Instructions below are based on version 4.1 of King's Quest 1 VGA. Earlier versions may have differences.
the launcher
The King's Quest 1 VGA Menu launcher has the following options.
Play King's Quest - this button launches the game.
Settings - Allows you to select from a variety of sound and graphics options. Also allows you to play the game in full-screen mode or in windowed mode. Note that King's Quest 1 VGA was designed to run at the 320x200 screen resolution. The game is not guaranteed to work correctly at any resolution beside 320x200.
Read manual - opens the manual included with the game (PDF document).
View Readme - opens the readme file (txt file).
Exit - Exits the launcher menu.
Main menu
After the AGDI intro, the main menu will appear on screen. Here one can chose to view the introduction, start a new game, restore an existing game or watch the game credits.
Icon bar interface
The game is played using a pop-up icon bar interface, which appears whenever you move your mouse to the top of the screen. You select the appropriate icon and then click it in the game screen to perform the action of the currently selected icon.
Walk icon: Click on the first icon or right-click the mouse for the mouse pointer to change into a walk icon. Then click on a location on the screen to walk there.
Look icon: Click on the second icon or right-click the mouse for the mouse pointer to change into an eye icon. Then click on a location on the screen to observe objects, people and so on.
Hand icon: Click on the third icon or right-click the mouse for the mouse pointer to change into a hand icon. Then click on any object or person on the screen to touch, activate or pick up items. Items which are picked up are placed in the inventory.
Talk icon: Click on the fourth icon or right-click the mouse for the mouse pointer to change into a talk icon. Then click on a person or other creature on the screen to talk to him or her and get a response.
Current item icon: in the small window is the inventory item which currently displays a sling. Click it or right-click the mouse for the cursor to change into the inventory item and click it anywhere on the screen to use it on a person or item. When no inventory item is selected, this window will be blanked out.
Inventory icon: click on the inventory icon to open the inventory window.
Settings icon: click on the icon with the slider bars to display the game control panel.
Question mark: Click on the question mark and the cursor will change to a question mark. Click the question mark on any of the toolbar icons to get a description on what they are for.
Inventory screen
In this window, you can look at, activate or select inventory items.
To select an inventory item, click the select icon (the arrow icon), then click on the desired inventory item and then click "OK" to return to the game screen. The selected inventory item will be displayed in the menu bar. If you have many inventory items, they may not all fit in the window. If so, the arrow button becomes available. Click it to see more inventory items.
Control panel
In the control panel, you can save, restore, restart or quit the game. Clicking "AGS" display a window with info on the AGS engine in which the game was built.
You can also change various volume settings for sounds, music and speech and the game speed. In addition you can change to display text boxes, use speech or both. The earlier versions of the game without speech or installed speech pack do not have this option.
Hot keys
F1 - display the help screen
F5 - quick save
F7 - quick restore
F12 - save screenshot
CTRL-Q - Quit the game
CTRL-I - Inventory
