King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow

King's Quest VI is widely regarded by fans as the highest point in the series, for reasons ranging from an excellent storyline to clever puzzles to groundbreaking production values (like the opening CG movie).

Notes

Debug Mode#

Some debug functionally can be accessed by setting global100 to a non-zero value. However, most of the debug commands crash the game due to script 911 being missing from the final game.

Thankfully, Script 911 seems to have been accidentally left in the Spanish and Italian releases of the final game; these functions can be activated by having an extracted copy of the script file in the game's directory.

Alternatively, the following patch files can be used to enable the debug functions in an English copy of the game.

Download kq6.en.debug_scripts File: kq6.en.debug_scripts.zip (4 KB) (info)

When active, upon opening the game or choosing to restart, the following menu appears:

These buttons can be used to warp the player to the first room of their respective areas, while specific rooms can be warped to by entering their internal ID number in the text box.

The following debug commands can be used during gameplay:

Additionally, the game checks for the presence of a file named g (with no file extension) in the game's directory, and if present, warping to certain rooms will have additional effects:

The full sequence of dialogue prompts for room 740 (if "V wedding" is selected for the first prompt, only it and the second prompt are used):

Unused Dialogue#

Early Draft of Introduction#

The floppy version includes the text for an early draft of the introduction scene, stored in four separate blocks (messages 110, 115, 120, and 125).

The text in message 110 includes dialogue from both before and after the point in message 115 where Alexander sees Cassima in the magic mirror. Likewise, message 120 includes text that seems to fit both before and after the scene of Alexander sighting land in message 125. It appears that each of these chunks of text was associated with a particular background, meaning the text predates the choice to make the introduction a 3D cartoon.

Message 110, part 1

"I can't get her out of my mind, Mother. One moment I'd found her and everything was different. The next, she was being sent back home. Now it's like she's disappeared without a trace."

"I can't find anyone who's even heard of the Land of the Green Isles, much less knows where it is! Who would have thought that, having met the girl of my dreams, I could lose her again so soon?"

"I understand how you feel, Alexander, but there are many beautiful girls right here in this kingdom."

"I only want you to be happy, Alex. I hate to see you so...purposeless. You've got to stand up and make a decision about your future."

"I know you're right, Mother. It's just...nothing else seems like it could possibly be right without her."

" Oh, Alex. I wish there were something I could do."

"I'll be all right, Mother. I promise."

Message 115

"Oh, Alexander, I need you. I have never been so unhappy. Why do you not come? Have you forgotten me so soon?"

Message 110, part 2

"Alexander! Your face is so white! What happened?"

"I've just seen her--Cassima! She was in the magic mirror! Mother, she needs me!"

"But...what about finding the isles?"

"Stars, Mother! The magic mirror showed me the night sky and I can navigate by the stars!"

"I can see that there's no talking you out of it. But I have a bad feeling, son. Please be careful. If I lost you again, I don't know what I'd do."

Message 120, part 1

Three long months Alexander follows the stars to reach the other side of the world, where the mysterious Land of the Green Isles lie scattered upon the ocean.

Message 125

Every day, Alexander scans the horizon for the islands, for even any sign of life."

Every day, and every night.

"(WITH WONDER)Can it truly be?"

"Land Ho!"

Message 120, part 2

"(SHOUTING, ALARMED)Prince Alexander! We're barely holding against the currents! It's like a whirlpool here!"

"(SHOUTING, PANICKED)Sir, the rocks!"

The next morning...

Unused Death Messages#

These lines are stored in the same file (message 916) as other death messages, but are never used in-game.

This line does have a coded-in use case, for when Alexander is caught by the minotaur in the spying room of the catacombs while the hole-in-the-wall is currently present on the wall... except that the minotaur only appears there if the hole-in-the-wall has already ran off, or wasn't used at all, making the line impossible to trigger.

Removed Background Details#

The screen with Beauty's house (room 250) has unused interaction lines for a cat that doesn't appear there in the final game.

Similarly, the bookshop (room 270) has both actor scripting and interaction lines for a spider that doesn't actually appear in the final game. This spider may have been repurposed into the spider that appears in the castle dungeon later on in the game, which is labeled "ant" internally.

These lines are from the inside of the ferry (room 290), and presumably were meant for the painting hanging up on the wall there, which is visible but not interactable in the final game.

This line is assigned to the carved horse on the wall in the hallway outside Cassima's room in the castle (room 870), but its action type (verb 75) is unused, rendering it inaccessible.

Other#

When talking to the ferryman inside the ferry, one of his repeating dialogue lines at the end of the conversation doesn't play in-game. It was re-enabled in the Amiga release, however.

The scripting for this line (from the Isle of Wonder beach, room 450) indicates that it would've been an alternate line for presenting the flower of stench to Tom Trow, perhaps for doing so too late, but in the final game control is taken away from the player as soon as the time limit for successfully presenting an item is up.

Several of the rooms used for the Cliffs of Logic have lines seemingly for preventing Alexander from backtracking during the climb, but in the final game there is no such restriction.

The "room" (155) used for the cutscenes of riding Night Mare when entering and leaving the Realm of the Dead has two lines of dialogue associated with it, but these aren't used in the final game.

These lines are assigned to the end of the final confrontation between Alexander and the vizier (in room 750), but don't actually play there in-game.

Unused Graphics#

Shamir has a portrait in the game's data, complete with talking animations and golden eyes shining. In spite of this, it goes completely unused in the game, except in the Amiga release.

Original	Color-corrected

An unused background for the Realm of the Dead. The raw background has a color error, however.

Unused Room#

Room 605 is an unused duplicate of the first room of the Realm of the Dead (room 600) with none of the usual actors or descriptive text present, possibly used for testing. It has one exit to the north, to room 630 (the second room of the Realm of the Dead), whereas in the used version that exit is to the east instead. Upon entry, three text boxes with Yes/No button prompts appear in succession:

Would you like a ticket?
How about a (deadman's) coin?
Maybe a mirror? They're great for defeating spirits!

Answering "yes" to any of these questions will grant the player the corresponding item(s), all of which are required to progress through this area in normal gameplay.

Unused Sounds#

Cassima#

Audios 3001 and 3002 are Cassima's voices in the DOS floppy release. However, there is a third pointer that also has the ID of 3002-- it leads to an early version of her lines, which seem to be longer and lower in quality. For obvious reasons, it was removed in future releases.

Unused Voice Lines for Unvoiced Text#

Some of the used text lines that are unvoiced in-game have voice files associated with them in the files that are never played.

When choosing to quit or restart the game, these options (stored in message 0) are given to cancel or confirm your choice.

These credits (in message 94) are the ones you get upon completing the game.

These credits (in message 95) are the ones accessible from the About menu.

The version of the intro that plays on the DOS CD-ROM version without speech enabled (found in message 105), identifiable by its use of extended narration to replace the visuals seen in all other versions.

The copyright message displayed before the title screen (found in message 905).

More About menu text (found in message 908).

Two death messages for the Realm of the Dead (in message 916) and one for the castle dungeon (in message 820). These particular deaths are the only ones that skip the usual ticket cutscene, as well as being displayed on a plain black background rather than a standard textbox.

Revisional Differences#

Character Graphic Portrait versions#

DOS	Enhanced CD

Alexander's Item Inventory#

DOS	Enhanced CD

Floppy 1992 Version#

• The Windows XP collection of this game plays in DOSBOX mode.
• The graphics are downgraded to play the original DOS game.
• The Windows XP version and the Steam releases feature the low resolution graphic portraits of characters Such as Prince Alexander and other characters.
• The icons and items are featured in low-detail graphics using the pink color palette.
• The items in Alexanders inventory are downgraded to low-detail graphics.

1997 King's Quest Collection CD-ROM Version#

• The opening of the King's Quest VI video plays the opening music all the way to the end.
• The Windows 95 version features high-resolution graphics portraits of characters such as Prince Alexander and other characters.
• The icons and items are featured in high-detail graphics using the white color palette.
• The items in Alexander's inventory are upgraded to high-detail graphics.
• At the end of the wedding scene in Speech mode, the game crashes and shows the end credits in the black background. This is due to the decisions not to include "Girl in the Tower".
• While playing the wedding scene in the text version, the instrumental song "Girl in the Tower" will be played and the end credits shows the background scenes from the game.
• This enhanced Windows 95 version won't work in the Windows XP or 7, 8, 10 modes and is often considered a lost PC game.

2006 King's Quest Collection CD-ROM Version#

• The opening of the King's Quest VI video doesn't finish and cuts off near the end.
• The Windows XP collection of this game plays in DOSBOX mode.
• The graphics are downgraded to play the original DOS game.
• The Windows XP version and the Steam releases features the low-resolution graphic portraits of characters Smsuch as Prince Alexander and other characters.
• The icons and items are featured in low-detail graphics using the pink color palette.
• The items in Alexanders inventory are downgraded to low-detail graphics.
• The DOSBOX game crashes after about 3 hours of gameplay, which may make it frustrating for those who don't save often.
• At the end of the wedding scene in Speech mode, the game plays the song "Girl in the Tower" which is included in this game.