King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow
Platform - PC
Type of Material - Printer Paper, Notebook Paper (Yellow, White)
Production Date - Unclear, likely near time of release as indicated by the inclusion of a phone number without an area code
Location - Written in a Variety of Directions, Non-linear Notation
Writing Instrument - Black, Blue, Red, and Gold Pen
Material Source - Purchased in 2021 from an Orlando LGS
Summary - Ten sheets of notebook paper with extensive notes on one or potentially more (possibly indicated by changes in pen color/handwriting) players' experience with King's Quest VI. Notes include DOS installation and file removal steps including a detailed file tree, hints and clues, passwords, annotated descriptions of various locations, and maps. The notes on DOS/command line file management give insight into technical challenges that were part of the game experience during this era, extending our notion of puzzle solving in games to include a broader category of activities. Multiple pen colors can also indicate changes in time and the duration of specific puzzles as the player may have returned to previous notes with a different writing instrument. Tear in page corner offers a variety of readings of these notes as something both disposable but also to preserve, material that can be broken apart and re-assembled, and the multi-purpose nature of many documents that these writings are place on. Heavy use of arrows provide insight into the experience of physically navigating non-linear media. Yellow stains on the final pages likely a result of rusting staples in the game manual that these documents were folded into.
