Space Quest

''Space Quest'' is a series of six comic science fiction adventure games released between 1986 and 1995. The games follow the adventures of a hapless janitor named Roger Wilco, who campaigns through the galaxy for "truth, justice, and really clean floors".

Initially created for Sierra On-Line by Mark Crowe and Scott Murphy (who called themselves the "Two Guys from Andromeda"), the games parodied both science fiction properties such as ''Star Wars'' and ''Star Trek'' (the theme song itself is a parody of the ''Star Wars'' theme), as well as pop-culture phenomena from McDonald's to Microsoft. The series featured a silly sense of humor heavily reliant on puns and wacky storylines. Roger Wilco, a perpetual loser, is often depicted as the underdog who repeatedly saves the universe (often by accident), only to be either ignored or punished for violating minor regulations in the process.

Development

Murphy commented that "Sierra was in a mindset where everything was medieval and it was all fairly serious. I wanted to do a game that was more fun. We even liked the idea of 'fun death'! I mean, if the player is gonna die or fail, they should at least get a laugh out of it. So we came up with the idea of making death amusing. Let's face it, most adventure games involve a good deal of frustration for the player. But we felt that if we made failure fun, to an extent, you might have players actually going back and looking for new ways to die, just to see what happens!"

Crowe noted, "We wanted to do two things for the player. One, we wanted him to feel as if he were in a movie, where he could just sort of kick back and enjoy the scenery. We also wanted the player to feel as if he really was the character on the screen."

Both ''Space Quest I'' and ''II'' were developed in Adventure Game Interpreter, Sierra's own programming language. ''Space Quest III'' was written in Sierra's Creative Interpreter (SCI), which had 3-D capabilities. ''Space Quest IV'' marked an evolution in terms of graphics by increasing the number of colors from 16 to 256.

Protagonist

While Roger retains his basic appearance and sustains no lasting damage from his swashbuckling and repeated near-mutilations, his hair begins the series brown and changes to blonde in the upgrade between parts ''III'' and ''IV''. (The same has happened to fellow adventure protagonists Guybrush Threepwood and Devon Aidendale, in Devon's case to the other direction.) While this retcon is never addressed in the game itself, it spawned a full-fledged fan game, ''Space Quest: The Lost Chapter''.

Including him on the 2004 list of "top ten working class heroes", ''Retro Gamer'' opined that "for a hero that Ken Williams (co-founder of Sierra) was initially unimpressed with, Roger Wilco has become a classic cult figure."

Games

''Space Quest: The Sarien Encounter''

The original ''Space Quest'' game was released in October 1986 and quickly became a hit, selling in excess of 100,000 copies (sales are believed to be around 200,000 to date, not including the many compilations it has been included in). A remake was released in 1991 as ''Space Quest I: Roger Wilco in the Sarien Encounter''.

''Space Quest II: Vohaul's Revenge''

Released in 1987; Roger, with his newfound status of Hero, is transferred to the Xenon Orbital Station 4 and promoted to head (and only) janitor. All is quiet until he is abducted by Sludge Vohaul, who was behind the original Sarien attack of the ''Arcada''. As Roger is being transported to the Labion labour mines as punishment for thwarting Sludge's original plan, the prison ship crash-lands in a nearby jungle upon the planet. Our hero manages to escape his pursuers and the dangers of the Labion jungle and soon reaches Sludge's asteroid base. Once again, it's up to Roger alone to stop Vohaul's evil plan: to eradicate sentient life from Xenon by launching millions of cloned insurance salesmen at the planet.

''Space Quest III: The Pirates of Pestulon''

Released in 1989; Roger's escape pod from the end of ''Space Quest II'' is captured by an automated garbage freighter. He escapes the robot-controlled scow by repairing an old ship, the ''Aluminum Mallard'' (a play on Howard Hughes' "Spruce Goose" and ''Star Wars ''Millennium Falcon''). He eventually discovers the sinister activities of a video game company known as ScumSoft run by the "Pirates of Pestulon".

''Space Quest IV: Roger Wilco and the Time Rippers''

Released in 1991; in this installment, Roger embarks on a time-travel adventure through ''Space Quest'' games both real and fictional. A reborn Sludge Vohaul from the fictional ''Space Quest XII: Vohaul's Revenge II'' chases Roger through time in an attempt to finally kill him. Roger also visits settings from the fictional ''Space Quest X: Latex Babes of Estros'' (whose title is a parody of Infocom's game ''Leather Goddesses of Phobos'') and from ''Space Quest I''; in the latter, the graphics and music revert to the style of the original game and Roger is threatened by a group of monochromatic bikers who consider Roger's 256 colors to be pretentious (or comment on other graphics modes if played in EGA or monochrome).

The games ''Space Quest XII: Vohaul's Revenge II'' and ''Space Quest X: Latex Babes of Estros'' were never actually developed or released as full games, they exist only internally in ''Space Quest IV''.

''Space Quest V: Roger Wilco – The Next Mutation''

This entry was the first in the ''Space Quest'' series where only one of the two guys from andromeda, Mark Crowe, lead a ''Space Quest'' project, due to the fact that Scott Murphy was working on other projects.

''Space Quest 6: Roger Wilco in The Spinal Frontier''

The game's subtitle comes from the final portion, in which Roger has to undergo miniaturization and enter the body of a shipmate and romantic interest. (This segment also provided the game's original subtitle, ''Where in Corpsman Santiago is Roger Wilco?'', which was not used due to legal threats from the makers of the ''Carmen Sandiego'' products.)

''Space Quest 6: The Spinal Frontier Interactive Demo''

The demo for ''Space Quest 6'' is actually a short game unto itself. It uses the Space Quest 6 engine and takes place aboard the ''SCS DeepShip 86'' but is a stand-alone adventure. The ship is taken over by Borg-like invaders called the Bjorn, and Wilco must defeat them.

In-fiction future sequels

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These games were never actually created, and only exist within the plot of ''Space Quest IV''. Scott Murphy has stated that he did intend to use these titles if the series had made it that far and the storyline still permitted it.

''Roger Wilco's Spaced Out Game Pack''

Budget software including several mini-games taken from the ''Space Quest'' series. Including hoverspeeder, Monolith Burger maker, and Ms. Astro Chicken.

''Planet Pinball''

''Planet Pinball'' is a series of three ''Space Quest IV'' themed pinball boards in Take a Break! Pinball. The boards include; Level One: Planet Xenon in the Beginning, Level Two: Spaced Travel, Level Three: Reformation Day.

''Hoyle Book of Games''

Roger Wilco appears as an opponent in ''Hoyle's Official Book of Games, Volume I''. He has conversations with the other opponents, talking about his adventures in the first three ''Space Quest'' games. Roger Wilco is trapped in the Hoyle game, and is trying to find a way to escape back to his game world.

Roger Wilco returns in ''Hoyle 3'', along with bad guy characters, Arnoid and Vohaul, but the characters are limited to talking about the game itself.

Roger also appears as an opponent in ''Hoyle Classic Card Games'', the fourth game in the series. Again, interaction is limited to the game only.

Cancelled games

''Space Quest VII: Return to Roman Numerals''

Sierra tried on several occasions to revive the series for another episode, with a working subtitle of ''The Return to Roman Numerals'', since the previous game was titled ''Space Quest 6'', not ''Space Quest VI''.

Development of ''Space Quest VII'' was underway in 1996 when Sierra released ''The Space Quest Collection'', which consisted of ''Space Quest I'' through ''6'' and included a brief trailer of ''Space Quest VII'' (consisting of Roger strapping a giant rocket to his back and using it to push himself forward on roller skates in a scene reminiscent of Wile E. Coyote). Little was released regarding story line, interface, et cetera, although there was speculation that the game would introduce a multiplayer aspect. Scott Murphy said during development that ''Space Quest VII'' would contain some 3D elements, but would not require the use of a 3D accelerator card. Due to poor sales of ''Grim Fandango'', a high-profile adventure game by LucasArts, there was a perception that humorous adventure games were no longer viable, so when Vivendi took over Sierra, ''Space Quest VII'' was cancelled.

This project was eventually restarted in 1999, and pitched to management, but ultimately did not have enough support to continue within the company. Few details are known about the ''SQVII'' relaunch, save that there was one very ardent supporter, who later left Vivendi.

''Space Quest''

Another ''Space Quest'' began development by Escape Factory for the Microsoft Xbox video game console in 2002, entitled simply ''Space Quest''.

This attempt at creating a new ''Space Quest'' was announced on February 7, 2002. Development proceeded for almost a year and a half before the project was cancelled. According to ''Space Quest 6'' designer Josh Mandel, the ''SQVII'' designers were forbidden from using story elements from the original ''Space Quest'' games or from even playing the games. This is disputable, since other sources claimed the developers had played the games before. Website FYI.com, also claimed that this "gutted" ''SQVII'' would not have been an adventure game at all and would have been released only on game console platforms such as the Xbox rather than the PC. Since then, the Vivendi's Product Manager Bruce Goodwill, has confirmed that the title was going to be released only on console platforms.

The game was planned as a departure from the main ''Space Quest'' series, rumors it starred a new character named "Wilger", although Roger Wilco was playable (as seen in a production video). Though it would have maintained a comedic theme in space, no plan was made to connect it to the original series. It was cancelled around 2023.

Collections

* ''The Space Quest Trilogy: Roger Wilco – The Other World Series'' (1992) – a collection containing ''Space Quest'' VGA, ''Space Quest II'' and ''Space Quest III'' on floppy disks.
* ''The Space Quest Saga'' (1993) – This collection contained games I (VGA remake), II, III and IV all on floppy disks.
* ''The Space Quest 15th Anniversary Collector's Edition'' (1994) – Released for Sierra's 15th anniversary, this contained games ''I''-''V'' and ''Roger Wilco's Spaced Out Game Pack'', plus a video featuring the Two Guys from Andromeda and a complete history of the game series. It also contained a few foreign language editions of some of the games. There is also a secret bonus program giving the strange history of the World Famous Talking Bear.
* ''Roger Wilco Unclogged'' (1995) – All the above, plus a humorous "Inside Space Quest" video, but without the Two Guys video
* ''Space Quest Collection Series: Starring Roger Wilco'' (1997) – All six games, plus a preview of episode ''VII''.
* ''Space Quest Collection: A Long Time Ago in A Janitor Closet Far Far Away'' (2006) – Released by Vivendi Universal Games and contains all six games (only the VGA remake of ''SQ1'').
* ''Space Quest 1+2+3 & 4+5+6 collections'' (2010) – Two collections on GoG.com, minus the VGA remake.
* ''Space Quest'' – a ported collection with access to ''Space Quest Collection Legacy'' re-released on Steam (2016)

Collection bonus material

* ''Funseeker's Guide to Eastern Madera County''
* ''History of Space Quest''
* ''Inside Space Quest''

''Space Quest Collection''

Vivendi Universal has re-released the ''Space Quest Collection'' (originally named ''Space Quest Compilation'') that is compatible with Windows XP. The collection was released on September 15, 2006.

The ''Space Quest'' games were made compatible by the licensing of DOSBox, a free program that allows users to play old DOS games on Windows XP. The games were re-released as ''Space Quest Collection'' on July 23, 2009 on Steam. It is so far unavailable in Australia and New Zealand.

Other media

''Space Quest'' merchandise included the ''Space Quest III'' VHS tape and pin, ''Space Quest 6'' mug, calling card and patch and an autographed picture of Roger Wilco.

Legacy

''Thy Dungeonman II'', a text adventure game from the creators of Homestar Runner, uses cover art that depicts the title character holding a mop in the same way Roger Wilco does on the ''Space Quest'' box art. He is also described as a "custodial knight" and the mop is also used to defeat enemies in a maze portion of the game.

Fan-made games

Games set in the ''Space Quest'' universe:
* ''Space Quest 0: Replicated'' – a prequel to ''Space Quest I''.
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* ''Space Quest IV.5: Roger Wilco And The Voyage Home'' – set between the fourth and fifth game.
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* ''Space Quest II Remake: Vohaul's Revenge'' – a remake of ''Space Quest II'' (which was originally in EGA and played with a text parser) in the style of ''Space Quest IV'', developed by Infamous Adventures.
* ''Space Quest: Incinerations'' – another original hi-res installment, with a more action-oriented approach in the traditional adventure genre and with a modern sensibility. According to Rock, Paper, Shotgun, ''Incinerations'' "completely re-imagines the whole ''Space Quest'' series as a sci-fi action thriller, focusing hard on character and drama while still managing to be just as tongue-in-cheek and funny as anything else that bears its name."
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* ''Space Quest: A Son of Xenon'' – a prequel to ''Space Quest I''.
* ''Space Quest 3D'' - a remake of ''Space Quest 3'' with modern (even 3D) graphics and a point-and-click interface (while the original was in EGA and played with a text parser).

Games influenced by ''Space Quest'':
* ''Cosmos Quest'' – Adventure game influenced by ''Space Quest''.

''SpaceVenture''

On April 14, 2012, Mark Crowe and Scott Murphy announced they had reunited and were planning an original adventure game set in space. They established a new game development company called Two Guys from Andromeda for that purpose. Co-founder of the company Chris Pope (dubbed as "Space Pope" from fans) works to operate its marketing and interact directly with fans as well as Executive Producer. A Kickstarter project was launched to fund the development of the new game or ''SpaceVenture'', with plans to feature the voice of Gary Owens (narrator of ''Space Quest IV'' and ''6''), prior to his death in 2015.

On June 13, 2012, they achieved their goal of $500,000 eventually raising $539,768 from their Kickstarter campaign, and began work on the game.

In June 2013, it was announced that there would be a playable Alpha demo at the 2013 San Diego Comic-Con.

In January 2014, the game had a projected late 2015 release date. In October 2015, the ''Two Guys of Andromeda'' promised to continue development and to release the game in November 2016. On June 2, 2019, an update was released on the Two Guys from Andromeda Twitter and Kickstarter pages revealing the box art for the game.

On July 31, 2020, a complete beta was released to Kickstarter backers.

The game was finally released, over ten years since the project launched, on September 16, 2022. It was released initially to Kickstarter backers only. At launch, multiple softlocks were reported and the tutorial mode was described as "broken". Overall, the game was said to be in a "poor state" and a "mess". A December 2023 update stated that the developers were working on updates and that customers would receive a new build when it was complete.

References

Further reading

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adventure games set in space
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