The Official Book of King's Quest

The Official Book of King's Quest: Daventry and Beyond

Paperback - USA - 1st edition.

Author Donald Trivette Published 1988-11-?? Type Non-fiction, Strategy guide Genre Educational, Video Game Themes Computers, Video Games Age Group Teen

The Official Book of King's Quest: Daventry and Beyond is a video game book written by Donald Trivette and first published in November 1988. The book is about the making of the King's Quest series coupled with a hint book for each of the games that were released at the time.

It was published in three editions, with each new edition adding information about the latest King's Quest game.

Picture	Title	Released	ISBN	Games	Notes
	The Official Book of King's Quest: Daventry and Beyond	1988-11-??	0874551552	1-4	Color photos of KQ4 development.
	The Official Book of King's Quest: Second Edition	1991-??-??	0874552451	1-5	Black and white photos of KQ5 development.
	The Official Book of King's Quest: Third Edition	1993-??-??	0874552745	1-6	Reworked much of the book. Most photos and all crossword puzzles removed. The KQ1 chapter covers the remaster. Dozens of handdrawn screenshots.
	The Official Book of King's Quest VI: Third Edition	1993-??-??	0874552745	1-6	Same as original, just with "VI" added to title.

It's possible what I've labeled a reprint was the first printed, and the "VI" was added by mistake, and the reprint fixed the cover by removing it.

Personal

Own?	Paperback - 1st edition / Paperback 3rd edition reprint.
Read?	Paperback - 1st edition / 2nd edition / 3rd edition reprint.
Finished	2023-05-11 / 2023-05-12 / 2024-04-28.

In the early 1990s, my cousin Brian had a copy of one of these books, I think it was the first edition, but I'm not positive. Being a fan of video game design, I remember being fascinated with the first couple chapters which described the creation process of the King's Quest games. I don't think I read the entire book at the time, and I forgot about it altogether for about 30 years. While doing research for this site, I was reminded of it, so I bought a copy and re-read it.

I still haven't read the hint section on King's Quest III because I haven't beaten that game yet and don't want it spoiled.

Review

Overall:

Good

• The book gives you an inside look into the development of AAA video games, something that was very difficult to obtain at the time. It even includes well-explained source code snippets, describes the Adventure Game Interpreter and a gives a description for how the parser works on the newer Sierra Creative Interpreter.
• Since it's also a hint book, it contains a full set of maps, hints, and even complete score list for the first four games. The very explicit hints are also written in mirror writing so you don't accidentally spoil the game.
• The crossword puzzles were a fun way to add hints for the game without making them obvious while still giving the reader a sense of solving a puzzle to learn them.
• There is a helpful pronunciation guide for all the names used in the series. Although, some of them are unnecessary, like enchanter and sorcerer.

Bad

• The book doesn't do very good job at hiding spoilers. Some of the hints I would call spoilers, and there isn't really anyway to sift through them easily. There are even a handful of unwanted hints in the first section which was just meant to describe the development process.
• It seems like part of the deal for giving the author an inside look into Sierra On-Line was the agreement that he would advertise for the company because a lot of the book seems gratuitous in this manner. For example, the book includes instructions for installing King's Quest games (redundant, as it's mentioned in the manual), and includes numerous ways to seek hints and technical help from Sierra including their BBS, hot line, and buying their hint books.
• The author gets some tech information wrong like referring to VGA as Variable Graphics Adapter instead of Video Graphics Array.
• The book mist not have had a good copy editor because each edition has a new set of typos. MlFor example, color "pallet" instead of "palette."

Ugly

• Nothing.

Media

Covers

• 

  The first edition uses the official King's Quest logo and the updated box art of the first three games (game four is on the back).

• 

  The second edition uses the updated art of King's Quest V.

• 

  The third edition uses the same art and graphic layout of King's Quest VI.

• 

  The third edition reprint adds the Roman numeral. This erroneously makes it look like the book will only pertain to that one game.

Books

• 

  1st Edition.

• 

  2nd Edition.

Links

 

• goodreads.com/book/show/228057.The_Official_Book_of_King_s_Quest_VI - Good Reads - Third Edition.
• kingsquest.fandom.com/wiki/The_Official_Book_of_King%27s_Quest:_Daventry_and_Beyond - King's Quest Omnipedia - First Edition.
• kingsquest.fandom.com/wiki/The_Official_Book_of_King's_Quest_(Second_Edition) - King's Quest Omnipedia - Second Edition.
• kingsquest.fandom.com/wiki/The_Official_Book_of_King%27s_Quest_VI - King's Quest Omnipedia - Third Edition.

[[Category: Video Game Books]