King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella (SCI)
DOS | Sierra Online (1988) | Rating: 7.3
MEDIA GALLERY DESCRIPTION King Graham and Queen Valanice were glad to have their children back. Graham thinks that it is time to pass onto them his old adventurers' hat. When he throws it across the room, he suffers a heart attack and collapses on the floor, and he is carried off to bed. The only way that Graham's health can be restored is by retrieving the magic fruit in the faraway land of Tamir. A beautiful fairy called Genesta offers Rosella the chance to be transported to the land, and find the fruit. But once she gets transported, she cannot be sent back unless she helps the fairy regain her talisman that was stolen by the evil witch, Lolotte. This game was the first to use the then new Sierra Creative Interpreter (SCI), which allowed for 16-colour graphics at 320x200. The older interpreter, AGI, ran games at 160x200 resolution. SCI also added support for a variety of sound cards beyond AGI's Tandy/PCjr 3-voice sound. KQ4 was the only game released in both an AGI and SCI version. If a user's hardware wasn't up to the task of running the more demanding SCI version, they could mail their SCI version to Sierra and would then receive the AGI version back.
From where can it be run?From the original floppy disks or installed to hard disk (preferred). Because this version uses Sierra's 'new' SCI0 interpreter, it's designed to be installed to a hard disk. The INSTALL.EXE file, also used to configure hardware options, can be used to install the game to your hard disk.
Copy ProtectionThe game has manual copy protection. Upon startup you are prompted to enter a word from the manual on a given page, paragraph, and word number. Unlike the AGI version there is no built-in cheat to bypass this protection. If you're using the GOG version of the game, make sure you use the manual below, not the original game manual. The answers can be found here. How to SetupThe game comes with a setup program. INSTALL.EXE, which guides you through the following options:-
To abort the setup/game startup and return to the command prompt, press ESC. The game doesn't require any extended memory (XMS) or expanded memory (EMS) drivers to be loaded. Note: Sierra's games including KQ4 that use the first version of the SCI interpreter, SCI0, feature 16 colours at a resolution of 320 x 200 for EGA and Tandy/PC Jr graphics modes (the AGI interpreter only handled a maximum resolution of 160 x 200). CGA and Hercules are supported with a driver that dithers to 4/2 colours respectively, on-the-fly. Note that King's Quest IV does not use any custom MT-32 patches, so if you don't have an MT-32 but do have a Sound Canvas such as an SC-55, SC-88 or SC-88 Pro, the music will sound just as good on these when put into MT-32 mode. To do so, on the SC-55 hold Instrument < while pressing the Power button to come out of Standby. At the prompt that reads "Init MT-32,Sure?" press the "All" button. On the SC-88 and SC-88 Pro, switch on the unit, press and hold the SELECT button on the bottom row and press Instrument <. At the prompt that reads "Init CM-64,Sure?", press "All". ProblemsSymptoms: When starting the game I get the message "Failed to initialize audio hardware". Symptoms: I've selected Roland MT-32 sound, but I'm not hearing any music. Symptoms: I have connected my Roland MT-32 to my Sound Blaster's MIDI/Game port, but it's not working - I can't ever get the MT-32 to play the game music. \\MT32SB.DRV Symptoms: My sound card's MIDI port is on a different address to the default 330H and I am not hearing game music. To Quit the GamePress ESC to display the menu bar at the top of the screen, then use the cursor keys to navigate to the Exit Game option and hit RETURN. Supporting DocumentsHere are the original documents that came with the game: And here are some aftermarket links: Save GamesThe save game data is stored in multiple files named KQ4SG.xxx, where xxx is an incrementing number from 000 and up. An additional file called KQ4SG.DIR also exists which most likely holds the list of save game numbers and their textual descriptions of the save games. The files are not readable/editable in a text-editor. You can manipulate these files as much as you like in DOS (overwrite them with new or backed-up ones, or delete them). "Save game" files are not interchangeable between versions of the game, i.e. version 1.000.111 save game files will not work when restored in game version 1.006.004. If you try this, you are presented with a dialog that reads: "That game was saved under a different interpreter. It cannot be restored.". Versions of the game known to exist
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GAME DETAILS
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS Minimum system requirements OS: DOS 2.11
SEE ALSO
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