Hidden Treasures in the King's Quest VII Resource Files (Part 2)
Here is a large selection of the unique images I discovered in King's Quest 7's Pics folder, with the help of SCI Viewer. Though some of the larger images aren't displayed, this page is still pretty image-intense, so beware, dialup users!
...and boy, was I wrong. When I'd put my eyes back into my head after they'd popped out, I thought that this pic (101) looked a heckuva lot like some lost room from Space Quest 6...either that or a montage/edit of various SQ6 backgrounds. Very cool and inexplicable.
Pics:
I didn't think I'd see anything I hadn't seen before in KQ7's Pics folder...
1010 is much less visually exciting. It's a curved cave wall, the only interesting thing about it is that it's a pencil sketch, no color or shading anywhere.
1100: The only major difference between this room and the one in the game is that the monster tracks leading to the portal are now human tracks, and the prickly pear cactus has fewer leaves.
1120: a pencil sketch of the arrow-shaped recess on top of the stone head.
More coolness with 1160-1190. These are all pencil sketches of scenes in the desert, but not all of them are from the game!
There's the split gourd in the foreground.
Perhaps this last sketch was meant to be a closeup of the corn sprouting.
1210: A closeup of the door to the kangaroo rat's shop that apparently never got beyond the sketch phase.
1249 is the starting desert scene, but it looks as if it hasn't been converted to 256 colors. It has a much softer look.
1480-1490: sketches of the altar inside the temple.
1505-1510: Aagh! An evil being has defaced the landscape with a huge, rectangular clone brush! (Well, that was my first reaction to seeing these).
1550: (Desert) Another pencil sketch. It's neat, whatever it is.
1620: (Desert) The late Colin Farwalker in graphite.
2250: An unused sketch of a scene in Vulcanix, I suspect.
2465: A pencil sketch of Mathilde's brooding spot.
Pic 2570: Alternate shot of the broken cart. It's more collapsed towards the front in this version. Clearly a separate altogether painting, as the cracks in the rocks are different to the picture used. (contributed by Semi-Happy Partygoer, added 2-6-24)
Pic 3150: The complete side-scrolling version of the Were Woods merging into the Bountiful Woods. Only seen in the non-playable demo, but present in the data files of all versions. (contributed by Semi-Happy Partygoer, added 2-6-24)
4120: The inside of Doctor Cadaver's house.
5300-5310: This is an interesting one. These are two versions of the left side of Falderal, but one version is slightly different than the in-game scene (white text added by me). All the doorways are much shorter, and the doohickey stuck on the outer wall is red, not white. My guess is that the artists realized too late that they had made the doorways too short for Rosella and Valanice to pass through without ducking (not to mention the Lilliputian proportions of the door that they enter Falderal by), so they hurriedly fixed the problem, but not before the "short doorways" version was added to the game's resource files.
Pic 5212: 5211 was used in the game, but 5212 appears to be an earlier version of it. The plaque isn't quite as tarnished, leaving the text more legible. This was probably changed so as not to confuse Valanice players too much into thinking she was the one who needed to decipher the poem.(contributed by Semi-Happy Partygoer, added 2-6-24)
Animation comparing this version to the final one:
6400: Etheria without color is like a day without sunshine.
6451: VERY rough sketch of the Mountain of the Winds.
26000: This looks like the crystal caves before being converted to 256 colors. Pretty washed-out looking.
Pic 1000: Something I didn't realize before I looked at the resource files is that the tunnel Valanice passes through to get from the desert to the Bountiful Woods and the tunnel that leads to the door to the Volcano Control Room use the exact same background. Different views are used in the two different scenes (pillars, an opening at the other end, a hole in the ceiling [and the wall after Rosella digs out of the volcano]), but the same Pic is used in both of them:
The Authorized KQVII Players' Guide and the KQ Companion say that the temple in the desert used to be a pyramid, but the top was cut off because of scaling problems with Valanice and the entrance. In Pic 100, however, you can still see the pyramid. (added 7-25-08)
Sounds:
Here are several conversations Rosella has with Attis (that don't appear in the game, since the two never meet):
-Attis greets Rosella and warns her of the curse that has fallen upon the forest.
-Rosella introduces herself to Attis, Attis tells Rosella that her mother is searching for her.
-Attis greets Rosella and tells Rosella about her mother. Very similar to previous clip.
-Rosella brings up the subject of Malicia. Similar to the previous clip.
-Rosella asks where Valanice might be, Attis suggests Etheria.
-Rosella asks Attis about how to get to Etheria.
-Rosella says goodbye to Attis.
The kangaroo rat has several greetings besides his "Would you like to trade with me?" rhyming couplet that didn't make it into the game. Here's a brief conversation he has with Rosella, in which he slips amazingly out of character for a moment. (Also, according to 1100.msg in KQ7's Messages folder [which has transcripts for all the game's dialogue], that name is spelled "Huitzilipopuatlateknahualimoatlicue".)
There are several exchanges between Valanice, Rosella and Ricardo the kangaroo rat which aren't heard in the game because the items they offer the rat, for one reason or another, can't be brought to the desert:
-Rosella offers the rat a baked beetle (she can't take any more from Vulcanix's kitchen once she has given some to Mathilde [as far as I know]). (contributed by Boogeyman)
-Valanice offers the rat the moon (which she can't bring to the desert because she can't leave Falderal without returning it to the sky). Poor Ricardo. (contributed by Boogeyman)
-Valanice offers the rat Count Tsepish's medal and his skull (neither of which can be offered to the rat in the game, since once Valanice enters Ooga Booga, she can't leave it until she lifts the curse on Count Tsepish using both items). I like Valanice's nitpickery of Ricardo's offer in the first exchange. (contributed by Boogeyman)
-Valanice offers the rat the bone she finds in the Ooga Booga kids' home (which she has to give to Black Valiant before she can leave Ooga Booga). Even the most determined of adventurers sometimes have to say "no" to things like what the rat offers to give her.
Valanice asks Colin Farwalker if she can aid him in any way. Valanice sounds more like Stellar Santiago from SQ6 in this clip, and no, I didn't overcompress it; it sounds just as bad in the resource files. (Added 5-7-08)
You can't interact with that heap of sticks on the far side of the River of Life, but if you could, this is how Valanice would respond. (Added 5-7-08)
Odd alternate version of the kangaroo rat's first line from near the beginning of resource.aud. (Added 5-7-08)
Rosella examining the cart...and apparently having a slight mood swing. Here, she ponders what to do with the cart. (Added 5-7-08)
Rosella reads the sign on The Faux Shop with an accent that leads you to think that it's really called "The Faw Shop". (Added 5-7-08)
The dialogue from the intro and outro appears with the rest of the in-game speech in resource.aud. Here's a slightly extended version of part of Valanice's dialogue from the intro. (Added 5-7-08)
And just in case you missed it, here's King Graham's line from resource.aud (note that his name also appears in the game's credits).(Added 5-7-08)
...Aaaaaand here's that last frame from that weird "Rosella showing off her feet" animation.
