| Space Quest: Chapter I – The Sarien Encounter | |
|---|---|
 Original cover art | |
| Developer(s) | Sierra On-Line |
| Publisher(s) | Sierra On-Line |
| Designer(s) | Mark Crowe Scott Murphy |
| Programmer(s) | Scott Murphy |
| Artist(s) | Mark Crowe |
| Composer(s) | Mark Crowe |
| Series | Space Quest |
| Engine | AGI |
| Platform(s) | DOS, Macintosh, Apple II, Apple IIGS, Amiga, Atari ST |
| Release | October 1986 |
| Genre(s) | Adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Space Quest: Chapter I – The Sarien Encounter (commonly known as Space Quest I) is a graphic adventure game, created by Scott Murphy and Mark Crowe, and released in October 1986 by Sierra On-Line.[1] It is the first game in the Space Quest series, and sees players assume the role of a lowly janitor on a research ship, who becomes involved in stopping an alien race using a new form of technology for evil purposes.
The game was the first to be created by Murphy and Crowe, after working on other Sierra titles at the time such as King's Quest II. Part of their proposal included moving away from the serious, medieval settings of other titles, in favour of making a "fun, silly game", utilising Sierra's AGI engine.[2] Space Quest I became an instant hit, selling in excess of 100,000 copies to begin with, and spawned several sequels, beginning with Space Quest II in 1987.
A remake of the game by Sierra was released in 1991, featruring improved graphics and gameplay. In 1992, Adventure Comics created a three issue comic, based on the game's plot.[3]
Gameplay
The game was created using Sierra's AGI engine and featured a pseudo-3D environment, allowing the character to move in front of and behind background objects. The primary means of input in Space Quest, as in many other AGI games, was through the use of a text parser for entering commands and use of the keypad or arrow keys for moving Roger Wilco around the screen. The Amiga, Apple IIGS, Atari ST and Mac versions of the game offered basic mouse support for movement as well. The game had a 160×200 resolution displaying 16 colors. Sound cards were not available in 1986 for the PC, so sound was played through the PC's internal speaker; owners of Tandy 1000, PCjr and Amiga computers would hear a three-voice soundtrack, while Apple IIGS owners were treated to a fifteen-voice soundtrack with notably richer sound.
A precursor of this game is the interactive fiction game Planetfall, created by Infocom, whose player-character is a lowly "Ensign Seventh Class" who does the lowest form of labor aboard a spaceship and who appears on the cover with a mop. Just as King's Quest adapted the text-adventure puzzle games set in a medieval world to a visual display, Space Quest did the same for the space puzzle game.
As a form of copy protection, coordinates in the VGA version of the game while in the escape pod as well as the rocket purchased at Tiny's Used Spaceships are only found in the manual. Also, the code for retrieving the cartridge aboard the Arcada can only be found in the manual. The AGI version had key disk protection where the user was required to insert the original game floppy on startup.
Sierra released three versions of Space Quest: the original 1986 AGI V2 release, the 1987 AGI V3 release, and the 1990 VGA release. Aside from minor sound and graphic differences, the PC, Amiga, Atari ST, and Apple IIGS versions are largely identical. The Mac version is considerably different, however, being monochrome and completely menu-driven. Space Quest I also had an 8-bit Apple II version for the IIe and IIc. This had no pull down menus and displayed all text at the bottom of the screen.
Along with King's Quest III, Space Quest was the first Sierra game to feature pull down menus, be hard disk installable, and not require a specially formatted save disk (except the Apple II version as noted above).
Plot
Setting
Space Quest I takes place in a universe in the far future, which parodies significant science-fiction. Players assume the role of a janitor who they can name; by default, his name is "Roger Wilco" — a reference to the radio communication, "Roger, Will Comply", which became the 'de facto name of the hero in the later games of the series.
Story
Within the Earnon galaxy, Roger Wilco, a simple janitor aboard the scientific spaceship Arcada, awakens from an on-duty nap in his broom closet to find that the ship has been boarded and seized by the sinister Sariens. He soon learns that they are after a powerful experimental device called the "Star Generator" (a thinly-veiled reference to the Genesis Device from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan) that the researchers had completed, which could cause untold disaster in their hands. Acquiring a keycard from a dead crew member's body, Roger makes for an escape pod and gets off the Arcada moments before its self-destruct system destroys it.
The escape pod takes Roger to the planet Kerona, a dry, barren wasteland, where it crash lands. Finding himself hunted by a spider-droid dispatched by the Sariens to eliminate him, Roger defeats it, before finding his way into a cave system near his crash site. Within the caves, he is greeted by a mysterious figure, who offers help if he kills a monstrous creature called an Orat. Suceeding in the task, the figure supplies him with a skimmer craft (a direct reference to the landspeeders in Star Wars), to help him reach Ulence Flats (a direct reference to Star Wars' Mos Eisley), a desert towen on the planet, where he can find a new ship.
Reaching Ulence, Roger gambles on a slot machines in a cantina to acquire the money needed to buy a spaceship, along with a navigation droid to pilot it; during this time, he learns from a bar customer where the Sariens' spaceship, the Deltaur, headed off for following the attack on the Arcada. Using this information, Roger heads for the ship, boards it, and secures a Sarien disguise to move around with. Finding the Star Generator, Roger programs it to self-destruct, escaping the ship just before it explodes.
At the end of the game, Roger's efforts are rewarded when he receives the Golden Mop as a token of eternal gratitude from the people of Xenon (a reference to the planet from Blake's 7).
Reception
Compute! praised the Apple IIGS version's sound and graphics, stating that players "may think they're watching a cartoon". It concluded that the game "is one of the better new adventure games to arrive".[4]
The game contains a number of characters which resemble musical acts and other popular characters. The owners of a couple complained that Sierra had used them without permission. Toys R Us complained about a robot shop named "Droids R Us", which Sierra changed to "Droids B Us"; the remake adds a character which resembles the toy company's mascot Geoffrey Giraffe.[5] Rock band ZZ Top complained that a band seen briefly on stage resembled them – despite this, they re-appear in certain versions of the VGA remake.[6]
According to Sierra On-Line, combined sales of the Space Quest series surpassed 1.2 million units by the end of March 1996.[7]
Reviews
- Tilt (May, 1987)
- Tilt (Apr, 1987)
- The Games Machine (Dec, 1987)
- Computer and Video Games (Nov, 1987)
- Joker Verlag präsentiert: Sonderheft (1993)
- ST Format (Mar, 1995)
- Commodore User (Sep, 1987)
Remake
| Space Quest I: Roger Wilco in the Sarien Encounter | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Sierra On-Line |
| Publisher(s) | Sierra On-Line |
| Director(s) | Bill Davis Douglas Herring Scott Murphy |
| Producer(s) | Stuart Moulder |
| Designer(s) | Mark Crowe Scott Murphy |
| Programmer(s) | Jerry Shaw Hugh Diedrichs Dave Jamriska Randy MacNeill |
| Artist(s) | Douglas Herring |
| Composer(s) | Ken Allen Mark Seibert |
| Engine | SCI1 |
| Platform(s) | DOS, Macintosh, Amiga |
| Release | August 20, 1991 |
| Genre(s) | Adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Space Quest was eventually remade using Sierra's newer SCI game engine, which, among many other improvements, allowed the game to move from its original 16-color EGA graphics to 256-color VGA. Rebranded Space Quest I: Roger Wilco in the Sarien Encounter to follow the series' new naming convention introduced in Space Quest IV, this version was released on August 20, 1991. In addition to the new VGA graphics, which were drawn in 1950s retrofuturistic B-movie style, it featured digitized sounds and a new interface, with text-entry being replaced by an icon interface.
When leaving Ulence Flats in the VGA version, the time pod from Space Quest IV appears. Space Quest IV was developed around the same time. However, a continuity error occurs, as the time pod appears in a different place than in Space Quest IV.
Reception
The 1991 remake of the game was reviewed in Dragon, receiving 5 out of 5 stars.[8] Dante Kleinberg of Adventure Gamers stated that the game is "nicely detailed and pleasing to the eye".[9] Retro Freak Reviews recommended the remake over the original, stating that the humor, art, animation, and music were improved.[10]
References
- ↑ Weston, D.B. Greatest Moments in Video Game History. DB Weston. p. 52. ISBN 978-1-301-17414-0.
- ↑ Purcaru, John Bogdan (29 January 2014). Games vs. Hardware. The History of PC video games: The 80's. Google Books. p. 296. Retrieved 11 December 2016.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ↑ ""Adventure Comics (Firm)" to "Adventure Series"". Michigan State University Libraries. Retrieved 2020-03-25.
- ↑ Trunzo, James V. (August 1988). "Space Quest — The Sarien Encounter". Compute!. p. 70.
- ↑ Kalata, Kurt (2017-09-11). "Space Quest I". Hardcore Gaming 101. Retrieved 2024-01-03.
- ↑ "Space Quest 1 Cameo Appearances". SpaceQuest.Net. Retrieved 2012-08-27.
- ↑ Sierra On-Line Form 10-K (Report). Bellevue, Washington. March 31, 1996. pp. 7–9. Archived from the original on April 16, 2018.
- ↑ Lesser, Hartley; Lesser, Patricia & Lesser, Kirk (January 1992). "The Role of Computers". Dragon. No. 177. pp. 57–66.
- ↑ Kleinberg, Dante (2008-01-04). "Review for Space Quest I: The Sarien Encounter". Adventure Gamers. Retrieved 2024-01-03.
- ↑ DarkwyndPT (2017-02-08). "Space Quest I review". Retro Freak Reviews. Retrieved 2024-01-04.