The Silver Lining Episodes 1-4

Once upon a time, I played King's Quest. About 20 years later, I did it again and made a blog post about it. Recently, news broke that the Sierra games brand is being brought back after 15 years. I think there was something about a new King's Quest game in there somewhere.

Screenshot of the Silver Lining, showing the guillotine in Chessboardland

The people at Phoenix Online Studios couldn't wait. About 10 years ago, they decided to have a crack at doing a fan-made closure to the series. They have released it as an episodic series, currently on fourth of five episodes. It seems that they've done a good job.

The whole thing takes place in the Land of the Green Isles, the setting of King's Quest 6 (how convenient for me). The first episode opens with Rosella's wedding. Things are great, until a black cloaked man abducts Rosella and her brother, Prince (now King) Alexander into their dreams. After a while, things start to become undone. Things like hatchlings turning to eggs, and the prince from the Isle of the Beast getting re-cursed. Later on, this man is discovered as the villain (or related to) a villain from a previous King's Quest game.

From what I remember from KQ6, there are many more places to explore, like Chessboardland, the Winged One's city, and the hedge maze on the Isle of the Beast. It's strange walking around the Castle of the Crown, because the first thing I learned about it in KQ6 is that you stay the hell away from it. I admire the engineering and creativity that went into some of the puzzles, like that maze, and getting a shell from chess pieces. Like any King's Quest game, this world is practically made of fairy tales, and references to many abound. And there are silly puzzles, like playing four instruments at one time. In the air.

In all, this is a very well thought out and challenging point and click adventure game. It's free, so "buy" it from Phoenix Online. Episodes 1 to 4 came out within a year or so of each other, but it's been about 3 years since the last one. There is even a menu option for the fifth episode. Maybe I can write another blog post before then?

It seems that they've been busy with other games since then, since they had nothing else before The Silver Lining. (Maybe they ran out of money?) Some of them were even written by Jane Jenson, who wrote most of KQ6. PCGamer recently had a commentary session with her, where she explained some of the secrets behind KQ6. I thought it was very cool.

Since you've made it this far, you might be interested in reading:

So after toying around with my Raspberry Pi, I discovered that ScummVM supports King's Quest 6. Good thing that I kept that disc from the very first computer that the family had. I imaged this disc a few years ago, so it should be saved from bit rot. So I copied the ISO over to my Pi and fired up ScummVM.

Screenshot of Myst Island, showing the well and library. — Myst

I remember when I first started playing Myst. I liked that it was pretty and its puzzles were based on straightforward logic (as opposed to timing based puzzles). But there was some wrinkle in it, aside from being incomplete, that made me keep going back to another point and click adventure game: King's Quest 6. Some would say because it's a rescue the princess story, or that it had player death (Myst is not violent), or that it had a narrator. Lots of games have those, but I'm not as fond of them. Today, I realize people lived in King's Quest, and that's why it appeals to me more. It was full of people, each with discernible personalities. By comparison, you see 3 people in Myst (not even the player is seen), and a few others are only mentioned.

Screenshot of Sam in his office during hypnosis. — Sam & Max Save the World

From way back when point and click adventure games ruled PC games, there was a dog and a rabbit. These buddies went around as private investigators solving stuff. I'm not sure which stuff in particular, because I missed the boat. The series wasn't a blockbuster take-over-the-world smash hit, but it had a dedicated following.

Screenshot of Sam and Max talking to an Easter Island Moai head statue. — Sam and Max: Season 2

Sam and Max: Season 2 continues the antics found in Season 1. Max continues his presidential administration, but a robot sent from Santa has started tearing up the place. Not that it mattered, but the whole place could have needed some cleaning up when Max got elected. Sybil's place has been thrown to the next block, and a pile of rubble sits next to the office.

Screenshot of Geralt about to stick a sword into you. — The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

I was doubtful that I would finish this before Halloween, but here we are. This game isn't remotely as scary or Satanic, but still features lots of monsters, and monstrous people.

Screenshot of Papers, Please, showing a multitude of documents and a man with killer sideburns — Papers, Please

Papers, Please is a bureaucrat simulator where you man a border checkpoint in a fictional totalitarian country during the late cold war. Gameplay mostly involves examining people's passports and other entry documents and calling 'gotcha' on them. Otherwise, you let them through if you can't find anything or you're lazy.