The Miscast

In 1986 King's Quest III: To Heir is Human, the 3rd game in the Kings Quest series, was released expanding the King Graham-a-verse with new layers. The mantel of 'lead adventurer' has been shifted from King Graham to an unknown young boy named Gwydion. A bold shift, one could say. But there's a twist in the story that I won't reveal here, dear reader.

Yes I know that game was released in 1986.

Yes I KNOW that millions have played it by now.

Yes I KNOW that there's dozens of Youtube vids where they talk about the twist in the first 30 seconds. But it's not relevant to tonight's story.

Tonight, let's talk about game manuals.

During the 80s, piracy was rampant with copies being easy and the idea of DRM non-existent. (still is but it's WAY MORE IMPRESSIVE that it happened at such a scale in the 80s). To help combat this, game makers would include some kind of gimmick to make you enter a specific piece of information to launch the game.

Some games included "code wheels". Adding more time to starting the game than a traditional PS3 Loading Screen by making spin physical paper wheels to match code symbols would display on screen.

One mysterious game included a red tinted magnifying glass and a sheet of red fingerprints.

Some were simple, like "What's the 7th word on page 19?". Requiring you to have a copy of the manual.

Some manuals were made to be difficult to photocopy (the primary way to duplicate things at the time).

And that's where our story technically begins.

The late 80s, my dad procured a copy of King's Quest 3 from a co-worker. Included a photocopied manual.

We were spellbound by the game, no pun intended. I was young so I barely knew what I was doing. But I knew how to kick the cat,or pick up the cat and take some of its fur. I always swept the floors. And the wizard always killed me.

As time passed, we learned about the spellcasting feature. You had to learn the spells by following the recipe in the manuals.

To the absolute letter.

Once you started to cast a spell or create a component, you couldn't stop. Everything was typed by hand. One mistake or one typo and it was game over.

Pouring over the photocopied manual, squinting at fuzzy text, felt like a bigger puzzle than the actual puzzles in the game.

Then came Causing A Deep Sleep

I'll recite how the recipe looked in our photocopied manual:

Ingredients:

three dried acorns
one cup nightshade juice
one magic wand
one empty pouch

Directions:

1. Grind the acorns in a mortar (with a pestle)
2. Put the acorn powder in a bowl
3. Put the nightshade juice in the bowl
4. Stir the mixture with a spoon
5. Light a charcoal brazier
6. Heat the mixture on the brazier (boil the mixture until the nightshade juice is almost gone, then remove from heat)
7. Spread the mixture on a table (wait until dry)
8. (Recite this verse)
1. Acorn powder ground so fine
2. Nightshade juice like bitter wine,
3. Silently in darkness creep
4. To bring a soporific sleep
9. Wave the magic wand
10. Put the sleep powder in the pouch (for safekeeping)

Seems like pretty simple instructions to follow, right?

No matter what we tried, it never worked. We could never make the Causing A Deep Sleep spell.

Time passes, we grow weary of not being able to figure out that puzzle and put the disc at the back of the box in favor of other games. (like Police Quest 1! Although I probably shouldn't have been playing that as a 7 year old).

**5 YEARS LATER**

My family is out to the mall. We stop by Waldenbooks to pick up some new reading material. As I walk past the rows of shelves, a subtle looking book with a very attractive title catches my eye.

The King's Quest Companion

I pick it up and flip through a few pages. It looks like it has stories about the games...but it also has HINTS.

I choose that $15 book and my parents purchase it for me. I read it all the way home.

Some more time passes as I get to the section titled "A Magical Primer", regarding King's Quest 3. It's cleverly laid out as an interview with Gwydion after his escape and success in King's Quest 3 (still not spoiling it for you guys).

Mixed into that interview, was a full spell list. As I read them over, nothing leapt out the page at first, until I got to 3 little letters.

Y O U

under the spell ingredient list for Causing A Deep Sleep, when reciting the verse.

The King's Quest Companion had an extra word.

Acorn powder ground so fine
Nightshade juice like bitter wine,
Silently in darkness **YOU** creep
To bring a soporific sleep

The photocopied manual somehow covered a word we never knew existed. You can see it in the original manual just fine. But a 1988 Xerox job had left us spinning in circles.

There are many lessons to be learned from this story:

1. Never trust photocopied documents from the 80s.
2. Never give up, the solution will find it's way to you.
3. Those who sail the high seas should not be surprised when they get sprayed with ocean water.

But most importantly....

Gwydion is.....

nah still not gonna spoil it.