King's Quest 6 is a point and click game. You can access the toolbar by moving the mouse to the top of the screen.
The first icon from the left is the walk icon. The second icon is to pick up items or activate things, such as opening doors. The third is to look icon and the fourth is the talk-icon.
The fifth icon shows the currently selected inventory item (in this case Alexander's ring). In order to select another inventory item, click the sixth icon (the one with the bag on it) to open the inventory screen.
You may also simply right-click the mouse to change the icons, rather than heading for the top of the game screen and selecting them there.
Inventory screen
In the inventory screen similar icons occur. You can look at items, investigate items (with the hand icon), select items (with the arrow icon) and talk to items (though you won't need to do that throughout the entire game). The arrow icons allows to move to the next or previous page of inventory items. There are at any time in the game maximum 2 pages of items. Select the OK button to return to the game. Sometimes it is also necessary to combine items within the inventory screen, for example to prepare the ingredients for an incantation.
Control panel
The final icon on the top toolbar is to access the control panel.
Here you can save, restore, restart, quit or continue playing the game. The "About" button allows to see a description of all King's Quest games. Though King's Quest 6 can be played without knowledge of the stories of the previous games, it is always handy to know what previously occurred. There is also a little explanation about King's Quest VI, with credits. And finally there is a tips section and a guide for the beginner player.
The sliderbars allow the adjust game speed, game volume and game detail. The button on the bottom allows to switch between speech and text boxes. And finally there is the score. The maximum score in King's Quest VI is 231.
Save often and a lot!
There are many ways to die in King's Quest VI, as well as several dead-ends. For example, if the player traveled to the land of the dead, but forgot to bring along coins for the ferryman, then there is no way to return to the Land of Green to fetch them. Restoring an earlier game is then the only way. Therefore, save often and frequently!
