King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella

From SCI Wiki
Jump to navigationJump to search
The printable version is no longer supported and may have rendering errors. Please update your browser bookmarks and please use the default browser print function instead.
King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella
King's Quest IV Cover

King's Quest IV SCI Cover

Release Date: Sept. 1988 [1]
Project Status: N/A
Latest Version: 1.006.004
Developer(s): Sierra On-Line Sierra
Publisher: Sierra On-Line Sierra
Designer(s): Roberta Williams
Source Available:  Yes
Category: Game
Type: Full
Genre: Adventure
Theme(s): Fairytale, Fantasy, High Adventure
Engine: SCI0
CP Scheme: Manual Check
ESRB Rating: None
Platform: MS-DOS, Amiga, Apple IIGS, Atari ST
Localization: English, French, German, Italian
Website: www.sierra.com


King's Quest IV is the first SCI game. To showcase their new SCI engine, Sierra chose its flagship series, King's Quest, to be first to have its next installment to be developed in SCI.


Description

Roberta Williams's King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella was the forth installment of Roberta Williams's King's Quest Series. It is the first SCI game. To showcase their new SCI engine, Sierra chose its flagship series, King's Quest, to be first to have its next installment to be developed in SCI. An AGI version was co-developed for customers that did not meet the minimum hardware requirements of the new SCI engine. Citation Required[2]

Versions

There have been a number of releases of the SCI version of the game, with interpreter versions ranging from 0.000.247 to 0.000.502. In addition to revisions of the PC version, there were ports for other platforms. These ports often had different features based on what the abilities of the target platform. The Amiga port had digital sound effects for environmental sounds, which was missing from the PC version.

Note that the first version(s?) of the game did not recognize resources outside of the resource archive. This made patching the game more difficult as new resource patches cannot simply be dropped into the game's folder. To be accessible to the game the patch needs to be packed and mapped in the game's resource archive to be accessible to the game.

SCI0 (early)

Game Game version Interpreter version Date Notes
King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella 1.000.106 0.000.247 1988-09-19 Interpreter does not support patch files
King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella Unknown 0.000.253 1988-09 Interpreter does not support patch files
King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella 1.000.111 [3] 0.000.274 1988-09-23 Interpreter does not support patch files

 

SCI0 (late)

Game Game version Interpreter version Date Notes
King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella 1.003.006 0.000.409 1988-12-19 Requires KQ4FIX patch
King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella 1.006.003 0.000.502 1989-06-12  
King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella 1.006.004 0.000.502 1989-08-07 Ego walks faster diagonally

Amiga

Game Game version Interpreter version Date Notes
King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella 1.023 0.000.685 1989-08-07 Environmental and other incidental sound effects

Atari ST

Game Game version Interpreter version Date Notes
King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella 1.003.006 1.001.008 1988-12-07 Conversion by Corey Cole

PC version 1.000.106 and 1.000.111 are the only ones with the original detailed graphics. For 1.003.006 and later versions, Sierra simplified the background graphics to make the game fit on one 5.25 inch disk less, removing background detail and separate night pictures.

The KQ4FIX patch dated 1989-02-15 addresses error message "0x80/653 not found" at DOSBox cycle settings above 1500 when entering the screen with the waterfall. This patch only applies to version 1.003.006. This problem was corrected in the later version 1.006.003 and is not needed in versions 1.006.003 or 1.006.004.

PC version 1.006.004 is the latest PC version and has the main character walking faster diagonally. It also changes the arrangement for the Fisherman's theme (for the better) and replaces "Lolotte's death" music with a completely different one. This is the version used for the King's Quest Collector's Edition, King's Quest Collection Series, Roberta Williams Anthology, King's Quest Collection (2006), GOG King's Quest 4+5+6 Collection.


Synopsis

Travel with Rosella, the beautiful princess and heroine of King's Quest IV. journey to a town far away. Search for the enchanted fruit that will restore life to her father 's lips, and safely return to her homeland.

Face creatures from ancient legend, from beautiful unicorns to hideous ogres. Acquire treasures that are necessary to ensure your safety. Save Genesta from imminent death by destroying the evil Lolotte and returning the sacred talisman which once rested around her neck.[4]


About

King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella featured SCI's higher resolution graphics as well as AdLib and Roland MT-32 music with a "full soundtrack" by William Goldstein. An AGI version of King's Quest IV was co-developed for customers who could not meet the high hardware requirements of Sierra's new SCI engine. A customer who purchased the game that could not run the game was able to send in his SCI disks in for replacement with the AGI version.

As hardware began to advance beyond what AGI could utilize, Sierra began development on its next engine, SCript Interpreter or later Sierra Creative Interpreter (SCI). A year before the last official AGI game, Manhunter 2: San Francisco in 1989, Sierra released the first SCI (SCI0) game, King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella in 1988. In keeping with Moore's Law, SCI could take advantage of the constantly increasing capabilities of the new hardware. As with AGI in its day, SCI was a big leap forward in technology. SCI's 200px x 320px vector graphics allowed for noticeably better graphics over AGI's 160px x 200px. While still just 16 colors, but SCI0 introduced dithering, which mixed pixels of different colors into the same fill areas that gave the effect of more than 16 colors.

KQ4AGIFishermansShack.png

KQ4AGI Fisherman's Shack

KQ4SCIFishermansShack.png

KQ4SCI Fisherman's Shack

Sound

SCI introduced support for the new sound cards. This expanded its audio capabilities over that of AGI's three voice with noise channel sound PCjr/Tandy sound. With the advent SCI, music became an inseparable part of Sierra games. Even though the first exposure most had was with AdLib's hoots and honks, it also supported the MPU-401, which allowed Sierra's composers to create some amazing Roland MT-32 sound tracks. KQ4's MT-32 track gave a quality to the game's music that at the time was unsurpassed.
 

File:KQ4AGI Intro.ogg File:KQ4 Intro.ogg
KQ4AGI Intro (Tandy Sound)
KQ4SCI Intro (MT-32)
File:KQ4AGI Dwarves Mine.ogg File:KQ4 Dwarves Mine.ogg
KQ4AGI Dwarves's Mine (Tandy Sound)
KQ4SCI Dwarves's Mine (MT-32)

King's Quest 4 used a manual check based copy protection scheme at the start of the game.


Screenshots

There are two main releases of the SCI version of this game, 1.000.111 and 1.006.004. What is notable is the second release has more refined PICs or background images. Also, the first release used completely new PIC resources for all of the night scenes. The second release used PICs that were night sky overlays that were displayed over the daytime PIC.

 

KQ4-003-1 000 111.png

version 1.000.111 Pool Screen

KQ4-003-1 006 004.png

version 1.006.004 Pool Screen

KQ4-004-1 000 111.png

version 1.000.111 Ogre's House

KQ4-004-1 006 004.png

version 1.006.004 Ogre's House

KQ4-006-1 000 111.png

version 1.000.111 Witches' Cave

KQ4-006-1 006 004.png

version 1.006.004 Witches' Cave

KQ4-103-1 000 111.png

version 1.000.111 Night Pool Screen

KQ4-103-1 006 004.png

version 1.006.004 Night Pool Screen


Downloads

GOG

New Installers

Requires files from the original distribution media. Works with all versions of the game.
This new installer includes a Munt enabled build of DOSBox for MT-32 sound. It requires that the "MT32_CONTROL.ROM" and "MT32_PCM.ROM" ROMs be present on installation. Requires files from the original distribution media.
This installer not only includes the Munt enabled build of DOSBox for MT-32 sound, but also adds sounds from the Amiga versions with a patch by NewRisingSun. Requires files from the original distribution media.

Demos

Patches

Lockups or errors at the waterfall scene (for version 1.003.006 only)


Walkthroughs/Hints


References


Related Links