King's Quest II: Romancing the Throne

King's Quest II: Romancing the Throne
Developer: Sierra On-Line Publisher: Sierra On-Line Platforms: DOS, IBM PCjr, Apple IIGS, Mac OS Classic, Atari ST, Amiga Released in US: May 1985 This game has unused graphics. This game has unused items. This game has unused music. This game has unused sounds. This game has unused text. This game has debugging material. This game has a notes page

Oh dear, I do believe I have the vapors. This page contains content that is not safe for work or other locations with the potential for personal embarrassment. Such as: Various colorful terms for women.

King's Quest II is a PC graphic adventure game in which King Graham sets out to find the three golden keys to rescue Valanice.

Debug Functions

Main Debug Commands

Press ALT+D (Command-D in the Mac version) or type FAST TALK to enable some debugging functions. These features are disabled upon entering a new room.

Here's the complete word list:

• TP: Teleport to the appropriate room.
• POS: Set Graham's X and Y positions.
• GET OBJECT: Puts the appropriate object by ID in the player's inventory.
• OBJECT or SP: Gives status on the appropriate object.
• SET VAR: Sets a chosen variable to a given value.
• SHOW VAR or SV: Displays the value of a variable.
• SET FLAG: Sets the appropriate flag.
• RESET FLAG: Resets the appropriate flag.
• SHOW FLAG or SF: Displays info on a flag (can be either set or not set).
• LOOK FLAG: Displays detailed info on flags, including internal flag names. Drown.Swim and Genie.Delay are always displayed.

Other

When debug mode is active, the text for handling unknown words is simplified.

Word not known: <word>

Type TESTER to display Graham's X and Y coordinates on the bottom of the screen.

Press F10 to display info on memory use.

Press F6 to display priority settings for the current room.

Copy Protection Backdoor

The Mac version lets you play from an unauthorized copy as long as you first beg forgiveness from Sierra co-founder Ken Williams. When asked for the master disk, hold down Command and type 4givmeken, and then (while still holding down Command) press Return.

Unused Graphics

Genie

A much different genie graphic. The genie and lamp in the final game are part of Graham's sprite, there's no animation of the genie forming, and the genie and lamp are much smaller.

Keys

Used	Alternate 1	Alternate 2

There are three different key designs for the gold key. There are three gold keys in the game, so each one could have used a different design. The bat key was definitely designed to be Dracula's key.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Unused Items

One item is partially coded but never used: the Dead Fish, object ID 84. This would be obtained by either picking up the dead golden fish, or by picking up the live fish and waiting until it dies.

Trying to view the object through the inventory screen will glitch the game severely, and there's no code in the game's logic that references it in any way.

However, there is a description for the item in View 86:

The lovely fish is dead. The golden scales are already dulling.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Unused Text

ID	Message	Notes
General Logic
25	There is no reason to drop it.	Replaced by the more general message, "There is no reason to do that."
Logic 6 - Outside Monastery
4	Have you nothing better to do than pick flowers?	An alternate, snarkier message for the command PICK FLOWER.
Logic 25 - Thorn Path
7	You would be crazy to touch the thorns.	Probably meant for the command GET THORNS.
8	The brambles are too thick for the sword to cut through!	A message for the logical action of trying to cut through the poisonous thorns. Strange that this wasn't used.
Logic 28 - Cliff Edge with Trees
7	The mountains are completely impassable.	Could have been displayed by trying to look at or climb the mountains in this area.
Logic 42 - Magical Door
5	Do you want to read the inscription?	At one point, this would pop up after trying to open the door. If the player typed Y or YES after this, the appropriate door inscription would be displayed. In the final game, the player has to type READ DOOR or READ INSCRIPTION.
Logic 46 - Tree Door
8	Your arms are too short to reach the door from here!	A snappier message for trying to open the door from far away.
Logic 51 - King Neptune's Area
13	Do you want to open the clam?	Obviously, yes. This text never really needs to appear in the game.
29	You encounter King Neptune! Oh, oh! He points his rusty trident at you.	If you give the trident to the mermaid before giving her flowers, King Neptune will kill you as soon as you enter his throne room. This seems to be unused text for that event.
Logic 67 - Dracula's Chamber
27	You need something to pound the stake with.	A message for trying to kill Dracula with the stake, but no mallet in the player's inventory.
Logic 90 - Top of the Tower
30	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.	A positively Harlequinian description of Valanice that was probably put in as a joke. I'm not saying that Al Lowe was the one who wrote it, but...let's be honest here.
Logic 151 - General Forest Logic
2	Don't worry about the trees, they are not about to leave.	A second message about examining trees. It may or may not have a terrible pun.
3	The trees appear to be rooted to the ground.	Perhaps LOOK TREE could have displayed one of three randomly chosen messages? Can't get enough descriptions about trees, hot dog.
Logic 152 - General Beach Logic
15	I thought you wanted to dig?	A message for wanting to dig, but, umm...not...digging?
Logic 167 - Golden Fish Logic
17	The fish nods its head in acknowledgement.	Text for getting ready to ride the golden fish. Maybe.
24	Where do you want to throw the fish?	Thankfully, the finalized game isn't this picky. You can just type THROW FISH.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Early Draft

Early	Final	Notes
Logic 0, Message 12 You need to be closer to the water if you want to swim.	Logic 101, Message 3 You need to be in the water in order to swim.	The earlier text suggests that the player could start swimming while on the shore, like the first King's Quest game.
Logic 0, Message 26 You are already swimming.	Logic 101, Message 4 You are already swimming!	Time for another lesson in punctuational emphasis!
Logic 0, Message 92 You have two keys! Do you wish to look at the silver one or the gold one?	Logic 0, Message 98 You'll have to specify which key you wish to look at.	This was changed for clarity purposes.
Logic 6, Message 1 There are not many flowers around here.	Logic 151, Message 5 There are not many flowers here.	Some changes are more interesting than others.
Logic 151, Message 10 The Kingdom of Kolyma is lush with green grass growing everywhere.	Logic 151, Message 11 There is plenty of green grass throughout the countryside of Kolyma.	I have found the one thing more boring to do with grass than just watching it grow.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Classy King Graham

Word groups in the AGI engine define words and their synonyms (for example: acquire, take, get). King's Quest II has a single word group for its female characters, which means that you can call Valanice or Grandma "mermaid" and still have the parser understand you. The parser also understands perfectly if you refer to Little Red Riding Hood as a "sperm burping gutter slut".

Valid terms for female characters:

• bitch
• cunt
• damsel
• fairy
• girl
• grandma
• grandmother
• hag
• hagatha
• her
• hose bag
• lady
• little red riding hood
• maiden
• mermaid
• old hag
• old lady
• old woman
• red riding hood
• riding hood
• slut
• sperm burping gutter slut
• valanice
• whore
• witch
• woman

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Unused Sounds/Music

All audio in the game is programmed with three sound channels and a noise channel. On all regular computers (except the Tandy 1k series and PCjr), only the first channel is heard at a lower octave.

Both the one-channel and four-channel versions are provided here.

ID	Basic	Tandy	Notes
12			A happy little tune. Shrill, but happy.
20	N/A		Plays exclusively on the noise channel. Kinda sounds like digging of some sort.
26	N/A		Plays exclusively on the noise channel. Sounds like the tide coming in!
28	N/A		Another sound coded for the noise channel. It's a striking sound in the literal sense.

	Early	Final
DOS
Tandy

The early version of the Batman theme (Sound 09) is slower and only repeats twice before ending. This isn't present in the original self-booting release.

(Source: Original TCRF research)