Even MORE King's Quest IV Details

[@OneShortEye]

If you missed it, watch the previous video, The Dirty Secrets of King's Quest IV kzbin.info/www/bejne/jZPSaod7l8iJmrs

[@Dark_Jaguar]

Sorry for seeding the inevitable NEXT video in the KQ4 chain, but there's an AGI difference worth noting: all the items actually have full written descriptions when examined in the item menu in this version, where in the SCI version, they only show an image.

[@VTuber_Central]

i thought emulators were forbidden in speed running

[@kevinpierce9780]

And now I know where the Homestar joke "Obvious exits are NORTH, SOUTH, and DENNIS" comes from

[@_Leck]

That was the first thing I thought of!

[@Feasco]

get ye flask

[@ShadeKirby500]

You haven't played a Sierra Text-based Adventure until you Dennis Jonathan'd at least once.

[@Dilandau3000]

​​@@Feasco You cannot get ye flask

[@JStryker47]

@@kevinpierce9780 I’m surprised the Chapman brothers were even aware of that. Until now, I always assumed they just used some random name, so that they could make a joke.

[@mostlyghostey]

Horse girl here! The side you initially wanted to mount the unicorn from is the correct side to mount from as most horses are trained to accept mounts from that side. So it's doubly silly that they make you mount from the wrong side of the unicorn.

[@OneShortEye]

Thanks for confirming! I feel extra vindicated.

[@wheedler]

Why are horses trained to be mounted from a specific side? Or why don't they just naturally apply what they've learnt on one side to the other? Something something BoJack Zoolander

[@micahbush5397]

@@wheedler Maybe it's a consequence of the fact that most people are right-handed?

[@mostlyghostey]

@@wheedlerI looked it up once and I remember reading that it was because knights generally carried their swords on their left hip, so mounting from the left meant you were less likely to get tangled in your weaponry and it just got passed down through the ages. Now, at least in the US, we also enter cars on the left. So it's just a tradition that has been carried on for a long time.

[@misteral9045]

​@@wheedlerEx-husband of a competitive sport rider, 4H volunteer, and animal husbandry college major. No animal mount is trained to accept riders from a particular side. There are various reasons why riders will only mount from a particular side, for example show competitions are heavily rooted in routine and appearance, and using only one side during training helps the learning process, but it is never something specific that the mount is trained to do.

[@timothymclean]

Poor Edgar. Hated by the parser, tolerated by his beloved.

[@Mario583a]

Let's go Edgar, drop a train on her ~~ Strongbad

[@ObiWanBillKenobi]

But hunkified, so he wins in the end.

[@Brunosky_Inc]

Santa Claus: gift giver, speedrunner, whale expert.

[@Dwedit]

Obvious exits are North, South, and Dennis.

[@BBHood217]

And Jonathan.

[@kjarl]

Amazing comment!

[@joca3885]

You can't get ye flask!

[@Hardtopleeese]

The animutation dwedit!? I was a huge fan. You stay cool. Your adventure game tastes certainly are, as is flash cartoon. Keep on trianglin'.

[@icicleend]

I now choose to believe that "Obvious exits are north, south, and Dennis" was a reference to KQIV

[@shinyagumon7015]

Nothing is more symbolic of Sierra Online as a game developer than removing the night scene screens and removing the detail from the game instead of deleting the unused nighttime scenes from the Fairy Island. Also the way you explained the troll cave in the first video I assumed that the troll not spawning at the exit screen of the cave was a deliberate choice by the devs to make it the game a little less frustrating, what a fool I was! It's a Sierra Adventure Game of course they wouldn't make the game easier for players on propuse, it was a developer oversight this whole time!😅

[@KB-oh7xk]

"Let's just pay to redraw all the art assets of our already completed game to strip out the charm and character to save a few cents per copy" -A company that somehow went out of business

[@timothymclean]

To be fair, disk switching is annoying, and they did their best to preserve the charm. In the first video, OneShortEye even noted some screens where simplifying the background was a compositional improvement.

[@JPH1138]

Sierra actually did incredibly well on market share. I understand the real problem was selling the company to the second-largest white collar criminal in American history.

[@TheLaserFish]

I love watching youtube channels passionately discuss details to games I've never played and probably never will

[@MisterOfu]

With combined efforts I believe we can introduce "dennis" as a synonym for "wear" into modern slang.

[@FelisImpurrator]

Dennims?

[@ObiWanBillKenobi]

To be Frank, it was a precise fit for "Don," so I have Hope and Faith that we can use this Jones to have the Will to add Dennis, and doing so would bring a lot of Joy, but Mark my words, if any Average Joe Ralphs in a John somewhere along the Miles of the journey, it'll get Nicked and we'll have to Chuck it. I know, I'm so Jaded.

[@DamonNomad82]

11:37 "Think how silly she would look splashing around on dry land!" I actually managed to trigger a glitch related to this when playing the game as a kid. By sheer accident, I fell off the pier at the exact moment I was changing scenes from the landward end to the seaward end. When the screen changed scenes, Rosella was on top of the pier, but was striking an impossible pose. Fortunately, I had the presence of mind to immediately save the game so I could investigate the glitch. When I moved Rosella, she did a bizarre, gravity-defying dance along the pier. If I moved her off the pier, or back to the landward side, her motions went back to normal. I wasn't QUITE sure what was going on with it until I happened to type the "look around" command, at which point the game told me something to the effect of "you are swimming next to a pier"!

[@RedMage409]

This happened to me too! I could never replicate it, but it looked like she was walking while doing the falling animation at the same time.

[@yont3384]

Finally, a deep dive into whale teeth lore

[@nychold]

You still haven't pointed out a giant middle finger to KQ 4 players. If you leave the castle and reach the second mountain path (where Lolotte's goons pick you up) in the SCI version, where the game puts you is not where you need to reach to get back to the castle. You have to go to the left, where the player can't see, and climb around the mountain path to get back. Normally, you'd never encounter this, but if you forgot to get the talisman (like I did), you'll be mortified when Rosella falls off the cliff because in virtually every other screen in the game, where you enter you can leave. I don't know if this is still true in the AGI version of the game.

[@OneShortEye]

Oh my god, I see what you mean. That's crazy. Thanks for pointing it out! The AGI version does put you there, but you *do not* have to go around the bend where you can't see anything. You can just press up again.

[@DamonNomad82]

My family owned a physical copy of this game back in the day. I remember that based on the box art, I correctly deduced that the skull cave would be in the area surrounded by the grabby trees due to not seeing it in any of the places accessible before that point, but was very surprised that all showdowns with the witches went on in the cave's interior, as the screenshot had clearly shown them outside the cave...

[@Evanski]

a king should always Dennis his Jonathan

[@DeveloperDob]

Love these videos. I only ever played KQ5 as a kid, but now as a developer it's extra interesting to see how the series functioned under the hood.

[@FelisImpurrator]

Co-dev of Brew Barons? Awesome! I bought that but haven't gotten around to it, but I should. Aaaand Wastehaven wishlisted. I love finding indie devs on random videos. Especially when they have new interesting games to look forward to!

[@ObiWanBillKenobi]

16:21 I can't tell if this was a reference on purpose or not, but in the Strong Bad e-mail "Video Game," when Strong Bad is talking about text adventures, he gives an example of "Obvious exits are north, south, and Dennis." There is a very slim chance that that is a reference to this Dennis in KQ4.

[@OneShortEye]

I love Strong Bad, but I doubt it was intentional. I'm a Sierra nerd who surrounds himself with Sierra nerds. The "Dennis" thing in this game isn't in any FAQs or documentation anywhere that I've seen. Out of everyone I've talked to, the only people who knew about this are a couple of fellow speedrunners (smorrs and santaclaus). They only found out about it in the last couple of years, and only because we have access to SCI decompilers. SCI Studio (the first set of fan tools) wasn't out of beta until 2002, and the Strong Bad Video Game email came out in 2004. I'm not even sure if that version of SCI Studio could extract the word list. The alternative is that the Chapmans just got lucky, but it seems unlikely. Knowing their brand of humor, I'm guessing they were just being absurd.

[@arcticfoxsa]

Dennis Jonathan was in Conquests of Camelot: The Search for the Grail. I don't know much about it, but I guess he voiced King Arthur? But it came out in 1990, and KQ4 was 1988. My little mind is melting...

[@casmx7300]

Can't wait for the 3rd video with yet even more obscure King's Quest IV details. The people want their trilogy!

[@NTSTS0]

Hey look a video from the one KZbin channel I will watch immediately without hesitation. Before even watching: thanks for making this vid, and all the videos you do. You're one of my favorite creators on the platform.

[@Xentipiiides]

kq4 is my favorite king's quest game, so im glad you made a little more abt it

[@chickensniffer451]

You heard it here. The little green guy is Edgar, NOT Zelda

[@evanlane1690]

Coincidentally, "illegalBits" == "firstCousin" resolves to True in most builds... There's a bug in Appalachian builds of the game, though.

[@Kahran042]

I think the "rub" thing is meant to be ambiguous as to whether or not it's dirty.

[@jennyspresso]

Ye approach yon dungeon. Obvious exits are NORTH, SOUTH, and DENNIS.

[@BanzaiBenzai]

On the HomestarRunner game "Thy Dungeonman", they reference the "dennis" silliness. "Obvious Exits are North, South, and Dennis"

[@thekrautist]

Of course you'd have a bass guitar. I'm not the least bit surprised by this.

[@Zorothegallade-rpg]

"You have to put a space between the mother and the trucker" It's going to be pretty difficult to do the trucking, then.

[@JStryker47]

Wow... I was just thinking of the previous video when I opened up youtube, and... here this followup video was! Sweet! I never noticed that unicorn issue before. It kind of reminds me of the opening scene in UHF; where George fantasizes about being Indiana Jones and one of the men accompanying him (apparently a lefty) pulls a gun on him, but Jones uses his whip to sever the assailant's left arm... and then the man's *right* arm hits the ground instead. Kissing Edgar is something I never would've thought of trying, since there's never any moment where he's standing still while the player is in control. And the one moment he's on screen while the player is in control, is when he's on the other side of a door that stays locked until after he exits.

[@Hardtopleeese]

Okay, little horse lore for the unicorn part: did you know horses do not have connected brain halves. This means if you don't teach a horse that being approached from BOTH sides means being ridden then the horse freaks out because it has absolutely no idea what you are doing to it. They say to always approach a horse from the same side for this exact reason. So yes, this detail was completely unnecessary but highly accurate to actual horses.

[@helmaschine1885]

No animal has 2 seperate brain halves are you kidding me.😂 Please tell me you dont actually believe that? Horses are simply skittish herd and prey animals. The reason it's good to do things on both sides/directions is to help get them used to things so they arent scared or worried because of that. It's not that they cannot comprehend it. They're just animals that prefer routine and knowing what you expect of them.

[@lucasonfire_5214]

Hooray New Video! The best early present for Christmas! Merry Christmas!

[@tremorstudio9766]

I cannot wait for the end of King’s Quest speedrun saga with KQ2! (Also the fan remakes, of course)

[@hellaradusername]

I remember the 9 5 1/4" floppy discs and having to change them as you were like, walking through a meadow. The other games had disc changes where it made sense and there was some major change in the game (which made it seem cooler) but KQ4 went kinda nuts with this. The 3.5" discs were there too in smaller numbers taunting you with what could be if you had a newer computer.

[@CoryCapron]

You should be able to see the fairy island night locations by simply going to the island and letting the clock run down past 9pm (while entering and exiting the tower of course). Considering the number of ways to softlock the game without a guide, it wasn't as crazy an idea back in the late 80s - early 90s to wander aimlessly without progress for real-time hours, trying to pick up every curious pixel because you gave the diamonds to the poor fisherman and his wife without trying to return them to the rich dwarfs first. I can't recall if I ever saw the island at night, but it was pretty late in the day the first time my siblings and I found the island at all, despite what in hindsight were kinda obvious clues it should be out there beyond the sharks and whales.

[@CoryCapron]

It probably seems silly now, but KQ4 really was a graphical leap at the time, especially for kids that grew up with stuff like KQ1, Digger or Monuments of Mars for the. Heck, it was even a leap for households with first-wave NES games. Pixel art has found a lot of retro love in the last decade but at the time KQ4 actually got me interested in Mosaic art, even pointism. So besides the whole taking forever to beat because of softlocks and moon logic, it was also just one of the earliest examples of a game some people (me) liked to zone out exploring the world of because it was just pretty to look at.

[@OneShortEye]

I thought of that, actually, and tried it out! It doesn't work. The code for nightfall also checks the room numbers, and night cannot fall on Genesta's island or in the ocean.

[@CoryCapron]

Interesting! Thanks for clarifying. 👍🏻

[@TheRabidOgre]

The early art section reminds me of two vague memories I have. I swear I remember seeing an alternate cover for Quest for Glory 4 somewhere when it was new (actual differing artwork, not just the purple/white difference), and I also vaguely recall seeing a strange screenshot of Quest for Glory 3 in a magazine that used to fascinate me for not lining up with anything in the game. I can't trust those memories, but if you ever dig any of that sort of stuff up again I'd love to know if those memories were based on anything.

[@hawkticus_history_corner]

That intro was glorious. Much like this game

[@Blockhog]

Woop woop, new video pops up and I clickety click

[@Kinglink]

I would guarantee that Dennis Johnathan probably wrote the parser and included that as an in-joke to himself (donning the crown). Clever little thing that no one would find.

[@TeraunceFoaloke]

Nice new video and hilarious reaction to your new gifts under the tree.

[@phatasticpat5374]

Always enjoy when i get the notification for one of your videos

[@Dr_Slash]

About the door thing... I believe the same can happen with the dungeon cell door and the exit from the ogre's house. I don't remember the details though. The ogre's door is definitely version-dependant. And at 11:43, there seems to be a slight mistake on the book's part. What I believe it's actually supposed to say is that the game has no animation for Rosella landing in shallow water. Nothing to do with scripts. Guess now you're going to have to do another follow up! Sorry, I had to do it :D

[@OneShortEye]

Interesting about the ogre door! I figured there was *something* wrong with the book's explanation, I just wasn't sure exactly what.

[@polygon586]

In AGI, it's possible to get completely stuck *inside* the ogre door if you try to sneak in right behind the ogress. (And ropes or no ropes, at least the early versions of the SCI game still had multiple ways to make Rosella splash on the ground there!)

[@MattGreer]

Huh. I never gave the whale's teeth a second thought. But now that you pointed them out, they look really creepy.

[@holisticreviews]

A distressing number of computer games (any) feature animal characters with human teeth.

[@SUCHMISH]

That intro deserves a like!!

[@LillyPeppermint]

OK, something I've been thinking about since your long KQIV video. The uvula sits at the back of the whale's throat (that's why it is in shadow), so when Rosella tickles the whale, she is just tickling the roof of its mouth...

[@Mockthenerd]

Yes, you have entertained me for one year. You have paid your entertainment debt. Much appreciated. I shall stay now for bonus.

[@AraleNorimaki-b1c]

I have literally no interest in playing point and clicks, but you make it so exciting that I love learning about them!

[@evanlane1690]

Never played Kings Quest. Am not a speed runner. You post a new video? Let's gooo!

[@habaneroach]

is speedrunner santa claus a cetologist by day or something? 😂 the biology buff in me LOVED that entire tirade

[@magicmike618]

horses have a preference on which side they are saddled and mounted, maybe unicorns do too!

[@WFierce]

KQ4 updates provided by santa claus? It's a Christmas miracle!

[@Viehzerrer]

I find it amusing that this video dropped on the same day I realized that the doors in my AGS project are broken (as you can pass through them when they're closed, ironically, although the method is the same: You have to reenter a room you've been to before). Not as amusing as the only thing that Rosella can't attempt to kiss is her own love interest (well, future love interest, to be fair). On that note, I always disliked that she seems to seriously consider letting her father die, just to be with a guy she just met, at the end. The AGI version actually looks really nice. I wished it were available in the GOG version (along with the previous SCI one).

[@Epicname333]

I love this content about 30 year old games. Nostalgia is one hell of a drug

[@bookbagfox]

At the river cave, straight up "dennis it", and by "it", haha, well. let's justr say. My Jonathan.

[@Crowley9]

Perhaps we can never be truly done with King's Quest IV. We can only choose to say goodbye to it.

[@Omnicrom]

I am hugely relieved that the mystery of the whale's teeth has finally been solved.

[@jesternario]

What a wonderful holidays gift! Thankyou OneShortEye Claus!

[@sarahkelley3455]

Oh hello another video about my favorite game from OneShortEye, Merry Christmas to me!

[@OneShortEye]

Thanks! You rule!

[@swempytimes]

Another great video! I've been watching speed runs of QFG4 and I'm curious about why that game takes the longest to speedrun

[@PristineTX]

As a great song once said (almost): 🎶 “If you’re wondering why the whale has teeth like that, and other science facts… You should say to yourself ‘It’s just an adventure game, I should really just relax.’” 🎵

[@screetchycello]

Come for the video game history, stay for the whale teeth pedantry

[@larsthedude1984]

Unrelated to anything, but OneShortEye reminds me of my cousin in looks and a bit in mannerisms. He’s a history teacher and named his twin boys Madison and Lincoln.

[@lacknerflorian7254]

This was some work work it out all this stuff ,. ty forshare , wish an nice day

[@professorhazard]

So why did that text @11:44 refer to Rosella as Ego?

[@RedMage409]

Ego is what the game calls the player character in adventure games of the time.

[@professorhazard]

@@RedMage409 Thanks!

[@abysscallstoabyss55]

Love this game and the franchise. 👌 Thanks for the video, man! 🍻

[@NTSTS0]

Yo the Egoraptor whAAAAAAAAAAAt was on point btw.

[@MonochromeWench]

Nice use of the Xmas Card demo. Rosella would eventually change her mind about Edgar being nothing special and not wanting to kiss him

[@MajoradeMayhem]

Don't even think about picking up a Sierra game unless you know the difference between a baleen whale and a toothed whale.

[@TalenLee]

I really hope Santa Claus' day job is secretly like, icthyologist

[@karnov9248]

Slightly disappointed you didn't get the Santa voice actor to read the whale rant

[@falselogic]

Wonder if the mouth design of the whale took inspiration from Disney Pinocchio's Monstro?

[@micahbush5397]

5:12 Does the transition to night not happen if you're on Genesta's island? I would think the night screens should be accessible, provided you arrive on the island during the day and wait until nightfall.

[@OneShortEye]

Nope! The code that makes day turn to night also checks which screen you're on. Night will not fall if you're on Genesta's island or in the ocean.

[@VTuber_Central]

i thought the "why did the whale have human teeth" was implied too….

[@homersimpson6985]

Whale Veneers. New band name, called it.

[@Sevenigma777]

I can't believe the word "turd" is on the SCI dirty word list.

[@AntipaladinPedigri]

16:18 the worst thing she can say is "no" Her:

[@rosebomb]

Now do King's Quest I-III and V-Mask of Eternity your liege demands it!

[@Macswaggens]

good to see more christmas maps

[@actionvestadventure]

All i got from beating KQ4 was a 'signed' certificate. Which i laminated and still have to this day heh. Damn... i should have brought that with me to the AGFF...

[@danmanx2]

A+ Video. Now I know more about KQ whales and I love to Dennis Johnathan's. I can't wait for Part 3!

[@blakecasimir]

You know you have to do this for every game in the series, right? :D Well, at least a few more...

[@Vehrec]

You should have done a Santa Claus impression for the season.

[@Big_Dai]

@10:58 OH, where can I see those??

[@micahbush5397]

18:21 Technically, Rosella hasn’t been swallowed, because she's still in the whale's mouth. If she went down its throat and into the esophagus, _then_ she would have been swallowed.

[@OneShortEye]

You're correct, though the game does say "You've been swallowed." Also, the SCI version calls that bottom part of thr screen the whale's stomach, while the AGI version calls it the whale's mouth.

[@micahbush5397]

@OneShortEye Well, it's not like Sierra is known for getting its terminology straight. Just look at the poisonous vs. venomous snake issue.

[@ChaosPootato]

Sluicebox, absolute GOAT.

[@darkowl9]

Hang on... isn't the day/night on a timer (as well as some manual triggers plot-wise)? What happens if you're on Genesta's island when the time ticks over?

[@polygon586]

Night will not fall! There *might* be some crazy glitchy way to see the night screens anyway, but so far I think people have only seen them in-game in debug mode.

[@SwiftthePony]

Never clicked a video so quickly

[@MagusMarquillin]

I could have sworn you had to tell Rosella to pick up the board again, or else be left without a way to cover those last few feet to the fruit - but I tested my copy just now and she does pick it up automatically. I wonder If this is a real memory or just what I expect a Sierra game to do.

[@polygon586]

You have to pick it up manually *after* the fruit so you can cross the chasm again 🙂

[@MagusMarquillin]

@@polygon586 Yeah, maybe that was it (maybe probably), but at least there you know you need it, and you can actually see it. It's just amusing that after all the horror of the troll cave design, Roberta did something helpful, and I was sure that she didn't.

[@overseerpjoe9477]

Edgar doesn't deserve the hate. Justice for Edgar.

[@ThroughTheLensOfAutism]

I mentioned in a comment in the last video that it is possible to travel from room 21 to room 26, as if these rooms are connected by a diagonal. Did you, or anyone, verify if this is possible anywhere else in the game?

[@polygon586]

There's a lot of odd geometry, but most of it involves entering the expected screen, just at unexpected coordinates. I don't remember off the top of my head if there are other diagonal room transitions on the Tamir mainland, but it's very common for the shortest path between two points to go through multiple unexpected screen transitions for the coordinate warps.

[@smallcutepuppy]

I definitely interpreted the "rub self" response as massaging a sore shoulder, but in my defense I was, like, 11?

[@RTukka]

Eh, it's the more sensible interpretation. We usually don't speak in terms of sex acts making you feel "better," rather they make you feel "good." Whereas massaging a sore muscle does make you feel better. Maybe it was intended to be ambiguous, but it's a lot more subtle and clear-cut than if it said something like, "Ah, that feels nice."

[@JerryFlowersIII]

as always, thanks for the Whale facts.

[@lp0pic]

Please do more Monkey Island content in the future or any other Lucas Arts adventure games

[@JonRenish]

If you want a full capture of the live action King's Quest IV commercial I have an original VHS

[@OneShortEye]

Do you have a way of digitizing it in HQ? If so, that would be cool! Almost all of the ones online are either degraded or low bitrate.

[@JonRenish]

@@OneShortEye Yeah, I did a transfer of it a couple years ago. It's ~365mb for the raw file if that's what you want.

[@OneShortEye]

@@JonRenish Yes! I would love that. You can DM me on discord or bluesky. Or if there's another way you'd prefer, let me know.

[@SD965]

"And speaking of more useless knowledge..." *ad break*

[@genericname2747]

I love small details

[@jacksonreynolds7433]

Posted 11 seconds ago. Im so here

[@dangoodall1253]

I needed this.

[@brittislove]

Where do I get that sick shirt!

[@OneShortEye]

I recommend the tri-blend (extra soft): www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/36533480-sierra-faded-logo

[@v7deonasty]

I like how fart is a dirty word

[@SushiElemental]

Woah, are you trying to get banned? Keep it down!