The very first King\'s Quest game was a landmark in gaming history. As the very first \"3-D\" game back in 1984, and the first to use a color pallet with more than two or three colors, it ushered in the beginning of modern computer gaming. It birthed the adventure genre as we know it today, a genre that\'s slowly and sadly fallen into disfavor with the general gaming population.

King\'s Quest not only built the reputation of Sierra On-line Entertainment, it also made its creator, Roberta Williams, the best selling female game designer in history. With creative puzzles and wonderful characters, King\'s Quest still has lasting impact even 8 years after it\'s last official installment.

After King\'s Quest VIII came out in 1998, Sierra made it clear that they were done with the series; adventure games were simply not selling any longer.

Many fans considered it the death of an era.

But some took action. Phoenix Online Studios gathered together and began making their own King\'s Quest, originally called King\'s Quest IX: Every Cloak Has a Silver Lining, that centered around the King\'s Quest universe. After some development, Vivendi Universal, who now controls the publishing rights to King\'s Quest, intervened and demanded that development stop.

And so King\'s Quest died a second death, this time permanent. Or so many thought.

The King\'s Quest fans over at http://www.savekqix.org/ launched a campaign to keep the project alive, petitioning VU and calling for the game community to stand up in support of their favorite games. And amazingly enough, they succeeded.

On December 9th, UV fired off a press release saying that King\'s Quest IV could continue development with a name change to, \"The Silver Lining.\"

\"After extensive evaluation, Vivendi Universal Games is pleased to announce that the fan developed trilogy project \'The Silver Lining\' (previously known as King\'s Quest IX: Every Cloak Has A Silver Lining), based on characters from Sierra Entertainment\'s \'Kings Quest\' series, has been given approval to continue development. We look forward to seeing the first of its three upcoming chapters, \'Shadows\', completed soon.\"

- VIVENDI UNIVERSAL GAMES

Score one for the victors, and our hats off to Vivendi for being one of the large companies that\'s willing to change its mind from time to time.

Congrats, everyone.