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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 Sier

by 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
    Some of the best parts of the SQ4 talkie are the sarcastic narrated death screens. And SQ5 has neat animations. The manual tells you to "save early, save often" for a reason.
    - caf 2y ago
      My subconscious has just dredged up the memory "you take a good long whiff of the acid, and .. whoah, talk about clean sinuses!". That might have been from the later remastered SQ I even?
      - Joe_Cool 2y ago
        Sounds like Space Quest 4. That one had a Nose/Smell and Mouth/Taste icon. The narrator (Gary Owens) was also amazing in the CD version.
  - the_af 2y ago
    I enjoyed the death sequences too. I was sure to have plenty of savegames before I tried anything, of course.
- Joe_Cool 2y ago
  You can die in Monkey Island. Twice. One is a Sierra Spoof complete with a Sierra death dialog. That one lets you continue: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6F55am-rOY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6F55am-rOY The other has to do with the fact that Guybrush can hold his breath for 10 Minutes. And only ten minutes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah5o3aAeZso https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah5o3aAeZso If I remember correctly that is the only real game over in any later Lucasfilm/LucasArts adventure game. EDIT: I just remembered the jumping puzzle in Indy3 where you died all the time when jumping on the wrong tile. Or the Knight Statue that axed either Indy or his father. Or you got shot when you punched Hitler... You could also die in Manic Mansion and Zak McKracken. Lucasfilm games killed you quite a lot. LucasArts stopped doing that.
the_af 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...). Interesting! When I played SQ II, it was a pirated copy and I had no hint book. Also, no access to the Sierra Hint Line from my country. And no Internet websites to google the answer, either. So I beat them all by myself. All of those games were pirated, and the hardest was SQ 4 which would randomly crash to desktop, and I wasn't sure if this was supposed to happen, or some badly cracked copy-protection thing, and to this day I still don't know. Spanish is my native language, so the inspiration to try things like this was pretty cool: "mooom, how do you say "rub" in English? I think I'm supposed to rub these berries on the dude!" > I forgot how slow you walk.. ugh. Oh, yes. Those early adventures didn't let you teleport to the next screen either, you had to very slowly walk all the way. I used to use savegames for fast teleporting: "ok, this didn't work, I want to go back to that other screen but it's so far, let's restore my savegame".
- jandrese 2y ago
  Space Quest 4 was one of the only times in my childhood that I found a legit error in a game. There is one part in the space mall with the ice rink where you can go into an arcade. You get a quest to do something, but if you then try to click on one of the arcade cabinets it will cause the game to throw an error. I remember it because I actually called Sierra to tell them about it. The person on the other end even fired up the game and verified it, then told me vaguely that the solution to the puzzle was something else. I'm guessing the tech support weren't allowed to give hints because they had a paid tip line.
  - the_af 2y ago
    > You get a quest to do something, but if you then try to click on one of the arcade cabinets it will cause the game to throw an error. Wait, I'm pretty sure that's the crash to desktop I'm remembering! It was definitely in the arcade. I tried randomly clicking to avoid the Time Police (or whatever those androids were called) and the game would error out. I was never sure if it was an error or copy-protection. I remember winning the game, but don't remember what I did to bypass this (remember: no access to any hint line). So it was an actual bug, and not copy-protection after all? Wow.
pgib 2y ago
It wasn't obvious that you had to _administer field sobriety test_??
8372049 2y ago
> Whenever I discovered LucasArts (DOTT I think was first), Legend of Kryndaria, Discworld, etc, it was such a breath of fresh air. Discworld MUD or some other game? The MUD is still alive and well!
- zerocrates 2y ago
  They probably mean Discworld (1995)/Discworld II/Discworld Noir, which are all point-and-clicks.
  - 8372049 2y ago
    You're probably right. I did not know about them, will have to check them out. Thanks!
    - Joe_Cool 2y ago
      They are great. 1 & 2 might have aged less well than Noir. Some puzzles are quite nonsensical, true to adventure game standards of the day. Sierra gamers found it too easy, people new to the genre too hard. Eric Idle as Rincewind is amazing though.
Rapzid 2y ago
Ahhh, the hint line.. I would have been sent to boarding school if there was money left after that phone bill.
- swozey 2y ago
  LMAO I have no idea how much money it cost but I do remember my parents yelling at me for it. I'm pretty sure they charged by the minute. I wonder how many 8 year olds like me called them and how they talked about that in the break room. Super funny to think about as an adult.

by swozey 2y ago

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
  Some of the best parts of the SQ4 talkie are the sarcastic narrated death screens. And SQ5 has neat animations. The manual tells you to "save early, save often" for a reason.
  - caf 2y ago
    My subconscious has just dredged up the memory "you take a good long whiff of the acid, and .. whoah, talk about clean sinuses!". That might have been from the later remastered SQ I even?
    - Joe_Cool 2y ago
      Sounds like Space Quest 4. That one had a Nose/Smell and Mouth/Taste icon. The narrator (Gary Owens) was also amazing in the CD version.
- the_af 2y ago
  I enjoyed the death sequences too. I was sure to have plenty of savegames before I tried anything, of course.
Joe_Cool 2y ago
You can die in Monkey Island. Twice. One is a Sierra Spoof complete with a Sierra death dialog. That one lets you continue: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6F55am-rOY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6F55am-rOY The other has to do with the fact that Guybrush can hold his breath for 10 Minutes. And only ten minutes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah5o3aAeZso https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah5o3aAeZso If I remember correctly that is the only real game over in any later Lucasfilm/LucasArts adventure game. EDIT: I just remembered the jumping puzzle in Indy3 where you died all the time when jumping on the wrong tile. Or the Knight Statue that axed either Indy or his father. Or you got shot when you punched Hitler... You could also die in Manic Mansion and Zak McKracken. Lucasfilm games killed you quite a lot. LucasArts stopped doing that.

the_af 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...). Interesting! When I played SQ II, it was a pirated copy and I had no hint book. Also, no access to the Sierra Hint Line from my country. And no Internet websites to google the answer, either. So I beat them all by myself. All of those games were pirated, and the hardest was SQ 4 which would randomly crash to desktop, and I wasn't sure if this was supposed to happen, or some badly cracked copy-protection thing, and to this day I still don't know. Spanish is my native language, so the inspiration to try things like this was pretty cool: "mooom, how do you say "rub" in English? I think I'm supposed to rub these berries on the dude!" > I forgot how slow you walk.. ugh. Oh, yes. Those early adventures didn't let you teleport to the next screen either, you had to very slowly walk all the way. I used to use savegames for fast teleporting: "ok, this didn't work, I want to go back to that other screen but it's so far, let's restore my savegame".

jandrese 2y ago
Space Quest 4 was one of the only times in my childhood that I found a legit error in a game. There is one part in the space mall with the ice rink where you can go into an arcade. You get a quest to do something, but if you then try to click on one of the arcade cabinets it will cause the game to throw an error. I remember it because I actually called Sierra to tell them about it. The person on the other end even fired up the game and verified it, then told me vaguely that the solution to the puzzle was something else. I'm guessing the tech support weren't allowed to give hints because they had a paid tip line.
- the_af 2y ago
  > You get a quest to do something, but if you then try to click on one of the arcade cabinets it will cause the game to throw an error. Wait, I'm pretty sure that's the crash to desktop I'm remembering! It was definitely in the arcade. I tried randomly clicking to avoid the Time Police (or whatever those androids were called) and the game would error out. I was never sure if it was an error or copy-protection. I remember winning the game, but don't remember what I did to bypass this (remember: no access to any hint line). So it was an actual bug, and not copy-protection after all? Wow.

pgib 2y ago

It wasn't obvious that you had to _administer field sobriety test_??

8372049 2y ago

> Whenever I discovered LucasArts (DOTT I think was first), Legend of Kryndaria, Discworld, etc, it was such a breath of fresh air. Discworld MUD or some other game? The MUD is still alive and well!

zerocrates 2y ago
They probably mean Discworld (1995)/Discworld II/Discworld Noir, which are all point-and-clicks.
- 8372049 2y ago
  You're probably right. I did not know about them, will have to check them out. Thanks!
  - Joe_Cool 2y ago
    They are great. 1 & 2 might have aged less well than Noir. Some puzzles are quite nonsensical, true to adventure game standards of the day. Sierra gamers found it too easy, people new to the genre too hard. Eric Idle as Rincewind is amazing though.

Rapzid 2y ago

Ahhh, the hint line.. I would have been sent to boarding school if there was money left after that phone bill.

swozey 2y ago
LMAO I have no idea how much money it cost but I do remember my parents yelling at me for it. I'm pretty sure they charged by the minute. I wonder how many 8 year olds like me called them and how they talked about that in the break room. Super funny to think about as an adult.