History and the Ephemeral Art of Classic Gaming
Jason Mical, Contributing Editor
Almost one year ago I began an ambitious project: to chronicle the creative history of my all-time favorite video game series, Quest for Glory. Published by Sierra On-Line from 1989-1998, the five games in the series had a momentous impact on me as a writer, game designer, and as a person. I wanted to capture the spirit of making those games not necessarily from a technical perspective, but from a narrative and artistic perspective.
I knew the creators, Lori and Corey Cole, from a handful of interviews I did with them a decade ago. The Coles are incredible about giving interviews about their games. The three of us decided to write the book together, crowdfund it once the first draft was done, and get the story out there. And as this journey progressed, I began to uncover how vitally important it was to start capturing the stories of these classic video games, now. As time goes by, memories fade, and people from that generation begin to pass away, the chance to hear firsthand how and why these games were made is disappearing.
The early days are here again
Lori and Corey are cut from the same cloth as the early narrative game designers—people like Roberta Williams, Ron Gilbert, Al Lowe, and Brian Moriarty (to name but a few). The Quest for Glory games pioneered a mix of adventure gaming and RPGs that influenced titles from Monkey Island to Planescape: Torment. They were some of the first games to begin exploring narratives and puzzles beyond “use an object to unlock the next part of the game.” That formula started with Colossal Cave Adventure and was refined by Sierra’s own Roberta Williams on Mystery House and later King’s Quest.
I wanted to know what those early days were like. What decisions led to the gorgeous dithered 16-color art in Quest for Glory: So You Want to Be a Hero and Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire? What inspired the composer for Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness to create a catchy, peaceful tune for the Magic Garden that contrasts so wonderfully with the Rusulka’s lake? And what was so important about the ethos of helping others that it became the narrative fulcrum for the entire game series?
Time keeps on slipping
The challenge when chronicling the development of these games is that the primary events happened between twenty-five and thirty-seven years ago. The Coles have an astounding memory for these events, and even things that transpired a decade prior that would influence the story. I admire that all the more because my pandemic-addled, toddler-dad brain can barely remember to change my socks if I don’t write myself a note. Others I have interviewed don’t have the same level of recall, which is fair because these games were more of a job than a personal creative endeavor. And as time goes by, those memories will continue to fade, which is why it’s imperative we capture them now.
On top of that, at least one major creative person who worked on the series has passed away. Kenn Nishiuye, the artist whose style defined Quest for Glory I and whose stunning painting graced the game’s original cover, died in 2012. All the stories Kenn might have told we now need to collect second hand.
Maintaining history
I am not a historian or academic by trade, so I’ve approached the Quest for Glory project purely from the point of view of a writer crafting a (hopefully) good history about something I love. I know the importance of primary sources. A massive part of the book is interviews with the Coles and other creative principles.
What strikes me, beyond my work on Quest for Glory, is how many other games’ histories could be written. Someone could work with Roberta on a King’s Quest retrospective. I would pay hard money for a work about Lucasarts—or even just Loom or Monkey Island.
Shawn Mills’ brilliant history book The Sierra Adventure captured some of these stories, largely from a logistical and developmental perspective. The writer in me wants to hear what these other artists did and how and why. Not to mention going beyond the adventure games that defined my youth to other classics. A project similar to what Boss Fight Books has been doing, but focused only on classic games.
Quest for Glory’s impact is still being felt in game design today. It pioneered open-world gameplay and multiple puzzle solutions for multiple character classes. The series featured stories focusing on strong central female and BIPOC characters long before other games in the genre did so. For many reasons, this is history we can’t afford to lose.
Follow the Quest for Glory book project at @qfgbook on Instagram and Twitter, and sign up to be notified when the crowdfunding campaign goes live at www.qfgbook.com
Want to read more in our “History’s Arcades” series? Check out Roger Whitson’s essay on Kentucky Route Zero and haunted machines, Christian Haines on The Medium and the ghosts of Europe’s past, and Nate Schmidt on Walden: A Game and the archive.
