After talking with Erasmus and being provided a few more clues, I’m off to see the wicked witch of the valley – Baba Yaga.  Well, more specifically an ogress, but she’s ugly nonetheless.

When I first get to her gate, I have to make a deal with the skull at the door.  Apparently he’s jealous that the other skulls have eyes.  Off I head around trying to find this eye.  Finally meeting up, and trading with, a frost giant, I’m one glowing gem richer.  Skull’s happy, I’m happy and now I get to go into the hut.

After 20 years, I still remember the rhyme to get that hut down.

Hut of Brown – that sounds bad

Once inside I get to meet this wicked witch – who immediately turns me into a frog.  What fun.  The old hag (what an affectionate term) sends me on a quest to collect a mandrake root at midnight, in the middle of a graveyard.  Oddly enough, this was a simple task compared to the other ones so far.

After leaving her hut I keep wandering around and find a Dryad, who thankfully instructs me on how to concoct a dispel potion.  A few mini quests later (green fur from meeps, a magic acorn, flying water from a waterfall and dancing fairies) I get the healer to make me a nice potion.  Getting ready for the end!  Now I just need to figure out where this brigand leader is.

And for that I visit the local thieves.  A quick snoop later, I get the password to the secret tunnel and the key from a corpse.  Of interest in this portion, if I don’t take a particular path across the map, I die.  Which I do repeatedly.  Games like QfG practically forced you to save continuously to avoid constant death.

Thank You!

On to the final chapter.  Meeting up with the secret cave, I give the password which shoos away the local troll.  A bit further in, I get to meet Toro, the local minotaur guard.  For some reason, my sneaking ability fails again and again (even though it’s at max) and I have to fight this poor bugger.  A few daggers and fireballs later, he goes down and I go in over the wall.

Seconds before my sneak attack fails miserably

The next portion is a trap filled death zone which takes a few tries to get through.  Nothing to serious but the arrows hit me in the knee a few times.  I then enter the eating hall.  Or as I like to call it, the room of eternal failure.  There are 5 distinct actions that have to be taken here and all within a specific timeframe.  Each one too soon, or too late, causes death.  I do end up clearing it but it takes me a solid 15 minutes for what amounts to 30 seconds of actual gameplay.

I see dead people

The next zone has me meeting the warlock, or Yorrick to his pals.  This was the jester that followed the baroness to make sure she was ok.  Given that he couldn’t break Baba Yaga’s curse, he just stuck around to protect her.  He devised this massive trap zone to isolate her from the rest of the brigands.  Getting through the funhouse is as challenging as it is colorful.  Finally through that, I meet the brigand leader, throw the dispel potion and poof, baroness!

What, no kiss

She informs me that her magic mirror can reflect spells (why she didn’t use this before is a good question) so I pick that up and we both skedaddle.  Mirror in hand, I decide to pay the ogress one final visit.  A zap and a half later, Baba is now a baby frog and I’m a free man.  The game takes over now and I’m sent to the Baron’s castle for a victory feast, with all the cast and crew (along with Corey and Lori Anne Cole).  I save my game afterwards to get eventually started on Quest for Glory 2 – Trial by Fire.

Everything is Awesome

Summary

I played the EGA version of this game about 50 times when I was younger and tend to replay the VGA one every year since.  It has not lost it’s charm.  The art style still holds up, as it never really went for realism in the first place.  The text is still as good/corny as it was before.  The puzzles are still well thought out and have multiple paths for success.  One of the best parts of the game, and the series, is that you can start in QfG1 and continue to play the same character all the way through QfG5.  And it did this 15 years before Mass Effect.

Man I love this game.

After exploring the town, my Thief is ready to head out into the wild.  Heading up North I meet up with the healer.  After finding her ring in a nearby nest, she was nice enough to let me know about all the things I can do around here.  Note to keep, I can make some money collecting deadly Cheetaur claws.  Woo.

Off out I go again, looking to the Baron’s keep.  First up is a fighting trainer.  Given my skill in combat (quite literally the fact that I have any points in Parry) he opts to train me in combat.  I give it a shot and get handed defeat in short order.  Apparently neophytes can’t beat masters, no matter what the movies tell us.

After the fight, I ask a few more questions to the guards about the Baron’s curse. Seems there might be some activity nearby related.  Sure enough, a nearby cave, guarded by a massive ogre, has a kobold keeping the Baron’s son hostage, under a spell.  A few fireballs (I did mention I took up magic right?) and down the baddie goes.  Looting a key, I free the Baronet and head back to the castle for a nice party.  Not the nicest guy in the world but the gold reward is well needed!  Plus, 1 of 2 kids found.

At this point I decide to do some exploring and attempt to level up some stats as combat with that Ogre and Kobold was pretty tough.  QfG, a series as a whole, has maps that are mostly used as filler I guess.  About 50% of all the areas on the map are empty and therefore have a chance at generating an enemy.  Sometimes it’s just fun to run around these places to find enemies to fight, in order to increase your RPG stats.  You certainly get to meet some interesting folk!

Giant Cheetah Attack

Big Teeth

So now, not only do I have Cheetaur claws for the healer, but quite a few stat boosts to help too.  I didn’t max anything out but I did pass the 50% mark on the majority of things.  Before taking on the next half of the Quest, I decide to explore a bit more.  I remember Zara talking about Erasmus being nearby, and being a powerful wizard maybe he can provide me with more wiz-bangs.

Erasmus, and his talking pet rat Fenrir, as the heart and soul of the puns in-game.  I don’t think they ever said a single serious word.  It’s funny in that the puns stink as much today as they did back then.  Yay for rose-colored glasses!

Due to my proclivities with magic spells, Erasmus challenges my to a wizards duel.  No, there’s no magic wands and hokey latin.  Instead we fight by proxy with little flames.  The trick is to move stones and bridges and get my little blue guy from the top left to the bottom right.  It takes a few tries, and quite a few mana potions, but I finally get the win!

After the battle, I get a bit more information from the wizard about the baroness.  Clearly she’s under an enchantment that I need to dispel.  Seems like I have a target for the next step of the quest.

No word of a lie, I can clearly remember getting Hero’s Quest for Christmas when I was younger.  I unwrapped the gift and saw the picture below and could not wait a second more to get back home and play the game.

It all started here

I had played a few shareware games, Commander Keen and whatnot, by that point but this was the start of my fascination with games.  Now the game series had to change titles because of a boardgame with the same name (which was also awesome) and turned into Quest For Glory, spanning 5 games.  I remember even buying the little books as guides, with the red plastic window to read the clues.  I played all the games, extensively (even 4, which was notoriously buggy) and was saddened when 5 was announced as the last in the series.  Which, in my opinion, spelled the death of Sierra games.

Tears aside, Syp’s recent foray into nostalgic games had me thinking I could do something similar with QfG.  Let’s see how that goes!

Building a Hero

First off, QfG is a mix of adventure and RPG, with most of the focus on the former.  You class, either Fighter, Thief or Magic User, impacts the types of tools you have at hand in any given puzzle.  Most of the puzzles have many solutions, depending on your level in your skills.  For example, a Thief with Flame Dart can attack at a distance rather than sneak around.

For my tastes, I have always been drawn to the Thief.  They have a subset of missions in every game that just seems more fun.  I opted to make a Thief with a set of points in every skill, allowing me to try anything out.

9000!

And off I went.  Sent into Speilburg (this game is notorious for puns), I meet with the sheriff at the gates to learn about some brigand problems, along with a curse from a local ogress.  Get rid of the brigands, rid the land of the curse and become a hero – sound simple!

I head next door to the inn and meet some cat folk.  Always cat folk in fantasy games, don’t really know why dogs aren’t around more…anyways.  Nice people, got robbed by the brigands and now they have to lay low, charge me a pretty penny for a sloppy meal and then ask me to find their stuff.  I don’t know, maybe give me a free meal and I’ll think about it?

I explore a bit more of the town afterwards.  Hit the Guild Hall to learn about being an adventurer.  Buy some magic spells from Zara, buy some apples from the cute centaur and sit down for a mug of beer and some stories at the pub.  Looks like this peaceful town has a thieving problem, which is right up my alley!

At night, I find a shiny coin in that same alley which leads me to the thieve’s guild.  Buy  myself a license, train up a bit on lockpicking and hit the town.  Only 2 houses to lift from and very little within them, maybe a few gold total.  There are many ways to die however, of which I find quite a few novel ones.  That cat is especially friendly.

Time’s up in the town, let’s head out into the wild!

Until the next chapter.