Quest for Glory: So You Want to Be a Hero

Quest for Glory: So You Want to Be a Hero
Developer(s)	Sierra
Publisher(s)	Sierra
Designer(s)	Lori Ann Cole
Series	Quest for Glory
Engine	SCI0, SCI1.1 (remake)
Platform(s)	MS-DOS, Amiga, Macintosh, NEC PC-9801, Atari ST
Release date(s)	Floppy: October 1989 (EGA), July 1992 (VGA) CD: April 1994 (VGA only)
Genre(s)	Adventure game/role-playing video game
Mode(s)	Single-player
Rating(s)	ESRB: Kids to Adults (K-A)
Media/distribution	4x3.5" Floppy disks, 10x5.25" Floppy disks

Hero's Quest: So You Want to Be a Hero (later re-released as Quest for Glory: So You Want to Be a Hero because of trademark issues involving the HeroQuest boardgame) is an adventure game/role-playing game hybrid, designed by Lori Ann Cole and published by Sierra On-line. It is the first game in the Quest for Glory series. Hero's Quest I has been credited for being a genre-inventing game, as no other game before it had tried to mix graphical adventure gaming with role-playing-like elements such as statistic building (strength, intelligence, health) that would actually have an impact on the ability to accomplish certain parts of the game. (Beyond Zork had done the same for text adventures two years earlier.)

Plot

In the valley barony of Spielburg, the evil ogress Baba Yaga has cursed the land, and the baron who tried to drive her off. His children have disappeared, while the land is ravaged by monsters and brigands. The Valley of Spielburg is in need of a Hero able to solve these problems.

The game follows the Hero (Devon Aidendale in the novelized Authorized strategy guide), who in the game is a customized adventurer whose name and class is chosen by player, on his journey into the land; he must help people and become a proclaimed Hero.

The adventurer battles monsters, solves side quests (such as finding lost items and spell ingredients) and helps fantasy creatures such as a dryad, a hermit and a colorful collection of furry creatures called Meeps. Fulfilling quests will grant him experience and money, which he may use to buy equipment and potions. The game is open ended, which means the player can explore all the game at once and solve the quests in what order seems convenient to them. During the quest, the character also meets recurring series characters such as the wizard Erasmus and his familiar Fenrus (or perhaps the other way around), and first hears tales of the benevolent faery Erana.

While the game can be completed without solving the secondary quests, in the optimal ending, which nets the player the maximum score and serves as canon for the remainder of the series, the player frees the baronet from a powerful curse and thwarts the plans of the witch Baba Yaga. Finally, the adventurer frees the baron's daughter, Elsa von Spielburg, from the curse which had transformed her into the brigand leader. By doing so, the adventurer fulfills a prophecy, restores Spielburg Valley to prosperity, and is awarded the title of Hero.

After this, the Hero, along with the merchant Abdulla Doo and the innkeepers Shameen and Shema, leaves on a magic carpet for Shapeir, the homeland of the three, setting the plan for the sequel, Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire.

Gameplay

The game advertised itself as "three games in one" since it was the first Sierra game that (according to RPG customs) allowed the selection of a character out of three classes: Fighter, Magic User, and Thief.

What class the hero assigns to a character largely determines how they can solve puzzles and what quests they will run into. However, the distinction between classes was not an absolute one; players could add skills to a character and allow them to complete quests related to other classes in this game and others in the series.

Quest for Glory introduced a realism rarely found in RPGs and other adventure games even today. Day, night and the passage of time was a factor; the setting and scenery was different during day and night. The main character had to eat on a regular basis, he would become tired from running and fighting which required rest and sleep. Skills were not obtained by gaining levels through combat, but rather increased distinctly through the regular course of your adventuring. The more the player used magic, the more the Hero's Magic ability would increase (followed by Intelligence); likewise the more the player engaged in battle, training, or even cleaning the baron's stables, the more the Hero's Strength, Vitality and Agility would increase.

This is one of the few Sierra adventure games where the player character has few or no speaking lines; although the player can input commands such as "ask about brigands", the player character has almost no dialogue.

Development

Many planned features were cut off in the development progress, to release the game in a realistic amount of time. Originally, Lori had planned for four different races: thief-like gnome, magic wielding elf, human as jack of all trades, and archer centaur. For the limited resources in the animating department, races were replaced with multiple classes for the human character. In the original design, there was supposed to be a big goblin maze. References to this have remained in the goblin base of the original version. Many of the town buildings were planned to be enterable. Also, magic users were supposed to be able to get a familiar like Zara had, but it was cut due to programming difficulties.

Remake

Like some other games by Sierra, a VGA version using Sierra's "point and click" SCI1.1 interpreter was released in 1992. As a result of some limitations of this version, many die-hard fans of Quest for Glory resent the VGA rendition^{[citation needed]} due to the lack of movement that was prevalent in the original, which used the text-parser–based SCI0.

While the original game was based on dialogues and asking questions in order to obtain some background information, in the new interface the dialogues had a tree structure: a menu of question topics. By asking certain questions (e.g. "Ask about Potion"), the player will get new questions to ask (e.g. "Healing potion, Stamina potion, Dispel potion"). Some easter eggs were also updated, for example in Erasmus's house, the original has a reference to King's Quest IV, while the remake has a reference to The Dagger of Amon Ra. The treasure room in the troll cave leading to the Brigand's hideout was missing in the remake.

The backgrounds and characters were hand drawn and scanned, while the monster fights and character portraits were made using clay models and stop motion animation.

Unlike other games, running out of stamina points here can kill the hero outright instead of starting to do health damage.

The VGA remake and original version were also released on CD-ROM as part of the 1996 Anthology collection and 1997 Collection Series.

Eastereggs and in-jokes

Before reaching Erasmus, the player must answer a set of three questions asked by a gargoyle. The sets are largely random.

• One of them is inspired from Monty Python and the Holy Grail: "What is your name?—What is your quest?—What is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?"
  • In the second question, the player can reply also "I seek the Holy Grail" in which the gargoyle will reply "Sorry, that Jones guy got it first".
  • The reply "I want to be a pirate" (an allusion to Guybrush Threepwood) is also available to which the gargoyle will reply "Sorry, wrong game"; this is one of the few trans-in-jokes between the two rival adventure game companies.
  • One potential question is "What's the meaning of life?" The correct answer is "42", to which the gargoyle replies "I see you've put some Deep Thought into this", referencing the popular novel The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The cloud guardian asks this same question in Quest for Glory V.
• Another question asks the player what the password is for the Thief's Guild in town. In order to proceed the player must give the wrong answer, to which the gargoyle will reply, "Good. You're not a thief." Giving the correct password makes it impossible to enter the house for the rest of the game.
• Attack the Antwerp with your sword and it will bounce high above your head and out of the area. However, when you leave the screen and enter a new one, a shadow will appear over you from above. Things aren't looking too good! If this Antwerp has its way then he's gonna flatten you.. so, quickly pull out your dagger\sword and hold it above your head. the Antwerp will land on your blade and explode into lots of little baby Antwerps! Congratulations... you have just caused an Antwerp population explosion!
• If you are a thief, instead of typing 'pick lock', type 'pick nose'. If your lockpicking skill is over 40, then you will gain some valuable experience (and open your nose in the process). However, If your lockpicking skill is under 40 and you type 'pick nose' then you will insert your lockpick to far up your nostril and die of a brain hemorrhage! What a way to die..huh?

EGA version

• On the title Screen, there is a scorpion walking across. Click the mouse on it and a message will appear, saying "Congratulations! You have discovered the first bug in this game."
• When You are in Erasmus' House on Zauberberg Mountain, look at all the junk in his room. You will see a sarcophagus with an inscription on it, reading "She of the golden hair". Upon closer inspection, you will notice a carving of Princess Rosella from King's Quest 4.
• In the same room look at the plane. Written on the side of it is 'Lytton PD' (from Sierra's Police Quest Series)
• In the same room still, if you look at the armor at the back of the room, near the stairs, it says that it belongs to Colonel Dijon (from Sierra's Colonel's Bequest)

When you visit the Mirror Lake, south of Spielburg's gates, you can occasionally glimpse the submarine from Codename: Iceman.. yet ANOTHER plug for ANOTHER Sierra game!

• The Antwerp's head that adorns the adventurer's guild wall was slain by the Two guys from Adromeda (Space Quest, anyone?)
• Talk to the bear in the cave and you will get a message saying 'You know that bears can't talk!'. However, try talking to him again and the bear will tell you that he represents Ditto realties and that he has some lovely properties for sale. And he knows that they are all proven bargains because he has sold them so many times!..Stoopid bear
• In the brigand fortress cafeteria there's a sign on the wall reading, "Brigands uber alles!". Spielburg is a German town after all!
• Larry, Curly and Moe (AKA Three Stooges) make a cameo appearance as the 3 bumbling brigands in the Brigand Cafeteria!
• Try typing some bad words into the game. You will get funny messages!

VGA version

• Sometimes when you are walking along the road to town, either at dawn or at dusk, you will see Earl Sinclair from TV's 'Dinosaurs' show, walking to or from work!
• When you visit Mirror lake, south of Spielberg's town gates, sometimes you will see different things! You might see Nessie and if you talk to him, he tells you that he's lost and doesn't know the way back to Scotland. You can also see Delphineus the Dolphin (from Sierra's Eco Quest) he tells you that he's searching for Adam. He then realises that he's in the wrong game and swims away. The other thing that you can see in the lake is the submarine from Sierra's game Codename: Iceman.
• In Erasmus' house there is a Sarcophagus tied in with a ribbon, called a Lara Bow (from Colonel's Bequest, and The Dagger of Amon Ra, more Sierra On-line game plugs)
• In the same room still, There is a casket on the table. Click your hand icon on the lever. You will see a hand reach from inside casket, and also pull the lever.
• The book that Kaspar, who runs the dry Goods store, is reading, is titled "Quest for Glory: A Hero's Death"
• If you pay Sam the beggar an Alm, he will begin to tell you a story about a guy who started a cidar company called Amblin from Spielburg. (This is referring, of course, to director Steven Spielberg's company Amblin Entertainment)
• Just outside Spielberg's gates is a dry patch of earth where a map seller used to have a stand. The game says that he has now moved on to Shapeir. This is a joke about Ali Chica, the map seller in Quest for Glory 2.
• Click on the tree's in the forest to get funny messages and plugs for other Sierra games.
• In the Screen with Brauggi, the frost giant, try running on the ice. The result is pretty funny!
• Eat some magic mushrooms from the fairy ring and you will begin to hallucinate and see pretty paisley horses! However, if you eat another mushroom then you will OD and kill yourself!
• Step inside the fairy's mushroom ring at night. They will force you to dance to techno music. You will dance so hard that it literally kills you.
• Pick up some rocks (or use a flame dart spell) and then click the target on yourself to get the message, "You always hurt the one you love"
• Go to the spore spitting spirea plants and cut them to pieces with your sword. Return to the Dryad and she will magically turn you into one of the plants that you destroyed.. oh, and game over!
• Try to harm or kill the Stag in the forest. Then go to the Dryad.. She will magically turn you into a Deer, thus ending your heroic quest.
• There's an Academy Award statuette (along with other things, such as the REAL blackbird) sitting amongst the stolen treasure in the brigands leader's room.
• Ignore everybody's advice and drink the Dragon's Breath at the Tavern. Just make sure that you saved your game first!
• 'Enry the Hermit mentions that he is the 8th in a long family tradition of Hermits. This joke is a reference to that old song "I'm Henry the Eighth, I am".
• The signs on the Baker's and the Butcher's shop windows both read "Gone Fishin'". And if you walk into the Tavern, you'll come across the Butcher and Baker playing the card game 'Go Fish' with each other.

External links

• Hero's Quest: So You Want To Be A Hero at MobyGames
• Quest for Glory: So You Want to Be a Hero? at the Macintosh Garden