3 ms·

Same feelings but specifically about Space Quest II. I played SQ I way later in life, and SQ III didn't resonate as strongly with me. The rest were no longer E

by the_af 2y ago

Same feelings but specifically about Space Quest II. I played SQ I way later in life, and SQ III didn't resonate as strongly with me. The rest were no longer EGA "text input" games either. SQ II brings back memories. I learned some of my English with it, too. I remember the feeling of satisfaction when I discovered I could "rub berries" on Roger Wilco ;)

sedatk 2y ago
SQ III had a hilarious Sierra HQ part.
- the_af 2y ago
  Oh, don't get me wrong, I liked The Pirates of Pestulon. It's also the last EGA SQ to my recollection. Call me weird but the limited palette of EGA graphics appeals to me. It just didn't have as big an impact on my young self as SQ II.
- Gormo 2y ago
  Leisure Suit Larry III, released around the same time as SQ III, also has a very similar fourth-wall-break at the end of the game. The Sierra team must have had Blazing Saddles on their minds in the late '80s.
- HellDunkel 2y ago
  The sierra adventure games presented an overly simplistic world view and then the devs subverted that. It still amazes me today.
- aricz 2y ago
  Scumsoft Software and Elmo Pug, the fat dude that walked around whipping the programmers. Scumsoft Software was of course Sierra On-Line, and Elmo Pug was Ken Williams. They did get away with it, Ken Williams approved :D
- lance_ewing 2y ago
  That scene at the end, where they land in the car park of the "Redwood" building in Oakhurst where the Sierra offices were, was one of my favourite parts. Like many of you I'm sure, I dreamed of one day working for Sierra in that building.
macksd 2y ago
I actually attribute my high typing speed to the practice I got with OPEN DOOR, TAKE KEYCARD, CLOSE LOCKER, LOOK CAULDRON. Police Quest, King's Quest, Space Quest. Good memories.
- aricz 2y ago
  Haha, I remember this with Leisure Suit Larry 1. When you knock on the door at Lefty's Bar, a guy opens a hatch in the door and asks "What's the password?". Then you need to type "ken sent me" and press enter. I was 7-8 years old at the time, and it was hard for me to type "ken sent me" in the 5 or 10 seconds you have to give him the password. Sometimes I asked my dad to help me out, so he could write it for me hehe. But we found a trick after a while, you could just set the game to SLOWEST at that part, and you had much more time to enter the password. Good times!
swozey 2y ago
I loved SQ but it frustrated me so much. As a kid I could NOT get anywhere with it without one of those hint books with the red garbled text or calling the Sierra Hint Line (on my parents bill...). All of the Sierra games, as much as I loved them, would just piss me off with dying constantly. Having to do a specific thing at a specific time or dying. You had to do SUCH specific things. I remember the park/lake scene and pulling people over driving in PQ being impossible until I found hints. I'm not sure I ever beat a Sierra game outside of LSL. Maybe a KQ and potentially a QFG, but I definitely didn't beat a PQ. I LOVED PQ3. I think out of all of them that SQ was the one that really, really pissed me off, and scifi is my favorite genre, with no other scifi adventure games back then (other than beneath a steel sky which I also got nowhere with), total bummer. Whenever I discovered LucasArts (DOTT I think was first), Legend of Kryndaria, Discworld, etc, it was such a breath of fresh air. There was a Black Cauldron game that I LOVED. I remember all of these games so vividly. I don't think I remember many other games nowadays to that degree. Baba Yagas hut, the wizards house, cleaning the stables in qfg, Otto standing outside the bar.. Could very well be because I died so much and played scenes over and over.. edit: This made me want to give them a go again.. https://playclassic.games/games/point-n-click-adventure-dos-games-online/play-the-black-cauldron-online/ https://playclassic.games/games/point-n-click-adventure-dos-... edit2: I forgot how slow you walk.. ugh. There are a LOT of modern Adventure games now on Steam. It's had a bit of a comeback and they're usually affordable games. I'm playing the Plague Doctor of Wippra right now. All of the Wadjet Eye games are really cool too.
- eloisant 2y ago
  Yes, Space Quest was fun overall but dying was not. I think it was LucasArts who started to make adventure games where you can't die.
  - caf 2y ago
    My perhaps rose-tinted memory is that the deaths were pretty comic in Space Quest.
    - Joe_Cool 2y ago
caf 2y ago
I am almost certain that I played an EGA version of SQ IV, even if there was also a "VGA optional" version.
- the_af 2y ago
  Wow, are you sure? I thought SQ IV was VGA only; I certainly played it in VGA. Regardless of whether an EGA version existed, the style of the sprites was already different. The sprites from SQ I, II & III belong to an earlier era -- hard to describe, but if you remember them you must know what I mean. More abstract & pixelated, designed for low-res and low-color displays. They bring back memories! I don't want to wax nostalgic -- but I will anyway. I've come to think the more primitive/abstract the graphics, the more they engage the imagination. Similar to Scott McCloud's concept of "closure" from Understanding Comics, maybe? While playing SQ II, I could believe the world was enormous even when it was actually quite limited. In the jungle of planet Labion, I believed I was exploring a vast wilderness. Games with more realistic graphics -- even when they are sandbox games -- don't give me the same feeling anymore. Of course, I'm also older and more jaded, so there's that too ;)
  - lance_ewing 2y ago
    I think my PC still had EGA when I first played SQ4. I don't think there was a separate EGA version as such. I think it was the VGA version but I believe the interpreter supported a dithered mode that used the EGA palette but was dithered to try to match the VGA colours.
    - caf 2y ago
      This fan wiki seems to say the EGA version had a unique title screen: https://spacequest.fandom.com/wiki/Space_Quest_IV:_Roger_Wilco_and_the_Time_Rippers_EGA https://spacequest.fandom.com/wiki/Space_Quest_IV:_Roger_Wil...

by the_af 2y ago

sedatk 2y ago

SQ III had a hilarious Sierra HQ part.

the_af 2y ago
Oh, don't get me wrong, I liked The Pirates of Pestulon. It's also the last EGA SQ to my recollection. Call me weird but the limited palette of EGA graphics appeals to me. It just didn't have as big an impact on my young self as SQ II.
Gormo 2y ago
Leisure Suit Larry III, released around the same time as SQ III, also has a very similar fourth-wall-break at the end of the game. The Sierra team must have had Blazing Saddles on their minds in the late '80s.
HellDunkel 2y ago
The sierra adventure games presented an overly simplistic world view and then the devs subverted that. It still amazes me today.
aricz 2y ago
Scumsoft Software and Elmo Pug, the fat dude that walked around whipping the programmers. Scumsoft Software was of course Sierra On-Line, and Elmo Pug was Ken Williams. They did get away with it, Ken Williams approved :D
lance_ewing 2y ago
That scene at the end, where they land in the car park of the "Redwood" building in Oakhurst where the Sierra offices were, was one of my favourite parts. Like many of you I'm sure, I dreamed of one day working for Sierra in that building.

macksd 2y ago

I actually attribute my high typing speed to the practice I got with OPEN DOOR, TAKE KEYCARD, CLOSE LOCKER, LOOK CAULDRON. Police Quest, King's Quest, Space Quest. Good memories.

aricz 2y ago
Haha, I remember this with Leisure Suit Larry 1. When you knock on the door at Lefty's Bar, a guy opens a hatch in the door and asks "What's the password?". Then you need to type "ken sent me" and press enter. I was 7-8 years old at the time, and it was hard for me to type "ken sent me" in the 5 or 10 seconds you have to give him the password. Sometimes I asked my dad to help me out, so he could write it for me hehe. But we found a trick after a while, you could just set the game to SLOWEST at that part, and you had much more time to enter the password. Good times!

swozey 2y ago

I loved SQ but it frustrated me so much. As a kid I could NOT get anywhere with it without one of those hint books with the red garbled text or calling the Sierra Hint Line (on my parents bill...). All of the Sierra games, as much as I loved them, would just piss me off with dying constantly. Having to do a specific thing at a specific time or dying. You had to do SUCH specific things. I remember the park/lake scene and pulling people over driving in PQ being impossible until I found hints. I'm not sure I ever beat a Sierra game outside of LSL. Maybe a KQ and potentially a QFG, but I definitely didn't beat a PQ. I LOVED PQ3. I think out of all of them that SQ was the one that really, really pissed me off, and scifi is my favorite genre, with no other scifi adventure games back then (other than beneath a steel sky which I also got nowhere with), total bummer. Whenever I discovered LucasArts (DOTT I think was first), Legend of Kryndaria, Discworld, etc, it was such a breath of fresh air. There was a Black Cauldron game that I LOVED. I remember all of these games so vividly. I don't think I remember many other games nowadays to that degree. Baba Yagas hut, the wizards house, cleaning the stables in qfg, Otto standing outside the bar.. Could very well be because I died so much and played scenes over and over.. edit: This made me want to give them a go again.. https://playclassic.games/games/point-n-click-adventure-dos-games-online/play-the-black-cauldron-online/ https://playclassic.games/games/point-n-click-adventure-dos-... edit2: I forgot how slow you walk.. ugh. There are a LOT of modern Adventure games now on Steam. It's had a bit of a comeback and they're usually affordable games. I'm playing the Plague Doctor of Wippra right now. All of the Wadjet Eye games are really cool too.

eloisant 2y ago
Yes, Space Quest was fun overall but dying was not. I think it was LucasArts who started to make adventure games where you can't die.
- caf 2y ago
  My perhaps rose-tinted memory is that the deaths were pretty comic in Space Quest.
  - Joe_Cool 2y ago

caf 2y ago

I am almost certain that I played an EGA version of SQ IV, even if there was also a "VGA optional" version.

the_af 2y ago
Wow, are you sure? I thought SQ IV was VGA only; I certainly played it in VGA. Regardless of whether an EGA version existed, the style of the sprites was already different. The sprites from SQ I, II & III belong to an earlier era -- hard to describe, but if you remember them you must know what I mean. More abstract & pixelated, designed for low-res and low-color displays. They bring back memories! I don't want to wax nostalgic -- but I will anyway. I've come to think the more primitive/abstract the graphics, the more they engage the imagination. Similar to Scott McCloud's concept of "closure" from Understanding Comics, maybe? While playing SQ II, I could believe the world was enormous even when it was actually quite limited. In the jungle of planet Labion, I believed I was exploring a vast wilderness. Games with more realistic graphics -- even when they are sandbox games -- don't give me the same feeling anymore. Of course, I'm also older and more jaded, so there's that too ;)
- lance_ewing 2y ago
  I think my PC still had EGA when I first played SQ4. I don't think there was a separate EGA version as such. I think it was the VGA version but I believe the interpreter supported a dithered mode that used the EGA palette but was dithered to try to match the VGA colours.
  - caf 2y ago
    This fan wiki seems to say the EGA version had a unique title screen: https://spacequest.fandom.com/wiki/Space_Quest_IV:_Roger_Wilco_and_the_Time_Rippers_EGA https://spacequest.fandom.com/wiki/Space_Quest_IV:_Roger_Wil...