Droppin' this here for those of us who remember this kickass, classic series. It was finished a while ago, but I see no mention of AGD Interactive or of QFG2 outside of the old anthology thread. The post, except for the final paragraph, is comprised of (slightly-edited for grammar and readability) excerpts from Wikipedia articles related to AGD and QFG2.

Things like this tend to fly under the radar. I wasn't aware of it until recently, though I knew AGD had done a few King's Quest remakes. I just downloaded QFG2 about 2 weeks ago, and it's been just as distracting as it was in 1990 when it was released.

Without further ado...

http://www.agdinteractive.com/games/.../QFG2_logo.png

Quest for Glory II is the only game in the series which did not originate in VGA or get a revision in VGA by Sierra.
"Anonymous Game Developers Interactive" has prepared a VGA remake of the game.

· About AGD Interactive

Founded in 2001 by Britney K. Brimhall and Christopher T. Warren as Tierra Entertainment, the group is best known for their remakes of the popular King's Quest games. AGD Interactive uses Adventure Game Studio to create their games.

On December 10, 2003, they stopped using the name Tierra Entertainment and started referring to themselves as AGD Interactive. Subsequently, the two lead designers are credited as "Anonymous Game Designer #1" (Britney K. Brimhall) and "Anonymous Game Developer #2" (Christopher T. Warren) in their games.

Of course, this doesn't imply actual anonymity because their resume, complete with all details, can be found in Himalaya Studios' "Team Profiles" page. They have also formed a commercial company, Himalaya Studios, which will focus on creating original, point-and-click adventure games with high-resolution graphics.

· QFGII Synopsis

Quest for Glory II takes place in the fictional land of Shapeir, in the world of Gloriana. Directly following from the events of the first game, the newly-proclaimed Hero of Spielburg (Quest for Glory I) travels by flying carpet with his friends Abdulla Doo, Shameen and Shema to the desert city of Shapeir. The city is threatened by magical elementals, while the Emir Arus al-Din of Shapeir's sister city Raseir is missing and his city fallen under tyranny.

The game follows the path of its predecessor, although there are distinctions in gameplay. Trial by Fire operates on a restricted time frame; the entire plot is concluded in 30 days. Many of the puzzles in the game do not appear or cannot be solved until certain days. This keeps gameplay on a tight, linear narrative. At some moments in the plot, such as the three days spent in Raseir, this slows down gameplay and can seem ponderous.

The player has the opportunity to advance his character and explore side-quests.
  • A magic-user can earn the title of "Wizard" with the sponsorship of the wizard Erasmus.

  • A fighter may earn a membership in the Eternal Order of Fighters.

  • A thief may perform several thefts, including the running gag of stealing the Maltese Falcon.

One of the unique features of this game is that the character is not locked out of side quests by class.

If you play as a fighter with some magical ability (or import a magic user from Quest for Glory I and play as a fighter) you can utilize this cross-training to complete other quests. It is possible for your character to become a Wizard, complete every theft in the game, and join the Eternal Order of Fighters.

This is also the first game of the series where the hero may be awarded the title of Paladin.

To achieve this status, the hero must act honorably throughout the game and Rakeesh, the liontaur, will present you with his sword, Soulforge. Since the title of the Paladin is given at the end of the game, the Paladin abilities and Soulforge are only usable with characters that are imported into Quest for Glory III: Wages of War and later games.

· In Conclusion...

The remake of Quest for Glory II should be welcome news for gamers who remember the classic Sierra series. Even better news is that the game is free to download, is programmed very well, and does not stray one nanometer from the original content. If you'd like to try a great game that you may have overlooked (or if you were born after its era), just click the logo above.