King's Quest III Redux coming in February from AGD Interactive

If you’re a fan of the old Sierra adventure games, today’s a happy day! AGD Interactive (www.agdinteractive.com), the fan group who remade the first two King’s Quest games and Quest for Glory II with VGA graphics and a point and click interface, has revealed the imminent release of King’s Quest III Redux for PC and Mac.

This will be AGDI’s final Sierra remake; after this, the team will move their focus to commercial games. I will be helping to distribute advance review copies of King’s Quest III Redux - please let me know if you’d like to review it!

AGD Interactive has been covertly developing King’s Quest III Redux for the past eight years. Like their other projects, this is a labor of love that both modernizes the original game while maintaining its retro charm. You’ll find an explanation of the project’s history here: www.agdiforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=14848

You can grab screenshots here: www.agdinteractive.com/images/screenshots_Jan2011

We plan to have review copies ready in early February, with the launch following later in the month. In the meantime, we hope you’ll check out the team’s previous KQ remakes if you haven’t already played them:

* King’s Quest I: Quest for the Crown is a straight remake of Sierra’s first King’s Quest game, with all of the original gameplay preserved. (Based on fan feedback, AGDI did implement a “no dead-ends” option that prevents getting irreversibly stuck, but masochists - err, I mean purists - can turn this off!) To download for PC or Mac, go here: www.agdinteractive.com/games/kq1/download/download.html

* King’s Quest II: Romancing the Stones is a creative retelling of Sierra’s second King’s Quest game that spins the original’s (fairly random) puzzles into a comprehensive story. For those who have not played King’s Quest II, AGDI’s remake is a more satisfying continuation of the series than the original game, and for those who have, it’s a neat way to experience the original from an entirely new perspective. It also sets up a new overarching subplot that the team continues to explore in the upcoming King’s Quest III Redux, so playing it now will help you prepare for the game to come! To download for PC or Mac, go here: www.agdinteractive.com/games/kq2/download/download.html

All of AGDI’s King’s Quest remakes feature enhanced game visuals including hand painted backgrounds and character portraits, full voice acting (with former Sierra employee Josh Mandel reprising his role as King Graham!), lip sync, and digital soundtracks. Plus they’re free to download, and run on today’s computers without fiddling. The games were created using the Adventure Game Studio engine.

The King’s Quest games were some of the first adventures I ever played, so this announcement makes me ridiculously excited - I hope you are, too! Please send me a note if you want a review copy or if you end up covering the any of these remakes. We’d love to see what you have to say about them. :)