Hidden Treasures in the King's Quest VII Resource Files (Part 1)
When I skimmed the contents of Space Quest 6's resource files with SCI Viewer, I didn't find too much aside from many of the graphics I had already seen in the game. Consequently, when I first opened King's Quest VII in SCI Viewer, I wasn't expecting too see much aside from the usual graphics either.
I couldn't have been more wrong. KQ7 is full of unused art and animations. I think this is due to it being one of Sierra's first SVGA games, with everyone still getting used to this new engine. Here is a compilation of some of the more interesting finds I've made in the Views and Pics folders. Since most of the Views are animated, I've only described their appearance, but there are lots of graphics to look at on the Pics page. Needless to say, KQ7 SPOILERS BELOW:
EDIT: I'm now adding some of the animations, and some still frames from some of the more complex ones as well.
Views:
0: Surprisingly, the very first view in the game's files is an unused animation! It's an alternate walk cycle for Rosella. The side and front-diagonal views are considerably different than her in-game walk cycles (though interestingly, they look a lot more like her corresponding standing animations). Her collar is also light blue instead of white in all the frames: Walking Right, Walking Down-Right. (added 10-21-10)
15: This is an early hi-res version of the Sierra logo. It looks like it was carved out of granite (as opposed to the title used in the game, which was golden). This is actually the same logo that was used in Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers (thanks to ATMachine for pointing this out).
865: Rosella raising her hands (one of several animations showing her doing this from multiple angles). I can't tell exactly what she is doing, but her hair is more straw-colored in these animations, and her collar is bright magenta. (added 10-21-10)
871: I don't think Rosella ever ran anywhere while she was a troll, yet there is an animation of her running as a troll (from various angles) in the resource files: Right, Down, Up, Down-Right, Up-Right. (animations added 10-21-10)
View 891: Even as a troll, Rosella is still skilled at jumping...backwards? (added 10-21-10)
960: This view contains low-res action icons, like the ones in KQ5 and 6. It looks as if KQ7 might have been designed to use those icons at first, but then plans were changed (yeah, yeah, obvious comment, obvious comment.)
1209: (Desert) Rosella gets harassed by the jackalope in this view. I don't think this ever happens in the game...
...luckily for Rosella. Here are some of the animations from this view:
-Rosella twirls around (if you look carefully, you'll see that she is wearing a bracelet on her left arm in these animations).
-The jackalope jumps up and gives Rosella a big kiss (eww).
-The jackalope running along (I used several of these animations to animate the jackalope in Adventure: The Inside Job).
-I'm not sure what Rosella is doing here. I'm pretty sure she's wiping her mouth off, though.
-The jackalope looks amused. I think this animation was meant to play right before he starts running.
(animations added 10-21-10)
1254, loop 2: The desert statue's bowl is fully emptied of water. As far as I'm aware, this isn't possible, as Valanice always stops the bowl from spilling. (contributed by Semi-Happy Partygoer, added 2-6-24)
View 1260, loops 0-3: These appear to show Rosella ascending/descending partway into the desert well and attempting using her hammer and chisel on what might be the salt crystals. Possibly related to the unused code listed further down this page, which mentions how salt crystals were more difficult to acquire initially. (contributed by Semi-Happy Partygoer, added 2-6-24)
2209: This view contains somewhat gritty animations of King Otar, walking along looking very melencholy. This view repeats itself once or twice elsewhere in the game's files. Right, Down, Up, Down-Right, Up-Right. (added 10-21-10)
2559-2561: (Vulcanix bridge) More weirdness. These are small animations of a hooded Edgar and Valanice, running, jumping and swaying on their feet. There are also several animations of cracks appearing in some solid substance and small rocks falling from a great height. It looks as if these were meant to be part of another cutscene where Edgar is hurrying with Valanice to the Volcano Control Room, most likely in the underground itself. One animation seems to show Edgar catching Valanice as she leaps over a large fissure in the ground (not visible in this animation). Maybe Edgar was being too heroic in these cutscenes? :) Although another animation seems to show Valanice rescuing Edgar (this one doesn't seem complete, though).
2606: Rosella trying to get a scale from the crystal dragon's tail and getting squashed by it -- this can't happen in this newer version of KQ7 (which came with the 1997 and 2006 (*bleah*) collections). Here's what Rosella says after getting squashed.
4104, loop 0: Rosella opening Dr. Cadaver's gate. This is seen in the game, but only the frames where the gate is visible are used. The brief shots of her approaching and then entering aren't. (contributed by Semi-Happy Partygoer, added 2-6-23)
4108, loops 0-1: Short Dr. Cadaver dragging cloaked Rosella through the door. It's not possible to acquire the cloak before giving the doctor his new backbone. (contributed by Semi-Happy Partygoer, added 2-6-23)
4115, loops 0-2: Animations showing Rosella performing some unseen actions while disguised. The cloak is visibly two-toned here. (contributed by Semi-Happy Partygoer, added 2-6-23)
4126, loops 0-1: Here, rather than blow open the door, Valanice drops the firecracker which then explodes. I don't think this is at all possible in the final game. (contributed by Semi-Happy Partygoer, added 2-6-23)
4127, loops 0-1: Cut animations of Valanice attempting to pry open the tomb door, with no luck. (contributed by Semi-Happy Partygoer, added 2-6-23)
4252, loop 0: Cloaked Rosella gets knocked down. Given its location in the resources (where most of the ghoul kids' animations are), maybe the ghoul kids weren't always going to be scared by her? Loop 1 is a mirrored version of this animation. (contributed by Semi-Happy Partygoer, added 2-6-23)
4269: (Ooga Booga) This is a pretty bizarre animation of Rosella strapped to a lighted rocket, sailing through the air. It looks like a death scene involving the Ooga Booga kids I never had the misfortune to see. (animation added 10-21-10)
4501: The Boogeyman jumping on Rosella and grabbing her instead of pinning her to the ground. This View is in the series of Views that are seen in the Boogeyman's home. (contributed by Boogeyman)
(click on the image to view the full animation (added 10-21-10))
550, loop 0: A very different, cruder looking flower growing in the swamp.
4558: Rosella getting snared by a tentacle-like stem from the three-headed plant and eaten by it after getting too close to it -- only without her cloak on. Rosella can't enter the swamp without the cloak. (contributed by Boogeyman)
(click on the image to view the full animation (added 10-21-10))
4563, Loop 1: This shows Rosella knocking on Malicia's door without the cloak on (again, impossible since she can't walk about freely in the swamp without it). Oddly, the other loops in this animation show her holding out Otar the scarab and talking to him and knocking on the door with the cloak on (both of which occur in the game). (contributed by Boogeyman) (animation added 10-21-10)
4653: (Swamp) The first loop has Rosella (without her cloak) yanking on a thick, thorny vine with a pink flower sprouting from it -- I don't think we ever saw this in the game. (animation added 10-21-10)
5101: These two characters are amongst the various sprites of characters that are present at the Arch-duke's birthday party in the resource files, but they don't appear anywhere in the actual game. Their coloring in the full game's files are a bit odd (left), but their embedded palette in the files of the KQ7 playable f look somewhat better (right): (added 12-23-19)
5135: This view shows what looks like just Valanice's hair being blown back, then Valanice jumping back from something.
It's amongst the animations featuring Chicken Petite, and the frames of Valanice's hair line up almost exactly with her hairline in the animation loop of Chicken Petite grabbing her dress and yelling at her, which makes me think that there was meant to be a second loop where Chicken Petite was yelling loud enough to make Valanice's hair get blown back, followed by the more dramatic backwards jump by Valanice when Chicken Petite lets go -- something like this:
This would also explain the animation mentioned further down this page where Valanice appears to be fixing her hair (View 5317).
5156, loop 0: Rosella entering the Arch Duke's office. The door is locked for her in the final game. Funnily enough, loop 2 is the used animation of her attempting to open the locked door. (contributed by Semi-Happy Partygoer, added 2-6-24)
5201, loop 0: Valanice adjusts her hair in the powder room's mirror. It seems a number of things you were going to be able to do in the powder room ended up cut. Earlier versions allowed them to sit on the little stool as well. (contributed by Semi-Happy Partygoer, added 2-6-24)
5207, loop 0: Rosella polishing the tarnished plaque. Only the frames with the stocking visible were used in the final game. (contributed by Semi-Happy Partygoer, added 2-6-24)
5218, loop 0: Rosella fixing her hair in the powder room. (contributed by Semi-Happy Partygoer, added 2-6-24)
5291, loop 4: An unidentified object in the Arch Duke's office...
...which Valanice picks up in View 5255, loop 0. (contributed by Semi-Happy Partygoer, added 2-6-24)
5302, loop 5: The Faux Shop door opening with the sign visible. The door can't open when the sign's present in the final game, to my knowledge. (contributed by Semi-Happy Partygoer, added 2-6-24)
5310: I'm not sure about this view. It's three frames, one contains a bush, another a signpost, and the third a bizarre purple tree. I don't THINK I've seen them in the game, and by the looks of them and their location in the views, perhaps they were meant to appear in the foreground of Falderal, but scrapped later.
The third loop of 5317 (the first two loops of which show Valanice getting the wooden nickel out of the mockingbird's nest) shows Valanice running her hands through her hair, sticking what looks like a hairpin into it, then looking either relieved or exhausted. (animation added 10-21-10)
5333, loop 0: The moon falling off the rubber chicken. Not possible in game, as far as I know, as Valanice shoots it back into the sky the moment you click the moon on the chicken.
5343: (Falderal) Rosella bending over to the left and sticking her tongue out at (or licking) something -- a mirror? The part of her dress covering her chest is also dark blue instead of black. (animation added 10-21-10)
6010-6012: "Full-sized" animation of the Edgar riding Necromancer and picking up Valanice. Much tinier in the game.
14590: At first I thought this animation was of Valanice tucking something like a stake away. Now I think this is part of an animation of Valanice "shooting" the scorpion with a beam of light from the light-filled crystal. There's even a section of code in 1450.scr called "shootScorp". Here's a composite animation of the two animations from this view. (animations added 0-21-10)
14600: Valanice running towards giant scorpion with a stake (?) in her hands, striking at it, missing, and dying from its sting.
<--This is a fake cel I cobbled together from the two loops in this animation. EDIT (9-18-09): I finally realized that SCI Viewer has an GIF export function (I was taking screenshots of each frame and compiling and positioning them individually before this). I exported the two animations and was easily able to put them together in Flash (though I had to remove the shadows because the scorpion's were covering Valanice). I also included a clip with only Valanice, since the scorpion obscures her a lot in the combined animation. (Note: she might be trying to stab it with the "uncharged" crystal in this animation, in light (hah-hah) of what I discovered about the previous View.)
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22305: The first frame of this animation has two cels of Oberon and Edgar that look a lot like colored versions of their character sketches:
26042: Troll Rosella using the hammer and chisel on the crystal dragon. Nothing unusual about this except that the animation is about four times as big as the animation in the game. It looks like the animators merely resized the animations when the characters were farther away from the "camera" instead of creating tinier animations. (animation added 10-21-10)
26044: Animation of the crystal dragon's tail dropping down (left over from the earlier version of KQ7). There's a similar animation of her lashing her tail and twisting her head as well.
41125: This one shows the Boogeyman walking along, then placing his arms on Rosella's shoulders (while she is disguised as Lady Tsepish) and whispering in her ear in a rather...romantic manner.
Well, maybe not whispering. It's creepy, whatever he's doing.
(click on the image to view the full animation (added 10-21-10))
41140, loop 0: Either an alternate animation of Rosella about to fall into the open grave, or she's starting a bizarre new dance fad. Her eyes and collar are incorrectly transparent in these frames. This animation also starts with a frame almost identical to the first frame of the next animation. (contributed by Semi-Happy Partygoer, added 2-6-24)
41142, loop 4: Rosella dying upon seeing Lady Tsepish's face. In the game, this animation freezes on frame 7, but the complete file shows her collapsing onto the ground. (contributed by Semi-Happy Partygoer, added 2-6-24)
45581: Rosella getting snared by a tentacle-like stem from the three-headed plant and eaten by it by either getting too close to it or trying to pick the flower growing underneath it without wearing the cloak. Very similar to 4558 (above). This animation shows the plant attacking her when she attempts to pick the flower. The plant's heads are yellow instead of tan. (contributed by Boogeyman, animation added 10-21-10)
52531: Valanice opening a rough door that's just a rough, black outline. Maybe a template of some sort? (Click here to see the full animation (added 10-21-10))
53290: As far as I know, if Valanice tries talking to Treasure before meeting Fernando, the Snake Oil Salesman changes her into a statue. However, this view shows him turning her into a doll. The frames in this view are much less "polished" than the statue transformation view. (Click here to see the full animation (added 10-21-10))
4454 and 4456: These views are from the animations of Rosella opening Malicia's drawers, and they look very much like King Otar (as a scarab) crawling on the drawers, but I couldn't get the animations lined up properly to simulate how they would have appeared in the game. (added 10-4-10)
And lastly, 8021 through 9015 have to be the weirdest views I've discovered. It's a series of animations showing Rosella as a troll, performing various actions and/or expressing various emotions, and each view shows her doing it at a different angle (front, back, side, diagonal facing the camera, diagonal facing away from the camera).
There are animations of her kneeling down (and getting up from that position), getting thrown backwards, sitting down (and getting up from that position), looking up and down, jumping forwards AND backwards, glancing from side to side, reaching out and tugging on something, reaching up, out or down and grasping something (numerous variations on this), falling on her face, staring at her hands, lowering her hands to the ground while they are cupped together, lifting one open hand as if she were releasing a butterfly, looking enraged, gasping in fear, looking irritated, smiling, looking sad, laughing, scheming, and -- perhaps most bizarre of all -- lifting the hem of her dress and showing off her feet (See below).
Some of these animations are missing crucial details (Rosella's bangs disappear in a couple of frames, in a couple of loops there's no hair on her feet), and I was utterly confused by them until I discovered that there were hundreds more animations showing Rosella in her normal form and Valanice* doing similar things (except for the thing with the feet...brr)! Views 8021-9015 are nothing but animations of Valanice and Rosella doing things.
Only a tiny fraction of these animations are featured in the final game (e. g., Rosella and Valanice hopping across the rocks in the dry river, Valanice's startled/annoyed/enraged reactions when the clay pots disintegrate when she touches them, the frightened stances that both of them go into when confronted by various foes), so why on earth was every possible angle for every one of these actions painstakingly animated? To get a sense of how each character moved? You could put together a whole new SVGA game starring Valanice and Rosella with the character animations that didn't appear in KQ7! For those of you who are interested, I've typed up a list of the various animation loops.
*in that order, I was starting from the bottom of the list and working my way up.
Scripts:
4200: Even though the mouse in Dr. Cadaver's house is named Mr. Nibbler, he is called "Hannibal" in this script.
Script 6700 has some non-code notes apparently added by the programmers. The first one reads: "This game is over. Thank you... thank you very much."
Apparently, the final scene between Rosella and Edgar was meant to be an in-game cutscene rather than an AVI (there are lines of dialogue from both of them in resource.aud). The script for this scene (6800) has a couple of interesting additional notes:
"Oh how beautiful all this is bla bla bla."
A few lines down, there's this one:
"Kiss kiss."
I've pointed out a few lines of interest in this script (6900) (Graham's presence continues to haunt KQ7!).
2300: This script seems to be linked with the tunnel Rosella crawls through to escape from her room in Vulcanix. At the end, it mentions an unused cutscene with Edgar and Valanice:
tempDoor::doVerb:
lsp param[$1]
ldi $8 ; fixPriority
eq?
bnt code_0570
push1
lofsa string_022e ; "We cut to troll bridge to see Edgar and Val cartoon before room chg."
push
calle export64921_0, $2
pushi $20e ; 526, newRoom
push1
pushi $898 ; 2200, BAD SELECTOR
lag global[$2]
send $6
2550: This is the script for the cave at the bottom of the elevator to Ooga Booga. It contains not only this amusing name for Rosella as a troll in a programmer's note:
But also confirms that there was originally meant to be a cutscene in Chapter 6 where Edgar and Valanice are running through this room on their way to the Volcano Control Room:
code_02ba: pushi $19c ; 412, addText
push1
lofsa string_0da2 ; "Are you trollzella?"
push
pushi $1a7 ; 423, addButton
pushi $4 ; scaleX
push1
lofsa string_0d84 ; "Yes"
push
push0
pushi $14 ; 20, nsRight
pushi $1a7 ; 423, addButton
pushi $4 ; scaleX
push0
lofsa string_0d88 ; "No"
push
pushi $14 ; 20, nsRight
dup
pushi $8e ; 142, init
push0
class Print
send $22
bnt code_02f3
push1
pushi $37 ; 55, '7', dx
calle export011_2, $2
jmp code_02fb
sChap6Toon::changeState:
lap param[$1]
aTop state
push
dup
ldi $0
eq?
bnt code_0826
pushi $213 ; 531, handsOff
push0
lag global[$1]
send $4
push1
lofsa string_0dee ; "You and the hooded guy fall into this room."
push
calle export64921_0, $2
push1
lofsa string_0e1a ; "The both of you avoid some obsticals and start running."
push
calle export64921_0, $2
ldi $1
aTop cycles
jmp code_0841
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