So, while trying to get Pandora's Box I dug too many times in the wrong spot and my shovel broke. Is there any possible way to repair it or get a new one, or am I stuck now?

Arrrgh. I hate that. I saved AFTER I messed up too, so while my shovel isn't broken, it is inevitable.
Maybe I'll just move on to V then for now. I've been trying to play these in order since I played through a few when I was younger, so I was quite ecstatic to see this added onto the site. Oh well though, I don't feel like repeating everything I just did.

I've had that problem several times. Never gets any easier.
King's Quest V is arguably worse for this though, there are a few moments early on that you have to be very careful with or you're stuck forever.
SNSO - Save Now, Save Often!

You have the option to have many saves. never overwrite a save. Remember the adventure gamer's axiom "Save early and save often". Besides, it's nice to have the saves in case you just want to see a certain part of the game again.

Multiple save slots and a walkthrough is the best way to get through "quest" games I find. Unless you have enough patience to have to possible restart the game many times and throughly search every screen to make sure that you have hit a dead end and can't just figure a damn puzzle out. I love these games for setting and story but if lucasarts had made them they would be much better games.

Multiple saves are also nice if you just want to explore a game and do something dangerous. It can be fun to find all of the amusing death scenes in certain games.

I second that.

I played this series from back in the 80s and got completely stuck in KQ4 due to lack of a bridle. This was before the internet so now that I know where the dang thing is, I've purchased IV through VI to try it again!

Lol, my shovel broke too. It`s good i had another saved slot not too far away :P

Been many years since I last played the King's Quest series. Love most of them, but I have to say King's Quest IV is my least favorite so far. Too much random junk, like the shark attack and troll cave and now... this with the broken shovel. I did keep multiple saves, but still lost a LOT of time on this.

EDIT: Sorry, this thread is ancient... was doing a shovel search and wanted to vent my frustration.

It can be very frustrating, so here's the ideal strategy. Don't just save often, save in new descriptive files often. The old KQ games give you an uttery massive number of save files so don't be afraid to go crazy. You can even create directories and "sort" the save files across those directories. So, you can make a file like: "Got shovel" and "dug up infant's grave" and "what am I doing with my life?!" and "jumped off cliff" all you like.