Talk:King's Quest II

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Move discussion in progress

There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:King's Quest: Quest for the Crown which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 18:45, 26 November 2013 (UTC)

GA review

This review is transcluded from Talk:King's Quest II/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Nominator: PresN (talk · contribs) 02:30, 28 April 2026 (UTC)

Reviewer: IceWelder (talk · contribs) 14:34, 26 May 2026 (UTC)

• If you've reviewed mine, it's only fair when I review yours. Stay tuned. IceWelder [✉] 14:34, 26 May 2026 (UTC)

Reading Comments

Infobox

• The infobox mentions a Doug MacNeill who does not appear in the prose, and the prose mentions a Scott Murphy who does not appear in the infobox.

• Yes, MacNeill was one of the two listed artists for the game in the credits but did not go on to further fame (unlike Crowe), while Murphy was one of several programmers for the game and so is not in the infobox

• Can you clarify "PC"?

• Clarified

• The Macintosh, Apple II, Apple IIGS, Amiga, Atari ST

• ?

Lead

• reusing and enhancing the game engine that had been developed for the game could be shortened to reusing and enhancing its game engine

• Done

• would go on to → went on to

• Done

• collectively sold over 500,000 copies sold → collectively sold over 500,000 copies

• Done

• variety of graphical animation → variety of graphical animations?

• Done

• Consider linking video game remake

• Done

Gameplay

• "contextual to where Graham is standing in the location the player is in" – Feels like "the player is in" is redundant here.

• Done

• the last time they saved their game → the last time they saved it

• Done

• "from monsters or enemies" – Are these enemies human enemies or why are they separated here?

• Shorted to enemies

• "however, the bridge collapses" – The "however" feels redundant here.

• Done

• Could probably link softlock or no-win situation here?

• Done

• Some items have no gameplay impact but solely award points → Some items solely award points

• Done

Plot

• "that Graham needed to find" – Duplicated "that"

• Done

• and its prequel → and its predecessor

• Done

Development and release

• graphical adventure games → graphic adventure games

• Done

• with Roberta as designer → with Roberta as the designer as she was the sole designer

• Done

• "Roberta Williams interpreted" – The usage of "Roberta" vs. "Roberta Williams" is a bit inconsistent here. Perhaps just go with "Williams" as Ken does not appear again?

• Done (and thereafter in the section)

• to understand more over three times → to understand over three times

• Done

• Is "combining phrases" the correct term here?

• Yes, meaning you could say "pick up rock and throw rock" in one command

• Is the title really a pun or just wordplay? I'd recommend just saying that it is a reference.

• Done

Reception

• ASM has an author attached. Why is he not mentioned here?

• Fixed

• Since there are two reviews from different authors in Computer Entertainer, "Antic and Computer Entertainer also praised ..." makes it ambiguous which review said this.

• Done

Legacy

• the AGI engine → AGI

• Done

• KQ1+2+3 → King's Quest 1+2+3

• Done

• "AGD Interactive (then known as Tierra Entertainment)" – Since AGD doesn't come up again, this could be shortened to only mention the former name.

• Done

• expanded the plot, and added → expanded the plot and added – faux Oxford comma

• Done

• the original voice actor → the voice actor

• Done

• "Microsoft Windows" could be shortened to "Windows".

• Done

References

• Adventure Classic Gaming is listed as unreliable at WP:VG/S.

• Yes, and so I could not use them for a news/review article (they're non-RS due to a lack of consistent editorial oversight); in this case it's an interview with Roberta Williams, so I'm citing her, not what the ACG interviewer said.

• Citing the box is probably fine but I don't think it should come from "retro365.blog". If you can verify this independently, perhaps replace the link with a quote of the relevant section.

• Replaced link with quote

• The Steam and GOG sources should list Activision as the |publisher= and the respective platform as the |via=.

• Done

• The ref for ADG Interactive should also use |publisher= instead of |website=.

• Done

• The 2024 is on X but not linked. Is it not linkable?

• Whoops, fixed

• Not All Fairy Tales Have Happy Endings has an article that could be linked in the bib entry.

• Done, I'm surprised at that.

• Is there anything specific to the 2nd edition of Trivette that is not mentioned in the 1st (and vice versa) that made you cite both?

• Huh, actually, no - I had both versions cited when I wrote King's Quest I, because the 2nd edition adds some information but focuses more on the way KQ5 works rather than KQ 1-4... but nothing I'm citing in this article needs the specific text of the first edition. Swapped them all to just be the 2nd edition

• The ASM source should incorporate the original German title, a |language=de, and a |trans-title=. I don't think the author is right either; it should Stefan Swiergiel.

• Done, and yeah, typo there (that was the name of the previous source in the wikitext)

Misc.

• Categories should be sorted.

• Fixed the one that was out of place.

Source Spotchecks

This table lists 9 random passages from throughout the article (20.9% of 43 total passages). These passages contain 13 inline citations (20.6% of 63 in the article). Generated with the Veracity user script.

Reference #	Letter	Source	Archive	Status	Notes
King's Quest II is an adventure game set in the pseudo-medieval fairy tale-inspired fantasy realm of Kolyma, in which the player controls the character King Graham to complete a quest for three keys to rescue the imprisoned Valanice. The game world is divided into dozens of locations, or flip-screens, with one location visible at a time. These locations are presented in pseudo-3D as if viewed from the side, with the player moving Graham around the screen in front of and behind other elements of the location.
1	a	McGrath, Patrick (June 1985). "King's Quest II: Romancing the Throne". Computer Entertainer. Vol. 4…	archive.org
2	a	"King's Quest II: Romancing the Throne". Computer Entertainer. Vol. 4, no. 9. December 1985. p. 11.	archive.org
The game has a minimal story, mostly told through the game's manual and an introductory cutscene. One year after the conclusion of King's Quest I, in which Sir Graham retrieved the three stolen treasures of Daventry and became the new king, he sees a vision of his predecessor King Edward in a magic mirror. King Edward advises him that now that the realm was restored to prosperity, that Graham needed to find a wife to ensure the future stability of the realm. Graham hosts a celebration to meet all of the eligible maidens of the land, but is not enthralled by any of them. He laments this in front of the mirror, which shows him a vision of a beautiful young woman, Valanice, in captivity on the top of an ivory crystal tower in the land of Kolyma.
7		Sierra On-Line (1985). King's Quest II manual. pp. 1–7.
She made the game world as a blend of common fairy tales that could be directly experienced as a game.
13		adventureclassicgaming.com	web.archive.org
The instructions were made with a custom program used to scan in the artists' paper drawings, with the artist selecting lines or areas and setting their color and "priority", or how far in the foreground or background they are.
11	c	Mills, ch. 1
As Graham had become the king of Daventry at the end of the first game, Roberta envisioned him going on a quest to rescue a maiden, which could then be expanded to have a family of characters in following games. Some of the elements of the game, such as King Neptune, Dracula, and Little Red Riding Hood, were originally considered for King's Quest I, but could not be fit into that game.
18	a	Sierra On-Line (1997). King's Quest Collection 2 manual. pp. 11–14.			The original quote is "I couldn't fit some ideas into King's Quest I, so I was happy to get a change [sic] to include King Neptune, Dracula, everyone from Little Red Riding Hood, and that infamous rickety old bridge you could only cross so many times." – Emhpasis added.
King's Quest II sold over 100,000 copies by February 1987, and by mid-1987 the combined sales of the first three King's Quest games surpassed 500,000.
22	b	retro365.blog	web.archive.org
24		"Adventures and More from Sierra". Computer Entertainer. Vol. 5, no. 11. February 1987. p. 4.	archive.gamehistory.org
Computer and Video Games praised the variety of animation, while a different Computer Entertainer review by Patrick McGrath said that it had the best animation of any video game.
1	b	McGrath, Patrick (June 1985). "King's Quest II: Romancing the Throne". Computer Entertainer. Vol. 4…	archive.org
25	b	search.worldcat.org	archive.org
Antic and Computer Entertainer also praised the story of the game, with Computer Entertainer calling it an improvement over King's Quest I.
2	e	"King's Quest II: Romancing the Throne". Computer Entertainer. Vol. 4, no. 9. December 1985. p. 11.	archive.org
27	c	search.worldcat.org	archive.org
Updated editions were released through 1997 as further games were released in the series.
38		Spear, p. 1

• Tweaked the red riding hood sentence to indicate that it wasn't just her included.

First Pass

@PresN: As promised! Some writing stuff and this is good to go. On hold. IceWelder [✉] 20:51, 30 May 2026 (UTC)

@IceWelder: Thanks for the thorough review! I've responded inline to a couple points, but mostly it's just "done". --PresN 15:20, 1 June 2026 (UTC)

Looking great so far. My incomplete point above should have read "The Macintosh, Apple II, Apple IIGS, Amiga, Atari ST appear here but are not mentioned or sourced in the body." Perhaps this could still be amended? MacNeill should also get a quick mention in the prose. IceWelder [✉] 20:39, 1 June 2026 (UTC)

@IceWelder: Both done. --PresN 21:22, 1 June 2026 (UTC)

Wunderbar! Passed. IceWelder [✉] 21:25, 1 June 2026 (UTC)