100% Complete Route and Simplified Route

Here are links to our most current 100% route. I included both a complete route, that lays every input out in detail, and a simplified route, which is what I use when I actually do runs to remember what to do next. Both routes include the point values you should have at each split time assuming you have not missed anything.

Complete 100% Route: https://pastebin.com/cVCrVQAG

Simplified 100% Route: https://pastebin.com/xSn2ik0k

Acquiring and configuring DosBox for speedruns.

[IMPORTANT]
If you have the GOG or Steam distribution of the games, then that will be where your copy of King's Quest VI is located. Refer to the post in the "Forum" tab of this page for an explanation as to why we do NOT use them for speedrunning.

Downloading DosBox:
Download DosBox Enhanced Community Edition => https://dosboxece.yesterplay.net/
Scroll down and download the "DOSBox ECE rxxxx.7z" (x is the current version number) file
Unzip to a location of your choosing. Launch DOSBox.exe once and close it.

Configuring DoxBox:
Navigate to C:\users\<username>\appdata\DosBox (username is your Windows username) and open dosbox-ece.conf with a program like notepad++.

From top to bottom of the configuration file make these following changes (use CTRL+F to find them):

Under [SDL]
fullscreen = false (change to true if you want to play in fullscreen)
fullresolution = desktop (if you are playing in fullscreen and want the game to fit your desktop's resolution)
windowresolution = x (X is something that can fit on your monitor and is smaller than it's resolution)
output = opengl
autolock = true (Locks the mouse cursor in the window. Press CTRL+F10 to release it.)

Under [dosbox]
machine = svga_s3

[render]
aspect = true (keeps the aspect ratio of the game in a 4:3 ratio rather than most modern display's 16:9)

[cpu]
core = dynamic
cycles = max
 
[dos]
ems=false (fixes a known crash related to having expanded memory enabled)

*Most settings further down from here are related to music and sound which are irrelevant.

[autoexec]
mount x: <location of game files such as C:\Kings Quest 6>
x:

*Note: as mentioned above the files for the GOG and Steam distributions of the game will be located in their respective folders. You may need to search around for them, but most commonly GOG will be at: C:\GOG Games\ and Steam will be under C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common and in the King's Quest Collection folder. As said: please look for these files yourself as I do not own these two distributions and cannot verify their exact default installation locations).*

Launch DosBox ECE and type sierra to launch King's Quest VI.

That is it, you should be setup. Happy running.

All Deaths Route

Route:
https://pastebin.com/dZgFBNKQ

List of All Deaths:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/mfn78kqyg9hz2zr/KQVI%20Narrator%20Death%20Lines%20.xlsx?dl=0

Any% - Quick route walkthrough

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bv6zr-Mk2S0

Quick walkthrough / mini-tutorial of the current any% speedrun route with all the new glitches and stuff. I don't spend a lot of time explaining the tricks and mechanics. You should watch OneShortEye's guide for that.


Any% video guide by OneShortEye

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wodb2Rbhj-s&feature=youtu.be

Mechanics, strats, and tech can all be applied to 100% route as well.

Detailed 100% route (credits to Korzic)

This is the route I am currently using for 100% on DosBox max% cycles. It is almost entirely based on Korzic's route in his 43:55 run on ScummVM.

If you run this on ScummVM as well, you can still use this route, just ignore the three Save and Quits.This guide lists the actions in detail and explains some peculiarities of this category. However, if you are new to this game, I recommend to read Jaki's insanely comprehensive Any% guide first. It explains in great detail why DosBox crashes during the run and why it is still the fastest, how to use keyboard shortcuts, how to play the game in window wode, how to mash text and much more. In fact, this route does not include mashing text because it is comfortably simple: Whenever you hear/see text, mash right click as fast as possible. There are (very few) texts that cannot be mashed away (mainly incantations).

If you are learning this category you could crash earlier by loading unnecessary screens or similar which results in an earlier crash. There is a buffer included in case a few mistakes happen in a run. However, since this category is just a few actions to long to make it with two S&Q's, you can have any or all three S&Q's a few actions earlier than stated in this guide.


Options: min Detail, max Speed
Hand Ring
Hand Coin
Walk to castle screen
Walk to entrance
Talk to left dog
Give Ring to left dog
Enter Book shop
Hand Book on stool
Hand right shelf
Hand Paper
Hand book on table
Talk to merchant
Walk to ferry screen
Hand door
Talk to ferryman
Talk to ferryman (in the ferry)
Hand Paw
Hand door
Enter Pawn shop
Hand Mint
Talk to shop owner
Give Ring
Give Coin
Take Nightingale
Leave shop
Walk down and up
Hand pot (for Invisible Ink)
Walk to ferry screen
Map to Sacred Mountain
Hand Flower
Hand puzzle on the wall
Hand RISE
Hand Feather
Map to Wonder
Give Items to the gnomes: Flower – Nightingale – Mint - Paw – Ink
Take Letter String
Talk to bed
Book on shell
Hand Pearl
Walk up
Hand milkweed
Walk up
Hand lettuce and rotten tomato
Walk 2x down and right to book worm
Hand left pile
Talk to spider
Hand lowest string
Hand Parchment
Walk left
Map to Beast
Talk to dangling Creature
Letter String on Creature
Walk up
Lettuce in water
Hand Lamp
Moonwalk (Hand Stone, right click 3x, move cursor down-left and mash Walk)
Walk back to beach
Map to Crown
Walk up
Nightingale on bird
Enter Pawn shop
Nightingale for Flute
Walk to ferry screen
Map to Wonder
Walk right
Creature on left pile
Walk left, up and up
Flute on sunflowers
Hand Hole
Hand door
Walk up
Hand Scarf
Walk down to beach
Hand Rare Book
Map to Crown
Enter Pawn shop
Flute for Tinderbox
Give Pearl to shop owner
Enter book shop
Talk to Jollo
Ring to Jollo
Rare Book to merchant
Walk to ferry screen
Map to Sacred Mountain
Walk on steps to climb Cliffs of Logic

Puzzles: 
Row 3 symbol 3+4 – row 5 symbol 3+5
4 – 1 – 2
Row 3 symbol 4 – row 4 symbol 5+6 – 2nd symbol from bottom
ASCEND (one letter each word)

SAVE AND QUIT
Walk up
Walk N2 – E2 – N
Hand Skull
Walk S – W2 – N – W
N SW SW N N NW SW
Walk N
Hand Shield
Walk N3 – W2
Hand Coins
Walk E2 - S – E
Brick in gears
Walk E2 – N – E
Tinderbox
Walk W5 – S2 – E
Hole on wall
Look at Hole
Walk W3 – S2 – E – S – E2 – N – E – N2
Hand tapestry
Walk E
Scarf on Minotaur twice
Map to Mists
Walk left
Hand fireplace
Hand Scythe
Walk to beach
Map to Wonder
Walk up twice
Milk on pumpkin
Lamp on another pumpkin
Oracle’s Vial onto Lamp
Hand Potion
Hand Tea Cup
Hand door
Give Coal to white queen
Walk down 2x
Tea Cup in water
Rotten Tomato on log (down-left)
Tea Cup on log
Walk down
Map to Beast
Walk up 2x
Shield on archer
Walk up
Hand Rose
Scythe bush
Walk to beach
Map to Crown
Rose on Beauty
Beast’s Ring on Beauty
Lamp on fountain
Open Magic Book, thumb 1x and cast spell
Walk down 
Hand Rose
Walk to beach
Map to Mists
Skull into fireplace
Strand of hair into Skull
Skull on Egg
Walk down
Map to Sacred Mountain
Climb cliffs
SAVE AND QUIT
Hand peppermint cave
Tinderbox
Hand hole on the right
Hand peppermint
Leave cave (hand holes 2x)
Enter and leave catacombs
Open Magic Book, thumb 2x and cast spell
Walk slightly left and Talk to ghosts
Walk upright and leave screen on the right
	(Religiously AVOID CONTACT to the shady villains coming from the left and right. They have big hitboxes. You need to walk at least to the center of the screen, then quickly talk to the ghosts. Don’t leave the screen in a straight line but walk upright to the little slope and walk straight right once you reach it.)
Talk to ghost
Walk up
Hand bone-sticks
Hand Bone
Ticket to 2nd skeleton from right
Hand body
Hand Gauntlet
Walk up
Tea Cup into water on the down-left
Coins to ferryman
Hand door
Talk to door
LOVE
Walk up
Gauntlet to head
Mirror on upper arm
Enter Pawn shop
Tinderbox for Paintbrush
Poison on Alex
Leave Pawn shop
Lamp on lamp seller
Take second Lamp from right
Walk down
Ring on bird
Love Poem on bird
Rose on bird
Hand both items on the ground
Walk to castle and left
Feather on Tea Cup
Paintbrush on Wall
Open Magic Book, don’t thumb and cast spell
SAVE AND QUIT
Hand door
Hand middle door on the wall
Handkerchief on ghost
Leave room
Walk NE
Hand armor’s arm
Hand hole in brick wall
Walk up the stairs
Hand hole
Dagger on Cassima
Walk W – NW
Hand hole in wall
Walk up
Hand end of left wall
Hand box on table
Look at paper
Key on chest
Hand Letter
Hand closet
Walk back and down the stairs
Hand wall to leave (4th block from right)
Walk right
Hand door on the right
Blue Lamp on Jollo
Wait 8-9 s
Hand door
	(You want to leave this room 8-9 s after Jollo closes the door. This is to avoid the 15 s cutscene in which Jollo walks away. This works on both DosBox max% and ScummVM.)
Walk SW
Talk to door on left
ALIZEBU
Hand tablecloth
Look 4x at all items on the table
Walk S – SE
Hand door up-left
Letter on Saladin
Walk up
Walk to door
Walk up 2x
Blue Lamp on Djinn
Hand Sword on wall
Sword Al
Final slash on Al

Join our KQ Speedrunning Discord!

Invite link here: https://discord.gg/XEJbsHp

Just started up this server, runners of all KQ games are welcome to join! I'd love to start up a community of KQ fans so we can help each other out with routing, runs, strats, etc.

I'll see y'all there!

-Jaki

KQVI Speedruns Basic Guide with link to current route (also at http://pastebin.com/He06a7MU)

Updated 7/15/2020

Fastest Version:
 
This game was released in 3 different versions:
1.000 (Interpreter version 1.001.054) is the floppy release.
1.000.00G (Interpreter version l.cfs.158) is the CD release for Dos, the one we play on.
1.034 (Interpreter version 1.001.069) is the Windows CD release.
 
As we of course do not have original hardware (and I wouldn't recommend it), we play the game in the DosBox emulator.
 
Technically speaking, any version of the CD-dos release played in DosBox should be the fastest version for this run.
 
Most runners use the GOG version run in DosBox. This version no longer comes bundled with DosBox, so you'll have to download it separately. The SCUMMVM emulator does not allow for zips, so it is much slower to run the game in.
You can purchase this version at https://www.gog.com/game/kings_quest_4_5_6
It's usually about $10.
You can get DosBox at https://www.dosbox.com/ for free.
 
The CD-dos version is a bit unstable but because of a fast walking glitch called a "zip" on some screens when CPU is at max cycles, it is much faster than any other available versions I have tested.
 
It used to be that this instability in the game caused a regular crash halfway through the run. Thanks to the work of UrQuan this crash has been fixed! If you look at older runs from before 8/2018 they will have a save/quit/restart in them to avoid the crash which is no longer necessary.
 
TO FIX THIS CRASH YOU MUST CHANGE ONE KEY PART OF THE CONFIGURATION FILE:
Direct quote from UrQuan:
"UrQuan08/29/2018
@everyone The verdict is in: The crash is fixed! Set ems=false in the DOSBox config file."
And that's all you have to do.
 
 
Route:
 
Any% Route: https://pastebin.com/A8KjFZGd
100% Route: https://pastebin.com/cVCrVQAG
100% Simplified Route: https://pastebin.com/xSn2ik0k

Time starts at:
Selecting "Play" on the title screen
 
Time ends at:
Last input, which is the sword on Abdul Alhazred
 
 
Keyboard shortcuts:
 
Some controls in the game are faster with keyboard shortcuts than with the mouse, some are much slower. A map of all the keyboard shortcuts for the GOG DosBox version is available here: http://pastebin.com/McZc9Vw7
 
The best keyboard shortcut is ENTER: it has the same function as left click. In the run it's best used to mash text and climb the Cliffs of Logic. For best use, hold it down to mash automatically.
 
The second best is INSERT: it automatically changes the cursor to the "walk" symbol. However, if the cursor is already on "walk", it will put it on "talk". Use to quickly gain the walk symbol for moving screens.
 
The third best is DELETE: it will place your cursor on the menu bar, pausing the game. Mashing delete will buffer one frame at a time. If you have your config file for your DosBox set correctly, holding delete will quickly mash the button automatically (and holding any button).
 
Another good one is ESC which closes the inventory. Most keyboards put ESC really far away from INS and DEL though, so you should rebind your ESC key to a much closer key to INSERT and ENTER. I like to rebind my "END" key to ESC, for example. The community did decide that key rebinding is OK, so no worries.
 
 
Mashing text:
 
For text mashing, left click will mash one text box at a time, and right click will clear an entire conversation at a time (several text boxes/lines of dialogue). However, right click also scrolls the icons through the carousel (walk, hand, eye, talk), so overmashing can place your cursor on an undesirable icon, so be careful not to overmash.
 
Best way to do it is by holding the ENTER key. It will automatically mash text very quickly and will not scroll your carousel. However, some dialogue is better skipped by using right click, depends on the type of dialogue.

If you're using DosBox ECE (our current as of 2020 preferred emulator), there is a very slight delay in holding enter to mash select. It is best to both mash left click and ENTER when you want to skip text or select something quickly, the left click helps to bypass that initial delay, and holding ENTER will mash select from there on. 
 
 
Tips:
 
This run is all about predicting the next 10 things you're about to do. It's best to always be thinking about what the next input will be and to prepare for that. For example, when entering the pawn shop for the first time, you need to click "hand" on the door. Then you need to "talk" to the pawn shop owner, then give him your insignia ring. To optimize these inputs, you can click hand on the door, then while Alex is walking to the door you can rotate the carousel with right click to the talk symbol to prepare it for the next screen. Talk to the owner, then while you're mashing away his text, move your mouse cursor close to the menu bar where the inventory icon is. That way when you're ready to grab that ring, you're already even closer! For the fastest gameplay, you'll need to think like this for the entire run.
 
A couple good things to memorize are:
-The active pixel on each cursor icon that is what's actually selecting something. For example, on the walk icon, the active pixel is the back of the foot to the left. For hand, it's the tip of the pointer finger, for talk it's the point of the talk balloon, and eye is the white pixel in the pupil
-The pixels on each screen in the Cliffs of Logic that correspond to the following screen's first block you want to step on. Here is a picture guide: https://imgur.com/a/ycm09Rd
-The route (of course!): especially important in this run since you're always thinking 10 steps ahead.
-The path through the catacombs
-The copyright protection puzzles in the cliffs of logic
-The floor maze in the catacombs
-Where in your bag certain items will be at certain times of the run (especially for the gnomes)
-The pixels on any beach screen that correspond to where you want to travel to with the magic map active. That way you can start mashing before the map even shows up.
 
You can run the game in either text only or speech only, it doesn't matter much. After timing, text is minimally faster. I prefer speech because I react faster to mashing away sounds than the text boxes, but either is fine. Plus, speech is funnier for streams: e.g. "Ale..Alex...Al...Alexan..Alexander" Perfect text mashing will hear no speech or see any text boxes at all. Apparently there are some glitches that are text only, where the text box does not disappear as it should and kills your run. So, I'm going to stick with speech.
 
Be sure the first thing you do is set the DETAIL to the lowest setting and the SPEED to the highest setting in any run. Do this from the title page before hitting play, press DELETE and click on settings on the top right to change these settings before you start the run. Setting the detail to the lowest setting apparently doesn't do much to affect the run, but I still do it for good luck.
 
Pressing Control + F10 releases your mouse from the game window.
 
Close your inventory every time with ESC
 
 
Hardware tips:
Turning up the sensitivity on your mouse helps, but you gotta get used to that quick movement! I personally keep it on the medium setting. A good mouse is very helpful for smooth, controlled movement.
It goes without saying that a powerful computer is not necessary to do this run. It's from 1992 and runs in Dos.
 
Config file tips:
Running the game in a window is best for those quick mouse movements across the screen. You can get the game to open in windowed mode by going into the config file and changing fullscreen from true to false
Be sure CPU cycles are set at max
Make memsize at least 16 (which is far more than the game needs anyway!)
Set ems=false to prevent crashes
Set autofire=true to be able to mash ENTER and other keys

Nome	Autore
100% Complete Route and Simplified Route	JakiJo 5 years ago
Acquiring and configuring DosBox for speedruns.	ChuckGrody 4 years ago
All Deaths Route	OneShortEye 4 years ago
Any% - Quick route walkthrough	Joka 1 year ago
Any% video guide by OneShortEye	ChuckGrody 6 years ago
Detailed 100% route (credits to Korzic)	Sileair 7 years ago
Join our KQ Speedrunning Discord!	JakiJo 6 years ago
KQVI Speedruns Basic Guide with link to current route (also at http://pastebin.com/He06a7MU)	JakiJo 2 years ago
Setup for Speedrunning KQVI: UrQuan's ScummVM	OneShortEye 3 years ago