Welcome to a special bonus installment of our video game podcast, Barrel Roll.

Colin “MrColinP” Panetta, and Jonah “thespambot” Gregory got together to discuss one of their favorite video game series, Space Quest. This is an overview of the entire Space Quest series, and we have broken it up into two parts, for your convenience.

In Part Two, we discuss the remake of Space Quest 1, games four through six, the very short lived Space Quest comic book, the canceled games and the fan games. We also get into some of the legal troubles Sierra ran into because of the games, and where you can pick up a copy and play them these days.

A great big special thanks to everyone that helped us put this show together.

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1990, September
Space Quest: The Sarien Encounter (remake)

Plot: A VGA remake of SQI with a Sci-Fi B Movie from the 1950’s feel.

Fun facts:
-This game and Space Quest IV were the only games ever to use the “Taste” and “Smell” icons. They were barely used in either game, and usually only for comedic effect.
-Not really blessed by Scott Murphy and Mark Crowe.

1991, March
Space Quest IV: Roger Wilco and the Time Rippers

Other games released that year: Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge, Super Mario Bros 3, Sonic the Hedgehog, Tecmo Super Bowl, Another World (very artistic video game, first to use polygons), F-Zero, Civilization, Road Rash, Police Quest III: The Kindred (Sierra), Leisure Suit Larry 5: Passionate Patti Does a Little Undercover Work (Sierra), Gobliiins(Sierra)
System requirements: 8088/8086 CPU, 640KB RAM, EGA, MCGA, Tandy/PCjr, or VGA graphics, Adlib, Game Blaster, PC speaker, PS/1 Audio Card, Roland MT-32, Sound Blaster, Tandy DAC (TL/SL), or Tandy/PCjr sound card
Media: 3.5″ Floppy Disk or 5.25″ Floppy Disk or CD
Price: $59.95
Interface: Point and click (briefly describe classic Sierra point and click interface)

Plot: Roger is chased through past and future Space Quest games (such as Space Quest X: The Latex Babes of Estros and Space Quest XII: Vohaul’s Revenge II) by the Sequel Police, who are taking orders from Sludge Vohaul. He eventually meets his own son and is told that he has a great future waiting for him with his wife, Beatrice Wankmeister.

Fun facts:
-Unlike previous Space Quest games’ graphics, which were created solely on computer, SQIV’s backgrounds were hand painted and character sprites were video captures.
-Cost over one million dollars to produce (some King’s Quest game was the first game ever to cross the 1 million barrier)
-The first Space Quest game with full voice! Most of the voices were provided by Sierra staff, except for the narrator who was voiced by Gary Owens, better known as the announcer on the camp classic ‘70’s show Laugh-In and the voice of Powdered Toast Man and the original Space Ghost. Although he only narrated two Space Quest games, he is considered a staple of the series.
-When traveling back to Space Quest I or III, the graphics revert back to the primitive EGA graphics of the time.
-In the CD-ROM version, sniffing and tasting the burger ingredients in Monolith Burger produces a ton of funny, fully voice acted easter eggs.
-This was the last game designed by both of the Two Guys from Andromeda. They say they needed a change, and Mark Crowe moved to work for a subsidiary of Sierra called Dynamix.

1992
Space Quest comic book

A Space Quest comic book is produced by Malibu Comics. The first issue is in color. The second two issues are in black and white and have a different writer. It is very rare, and very bad…. I reread it recently (you can download PDFs of it at SpaceQuest.net) and it’s not THAT bad… at times it’s kind of like Mad Magazine, with lots oflittle stuff going on in the panel.

1993
Space Quest V: The Next Mutation

Other games released that year: Day of the Tentacle, Zombies Ate My Neighbors (LucasArts), Super Street Fighter II, Starfox, Mortal Kombat II, NBA Jam, Myst, Doom, Return to Zork, Kirby’s Adventure, Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers, Jaguar (console), 3DO (console), Police Quest IV: Open Season (Sierra), Leisure Suit Larry 6: Shape Up or Slip Out! (Sierra), Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness (Sierra)
System requirements: 286 CPU, 640KB RAM, EGA, MCGA, or VGA graphics, Adlib, Disney Sound Source, Game Blaster, MIDI, Microsoft Sound System, PC speaker, Pro Audio Spectrum, PS/1 Audio Card, Roland MT-32, Sound Blaster, Tandy/PCjr, or Thunderboard sound card
Media: 3.5″ Floppy Disk
Price: $69.99
Interface: Point and click

Plot: A computer glitch makes Roger the captain of a garbage scow, complete with wacky crew. He meets his future wife and competes for her affection with Rhames T Quirk, a William Shatner parody. Quirk goes bad and Roger and Bea end up together.

Fun facts:
-Most of this game is a parody of Star Trek, the original and TNG. Many people are annoyed by this. It introduces the Star Fleet-esqe StarCon, which becomes a staple in the storyline of the Space Quest series.
-Mark Crowe designed this game at the Sierra subsidiary Dynamix, without Scott Murphy. The game is a lot less dark and less mean to the player than previous installments.
-The game was never released on CD-ROM or with speech, due to budget concerns.
-The game was sponsored by Sprint, whose logo appears after communications transmissions.

1995
Space Quest 6: The Spinal Fronteir

Other games released that year: Full Throttle, The Dig, Mortal Kombat 3, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island, Chrono Trigger, Command and Conquer, EarthBound, Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest, Virtual Boy (console), Playstation (console), Sega Saturn (console), Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within (Sierra), Phantasmagoria (Sierra), Torin’s Passage (Sierra)
System requirements: 386 CPU, 8MB RAM, SuperVGA graphics, Adlib, MIDI, Microsoft Sound System, Pro Audio Spectrum, Roland MT-32, Sound Blaster sound card, 2X CD-ROM
Media: CD
Price: ?
Interface: Point and click

Plot: Due to a set of convoluted charges, Roger is stripped of his command of the garbage scow and made a janitor again. He uncovers a plot by an elderly StarCon widow to take over the body of his friend Stellar Santiago. Roger has himself shrunk and chases the villain throughout Stellar’s body.

Fun facts:
-There was a demo released for the game that was comprised of completely original material. It uses backgrounds and characters from Space Quest 6, but has it’s own exclusive characters and storyline all fully voice acted. The storyline takes place before SQ6 and depicts an encounter between Roger and some Borg parodies, The Bjorn. One of the Bjorn can be seen wandering the halls of Roger’s starship in SQ6 proper.
-Working titles for the game include “Where in Corpsman Santiago is Roger Wilco?” and “Roger Wilco in Innard Space”
-The majority of the game was designed by Josh Mandel. He left shortly before completion, and was replaced by former Two Guys from Andromeda member Scott Murphy. The game was promoted as being solely designed by Scott Murphy, which even he seems baffled by.
-Gary Owens back as narrator!
-Between having a different designer and a different visual style (the sprites are illustrated animation), SQ6 is the most visually distinct of the Space Quest games.

After the end

-Scott Murphy started designing a Space Quest 7 in 1997, but it is cancelled that same year… SQ7 is restarted in 1999, but cancelled again when Sierra fires two thirds of it’s employees in one day, after Sierra is purchased by Vivendi, a major media company… There were rumors that Scott Murphy’s cancelled SQ7 featured online multiplayer play, but it seemed like that decision was forced on him… In 2002 a company called Escape Factory begins work on a Space Quest action-platformer for Sierra, which was mostly just a publisher under Vivendi rule, but it is cancelled in 2003… In 2008 Vivendi Games merged with Activision Blizzard… Activision Blizzard doesn’t seem to have any interest in the Space Quest license, and have put all Sierra licenses up for sale. No buyers yet.

Fan games

Although abandoned Space Quest fan games number too many to count, two full length ones have been released. First was Space Quest: The Lost Chapter in 2001, taking place in between SQ II and III. Then was Space Quest 0: Replicated in 2003, taking place before Space Quest I. Both feature retro style VGA graphics. A fan made Space Quest 7 was started in 2001 but shut down by Sierra in 2006. Some games are still in development, including the impressive looking Space Quest: Incinerations.

Legal trouble

Space Quest parodied a wide array of pop culture institutions, including the Blues Brothers, Star Trek, Alien, and McDonald’s. Companies that have actually threatened, or followed through with, legal action against Sierra over being parodied in Space Quest games include Gene Simmons of KISS, Toys ‘R’ Us, the band ZZ Top.

“How can I, the listener, play this wonderful game?”

Vivendi Universal released “The Space Quest Collection” in 2006. It includes every game except the original EGA release of Space Quest 1 (it has the VGA remake instead) and the SQ6 demo. I’ve played through most of it and I totally love it. They used a program called DOS Box to fix any issues with the games being over ten years old, and it’s really easy to install and use. You can very, very easily snag it for around ten bucks on eBay, an amazing bargain. With Sierra and it’s properties in limbo the way they are, there’s no official channel through which to buy the collection that I could find.

Websites of Interest
SpaceQuest.net - Amazing museum of Space Quest history, no longer updated.
http://www.spacequest.net/misc/rwcomic/ - Here is where the Space Quest comic can be found.
tmd.alienharmony.com/rw - Many Deaths of Roger Wilco- A directory of every Roger death ever, with screenshots and even audio!
sq7.org/wssquid - Akril’s WSSQUID (“Who Says Space Quest Is Dead?”) Space Quest webcomic with over 250 beautifully rendered strips!
colinpee.blogspot.com/search/label/Space Quest - Colin’s Space Quest sketch series

Fan Games:
Space Quest 0: Replicated
Space Quest: The Lost Chapter
Space Quest: IV.5 Roger Wilco and the Voyage Home
Space Quest 2 Remake
Space Quest: Vohaul Strikes Back
Space Quest 2x: Vohaul’s Mines

Sources
-Some info from from Wikipedia,
-But most is copy and pasted from SpaceQuest.net.
-Some is from Colin’s own shaky memory.
-“Other games released that year” dates are from all over. They should mostly be American release dates, but who knows.
-We got a lot of feedback and help from the members of The Janitorial Times forum at SpaceQuest.net. Big thanks to MusicallyInspired, Datadog (who is doing the Space Quest: Incinerations fan game), 4th Guy, Akril (who does the WSSQUID webcomic), Mad_C33 (who was a fountain of knowledge concerning the differences between the different releases of each Space Quest game), olzen, and Vroomfondel (who gave us a quick history lesson about the Vivendi/Activision Blizzard merger). Joystiq.com’s Ludwig K also Twittered to remind us about the SQ6 demo.

Tags: Bonus Episode, PC, Retrospective, Roger Wilco, Sierra, Space Quest

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