Space Quest

The Space Quest series of six computer games describes the adventures of heroic (if clumsy and none-too-bright) janitor Roger Wilco as he campaigns through the galaxy for truth, justice and really clean floors.

Initially created for Sierra On-Line by the famous Two Guys from Andromeda (who made a guest appearance in Space Quest 3), the games were mainly a vehicle for terrible puns and really silly puzzles, as Roger fights the likes of Sludge Vohaul and the Pirates of Pestulon to save the galaxy and impress girls.

Unlike the LucasArts games, miscalculations and bad choices can lead to the unfortunate (but generally hilarious) demise of your hero - followed by the dreaded "Restore/Restart" screen.

Games

SQ I : Sarien Encounter (Original Text Input)1986
SQ II : Vohaul's Revenge 1987
SQ III: The Pirates of Pestulon 1989
SQ I : Sarien Encounter (New Icon-Parser) 1990
SQ IV : Roger Wilco and the Time Rippers 1991
SQ V : The Next Mutation 1993
SQ VI : The Spinal Frontier 1995

Sierra has tried on several occasions to revive the series for another episode, going as far as working with developer Escape Factory to storyboard and begin creating a game, before ending funding.

Space Quest 7 was way underway when Sierra released the Space Quest Collection: consisting of Space Quest I to V. However, due to the poor sales of this collection (maybe because all Space Quest fans already owned them) and the decreasing popularity of the adventure genre, Space Quest 7 was subsequently canned.

'Future' sequels

In SQ IV Roger travels in time, both past and present. Humorously, the creators didn't give the ages Roger traveled in year numbers or another temporal unit, but in sequel numbers! SQ IV takes 'place' in these ages/games:

SQ X: Latex babes from Estros
SQ XII: Vohaul's Revenge II

These games don't actually exist, but exist only in Space Quest's timeline and shed light in the SQ universe's future, in a post-apocalyptic era for the planet Xenon. However it is believed that if Sierra ever continued production fo the series and reached number XII, it would be released under these titles and be faithful to the scenario presented above.

Comics

Adventure Comics (a division of Malibu Graphics Publishing Group released three issues based on the Sarien Encounter in 1992 under the name The Adventures of Roger Wilco. The first was written by John Shaw and was in full color. The other two were written by Paul O'Connor and were colourless. The print run was very small and, as all comics based on games, the books are very hard to find now.

Fan Made Games

Space Quest 0: Replicated - A prequel of SQ I
Space Quest: The Lost Chapter - An interquel set between II and III
Space Quest 7

The series has remained popular with Sierra-fans, and several Fan pages are still active and maintain a community dedicated to the games.

There have been several attempts to create a Space Quest fan game, such as the SQ7.org project, and two fan games using primitive (if, era-specific) graphics have been released.

External links