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.

[@NotOnLand]

I like to imagine Santa's voice actor not knowing a thing about speedrunning and being like "RNG? Viable zips? Wtf does this even mean? Ho ho ho whatever, it's a gig!"

[@callmechia]

This made me actually lol…. I was thinking the same thing

[@woooooooooooooooooooooooo]

You could hear the confusion when they were talking about needing a fast Eagle at roughly 22:48

[@acepedro12]

Santa's speedrunning skills come from delivering gifts to children all over the world in just one day.

[@EneTheGene]

Yes

[@laurisjones]

any% good list only no chimney clipping

[@shuvelstone1331]

LOL

[@Tomix4k]

Well he DOES have 24 hours considering the planet rotation

[@shuvelstone1331]

@@Tomix4k i never thought of that!

[@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.

[@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"

[@valletas]

​@@Roescoecredits to krampus then i guess

[@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.)

[@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!

[@aitan6593]

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

[@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."

[@fen4554]

To give you an idea how we used to do it in the old days; I played Kings Quest 4 when I was about 12. I played that game for years, usually dying because the in-game 24 hour timer would run out (or night would fall without the needed items) At which point, you have to start all over again. We had a duotang FILLED with paper maps, clues, quotes, lists.. Anything to give us an edge in a time before the internet. And even with my parents help, we never finished it.

[@andrewmoluf4299]

yeah that one can be brutal too....you need to get swallowed by a whale and sometimes the game only wants to spawn sharks...or the whale eats you before you can get the peacock feather

[@TrashwareArt]

I never even made it to the 24 hour timer

[@AliciaGuitar]

I begged my parents and the finally let me call the hintline once. Pretty sure they made some puzzles nearly impossible to force you to call the 900 number for hints

[@quercusquercus532]

Not sure if the hintline was an option for me in Canada, but I owned a few hintbooks. Major advance when they went from the pen to the red glasses, for spoiler reveals. It was pretty great in those days, when you'd meet a new soccer teammate, and they'd tell you about Nikstlitselpmur. Rare, because you wanted to be pretty careful who you told about your love of King's Quest, at least in my social situation.

[@youtube-kit9450]

@@AliciaGuitar Ofc. Same reason why most NES-era games are nearly impossible to beat with nonsense or why arcades are so hard. Back in the era of rentals and arcades, the best way to get you to hand over your money on a game beatable within an hour was to make it nearly impossible to beat the game.

[@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.

[@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

[@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

[@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

[@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*

[@holden6104]

Escaping Manannan was one of the most intense gaming experiences I had as a kid. It truly felt like you were creeping around the house and could be discovered at any moment.

[@muzboz]

Absolutely! KQ3 had a super special place in my heart. I loved that it felt like being in a real story, taking place over time. Manannan was intense! Casting spells was intense! Great game.

[@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.

[@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

[@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.

[@Jrose11]

Never heard of King's Quest. Watched the entire thing and loved it.

[@blooflazh7]

hi

[@Barryfuxx]

Small world is small lol

[@Cooe.]

How the hell have you never heard of King's Quest before??? O_o It's one of the most famous PC game series literally in history...

[@Jrose11]

@@Cooe. I'm born in the 90s and this particular game came out in 86. PC gaming doesn't get the same cultural recognition of its console counterpart.

[@wellthismachinekills3809]

@@Jrose11 I was born in the 90's and knew about it since at least 99, its more that PC gaming was bigger outside north America back then.

[@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

[@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.

[@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.

[@neilh184]

The nostalgia this game evoked in me is palpable. I'm 46 years old and played everything Sierra made. I learned to type playing King's Quest. I'm just tingling watching these shots and remembering

[@gamerman7276]

"That's 14 minutes of doing nothing" Desert Bus Speedrunners: "Am I a joke to you?"

[@realah3001]

Why would you speed run 8 hours doing basically nothing

[@lemone12]

@@realah3001 charity is cool

[@felixc543]

To be fair, Desert Bus speedrunners are kind of a joke to themselves- at least a bit- aren't they? Like it's really interesting that folks will sit down and play a game specifically designed to be that hostile, and it definitely takes a lot to get through it, but it's very much For The Meme (and For The Meme for charity) right?

[@patchedphoenix]

or hollow knight lowest%

[@ExtremeWreck]

Actually, you have to press the left button many times because the bus drifts right by itself.

[@SyndicateOperative]

Legitimately enjoyed how this shifted from critique of an old adventure game as a running option, to a triumphant adventure of ambitious runners.

[@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.

[@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.

[@Raxyz_0]

I already like speedrun documentaries by themselves with how creative and competitive these guys usually are, but having the wildcard being nicknamed Santa and hiring a VA was an absolute power move, lmao. I swear I can barely feel the guy cracking at imitating Santa Claus while saying "I spent my childhood playing DOS games". Absolute golden.

[@SamP-xb3mi]

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

[@hopegrimsley3427]

I’ve been a huge King’s Quest fan since I was a young girl, and KQIII was one of my favorites. This is such a treat. Thank you.

[@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!

[@blundy1]

These games were a large part of my childhood. Very fun to see such a passionate interest for it. Great video.

[@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. :)

[@colindanger3396]

This is absolutely fascinating and confirms all the memories I had of trying to play Sierra games after having grown up playing Monkey Island 1 + 2

[@maymadisson6140]

That Santa voice over genuinely made this video for me.

[@TheLateNightHype]

Santa Claus' voice actor definitely earned his pay, his bits were real fun. Great video all around.

[@bennyboyshs]

The transition from FIVR Santa to budget Santa.... is comical genius! I will sub, like, comment; you deserve that and more. You're showing an incredible amount of talent in entertainment and passion for making this video. I truly hope this channel grows and you're able to reach more people with your content. Cheers, Benjamin

[@OneShortEye]

Thank you for the kind words! Glad you enjoyed it.

[@mrdarkavocado1113]

This is probably the best video I’ve seen in a while on KZbin. This is surprising that your channel isn’t at millions of subscribers

[@littlegamer8006]

I'm baffled at how entertaining this video was, I was planning to just watch the interesting part but got really hooked thanks to your way of presenting it. Good job !

[@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 🤣

[@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

[@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

[@mfblowfish4671]

I loved type command games. Sierra was pretty big part of my childhood. I wish they made type command games still. It was very satisfying to figure out the puzzles in the game and it developed problem solving skills. It was disappointing to me when the developers starting using icons

[@isawp5199]

Little late, but parser games are still being made, although pure fiction and without graphics. See the Interactive Fiction database for lots of them!

[@Don-ds3dy]

It's interesting seeing how some game machanics/elements go as far back as the NES period. I get it's not as elaborate or immersive but the idea of a world full of NPCs that seemingly have their own schedules and things to do was probably impressive for the time. Now days I could make such an NPC with a sleep schedule and chores to do in rpg maker within a few minutes.

[@FUGP72]

Ummm...this existed long before anyone knew the name Mario Mario and Luigi Mario. At least 2 Infocom text adventure games had this. Back when Donkey Kong was just coming out in arcades

[@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.

[@Mutantoons]

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

[@Mutantoons]

@@MrTrombonebandgeek my thoughts exactly.

[@buddyguy4723]

ever play police quest man

[@Mutantoons]

@@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.

[@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.

[@teddyboukagain9985]

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

[@TheSBleeder]

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

[@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…

[@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

[@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.

[@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.

[@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!

[@wentencel]

I wasn't paying full attention when you were describing saving the princess and mistook "but it's faster to rub the rock" as an alternative to saving the princess altogether 😆

[@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!

[@notgonnasay4571]

That voice actor had SO much fun. Absolutely delightful.

[@DemiseReturns]

Wow that voice actor you hired is really skilled. Hopefully this video gives them some lovely exposure!

[@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!

[@Bearbytez]

3 is my favorite. The only one I've spent as much time playing is probably 8. My parents ran a BBS server for this game when I was born. I never even considered it as a candidate for a speedrun... But I've beaten it pretty damn quickly. Now I'm locked in to this video to inform my decision making about whether I should try it out.

[@TrevorGomes]

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

[@Skitlless]

This channel is criminally underrated. Great video!

[@MarbleOceans]

I come back to this video every now and again it’s infectiously passionate and fun :)

[@recino2]

I feel so blessed finding this in my recommended vids. Love watching speed runs and King's Quest is such a nostalgic series for me.

[@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"

[@mrjohnnyk]

Well now I know what Santa does with all his time off, speedruns of old DOS games.

[@thepopemichael]

You're one of the most underrated speed running history channels on KZbin. Your production value is better than those channels 10x bigger than yours. Thank you for all of your hard work!

[@strawberrycollector]

Very interesting video, even though the only reason I've even heard of King's Quest is because the Brothers Chaps, of Homestar Runner fame, made a parody of it called Peasant's Quest. I particularly liked Santa voice-overs, both of them. The abrupt shift from excellent Santa voice to text-to-speech was simply amazing.

[@nerdnasty6628]

Ah yes, Peasant's Quest. I remember me and my friend used to call each other on our phones and spend hours trying to figure that game out.

[@Davian2073]

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

[@duttfisch]

A comment for the almighty algorithm 😁 I really enjoyed this! My favorite part was probably when everyone was talking about what they were doing during the downtime (Lumo doing laundry was a mood lmao) Also the Santa voiceover was great ^^ Keep it up!

[@OneShortEye]

Thank you for feeding the KZbin machine! Glad you enjoyed it.

[@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.

[@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!" 🤣

[@sameaston9587]

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

[@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!

[@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

[@tverdyznaqs]

No but the thought of Santa Claus beng a gamer and a speedrunner in his free time is hilarious. I mean, what would you be doing with a 364-day weekend each year?

[@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...

[@EdShear_em]

I'm not too big on watching speedruns but speedrun lore is amazing, especially the way you do it! I hope the algos promote your videos to more people!

[@ramondiamond6152]

On the same boat as you. I have no idea how a person such as myself, who rarely watches actual speedruns, can find speedrun lore videos so utterly fascinating.

[@WolfChildRusk]

Santa Claus got it under 18 at time of writing, now that is a legend.

[@Fiends4]

You did the whole Santa thing perfectly, love it!

[@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!

[@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.

[@Guitareben]

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

[@WannabeMarysue]

I think its nice for the game to include a wellness break.

[@OneShortEye]

Thank goodness for thoughtful devs.

[@SaveDataTeam]

Congrats on the success of this one! The algorithm has shined upon you, and you deserve it!

[@barry-allenthe-flash8396]

I just discovered this channel, and I was really enjoying it as-is. High quality stuff. But hiring a Santa Claus soundalike puts this in, like, top tier retro gaming channels forever, lmao. This video was awesome; if this is the type of content you're serving up, well, I wish I could like the video and sub more than once, dude! 😀 Can't wait to binge-watch the other King's Quest speedrun videos you've put together! Gonna be a fun night!

[@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!!

[@WillisPStyles1]

I wholeheartedly approve of adding Ween to any and all speedruns.

[@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.

[@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

[@Renblade]

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

[@BadWallaby]

Santa Claus voice actor is super underrated haha eloquent performance 👏🏼

[@AdamoFC]

Just found this video and binged all of your other ones... You are a phenomenal KZbinr.. I have never played ANY of these games, let alone any adventure game in this style, and yet I was captivated for every minute of all of your videos. I am so excited to see what other videos you make in the future!

[@rickgreer7203]

And just today, yet another new time: SantaClaus 18m 56s ...damn.

[@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.

[@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.

[@AdriftForWeeks]

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