Return to Space (Part 1)

 

I've recently been watching some play-throughs of the Space Quest series with Gaming Grumps and the Space Quest Historian over on Youtube.  So now I feel motivated to share my own impressions of the IP here.  In order to organize things, and establish some sort of structure, I will do this in chronological order.

In the early days of PC gaming pure text-based adventures were quite common.  Eventually, developers started to include some in-game artwork (typically a few static POV shots of various environments described in the text).  Gradually this gave way to games wherein the player had an on-screen avatar that could be moved about using a joystick or arrow key inputs.  One might be tempted to call this the start of the point-and-click adventure game, but it really wasn't.  Mouse controls were extremely rare at the time outside of a few Apple products.  So instead of utilizing a mouse cursor, the player had to type out text-based commands.  Words like "open", "close", "look", "take", "use" plus a noun identifying an on-screen object were the most common kind of interactions.  It was very much an extension of the text-based games that had come before, but since they also had visuals these types of games were often referred to as "graphic adventures".  In the early 1980s Sierra On-line had helped pioneer this new genre with two landmark titles, King's Quest I, and II.  In order to further capitalize on these two commercial successes, the studio allowed two of its in-house programmers (Scott Murphy and Mark Crowe; A.K.A. The Two Guys from Andromeda) to create a sci-fi counterpart to the fantasy-themed King's Quest.  The result of this endeavor was Space Quest Chapter 1: The Sarien Encounter.  Much like how King's Quest borrowed from well-known fairly tales and mythology, Space Quest took a lot of inspiration from famous science fiction films (particularly "Star Wars").  Unlike King's Quest, which had players taking the role of someone important (a knight, a king, or in later games a prince or princess), Space Quest had a lowly janitor as the protagonist and unlikely hero of each story.  Of course audiences love rooting for the underdog, but Space Quest takes it one step further by also addressing a glaring hole in most space sci-fi settings by offing an answer to the question "who keeps all this stuff clean?"  After all, dust is going to accumulate in an enclosed environment from the constant shedding of hair and skin cells...waste matter and fluid has to be extruded and when it comes to ingesting nutrients accidents are bound to happen sooner or later...who's going to clean up?  Roger Wilco space janitor second-class, that's who!

In truth, players can choose any name for their character provided it is 18 letters or less.  However, if one simply presses the enter/return key without typing in anything the game will default to "Roger Wilco", a somewhat humorous fourth-wall breaking reference in the form of an often used abbreviation of radio communications meaning "Roger, will comply."  Anecdotal information aside, the game begins in-media res aboard the starship "Arcada."  Roger (let's call him that because it became his de facto name from the third entry onward) awakens from a nap to find the ship has been boarded.  The hallways are littered with the corpses of his fellow crew members.  Hostiles, dressed in crimson uniforms and helmets, stalk the corridors armed with lethal energy weapons which they use on-sight.  Needless to say, it is a rather dark and nerve-wracking start, but with some intrepid exploring the player can find out that the Star Generator has been stolen.  The backstory here is that the Arcada, a science vessel, was returning home after successfully testing that phone-booth sized device.  Incidentally, it proved capable of converting a planet into a sun.  Further exploring also reveals that the Arcada's engines are rigged to blow.  This leads to the player having to hastily guide Roger to an airlock shuttle bay where he is able to make an exit via a small escape craft.  What follows is a bit convoluted, but apparently the Sariens (the hostile race of intelligent green-skinned humanoids who boarded the Arcada and took the Star Generator) remained in the vicinity aboard the battlecruiser "Deltaur."  Detecting our hero's flight, they dispatch an autonomous robot to deal with him.  Meanwhile, the escape craft's AutoNav feature brings Roger to the nearest habitat planet, a hot desert world called "Kerona" (no relation to the beer..or virus).  

From here things become an out-of-the-frying-pan-and-into-the-fire situation.  Aside from a 40 degree Celsius surface temperature, Kerona is also home to whale-sized sand worms.  I have a distinct childhood memory of my friend and I yelling in shock as poor Roger was devoured in a single bite by one of these things.  Thankfully, if the player is careful they can avoid coming in contact with these creatures provided they stick to a rocky escarpment near the escape craft crash site.  Unfortunately there are many more ways the player can get poor Roger Wilco killed: dehydration, crushed by a deadly "Orat" beast living here, or even eaten by something in a hole in a cliff face.  Adding to the challenge is a Sarien spider droid that falls from the sky and upon touchdown springs into action with the intent of hunting down and killing our hero.  True to Sierra game standards there are a lot of ways to die in Space Quest.  Some people find this annoying and overly difficult, but personally I consider it part of the fun that comes with playing these sorts of games.  A lot of special character animations were created for Roger's many deaths so not experiencing them would mean that the player is missing out on a sizable chunk of content.  Provided that one saves often there isn't really any penalty for dying either.  Anyway, we will continue with the adventures of Roger Wilco in the next blog post.