I am playing the original EGA version of the first game.
And I did the unthinkable of reading a walkthrough on how to deal with the muggers in the alley.

.... spoilers:


So apparently you need to make the thief sign to get the password for the guild. But how should i know about how to do this?

You need to write "Make thief sign". But i have googled for a long time and everyone just say "show the thief sign". But how would i know about it??? I am going crazy.

The death screen says "perhaps you should look in the manual on how to deal with thieves" but the EGA manual says nothing about this thief sign. I don't want to just write it and get the password, i need to know how i should have acquired knowledge about a thief sign in the first place.

Perhaps the manual wasn't phrased clearly enough. The implication was supposed to be that, if you a playing a thief, you start the game knowing the thief sign, something that all thieves, and no one else, are supposed to know. (Actually, some Quest for Glory games allow you to know the thief sign if your character has any skill normally exclusive to thieves...or maybe specifically only lockpicking, I'm not sure.)

Also, if it sounds implausible that all thieves would know the sign and no one else would, take a look at the specific gestures used to make the thief sign. In other words, Quest for Glory is (clearly) not meant to be taken entirely seriously.

Note: if you are not playing a thief (and have no skills normally exclusive to thieves), you cannot make the thief sign. In that case, you are simply supposed to stay out of the alley at night in QfG1.

You're supposed to read all of the materials. This means not only the manual, but also the "Famous Adventurer's Correspondence School." Back in the day, there was a lot of very important game information in the reading materials for games, and the only way you could get through games was to reference the these materials. This also served as a version of copy protection, because a lot of software pirates only copied game software, and did not copy game manuals.

Reference page 15 of the "Famous Adventurer's Correspondence School" for QFG1.

If you purchased this via GOG (which I'm assuming since you're in these forums), you'll notice that there are a few different downloadable materials. Unfortunately, GOG just bundled EVERYTHING up for EVERY SINGLE QFG game into the downloadable materials for each game, making it confusing.

For example, I don't need the Hero's Journal from QFG4 when I'm playing QFG1. Yet, for some reason...there it is...inside the downloadable materials for QFG1.

For QFG1, all you really need to do is read the manual and the correspondence course for QFG1. The map is only for QFG2, the Hero's Journal is only for QFG4, and the reference card is only for QFG5.

...enjoy!!!

Well, there it is!
Thank you so much for your post.

Amazing game this one.