Fan projects based on commercial games rarely see the light of day. The mighty “Cease and Desist” letter, with pending threats of litigation, is usually enough to stop a fan project dead in the water.
But, somehow, the fans of the King’s Quest series beat the odds, making it through the mess of legal red tape. The last official game in this series was King’s Quest: Mask of Eternity (KQ8), released in 1998. For the last decade, a variety of people have formed various teams to develop a fan-based sequel since Sierra (and Vivendi, which absorbed Sierra) seemingly had no intention to continue the series. This “fan” team, Phoenix Online Studios, worked hard to create professional-quality games with basically no budget.
Having received and resolved two separate cease and desist letters (one from Vivendi, and another from Activision), it’s amazing that this project really happened. But happen it did, with 3 of the 5 episodes in this episodic game already out. For more details on the game, just read this. It’s worth noting that the game was renamed to not include the King’s Quest name anywhere, per their agreement with the rights-holders so that the game could be released.
We at OSV received a limited edition soundtrack for The Silver Lining. The two disc set was labeled as “volume 1,” and from what we can tell, it covers two of the five episodes. The digital version of this soundtrack is available to download, for free, at this site. For our take on the fan-made music for this fan-made game, you’ll want to keep reading. It all comes after the jump. (more…)
