accept the fact that some people can do stuff others can’t. I started thinking about dividing human players into separate worlds as well, based on their *local* world view (global is likely to rule out too many people), but like you said, it easily gets out of hand.
Posted: October 6th, 2008
Avatar Says:
Quote “Lori developed a detailed back story and character background for her”
Wow… is it still available, somewhere?
I think QFG fans would freak out if you were to include this as a prize or something for your upcoming launch.
Rgds
Posted: October 1st, 2008
Ian Says:
I’ve always thought in WOW that once I’d cleared out Gnomeregan that it should start the process of re-colonization by the gnomes until it was once again a viable major city.
I don’t see why WOW couldn’t make an NPC disappear once you’d killed him… as it is, if you talk to a shopkeeper, you’ll see them turn towards you, but no one else will see that, so the code must exist in part, at least.
Posted: October 1st, 2008
David Says:
You loved Katrina, but were forced to watch her die for you. Through the dreams the Hero has by her staff or in her garden you came to love Erana as well, but could only be satisfied in giving her peace (well, at least until the next game
). You saved the world, but NONE of the other games in the series carried such a high cost for the Hero himself (except perhaps if you choose the self-sacrifice option in QfG5).
Katrina’s arc is one of the most fascinating I’ve ever seen in any work of fantasy fiction, and maybe it’s in part because we really KNOW so little, and have only been given hints. In some ways it makes her more compelling because you want to know her. Is there ever a chance we might get to see some of the background that you and Lori created for her? How old was she by the time she met Ad Avis 70ish years before QfG2? What were the events that shaped her and so embittered her? How did she originally become the Dark Master? What–or who–hurt her so deeply it took the Hero to teach her how to love again and restore her humanity and compassion?
Is there ever a chance we might see some of the world and background history expanded on, maybe not as games but perhaps through print?
Posted: October 1st, 2008
Corey Says:
I have to laugh at calling QfG1, “the spiritual predecessor to interactive storytelling.” We never had such high ambitions! Instead, we worked within the limitations of Sierra’s adventure game engine to make the most interesting role-playing experience we could manage. We thought of it as running a D&D game for a few hundred thousand of our closest friends. (Not that we thought the numbers would get that high when we were writing it!) I think there are earlier games – such as the ones from Infocom – that did a fine job of interactive storytelling before our games appeared on the scene.
Quest for Glory II was more ambitious, perhaps a bit too much so for the limitations of the game engine. We had to play all sorts of tricks with art and code overlays just to make the alleyways and the desert work at all. Originally we wanted to have more events occur in the alleys, but we ran out of memory just letting players navigate through them. Of course, if we had to do it all over again, we would eliminate or greatly simplify the alleys; I don’t think most players today would be willing to go to that much work to get around.
As for “sandbox worlds”, I think World of Warcraft does a very fine version of that. The main problem with WoW is that, since it is an MMO, there’s nothing you can do to permanently affect the world. If I had my hands on a platform like that, I might make it so that everyone has a slightly different view of the world – For example, if you killed a particular character, he might not be there for you, but others who hadn’t killed him could see him. That would be a total mess to balance and make work, though!
Fortunately, WoW has the convenient excuse that death isn’t permanent. If players can come back from their graves, so can the NPC’s.
Have fun!
– Corey
Posted: October 1st, 2008
Corey Says:
Couples in Quest for Glory: No, they aren’t supposed to represent Lori and me, except that Scoree and Sloree in QG3 were based on us. They have our tendency to argue in a friendly way and to complete each other’s sentences. The reason that there are so many couples is that the games are all about the people and their interactions. Having some couples gives us a chance to have them talk to each other and fill out some of the story through dialogue. In general, we tried to have a variety of interesting characters in each game that fit well into the story setting. Most of the “puzzles” in Quest for Glory consist of the player helping characters with their problems. That way, they are “organic” to the story line as opposed to game designers who seem to throw in puzzles just for the sake of having puzzles in the game.
Our research was mostly done by accumulating a large number of books from used and new bookstores. For example, we bought a 16-volume set of the Arabian Nights tales and read a lot of them before constructing the setting and story lines in Quest for Glory 2. We also used travel books, especially for the Greek Isles setting of QG5 and the African settings in QG3. We have two entire sets of bookshelves just devoted to reference books we used for the games. We also used the travel and art references to show the team artists styles we wanted to portray in each game. Today we do most of our research on the Internet, but we didn’t have that available for Quest for Glory.
As for writing a book about our research, I don’t think so. That would be a pretty limited market. A book about how to write for games might be interesting, but we’re pretty busy these days creating The School for Heroes.
We like Katrina too – She’s deadly dangerous but also very vulnerable. She finds it hard to accept love because she has been so badly hurt in the past. Lori developed a detailed back story and character background for her, then wrote the game dialogue based on how her personality and history would affect her current attitudes.
Shannara was a nice departure for us. We tried to stay true to the feel of Terry Brooks’s world, fitting the story in between the first and second books of his original series. Parts of the project got a little rushed, but the artwork is amazing and I think we told a pretty good story on the whole. We had to cut out a couple of “alternate interface” puzzles because we couldn’t seem to make them interesting enough. Good puzzles are hard.
– Corey
Posted: October 1st, 2008
Kimmo Says:
There are certainly more than a few similarities between a sandbox such as GTA or Assassin’s Creed and what I found noteworthy in QFG1. The important difference, in my mind, is how QFG1 has a cast of characters and a world that is concise enough for every interaction between you and them to be meaningful regarding the story and characters development (granted, QFG1 doesn’t have all of this implemented to the fullest, but rather it has hints of this sort of gameplay scattered around). The current sandbox games are great, but most of the actual free interaction is with inanimate objects and characters that have no personality or role beyond being able to die, and on the occasion they do, you seldom get to influence how their character develops.
Having concise enough a world is actually the only plausible way of trying to implement this sort of gameplay to minimize the impact of the number of permutations and the amount of work in general.
Yes, Fable is a spiritual successor. I actually hoped for Fable to have been even more than a spiritual successor, because, boy, does Peter Molyneux have a skill of making things sound good on paper! Still lots of good stuff in Fable, you just don’t get to affect the game’s world as much as you’d first think.
Avatar, I can wholeheartedly recommend playing the games Bill mentioned above. At times in Assassin’s Creed I felt like I was back at Tarna’s gates, slowly riding my horse towards the city!
Posted: October 1st, 2008
Avatar Says:
Well, I haven’t tried Fable or Assassin’s Creed but will look into it, now you’ve mentioned it.
Haven’t really been playing much games due to lack of time.
Rgds
Posted: September 30th, 2008
Bill Says:
Posted: September 30th, 2008
Avatar Says:
You’ve explained it more eloquently than I ever could. The net impact of the “story worlds” concept is that somehow, the game seems alive and real…
Perhaps the major problem with implementing this would be the sheer amount of work and permutations. Indeed, without a critical path line, things would start looking just like real life…*very complex and open ended*
Thanks Kimmo. It’s great to know that you have given QFG1 much more thought than I have
Rgds
Posted: September 30th, 2008
Kimmo Says:
In a way, QFG1 is also a spiritual predecessor to interactive storytelling. Games and stories are essentially the opposite sides of the same coin, one being defined by the ability to affect the outcome (your story) and the other by progressing towards a predetermined outcome (author’s story). To marry these two Chris Crawford suggests that, instead of insisting on fully authored stories, you build story worlds (which basically means that you simulate character traits and reactions and build scenarios using those as building blocks). QFG1 has some of these elements; be nice to the healer and she’ll help you out, but as soon as you play rude she’ll slam a door on your face and never give you a single potion again. That’s a story world scenario right there. You just crafted a piece of your own story about a hero wannabe with unmedicated Tourette’s.
You can’t simply have that choice in a traditional adventure game where everything is on the “critical path”.
If you, Lori and Corey, get to make another Quest for Glory, I would love you to return to these fundamental ideas laid out in the very first installment of the series. Perhaps throw in some of that great atmosphere from Trial by Fire and the thematical elements from Shadows of Darkness into the mix. I’m sure you could breathe some life into the dormant genre!
PS. Yeah, Katrina is awesome and I think it largely because she’s right there and yet so out of reach. And really mysterious. I’m not sure if I want to know more about her. It might break the spell.
Posted: September 30th, 2008
Avatar Says:
Glad you share the same opinion. Phew! And here, I was beginning to think that I was the only one that felt that way. The amazing thing about QFG1 was that it was a part-adventure game. The only other game that was equal in epic was Ultima IV but then, it didn’t have the same cool graphics.
Comparatively, I found King’s Quest a bit dull. It was too restrictive. Maybe it was a true adventure game, but having only ONE solution to each problems felt very restrictive. And it felt unworldly unlike QFG.
Yeah, Katrina is one cool babe. Some background on her would be nice. I’ve forgotten so much about QFG. Replaying them is nice but having to install DosBox??? makes it tedious.
Rgds
Posted: September 29th, 2008
Fingon Says:
I can imagine you are pretty busy with your project, but I would be glad if you can answer me some questions (and I can assure you it’s not about paladinhood or the next installment:-)
I have noticed that there is always a couple in every of your QFG games – Shema and Shameen in the first two parts, Kreesha and Rakeesh in the Wages of war (sadly I have to admit that this part I like the less, even after the all official and unofficial patches is still buggy and due to technical problems that you definitely know about it’s impossible to get all the puzzle points, among other things), even two shattered couples in QFG4 that hero have to split together and finally Julanar and Salim… I wonder if it is some sort of your signature… and if someone even asked about before.
I would like to know how did you the research of the cultural backgrounds for the different parts of the Glorianna – would you like to write a book about, for example? Or at least something available online…
Katrina… I would like to thank you for this awesome character, she is the sort of villain I like the most, because she isn’t entirely black and she is actually really complicated… And thanks for the kiss option when she is sleeping in her coffin… Erana is fine, yes, but still I would like to know more about this powerful vampire spellcaster.
I have so many questions when it comes to QFG, but I think it would be wise to stop asking now… One more thing, I’ve played your Shannara and I can say it was quite interesting… I have to read this books, really:-)
Have a nice day, Fingon
(I tried to send it to your e-mail but I’m not sure if you got it or no so I post it here, just for sure – I believe that I’m not the only one who is interested:-)
Posted: September 29th, 2008
Kimmo Says:
I fully agree with you on QFG1. It is a unique game in terms of gameplay and at least two decades ahead of its time. I simply love the way you’re free to do anything and go anywhere in the world. You’re not restricted by any artificially constructed limits which means you can try to fight through the brigand ambush to get to their fortress right off the bat, if you so choose. The beauty is that the limits are implicit (dictated by the underlying rules system) and you are required to evaluate your own abilities and the risk involved in a mission. If you fail, instead of blaming the game for being unfair, you will feel like you miscalculated the risk and that you need to do more training before you come back. That game is still one of the most inspirational creations for me when I’m now designing our own games.
That said, I enjoyed the atmosphere in QFG2 *a lot* and the latter part of the game in particular was a definite improvement from QFG1 in that respect.
Posted: September 29th, 2008
Avatar Says:
The time block forced me to adjust my style of game play compared to QFG1. Like Dan said, I needed another replay to do justice to the game. You still did a great job for the game
Glad that you didn’t carry it over to the next three games, though. QFG4 was also another favorite of mine due to the similarities with QFG1. The only thing I didn’t like were the bugs.
Ah, forgive me for rambling on and on about QFG. I really loved the series… Oh, QFG6, where art thou?
Posted: September 28th, 2008
Lori Says:
Unfortunately, this violates that rule – the player doesn’t necessarily realize that he must take actions before a given time period. That ignorance turns out to be fatal.
Oh well, bad game designers, no Oreos. What it comes down to is that we make so many decisions in creating each game, it’s very easy for a few of them to be bad. Others seem fine, but until players get their hands on them, we can’t really tell. In the case of the fixed-time events in Trial by Fire, they were so intrinsic to the game design, we couldn’t have changed them even if we knew they didn’t work well. The good news is that we learned from this one of the many things not to do in our other games.
Posted: September 28th, 2008
Dan Says:
Posted: September 28th, 2008
Avatar Says:
Just another fan of QFG dropping by. Wow, I’m quite surprised by the no. of fans for QFG series esp. QFG2. Personally, I loved QFG1 one much more as it was not time restrictive and so much more free flowing.
I spent many x2 hours wondering the forests, playing magical games with Erasmus, cleaned stables, climb trees, threw daggers, trained with the master trainer in the castle etc…
Best thing about it was, no deadlines and it was quite free flowing. You could save the prince or… defeat Baba Yaga first etc…
QFG2 is good but the time block things felt a bit too rushed for me…It was game over before I knew it
Rgds
PS – Just wanted to let you know I added your blog in my blog links section. Hope you don’t mind.
Posted: September 27th, 2008
Lori Says:
ADGI pretty much stuck to the script for Trial by Fire – the original script, minus all the cuts we had to make for issues of time, resources, and deadlines. So there are several things in the new version that you couldn’t play in the original game.
AGDI really went out of their way to make Trial by Fire fun.
Posted: September 27th, 2008
Bill Says:
Based on what they did with the King’s Quest II plotline, I’m so looking forward to finding the new directions in this game.
Posted: September 26th, 2008
Corey Says:
The challenges in running Quest for Glory games raise an interesting question. I would love to see Vivendi re-release the QG Anthology with QG5 and QG2 VGA, but I’m not sure whether they’re set up to accomplish that. They might or might not have any of the original source code and art, and it certainly sounds as though they would need some tweaks and code fixes to get them to run on current systems.
The company and environment Ian mentioned were called Explorati. We were trying to build an open-ended, story-based world. Unfortunately, two of our major clients and investors had their home offices in the World Trade Center on 9/11/2001. After the terrorist attacks, they canceled all their external contracts and Explorati was forced to shut down. Second Life is probably Explorati’s spiritual successor, but as I understand it has no real game content. Lori and I don’t see much point in creating virtual worlds where there’s nothing to do that you couldn’t do at home.
Posted: September 25th, 2008
lensman Says:
The combat does require some getting used to. Uhura was wiping the floor with me when I first started and I couldn’t even beat a simple brigand! However, with some practise and concentration you can become a master at it.You can even defeat a certain “hidden” elemental if you get “in the zone”.
Now, some technical tips to play the QFG games on new computers:
Quest for Glory 1-4 are easily playable in DOSBox. You may use a Frontend like Defend or DBGL (if you are a Linux User) to make your life easier.
QFG4 is a bit tricky to start though. You might not get the audio with the voices. What you must do is copy the Audio resource from the CD directly to the hard drive where it is installed. That way you’ll get sound and you won’t have to worry about scratching that precious QFG anthology CD.
-Quest for Glory 5 as far as I can tell can not run from DosBox and can not run in XP or Vista. So, do we give up? Of course not! There are various ways to get get to play it. You can use Virtualbox, a free piece of software to setup a Virtual Machine on your computer that runs Windows 98. Since QFG5 doesn’t require a 3D acceleration card, it should run on your virtual machine with no problems.
Linux users have it easy. QFG5 have achieved “Platinum” status in the WINE support catalog. This means that it installs and runs in WINE (which means Linux) without any problems. WINE also runs the QFG2 remake quite well.
Yeah, I am a huge nerd, shoot me.
Posted: September 25th, 2008
Ian Says:
I don’t recall the name of it, but I’m kinda disappointed that the stage-based MMO environment you two were working on never materialized. I always had dreams of making a Glorianna environment with the serial numbers filed off.
Also spend too much time imagining the second QfG series.
I’ve only spent a small amount of time with it so far, but AGDI’s treatment of QG2 is a true member of the family. Everything from the original is in there, plus some. None of the original flavour has been lost; if anything it’s been enhanced.
Unfortunately, my brother’s memories of QG2 have been dulled by the passage of time. When I showed him the new game, he said “but… this is how I remember it looking.”
My endless thanks to the Coles and to the fine folks at AGDI for this new classic.
Posted: September 20th, 2008
Corey Says:
Thanks for visiting the site. Incidentally, technically I’m still your guildmate (as my alt Johnhandy). Basilicus got a chance to raid with Veritas (Earthen Ring U.S.) in Mount Hyjal last night, and I think I did ok for a n00b. He even got a new pair of slippers.
Now how can I find time to play my Horde characters? They’re suffering from neglect!
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could get someone to pay us for our old disks according to the value we originally assigned them? I can tell you my WoW characters might as well be made of gold, considering the amount of time I’ve invested in them.
“Reyes the Superb Hero”… Wonder if he’s related to Tony Reyes, the PBA bowler from Santa Clara. Fame is an interesting thing. People can be “famous” in a particular field and totally unknown outside it.
– Corey
Posted: September 18th, 2008
RJ Says:
It’s Crestfall, your former WoW guildmate, and long-time fan of the Quest for Glory series.
The Quest for Glory games were among my fondest memories during middle school and high school. I distinctly remember having a stack of floppy disks on which my different characters were saved, ready to be imported at a moment’s notice, into any QfG-ready machine. These floppies had white paper sleeves and the names of my characters written in bright blue marker, each followed by an exclamation point to emphasize how important they were to me.
“Sir Jymson Justheart!”
“Alec Shadowen!”
“Reyes the Superb Hero!” (My first character, made when I was 14, will always be particularly special to me despite the silly name.)
That stack of disks was as valuable as gold to me back then.
Thank you for creating the games that lead to these memories.
And to the folks from AGDI – I played your remake, and you’ve done a truly fine job of honoring the spirit of the original Quest for Glory II. QfG II is my favorite of the series, and to see it re-created with such care and dedication is uplifting. Well done.
Posted: September 18th, 2008
Lori Says:
Yes, I tried to make the Quest for Glory games rich on many levels, and movie references were part of the fun. Two of the characters in the series were based off Peter Lorre from three different movies – “Casablanca”, “The Maltese Falcon”, and “The Raven” – with a dash of “Mad Love”. However, my favorite movie with Peter Lorre is actually “Arsenic and Old Lace”
I was worried that movie references would be lost in translation or time, so it’s great to see that people still recognize some of these references, even around the world.
Posted: September 18th, 2008
Lori Says:
I don’t know what was going on with the ADGI site when you were looking at it, but it works fine for me. Maybe just a glitch at the time?
Posted: September 18th, 2008
Lori Says:
My favorite game will always be QG4, although I was heartbroken by all the bugs when it first released. Even months later, when they released the voice version with John Rhys-Davies and other great talents, there were plenty of bugs to destroy the fun of it.
However, the game of the series that I most enjoyed playing was “Dragon Fire.” I loved the AI of the monsters and the fact that there was real strategy to the fights. Plus, the major combats were as much about thinking as about reflexes. And I was very fond of Gnome Ann.
Posted: September 18th, 2008
Roger Wilco Says:
I’m sorry if I’m missing something obvious, but everytime I look at the new Trial By Fire game, none of the links work, not even the download the game one. If I put the cursor over the “download” link, the link doesn’t respond. Can someone help me?
Posted: September 18th, 2008
Fuzzi Says:
Welcome to your Trial by Fire, hero- only this time, you’d better put your nose to the grindstone.
My first foray was with a hero I’d lovingly handcrafted (though admittedly, er, ‘transferred’ with a couple sips of Razzle Dazzle Root Beer to the EGA) in the first VGA Quest For Glory. (transferrence was due to a serious, grievous lack of stacking Mana Potions) He was almost 100 in all stats except dodge and parry, and I was proud of him, my grand hero Fuzzi.
Yeah, well. 100′s -weakling level- in this game.
Heck- 150 puts you at an EVEN match with most monsters. You won’t start dominating until you hit 175 or so, and even then Ghouls and Scorpions, and especially the Terrorsauruses (Terrorsaurii?) will be able to rip you a couple interesting holes.
The combat system, for this reason, appears to be much harder. 100 used to be over-stats, and you could very well polish the game off with ending stats of ~150…
…if you try to tackle our good buddy Khaveen with 150 in stats, good luck. I had 242 Vitality and 217 Strength and 200 Weapon use and he -still- sliced and diced me!
…anyways, enough of my retold stories. This remake is -AMAZING-. I’ve been a long-time fan of Quest for Glory- since I was a wee one at about 6 or 7, and I’m 18 in a mere 14 days. To think this series has so long remained a strong one.
There are but two quips I ever had with the entire series, and the first is the bugginess in 1 VGA and 4, and the second was that number 2 was never done the justice of a VGA- but then these guys did it! And wonders of the internet do decently in fixing these buggy versions.
Lori Ann Cole, Corey Cole, and AGD Interactive…
Here’s to you; now, and then.
- Daniel “Sir Fuzzi” Smith
(PS: I really am curious; what are your favourites, as the creators of the series? I’m partial to the first, myself, both the VGA and EGA versions.)
Posted: September 16th, 2008
Fingon Says:
I would like to add myself to the crowd that thaks you for the briliant series, QFG4 together with Cryo’s Atlantis were my first adventures ever. I fell in love with the whole series, but at time I was able to play only the three VGA games (since they were translated to my language). Then I started to learn english and was able to play all four games and recently I have got the last installment (and I’m able to play them all because of patches you can get at http://tawmis.com/collector/Patches-Updates/Patches-Updates-Games/QuestForGloryUpdates.html (the fifth game is quite addictive for me, it was quite strange and unfamiliar at the first time, but then I’ve discovered that it’s pretty immersive…)
I’ve finished the QFG2VGA twice (firstly as a thief and second time as a paladin) and I really enjoyed it. You Coles have to be film fans, I’ve found a lot quotes from Casablanca (Dead Parrot’s Inn), Monty Python (Ex-parrot), Duck soup (Alichica moved to Fredonia), the cartoons with Superman (‘Faster than the speeding bullet’ message when you throw spears at Simbani), Peter Lorre (chief thief in QFG4)…
Finally, I’m glad you’re in business again:-) Best wishes, Fingon
Posted: September 16th, 2008
Chris F. Says:
My brother emailed me with the AGD release yesterday, and although I am out of college now I still get the same thrill out of playing a QFG game (Awesome job AGD!). I just wanted to say thank you. You guys created a part of our childhood that we remember in the same way as kickball games and flashlight tag.
Thanks,
Chris
Posted: September 14th, 2008
Bill Says:
I only recently was able to play 5 due to system concerns. It seems hollow and shallow. Even the characters pirated from earlier Quest for Glorys are stripped down and less fun. It feels like less effort was put into writing than was to animate the hero’s left arm movement in sneak mode.
1-4 were…warm. Fun, inclusive. They had a persistent style that was very attractive. Why does 5 feel like it should be demanding that you insert another quarter each time you die?
Posted: September 14th, 2008
Lori Says:
We actually approached Sierra/Vivendi several (well, more than several by now) years ago to buy the rights to QfG from them. Nothing came of it, though.
The School for Heroes will try to capture some of the magic of the series. It will just be translated into a very different sort of game play.
The most important thing that the School for Heroes and Quest for Glory will share is fun. But School has a real advantage – it will be a shared experience for everyone to contribute to. So I’m really excited about what we are all going to create here.
See ya soon!
Posted: September 9th, 2008
Bill Says:
Posted: September 7th, 2008
Ambaryerno Says:
I wanted to jump on the thank you bandwagon for what you and Corey created. I played several of the old Sierra adventures growing up, but Quest for Glory was the one series that always stuck with me, and is where I really got hooked on fantasy in general.
I don’t know if you can really comment on it, but it’s a crying shame how Vivendi treated you guys and the property at the end of the 90s. (why oh WHY has Vivendi destroyed so many things I loved dearly? Dynamix! Sierra! FarScape! They are my nemesis!) IMO if they have no plans to actually DO anything with QfG they should release the rights back to you and Corey, not hold them in a legal stranglehold like they are now.
I was thinking random thoughts the other day, and got to wondering about how well the world of Quest for Glory would translate into an MMO. Crowded market, but would be interesting….
Anyway, QfG was a part of my childhood and teenage years that I’ll never forget. Thank you, and best of luck to you in all your future projects.
Posted: September 6th, 2008
Ravi Says:
Sorry to hear you can’t play QGV! I have read about many people having problems running the old games on new PCs.
You may want to look into using DOSBox or probably the best option, run and install the game in a Virtual Machine (the basic virtual machine programs are free from VMWare and Microsoft).
- Ravi
Posted: September 5th, 2008
Lori Says:
Thanks for the tips on how to play the game. I usually played the Magic User so I could avoid close-combat. I started up up a Fighter-MU and we’ll see how well that plays.
It was always our intention that the Thief could avoid most encounters. However, they still have to find ways to build up their skills. Fighting is the easiest way to gain some abilities – but only as long as you survive.
Posted: September 5th, 2008
Lori Says:
Glad you could actually get the games to work! We can’t even manage to play QGV.
Posted: September 5th, 2008
Tzvi Says:
Thank you guys for this wonderful game series, and thanks to AGD for renewing my passion for it.
Posted: September 4th, 2008
Fan Says:
Posted: September 3rd, 2008
Lori Says:
It was fun having you and your friends come by our house and get to see the QG stuff was a lot of fun for us. Congratulations again on the fine product you created. It’s great to see the Quest still lives.
- Lori
Posted: September 2nd, 2008
Britney Brimhall Says:
Thank you SO much Lori and Corey for creating the series, inspiring us, and also motivating us with the visit to your home! Hearing stories and seeing the old QFG design documents goes down as one of the most awesome days of my life (I think the rest of the team would have to say the same!).
I will definitely send Vivendi a message and remind them how great these games are, and how we want to see QFG again. My biggest dream in life would be to work with you, Corey and the rest of the AGDI team on a new Quest for Glory game.
Thanks for posting this! And thank you again for all you’ve done!:)
Posted: August 31st, 2008
Corey Says:
Ravi visited us at Sierra when we were still developing the Quest for Glory series. I think we were on QG3 or QG4 at the time.
Check out Ravi’s “Hero’s Tale Inn” web site at [url]http://qfg.info/qfg.html[/url].
Posted: August 30th, 2008
Lori Says:
Great to hear from you again. I see you still have the the Quest for Glory Site after all this time. Shame we haven’t had much to show for it recently. Oh, well, maybe thanks to AGDI we can bring the Glory back.
Check out Ravi’s Quest for Glory web site at Hero’s Tale Inn.
Posted: August 30th, 2008
Ravi Says:
Good luck on your future projects Lori and Corey, we will be following their progress!
–Ravi
Posted: August 30th, 2008
Lori Says:
You did a fantastic job creating Trial by Fire. Your dedication and determination to bring out the game despite all the trials and tribulations really is a measure of your strength and courage.
You really are a true hero!
Posted: August 30th, 2008
Lori Says:
I appreciate exactly what you are saying about Text Adventure games. I want a game to be fun, not frustrating as hell. Corey and I are now in the process of designing a total Text Adventure game, but I prefer to think of it as Interactive Fiction. It’s going to be a challenge to turn the text adventure into a true adventure, without all the frustrating parts.
I’m glad that you could enjoy the entire series of QG.
Posted: August 30th, 2008
Ross Says:
I definitely enjoyed the remake (and have already told them that), so a big thanks to AGD as well.
So when are you to teams going to work on a single project together
Posted: August 30th, 2008
Stijn van Empel Says:
(sheepish grin) I gotta admit combat takes some getting into, although a combination of the lowest arcade difficulty and setting the co-pilot feature to its most defensive setting should make things a lot easier…IF your dodging stat is decent.
Thanks for the look into QFG2′s design map all that time ago. It was very inspiring and even allowed us to finish Aziza’s wizard’s whirl game that never got out of the prototype stage.
Thanks again for the inspiration and the wonderful series.
Posted: August 30th, 2008
Chuck Warren Says:
I was always a huge fan of the VGA style Sierra games (Quest For Glory being -the- series that I played, accept no substitutes) and was never a huge fan of text based adventures having struggled with a borrowed copy of Zork Zero from ages 5-8 and failing miserably. I didn’t realize that without the manual there was little chance of winning! That resentment is the main reason why I never was able to really play Quest For Flory from start to finish and really enjoy myself fully since Trial By Fire was never remade and I couldn’t get past the text based game play no matter how essential the story was to the series.
This remake is a true statement to how great this series is at it’s core and a worthy addition to the Quest For Glory universe. I finally was able to play a hero from So You Want to Be A Hero all the way to Dragon Fire and it made all the difference in the world. I only wish that there was still a marketable future for adventure games like this in this world of shooters and Sims; I guess that is a symptom of the corporate bottom line that now and days equates 3D graphics with success while stories and humor go to the back burner.
Anyway, it has been a long time since I e-mailed you guys but I think it bears mentioning that your work in the gaming industry has made my life more fun and if you ever felt like exploring new venues for adventure gaming (Wii Ware(*ahem!*) I’d be first in line!
Thanks for everything!
Posted: August 29th, 2008
Jeremy Says:
I’m a huge fan of Hero’s Quest (excuse me, Quest for Glory – a pox on Milton Bradley!) from way back. You guys did a phenomenal job designing those games and your sense of humor never failed to make me laugh. I never really minded the EGA of QFG II (the best in the series IMHO), but it’s nice to see AGDI’s take on it!
Posted: August 29th, 2008