Wizard and the Princess

The Wizard and the Princess (aka Hi-Res Adventure #2: Wizard and the Princess) is Roberta Williams' precursor to the King's Quest series on the Apple II & Atari 400/800 and ported over to Commodore 64, and the PCjr. According to Interaction Magazine, Fall 1994, "Wizard & Princess can be considered the "prequel" to King's Quest I, since Roberta took many of her fantasy visions from this game and put them into the landmark series. King Graham even returns to Serenia in King's Quest V." The game is a non-animated graphic adventure, which uses a simple parser system. Chronologically it is set several years before King's Quest V.

Background
You are a hero who is sent into the past by Harlin, becoming the wanderer of legend. Entering the village of Serenia, you discover King George IV's daughter Princess Priscilla has been kidnapped from Serenia by an evil wizard named Harlin. Harlin holds her inside his castle far in the mountains. The King offered half of his kingdom to anyone brave enough to travel to the Wizard's castle, defeat him and return his daughter. You are the happy wanderer who answers this challenge.

Enter the world of computer adventure. Each Sierra On-Line adventure takes several weeks to master, providing hours of fascination and intrigue. The player must use their imagination and logic to unlock the mysteries of each adventure. Map skills are a must since our adventure games contain over a hundred full-color computer-generated images which lead you in every direction. So, muster up all your wit, logic and perseverance for this is a Sierra On-Line adventure and a challenge to your ingenuity.

Become the hearty and steadfast adventurer who rescues the fair princess from the dreadful wizard, Harlin. He has taken her to his towering castle beyond the Great Mountains. You must outwit and outmaneuver the mystical power of the wizard which has grown dark and potent through time. Begin your adventure in the small village of Serenia, but take heed, everything is not as it may appear...

"Sets a standard by which future graphic adventures will be judged."

Endings
There is text for two different endings depending on the version of the game. One leads to the junior-master adventurer ending which seems to be the main ending. Another that mentions the hero marrying the princess and received half the kingdom (which seemingly ties into the introduction plot better). But its not clear if the latter is used, and it doesn't necessarily appear in every version of the game.

Behind the scenes
The Apple II version has a 21 color palette made through the use of dithering. On the original monitors the dots and lines in the dithering would kind of blend together creating the illusion of solid colors. This allowed the game to have more colors than Apple II's standard 6. The first screen for example village of Serenia has the illusion of six colors on screen at once (if initial items are dropped in the screen, the flask adds a seventh color in the screen). In some screens this adds upwards '9' 'colors' (for example the scene with the little gnome).

The C64 port did not have this limitation. The C64 version uses solid colors and no dithering, this makes most of the colors seem lighter and more pastel. Many of the colors are a different palette as well. Some rooms such as the Village of Serenia have up to 8 colors on screen at once, the gnome for example has 10 real colors. It is overall more colorful than the original. The C64 allowed for a higher resolution as well. The game takes advantage of this by having more detailed items to pick up for the inventory. For example gold coin found at the end of the rainbow has a face on it, and the locket has a 'heart' on it.

Despite having the option of more colors on screen and hires inventory items, some of the artwork became less detailed. Such as the random snakes, the king of the snake, and the snake in the hole. Look more like grey featureless worm-like masses.

Atari version some versions use monochrome graphics, with dithering to create texture and shading (which appeared differently on different colored monitors).

Later re-releases added an additional prologue in the updated manual, that leads into the original prologue on the back of the box (of the Atari and apple versions). The Atari version was extended by a few pages.

The adventure takes place in the land of Serenia, a land that Roberta would later use again and expand on in KQV. Several concepts are similar in both games. Both games include a desert, a town, a green forest area, and an ocean to cross, an island in the ocean, etc. There are even a few puzzles in the game that are similar to future KQ puzzles. For example, having to patch a a hole at the bottom of a boat.

The events told in the game are mentioned and expanded upon in An Encyclopedia of Daventry. It expands on the background of the Wanderer and Priscilla. It discusses their fates after the game.

The game was later ported over to the IBM as Adventure in Serenia.

Chronologically speaking as related in the King's Quest Companion, Second Edition, the game must only take a few years to decades at the most before KQV, as Princess Priscilla is still alive at the time of KQV, having become the ruler of Serenia.

Wizard and the Princess was included as a bonus with the Apple IIe/c versions King's Quest.

King's Question
The Wizard and the Princess's connection to King's Quest lore is referenced in "King's Questions" involving a question asking about the alternate name for the game.

"The Wizard and the Princess" was made for the Apple computer. What was it called when released for the IBM PC?

a. Hello, Daventry!

b. Adventure in Serenia

c. Hi-Res Adventure #2

d. The Princess and the Wizard