Why (almost) No One Runs this Game | King's Quest III Speedrun History

[@OneShortEye]

Notes and Addenda 00:00 Here, I'm focusing on Any% runs of the main series DOS games. There are certainly King's Quest games with less activity than KQIII, like the Sega Master System version of KQI, the Infamous Adventures remake of KQIII, or the Amiga version of KQVI. Clarifying all of this seemed like too much in the first ten seconds. 00:15 There are really six runners if you include categories besides Any%, though that activity is minimal: RetroTKS (ScummVM) and myself (unsubmitted Doge%). 07:38 There are, in fact, some few cases where you do need to use prepositions, like "put dough on desk" during the spell casting. But, in the majority of cases, these can be omitted. 09:00 The timer starts when you board the ship. Since runners have to grab the box, grab their inventory, and walk to the balcony, they technically aren't doing "nothing" for the full 14 minutes, but it's close enough. 08:20 Here's an additional bit of information about the boat (which doesn't factor into any WRs), courtesy of SantaClaus: "If you waited for Manannan to leave on a journey, an additional rule applies: once you board the ship, Manannan won't appear until the seconds on the game clock show "04 (after the first "04 on the ship he can appear at any time). This makes it easy to dodge Manannan just by boarding the ship at a good time; for example, if you board the ship with the game clock at 0:10:05 you have a whopping 59 seconds to get the box, drop it in place, jump up, climb the ladder, open the chest, get back your stolen possessions and head into the safety of the stern without needing to worry about Manannan at all." 13:50 There's also a 100% category that was routed by BillBull. To date, no one has completed a run.

[@potterinhe11]

'Fiver Budget ran out' wow money must be tight,

[@_-Lx-_]

That Fivver Santa was glorious

[@camanando]

Wow

[@sparklesparklesparkle6318]

this is sad people have free time and do this instead of dismantling white supremacy.

[@supremechaosbeing2696]

@@sparklesparklesparkle6318 this feels highly unrelated

[@erinnguyen4844]

I feel like a literal evil wizard that appears and kills you for spending longer than 8 seconds on any given screen is absolutely perfect for a speedrun game lol

[@Wolf99555]

I think its an issue of it basically being an autoscroller at that point. It prevents an interesting things like spending 10 seconds on one screen to save 3 seconds on the next 5

[@ahall9839]

haha literally i literally literally literally. Literally!

[@datachunks1737]

@@ahall9839 Um, they didn’t say literally, they said literal. Once.

[@ahall9839]

@@datachunks1737 Literally?

[@MDmattix]

@@ahall9839 You're wrong nerd, accept it.

[@LucarioredLR]

7:16 King's Quest 3 may not have the "oldest game where you can pet the dog" title but it sure does have the "oldest game where you become a catgirl/catboy" one

[@oceanman_8370]

Unfathomably based

[@gremlinman9724]

what about zork

[@RagnarokCo]

what about oldest game with jiggle physics?

[@Infomaniac_Moment]

I hate you for saying that.

[@herette]

@@RagnarokCo half life had jiggle physics

[@Wolf99555]

Shout outs to Santa's voice actor, he really give it his all

[@Roescoe]

Voice actor? I'm pretty sure he got a relative or Santa himself.

[@Tomix4k]

Erh... yeah... voice actor...

[@RudyG.Numpad]

Actually god like

[@Sorrelhas]

Santa deniers be like "must have been a voice actor"

[@LaurieKoudstaal]

Hear! hear!

[@Alex-mu6sm]

them: struggling to decide how to spend their 14 minutes of wait time twilight princess low% speedrunners: being able to do an entire day's worth of errands, eat 3 full meals, and sleep before their 24 hour wait time is up

[@OneShortEye]

I saw a video about that run. Can't even imagine. :)

[@monochrome3168]

With 14 minutes you have nothing to do, you must stay close to the computer in case you lose track of time, with 24 hours you can basically do anything

[@Woodledude]

Now what we need is for people to run that game, run THIS game in the middle of that, and then find a third game to run during the boat trip. Three overlapping speedruns.

[@TheFremontTroll07]

There is some game where you have to wait 2 weeks for something to happen for speed running the game

[@Woodledude]

@@TheFremontTroll07 You might be talking about The Longing, which yeah, would be PERFECT for this ridiculous idea. If it's not the game you're talking about, it might even be a game you could wrap AROUND the one you're talking about (yes, The Longing is that insanely... Long.)

[@joels5150]

The first time I played through KQ 3, I got to Daventry without defeating Manannan. He kept appearing and killing me during the boat trip, so eventually I realized he couldn’t appear while I was in the crow’s nest. I hid up there, waiting for the boat to make land, then I quickly jumped off the ship. Once in Daventry, he never appeared. I guess I was secretly doing a speed run on my first attempt 😯

[@OneShortEye]

Yes! Crow's nest is another place Manannan can't get you. It's farther away than the balcony, so that's why runners don't use it. Cool that you were able to find it.

[@sha11235]

Uh, you can't get into the crow's nest.

[@OneShortEye]

@@sha11235 I had assumed joels5150 meant the SCREEN with the crow's nest, but you're right, technically you can't get into the crow's nest itself.

[@davidh8367]

The cat cookie spell and foiling the desert Medusa were nerve wracking

[@ZorotheGallade]

I can imagine Manannan scrying on you and being like "Dang, I really should teleport in and disintegrate him but that view is amazing, let's wait till he moves to a less scenic position."

[@KevTyGaming]

Update: Santa managed to bring his time down to sub 19 minutes as of 2 days ago. The absolute madman.

[@dovahkiin53839]

POG!

[@lu546]

POG!

[@MissDarknSpooky]

POG!

[@feesh8551]

sub 18 now

[@saintkupo7164]

Guess he has some downtime with the holidays being over.

[@TonkarzOfSolSystem]

12:14 They didn't just reuse the screen, it's the exact same location. Alexander is in Daventry at this point in the game.

[@Jon4270]

I loved that they did that. It really connects the two games together, and makes them feel like they take place in the same universe, instead of just being in the same series.

[@aitan6593]

Love runners like Santa. The type of people who have the passion, intuition, and dedication to really push a category

[@eugenezaretskiy683]

The Santa Claus voice-overs... both of them.... amazing. Thank you.

[@OneShortEye]

Glad you enjoyed them! And thank you for your support.

[@andrewgillium]

sounds like sheogorath

[@ghoulbuster1]

Shotouts to the voice actor!

[@OjoRojo40]

It was unbearable, I had to skip the parts when he was talking. Thanks for the vid! It was really cool.

[@Torthrodhel]

@@andrewgillium mortal, do you mean to suggest grand ol' uncle Sheo spends his day once a year delivering gifts to the good girls and boys of the Shivering Isles? Why, I do that every month and a half! They hate it! Hohohohohoho, they universally hate it! Incidentally, has anyone seen my reconfiguration cudgel? I thought I left it by the self-replicating... oh no, forgive my self-censorship. I've promised Haskill to speak no more of wheels of dairy, you see. Something called a meme crawled in and started feeding off that particular word. Oh he doesn't know I promised, but I know I promised, and to jump rrrope with a promise to meself, why - I'd have to be MAD! And I AM mad! Because I'm angry. Or am I hungry? Sticking broken promises back together is fernickety, and muddlesome you see. Perhaps I'd rather find something else broken to stick back together. YOU! You don't look broken. But you could! So go complete that quest I sent ye on. Or suffer the wrath of sticky promises! Or broken sentences? Or toffee fences! Or hidden places? AH! My reconfiguration cudgel is found. And you're still around... oh, hohoho! MERRY CHRISTMAS!

[@hrpang]

You know, Santa Claus is like the ultimate speedrunner. What do you expect from the man who can give gifts to children all over the world in one night?

[@random_midis]

ya he moves at like half the speed of light

[@Quisaermvurt]

I think he got a PB last year

[@valletas]

Well i guess 2 nights because timezones

[@ZX3000GT1]

6:26 1/8 chance of getting the feather only between 2-14 seconds Game once you get it : Ok. Perfection

[@Stratelier]

"OK" may have been just a default response for a successful command (with no accompanying scripting or flavortext) but it is SO MEMEABLE.

[@buzzlightyearpfp7641]

honestly some of these mechanics feel like they could be really cool in a... better designed game. NPC's having specific schedules and routines, and the complex spell casting system really makes it feel ahead of its time

[@MrSkerpentine]

I mean the fact that they tried it at ALL in a genre and era of computer games that was still somewhat getting accustomed to having *moving graphics* goes to show how innovative and creative Roberta Williams was for those of the same time

[@bd9299292]

I have to say, trying to play this game back in 1986/87 as an 11 year-old, without the benefit of online walkthroughs, with only me and my dumb friends trying to work out what to do, was brutally difficult. The spell-making was very punishing. I was finally able to turn the wizard into a cat, but I honestly don't remember if I encountered anything beyond that.

[@Helladamnleet]

As a kid my best friend and I (Fred if you're out there) spent a couple weeks in the summer playing KQ 1-7 using his mom's official guide book. We skipped over 3. I remember a Leisure Suit Larry from around this ere being harder than shit in the same vein

[@bricaaron3978]

My mature opinion is now that King's Quest III is just a very poorly designed game. I really don't think that it is what the overwhelming majority of people would consider fun gameplay. Sierra tried something different, and I'm glad they left it as a failed experiment. Don't get me wrong -- time has also made me realize that the King's Quest games in general are not as well-designed as I once believed, but KQ3 is the only one I find unplayable.

[@Jon4270]

It's only really bad because you can't skip the waits, even if you've got everything done. At least KQ IV fixed that issue.

[@timothymclean]

@@bricaaron3978 Fair, but I want to see more adventure game devs look at failed experiments like this and try to make them work instead of sticking to the successful formulas. We know the successful formulas work, what about this stuff?

[@bricaaron3978]

@@timothymclean Absolutely.

[@MahDryBread]

I love the concept of Kings Quest 3, but I could never get anything done in it. Cool to see runs of it!

[@VenturiLife]

It's a brilliant game actually. I really enjoyed completing it.

[@hawkticus_history_corner]

I have once again found you in a video I have just stumbled across. And yes, my god this seems terribly difficult

[@snozzlehead92]

The King's Quest III remake makes it easier to run.

[@shinyagumon7015]

Came her to hear about King's Quest, learned about Santa's favourite off time activity instead.

[@OneShortEye]

Everyone needs a hobby.

[@SvendleBerries]

Santa needs to keep his speedrun chops sharp for the Christmas 100% run at the end of each year.

[@lowfatlatte0]

Rubbing his rock lol

[@tylociraptor8131]

As a non-speedrunner, and as someone who really only sees the hobby through videos about it and about specific runners.... I love that we can have names like xX420BlazeItXx or "Santa Claus" like.... y'all got range.

[@sephikong8323]

xX420BlazeItXx is a reoccurring character in the speed running community of way more games than you'd imagine or be comfortable with for such a name lmao

[@tylociraptor8131]

@@sephikong8323 as a big pothead I support the hell out of his endeavors lol

[@Katzerax]

Yep. As a speedrunner, I just go by K

[@CLOYO]

@@tylociraptor8131 That sounds really cringe lmao

[@elliottchristie648]

@@CLOYO bro who asked? Like why u gotta bring him down? Let him enjoy his hobby.

[@bud389]

Well, now we know how Santa Claus delivers all those presents so quickly every year....HE ABUSES ZIPS.

[@massgunner4152]

[Sticky fingers]

[@MountainMemelord]

@@massgunner4152 Zipper Man*

[@1wngdngl]

Just wanted to say how much I love the line "Santa Claus boards the pirate ship".

[@doefarris2189]

Giving me BIG "Santa Claus meets the Ice Cream Bunny" flashbacks

[@MrSkerpentine]

I remember seeing a video on that terrible Elf Bowling movie and I’m pretty sure that film starts with the idea that Santa Claus started as an evil pirate lmao

[@amstan3896]

That santa voice was HILARIOUS, added quite a lot to this video. I don't usually care about speedrunning, but this was well presented, watched the whole thing.

[@raharuko]

its crazy to think it took that long for runners to realize they could fly down the path as a fly, i could never get down normally as a kid lololol

[@OneShortEye]

I find this is something that happens a lot in games with very few runners. There are fewer people to bounce ideas off of, and to point out things that are "obvious" in hindsight.

[@MegaTrojan21]

The critical and thorough analysis of a totally obscure speed run with in-depth and well written commentary and interviews of notable runners is truly impressive. I really enjoyed your personal tone and almost conversational presentation. Congratulations on your mastercrafted video essay.

[@Drakus79]

I got this game on my 8th birthday and it took me years to beat. We didn't know that you could hid your contraband under the bed and played it over and over again in an attempt to get as much done as possible in the 25 mins that the wizard was away. But it was impossible without being able to hide our stuff. Eventually I got a hint book for the game and beat it pretty easily. Definitely the hardest King's Quest game if you don't have a guide.

[@SamP-xb3mi]

Bro the Santa Claus voiceover had me DYING. This video is really well done.

[@hauntedsunsets]

that santa voice acting really knocked it out of the park, but also this video made me wanna try out these games for myself or at least go back and watch some playthroughs

[@EddVCR]

Man, I remember trying to play King’s Quest III when I was a little kid, and never was able to finish it. My record is decades and counting, and here are these amazing people finishing the game in under half an hour…! And of course Santa reigns supreme. He is Santa Claus after all!

[@theideaofevil]

Lol yeah I never was able to beat it

[@gowankommando]

I got stuck for years as a kid because I couldn't get find the key to the wand closet 🤣

[@maymadisson6140]

That Santa voice over genuinely made this video for me.

[@polygon586]

Sub-20 is a thing now, with invisibility skip. We still can't skip the 14-minute wait, though... Robb actually found a way to set the wait timer to zero, but that only makes things *worse*, since the timer being zero means it never expires.

[@LaurentheFlute]

This video is fantastic - your editing and timing are hilarious (every moment of Gwydion death, falling, cats, etc., absolutely perfect), the interview excerpts are great, it flows really well, A+++ on the video production side! But also I started screaming when I realized they just _skipped Manannan entirely_ like what the everloving hell, how, oh my god???????

[@OneShortEye]

Those are very kind words, thank you! I know what you mean about skipping Manny -- he's THE element that makes this game unique among KQ games. And Santa Claus doesn't even wait to hear the chore in the beginning. :)

[@carbonfibercarpet4655]

Did not expect to run into Lauren the Flute here lmao

[@LaurentheFlute]

@@OneShortEye Someone else just sent me the link to this video again, and I just noticed you've passed 100k+ views on it! Congratulations, that is *very* well deserved, and I hope you see some really nice channel growth from it in the long term!

[@LaurentheFlute]

@@carbonfibercarpet4655 lol, hello! Didn't expect to be recognized here either. Yeah, I love the King's Quest series with my whole entire heart. It's SO great but King's Quest III is without a doubt the Absolute Best and I will fight to defend its honor, and this video is WILD!

[@yukizboy3046]

KQ3 was impossibly hard, but IMO was the first KQ game that felt like a true adventure game... the first time you make it down the mountain and go exploring is quite exhilarating.

[@Nemo2342]

I was very excited to see another video from you; these old Sierra speedruns are absolutely fascinating to me. And no one presents speedrun documentaries better than you.

[@OneShortEye]

Those are exceedingly kind words. Thank you. :)

[@PenniniFroze]

Thanks for including the runner who said during the 14 minute unskippable waiting period he'd sometimes do laundry. I needed to swap mine over. Life saver Great video

[@Astinsan]

I did beat that game without a hint guide. It took me about a year to beat. The manual did help because it had a story.to help with hints in the game because you knew what to listen about and what to discard

[@teddyboukagain9985]

It’s funny and heartwarming to see people speed running these old DOS games.

[@shill2920]

That 14 minute wait feels tame when you know theres a 40+ hour grinding session in hollow knight low% speedruns

[@ion-shivs]

This was the first game I got with my Tandy 1000 SX in 1987. I will always love this game, even though I had to buy a hint book to finish it. Seeing these speed runs is pretty incredible.

[@5roundsrapid263]

I got a Tandy 1000TL, and also had this game. I also had to buy a hint book to finish it. I must have died 1000 times before I got it.

[@ion-shivs]

@@5roundsrapid263 I couldn’t find the key on top of the wardrobe in the Manannan’s bedroom. That’s where I got stuck…

[@Natimaguitar]

It looks like Santa got his WR time down to less than 18 minutes at 17:59 and also appears to hold WR 1st place runs in the rest of the Kings Quest games as well as a few other Quest style games!

[@VintageMidiMusic]

This was my first King's Quest game I owned back in 1989. Never even thought about speedrunning in relation to Sierra games. Time to do a deep dive. Great work!

[@MrTrombonebandgeek]

Knowing the legend of Sierra/LucasArts/adventure game of the time, they seem like very counter to speed running

[@VintageMidiMusic]

@@MrTrombonebandgeek my thoughts exactly.

[@buddyguy4723]

ever play police quest man

[@VintageMidiMusic]

@@buddyguy4723 hell yeah man, police quest 1 was a lot of fun, or at least it was back when I was 9. It's been a while.

[@sameaston9587]

00's kids: Man, Majora's Mask time system is stressful! 80's elders: Oh, dear, sweet, summer, child...

[@Pezmage1]

Man, what a good video! How do you take something like King's Quest 3 speedruns and make it this entertaining? All of your videos have been amazing, looking forward to what you do next!

[@OneShortEye]

"How do you take something like King's Quest 3 speedruns and make it this entertaining?" By not really focusing on the speedruns. ;) Seriously, the runners' skill is nothing to scoff at, but the idea of the run is just so absurd to me, that's where the story is.

[@sox2000]

Think the sea voyage is annoyingly long? Imagine playing the game back then while you had to wait for the computer to load most screens outside the house, especially when you had to insert the necessary disk (I think it was 3.5 in. for III). Oh? Going back to the screen you just left? Put that disk back in. And then, picture yourself rolling your eyes while you hear a Tandy 1000 process each time, making noises like it was powering through constipation. lol ah, the good ol' days. But for real, though, this game gave me so much joy as a kid (and yes, agonizing frustration at times haha), but mostly joy and wonder and laughs and awe. Case in point, nearly 4 decades after it was released, I still randomly think about it, remember it fondly, and relive that joy in this KZbin video. Roberta, Ken, and Team...thank you so much for making a kid who was often bored in childhood so happy. KIng's Quest III was and remains a masterpiece.

[@Mantis47]

I've loved adventure games since I was a kid, and it never occurred to me that there could be a speedrunning scene for them. I've been binging through all the videos in the channel, and I look forward to more!

[@conedx]

i've never in my life attempted to speed run ANY game but...man, do i absolutely love these kind of videos. summoning salt is the channel that turned me on to how frickin' cool this stuff is and i've branched out from there. makes me wanna try to speedrun something but i just don't know if i've got the skill for it.

[@OneShortEye]

If you have any interest in it, you ought to at least try! There are many speedruns that don't take much skill at all to get started.

[@StoryBoutAGame]

without a walkthrough played when it came out, it took my whole family months to complete. This actually may have been the game that made my dad no longer play video games. Explains so much...

[@christophclear1438]

What a great video. Having only ever played the 5th and 6th installments, this makes me feel like I've now experienced all there is about the 3rd part. And boy does it look frustrating.

[@OneShortEye]

I would actually recommend AGD Interactive's King's Quest III Redux. It updates the graphics, adds voice acting, and is an all-around pleasant experience compared to the original.

[@christophclear1438]

@@OneShortEye thank you for the recommendation, I'll look into it!

[@tristanwegner]

The quirks of the same seemed to be designed to either allow replayability or at least make walkthroughs less useful. Very nice presentation in this video

[@TrevorGomes]

The switch to pixelated Santa is inspired. So awesome that this video is getting the recognition it deserves. Good stuff, man.

[@amberhernandez]

Never seen or heard of this game, but watching the struggle to get through RNG hell gives me a new respect for the dedication these people I've never heard of before!

[@Davian2073]

"I did a speedrun during my speedrun", the peak of speedrunning

[@TheAkbobby]

I just remember typing things like, look under rock, or, pick up thingy. The fact anyone figured out these games to an endgame is pretty epic. I only played the original and then found commander Keen. Looking that up next.

[@morticrows]

I love watching random speedrunning videos about games I've never heard of before. This video was super entertaining to boot, so I'll for sure be checking out more of your videos!

[@GregFromMinnesota]

So glad I found this channel! Sierra is one of my favorite developers of all time. BTW, Love that Santa Claus sounds kind of like Ving Rhames! Sounds like, at any time, he's going to bust out and say "we have the meats!" 🤣

[@tuxedoblackfoot]

Some games you are impressed at the skill of the speedrunner. Other games, you're impressed by the sheer determination.

[@TheMkabird]

I loved the voice over!! Thank you for these videos, nothing is better than the dramatic tension of "no one could possibly get faster than this.... UNTIL"

[@ham_slam_wich]

This game! I still remember being a very small child and watching my brother play this game and I was terrified of the wizard.

[@LadyBernkastel92]

"IT's surprisingly easy to slip off" is a good tagline for QK3 in general. Most of my memories of this game are me falling off things.

[@thomaspfeifer6337]

I had no idea a channel like this existed. Excuse me now while I watch the entirety of it. :D

[@OneShortEye]

Welcome! Glad to have you here.

[@AdventureGameGeek]

The idea of Santa Claus speedrunning actually makes sense, delivering all those presents at Xmas is the ultimate speedrun 🎅

[@OneShortEye]

How bad do you think chimney RNG is?

[@AdventureGameGeek]

@@OneShortEye 50% chance of getting stuck, 50% burned alive by fire

[@iceguy7769]

It's pretty incredible that you managed to get the real Santa Claus for you kq3 video!

[@craigbrotherton8679]

Santa turned into an eagle on the pirate ship to skip past the yeti, essentially skipping more of the game

[@MikeClowder]

I remember playing this as a kid and spending what felt like days getting past the wizard in the beginning. Really threw you into the deep end.

[@jukappa]

This game brings back so many memories. This was the first game I can recall playing. Without the help of the internet this game was impossibly hard for my brother and I. Just making it down the mountain was an achievement. It was so easy to die and the deaths felt so random.

[@OneShortEye]

"It was so easy to die and the deaths felt so random." - Sierra's motto, probably

[@MeriaDuck]

14:13 I guess auto type/macro keying is against the spirit of running this game.

[@OneShortEye]

Yes, macros are against the rules, but I like the way you think. :)

[@felixc543]

Love finding a new video game docs channel Awesome vid! Super high quality I defs expect this channel to blow up but either way, great job

[@Lemmings19]

I'm pretty sure that if I played this one as a kid, I'd have inescapable fever dreams where I was stuck in this game as a sort of purgatory.

[@richardmahn7589]

Great to see he's broken it even more since! 20:46!

[@christopherballengee5803]

KQ3 was my very first (new) computer game back in the day. I vividly remember my dad paying something like $40 for this at Radio Shack so I could play it on my Tandy. At maybe eight or nine years old, I recall playing this game forever, maybe two or three years, before I ever got to the pirate ship. I recall the thing that took me forever was finding a "jar of land." After writing to Sierra several times asking for hints about where to find it, I was still at a loss. It wasn't until much later that I realized what I was really looking for was a "jar of lard." Anyway, as I was boarding the ship, I got a dialog box asking for disk 2. I had completely forgotten there was even a second disk! So I fumbled through my stack of floppies and finally found the right one. I eagerly popped it in... And nothing happened. The disk was corrupt. I was done. I didn't finish the game until a decade or so later when I found a copy of the full game online. Despite all the issues, I loved the game then and have fond memories of it still.

[@Guitareben]

I love the inclusion of interviews into this! Makes a nice change from some other videos like this!

[@thomasdavis7155]

My uncle was hard into KQ and it's what got me into the fantasy genre. Core memories unlocked.

[@ETIL_]

"you can rub your rock as many times as you like" Amen to that brother

[@jademonass2954]

you getting the guy on fiverr to do a santa voice for the video was absolutely incredible it went above and beyond

[@bryanwalters9574]

I loved this. I’m not a speed runner but I’ve been a kings quest fan since the mid 90’s and this might be my favorite KQ game. I based one of my first D&D characters off of it and I still think of it every now and then. Thanks for the wonderful dose of nostalgia!

[@24hourPrince]

Bless the algorithm for putting this video in my life. I have never played a King's Quest in my life, I was born in the 2000's, the only reason this would be in my recs is because I watch a good amount of speedrun content. The Santa voice acting bit was the funniest shit I've ever seen, and my millennial boy brain was surprised by the weird levels of complexity in a video game from the late 80's. Top tier content, subbed immediately, thumbs up, 10/10.

[@JamesOKeefe-US]

Wildly interesting. Really well done! 👍 I played Kings Quest when it first came out and fell in love. Can't wait to watch the rest of your videos. Thanks!!

[@Kisai_Yuki]

This is one of the reasons why I find "speed running" a bit troubling. There are ways to cheese the game by exploiting designs, but there are also ways where the game was designed with so much RNG that it can tempt people to hack the game to make it look like a perfect RNG roll. Add in the possibility of TAS'ing a game, and suddenly "world records" aren't very meaningful unless they can be repeated. RNG makes repeating it difficult. I still remember my dad managing to beat the game without ever defeating the wizard. Unfortunately, 10,000 cycles is not remotely vintage speed (672 in DOSBOX is roughly Vintage Tandy 1000/PCjr/8088 speed, which is what AGI was designed to run at), so a speedrun at anything faster, might allow a speedrunner to defeat the animation speed, but you could never really do this on a vintage machine. "Fastest" on an 8088 would still take 4 seconds or so to cross a screen, so it was always playable at that speed. "zips" would not be possible on them. The clock in KQ3 keeps speed runners honest about edits at least, and I wish more games had an in-game clock.

[@pltatman1]

13-year-old me loved the brutality and discovery of this game, but I would never want to play it again.

[@edsonsouzaneto6251]

I dont know why i watched this fully

[@everythingpony]

You ok?

[@mmmapplesauce1673]

The song “quirky dog” playing in the background while talking about kenny was a nice touch.

[@TF-Times]

I had no idea that people speed run games like this. That’s dedication.

[@jwilder2251]

I thought I was hardcore for beating Police Quest 2, but this seems truly sadistic

[@rileytimes]

God I love this stuff. I love when people are passionate about something. And I absolutely love how you have broken everything down and narrated it and put it together. New favourite channel.

[@WFierce]

"Santa boards the pirate ship" is an absolutely wild sentence without context.

[@TheJchio]

praise the algorithm

[@HansLemurson]

Kings Quest 3 was the one KQ game my family never beat as a kid. I don't think any of us even made it onto the ship. Didn't even know there was a ship! So then to see that this game is getting speed-runned? Wow.

[@motokuchoma]

The fact that the 100% category is a literal free world record by virtue of having no competition and still no one does it, kinda says something about this game.

[@bobdedbuilder463]

Don't know how this flew under the radar. I thought I was subscribed. A friend of mine said I had to watch it. i laughed, because I know everyone mentioned.

[@cIeetz]

24:39 forward is the most gamer thing Ive ever heard lmao. God this video rocked

[@Magnetised_]

I have almost no interest in kings quest games, but somehow this video was still super captivating

[@MegaStara]

When I saw that Santa's player is from Finland, then you earn my like, true home county of the santa claus. Many thanks for your video & great job!

[@danielmallory4687]

The fact that 30 miniutes was one of the top spots depite a mandatory 19 minute wait 5 before wizard and 14 for boat is funny to me cause over half is waiting

[@mrwusss9126]

This game is not only the most boring thing ever created but also hard af. I remember trying to play it back in the day, 1 hour of gameplay was enough to make me run away from it and never look back. So my hats off to those masochist king's quest III speedrunners fellas.

[@Renblade]

The Santa part literally got me to subscribe. This was an excellent video, man!

[@AdriftForWeeks]

What a great video on such a classic game that, well you really don't think of immediately in speedrun terms. Nice!

[@wasmadeinthe80s]

Holy crap, Santa set a new WR 3 days ago (1/12/2023)... 19m32s!!

[@TheSBleeder]

King's Quest V... Mordack: "You turned my brother into a cat!" Alexander: "No, I was holding a box."

[@hell5fire974]

This would be a hilarious speed run a GDQ where the runner speed runs a different game during the ship journey.

[@eliasseldon1644]

Vintage, Sierra, video game, speed run, commentary - 4d, tetra-niche video. God this is good weed.

[@ultimapower6950]

Yeah they’re great for mental relapses

[@Jabberkong]

Dude. This was great. Well worthy of a sub it it gets more Santa Voiceovers

[@mrvnoble]

I don't know really anything about old games, but that Santa read was golden... Hoo hoo hooooo!!!

[@timothymclean]

Wild that 2/3rds of a world record speedrun is just waiting for a pirate ship to get somewhere, napping while the player character stares off a balcony.