Where can I drop items safely? Was doing the apple fetch quest and dropped some at the healer's, and now they're gone it seems.

Nowhere. The items will disappear as soon as you leave the screen (note that in the VGA version, entering combat counts as leaving the screen)

It's the same in all the games, actually... sort of. In the VGA remake of 2, though, there's a chest you can put items in, and every game after that point also has a chest to put things in (in fact, 3 has *two* different chests)

But in the first game, there's no separate storage to put things in in either version.

Alright thanks. Wish someone would add one in a mod.

Someone is making an "Extended Edition" fangame for QFG1, that's the closest you'll get.

But there's really not a reason to drop the items, is there? At least I've never encountered encumberance even when playing as a MU.

This is sort of a fair point, at least for the VGA version.

Unlike later games, you don't move at a snail's pace when over-encumbered, but you DO lose stamina faster, too.

However, it might also increase strength faster?

That being said, there is a reason to drop items in both the EGA and VGA versions - stamina. The less encumbered you are, the less quickly your stamina drops through actions. This means that, for example, if you're fighting the weapon master, you pretty much want to drop everything you can to the ground (including armor!) before dueling him.

Of course, you have to remember to pick it up before leaving the screen. Thankfully, dueling the weapon master doesn't change screens, so it's fine.

Back when I was new to the series, I placed an undue emphasis on having lots of money. I used to dislike being too poor to afford the expensive equipment, potions, and spells at the beginning, so I went crazy picking up mushrooms when I learned about the VGA exploit. As you can imagine, I became overloaded and bugged up quite a few of my games. After a while, I started playing smarter, and I realized it was actually more enjoyable to build up my stats and loot monster bodies than rely on selling mushrooms.

Nowadays, I only use the drop button at Erana's Peace. Since the game only lets you gather flowers twice per trip (10 flowers), I discovered that dropping one flower would allow me to gather them a third time. After picking up my dropped flower, I'd have 15 to sell to the Healer. This is no biggie, obviously, but it's a handy trick.

Where is the chest in QfG2 VGA? Thanks

In your room at the inn, the lower right corner.