Hero's Quest: So You Want To Be A Hero (PC/DOS) Longplay, EGA 16-color, 1989, Sierra

The little town of Spielburg is populated mostly by beer-drinking humans and some centaurs who like working in the field. Spielburg is surrounded by forests and mountains, where all kinds of weird creatures dwell: ogres, goblins, talking foxes, stupid magicians, and others. Lately, Spielburg has been assaulted by brigands; besides, the witch Baba Yaga is not to be trusted. The town has everything it needs--even a Thieves Guild--except a strong, brave hero who would protect it. So when a wandering adventurer enters the town, he quickly realizes that his skills might be of use.
Hero's Quest: So You Want to Be a Hero is a hybrid game that contains Role-Playing and Adventure elements. It is visually very similar to other Quest titles by Sierra (such as for example Space Quest), but the gameplay--besides the usual exploration, conversations with characters, and the solving an occasional puzzle with the help of inventory items--also involves combat and character development. In the beginning of the game, the player chooses a character class for the protagonist--either a Fighter, a Mage, or a Thief. The choice of class will influence not only the combat, but also many other events in the game. Puzzles might have different solutions depending on the class and the amount of ability points in various categories.
The main character's skills and abilities are raised directly by repeatedly performing appropriate actions, e.g. fighting enemies, practicing, climbing, throwing objects, etc. Many of those activities are necessary to perform in order to successfully complete the game. Combat takes the player to a separate screen (represented by the enemy's picture) and involves timed selection of commands such as Attack, Parry, etc. The interaction with the game-world is performed by typing verb commands or conversation topics.
The game features a day/night cycle, which also includes character schedules. The main character can get hungry and tired, so feeding him and getting some rest is essential. -mobygames

[@peteh6247]

One day in 1990, when i was 11 years old, my Dad brought this game home for me. We sat at the Amiga 500 together and loaded it up. Absolutely everything about this game enthralled me. I completely fell into it, in a way only 11 year olds can. I didn't just play this game. I lived it. And it was easily one of the most important and influential moments of my childhood. More than 30 years later I mounted a print of Speilburg on the wall of my living room. Thanks Dad.

[@JosephJohn-fb9wx]

similar story here. I loved this game and played it on a Packard Bell DOS machine with an Intel 8086 chip.

[@TheMedievalNerd]

Those graphics just tug at my heartstrings. One of the most memorable games of my childhood. It took me years to be able to play it at my house. My friend who owned it could only play it on his dad's computer. It was a rare occasion when he would let us use it. Not sure if it played a role in making this game a hallmark of my childhood but I'll never forget it regardless.

[@nicholasgiulotti]

38 year old here just got transported to my childhood when I was on my parents computer playing this.. hitting me right in the feels right now

[@Kinsman19]

Awesome play-through. My favorite game ever. Replaying this game always feels like coming home.

[@behanflaherty9460]

This was my a fav too. They have nothing like it today

[@ncbully7630]

would play this for hours , c:\sierra

[@christopherpooler5398]

I used to play this with my friends every weekend, up all night, on my Tandy computer. One of the best all time PC games of the 80's. My personal favorite. Baba Yaga gave me the creeps when I was younger lmao

[@scottcallahan8884]

The old Tandy 1000 with CGA

[@ManiacKomplex]

@fat dork you posted a video of Virtual Pro Wrestling 2 yet are trying to criticize someone else about a video game? lol do you even know how fucking stupid you are? lol get some help dude

[@ManiacKomplex]

nutssssssss late nights with homies playing anything Sierra, brings back some good memories

[@ManiacKomplex]

@fat dork no this is continuing to act out like a prepubescent virgin. i said "get some help"

[@whitak3r]

Spent 30+ hours and never made it that far. I was pretty young playing it. Man how the world was different.

[@JEppsLars]

Love this game. I could never have beaten this in this amount of time. Seems like i played it for years, lol.

[@spacemonkey5470]

That moment when you're dirt rich but you rake leaves for 5 silvers every 5 minutes

[@matn7743]

Wow! What a trip down memory lane. I couldn't remember the name of this game and have searched many online retro gaming sources to find it, only to stumble upon your video while looking for Hero Quest the board game content. Thanks heaps for posting this.

[@Glennmc7]

I started my gaming Career with this game I was nown as Xcopy Hero in the DOS world.

[@champmeister]

I used to load up the game just to hang out in Erana's Peace. Great memories

[@Vic292]

Omg I used to love playing this game as a child. Must’ve been like 1998 or 1999. Such good memories.

[@AmbientWalking]

Amazing! What a great walk thru! Thank you so much! Brings back so many memories!

[@zenon3021]

this made my week, thanks P.S - when you killed the ogre (in front of the kobolt lair) you forgot to crack open the treasure chest by his body!

[@pyrofan80]

Zenon I was shouting at the screen about this!

[@imperia777]

Awesome EGA graphics

[@jaybee9716]

Learned english, to type and to love RPGs playing this.

[@andydressler6761]

They need an epic remake of this gamr

[@sarahsovereign]

This takes me back so much, loved this game as a kid

[@MsSteveman]

wow i forgot about hero quest awesome stuff! love the old school PC adventure games thanks!

[@Luckyleft13]

I ran through this game probably 20 times, all the different character types were fun. The first “leveling up” open world game that I can remember.

[@lawrencefosterjenkins8216]

i'm only now watching longplays of this series in 2023, but the combination of it being both an adventure game and an RPG seems super intimidating to me as someone who's not good enough of a gamer to play both at once. but the fact that you can thank merchants is such a nice charming touch.

[@DaerBR]

2020. Just can't stop watching one of my lovely games! Thank you sir!

[@InflatableConan]

Oh wow this is like the longest play-thru I've seen you do so far! Nice work, Thriftweed! Love the new avatar as well haha cheers and Grog for all!

[@MoonsaultMadLad]

Used to play this growing up in the mid 90s. Loved this game

[@Kinsman19]

2:06:59 That fairy circle music is still some of the most beautiful and haunting I've ever heard.

[@thefonzkiss]

The Roland version has the hero melody constantly playing in the Spielburg streets. The non Roland doesn’t do that. Or the Amiga.

[@MoobsAlwaysFumbles]

Use to buy all of the Sierra games with my best friend, we'd split the 5 1/4 and 3 1/2 disks

[@annemarievanderwesthuizen5962]

I absolutely LOVED this game

[@DaerBR]

2018. Sierra forever!

[@delzav4872]

Nice reference with that name :) bunny, ball ball

[@1857classic]

I first played this on a 8086 with Hercules Monochrome and old floppy disks. Great game.

[@cosmefulanito6713]

43 yo. I remember climbing the tree outside the healers house 1000 times to get that max climbing skill XD

[@patrickb.8485]

oh wow, the feels.......so many memories here.

[@MarkShawMedia]

Many late nights playing this way back. Very good memories. They should make games more like this today...with better graphics of course.

[@christopherpooler5398]

M Shaw, I think the graphics is part of what made this game. All old games for that matter.

[@TheMedievalNerd]

Indeed a marvel of a game. Considering the time it came out, it was some sort of hybrid cross between graphical adventures, RPG & open world game. Sierra totally hit the nail on the head with this one.

[@nieklucassen4748]

I'm not a big gamer, but playing Breath of the Wild on the Nintendo Switch was a similar experience for me.

[@BubblegumCrash332]

This brings back memories. I played this on my Tandy 1000. It ran at a snails pace. It would take me 5 mins to walk across the screen lol

[@helorumtheknightsofmambrin2155]

Because our computer was so slow and in the basement, while waiting for the screens to load, I had time to execute several skateboard tricks.

[@nieklucassen4748]

Gadzooks, what a game! I started playig this around 1992, I think. I was 6 and I learned English from this game. My father wrote a list of commands you could do (look at, search body, fight, run etc) and I spent hours and hours playing and also finding out what I had to do in certain places. I had no idea what to do in the Kobold cave and I remember having dreams about it. Also, ever so often the graveyard is still a part of my dreams 30 years later. I remember I used to save my game religiously, but one time I saved it after ordering a glass of Dragon's Breath. That was a bad idea. I started playing it again around 2001, using a walkthrough for some parts, and for the first time I knew what to do with Baba Yaga, the Baronet and enter the brigand hideout

[@shanilmisra]

I spent waaaay too many hours on this game in my youth. Brings back pleasant memories. Did you ever manage to complete QG4? That game was so buggy and I could never get past a main quest bug.

[@devilsoffspring5519]

These games were fun for what they were. I also remember Police Quest II, with more ways to croak than there are in DCS World :)

[@JStryker47]

You can get rid of the antwerp if you attack him, then go up a screen, and "use dagger" (sword, if you're a fighter) before he lands on you. Also, when you get to the warlock, you're supposed to talk to him. When you ask about Elsa, Yorick, or the curse, he'll realize that you're there to help and will leave to go set up the escape route.

[@Xakryn]

This game makes my heart happy.

[@fuckgoogle8661]

Had this on the amiga. Loved it. Going to try playing it on my a500 mini soon.

[@paulmillbank3617]

I played all three incarnation of So you want to be a Hero. I miss the simple structure and investigative aspect of these games. Someone should do a modernized reboot of this game.

[@shanilmisra]

Oh BTW what sound card did you select to generate the sounds and music? I had an Adlib but I suspect the Roland option was much better.

[@daybydayx]

I love this game

[@ncbully7630]

yoooooo lmao good memories here

[@daLukasMain]

Climb up. Climb down. There wasn't a kid alive on this planet who could type that as fast as me LOL

[@philsurtees]

I started playing Dungeons & Dragons in the 1970's, and then AD&D when it came along. I remember when King's Quest came along, and I absolutely loved it, and several of the other Sierra games - like Space Quest - but when this came along it blew my mind, the way it actually had aspects of RPG's, with character choices and progression, etc. I played it with my father. Anyway ... I'm back here because I've been playing Hogwarts Legacy on the PS5 and that game is absolutely incredible. I decided to go back and see how far we've come since then...

[@TheSk909]

Thanks for longplay!

[@spectreman2532]

Hero Quest/Quest for Glory and Police Quest were always my favorites. I liked the serious ones more.

[@jeffreysbrother]

The music seems different than what I remember. Is there another version?

[@Falkenroth1]

Strange my copy doesn’t have the birds in the background while in the forest.

[@KennTollens]

Awesome the original version without the menus. I remember playing this on my upgraded 30 mb hard drive gaming system, it took 20 seconds or more to walk across the screen.

[@Happy_HIbiscus]

Dude,this is cool

[@SalvoDan]

Multi class grinding for Stats was difficult but rewarding. You could use your saved character in Trial by Fire. You could pick up and throw stones and max out Throwing in one day. Stealth was annoying, sneaking through the forest and hoping you didn’t get attacked. Magic spells were more time consuming, but doable by resting and casting. Climbing was difficult, up and down the Healers tree until you went mad. Combat skills could be honed against the trainer in that castle and by committing Goblin Genocide over and over and then going out for big game at night. Lock picking was difficult in SYWTBAH, but Trial by Fire had lots of doors in quiet corridors of Shapeir and Raseir full of bolted doors to practice on.

[@I_Am_Killer_B]

Man, Quest For Glory I was a total rip-off of this game!

[@I_Am_Killer_B]

Wayne Daniel Michael I was indeed joking.

[@RabidTales]

lol. Wayne, you missed the joke altogether. Brian wasn't making a sarcastic reference to the board game. He was making a sarcastic claim that the reboot was a rip off of the original. So i don't know why u mentioned the board game. Nothing to do with the board game. LOL !

[@AChannelFrom2006]

@Wayne Daniel Michael The dodgy thing about that is that Sierra had the name Hero's Quest first. But I wouldn't expect any better from a subsidiary of Hasbro. Milton Bradley designers were like... hmmm what name can be steal... oh there's this new Sierra game... *rub their hands together*.. lets trademark the name and then try to sue Sierra.

[@JamesBrown-ym3tc]

That was awesome

[@les121476]

sure miss those days

[@thefonzkiss]

Audio is noticeably different with whatever setting you’re using. The drums in the intro sound much more realistic.

[@xpoisonivyx]

He could be using a Roland mt-32 or emulator like munt instead of the usual adlib /sound blaster sound.

[@fluffstuffpootiebean1688]

Does it bother anyone else to an unreasonable degree that the text clearly stated the Ogre was carrying a treasure chest and he didn't search the chest? I can't get over this.

[@mikecassidy9185]

It's really bothering me lmaoooo

[@AChannelFrom2006]

This is the only true Hero's Quest.

[@waynem4791]

As a thief you got no points for killing poor Toro (well wounding him as we find out later), I think you were supposed to sneak past him when his back is turned.

[@SirMonkeyoftheBrook]

Did anyone else get a strange error message fighting the Kobold, saying that youve done something the creators hadn't thought about?

[@Amor1990]

Turn down the speed to the lowest when you fight, it’s pretty easy & you lose health much less You forget to search the treasure chest next to the ogre?

[@apemant]

2:11:06 Forest night music

[@davonc7973]

How did you get the game to sound like this? Which setting

[@MordacksOrgan]

This is the Roland MT-32. On modern computers you can use an MT-32 emulator called Munt.

[@Amor1990]

I would accumulate as much money as I could before I started walking slow & then I would save my character to import for Hero’s Quest 2

[@blipblap614]

Who do you talk to to learn about the "thief sign?" Is it in-game, or was it part of the copy protection?

[@TheMedievalNerd]

@1:09:16 I randomly jumped in your timeline and ended up seeing you die in combat. Did you manage to do the entire game just stabbing relentlessly? If so, kudos to you my man. I actually found combat to be rather fun when you get into it. Making a multi-class hero was my jam. Combining dazzle and throwing daggers was quite a fun way to exploit the combat system. You did end up having to carry way to many daggers, but it was a hoot to do. Cast Dazzle. Throw dagger. Throw Dagger. Cast Dazzle. Etc. :)

[@SalvoDan]

I used to think that the brigands were sneezing everything time they were stabbed. That’s what the animation looked like!

[@Whoisthisjen]

Nooo Torro was Elsa’s friend 😭

[@Allstin]

Remember Vampyr? The old one? I don’t think it ever got a proper ending!

[@robertruiz98]

Hudson Hawk great movie

[@YearoftheMosquito]

Peace to the God Sector

[@deanyktru9944]

1:01:40 Threw all your daggers and caught unarmed.

[@donwald3436]

Did you blind run this with a walkthrough lol.

[@thriftweeds]

I have completed this game few times in my past, but i cant always remember all the things so i mostly have walkthough tab open on the side when i replay these.

[@SemiPerfectDark]

I remember being a magic user and trying to kill the Cobalt with fireballs and I hit an error because the didn't apparently write a scenario where you defeat the Cobalt with fireballs so I weakened the Cobalt with fireballs and then stabbed it repeatedly with a dagger. Did anyone else have that issue?

[@iscariotpaladin5363]

love the name of the char

[@terryechoes3192]

Ron Gilbert must be spinning in his grave.

[@robertschreen9854]

Is this game still attainable? I spent so many hours trying to beat it.

[@theroberthogarth]

It's available on Steam (on PC) and goes on sale regularly!

[@christopherpooler5398]

Can someone give me a link to be able to download this game? I have a computer and I'm about to download an emulator. I'd appreciate any help. Thanks!

[@andydressler6761]

Its on gog.com quest for glory

[@seanhart9706]

The games also much easier if you dont type with your feet

[@mikecassidy9185]

I gave up trying to read the text. He clears it way too quickly.

[@psilocybemusashi]

use spacebar to pause

[@harrypothead]

Funny I always chose the thief playing these games

[@xxxDEV1xxx]

4:05:33 if you dance for them, you dance so hard it kills you

[@vegaslowblower8781]

Had a nes and pc and games were so different

[@seanhart9706]

If it didnt take 60 seconds for you to type 3 words this wouldnt be a longplay lol

[@thriftweeds]

Not all people are perfect you know?

[@seanhart9706]

@@thriftweeds im kidding lol. Some editing may help though

[@tomasauren918]

mm i dont know this game..

[@aratneerg1375]

Guess this is where skyrim got its ideas gr From.

[@jkfdkjjd]

Sorry, I really appreciate you playing this game and I would upvote and actually watch your video but I came here to watch AND hear the sounds. So downvote, sorry again.

[@jkfdkjjd]

NVM watched a bit furthur and it just happened that the parts I skipped too didn't have as much sound as I was used too. I remember the theme music starting ASAP however yours is different. Still sad to me in a way, but upvote.

[@thefonzkiss]

Wtf the sound is correct. Delete your comment.

[@blipblap614]

@@jkfdkjjd Must be something about dosbox. I had the same reaction, Sierra logo and no theme? MIDI still sounds wrong to me... no way pops was shelling out for a Sound Blaster in 1990, hahaha.