By Kurt Kalata

When Sierra released Kings Quest in 1984, it took the computer gaming world by storm. Sierra had already turned everything topsy turvy a few years prior with Mystery House, the first adventure game to feature visuals. Kings Quest took that idea one step further by changing the viewpoint to the third person perspective, while giving the player an onscreen avatar to control. Instead of typing "N" or "S", you could actually just walk north or south, although all other commands were still text based. It introduced a whole new, hugely detailed world to explore and feel immersed in, even if neither the prose nor the parser were anywhere near the level of Infocom, the reigning text adventure publisher. With the immense success of Kings Quest, Sierra branched out by developing adventure games with other themes, including Police Quest, Leisure Suit Larry, and Space Quest. Space Quest is more than just Kings Quest with a sci-fi theme. Helmed by two Sierra employees who called themselves The Two Guys from Andromeda - Scott Murphy, the programmer, and Mark Crowe, the artist - Space Quest featured a slightly more off-kilter sense of humor. Instead of a great king-to-be, the hero (whom the player can name, although he is officially named Roger Wilco) is little more than a janitor, and a fairly incompetent one at that. At the beginning of the first game, he survives an attack on his ship only because he decided to take a nap in the closet when he should've been on duty. Most of the games involve poor Riger simply stumbling from incredulous situation to incredulous situation, somehow having the day at the end. Or not. Sierra games are known to be particularly punishing to the player, especially when it comes to death scenes. Space Quest takes this and runs with it, with a number of particularly amusingly sardonic ways for Roger to die. At least if you did something wrong, it would tend to garner a chuckle. The narrator is often the most amusing "character" in the game, offering sarcastic commentary on Roger's every action. Space Quest is also full of references and parodies of various works of science fiction. Part of the fun is trying to pick out the most amusing ones, because there are some pretty obscure entries throughout the series. Starting around Space Quest III, the series also became amusingly self-referential, featuring the real-life creators of the series as captives to be rescued, and goes even further with Space Quest IV, with Roger time traveling through his own (non-existent, sadly) sequels. It's very prototypical of the type of humor found in Matt Groening's and David Cohen's popular animated series Futurama. Like most adventure games and works of science fiction, Space Quest also excels by creating an entertaining universe filled with unique characters and locations, some of which recur throughout the series. Some of these include Monolith Burger, the interstellar version of McDonalds; Astro Chicken, a series of arcade games made by evil software development house ScumSoft, Inc (and are actually playable minigames unto themselves); the mega villain Sludge Vohaul, Roger's accidental arch-nemsis; and the Gippazoid novelty company, who refuse to forgive Roger for a minor incident committed in Space Quest II. There are six games in the Space Quest series, as well as a VGA remake of the first game, which was typical treatment for many of the more popular Sierra franchises. Other than Mark Crowe and Scott Murphy, key members include Josh Mandel, who contributed some writing and developed much of Space Quest VI and also worked on the Leisure Suit Larry series amongst other Sierra titles. For instance, in one puzzle, you're handcuffed in a room with a guard. To undo your bonds, you just need to grab a nail off the way. That part makes sense, right? Well, in order to defeat the guard, you need to grab a rug off the wall (which initially looks like a poster), toss it on the floor, dance on it, and use the cumulated static shock to disable the guard. Oh, also, the guard is a robot, although the game doesn't actually tell you this. At this point, the narrator even questions Roger whether this was brilliant thinking or just dumb luck. Sometimes, it tends to be the latter.

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Space Quest Chapter I: The Sarien Encounter - IBM PC / Amiga / Atari ST / Apple II / Macintosh

EGA Cover

VGA Cover

Space Quest I (EGA)

The first Space Quest episode begins with our hero, Roger Wilco, taking a nap on the closet. This acts of severe laziness ends up saving his hide, as the entire rest of the active crew of his spaceship, the Arcada, has been killed by the Sariens, who have invaded the ship and stolen the powerful Star Generator. After sneaking out and hijacking an escape pod, Roger ends up on the desert planet Korona, where he must evade numerous dangerous creatures, including a spider-like robot sent by the Sariens. Upon discovering a Wizard of Oz-like scientist who lives under the surface, Roger takes his speeder to Ulence Flats, one of the only establishments on the planet. After playing it big at the Slots of Death (getting triple skulls results in being vaporized) and overhearing the location of the Sariens, Roger affords himself the luxury of a navigational robot and spaceship, and heads off to disable the Star Generator himself. Space Quest I comes in two flavors: the original EGA version, released in 1986, and the updated VGA version, released in 1991. The EGA version uses the AGI engine found in all of Sierra's early graphic adventures, which means low res 160x200, blocky, 16 color graphics, keyboard/joystick movement (meaning no mouse control), full text input, and in the DOS version, PC speaker sound. The VGA version uses the SCI 2.0 engine, which means 256 color graphics with a 320x224 resolution with painted backgrounds, a fully icon-based interface with mouse control, and support for sound cards for music and sound effects. Long time fans may prefer the original release for nostalgia reasons, but anyone playing the series for the first time will probably prefer the VGA version - it's much nicer looking and more user-friendly. The plot remains unchanged in the remake, and only a few of the puzzles have been slightly altered due to new interface. In some ways, though, more could've been done to fix it up for the re-release. Compared to the relatively expansive and free roaming worlds of Kings Quest and Leisure Suit Larry, Space Quest is awfully short and linear. This is actually a blessing in disguise, since there are nearly a dozen different instances where you can miss a vital item and find yourself in an unwinnable situation. Unless you go through with a FAQ, you'll probably be reloading, or even restarting, several times. The graphics in the remake have the feel of a cheesy sci-fi B-movie, which suits the game perfectly. The VGA version features the usual Walk, Use and Talk icons, but introduces the Smell and Taste icons. These don't have any real use other than provoking a few humorous responses, although they're (slightly) better utilized in Space Quest IV. The VGA remake includes a magnet item which helps you rig a slot machine at the bar. In the original EGA game, you needed to play your luck - a bit tough, considering that you're killed if you happen to get three skull and crossbones. The VGA version also (thankfully) lets you skip the skimmer arcade sequence, although it chastises you for doing so. One of the jokes has also been changed. In the EGA version, if you pushed the "Do Not Press" button in the escape pod, you end up transporting to Daventry Castle in the first Kings Quest game. In the VGA version, you end up outside of Nottingham Castle from Conquests of the Longbow, which was a more contemporary game at the time the remake was released. Given that it's the first game in the series, Space Quest hadn't exactly found its voice yet. It's certainly funny, but other than a slightly sarcastic narrator and some mildly funny death scenes (including one in the VGA version where the Two Guys pop up and announce an instant replay of one of Roger's particularly stupid moments), it's not really as hilarious as its sequels. The VGA version adds a lot more location and event descriptions, at least. Most of the humor comes from references to pop culture and other sci-fi series. The bar in Ulence Flats features alien versions of the Blues Brothers and ZZ Top, although the latter was changed in the VGA version due to a complaint from the musicians themselves. The EGA version features PC speaker renditions of the Blues Brother's theme and ZZ Top's "Sharp Dressed Man", while the VGA version features different but similarly styled pieces of music. When shopping for robots in the VGA version, you'll find a number of classics, including the Robot from Lost in Space, Robby the Robot from The Forbidden Planet, and a creature that looked like it stepped out of Laputa: Castle in the Sky called Hay-A-O, a reference to the film's directory, Hayao Miyazaki. The arms dealer on the Sarien ship also sounds suspiciously like Marvin the Paranoid Android from Douglas Adam's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. The robot stop itself was named Droids R Us in the EGA version, but changed to Droids B Us in both future revisions and the VGA version due to a lawsuit from the toy retailer. Strangely, the VGA version goes one step further and features a green giraffe that looks suspiciously like Jeffrey, the Toys R Us' mascot.

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Comparison Screenshots

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Space Quest II: Vohaul's Revenge - - IBM PC / Amiga / Atari ST / Apple II / Macintosh

American Cover

Space Quest II

Space Quest II

It seems like Roger just can't catch a break. Ever after saving the galaxy from the Sariens, he's once again reassigned to his old janitorial position on a space station. Things just get worse when he's kidnapped by Sludge Vohaul, the secret mastermind behind the Sarien attack. Sludge was none too happy to have his plans foiled, and he's at it again - his next plan consists of flooding the population with cloned life insurance salesman. Of course, he doesn't want Roger mucking it up, so he sentences him a life of slavery, working in the cruel mines of Labion. In the course of being transported, the incompetent guards end up crashing their transport, leaving Roger free from their grasp, but trapped in a deadly jungle. The planet of Labion is infested with all kinds of flora and fauna that would be happy to have Roger as its lunch. In one particularly aggravating section, you need to carefully navigate through the tentacles of a particularly ravenous beast. It's an extremely narrow path, and if one of your feet so much as touches one of its pixels, you're pretty much screwed. Just be prepared to save every few steps. Later, you need to navigate through a series of tunnels, almost completely in the dark, within a time limit, only aided by a glowing gem that illuminates your immediate area. Assuming, of course, that you had explored the swamp enough to find that ONE tiny area that was deeper than the others, and had the foresight to dive underwater and find said gem. Also, you had better made sure that you'd searched the locker right at the beginning of the game, or else you'll miss the Rubix Cube-like puzzle and jockstrap that are necessary in the later stages of the game. And remember to order the Labion Terror Beast Mating Whistle in the jungle, a pivotal moment in Space Quest canon. (In successive games, the manufacturer of this whistle tries to hunt down Roger, since he didn't pay for it. This is particularly odd because the mail order form specifically mentions that it's free. Whether this is commentary on the hilariously entangled bureaucracy of the corporate world or simply an oversight by the developers, is up for you to decide. The Two Guys have admitted to the mistake, but the former explanation is funnier.) If you manage to do all of this properly, you'll find yourself on Vohaul's secret base inside an asteroid. The only way to beat him is by raiding all of the janitor's closets (and the bathroom) for various household items, then using them to scheme your way through Vohaul's devious traps. Along the way, you encounter a not-quite-vicious Alien creature whom you briefly make out with (against your will), essentially putting an invisible timer on the final stages of the game. (Assuming you've seen the movies, you can probably guess what happens if you take too long.) Space Quest II really isn't much of an improvement of the original - it uses the same AGI engine, and the puzzles are just as aggravating, if not more so. It does, however, have some pretty creative death messages, which halfway excuses the huge amount of pain you'll have to put Roger through. It's a bit comforting to know that the monster that just ate you will have gastrointestinal distress for rest of the evening and make itself unpopular amongst the rest of their friends. It's moments like these that make it somewhat worthwhile, but only die hard Space Quest fans will see it worthwhile to the conclusion, especially given the anticlimactic ending.

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Space Quest III: The Pirates of Pestulon - - IBM PC / Amiga / Atari ST / Macintosh

American Cover

Space Quest III

Space Quest III

Space Quest III begins right where its predecessor left off, with Roger floating around space in hypersleep. As luck would have it, he's "rescued" by a junk barge, but needs to dig himself out of the scrap heap and reactivate a old spaceship to escape. Once free, Roger is stalked by a Terminator-esque bounty hunter, who's seeking retribution on the vending machine that Roger vandalized back in Space Quest II. After adventuring to the hostile desert/tourist trap planet of Phleebut and taking care of the Terminator, the plot kinda comes to a stop at Roger stops to enjoy a meal at Monolith Burger. From here, it's not entirely apparent what to do, unless you spend your time mastering the arcade-style mini-game Astro Chicken, which is a bit like the classic arcade game Lunar Lander. If you get a high score, you learn that the Two Guys from Andromeda have been kidnapped by the evil Pirates of Pestulon and forcing them to create diabolic software. (This is the only mention of it in-game, which is technically an optional "puzzle". However, it's also plastered all over the game's packaging.) After deactivating the shield on the volcanic planet of Ortega, Roger infiltrates the Pestulon base, dressed as - surprise! - a janitor. The Pirates of Pestulon are actually software pirates, so their secret base resembles a modern cubicle farm. The enterprise is run by a diabolical fourteen year old named Elmo Puck, who challenges Roger to a real life game of Rock'Em Sock'Em Robots in the climactic battle. Space Quest III is the first game in the series to utilize Sierra's enhanced SCI engine, which features a much higher resolution, as well as mouse control for movement. (You still need to type in commands, however.) In general, there's a lot more detail to the game, both in the writing and the visuals. The previous Space Quest games were kinda funny, but the sarcasm of the narrator is much more evident, and the world is filled with references to other works of science fiction. The junkyard in the beginning is filled with a giant Transformers head, the pod from 2001: A Space Odyssey, and a (bow) TIE Fighter, amongst other craft. The store on Phleebut is filled with postcards referencing Aliens and Dune. The enhanced graphics also allow for some cool first-person character graphics and cinematics, like the seedy store owner on Phleebut and Terminator droid. The SCI engine also allows for music from a variety of sound devices, ranging from Adlib FM to General MIDI. The soundtrack is composed by Bob NAME of SuperTramp, who supplies a catchy riff of the Space Quest theme for the opening, but a vast majority of the game is still played in silence. Even though the interface is better than its predecessor, there are still some annoying problems. Some of the puzzles are a bit too arcadey, and the parser is extremely fussy with your positioning. Near the end of the game in the ScumSoft office, you need to zap bins of trash or else you'll set off an alarm. It's extremely hard to get in just the right spot for it to work. God forbid you miss too many times or you accidentally walk too far past it, because you'll set off an alarm and end up encased in jello, leading to a Game Over. At least the action now pauses when you bring up a text entry window, which is handy in the few instances where you're being chased. The minigames - Astro Chicken and Rock'Em Sock'Em Robots - are also both extremely clumsy. Despite some rather difficult puzzles, the game's also ruthlessly short. Once you break out of the garbage ship and get control of your own space ship, you get full command, requiring that you turn on your radar, set your course, zap into hyperspace, and so forth. But it's a bit disappointing that, in the whole galaxy, there are only three locations to visit (four, once you uncover Pestulon.) As of 2006, fans are currently working on a remake using the enhanced SCI engine found in SQ1remake, 4 and 5, featuring 256-color graphics and a completely mouse driven parser. MP3s Intro Theme

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Space Quest IV: Roger Wilco and the Time Rippers - IBM PC / Amiga / PC98 / Macintosh

American Cover

Space Quest IV

Space Quest IV

Space Quest III already fudged with the fourth wall, what with you having to rescue the Two Guys, and meeting up with Ken Williams at the end. Space Quest IV goes several steps further with its self awareness by sending Roger through his own sequels. The game begins with Roger taking a break at a seedy bar, where he's accosted by mysterious policeman, who are working for a seemly resurrected Sludge Vohaul. Before he can be executed, Roger is saved by another figure, this time friendly, who creates a rip in the space-time continuum and tells Roger to jump in. With no time to ask questions, our hero stumbles through time, ends up in a postapocalyptic nightmare, reads the title bar at the top of the screen, and notices that he's now in Space Quest XII: Vohaul's Revenge II. After escaping with another time pod, Roger ends up in yet another sequel: Space Quest X: The Latex Babes of Estros. Ending up in a prehistoric wasteland, he's captured by the titular babes, the leader of which had apparently been jilted by Roger at some undefined point in time, much to his own surprise. After proving his worthiness, the girls decide to go shopping and abandon Roger at a mall, where he's chased by same policeman that accosted him at the beginning. Once again zipping through time, he ends up back in Space Quest I, the original version. Roger himself is now a fully colored sprite in a blocky, 16-color world - some of the bar denizens will actually make fun of him for being pretentious. The game finally ends back in Space Quest XII, as Roger fights to wipe Sludge Vohaul (once again) from all existence. Space Quest IV uses the SCI 1.0 engine introduced with Kings Quest V, utilizing 256 color graphics and a fully icon-based interface, including the Smell and Lick icons from the VGA remake of SQI. They're still mostly useless, provide for some even more amusing commentary. The best? Try using your tongue on the ridiculous looking robot in the electronics store. Far and away the best aspect is the voice acting, featured in the CD-ROM release. Like Kings Quest V, most of the voices are provided by Sierra's own untrained staff, to underwhelming results (fun fact: the robot in the female clothing store is provided by Jane Jensen, who would later go on to create the Gabriel Knight series), but the narrator is played by Gary Owens, known as the announcer from the old TV series Laugh-In, and also known for the original voice of Space Ghost. The narrator in Space Quest has always been its strongest points, and it takes on a whole new life when even the most mundnae lines are delivered with a sense of sarcastic gravitas. If the sequel hopping and awesome narrating weren't enough, Space Quest IV throws in all kinds of other self-references. There's a hidden sequence where you can teleport back to Ortega from Space Quest III - using the same exactly 16-color backdrop, like the SQI segment - although since you can't find any thermal underwear, you'll melt instantly if you leave your timepod. You also come across a futuristic software shop, filled with parodies of famous computer software titles, including SimSim (simulate your own simulator), Cluck Yeager's Flight Simulator (fly rubber chickens), and BOOM (the description mentions no interface, no puzzles and no conflict, a pretty accurate description of LOOM, the Lucasarts game it's parodying.) You'll also find an Infocom-style hint book for Space Quest IV, (complete with a marker to slowly reveal answers for puzzles. It's mostly filled with red herrings and made-up puzzles that have nothing to actually do with the game, but in a brilliantly Spaceballs-esque moment, there actually IS some essential info in there. There's also a new Astro Chicken game, this time dubbed "Ms. Astro Chicken", which is a typical side scrolling shooter and is thankfully less annoying than its predecessor. Near the end of the game, you stumble upon a computer interface that has icons for Kings Quest XVIII and the mystical LSL4 (which, as Sierra fans know, doesn't technically exist.) There's also a SQ4 icon - if you delete it, you're unceremonious kicked out of the game without warning, leaving you at the cold, hard C:\ prompt if you're playing in DOS. It would've even more cruelly hilarious if the game actually deleted itself, although that perhaps would've been going too far. Unfortunately, despite its enhancements and even more ridiculous sense of humor, Space Quest IV is plagued with many of the same problems as its predecessor. There are too many action based segments, which are still clumsy and frustrating. The opening segment in Space Quest XII is filled with Invasions of the Body Snatchers-style subhumans, which will screech and summon death robots, instantly killing you if you're unlucky. It's a completely terrible way to begin an otherwise hilarious game. (Although the random Energizer Bunny running around for no discernable reason is pretty amusing, although trying to catch it to steal its batteries is more difficult than it should be.) Another action segment, where you escape from Time Police in the mall, is similarly aggravating. Segments such as these, littered with needless deaths, seems like the developers were once again trying to compensate for the extremely short game length. At least some of the death scenes - and their associated commentary - is still pretty funny. Earlier Sierra games ALWAYS let you walk off cliffs if you're not careful, and Space Quest IV has one of the best lines to accomodate these accidents. There aren't too many skippable items, but there is one particularly annoying bit. The only thing you need to watch out for are time codes, which control which era you'll travel to. When you come across the first time pod, the disk version uses these as copy protection, although you can randomly hit buttons in the CD version. However, it's incredibly important that you write down the time code on the panel before you press anything, since these are important for switching between locations later in the game. Naturally, the game doesn't tell you this, so if you don't take notes, you're essentially screwed later on. Space Quest IV presents an interesting dichotomy. It's frustrating and poorly designed at spots - although much better than the remake of Space Quest I - but at the same time, its premise is brilliant, and still remains one of the funniest games ever made, even years after it release. In addition to the voice acting, the CD-ROM version makes a few minor graphical changes. In the mall, the electronics store was originally called Radio Shock, but after being legally hounded by Radio Shack, the revised version changed it to Hz. So Good, a parody of another, lesser known store. The black and white bikers now ride black and white bikes (correcting an inconsistency from the disk version), the huge building in the background of Space Quest XII looks a bit different, and there's an extra easter egg featuring one of the game's developers shopping for pants at the mall. Clever hackers also found a secret room hidden in the game's resource files, filled with references to all of the legal issues that Sierra's adventure games have run into over the years. This includes the ZZ Top members and Drods R Us sign from Space Quest I, the Radio Shock sign, the Hero's Quest logo (the series was renamed Quest for Glory due to legal issues) and Earl, the father from the TV series Dinosaurs, who made a random cameo in the VGA release of the first Quest for Glory game . MP3s Main Theme

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Space Quest V: The Next Mutation - IBM PC

American Cover

Space Quest V

Space Quest V

It took him a total of three games, but Roger finally found his way home to Xenon after the conclusion of Space Quest IV. Apparently finding little purpose in being a janitor, he enrolls in the Starcon Academy, where a freak glitch in the computer grading system promotes him to Captain and awards him his own vessel. It's technically just a garbage scow, complete with a crew that more or less hates his guts, but it's a step up from mopping floors, right? The trouble begins when Roger intercepts a transmission from Commander SOMETHING Quirk and Ambassador Beatrice Wankmeister, the woman whom, according to Roger's son back in Space Quest IV, will eventually bear him children. Their ship has been attacked by a militant group of deformed mutants, who wish to inflict their own terrible fate on the rest of humanity. Naturally, it's up to Roger and crew to not only save the galaxy, but woo Miss Wankmeister and prove that he's more than just a lowly screw-up. Like Space Quest III, you get to take command of the starship from the commander's chair (which makes a rude noise every time you sit on it.) There's a bit more freedom here, with a slightly larger galaxy, although navigation requires referencing the faux tabloid included with the game, acting as copy protection. New and exclusive is the Command icon - a speech bubble with an exclamation point - used for issuing such orders, although they're mostly restricted to your crewmembers and the teleporter. The Smell and Taste icons are sadly absent. Space Quest V feels remarkably different from its predecessors, for a number of reasons. For starters, it was developed by Dynamix, which had recently been acquired by Sierra. They were known for other adventure games like Heart of China, Rise of the Dragon, and The Adventures of Willy Beamish, but it was their first (and only) title using the SCI engine. Additionally, Scott Murphy had left the company, and the designed rested solely on Mark Crowe. Josh Mandel also had little to do with the game, and their absenses definitely make an impact. Space Quest V is still funny, but it's lacking much of the biting sarcasm - and freakishly dark deathes - that made the previous games so amusing. But the biggest bummer is that Space Quest V was never released on CD, so there's no voice acting, outside of a few brief sound clips stolen from The Simpsons. Apparently Sierra and Dynamix weren't in the best financial shape, and the disk release underperformed at retail, so management couldn't find a justification to dub the game. Truly a pity. That's not to say it's a total waste though - the humor is just a bit more low key. The whole game is obviously a pretty huge Star Trek parody, mostly because The Next Generation was popular at the time. The first task in the game is to pass the class final exam (which Roger hasn't studied a bit for, of course) and some of the multiple choice questions are quite chuckleworthy, even if it's not as astounding as the bargain bin from Space Quest IV. If you wander through the halls of the academy long enough, you can find Obi-Wan and Darth Vader dueling in the distance. If you pay attention to various screens, you can find animated versions of classic arcade games like Missile Command and Pong. It's also features some outdated references to telecommunications company Sprint, who sponsored the game. You overhear some guards talking about switching telephone plans, and all communications aboard the ship end with the Sprint logo. At one point, you adopt an Alien-style facehugger whom Roger lovingly names Spike. There's also another run in with the killer bounty hunters from the Gippazoid Novelty Company - they're still angry about the vending machine from Space Quest II, and further infuriated by the destruction of the Terminator Arnoid from Space Quest III. This time, though, it's a female, inuntentionally foreshadowing the third Terminator movie. This move is either halfway clever or creatively lazy, depending on your viewpoint, but at least defeating her is less frustrating than the similar encounter way back in the earlier game. The action segments are generally minimal, and even the mini-game - an overly long game of Battleship against Captain Quirk - is optional. Too bad there's no playable Astro Chicken games. Even though it's not quite as funny, Space Quest V almost makes up for it in other areas. The narrative as a whole is much more focused, and it feels less like Roger is simply stumbling through various situations until the game decides to end. Speaking of which, Roger is a much more fleshed out character. In the previous games, Roger only spoke a few lines, with much of the humor coming from the narrator, but here, our hero comes off as clumsy, yet well meaning and likable hero. The secondary characters - sarcastic pilot Droole, man-hating Flo, and cranky engineer Cliffy, and even nemesis Captian Quirk - all have more personality than is typical of the series. The art style has changed from the other VGA games too, with more of a retro comic book feel, which fits in with the cheesy sci-fi theme. So even though it's not nearly as off-the-wall as some of the other games in the series, Space Quest V is still another fine adventure. MP3s Starcon Academy

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Space Quest VI: The Spinal Frontier - IBM PC / Mac

American Cover

Space Quest VI

Space Quest VI

Even though Roger saved the galaxy (again) at the end of Space Quest V, his violation of several StarCon regulations leaves him to be stripped (literally) of his rank. Furthermore, there seems to be some kind of conspiracy to kill Roger, leaving him to be kidnapped while on shore leave. He's saved by his compatriot, Corpsman Stellar Santiago, who seems to have a thing for him, but Roger insists of remaining loyal to Beatrice (who doesn't actually appear in the game.) Roger begins to question these feelings after Santiago sacrifices herself to save him during another attempt on his life. Eventually he discovers that she's still alive, somewhere, and sets off on an adventure to rescue her. When he finds her, he can only save her by miniaturizing himself and diving inside her body. The Incredible Journey-style setting of the final portion of the game is where the game gets its subtitle, "The Spinal Frontier", although the working title was "Where in Corpsman Santiago is Roger Wilco?", before Sierra changed it to avoid potential legal issues with Broderbund and their Carmen Sandiego series. The sixth and final Space Quest game features SVGA graphics, featuring cleaner visuals and the occasional computer rendered animation. That being said, it's still not quite on the level of Kings Quest VII, which almost approached Disney style quality. While the visuals are crisp, they're too sterile compared to the bright, hand painted visuals of the previous VGA games, and while they may work as a sci-fi setting, they're a bit dreary for something that's supposed to be a comedy. Some of the character artwork is decent, but the artwork for Roger (and Corpsman Santiago, in particular) are pretty ugly. For some reason, other than a few close-ups in key cutscenes, it removes the character portraits during dialogue. Perhaps the developers thought they were unnecessary since the sprites are so much more detailed, but it still creates a disconnect between the characters, especially in areas where it's too small to see them. The interface now takes up the bottom third of the screen, leaving the view a bit more cramped than usual. And for the most part, the music is only memorable when it's being obnoxious. There are still a bunch of amusing parodies and throwbacks to previous games. You'll find a drunken ET sleeping in a liquor store, who will happily show you his glowing finger, if you try to talk to him. (You can also pull his finger for expected results.) You'll come across a shady Blade Runner-style character who's too lazy to do his own job, and an Alien stalking a lone female spacefarer. There's a mini-game called Stooge Fighter 3, featuring Lar Man, Coiley Joe, and Big Mo. And unlike other Sierra mini-games, it realizes that it plays poorly, and the only way to win is through cheating. One of the most amusing screenss is the theater marquees that change every time you re-enter the screen, which consist of over several dozen parody titles. And "cyberspace" in the Space Quest universe apparently consists of little more than a variation on Windows 3.1. At the beginning of the game, you'll run into a drunken Elmo Pug, the wiener kid at ScumSoft, as well as Fester Blatz later on, both from Space Quest III. Roger even keeps some of his mementos from previous games in his quarters. These moments might induce a smile, or maybe even a small chuckle, but Space Quest VI otherwise severely lacks in the comedy department. The plot is a bit on the dark side, and despite the amount of dialogue, none of it is really any funny. Gary Owens returns as the narrator, but when he's not given anything interesting to say, it doesn't add up to much. There aren't any particularly amusing death scenes, either, although you're now given the option to "Try Again" if you haven't saved recently. It also doesn't help that the puzzles are some of the most frustratingly convoluted of anything in the series. Many of them feature numerous tedious steps and involve picking at nearly everything in the scenery to see if you can interact with it. Some of the usable items are so small or so hidden that you can often get stumped just because you couldn't even see it. This is particularly bad at the beginning, where you're not given any real direction. At one point, you need to solve a puzzle by taking apart an electronic device, replacing some chips, and flipping some switches. There was supposed to be a comic book strip in-game to tell you how to do this, but was removed from the final product. Instead, it was printed in the manual leaving many to believe that it was meant to be copy protection - which didn't make much sense, since this is a CD-only game in an era before CD burners became prolific. Furthermore, some copies of the game, including many of the compilations, don't come with the necessary documentation, requiring that you use a FAQ to complete it. And this is just in the first area of the game! The final sections in Corpsman Santiago's body are just as frustratingly designed. The Space Quest series has never been perfect when it came to difficulty, pacing, or puzzle design, but you'd figure that with five previous installments, the developers would've learned some lessons. Instead, they've taken all of the worst aspects, exacerbated them, and stuck them in a game that fails to truly bring the funny. Perhaps this is due to a result of management issues - a large majority of the game was designed by Josh Mandel, who left the project before completion, leaving Scott Murphy (the other guy from Andromeda) to pick up the pieces. The result is a game that really could've used some editing to polish it up, resulting in an unfortunately mediocre experience. Before Space Quest VI was released, Sierra created a demo for distribution on promo CDs. Unlike most of their demos, this one is not only playable, but consists of a storyline that didm't exist in the full game. The evil Bjorn (parodies of the Borg from Star Trek) has invaded the Deepship 86 and turned everyone, except Roger, into piles of sorbet. You can download the demo here.

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Fan Games: Space Quest 0: Replicated and Space Quest: The Lost Chapter

Comic Book

Roger Wilco was (very briefly) the star of his own comic book series, published by Adventure Comics. The three issue series is vaguely based on the first game, The Sarien Encounter, although the events are drastically reinterpreted. The first issue is in color, but the other two are only in black and white. You can find full scans at Space Quest.net.

Space Quest V

Cancelled Space Quest Games

One of the Space Quest compilations promised an exclusive look at Space Quest VII, which was intended to be a multiplayer game. Alas, according to various financial and management issues, the game was cancelled before it got very far off the ground. Years later, after Vivendi Universal bought Sierra, the new management decided they wanted to resurrect some of their own properties. Some of these included new games in the Kings Quest, Space Quest, and Leisure Suit Larry line. The only game that was release was Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude, for the consoles and PC. Although its bawdy humor was intact, all of the adventure game elements were removed in favor of lousy mini-games. Looking at this example, it's a good thing that the intended Space Quest game was cancelled, because it probably would've been a bastardization of the original series.

Space Quest V

Take a Break Pinball

Take-A-Break Pinball is a Windows based pinball game developed by Dynamix. All of the tables are based off Sierra/Dynamix properties, including Kings Quest, Stellar 7, Willy Beamish, and of course, Space Quest. There are three Space Quest tables, all based on various locations from Space Quest IV.

Take-a-Break Pinball

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