''Space Quest: Chapter I – The Sarien Encounter'', commonly known as ''Space Quest I'', is a
graphic adventure game
An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and/or puzzle-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based m ...
released in October 1986 by
Sierra On-Line
Sierra Entertainment, Inc. (formerly On-Line Systems and Sierra On-Line, Inc.) was an American video game developer and publisher founded in 1979 by Ken and Roberta Williams. The company is known for pioneering the graphic adventure game genr ...
.
It is the first game in the ''
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 hopeless janitor named Roger Wilco, who campaigns through the galaxy for "truth, justice and really cl ...
'' series. It quickly became a hit, selling in excess of 100,000 copies. Total sales are believed to be around 200,000 to date, not including the many compilations it has been included in.
''Space Quest'' was the brainchild of Sierra programmers
Scott Murphy
Matthew Scott Murphy (born January 26, 1970) is an American entrepreneur and politician. He represented parts of New York state's Capital District (excluding the city of Albany) in the United States House of Representatives for a portion of one ...
and
Mark Crowe
Mark Crowe is an American video game designer, artist, and writer who developed several adventure games, mostly for Sierra On-Line and its subsidiary Dynamix. He later worked at Pipeworks Software as Studio Design Director. Crowe is best known ...
, who had worked on prior titles like ''
King's Quest II'', but had not designed their own game before. According to Murphy, "at that time (1985), everything at Sierra was so somber and had an almost medieval atmosphere. So we decided 'Why not make a fun, silly game?'" In 1992, ''
Adventure Comics'' created a three issue comic, based on the game's plot.
Plot
Players of the original game are never told the hero's name, but are instead asked to enter their own. The default name of "
Roger Wilco" — a reference to the radio communication, "Roger, Will Comply" — became the ''
de facto
''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with ''de jure'' ("by la ...
'' name of the hero in the later games of the series.
Roger is a janitor on board the scientific spaceship ''Arcada'' within the Earnon galaxy which holds a powerful experimental device called the "Star Generator" (a thinly-veiled reference to the ''Genesis Device'' from ''
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan''). Roger emerges from an on-duty nap in a broom closet to find that the ship has been boarded and seized by the sinister Sariens. Using a keycard that he finds on the body of a dead crew member, he finds his way to an escape pod and escapes the ''Arcada''.
After crash-landing, he finds himself in the dry and barren wasteland of the planet Kerona, hunted by a spider-droid dispatched by the Sariens. Roger makes his way through the desert and a system of caves and is greeted by a mysterious disembodied head, he is tasked with killing a monstrous creature called Orat in exchange for transportation. After succeeding in this task and in the evasion of the hunter droid, he returns to the alien head with proof of his success in the form of a piece of Orat's flesh. As a reward, he is allowed into an underground complex inhabited by other aliens of the same species, and is provided with a skimmer, a small
hovercraft (a direct reference to the
landspeeder
Landspeeders are fictional anti-gravity craft used through the '' Star Wars'' movies and ''Star Wars'' expanded universe. They are depicted both in civilian and military capacities, and several versions have been merchandised as toys and model ...
s in ''
Star Wars'').
Roger travels to a Ulence Flats (a direct reference to Star Wars'
Mos Eisley
Mos Eisley is a spaceport town in the fictional ''Star Wars'' universe. Located on the planet Tatooine, it first appeared in the 1977 film ''Star Wars'', described by the character Obi-Wan Kenobi (played by Alec Guinness) as a "wretched hive of s ...
), a desert town, in order to find a way off the planet. Roger wins enough money to buy a spaceship and a navigation droid by playing
slot machine
A slot machine (American English), fruit machine (British English) or poker machine (Australian English and New Zealand English) is a gambling machine that creates a game of chance for its customers. Slot machines are also known pejoratively a ...
s in a
cantina
A cantina is a type of bar common in Latin America and Spain. The word is similar in etymology to " canteen", and is derived from the Italian word for a cellar, winery, or vault.
In Italy, the word ''cantina'' refers to a room below the groun ...
.
He overhears from a bar customer the location of the Sariens' spaceship, the ''Deltaur'', and flies to its coordinates. He then infiltrates the ship by, but not limited to, utilizing his jetpack, dodging a droid, climbing inside an air vent, locking himself in a trunk, getting put inside a washing machine, disguising himself as a Sarien by wearing one of the Sarien uniforms, and other tactful, creative methods. He then finds his way to the Star Generator and programs it to self-destruct, escaping the ship just before it explodes.
At the end of the game, Roger's efforts are rewarded when he receives the Golden Mop as a token of eternal gratitude from the people of Xenon (a reference to the planet from ''
Blake's 7
''Blake's 7'' (sometimes styled ''Blakes7'') is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. Four 13-episode series were broadcast on BBC1 between 1978 and 1981. It was created by Terry Nation, who also wrote the first ...
'').
Gameplay
The game was created using Sierra's
AGI
Silver iodide is an inorganic compound with the formula Ag I. The compound is a bright yellow solid, but samples almost always contain impurities of metallic silver that give a gray coloration. The silver contamination arises because AgI is hig ...
engine and featured a pseudo-3D environment, allowing the character to move in front of and behind background objects. The primary means of input in ''Space Quest'', as in many other AGI games, was through the use of a
text parser
{{Refimprove, date=August 2007
In adventure games, a text parser takes typed input (a command) from the player and simplifies it to something the game can understand. Usually, words with the same meaning are turned into the same word (e.g. "take" ...
for entering commands and use of the keypad or arrow keys for moving Roger Wilco around the screen. The
Amiga,
Apple IIGS
The Apple IIGS (styled as II), the fifth and most powerful of the Apple II family, is a 16-bit personal computer produced by Apple Computer. While featuring the Macintosh look and feel, and resolution and color similar to the Amiga and Atari ST ...
,
Atari ST and
Mac versions of the game offered basic mouse support for movement as well. The game had a 160×200 resolution displaying 16 colors. Sound cards were not available in 1986 for the PC, so sound was played through the PC's internal speaker; owners of
Tandy 1000
The Tandy 1000 is the first in a line of IBM PC workalike home computer systems produced by the Tandy Corporation for sale in its Radio Shack and Radio Shack Computer Center chains of stores.
Overview
In December 1983, an executive with Tandy ...
,
PCjr
The IBM PCjr (pronounced "PC junior") was a home computer produced and marketed by IBM from March 1984 to May 1985, intended as a lower-cost variant of the IBM PC with hardware capabilities better suited for video games, in order to compete mor ...
and
Amiga computers would hear a three-voice soundtrack, while Apple IIGS owners were treated to a fifteen-voice soundtrack with notably richer sound.
A precursor of this game is the interactive fiction game ''
Planetfall
''Planetfall'' is a science fiction themed interactive fiction video game written by Steve Meretzky, and the eighth title published by Infocom in 1983. The original release included versions for Apple II, Atari 8-bit family, TRS-80, and IBM PC ...
'', created by
Infocom, whose player-character is a lowly "Ensign Seventh Class" who does the lowest form of labor aboard a spaceship and who appears on the cover with a mop. Just as ''
King's Quest
''King's Quest'' is a graphic adventure game series, released between 1980 and 2016 and created by the American software company Sierra Entertainment. It is widely considered a classic series from the golden era of adventure games. Following th ...
'' adapted the text-adventure puzzle games set in a medieval world to a visual display, ''Space Quest'' did the same for the space puzzle game.
As a form of copy protection, coordinates in the VGA version of the game while in the escape pod as well as the rocket purchased at Tiny's Used Spaceships are only found in the manual. Also, the code for retrieving the cartridge aboard the Arcada can only be found in the manual. The AGI version had key disk protection where the user was required to insert the original game floppy on startup.
Sierra released three versions of ''Space Quest'': the original 1986 AGI V2 release, the 1987 AGI V3 release, and the 1990 VGA release. Aside from minor sound and graphic differences, the PC, Amiga, Atari ST, and Apple IIGS versions are largely identical. The Mac version is considerably different, however, being monochrome and completely menu-driven. ''Space Quest I'' also had an 8-bit Apple II version for the IIe and IIc. This had no pull down menus and displayed all text at the bottom of the screen.
Along with ''King's Quest III'', ''Space Quest'' was the first Sierra game to feature pull down menus, be hard disk installable, and not require a specially formatted save disk (except the Apple II version as noted above).
Reception
''
Compute!
''Compute!'' (), often stylized as ''COMPUTE!'', was an American home computer magazine that was published from 1979 to 1994. Its origins can be traced to 1978 in Len Lindsay's ''PET Gazette'', one of the first magazines for the Commodore PET ...
'' praised the Apple IIGS version's sound and graphics, stating that players "may think they're watching a cartoon". It concluded that the game "is one of the better new adventure games to arrive".
The game contains a number of characters which resemble musical acts and other popular characters. The owners of a couple complained that Sierra had used them without permission.
Toys R Us
A toy or plaything is an object that is used primarily to provide entertainment. Simple examples include Toy block, toy blocks, Board game, board games, and Doll, dolls. Toys are often designed for use by children, although many are designed sp ...
complained about a robot shop named "Droids R Us", which Sierra changed to "Droids B Us"; the remake adds a character which resembles the toy company's mascot
Geoffrey Giraffe. Rock band
ZZ Top
ZZ Top is an American rock band formed in 1969 in Houston, Texas. For 51 years, they comprised vocalist-guitarist Billy Gibbons, drummer Frank Beard and vocalist-bassist Dusty Hill, until Hill's death in 2021. ZZ Top developed a signature sou ...
complained that a band seen briefly on stage resembled them – despite this, they re-appear in certain versions of the VGA remake.
According to Sierra On-Line, combined sales of the ''Space Quest'' series surpassed 1.2 million units by the end of March 1996.
Reviews
*''
Tilt
Tilt may refer to:
Music
* Tilt (American band), a punk rock group, formed in 1992
* Tilt (British band), an electronic music group, formed in 1993
* Tilt (Polish band), a rock band, formed in 1979
Albums
* ''Tilt'' (Cozy Powell album), 1981
* ...
'' (May, 1987)
*''
Tilt
Tilt may refer to:
Music
* Tilt (American band), a punk rock group, formed in 1992
* Tilt (British band), an electronic music group, formed in 1993
* Tilt (Polish band), a rock band, formed in 1979
Albums
* ''Tilt'' (Cozy Powell album), 1981
* ...
'' (Apr, 1987)
*''
The Games Machine
''The Games Machine'' is a video game magazine that was published from 1987 until 1990 in the United Kingdom by Newsfield, which also published ''CRASH'', '' Zzap!64'', '' Amtix!'' and other magazines.
History
The magazine ran head to head wi ...
'' (Dec, 1987)
*''
Computer and Video Games'' (Nov, 1987)
*''Joker Verlag präsentiert: Sonderheft'' (1993)
*''
ST Format'' (Mar, 1995)
*''
Commodore User
''Commodore User'', known to the readers as the abbreviated ''CU'', was one of the oldest British Commodore magazines. With a publishing history spanning over 15 years, it mixed content with technical and video game features. Incorporating ''Vic ...
'' (Sep, 1987)
Remake
''Space Quest'' was eventually remade using Sierra's newer
SCI game engine, which, among many other improvements, allowed the game to move from its original 16-color
EGA graphics to 256-color
VGA
Video Graphics Array (VGA) is a video display controller and accompanying de facto graphics standard, first introduced with the IBM PS/2 line of computers in 1987, which became ubiquitous in the PC industry within three years. The term can no ...
. Rebranded ''Space Quest I: Roger Wilco in the Sarien Encounter'' to follow the series' new naming convention introduced in ''
Space Quest IV
''Space Quest IV: Roger Wilco and the Time Rippers'' is a 1991 graphic adventure game by Sierra On-Line. It was released on floppy disks on March 4, 1991, and released on CD-ROM in December 1992 with full speech support and featuring ''Laugh-In' ...
'', this version was released on August 20, 1991. In addition to the new VGA graphics, which were drawn in 1950s
retrofuturistic
Retrofuturism (adjective ''retrofuturistic'' or ''retrofuture'') is a movement in the creative arts showing the influence of depictions of the future produced in an earlier era. If futurism is sometimes called a "science" bent on anticipat ...
B-movie style, it now featured digitized sounds and a new interface, with text-entry being replaced by an icon interface.
When leaving Ulence Flats in the VGA version, the time pod from ''Space Quest IV'' appears. ''Space Quest IV'' was developed around the same time. However, a continuity error occurs, as the time pod appears in a different place than in Space Quest IV.
Reception
The 1991 remake of the game was reviewed in ''
Dragon'', receiving 5 out of 5 stars.
References
External links
*
*
{{Sierra Adventure Games, Space Quest
1986 video games
1991 video games
Adventure games
Point-and-click adventure games
Amiga games
Apple IIGS games
Atari ST games
DOS games
1980s interactive fiction
Classic Mac OS games
ScummVM-supported games
Sierra Entertainment games
Space Quest
Games commercially released with DOSBox
Video games adapted into comics
Video games developed in the United States