Ancient Rev Memes exposed. Turns out I'm really bad at computers and don't know things. My explanation was based on a game of telephone with a much more tech savy friend from my childhood who discovered the glitch we used to laugh at at LAN parties. True facts: I have never played the game normally so I had no idea what the plot was. I could only beat it on stream with walkthroughs. Good to know the experience would mostly be the same.

Everyone gives Cedric hell for saying the snake is poisonous, but Cedric is an owl and owls eat snakes. Thus, to Cedric the snake is poisonous. Furthermore, Cedric just saw Graham eat some white snake, so Cedric knows you eat snakes too. He's just saying, "I know that last snake you ate was delicious, but THIS snake is poisonous, so don't make a snack of him!"

I'm absolutely giddy in anticipation of the sheer rage this is going to inspire.

I really liked this game, although it was cryptic af. The game also had some interesting issues with monochrome monitors, which we happened to have when this game came out. The water source next to the temple is invisible on monochrome, which means that once you went to the temple you always died of thirst. Me and my dad were stuck there until we got a color monitor years later. For me this was the first time I ever saw VGA graphics. After playing EGA/CGA games it looked just stunning. It's still one of the prettiest games out there due to the hand-painted backgrounds.

"Oh No!....Cedric was already in that empty sack of peas. Manannan will now feast on your good friend!"

I was going to ask "why isn't this loading", but then I realized it's dated two days from now.

Me: *jumps off of a cliff to my death* Fortune teller from 300 miles away: "Madame Ushka is tired! NO MORE FOR TODAY!"

I remember that the game lets you eat the pie without any means of getting a second one. So, if you ate the pie, there is literally no way to stop the Yeti from eviscerating you. To make matters worse, if you didn't have a save before you ate the pie, you had to start all over. I swear this game is the reason I save every five minutes across a dozen slots.

Regarding the cheese puzzle at the end. I saw an interview with an ex-Sierra employee (I'm thinking Josh Mandel?) and he said that Roberta refused to explain it when asked. Even within the company, no one had any fucking idea why the magic machine was cheese-powered. But you should have a nicer time with KQ6, which is widely considered the best KQ. And the one Roberta had the least involvement in. Hmm.

Dude, that was hilarious! More people need to hear your material.

One thing to mention about the cat and rat puzzle. It only activates when you're close to leaving the screen on the right side and if you have the stick or the shoe with you. Otherwise it won't trigger so that puzzle is actually one of the kinder ones in the game. I will still love this game as it was my first King's Quest game.

I dont know why, but ive always found the vaguely bitcrushed audio of non-actors trying to voice characters in this era of gaming to be wildly charming. Like, as a child of the 90s, im sure its in no small part a nostalgia thing. But i think theres something so delightfully earnest about the coders, janitors, and grandmothers of these projects chipping in and trying their damndest. And the bad audio playback and mixing only adds to that effect. That said, the narrator for KQ5/6 are two of my favorite game voices of all time. Regardless of reasoning. I could listen to them both for hours.

Shigeru Miyamoto: Yeah, we used owls as exposition dumps in Ocarina Of Time AND Link's Awakening. They can be pretty annoying lol. Roberta Williams: Hold my beer

Oh, and maybe Crispin could have teleported right there, but he couldn't have taken on Mordack with his wand as limp as it was, and he's not going to risk his own neck sneaking around his demonic fortress that's where he needed your youthful vigor. Besides, if we'd done it the easy way we wouldn't get to bottle a hag, reunite a man and his Willow, go sleeding, feed a starving eagle, melt a Ice queen, pie a Yeti and find an old man his hearing aid. Journey over destination - or Absence Makes the Heart go Yonder.

I have a very vague memory of that poisonous/venomous snake talking one line of dialog in a very threatening manner.

This is rediculous you remixed the dwarves theme from KQ4! You're getting a thumbs up.

Another fine video SQH. Great job an on to Kings Quest6!

I have serious nostalgia for all the KQ games, because I played them through with my dad. We played all the way up to 7 together, and while they are quirky and weird and suffer from bad design choices, I still enjoy them to this day. Nothing you said in your video I can really disagree with, so I'll just say: "But... but.. nostalgia!"

I shall be the first to like this video that I already know is going to be fun as hell.

Wow the graffics on this one looks really good.

There are a few things I've come to understand about these games. 1: Either the King's Crown itself is cursed artifact or the very land of Daventry is cursed. Because how on earth is this place thriving then in disarray inbetween sequels with very little in the way of subjects to rule over? 2: Good or evil, wizards are extremely fucking lazy and malicious. They have little to no need of any items they ask of Graham's family. They are omnipotent with relatively no limit of their magic. They all know WHERE and WHAT they need but I guess humans sired into royal lineage make good fodder. Seeing as they can teleport willy nilly everywhere to tell others ah tut tut but here is your solution. 3: Witches are far more competent, yet no less vindictive. Even more so. At the very least they seem to be in more direct opposition with each other as they can get shit done. But alas, we can have another poor soul do it for us. 4: All this wackadoo magic has to be opening up dimensional rifts which is how Dracula, Pandora's Box and slew of other random people and things end up finding residence here.

One thing that always bugged me about the cat/rat puzzle: Look closely, and you'll realize that's the baker brother's cat. So not only did you commit animal cruelty to someone's PET, but you actively prevented him from doing his job: protecting the bakery from rodents. That rat is terrifyingly HUGE, and also apparently raids the inn for their food as well. I'm surprised there's not a puzzle involving you cleaning up rat poop in return for an item, since she really gets around. Why does everyone in this universe hate cats??

My personal head canon for KQ5 is that Crispin has set up Graham to Kill Mordack for him. He doesn't show up until after Mordack dies. He may not have known that Graham was the schmuck he was going to get - But like Genesta with Rosella in KQ4, They get Desperate people to do things for them. He probably had Cedric following Mordack til he could find some loser to rope into the quest. He does say at the beginning that he was going to go talk to people - which is why he's not at his house for the whole game. Though really, He doesn't tell you anything you didn't already know by that point. From the Peter Spears Fuckery of a Companion - Graham adds the Cheese because the Machine... reminds him of a Fondue set. The thing I've always said about KQ5 is that Graham treats a good portion of it as a holiday from his responsibilities. He won't go do the efficent thing of being like "I AM A KING - i AM LOOKING FOR MY FAMILY, ASSIST ME PEASANT" instead he doesn't want anyone to know he's a king and he spends A LOT of time Antiquing. Listen to how he talks about that Marionette's Artistry or the Spinning Wheel, or the Sled... Let's not forget the fact that this is only a day after he's been on death's doorstep. There's SO little time between KQ 3-5, And then KQ6 takes place roughly a year later. and then KQ7 is mere months after that...

13:30 The boot and the stick are interchangeable. You can throw the boot OR the stick to the dog at the anthill, and if you hang out in front of the bakery with the boot OR the stick it triggers the cat and rat scene.

Hahaha this is probably the greatest video game review i've ever seen. I was hoping that you would play the audio where he drinks water in the desert "water, sweet nectar of the gods!", i still quote it sometimes when i'm really thirsty and quench it with water :) Apart from that, i never got anything out of this dumpster fire of a game.

Watch these videos at least every 6 months. Idk why but they are my favorite kings quest videos. I’ve never even played the games and don’t have interest in doing so due to being an adhd addled boy but got damn I love these videos. And the other series as well

I grew up with King's Quest V on NES before knowing there was a PC version, so I actually kind of love that version. Don't get me wrong, I won't defend its a great game or anything. But, it was my first Sierra adventure game experience since Gold Rush on the Macintosh Plus. So after spending hours, days, weeks of my childhood exploring the NES version of Serenia, I have a soft spot for it over the other, better looking versions. Also, there are more than 2 save slots. Once you save in both, 2 more open up. I've actually had the game glitch out with a full screen of jumbled save states that would load you in random parts of the game with random items. I wish I would've explored that glitch more back when. I still own my copy though, so it's never too late to try and recreate it. Great videos btw! I'm quickly becoming a fan

*oh jeebus.. all the FRUSTRATING moments of these games, before you could search any internet*

huh. you know, it never occurred to me that i struggled with these games because of some poor choices made by the designers. i thought i was just bad at video games. this is the first of your videos i've watched, and it was way funnier than i expected. looking forward to seeing your video on SQ6

Mordack: You turned my brother into a cat, the worst fate that could ever befall someone! Me: ........Your brother was kidnapping babies, keeping them as slaves while abusing them their entire lives, and then killing them once they turned 18, I think he got off EASY

I got this game for Christmas as a kid in 1990. It filled up more than half the 20 MB hard drive on my dads computer. Came on ten or eleven floppy disks I think. I didn't complete it until I downloaded a walk through from a BBS though but I got pretty far on my own, to the snow I think. The VGA graphics were amazing at the time.

you should watch Mostly walking take on this game, the intro is so out of place that it's impossible not to laugh. That barman, "Rub him out!", all the voices, everything is stellar

To be fair to Crispin about the teleporting into Mordack's castle... Graham did fix a lot of issues on his journey to save his castle, he dealt with a yeti, a witch, a bear, and an ice queen. The local village is now safer because Graham had to put in the effort.

Good to see you re back, cheers from australia

I think this game is where my dad coined the phrase, "Save and save often". I honestly don't remember that many walking dead scenarios. We may have had a hint guide though, I can't remember.

endless desert, cause it was so good in 3 they had to do it again in 5

This is the only game in the series I haven't completed (not counting Mask of Eternity, which isn't a King's Quest game). It's too horrifying to contemplate. Someone should really make a Cedric-free version of this game btw.

It doesn't seem that anyone know or talk about that this is the first ever talkie pc game after the short kids Mixedup mother goose game, this talkie version is released in early 1991 according to the official Sierra magazine

Look I'll be honest... Cedric is my jam. Yes I said it and I'm a fan. This is an 'each for their own' and 'there's somebody for everybody' situation 😉🦉

There are two walk icons for reasons similar to why KQ4 was released in both AGI and SCI. The "walk" icon uses the less CPU-intensive "just go in a straight line" code from the old parser games, while the "travel" icon uses the comparatively more costly polygon pathfinder. By the time the CD version came out, I suppose they figured they had enough market research to scrap the distinction and have only the "travel" icon, which would be called "walk" ever since. Also, the difference between the hourglass and crown cursors is described in the built-in help system.

This is gonna be awesome!

Funny enough the first version of this game I ever played was on the NES. It made enough of an impression that I HAD to get it on the PC, which I did. KQ5 and 6 are the only ones I ever properly owned, though I had all the Space Quests.

My parents caught me on camera rejoicing Christmas morning as my 10 yr old self got this game as one of the presents

You have no idea how validating it feels to find out that I'm not the only one who considers this game to be an absolute mess. I genuinely think that every adventure developer needs to play this game at least once just so they know how NOT to make an adventure game.

I always thought they meant White Snake as in snake wine, where they take venomous snakes are just the venom which is mostly safe to drink if done right as the ethanol breaks down the venom. It so looks like an old dude playing with his cat and his action figures

I love this game and I think it might’ve been the first I played from Sierra, however that friggin owl. Never stop roasting Cedric.

Whitesnake lasts until you go again on your own.

I feel like I've never seen the original Kq5 because that Cyan toolbar looks very alien to me, I remember the warm brown tool bar only. I remember being able to get the Cat and rat sequence to happen again after missing it the first time and without reloading the game. I believe that Crispin couldn't teleport to Mordack's place until you brought the wand there as a point of reference for him to teleport to once it was powered up.

Crispin the plot convenient wizard, i might steal that.

Why does nobody mention Mordack's Buffness? since when are there buff wizards? (okay okay i mentioned this on your stream but its a valid question) looking at any front facing closeup he looks more warrior class. Graham is buff as hell too so maybe they thought they had to make mordy buff for him to be considered a threat

I admit I prefer your chronological approach is the previous episodes but I still really enjoyed this :)

YES, this, WHY is so much of this game completely disconnected from its actual plot? His family has been kidnapped and he's just mosying around freaking Serenia for the majority of the game!

brilliant commentary. I'm surprised you played the NES version of KQ5, I feel so so sorry for you.

I'm pretty sure you can throw the stick at the cat and use the boot to distract the dog in the anthill. Which of course adds to the absurdity of the "puzzle".

I love, love the king's quest series. I find your retrospectives! You blast each but do it in such details and you actually play them to death (pardon the expression) that i cannot fault your opinion. Any chance on doing the police quest series next?

Now that you mentioned Beneath a Steel Sky, Sam and Max, etc... It would be awesome if you make some videos about those 😅

OMG I loved this game as a kid. We used to play King's Quest (also the Myst games and Timelapse) as a family, so I'm probably just nostalgic! 😅 Your videos have me wheezing though. 30-40 years later, they *are* awful! 😆

Those Harpies definetly confused a 10 year old me playing this game back in the day!

Little does SQH know... Cedric comes back later as Kaepora Gabora...

The version I bought didn’t have the code for the mouse on the screen by the mill to throw your shoe at. Many hours/weeks later had to get Sierra to Re-Ship 16 3.5 floppies x. I both hate and love this game. I recommend Jontrons version to everyone (but sq historian, as I don’t want his content affected)

1:55 to the left you can see the rock you pushed in the past game , But where is the Goat!?

Print out a walkthrough and follow along as you play, if you dont do that dont even bother LOL 😊

I REALLY want to get a hold of that 16 bit version of KQ V...I've been looking all over for it and cannot find it.

Hooo. Hooo. My very *first* exposure to Sierra games period was the NES version of King's Quest 5. I'd never even heard of them before (I didn't own a PC until the mid 90s). I've finished it on original hardware. IT IS NOT FUN. I only got through because Nintendo Power had a short walkthrough of the beginning and I got lucky and got the honeycomb by total accident. (Young me was rather traumatized by the evil forest, and how if you wander around long enough without the right items to get out Graham eventually just...sits down and dies of despair. Gooooodness.)

I have only played the NES version of this game, and I beat it. I got lucky and missed a lot of the "dead man walking" scenarios that are present here.

So, We barrowed a few games from a, person. Not sure if it was a friend of my dad or just some random Co-Worker. But what we were given was King Quest 5 as one of these games. For our like first ever real dang Windows 95 computers or what ever. We were also given the Hint Book for KQ5 and it does have the secrets inside of it but you needed one of those anti-Red see through film sheets of clear plastic to remove the Red lines that blocked the text. I was not a smart child as a little one. I didn't properly used the Guide. I didn't get anywhere. But this and Hugo 3, yes the Jungle one, were my first Adventure games ever. Then later on in my teen's I found the line "You fight like a cow" and played those four games, and the Sam and Max one. TallTale supporter till the Zombie games, jumped back on Borderlands Tales. I think I found the better path? Maybe?

This game is nothing but a bunch of fetch quests just so you can charge the wand at the end.

A POISONOUS review!

Thanks for sparing me the pain of playing this steaming pile

Speaking of annoying sidekicks, does Percy from 1984's Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom count? He was always dropping your stuff.

30 Minutes! Wow, there must be a lot that bothers you with this one! Also, that NES port...I'd be interested to know if *anyone* ever beat that as a kid. I'm guessing not!

The video hasn't even aired and it has more comments than my entire channel lol.

Looking at the NES version makes me that much more appalled, that people actually slammed the SCI remake of KQ1. “Ruining old classics” they said. Bullshit! Giving a game improved graphics and animations, and a more fleshed out plot isn’t ruining it, it’s making it BETTER! If you want to see KQ1 ruined, look at the Sega Master System version!

Soo you are a closest super KQV fan..

I take back my earlier comment on another video about games of this era feeling like a glimpse into someone's mind. I remember playing this as a kid and I absolutely hated this game. Even using a walkthrough in my teen years I got stuck at the end because the copy I had was broken and you couldn't get past the Merlin style wizard fight at the end. Fuck this game.

I wonder if anyone ever beat this on the nintendo back in the day. Like literally out of the however many copies sold, I doubt one person figured it oiut

8 years later the second most annoying companion steps forward..... HEY! Make you wander if Miyamoto played KQ5 and thought to himself I can make a "better" Graham. lol

Lmao this was hilarious

The snake actually does talk to you, you just have to use your *hand* on it, not your *mouth*! Who would have thought Sierra wouldn't kill you for doing a thing like that?

Alexander in KQ6 "the Answer is Love". Cheesiest King's Quest line ever? Elon Musk uses this line in his Joe Rogan interview lol

I love this little creep.

Are you going to do the Police Quest saga too?

actually the game tells you that theres a hole in the boat. when u get close and look at it, graham inspects it. its a common mythos that you have to die once there. its still an unfair game.

Alright I'm taking bets... What's going to be SQH's biggest problem with King's Quest VI - The Backtracking? - The Cliffs of Logic? - The whole "you don't know which item you need to borrow from the antique shop" aspect? - Anything else I didn't think of?

WORDS!

lmao these reviews are savage 😂

What’s that game at 20:31?

And Doctor Dre said - - nothing you idiots! Dr Dre's dead, he's locked in my basement

Furd

Mushka - Russian for 'little fly'. Ar ar.

After binging the AGI and SCI era Sierra games, loving most of them to pieces (except maybe KQ3 & PQ) I finally booted this one up and - what a fucking mess. I don't know why people rate this one highly, it is sparse with very little description or guidance, and every screen is basically a nonsensical item puzzle that if not done correctly leads to a dead man walking scenario. The characters are bland and the structure once you leave serenia is just small events interlaced with mazes and dead man walking scenarios. How is anyone supposed to know anything you're supposed to do in this game without a walkthrough? It is maddening, and it doesnt even make up for it with cool characters or atmosphere because everything is blink and its over. Harpies? One scene. Ice queen? 2 scenes. Random old man who can summon mermaids at will for some reason? One screen. How am I supposed to care about anythng in this game at all? You mention KQ4 being spiteful and hate filled but at least KQ4 for the most part is solveable, whereas KQV from start to finish feels like the hidden bridle on the island telling you to go fuck yourself.

As far as King's Quest games go, I never cared too much for it. The visuals were really bland and unimaginative, as were a lot of early Sierra VGA-titles, especially in comparison to 2, 3 and 6. Puzzles were just plain annoying, not like other entries where they can be so bad they're good. Although I think it's the funniest game. Cedric is a legend!

Clearly Roberta didn't know the difference between poisonous and venomous, but one of the coders actually programming the game fixed the text because that kind of shit is very annoying to the autistic mind. And they were a programmer, so I mean...

I know you're going to shit all over this game, because LULZ, but it remains probably my favorite of all time. It's what got me into PC gaming and Sierra in the first place.

Take you exact same format and wicked, 'hard-wired' sender of humour and pick apart something more popular than a Sierra game man. All the same "constructive criticisms" you apply to Kings Quest 5 here could be equally applied to a major American politician, CEO or celebrity.

Even though I loved other adventure games much more at the time, I think you're totally missing the point of these series (on purpose to provide bashing entertainment?). It's supposed to be based on a mix of fairy tales, hence unrealistic stuff happens. The only difference with Space Quest is that it does not have the same absurd amount of humor about it to hide its flaws behind. I'd say in my opinion, both were inferior in comparison to the Lucasarts games, such as Monkey Island. Overall good game design, including no needless death scenes.

quit

Actually the cat and rat thing only happens if you're carrying something to stop it, but it doesn't have to be the boot, you can also use the stick, so, so long as your on your guard when that happens, and think "if Kings Quest has taught me anything it's to help the helpless and hurt cats", then you'll be fine. So long as you choose the correct item and move fast enough, and have saved recently if you can't. Really, this isn't bad puzzle design. Really. _Really._ Oh so you say, if I use the stick on the cat, how do I save the ants from the dog? Well, the boot work for that one too, they were smart enough to design alternate solutions baby! Just don't do a dumb solution like try to use your hard won gold coin to, I don't know, buy a useful warm cloak for the cold mountains. No dummy! Obviously you should use that money to get your fortune told by a Gypsy, otherwise the plot won't be explained again and she'll never leave, dropping the snake repellent tambourine so you can actually use the cloak. Cedric is a vital (and charming) companion, he's there because he knows this land and can warn you not to go certain dangerous places, so you can then do the opposite! Going into unknown and likely death is the wisest way to accomplish your goal of saving your family as only a King Quester can appreciate - unrelated danger only seems unrelated, there's always some loaded bad guy to rob in places like that. And on a fair and balanced tangent: Cedric's warnings are at least a warning to save the game - I think they had planned Cedric as more nuanced navigator of some sort, but it didn't work out.

Oh jesus christ this will be a disaster, everyone knows how bad this game is.

Your breathing needs work, very distracting