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AGI was originally developed by IBM and donated to Sierra to showcase the technology of their PCjr computer.

The first game to use the AGI engine was King's Quest I, released in 1984. There were also a few games made with AGI that were not adventure games.

When it was first used, in the mid- 1980s, AGI was very innovative and made impressive use of the technology available at the time. Later versions were adapted to use 16 color EGA graphics and the Adlib soundcard.

By the end of the 80s, however, AGI's 160×200 resolution began to look outdated and it couldn't keep up with newer developments such as mice, which were used extensively by the SCUMM engine of competitor Lucasfilm Games. In 1990, Sierra abandoned AGI and started using the SCI ( Sierra Creative Interpreter) engine for their adventure games.

Sarien (Sierra AGI resource interpreter engine) is a portable, open-source re-implementation of Sierra's AGI.

1 List of AGI games

(rough chronological order)

• Kings Quest 1 - Quest for the Crown (1984)
• Kings Quest 2 - Romancing the Throne (1985)
• The Black Cauldron (1986)
• Donald Duck's playground (1986)
• Kings Quest 3 - To Heir is Human (1986)
• Mickey's Space Adventure (1986)
• Space Quest 1 - The Sarien Encounter (1986)
• Winnie The Pooh - In the Hundred-Acre Woods (1986)
• Leisure Suit Larry 1 - In the Land of the Lounge Lizards (1987)
• Mixed Up Mother Goose (1987)
• Police Quest 1 - In pursuit of the Death Angel (1987)
• Gold Rush (1988)
• Kings Quest 4 - The Perils of Rosella (1988)
• Manhunter 1 - New York (1988)
• Space Quest 2 - Vohaul's Revenge (1988)
• Manhunter 2 - San Francisco (1989)

This AGI version of King's Quest IV was in the market briefly, since it was shortly replaced by its SCI counterpart.

2 External links

• DMoz AGI directory
• Sarien home page