if by old quest system, you mean the .qst thing, then I buy that. but heres the perl code to deal with it, and theres just no way it supports stacked items. Been this way since I got here at least.
Code:
string hashname = packagename + std::string("::itemcount");
perl->eval(std::string("%").append(hashname).append(" = ();").c_str());
perl->eval(std::string("++$").append(hashname).append("{$").append(packagename).append("::item1};").c_str());
perl->eval(std::string("++$").append(hashname).append("{$").append(packagename).append("::item2};").c_str());
perl->eval(std::string("++$").append(hashname).append("{$").append(packagename).append("::item3};").c_str());
perl->eval(std::string("++$").append(hashname).append("{$").append(packagename).append("::item4};").c_str());