I just found out about Kings Quest from Tell Tale Games.  I wanted to play all of them from the start.  I got to this one and am curious about the father?  Why didn't we see anything about him?  He seemed really important.

The Father is a concoction of AGDI in their KQ2 and KQ3 remakes. We don't include him in our version because, well our version is better! Honestly, it's not a Sierra thing, it's a wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey thing AGDI did to try and make all the KQ games hold to some continuity they imagine has occured.

Check out AGDI if you want to see the Father storyline continue in their KQ3 remake.

Your version? AGDI?  I thought this was just Kings Quest.  This is a remake?  Why the crappy graphics if this is a new version?  Is the father guy from the original game?

Answers with no context:
1) No, he's not.  
2) Yes, they are remakes.
3) 320x200 and 256 color is not necessarily equivalent to crappy graphics.

That being said, not much is probably illuminated for you.

You might want to try and do some research first.  You don't seem to really have any point of reference at all with these games and that makes it hard to explain anything without explaining everything.  It doesn't sound like you read the descriptions for whatever version you downloaded, you could start there.

For a game made in the last 10 years, the graphics are crappy.  Sorry, but they are.  As for the whole father thing, do you think Tell Tale will keep that going?  It really worked in the first two games.  How many games are there anyway? 

I think you're going into the games with the wrong expectations, Ben. Yes, this game was made relatively recently, but it was never intended to be up to modern graphics styles. When remaking these classic games there's a certain trick to capturing the atmosphere of the game. The low res 320x200 graphics were a design decision. These games just look and feel good at that resolution. Also, raising the resolution exponentially increases the amount of work that has to go into each background to make it look good, which makes it harder to complete a game in a timely fashion for free studios like IA and AGDI.

To answer your questions:
There are currently 8 official King's Quest games not counting the Telltale one that's in development.

I doubt Telltale will stick with the father storyline. As others pointed out it was never official it was something conceived by AGDI when they did their remakes of KQ1 + 2. I also seem to recall seeing the word reboot in an article somewhere which means Telltale may not really stick to the known storyline at all.

The graphics are Retro, dude.   Sorry you think they're crappy.  I hear Crysis 2 is bitchin'.  You should check that out.

AGDI has a version of King's Quest III they call King's Quest III Redux.  That game has more of "The Father" in it, which as has been explained, is a creation of their own entirely, not Sierra-On-Line, who originally produced the King's Quest Series from 1984-1998.

Groups like us make these "retro" remakes for the same reason people make "lo-fi" music recordings and release them on vinyl; we have a sense on nostalgia for the games, and we like to share them this way.  Might not be to your taste, which is cool.   I hope you enjoy them nonetheless - a lot of good people gave their free time to make these games and give them to people for free.

Bt

These are fan remakes. As noted, the "father" nonsense was a contrivance of AGDI for their fan remakes. While I would love to see King's Quest games with modern graphics, I completely understand the creative decision to go with the graphics in the style of the hayday of the series. It is what games looked like when adventures were king (no pun intended). I think these fan remakes are best appreciated if played after the official games.

http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/kings_quest_1_2_3
http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/king's_quest_4_5_6
http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/king's_quest_7_8

Repeating yourself with only the addition of "sorry" doesn't make for a convincing case.  This isn't just about taste either.  If  ultra realistic painting was possible in the 19th century, does that make Van Gogh's paintings necessarily crappy because they aren't realistic?  Much like impressionism, this team has chosen a style that captures a certain feel rather than try and portray each individual pore on King Graham's face.

Ah, you often hear the "Sorry, but...." or "The Graphics are crappy" from the ill-informed.  It's so cliche, I barely notice it when someone drops that line.

It's interesting to note what people want out of graphics..... you know, the whole uncanny valley aspect..... would we really accept game graphics that were 100% photo realistic?   Why do we accept the realism of some outrageous things (Like every technological element in, say, Gears of War) but reject others......

I'll tell ya, I like old games because often they force the imagination more.  Take the arcade classic Berserk.  It's just stick figures, running around stick mazes.... but when I played it, I imagined I was a dude, running away from robots in a technologically advanced space station.....


Bt

If FMV games have taught us anything, it's that graphical realism does NOT equate to a better game.  In fact, it often equates to bland, boring, and banal.

I certainly agree with everyone else.  Simple graphics in a style like this are very appealing to me, I wouldn't have them any other way.  Its not even just because of the old games either.  Sometimes I think people become too obsessed with "realism", a fairy tale with a fairy tale, handpainted look to it... its nice.

And as much as I appreciate everything that AGDI has done, I'm glad there's no father storyline here.  So many people want to connect EVERYTHING, same thing TSL is doing... just personal taste, but to me it just ends up being convoluted and TOO much altogether.  Not only that, but it to me cheapens the original stories to a degree as well by trying to retcon motives and roles of characters.

Yeah the graphics are crappy. I just dropped a turd just looking at them.

If you think these graphics are crappy then I can't see the old games appealing much to you since these are remakes.

I think TSL would be perfect for this guy.

You do and he is.


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MAJOR SPOILER ALERT!
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By the end of KQ3, the father, the mother and the daughter are reunited with the son.