King’s Quest 1 Playthrough Analysis

This chapter records a game-specific, clean-room reconstruction of a maximum- score winning playthrough for the local KQ1 evidence set. It is intended to become a repeatable conformance scenario, not part of the portable AGI engine specification. The route was derived from canonical logic, vocabulary, object, picture, and view resources without consulting an external walkthrough.

The result is currently a static candidate route. Logic control flow, messages, parser vocabulary, inventory mutations, score mutations, and room transitions support the complete puzzle sequence. Exact movement coordinates, random-character timing, and the final input stream still require replay under the original interpreter.

Evidence Method

The reusable playthrough index can be generated with:

AGI_GAME_DIR=games/KQ1 \
  python3 -B tools/logic_playthrough_index.py \
  --output build/playthrough/kq1/index.json

The index contains 90 readable logic resources, 1,478 parser conditions, 277 room transitions, 180 score mutations, and 27 inventory slots. No logic resource failed to decode. Logic 0 assigns 158 as the declared maximum score. The 269-point raw positive-site sum includes repeated room variants, reversible acquisitions, lower-valued alternatives, and positive halves of net score exchanges; it is not a reachable route total.

A direct renderer sweep produced all 82 present picture resources without an error. The resulting contact sheet corroborates the open Daventry map, well and dragon caves, condor flight, underground leprechaun complex, beanstalk and cloud region, giant territory, castle return, and ending imagery. Pictures 83 and 84 are title or transition imagery rather than traversable rooms.

Winning State

King Edward sends Graham to recover three objects:

1. A magic mirror that tells the future.
2. A magic shield that protects its bearer.
3. A magic chest that continually supplies gold coins.

Logic 53 recognizes the completed quest when all three treasure states are present. After Graham returns to the throne room and bows, King Edward rises, commends him, dies, and grants him the kingdom. The terminal sequence names Graham as King of Daventry and displays the closing credits. The conformance scenario must reach that sequence with score 158.

Maximum-Score Principles

Several parser choices solve the same immediate problem but do not preserve the maximum score:

• Show, rather than give, the carrot to the goat. Showing it awards five points while retaining the two-point carrot. Giving or feeding it first subtracts those two points.
• Use water on the dragon. Consuming the two-point water and receiving the seven-point solution award gives a net five, compared with the lower-valued dagger solution.
• Give food rather than treasure to gatekeepers. Cheese costs two points but earns four from the rat; surrendering a six-point treasure only removes it.
• Drive the leprechauns away with fiddle music and retain the four-leaf clover as protection.
• Wait for the giant to fall asleep. This earns seven points and leaves the eight-point chest available. Killing him with the sling gives a lower net result.
• Answer the gnome correctly on the first guess. Later correct guesses award fewer points, while failure produces a gold key and a lower-valued alternate route instead of the beans.

The parser’s first-guess word for the gnome is ifnkovhgroghprm. The witch’s note says that it can be wise to think backwards. Mechanically mirroring each alphabet position (a with z, b with y, and so on) transforms that local vocabulary token into rumplestiltskin.

Candidate Route

The surface world is open enough that many collection steps can be reordered. The sequence below keeps dependencies explicit and avoids carrying the goat into rooms where it wanders away or causes a score penalty.

First audience and surface preparations

1. Cross the castle bridge, open the door, enter the throne room, stand a few paces in front of King Edward, and bow. Opening the door awards one point; the first respectful bow awards three. Speak to the King to receive the three-treasure quest.
2. Move the large rock in the birch clearing for two points. Search the exposed hole and take the dagger for five. Stand uphill or aside so the moving rock does not roll over Graham.
3. Look inside the decaying stump for one point, take the canvas pouch for three, and open it for another three. It becomes the pouch of diamonds.
4. Take a carrot for two points. At the goat pen, open the gate and show the carrot from close range. This awards five points without consuming it and causes the goat to follow Graham.
5. Lead the goat to one of the guarded bridges. Step aside when the troll appears. The goat butts the troll away for four points and then leaves the active route. Do not pay the troll with treasure.
6. Speak to the nearby elf from close range. The successful encounter awards three points and leaves Graham with the magic ring. The maximum route does not need to activate the ring; dropping or losing it can subtract points.
7. Take the four-leaf clover for two points. It later suppresses hostile leprechaun behavior.
8. Take one walnut from the walnut tree for three points, then open it to reveal that its interior is gold for another three.
9. Take the ceramic bowl for three points. Read its underside for one, say fill to obtain stew for two, and give the full bowl to the starving woodcutter family. Giving the three-point bowl and receiving the six-point generosity award is a net three. Take their offered fiddle for three.
10. Take the smooth pebbles at the river delta for one point. They are not used against the giant on the maximum route, but their acquisition still scores.

Witch, gnome, and condor

1. At the gingerbread house, eat part of the exterior for two points. Enter only when the witch is away or position Graham so she cannot catch him.
2. When the witch turns to tend the oven, push her into it from close range for seven points. Open the cabinet for two, take the cheese for two, and take the note for two. Read the note for one additional point.
3. Visit the gnome and accept the three-guess challenge. Enter ifnkovhgroghprm as the first guess for five points, then take the magic beans for four.
4. Plant the beans in one of the fertile-soil rooms for two points. The resulting beanstalk remains available for the chest route.
5. In the condor clearing, time a jump so Graham intersects the low-flying bird. Being carried away awards three points. The condor flight passes through room 80 and deposits Graham in room 48.
6. Before entering the underground route, visit the neighboring far riverbank and take the mushroom for one point. Return to room 48 and use its opening to fall into room 73.

Surface preparation, including the first audience, contributes 83 points: four for the audience and 79 for the surface puzzles and acquisitions.

Magic mirror

1. At the well, use its bucket and rope to descend. Cut the bucket rope with the dagger from the valid in-water position. The route awards two points for acquiring the bucket and two for its first fill, either during this action or at the next valid water source.
2. Entering the well shaft from room 12 awards one point. Dive from the valid swimming state for two and reach the bottom chamber.
3. Enter the side opening into the dragon cave for one point. From the safe side of the cave, throw the bucket’s water at the dragon. Consuming the water subtracts two points and the nonviolent solution awards seven, for a net five.
4. Take the magic mirror for eight points. Return through the opening to the bottom chamber once for two points, then use the passage exposed when the dragon moved the boulder to leave the cave system.

The mirror chain contributes 23 points. Cumulative score: 106.

Magic shield

1. Follow rooms 73 and 74 to the rat’s door in room 75. Give the cheese from close range. Losing its two acquisition points and receiving four for the intended solution gives a net two; the rat opens the way.
2. Enter the leprechaun antechamber with the four-leaf clover in inventory. Play the fiddle for three points. The leprechauns dance away and their King follows them out.
3. In the throne room, take the magic shield for eight points and the sceptre for six.
4. Continue to room 78. Eat the mushroom there: its one-point consumption and three-point room-specific award give a net two. Pass through the tiny exit to room 36 for one additional point and return to normal size after the mushroom’s timer expires.

Including the earlier one-point mushroom acquisition, the shield chain contributes 23 points. Cumulative score: 129.

Magic chest

1. Return to the planted beanstalk and climb it carefully into the clouds. Reaching the bird-nest region for the first time awards two points.
2. Search the hollow cloud-tree and take the leather sling for two points. Take the golden egg from the nest for six.
3. Approach the giant’s region without attacking. Evade him until his patience state expires and he falls asleep; this awards seven points.
4. Take the magic chest from the sleeping giant for eight points. Do not use the sling and pebble against him: that consumes a point and replaces the seven-point sleep outcome with a three-point kill outcome.
5. Return across the cloud paths and descend the beanstalk without falling.

The chest chain contributes 25 points. Cumulative score: 154.

Return to King Edward

1. Return to the castle after all three treasure states are complete. Opening its door on the completed-quest return awards the second one-point door event.
2. Stand in the audience rectangle and bow again. The completion-state bow awards three points and starts the terminal commendation sequence.

Final score: 158.

Score Ledger

The route contains four deliberate negative score mutations, each paired with a larger positive award:

Showing the carrot incurs no deduction. The give/feed carrot parser branches would add an unnecessary two-point loss and make 158 unreachable on that run.

Deaths and Maximum-Score Dead Ends

The logic resources expose useful negative conformance cases:

• Fall into the castle moat or enter swift/deep water without the correct swimming state.
• Stand downhill from the moved rock and be crushed.
• Let wolves, the sorcerer, ogres, dwarfs, the witch, the rat, trolls, or leprechauns catch Graham without the relevant protection or solution.
• Enter the witch’s house at the wrong time and be caged or cooked.
• Fall while climbing the well rope, beanstalk, cloud paths, or tree.
• Remain underwater too long at the well bottom.
• Approach the dragon through its flame path or remain in range after the shield melts.
• Miss the condor jump or fall from its transport sequence.
• Eat the mushroom in a place where Graham becomes trapped when normal size returns.
• Approach the awake giant or walk off the clouds.

Valid but lower-scoring branches include feeding the carrot, giving treasure to the troll or rat, killing the dragon with the dagger, killing the giant with the sling, guessing the gnome’s name late, failing the gnome puzzle and taking the key route, or losing inventory to the roaming dwarf. Dropping the quest treasures can also create a terminally unwinnable state. These should be tested separately from immediate death behavior.

Next Validation Work

1. Convert each milestone into exact movement, parser input, and jump timing under QEMU.
2. Record room, inventory, treasure-count, and score checkpoints at 4, 83, 106, 129, 154, and 158.
3. Confirm timing-dependent condor, witch, dwarf, giant, cloud, well, and beanstalk behavior under the original interpreter.
4. Package the validated input stream, screenshots, and terminal assertions as a repeatable implementation-conformance playthrough.