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The Space Quest Retrospective: A janitor’s epic tale (in colour!)

Meet Roger Wilco, janitor extraordinaire and star of the (mostly) hilarious Space Quest series by Sierra, back from the era when adventure games were actually considered killer-apps and went on to spawn sequel after sequel. Say hi, through almost seven Space Quest games (well, six actually), out of which only five (almost six) used roman numerals in their titles. Meet him here and have a drink in adventure-o-vision, while reading through this particularly short retrospective.

Space Quest I: The Sarien Encounter

The first game by designers Mark Crowe and Scott Murphy, a.k.a. The Two Guys from Andromeda, Space Quest I was released back in 1986 at the beginning of the adventure gaming mainstream era. The game used the early Sierra AGI engine, complete with 16 glorious EGA colours and beautifully stylized graphics, a nice soundtrack and a pretty impressive -definitely hilarious too- parser interface. The plot introduced series star Roger Wilco, a janitor, who started off his heroics by napping in a broom closet while aliens hijacked the spaceship he was supposed to be cleaning and grabbed the devastatingly deadly Star Generator, only to finally wake up and save the universe. The game introduced the series’ trademark humor, frequent -impressively varied too- deaths, difficult puzzles, arcade-y sequences and bad-guy Vohaul. Oh, and save often.

Space Quest II: Vohaul’s Revenge

The first sequel in the series is another text-driven graphics adventure that apparently took less than a year to develop, and, well, quite frankly it shows. Arch-villain Sludge Vohaul returns to hunt a now-famous Roger Wilco in a frustrating game with below average puzzles and mostly flat jokes. Not really worth your time without a walkthrough…

Space Quest III: The Pirates of Pestulon

Space Quest 3 was simply stunning and one of the better looking games of 1989, especially when seen on the Amiga. It also sported a truly post-modern and particularly funny plot involving the Space Pirates, a shovelware/software pirating group, who had kidnapped the Two Guys, thus endangering the future of the whole Space Quest franchise. Unless, that is, Roger stopped them, which apparently he did. The game, besides being excellent and taxing as ever, also featured tactical space combat and a playable arcade game.

Space Quest IV: Roger Wilco and the Time Rippers

The first 256-colour VGA Space Quest with full SoundBlaster support and the first point-and-click game in the series too, Space Quest IV comfortably remains among my top 10 adventures even to this day. It’s got everything you could ask for really: time traveling to previous and future SQ games complete with appropriate graphic changes, Roger’s son, a fantastic goodies-filled box, some of the toughest (but quite fair too) puzzles in the series, Lucasarts game parodies, a burger making mini-game, Ms. Astro Chicken, droids, quality voice acting, latex babes, elaborate easter eggs, a smell icon, a Gnome's Lair review (also a walkthrough) and the aptly named Monochrome Boys. An absolute masterpiece.

Space Quest V: Roger Wilco - The Next Mutation

This one I haven’t played, mostly because it was the first Space Quest game that wasn’t designed by both the Guys from Andromeda, though most adventurers seem to agree it’s a mighty fine game. Reviewers liked it quite a bit too. Released back in 1993, Space Quest V had Roger apparently take on the Star Trek universe by graduating from the illustrious StarCon Academy, piloting his very own garbage-collecting spaceship and boldly going where no man had gone before, or so they say.

Space Quest 6: Roger Wilco in The Spinal Frontier

The final installment in the series and the only one to do away with the silly places in outer space in order to focus on the silly ones inside the human body, as experienced by a highly miniaturized Roger of course. Actually, scrap that, as it’s just what the title implies. The game -an SVGA CD exclusive released in 1995- has Mr. Wilco exploring the vaguely nasty planet of Polysorbate LX while running into an incredible number of farcical video game, computer, pop-culture and movie references. Oh, and you’ll definitely love the cartoon-quality graphics and vastly updated point-and-click interface.

Now, as Space Quest 7 -or would it be VII?- never managed to survive the demise of Sierra and no more Space Quest games are to be released in the foreseeable future, seasoned veterans could go around and google for some mostly brilliant fanmade sequels and remakes. Alternatively, both them and gamers looking to dive into the taxing and surreal universe of Space Quest can go for Vivendi’s Space Quest Collection. It might not be the best collection possible (lacking a few game versions and coming with PDF manuals only), but it’s got the basics covered, runs brilliantly on the latest PCs and is rather cheap.

Related @ Gnome's Lair:

• Space Quest IV - Retro Review
• A concise Monkey Island history
• Indie Adventures - An ancient guide
• The Mystery House Occupation

So, what *is* going on in Athens?

As you're all quite aware of, Gnome's Lair is a gaming blog and that is the reason why I generally do not discuss politics or -say- books and films here. I try to stick to gaming; really, I do. On the other hand both gaming and gnomes are part of a wider society and, thus, there comes a time when ranting about joysticks, adventures and gamepads feels distinctly out of place. Trying to explain what has been going on in Greece though feels just right. In a nutshell, what's been going on is this:

But why, you ask? Is it because those lazy fat-cats of the public sector are losing some of their privileges? Is it because those over-payed Greeks can't be bothered to work? Is it because people fail to understand the necessity of the IMF intervention and the benevolence of our dear EU/US-backed government? And, above all, why did these three innocent people die?

Well, let's start from the dead. Three young people that were chocked to death inside a burning bank building. They were murdered and nothing I can say or do will change this fact or bring any condolence to their friends and families. So, whose fault is this bit of murderous handiwork? I won't answer, I can't answer, but I will give you some of the facts I can more or less be sure of: a) someone or a small group of people wearing masks broke the glass window of the -admittedly hated- Marfin bank and either threw a petrol bomb or some other form of incendiary material inside, b) people were working inside on a day of a mass general strike against their will, c) those people had been forced to work despite their expressed will, d) said bank is on a street the march was bound to enter, e) said bank was locked and operating without security, fire exits or a fire extinguishing system, f) the workers inside were cut off from the outside world - even their Internet connections were cut off by their bosses, g) the workers inside had been pleading for hours to be allowed to leave, as they were justifiably afraid, h) as soon as the fire started both the police and the protesters tried to break the bank's doors to free everyone inside but failed, i) the fire squad turned up late, j) a mainstream TV station was eager to report that firemen were attacked by demonstrators only to be proven wrong by hundreds of videos and the other channels, k) the police or their collaborators have been know -and shown on TV- to dress up as rioters with covered faces in order to provoke violence, l) this murder was far to convenient for the government and the conservative political forces, and m) there are indeed tiny barbaric groups of rioters with a total disrespect of life.

Now, on to the demonstration. For starters it was huge, possibly even over 300,000 strong and was not solely comprised from civil servants. Far from it. The two major unions of workers were also participating, as were a variety of unions (covering everything from engineers and lawyers to shop owners and small businesses), students and a wide spectrum of political organizations, groups and parties. Secondly, it was angry, confrontational and generally peaceful, but was still drowned in chemicals and attacked by the riot police, who were generally pushed back, only to retaliate in the afternoon by invading homes, shops and political centers and being excessively brutal to ordinary people. How brutal? That brutal (via):

The demonstration, politically fragmented as it was, demanded a variety a things ranging from socialism to the end of police brutality, but ended up agreeing on some crucial key points: we don't really care much for the IMF and its imperialist and socially brutal (devastating actually) policies, and are pretty sure that the mainstream politicians of the two parties that have been governing Greece for the past 35 years are to blame. Them and their big business, publishing, TV-owning friends. We are also not going to wait to get passively and quietly raped. Not this time at least.

But why? Why are so many people so enraged? Why is this latest crisis so radically politicizing the Greek people? Simple really. Greece -well, the popular classes of Greece- has been enduring constant and progressively tightening austerity measures since the mid-80s. We had to accept cuts to salaries, pensions, education, health and the quality of public services, as well as increasing taxes (not for them big corporations or major capitalists of course), rising unemployment, shrinking of our (young) democratic rights and intensifying police brutality in order to achieve grand targets like entering the Eurozone, saving the country or hosting those bloody Olympic games. Now though, it seems that all these were lies. Nothing has been solved and all the sacrifices were in vain. They ask us for more. Much more. And the outcome can't be guaranteed, because -they say- we are all to blame.

Yes, despite the ever widening gap between the rich and the poor, despite the fact that the average pension is way lower than the EU-average or that our salaries are quite frankly ridiculous, beside the fact that I personally worked for 30 hours a week in the university for less than 50 euros a month, we're told it's our fault. Years of scandals, billions of military spending on useless junk, thousands of public sector golden boys, untaxable rich and a quasi-colonial way of privatizing public property and, apparently, it still is our fault.

Well, finally, we understood. It isn't.

Snakes of Avalon / Eternally Us

Ladies and gentlemen, let me present you with two, yes TWO, brand new, romantically exotic, truly dashing, intuitively point-and-clickable, absolutely freeware, decently sized, modestly shaped, cunningly illustrated, richly covered in audio, shockingly intelligent, mischievously funny, modernly innovative and absolutely worthy of your attention adventures, that will make your life this little bit better. Let me present you with Snakes of Avalon and Eternally Us. Two excellent specimens of indie adventuring discovered in the wild and dangerous lands of AGS. Two unique pieces of interactive entertainment enough to fill an evening with wholesome entertainments. Two exquisite works of art to bring your very personal computer to life. They are indeed marvelous!

Related @ Gnome's Lair:

• Darkstar - The Interactive Movie
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Dune Wars: The Dune mod for Civ IV

For some odd reason I haven't played a game of Civilization IV for more than a few years. Even more shockingly Civ IV has never been installed on my latest PC, despite being one of the first games ever reviewed for Gnome's Lair. Happily and thanks to this most interesting Rock Paper Shotgun post, things are about to radically change; apparently a new version of an excellent free mod for the game has been made available and it's all about Frank Herbert's political, epic, eco sci-fi masterpiece that was Dune.

The mod's name is none other than the rather apt Dune Wars and can be download in its spankin' new 1.8 version via modDB. It is of course free and apparently a total conversion of the original Civ IV, featuring a ton of new rules, buildings, graphics, units, models, sounds, factions, wonders, civ abilities and even AI, that should make this the best turn based strategy game in the Dune universe ever. The production values seem fantastic too, though nothing sounds as exciting as a worm eating up a unit or having the Guild transport units from other planets.

Here are the piccies that will whet your appetite (click for larger versions):

Related @ Gnome's Lair:

• And a dark fantasy Civ IV mod
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ten gnomish questions / Matt Barton

Matt Barton is one of the smartest and most interesting people you can find online discussing, loving and showing off old & new games. Now, although you should preferably get to know him via his work on Matt Chat, the Amrchair Arcade and some rather impressive books, reading the following interview should be both enlightening and considered as an appetizer.

1. Matt, care to introduce yourself to the merry retro loving lot that are the Gnomeslair.com readers?

I'm Matt Barton, host of Matt Chat, a weekly YouTube show dedicated to classic games. I'm also co-founder of Armchair Arcade and author of Dungeons & Desktops and Vintage Games (co-authored with my friend and colleague Bill Loguidice). I'm also an assistant (soon to be associate) professor of English at St. Cloud State University, where I teach classes in writing, rhetoric, and new media.


2. And what would you say some of your favourite games are? Any particular love for a genre or a gaming machine?

My favorite genres are adventure games, role-playing games, and strategy games. Some of my favorites include Baldur's Gate, Pool of Radiance, World of Warcraft, Civilization, and the Nancy Drew series of adventure games. I have many consoles, but my favorite gaming device is the PC. Going further back, I will always be an Amiga and Commodore fan at heart.

3. So, Armchair Arcade, how would you describe the site and what's the story behind it?

We were friends on a forum dedicated to Shane R. Monroe's Retrogaming Radio show. We talked about putting together an online magazine, and eventually set it up. For awhile we focused on "issues" and tried to make it look like a retromag. We were amazed by how much attention it got, frequently mentioned on Slashdot and many other sites (even Slate and the Discovery Channel). Eventually, though, we morphed into a blog format and started selling our features to other sites (especially Gamasutra). Now we use AA as our home base for communicating to fans and fellow retrogamers, talking about our latest projects, and so on.

4. Same question on the incredibly well produced Matt Chat episodes... How did you decide to start a video show on retro games, and what would you say is this little something that makes Matt Chat unique (for, believe me, it is unique)? By the way, love that gaming wall you got in the background.

Matt Chat has come a long, long way in a short time. When I first started, it was just me and a webcam trying to hawk my books. The production quality was terrible! But I wanted to learn more about videos because Bill and I are producing a feature documentary for Lux Digital Pictures (Gameplay: The Story of the Videogame Revolution). I figured I needed more experience with videos to really handle a project like that, so I kept learning and experimenting, trying to refine my techniques. If you notice, I usually try to put in one more technique or one more refinement per episode, so I'm always learning something new.

I don't think Matt Chat is unique. There are many, many other YouTubers out there doing similar shows. For instance, ianwilson1978 does great work on the Sega Genesis and Marlin Lee covers a variety of games. I guess one thing that makes my show special is that I feature games from all platforms, especially covering PC and computer titles that the others miss. Most other shows are dedicated to consoles, especially Nintendo classics. I figure those games already get enough love, so I try to cover ground that is not covered by the other shows--such as Dungeons of Daggorath for the Tandy CoCo, Tunnels of Doom for the TI-99/4A, or even the PLATO platform. I also feature interviews with classic developers, such as John Romero and Al Lowe. I'll soon release my interview with Chris Avellone.


5. Really, is it tough producing something of this quality on a weekly basis?

It can be. Sometimes my editing program (Sony Vegas Platinum) crashes so much during rendering that I'm tempted to just give up. I would really love a better setup! The other big problem is capturing footage from games, especially old Windows games. Even with fraps, virtualdub, and the rest, it can be a nightmare sometimes capturing decent footage.

Other than these purely technical problems, though, it's not hard at all. I can easily come up with things to say, and I like researching the games anyway. I also enjoy inserting inside jokes and humor, and interacting with the fans is a real joy.


6. How about your books? They are two on games and one on Wikis, correct? Do you feel gamers actually bother reading?

I think most gamers are highly intelligent; at least the ones I talk to. I know plenty of professors and graduate students who are serious gamers. But, of course, there are many who never pick up a book. That is sad, of course, since I couldn't imagine living life without good books to read. It's really important to read good books, not just newspapers and such. You can always tell when you're talking to an avid reader, because he or she will be more knowledgeable on a broader range of topics--plus, I think it makes you more articulate and, frankly, intelligent. I had a friend who read War and Peace just for fun, but he told me later he felt more intelligent after reading it. Some people laugh at comics and graphic novels, but they are actually much more sophisticated now than they used to be. You could certainly learn a thing or two from Moore's work.

There's really no excuse for being ignorant. So read!


7. Now, let's focus a bit on the rather epic Dungeons and Desktops. Why CRPGs? Could you briefly describe the book? Has it sold to your expectations? Did you enjoy writing it?

It's pretty much what it says; the history of computer role-playing games. I tried to talk about every important or even remotely influential game in the book, describing what makes them fun and how they fit into the grand history of the genre. I tried to show connections across eras and styles, so you could get a sense of the diversity. Someone may have heard of Baldur's Gate, for instance, but be unaware of Planescape: Torment, Pool of Radiance, or Eye of the Beholder. I meet people who may know all about Zelda and Final Fantasy, but have never heard of Ultima or Lord British. That bothered me, so I thought it was time to write a book on the topic.

The book has sold well. Of course, something like this won't be a bestseller. But I wrote this book for people like us, not the mainstream. By "us," of course, I'm talking about people who love games like Wizardry and Fallout and enjoy nothing more than talking and thinking about them.


8. Should we expect more books from you? Maybe even a new project or collaboration?

Almost certainly, though it's very hard to find publishers interested in game books. I have been dying to write a book on adventure games similar to D&D, but no takers so far. Bill and I have been talking about a book on the Atari 2600, and I've got one on virtual worlds that needs development. We will probably also write a book based on our documentary.


9. And now for something that interests me quite a bit on a personal level. How did you really manage to -effortlessly, it seems- combine an academic career with all this quality work on computer and video games?

In a sense gaming is my job. A professor is expected to research as well as teach, and game studies is an important part of new media. I'm presenting on aspects of gaming at two national conferences later this year (Computers and Writing, Rhetoric Society of America). People tend to think of "English" strictly as literature and grammar, but it's far more than that! There are many of us studying games as well as other technologies like wikis and social networking. All of these things involve communication and rhetoric.


10. Finally, have you thought about actually creating a game yourself?

I have, though I'm not satisfied with the results! But a few years ago I taught myself C++ out of some books and made a simple adventure game, which I entered into the Interactive Fiction contest. I was shocked that it was 28th in the 12th annual interactive fiction competition. At any rate, it was fun learning C++, and I'd love to try something more ambitious one day.

Related @ Gnome's Lair:

• The (review?) of The 8-Bit Book 1981-199X
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