The planet "Estros" (based on what little we get to see of it) is an arid world made up of stairs and platforms supported by tall stone spires rising out of a clear blue sea (or possibly a big lake...). For some reason it reminds me of a Dr. Seuss drawing. Pretty quickly after arriving, Roger gets picked up by a pterodactyl-like creature and then is promptly dropped into it's lofty nest...along with an unfortunate sequel police...man...robot? See...here's the thing...unlike Wilco, who gets dumped into the center of the nest, this jackbooted thug comes down on the rim and is impaled on some very sharp branches. The color is clearly red, which implies blood...maybe they just wear masks that make them look and sound robotic, but underneath they're actually people? I was never clear on that point...
Anyway, it doesn't take long for our hero to escape from the nest by jumping down into the water below. No sooner has he scrambled onto dryland though than a trio of women spring a trap on him. They are dressed in sleek one-piece swimsuits and armed with harpoon guns. These are apparently the "latex babes" of
Space Quest X. The previous Roger Wilco, that is to say the one of this timeline, must have departed under poor circumstances because these three ladies are not happy to see him. In fact, they decide to take him prisoner. Loaded aboard an awaiting submarine, Roger is brought to an underwater base. Here, the latex babes decide to torture him, or maybe just shave his legs...I was never clear on that point either. Regardless, a massive "sea-slug" interrupts the proceedings by emerging from the base's central moon pool. Roger's captors quickly scatter, but Wilco is trapped in a restraining chair. Luckily, taking advantage of the chair's built-in features (and a nearby compressed gas canister) allows our hero to defeat the sea-slug. At this point the latex babes have a change of heart, deciding that they like Roger after all, and choose to celebrate their reconciliation with him by going shopping...yeah...the storyline is kind of all over the place...departing Estros in a starship, the game suddenly cuts back to
Space Quest XII. One of the soldiers that rescued Roger back at the beginning of the game has been taken prisoner by the sequel police. Brought before a huge holographic projection of Sludge Vohaul inside his red tower, it is revealed that this "rebel," as the sequel police call him, is actually Roger Wilco's son!
Meanwhile, back in
Space Quest X the latex babes and our hero have arrive at a domed space station. The central part features a zero-g skating rink while the outer ring-shaped promenade is lined with shops. These consist of an arcade, a monolith burger, two clothing stores, a software retailer and a "Radio Shock" (actually a parody of the real life electronics chain "Radio Shack," the name was changed to "Hz. So Good" in the CD-ROM version due to copyright infringement). The latex babes are quickly lured away by a sale leaving Roger to his own devices. Using an ATM card that one of his former kidnappers accidentally dropped, Wilco is able to acquire a small amount of funds. From here there's a number of things the player needs to do in order to progress, but to make a long story short the sequel police arrive and our hero has to franticly and desperately escape by hijacking another time pod. Passing through a rift, Roger finds himself in none other than
Space Quest I...at the outpost on Kerona no less...
After a close call involving a trio of hover bikers (who don't like Wilco because he's in VGA while everything else is in EGA), Wilco finally makes his way back to
Space Quest XII. Here, he can finally gain entrance to the interior of the red tower. The inside of this massive structure looks very similar to something out of an H.R. Giger painting while the layout is vaguely reminiscent of the asteroid base in
Space Quest II. Getting through this section of the game is relatively painless compared to that one though...and upon penetrating the inner sanctum our hero discovers that his son is not only being held prisoner, but has Sludge Vohaul's digital consciousness downloaded into his brain. Thankfully, Roger is able to reverse the process and erase Vohaul by literally dragging and dropping his mind data in the waste basket of an OS screen. Actually it's a toilet icon, and it's also possible to erase some other data including copies of "Leisure Suit Larry 4" and "King's Quest 43"...under no circumstances should the player erase
Space Quest 4 though, because doing so causes the game to close, dumping the player back to their computer's real OS. It's a mean joke, to say the lease, but mercifully doesn't actually erase anything. After making a quick escape, Roger Wilco and his son (to be) have a brief conversation. Roger's son shows him a holographic image of his mother (Wilco's wife to be), but doesn't elaborate on who she is except to refer to her in the past tense as "Beatrice Wankmeister." Refusing to divulge any more information Roger's son once again opens a time/space rift and asks our hero to jump in.
So ends
Space Quest IV with Wilco plunging through a rainbow tunnel back to his own timeline. It a very eclectic game, but I enjoyed it anyway...mostly because it was the first
Space Quest title I managed to finish without consulting a hint book. Well...there is actually a hint book in the game itself, but it's not meant to be taken seriously...for the most part. Regardless, it's certainly more approachable than previous entries in the series. Next up is my favorite in the entire franchise.
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