Incidentally, the PC jr. is what started these games, not the PC XT. King's Quest was written for it, because it had the graphics capability of finally displaying a pretty game. CGA offered 320 x 200 in four colors, or 640 x 200, on a discrete card, whereas the PC jr. actually was 320 x 200 in 16 colors, or 640 x 200 in four (which wasn't used for games). The negative is that the PC jr. used the main memory for this, which could take 32K.
The Tandy 1000 was later called a PC compatible, but it was actually developed to be compatible with the "Peanut" (as the PC jr. was called). Because of this, it had some incompatibilities, but it also had the sound and graphics capabilities of the PC jr., and strangely, the PC Jr. graphics became known as "TGA", or Tandy Graphics Adapter, because the line was so successful, and the PC Jr. was discontinued right before the Tandy 1000 was released, and was known as being a very unsuccessful machine.
So, for anyone wishing to play these games, I'd recommend a Tandy 1000 rather than a PC XT. You'll need EGA or higher on the XT, which is far from a given, and the sound will suck unless you get an Adlib card, or some other card they the games were compatible with. It's not easy to find. The Tandy has both taken care of, and they are cheap on eBay.
I would avoid the straight 1000 and 1000a, they are slow, an in my experience, unreliable. They also have more compatibility problems (again, they weren't made to be PC compatible, but PC Jr. compatible).
The 1000 SX is a nice machine, with five slots, more compatibility, and greater speed (7.16 MHz 8088). The 1000 SL and SL2 are updated versions, but using an 8086 at 8 MHz. The internal part of the OS also boots from ROM. The come with low density 5.25 floppy drives, but 3.5 inch drives were frequently added.
The 1000 TX/TL/TL2/TL3 are all 286 based machines and consequently much faster. The later three also can boot from ROM, and they have 3.5 inch drives.
The 1000 RL was a really small foot print version, also sporting a 8086, and having TGA graphics. The 1000 RLX uses a 286, and has VGA graphics. Both have only one slot.
I would recommend them for anyone wishing to play these games. They are easily bought, work with little or no effort on the games, and sold a lot. There is a lot of information on them. The PC/XT was not used primarily for games, and to get it to play them you might need some add-on cards that are very difficult to get. On top of that, the thing weighs a ton, and is generally quite expensive to buy. Tandy 1000s are relatively inexpensive on eBay.
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