Who better to clean up space than Janitors? Space Quest I, II, III

I really like the "explain" text that accompanies the spider killing Orat:



It always makes me life...

Nope... It's just a screen for screen re-make of the original, that lets you skip the arcade sequences in the game, and allows you to cheat the slot machine...

I can't think of any big differences made to the game...

My misake. Still, the screen comparisons would be interesting.....but then again, I think I'm more interested in the sequels and their deaths now.

I'll definitely do a run through of the VGA version... Just to highlight the differences between the two... So, we'll get to it!

Between the number of things that can go wrong and Roger's incompetence, it's astounding that he survives to star in six (twelve?) games.

I remember seeing a comparison in a game mag back in the day... it made me intensely jealous of people who had computers. Compared to the NES (which most of my limited gaming experience was from), it looked amazing.

Anyway, good LP. I think it'd be more interesting to come back to the remake after going through the other games.

I am excited for Space Quest II times. I have very fond memories of that game.

Not entirely true - the game has a new script that hews much closer to the style of SQ3 and later.

I had lots of trouble with the shootout sequence as a kid, because I didn't read the instructions and actually typed out "fire pulseray". This sometimes didn't work:

Space Quest 2 was originally released in 1987... I never owned an original copy of the game, I got a pirated copy of the game from a friend on a 3 1/2 floppy disk. So I never got to enjoy the comic that came wit the original game explaining how Roger went from Hero to Zero again, you can view it here.

SQ2 might be my favorite in the series, and I can't really explain why, especially since the first time I played it I became absolutely stuck at one point and had to call Sierra On-line's famous hint line (I'll tell the story when we get there)

Let's get this second game underway:



This time with an improved track of the theme song (brought to you by the Tandy 1000's superior sound chip)

The title screen is followed by a short introduction catching players of the original up and introducing new ones to Roger Wilco and his amazing exploits and then we're dropped once again in to the game with no more direction than a blinking parser and a sweeping Roger (space dust is the worst!):



As Roger dutifully goes about his janitorial duties:



Guess we better see what it is, so we have Roger look at his watch:



Wow! The future is awesome, a digital watch with three functions! Let's see them all!

Pushing 'H':



Pushing 'T':



Finally pushing 'C':



Well, he doesn't seem to friendly... Wonder how I get inside, anyway... There don't seem to be any doors...

I love this puzzle.

Oh my god, Space Piston! I remember this! I.. have no idea what happened to my copy, and that makes me sad. I still have the magazine for SQ 4, though (since it doubles as copy-protection, le sigh).

You might want to put up a screenshot of the room without any text boxes.

Man, you're crazy. I loved the spells in the manual in King's Quest 3. It gave such a great sense of atmosphere, and was a like having a real spell book you'd have to refer to in game. Sort of like the grail diary in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. I also liked how the spells gave you a sense of direction as you knew you'd eventually need to get all of the ingredients. Really, even though KQ3 suffered from the the same flaws as every other Sierra game, there was a lot of neat and fun stuff it did well. I like it better than Space Quest 1.

Man, you're crazy!

We last left Roger Wilco outside in the cold of space with nothing more than his wrist watch and his boss' order to get back inside, but how?



There aren't any doors! This puzzle is so great because it can really stump you, until you solve it (The first time I did, it was an accident):



You can walk on the walls! Awesome, and the only thing around here is that discolored patch on the "ceiling":



Ok, Roger takes a quick look around before changing and then checking those lockers over there to the right out:



Those two objects sound really useful (they don't, but this is an adventure game and I'm sure we'll find some ridiculous use for the two of them.)

A quick look at our inventory shows, that we have four items right now (I wonder what every happened to Roger's golden mop?):



I've wondered what the last one was for... Though I've never tried turning it off, until now! So, we'll see what happens in the near future with it.

With nothing else to do here, Roger exits stage left:

As soon as we enter the next screen our boss starts yelling at us:



I wonder what Roger ever did to piss him off? That's okay I'm surrounded by my friends, so I'll just talk to them:



"Hah, those guys, what kidders! I don't owe them any money, they're just trying to be funny..."

Anyway, since no one wants to have lunch or go get some coffee, I better head over to that shuttle:



Tube travel, the future sure is neat! That platform though is decidedly 19th century fare, onwards. Exiting the tube Roger enters the ship:



*THUD*



No more than 2 minutes into the game and Roger's already had the crap beaten out of him!

Before we continue on with Roger's tale it's important to look back on all the ways I've killed him in these first 5 minutes or so of the game:

There is more than one generic death message after you die in Space Quest 2, Here's all of them right now:



Roger Wilco, Deep Space Explorer:



Roger Wilco, Germaphobe:



Roger Wilco, Base Jumper:

I'm just going to let the game "speak" for itself:



That's the big reveal? A guy dressed in a nice suit with a briefcase?! Seems somewhat anti-climactic...

That name sounds familiar too...

Where have I heard that name before? I know from the original Space Quest on that cartridge that also gave us the detonation sequence for the Star Generator:

But, this sack of flesh calls himself Sludge? Was his brother one of those "sissy pants scientists" who changed the purpose for the Star Generator project? Or did Mark Crowe and Scott Murphy forget the original name and couldn't be bothered to check?

I've never heard this discrepancy explained or even brought up before but it always bothered me, a little...

Oh, well back to the game!

This fleshbag won't shut up:



Finally, he's done, That forced work in a mine doesn't sound too fun though:


If Roger doesn't think fast he's going to be stuck doing menial labor for the rest of his life, but without the chance of slacking off!? He also can't help but think these goons look an awful lot like the Apes from Planet of the Apes...

As the hovercraft slowly makes it way to mines, the story takes a sharp turn to the right:



I can safely assume Roger lived through this, as I the player had no control over it! In the next post the adventure begins in earnest!

And this is the first time in the series where the game heads towards farce, rather than a light-hearted but otherwise earnest science-fiction game.

Yes, the big plot in this game is to save the planet from an army of door-to-door insurance salesmen.

(I believe that Slash and Sludge are indeed supposed to be brothers, although clearly their parents hated them. What kind of parent calls their kid KnivesSlash or Sludge?

I don't know what you're talking about. That sounds terrifying.

Last time we left Roger plummeting from the sky, much like a lead parakeet... Hopefully he survived the fall:



Goons, Just like mattresses, only living!

Roger takes a quick look around to get his bearings and then starts looting:



Roger takes the card and slips it into his pocket before heading over to the wreckage and poking around:



(That beeping was coming from the PC speaker and it was annoying!)

This place doesn't look too bad... Roger was in need of a vacation anyway... A nice stroll in the woods would be good for him:



Okay, so there are some man-made hazards that have to be avoided, but it still seems like a nice enough place, Roger heads east to further explore his jungle paradise. Mushrooms! These are so good sauted with a little butter, Roger won't be going hungry in his new home, now let's just cut one of these down somehow...



Forget a vacation life on a jungle paradise! Everything here wants to kill me! Roger decides he has to get off this planet (and he'll have many more opportunities to stick to that directive)

Moving back to the wreck site, Roger can't help but feel like he's being watched:



The foliage is just too think to the west to continue so Roger tries heading north:



That might be leading me a little, but I better go check it out:



Oh, look a cute little alien is playing "hang upside down in the tree" just like Roger's childhood friends used to played with him!

He doesn't look happy about if, better get him down:



As Roger unties him the little get runs off into the brush before disappearing completely the pink guy, looks back:



Roger felt he made a connection with the little guy there, back westward:



You never know when a spore will come in handy!

Roger continues exploring, heading eastward again to get up on that ridge to check that machine out:



How convenient (and improbable) that Galactic Post Office would put a box on an uncivilized, man-killing jungle planet. Roger is finally able to mail that order form for the Labion Terror Beast Mating Whistle:



Roger grabs the whistle and gives it a blow, nothing happens! Must be broken... Stupid free whistle...

Heading back:



That can't be good...

I think most of the deaths in the game are on the damn planet. So many deaths.

Thinking quickly, Roger's forte, he ducks behind some bushes:



Poking around Roger eventually finds his way here (it's North of the spores):



Hey, there's a friend and he's picking berries. I should do that too! But, what's this thing in front of me:



Having learned a lesson about strange xeno-plant life, Roger treads carefully:



Roger tried eating them, but the things tasted terrible... Thinking they'll be important later though, Roger stuffs them in his pocket, before heading eastward again (east from the upper part of the screen where the goon patrol was). A swamp and another little guy, who seems to be smearing something over himself before running into the water:



Roger decides to follow the little alien's example and smears the berries all over himself, before heading into the swamp:




(in that last image you should notice two eyes on stalks peaking over the water, I never seemed to catch them when they were open though, sorry!)



Every attempt on Roger's life by the local fauna and flora only makes Roger hate this stinking rock more! He vows to escape and if he can have this damned planet blown to smithereens!

Moving deeper into the swamp, Roger finds a deep spot and decides to investigate:



Now with a glowing gem, Roger returns to the surface:



With nothing better to do Roger decides to scale the tree:



Anyone catch anything weird in those last two images? Let me know, I'll explain it in the next post if no one sees it... Also, deaths and inventory.

I know what's weird: The piece of tree that broke off doesn't match up to the actual broken tree itself. It's longer and thinner.

Wrong!

Your score jumped 90 points, then your score got reduced to zero.

- Eddie

Yup! and here's how it's done. There's a glitch in the game on this screen that will allow you to get a higher than 250 score, (the max amount of point for the game is 253. If you use it once reaching that score it simply resets the counter):



When you first climb the tree. the game takes over with Roger slowly scaling it, as this happens though you can repeatedly type in the command "climb tree" netting you 3 points each time. Sierra' assigned numerous commands to the function keys, F5 to save or F7 to restore, F3 instantly retyped your last entered command. All that is required to get the highest score is to quickly push F3 and Enter over and over as Roger slowly scales the tree.

Getting discovered by the flying goon:



Climbing trees:



Playing with Root Monsters:



Swimming without Berries: