PLAY GAME
GAME HISTORY
KING OF SPACE ORIGIN
THE STORY

A dark science-fictional ritual of fertility and regeneration, King of Space takes place in an abandoned starship, circling the edges of a plague-ridden and collapsing solar system, where an escaped terrorist meets the last star-captain and his ship's Priestess. Old man and young, young woman and ageless starship meet and meet again as enemies, allies, and lovers.

The story has elements of gaming; an unwise move can send you to the kitchen ("hundreds of tiny sandwiches, all alike") or into the rocky caverns of the intelligent and unpleasant starship, where a very persistent elevator is waiting to have a conversation. You can meet the Lady Nii's ancient, dreadful lover, King Brady, or become him. You can fall into a maze of love, or find the dance at the center of the world that regenerates the ship.

This reconstruction involves new art and illustrations, multiple mini-games, interactive environments, and complex gameplay.

THE STORY

A dark science-fictional ritual of fertility and regeneration, King of Space takes place in an abandoned starship, circling the edges of a plague-ridden and collapsing solar system, where an escaped terrorist meets the last star-captain and his ship's Priestess. Old man and young, young woman and ageless starship meet and meet again as enemies, allies, and lovers.

The story has elements of gaming; an unwise move can send you to the kitchen ("hundreds of tiny sandwiches, all alike") or into the rocky caverns of the intelligent and unpleasant starship, where a very persistent elevator is waiting to have a conversation. You can meet the Lady Nii's ancient, dreadful lover, King Brady, or become him. You can fall into a maze of love, or find the dance at the center of the world that regenerates the ship.

This reconstruction involves new art and illustrations, multiple mini-games, interactive environments, and complex gameplay.

Not for kids.
WHY A GAME?

King of Space is an interactive narrative begun in 1988 when text-based and adventure games had gained popularity. These kinds of games rely heavily on a strong story-line and, so, are often authored by established writers. Doug Adams, Thomas M. Disch, Robert Pinsky, and Nick Montfort, like Sarah Smith, are known for publishing print literature along with experimenting with creating video games. Contemporary text-based and adventure games are often published on the Twine platform, open web languages, and other approaches, and remain today important genres of video games.
WHY A GAME?

King of Space is an interactive narrative begun in 1988 when text-based and adventure games had gained popularity. These kinds of games rely heavily on a strong story-line and, so, are often authored by established writers. Doug Adams, Thomas M. Disch, Robert Pinsky, and Nick Montfort, like Sarah Smith, are known for publishing print literature along with experimenting with creating video games. Contemporary text-based and adventure games are often published on the Twine platform, open web languages, and other approaches, and remain today important genres of video games.
ORIGINAL DESIGN
INTERFACE

King of Space was begun in 1988 by Sarah Smith (text) and Mark Bernstein (programming) and published in 1991 by Eastgate Systems, Inc. Although at the time of its release color and robust media were not yet possible, the work nonetheless offered a media-rich environment involving bitmapped images by artist Matthew Mattingly, 8-bit music by Michael Derzhinsky, and 2D animations by Mattingly, Bernstein, and others, for its 317 screens of text and 25 different endings.
PUBLISHED FOLIO BY EASTGATE SYSTEMS, INC. 1991

At the time of its release, King of Space was packaged in a gray vinyl folio that held the two floppy disks on which the game was stored and a manual that provided information about the game and how to play it. This book-like method of presentation laid a trail of breadcrumbs from the world of print to that of e-lit and played an important role in educating audiences about what was to come.
PUBLISHED FOLIO BY EASTGATE SYSTEMS, INC. 1991

At the time of its release, King of Space was packaged in a gray vinyl folio that held the two floppy disks on which the game was stored and a manual that provided information about the game and how to play it. This book-like method of presentation laid a trail of breadcrumbs from the world of print to that of the electronic and, so, played an important role in educating audiences about what was to come.


As a pre-web form of interactive media, King of Space was published on physical media. These images showcase a hand-made 3D model of one of the computers the work would have been used to access it along with print materials and one of the two floppy disks packaged together that comprised the work.
ORIGINAL MEDIA

Unlike most early interactive games, King of Space used original art extensively. The nine works of art displayed here were created for the game by artist Matthew Mattingly (see more of his work at www.matthewmattingly.com). Also displayed are images of the original folio, manual pages, floppy disks, and other components of the work.