Yeah, I haven't posted in ages. Some of you may remember me from when I was more active around 2008-2009 ^_~

Anyway, I have managed to get a copy of the AGI version of King's Quest IV! I've been playing through it. It's a lot closer to what I imagined KQ4 to be as a kid (since the only parser KQ game we had was KQ3). I've noticed some differences compared to the SCI version (other than the obvious graphical and audio differences).
- In typical AGI fashion, the game doesn't pause when you enter a command. Makes it hard to do stuff like throw the bone at the ogre's dog without typing the command ahead of time.
- The clock is a bit different. It starts at 6 AM instead of 8 AM and seems to advance faster (or is it my imagination?). Instead of advancing right to 9 PM after you did everything you can during the day, it'll only advance to about 8:40 PM, and it will tell you that it's starting to get dark.
- A few more of the tombstones have dates. Including one from 1496, which I believe is the oldest grave in the cemetery.
- The game is a lot pickier about Rosella's location for certain things, like picking up the gold ball or flipping the latch in the old mansion.
- This version actually has descriptions of the inventory items! The SCI version only had pictures with no descriptions (except a few items). Oddly enough, the keystroke to get the descriptions is Ctrl-S and not the usual Tab or F4.
- There are just the old-style 4 speed settings.

Overall it plays a lot like KQ3, including the same error messages like "What's a xxxx?" One odd thing is that the prompt character faces the wrong way, it's "<" instead of the usual ">".

If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to learn something about it. I discovered that if you try to enter into the mansion in the SCI version of the game without the scarab it's an automatic loss. I was wondering if it's not so in the AGI version.

Haven't tried that one yet. Is there a way to try it without waiting forever until night falls naturally?

I can confirm that the "rap kq" and "beam me" Easter eggs are indeed real.

Also, it may just be me, but the stairs in this one seem a lot more brutal than in the SCI version. I seem to recall a railing on one of the staircases (the one leading up to the organ in the big mansion?) that was in the SCI version. It's not in this one.

And for some reason I keep noticing similarities between KQs 3 and 4 as I play this game. (Haven't played KQ4 all the way through in like 5 years...) Both games have a young man enslaved to a powerful evil magical being (Gwydion and Edgar). Both have a path leading up to the mountains. Both games have water that you have to swim in and sharks to avoid. Both games revolve around a clock and timing. Both games have a bird feather you have to pick up.

Unrelated: How did Gwydion/Alex learn to swim, anyway? The 2 remakes fix that, at least. IA's remake indicated that Gwydion is allowed out of Mannie's house occasionally (try looking at the food items before taking them), which would also explain why he seems pretty well-adjusted in KQ6 despite growing up in an evil wizard's house, and AGDI's remake takes his swimming ability away.

I was about to say something about a programming convinence regarding Alex's swimming, but then remembered that you have to tell his dear old dad to swim in the past two games, so no that can't be it

Maybe the shark inspired him to quickly learn it?

LOL maybe. How I imagine it, Mannie teleports Gwydion to town to do his shopping (lazy ol' wiz) every week or so, and there he may have learned how to swim and talked to the villagers of Llewdor. And then he teleports him right back home after a few hours, so he can't escape or anything ^_~ After reading stories about actual feral children, it seems he should have had at least some contact with the outside world in order to be basically functional. Then again, it could just be magic ^_~

And yeah, having to push a button to swim was so pointless. There isn't anything else you can do in the water (IIRC even diving into the well in KQ1 requires you to swim first) and you can't swim anywhere else, so why not just have swimming happen automatically when you enter a body of water?

Upon beating the KQ4 AGI game, I was given an alphanumeric "secret code". I don't remember what it was though. Was there some contest back in the day?

Apparently so. From Kimmie's walkthrough - http://www.sierraplanet.com/kingsquest4/walkthru.html

Congrats on getting the AGI version of the game!

After that bloody troll behind the waterfall, one would definitely feel you deserved a proper reward for finishing that game

Unless the troll part is easier in the AGI version compared to the SCI version.

No, Kimmie let me play the AGI version on her computer, and I can definitely say the SCI is easier. That pause is very useful!

The troll seems about as tough in the AGI version as in the SCI.

I'm 24 years old and the troll cave still scares me. It was a lot worse when I was younger, but still. A completely dark cave except for a small amount of light around Rosella, continuing for several screens, where a troll can show up at any moment and kill you, and there's an invisible chasm in one of the screens...

KQ4 definitely has the worst and most annoying random encounters of the series. Between the troll cave and all the sharks in the ocean. And, to top it off, the "edge of the screen trick" doesn't work in KQ4. So you just have to save scum and hope you don't get a random troll/shark.

The troll is probably the only thing I can criticise about KQ4, when I played this game first I thougt that the only reason the troll got me was because I didn't have something to keep it at bay. Then I returned to the cave with the lantern and at first, no troll but then ROAAAR and there it came. So no, the lantern did not keep it away, in fact it probably only advertised where Rosella was.

So yeah, considering how often the troll appears and you can't escape it really, there should have been an item or something that kept the troll away, much like the scarab kept the undead away.