An embarassing confession...

[Technocrat]

...I've never actually played King's Quest. Ever. I've Policed, and I've Spaced, but never Kinged, and I'm finally able to admit it!

Also because Steam have the King's Quest series at half price today. So, has anyone else missed out on classic, seemingly obligatory parts of adventure gaming?

[LimpingFish]

No King's Quest? Welcome to the club! \o/

I've booted up most Sierra games at least once, but I've only played...three?...four?...to completion. And only a handful more for any significant amount of time.

Can't stand King's Quest, myself.

[Victor6]

I've tried to play kings quest, but there's something about the horrible sugary-sweet Disney-like tone of it all that drives me away before I can double click the exe.

The most honest thing I can say about sierra adventure games is;- I've played quite a lot of them, paid for none of them, and I don't feel even slightly guilty about it.

They're not bad, they're just mediocre.

[JD]

I never really played Grim Fandango. I just hated the controls. Same reason why I never tried Monkey Island 4. I'm more of a point-and-clicker I guess. Maybe I should give Grim Fandango another shot because people seem to agree that it's a great game.

[Khris]

Technocrat,
don't bother playing them.
I'd watch this instead: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5ACDE10D49E44AA3&feature=plcp (pretty funny KQ 5 Let's Play)

After that, you won't want to play any of them anymore anyway.

[Snarky]

There are at least two good KQ games: KQ6, and the KQ2 remake by Tierra/AGDI. Try one of those to see if you like the series at all (KQ6 has some dead ends, so you might want to follow along in a walkthrough to make sure you don't miss something and have to go back to the beginning later).

KQ5 and Mask of Eternity are usually regarded as the worst ones, so don't bother with those.

[Armageddon]

I've never beaten an adventure game without a guide. And I've never beaten a Sierra game. :o

[Stupot]

I'm not really a Sierra lover to be honest.  I bought all the Space Quest games on offer a few years ago, but only played the first and didn't really like it.  I've never played Police quest, but I have played Kings Quest 1... I think... though I might not have completed it.

More of a Lucasarts man, but that said I still haven't played Grim Fandango... I technically own it, but it wouldn't work on my computer and I let my friend's ex-boyfriend borrow it, and haven't seen him since they broke up about two years ago.  I'm hoping it gets released on Steam or GOG or something in the not-to-distant future, coz then it will have been tweaked to work properly on modern computers.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

As someone who played pretty much all the KQ games, mask of eternity was actually a step up from the 'oh look, a rock to trip over and die in the road, Graham' hateplay of the earlier titles.  I'm not saying it was a good game but at least it didn't gleefully punish me every five seconds for not being a mindreader.

[Ghost]

I never finished I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream, I never Policed and Spaced. Yes, I never played a single SQ game.
Aaaaaand I had to use a walkthrough for ALL of Woodruff and the Shnibble of Azimuth. That was a baaaad day.

[blueskirt]

If I had to suggest two King's Quest games to someone who never played them, it would be King's Quest I, in its original goodness, for nostalgia and history sake and if you've Spaced and Policed, I'm fairly sure you know the kind of challenge to expect from it, and King's Quest VI, because most of what a lot of people hate about King's Quest is absent from this game.

My embarrassing confession is that I haven't played Barn Runner since The Armageddon Eclair (I think), nor Ben Jordan after the fifth game, because both of those series have such an extensive lore that is somewhat required to remember in order to fully appreciate the plot of each chapters and the series as a whole, and since I don't have enough free time to replay every games prior to a new chapter release, I've decided to simply wait 'til both series are completed before playing them in one long go.

But Ponch knows all about this and pardoned me already.  

[Ponch]

Ponch knows all about this and pardoned me already.  

It was a difficult decision. Possibly the hardest thing I've ever had to do. 

As for my confession: I much prefer Robert E. Howard's Conan stories to any of Tolkien's LOTR stuff. Give me swords, picts, and boobies over boring, snooty elves any day of the week. Also, I've never played World of Warcraft. Oh, and I kind of liked Duke Nukem Forever.

There we go. All my deepest, shameful secrets out in the open. Feel free to judge me.  8)

[Andail]

Maybe it's an age thing, but I grew up entirely on Sierra games like PQ, SQ and LSL.
I've played most of the KQ titles, but found them too stressful and annoying. However KQVI is a game I adore, even though I've never completed it. It's a game they could have made so much better, by removing the dead ends and the slightly weird timed events. The artwork, the puzzles and the wonderfully imaginative settings are just lovely.
It's a pity Sierra grew out of the "let's kill the player all the time to add game time" mentality a bit too late.

[discordance]

Objectively I know that KQV is a terrible game, but it's one of the first games I remember playing and I get the warm fuzzies just looking at it. Even hearing the title music makes me want to run out and play it again.

[arj0n]

Grew up with KQ 1-3 and LSL 1-3 and still love KQ3. It was the first KQ I've played.
It was awesome both AGDI and IA brought out a KQ3 remake 

[Monsieur OUXX]

KQ6, and the KQ2 remake by Tierra/AGDI. Try one of those to see if you like the series at all.

+1
Wanted to write exactly the same thing.

(and indeed, KQ6 is slightly less affordable because of the few dead ends. You usually see them coming, but it's still frustrating if you get screwed).

KQ3 remake is also nice, but is a bit frustrating because of the rythm of the original game (lots of time-based puzzles - yuck!)
KQ1 remake is nice but the puzzles are very simplistic -- you can clearly see that the point-n-click genre was still looking for its gameplay.

[antipus]

I was raised on King's Quest and Quest for Glory, all of which I have beaten, and all of which I enjoyed, probably because I didn't know any better at the time. I just figured all computer games were fiendishly hard. Before all the Sierra goodness, I played text-only adventures (which I can't remember EVER beating), and some old 5.25 disk game called "Demon's Forge," where my only memory is throwing a blanket on an assassin before he shoots you.

My embarrassing confession is that the ONLY LucasArts games I have ever played were Out of This World (that's LucasArts, right?), Day of the Tentacle, and The Dig. I've never been to Monkey Island, hit the road with Sam and Max, gone anywhere Full Throttle, been trained to use the Loom, and I've never entered Maniac Mansion, not even with a remake. I don't even remember hearing about Grim Fandango until I started hanging out in the forums here.

But even being one of the Sierra faithful, I've never played Police Quest or Leisure Suit Larry, either. Not that I regret missing out on either of those. My Sierra favorites were QfG3, KQ6, and Gabriel Knight 1.

[Secret Fawful]

I have no respect for someone who doesn't like Sierra or calls one of their games "mediocre", and I never will. Ever.

Well, this applies to adventure game fans only...

[blueskirt]

antipus: You have a lot of catching up to do then!

Secret Fawful: And I have no respect for a self proclaimed Sierra fan who's into blind fanboyism and never sat down and played every Sierra games to examine what made these games tick, what they did right and what they did wrong. Sierra made a lot of great games but they also made a lot alright and bad games too.

[m0ds]

There are a lot of Sierra games I do like, just not their "Quest" adventure titles... That said I think some of the recent AGS space quest remakes will actually tempt me into giving them a try now. Do yous hate me still Micheal? 

I have to admit though Technocrat, I've never fully played a game by Technocrat.