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

the looted Keycard:



A spore:



A Labion Terror Beast mating call whistle:



Some berries:



a glowing gem:

I always like the underwater stretch, the rays of light are surprisingly well done.

Also I don't believe you got past Root Monster without a million save/load cycles.

Also also: heck, I'm pretty sure there's a way for you to die on every screen on the planet. Well, probably almost. I don't think you can die at the crash site, and I dunno if you can die underwater or at the alien trap screen.

Should be most of the rest, though...

The crash screen has the pit trap and underwater if you dont hold your breath you can die (this kill screen coming up), and you can fall off the cliff on the trap screen. So pretty much every screen. Oh, you can't die on the screen with the spores and mailbox, or where you untie the alien, or I've never managed to get killed on those screens

EDIT: It did not take a million, it took quite a few save/load cycles, though. I always have problems in the same place... where a numpad would have come in handy for movement

Ohhhh, it's a score thing. I'd barely paid any attention to those little numbers. So you can glitch it up to reset the score to zero at the tree? Neat.

That wood still looks too long and thin for something broken off of that tree, though.

I will concede that the log doesn't look like it fits.. but that wasn't what I was looking for, sorry!

I never knew about that bug. Neat!

Roger careful creeps across the log (I'm pretty sure that fall would have broke his face) and keeps moving east:



Where'd that come from! Roger just can't win



That dream sounds as shitty as the game its based on!



This doesn't look promising... but. maybe that big grey brute is just like Roger, looking for a friend?

Roger takes a closer look at his prospective new best friend:



That isn't encouraging... In an attempt to communicate Roger yells at the alien:



Roger continues talking to the alien, which eventually gets his attention:



This is it! Roger's going to get a hug from his new best friend!



Well being cooked and eaten might be an acceptable way to show friendship in his culture... Sadly, Roger will never know...

Rewind back to the big lug looking at us intently and walking toward us. Roger chucks the spore he found earlier at the guy:



How did I know the spore would be effective, because the first time I played this game I walked on one of them and then spent the most boring 4 minutes of my life watching Roger lie there as the computer told me over and over again that I was paralyzed... Roger searches the disgusting mass of flesh and finds:



Roger quickly takes the key and uses it on the gate, this freak could get back up at any moment:



Roger slips out of the cage, grabs the rope sitting on the rock and heads north, just in time to see a shuttle leave the planet off in the distance:



Roger vows to, somehow overcome his incompetence and, get off this planet!

With no place else to go Roger heads back to the chasm, and heads down, by tying the rope to the log (not the stump!):



Whoa, even Roger isn't dim enough to think that big guy is looking for friends! That cave has potential though! Roger begins swinging back and forth, trying to build up enough momentum to carry him over to the western face of the chasm and the cave (I had to save and reload a number of times here as the game requires you to push back and forth to build the momentum and you never quite know when you have enough... I also failed to capture an image of Roger mid-air, sorry!):



With nothing else to do here but stare at the giant ape, Roger heads into the cave:



Wow, it's dark in here! If only I had something that glowed and previously spent time lighting up a cave... Think Roger think!

Oh, yeah that gem, Roger whips it out:



Good thing too, as I don't think that shrieking thing was friendly. Roger moves further into the cave:



If you somehow managed to get to this point without untying the little alien back in the jungle, these guys would have killed you here. Requiring a reload back to when you first landed on the planet! Same can be said with the spore in the previous entry if you didn't pick it up you can't get out of the cage and end up dinner...

Roger forgets to hold his breath (both times):



Roger attempts to defy gravity:



Roger falls off his log bridge:



Throwing the spore prematurely:



Then just like the death when we just tried talking to him:



Admiring the view of the launch-pad:

Walking off the cliff north of the cage screen:



Walking off yet another cliff:



Tying the rope to the stump:



Getting up-close with the Ape monster:



Taking the rope all the way down:



Missing the swing:



There's so many more! That's enough death for awhile, I think!

I really love the death text in these Space Quest titles. I'm looking forward to seeing how those cute little aliens will kill you if you didn't save their pal.

maybe Roger will get luck and they'll do it with kindness?

I'd totally forgotten about getting locked up in a cage. I remembered using the spore to knock someone out, but I thought it was later at the shuttle platform.. except.. I remember you use the rock for that, so why would you also use a spore? MYSTERY.

Hooray for the SUPER-IRRITATING AND NERVE-WRACKING MAZE coming up~

After calling me a beanpole the little aliens scurry to the south leaving Roger alone again, Roger noticing his glowing stone is gone, picks it up near the cave entrance where he must have dropped it, before heading south as well:



Ahh, look that cute little pink guy is wearing clothes! He thinks he's people!
What's that you're talking to me?



"Sounds great! What's the word?"
"Hello?"

Where'd he go? He didn't tell me the word! How am I ever suppose to leave this stupid canyon? What word?

Roger sat around and sulked for awhile, before calling Sierra On-line's Hint Line, where a helpful person told him that the word he had to say to leave the canyon was "the word"

"Really? That's it? Just say 'the word' and the aliens will let me go?"

The helpful person on the end of the line said yes that was it

"That is the dumbest puzzle ever, and I resent that this stupid conversation is going to cost me real money, you suck!"

*CLICK*

Yup, Roger simply says "the word" and those cute little pinkys get to work:



Roger having been in a dark cave before whips out his glowing gem:



Or not... Hmmm... I know I have to use the gem here, I don't have anything else that will illuminate anything... Where else could I put this thing? (Besides up Mark Crowe's or Scott Murphy's ass) Roger finally settles on stuffing it in his mouth:



and here is your favorite maze Nunix! As long as you head down and to the right you'll be okay. It might take you a little back tracking but it isn't too difficult. I got through this after not playing for a year on my first try without being eaten:



Wow! This place is pretty! Well worth sucking on that stupid rock while avoiding unseen horrors:



Next time, I share a little story, Roger gawks a little and maybe, just maybe... We get off this rock!

As a young man playing through my pirated copy of SQ2 (I think the disk also had PQ on it!) for the first time young Falselogic got stuck in the Pinky's canyon. Why? Because up to that point he'd never seen a Abbott and Costello skit, or a Jerry Lewis sketch, or any Monty Python skits and had never thought before about word games... so, little Falselogic was stuck, worse, no one else in his small network of PC gaming nerds had ever played, or beat SQ2. He was effectively stuck. He went to his parents and begged them to let him call Sierra's pay-for hint line.

After deliberations his parents decided he could make one call to the hint line service if he agreed to pay for the costs. lil'falselogic quickly agreed and called the number, agreed to the charges (I believe it was $2.50 for the first minute (minimum charge) and a $1 for each additional minute) and then moved through Sierra's labyrinthine auto-system before being told that the word to say to get out of the canyon "the word." Even little Falselogic knew that was bunk when he hung up.

But, after tasting the sweet nectar of cheating to get ahead in an adventure game, I, apparently, had a very hard time not calling again. Anytime I ran into the most minor speed bump I'd hop on the phone and call the line again to get the answer... remember this is a automated prompt service that requires you to navigate through a series of questions before it gets to your game, section, and then particular problem, all while charging you. By the time the next bill game I'd beaten the game and owed my parents 54 or so dollars in phone charges!

Lil Falselogic then spent the next 3 months working off his debt!

Story time over!

Roger just can't get enough of this place:



Look at all that prose they dedicated to a scene that we already see on the screen! Roger tired of misty droplets moves east:



Two ways to go huh? Well the word for left in latin is sinister, so that way is right out, right it is!



That might not have been a good choice either...



Roger Lives!:



But seeing as there isn't anything to do here he moves eastward:



Where, it appears, there is nothing to do... Running through every item in his inventory Roger finally gets to his free whistle:



Aww, look a blatant rip-off of Warner Brothers' Tasmanian Devil:

Again Roger slowly goes through the entire contents of his inventory before stumbling upon an answer, that still makes little sense to him and me to this day, tosses the cubix rube to the Beast:



Yup, all slavering wild animals are interested in puzzle games! Roger moves through the newly created hole to the north and grabs a rock from the pile of debris on his way through:



We've finally made it back to the landing platform! Let's hope there is a ship on it:



Drats! There's a guard up there... I bet they've had problems with Labion Terror Beasts... What is Roger going to do? Well, he could do a number of things, but the one that gets the most points is this:



That's right! Roger used a soiled jock-strap and a rock to sling a rock at the guard's head incapacitating him, and causing him to fall to the ground where he split his skull! Roger is a cold-blooded killer!

Roger slides the card he got at the initial crash site (if you forgot to search that body, so sad you're fucked) and heads on up:



Now where is the entrance to this thing?



Thanks unknown narrator! Next time, Roger flies into the great blue yonder! Also more ways for Roger to meet his maker!

I think at the very start of the game there's something about terror beasts being intrigued by shiny coloured objects. Of course, you'd completely forget it by this point.

Man, the work the artists did on this game impresses the hell out of me. With four colours they make a really pretty cave.

SQ 2, 3, and QFG 2 are probably the best EGA graphics.. ever? I remember KQ 4 as being pretty bland, and QFG 1 was really rough in spots. The other games were all the early-type graphics and pretty blocky.

Yeah, King's Quest didn't really start getting impressive art until 5, but even then SQ and QFG were more inherently interesting settings.

The worst part is that I remember doing that and for some reason it still didn't work. I bet you have to type it in in a completely particular way! I hate that puzzle so fucking much.

I can think of worse things to have done that would lead you to have to work off child-debt, though.

I've never fooled around with it much but typing "the word" works, it'd be interesting to see if merely "word" or "say the word" would work... hmmm

Games were released with different versions (the name puzzle in KQ1 is a prime example; the first solution is.. obtuse, while later releases/versions let you use both that and a couple of variations to solve it), so it's possible that different phrases are available.

I'll be finishing up SQ2 very soon, but there might be a delay in starting SQ3 as I can't seem to get the damn thing to work...

Updates to follow

Roger clambers into the shuttle and takes a look around:



Okay, those controls seem easy enough. Roger presses the power button, switches the attitude dial to vertical, and pushes the ascent thrusters and he is off:



Roger gently pulls back on the stick and he's off!



Despite the planet Labion's numerous attempts (you haven't seen all of them yet) to kill Roger he has somehow avoided them all and made it off this planet! What next?

Wrapping up some deaths and then the endgame

Walking off the ledge after swinging to it:



Entering the cave without a light:



additional unpleasant sounds



Entering Canyon without saving Pinky:



Waiting in the cave too long before using the gem:



Going the wrong way in the maze:

Swimming in the river for too long:



Take the wrong fork in the river:



"Play" with the Labion Terror Beast:



Letting the Guard see you:



Hiding from the Guard and making a noise to get him to leave to the south and then following him:

Calling the Guard:



Throw the rock at the guard (sans jock-strap):



Falling off the platform:



Go back down the platform elevator after going up:



After powering up ship, turning the attitude dial to vertical, and turning on the ascent thrusters, Roger pushes the stick in the wrong direction:

I'm missing the photos of the next part of the game... I'll have them by tonight and hopefully I can wrap this up!

Thanks for understanding and all the comments so far!