Sierra is no more. Mark Crowe and Scott Murphy, the venerable Two Guys from Andromeda, haven't designed an adventure game since the previous millenium, yet Space Quest oddly refuses to simply lie down and die. It has instead gotten itself numerous fan contributions, maintains a healthy community, has gotten an almost decent re-release, lives happily on gog.com and, well, generally keeps on being loved and cared for.
Why? Simple really. Space Quest remains the funniest, most historically important and best designed comedy sci-fi adventure series ever. A series that helped evolve the genre, while featuring some of the weirdest characters, puzzles and settings imaginable. A series sporting the best known janitor in the history of science fiction: Roger Wilco.
Said Roger has happily embarked on two brand new adventures, or, to be precise, a new and a revamped old one. This being a most old fashioned blog though, I guess we'd better start with the old one first, shall we reader? Of course we shall, for I am indeed referring to the shiny, new and very freeware remake of Space Quest II: Vohaul's Revenge by Infamous Adventures. It's a more or less straightforward remake of the original classic, but with a brand new point-and-click interface, shiny SVGA graphics, a full voice-over and a few other tiny but welcome changes. The puzzles remain as fiendish as ever and the story is faithful to the 1987 release, meaning it once again involves those nefarious, cloned insurance salesmen.
The other goodie of the day is Space Quest: Vohaul Strikes Back. It is a fan sequel of sorts and the first full-length Space Quest adventure in over a decade. It's also free to grab and, from what I've seen so far and besides the excellent visuals, plays really great. Here's the trailer:
Related @ Gnome's Lair:
Does the remake add some kind of auto-save system to make constant deaths less of a hassle?I'd want that!
ReplyDeleteNot really, as I would say that SQ's deaths are indeed a feature :)
ReplyDelete"Sudden decompression sucks!"
ReplyDelete:(
but freebies rock!
:)
Now, this is the kind of philosophy one could live by. Thank you maitr!
ReplyDeleteIs the monkey in the crate a citation to The Crate from Creepshow or a staple in the series? How sad a true adventure expert^(TM) as myself has never played any of the games 0_0;
ReplyDeleteOh, but you really should give 'em a try boukensha and -frankly- can't think of a better way to begin your SQ, uhm, quest than with this here remake. As for the monkey, well, I'm pretty sure it's no series staple.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the heads-up on those new SQ games Gnome - I'm going to check them out. I've only actually played one game of the series but it is one of my all-time favorite computer games (SQ IV). And coincidentally I recently acquired the CD version of SQ IV with the voice upgrade and whatever else they tacked on to the old floppy version I played back in the day so it's the right time for a personal SQ revival!
ReplyDeleteAh, yes Space Quest IV; my all time favourite Space Quest. You'll love it all over again; especially with the CD version's brilliant narrator.
DeleteOh, and there have been two more SQ fan games released since this very post!