Retro DOS Review: Space Quest, The Sarien Encounter!

Several hours, a couple Coke Zeroes, and roughly 75 deaths later I have finished Space Quest 1! Replaying it 25 years later, I still find it's sarcastic humor just as funny as I did when I was 5. Space Quest 1 is the beginning of the saga of Roger Wilco, space janitor, and eventually multi-time savior of the galaxies. All of the Space Quest games heavily parody Star Wars, Star Trek, and all kinds of other pop culture references.

This was one of the first text-based graphics adventures I ever played. I honestly don't have recollection of what games I played first and in what order, but this is my best guess. Roger Wilco starts his adventure off stumbling out of his janitor closet to a ship full of his dead crewmates. I hope you can type fast, cause if you dawdle too much the ship will explode before you can escape. Before he jettisons away, he discovers why his ship was attacked and by who. He lands stranded on a desert planet, eventually finding civilization and frequenting a small bar (very reminiscent of the Tatooine cantina in Star Wars), where, after tossing back a few of the local brew, finds out where his attacker's ship is docked. Unknowingly stealing an ugly alien's spacecraft, he makes his way to the enemy ship, where he becomes the galaxy's first Galactic Janitor Warrior!




For those not familiar with this type of game, you move your character with the arrow keys, but all actions are done by typing what you want to do. For example, "look at room", "get keycard", or "buy a beer" may come up quite often. Here's s few tips for new players:

Rule #1: SNSO. Save now, save often. This is the most important rule of early games. There are many times where you may have missed something, but the game doesn't tell you. When you need it, it becomes obvious, but if you haven't been keeping multiple saved games, you may not be able to go back to where you need to and you'll have to start the whole game over.

Rule #2: Don't get frustrated at dying. Seriously. I would argue that the point of some of these games is to try as many things as possible and die horrible deaths. If you don't, you're actually missing out on a lot of content and sarcastic jokes from the authors. If you follow rule #1, dying for fun will become half the game for you.

Rule #3: Don't expect too much at this point in video game technology.  Graphics are no longer good, sound is archaic, and even the production value of the games isn't great. BUT, even now, I find these games are still just as fun and fulfilling to finish. Replaying it, I found this is the first game in a long time I've read the whole story and payed attention to what was going on. Many of games nowadays I skip through the "story" and am able to finish the game just fine.

I recommend playing on "Fast" speed or it really feels slow. However, there are parts of any of these game types that are timed, so you will want to switch back to Normal when you see this.

Unfortunately, before I finished and starting looking for download links, I was under the impression that the Space Quest series was abandonware. I've since found that Activision (who purchased the original publisher Sierra), still owns the copyright, but isn't doing anything with it. GOG.COM has compilations available that are Windows compatible: Space Quest 1+2+3 and Space Quest 4+5+6!

The great news is the original creators of Space Quest, the two guys from Andromeda, are working on a new project that just became fully funded tentatively called SpaceVenture. If it carries the same humor as the originals, I'll be buying it.

So take this article mostly as a intro to old-style adventure games. Next up, something we can actually all play and download, Police Quest: In Pursuit of the Death Angel!