General Adventure Gaming Tips

Playing the King's Quest games can sometimes be as frustrating as it is rewarding. When you get stuck in the game and cannot figure out what to do next, it's important not to give up too easily and consult a hintbook, walkthrough or something similar. It can be extremely rewarding to take your time and solve the puzzles for yourself. To be successful, it's important to think logically and do things methodically. Here's a list of suggestions to anyone who's stuck in one of the King's Quest games, or any adventure game for that matter:

Save your games often, using many different files! In a King's Quest game, poor decisions or bad steps may often prove fatal. It is also possible that something you do at one point in the game will make it impossible to solve a problem later on. Having to restart the game from the very beginning may prove very annoying and boring. A few saved games at key points in the past makes it possible for you to go back and fix the problem without having to do everything again. It saves lots of time too!
Never throw anything away! In a King's Quest game, you can carry as many things with you as you can find without having to worry about the space in your pockets or the weight of the things. If you find a loaf of bread, you can probably eat it right away, but that's probably not a good idea as chances are big that you need it for something more important later on. So make sure to pick up everything you are allowed to pick up and keep it until you find a problem that you think you can solve by using it.
Try different solutions to the problems! Many puzzles in the King's Quest games can be solved in multiple ways. You are rewarded with points for the decisions you make. The smarter your solution, the more points you get. This is another reason for saving your games often. You can get to the ending of the game without solving every puzzle available and/or by not solving the necessary puzzles in the best ways, earning you less points than the maximum. Once you've finished the game you can go back and try alternate solutions, chasing for the remaining points, or just to experience the different results. Finishing the game with the maximum number of points is very hard and may take you lots of time and work.
Draw maps! It can be hard to find your way around the various lands you explore in the games. With a map you can get to where you want much faster, and you can make sure that you've been in every area. Also, write down where you find things, encounter dangers and so on. Take notes of information that seems important so you don't forget it.
Stay near the corners of the screen if possible so you can escape quickly if a baddie appears, and don't go near any ledges or other dangerous spots if you don't have to. You could get yourself killed!
Look at your score! If something you do reduces your old score, you've done something stupid. It may still be possible to finish the game, but you can be sure that there's a smarter way to do it. If you cannot come up with something better then you should settle with it, but at least save your game at a point just before it in case it stops you from proceeding later on or if you suddenly come up with a better solution at a later point.
If you get stuck: First, try every alternate solution you can think of. Your first attempts are usually not successful. Also, think about the relevance of the problem. Maybe you've encountered a puzzle that you cannot solve right now. Then leave it and come back later when you have the tools you need. Maybe the puzzle is impossible to solve because of something you did earlier. Maybe it isn't an important puzzle for you to solve. There are many possibilities. Often, you get out of ideas pretty fast. Then, try discussing the problem with another person. You'll be amazed how many constructive ideas that other people can come up with. You may have become so involved in the gameplay that you're not seeing the obvious solutions. Missing an important clue presented to you earlier or misunderstanding the problem itself may lead to the wrong ideas. Another person who has played the game from his/her perspective or not played the game at all may be free of those wrong ideas and thinks much more logical. Also try to analyze the nature of the problem thoroughly. Don't base your attempts to a solution on what you want to happen, but on what you think could happen. What is the game really asking for? Do you have some thing in your inventory that could be used to tackle the problem? How would you solve similar problems in other situations? And so forth. Also, remember that some people and places in the King's Quest games are taken from well-known legends and fairy-tales. How did the characters in these stories solve the same problems? You're probably supposed to solve them in the same way!
Use your eyes and ears! Many puzzles depends on details you are supposed to observe or things that other characters in the game tells you. Make sure you haven't overlooked something. Check out things out several times before dismissing them as useless. Or even better: Never decklare something useless!
If you're just stuck in the game without any puzzles to solve, not knowing what do do next: Remember your main goals! What do you know about them? What are you expected to do? What kind of places should you go to? How can you get there? Do you need anything in order to get there?
Your last resort is to consult a hint documentation or even a straight walkthrough for the game. It can be very tempting to just ”take a peek” in one of these texts without trying hard to solve the problems first, but it's not by far as rewarding to get the answer served on a plate instead of actually solving it yourself, especially if the answer is pretty obvious. You'll probably curse yourself that you didn't actually solve it yourself but actually looked up that simple answer! And there's no way to correct the fault, except waiting several years and replay the game after you've forgot how you solved it. But of course, there's nothing fun in an adventure game that you're totally stuck in and know how it responds to every single thing you can think of doing. Then, by all means, look up the solution (careful to avoid seeing any adjacent solutions) and solve the puzzle!
Also, a walkthrough can be useful once you've finished the game if you don't want to replay it to find the alternate puzzle solutions. There are usually also some fun things you can do in the game that you haven't tested that are documented in the walkthrough.
And remember: You're not stupid just because you fail to solve an adventure game puzzle, but you can say that you're smart if you do!

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