Mop Jockey

Hey, do you think you guys could remove and/or edit the posts mentioning my RL name? Digital footprint and all and just, if a potential employer is looking me up one day, I don't want this thread to pop up. It's not exactly like my name is John D'oh.

What do you guys feel is the better fan sequel?

Hey, I just wanted to say that I'm the admin of the We Want a New SQ group, and yeah, I was quite an asshole on SG. For that I'm sorry, but I'd hope that me as a person wouldn't, as some have suggested here, disassociate from the group due to me personally. That's why I made a number of respectable Sierra-fandom related people co-admins, I wanted to bring together a group of people who are both well-liked and well-versed in Sierra and Space Questy stuff. I really doubt anyone from the "Sierra" brand or Activision know who I am. But that's besides the point... I made this group as yes, a vocal petition. I figured now would be the best time to try to get as many people together to say they wanted a new SQ as possible given that Sierra-related stuff is kind of in the spotlight again. I would not however want The Odd Gentlemen to design a new SQ unless they hired Scott as Creative Director and Mark as Art Director on it. Ideally, I'd want Scott to design and direct the game, Mark to co-design and lead the art team, and Josh Mandel to write a lot of the narration. I think I can speak for a great deal of SQ fans when I say an SQ game that didn't feature either all or at least Two of the Three Guys wouldn't be acceptable. While I would ideally love a hi-res 2D, retro style SQ7, I think we all know that will sadly never happen. But I think out of all the Sierra properties, Space Quest has the best chance of working really well as an episodic series; it already had that 'old sci-fi serial' feel to it, and it was the most intelligent of Sierra's series IMO - It was their Monkey Island and a revival stands a good chance of being a success. I think if we speak loud enough and SpaceVenture does well enough, it could happen. Space Quest was a big hit for Sierra way back when and Sci-Fi is as big as it ever was, given the popularity of nuStar Trek and Doctor Who. That said, I would ideally like a theoretical SQ sequel to be, for one, a sequel rather than a "reimagining" and to have more traditional game mechanics than the new KQ game did. KQ was always a testing ground for new formulas and styles; SQ on the other hand always had a set style of gameplay which demanded a high level of interactivity, and outside of hiring a professional Sci-Fi writer or Matt Groening, no one can match Scott/Mark/Josh's humor. And to sum this all up, once again, I apologize for having been such an asshole, the community had just gotten really divided and really ugly and there were a lot of bad vibes and I guess I was in a bad position (RL wise) where I was much more susceptible to it. Wish I could take things I said back and repair my standing with some of you but c'est la vie. I just hope you don't think of me as "Paul Trowe 2.0", and I hope some of you would be willing to join and help the effort to get a final Roger Wilco adventure out there. It's been 20 years, the guy's had enough naptime.

I meant full on, open world 3D like the cancelled Escape Factory SQ or KQ8. Josh's SQ7 was what I'd term 2.5D, if the original games were 2D. The reason it got a C&D was because it called itself "Space Quest 7". TSL got C&D'ed originally because they called themselves KQ9.

I grew up on King's Quest and it was my first introduction to Sierra, to adventure gaming, to fairy tales, and to PC gaming in general, and as such that series will always have a special place in my heart. For the longest time, by which I mean, until only a few months ago, King's Quest was my favorite computer game series of all time, and was quite honestly a big obsession of mine, a passion I at times got quite overzealous about. But recently, more and more, I find myself drawn to Space Quest. I've been a fan of Space Quest since 1997, but it always came at a distant second to my love of KQ. But lately, I've gone on a replay binge of all things Sierra, and I've found that, of all Sierra's series and games, Space Quest is the one I find myself most frequently returning to. I've never been a big fan of Gabriel Knight - I don't hate the series but I've never seen the appeal. King's Quest has an interesting vibe and a unique spirit, and I am excited that it's officially coming back this year, but I feel KQ is like the gateway drug, if you will, to Sierra. Maybe I'm just burned on fantasy and all of it's tropes, but I find myself wishing more for an official revival of Space Quest; and feel if I had to choose between the KQ game in production or a new SQ quest, I'd choose SQ without any hesitation. Space Quest was underrated and undermarketed by Sierra, and is too often overlooked by the adventure game community in favor of KQ or Gabriel Knight. Space Quest is an amazing mixture of science fiction, pop culture and comedy, and messes with and often breaks many common tropes. It's a very unique series, and unlike many of Sierra's series, it also has a relatively consistent tone. Sure, we can argue about art style differences in IVGA or V or VI - But the general sense of jaded cynicism, acidic wit and death humor in the context of an interesting and quite original sci fi universe, with a rockin' soundtrack are elements which can be found in every SQ game, no matter which of the Three Guys was doing the writing. It's a series that could have stood on it's own without the Sierra brand behind it, it could easily have been a LucasArts game or a Westwood game, it doesn't rely on the 'Quest' moniker or Sierra baggage as much as some of the older lines do, which, having been marketed better, could've been a big time success on par with say, Monkey Island. It had a truly interesting, well-rounded protagonist who, despite his being a galactic loser, we all rooted for; it had just as developed side characters, interesting worlds, lots of laughs, and in some ways, it was ahead of its time; I don't think the same can be said for any of Sierra's other series. Space Quest was Sierra's true, hidden crown jewel. (Forgive me - it's 6am here, I haven't slept yet so if I didn't write this as eloquently as I could've, I apologize) I'm interested in hearing your views. If you agree, disagree, or anything in between.

I just want to chime in and say I happen to like Stellar more than Beatrice. She seems like a more natural fit for Roger than Beatrice, even if Bea is a wankmeister.

Oh by CoMI approach I didn't mean for it to be as "pretty" as that game, I simply meant as Hi-Res as that game. Basically, I'd want graphically some mixture of 5 & 6, but of course grungy. I don't feel SQ is a series that could do well with 3D unless said 3D was done well. I wouldn't want the aesthetics I've seen on SpaceVenture in an SQ game. Part of the appeal of SQ for me is it's retro feel, I suppose. I wonder if we could rally a fan petition for Josh and Colin to resume work on their game? The more I hear about it, the more I want it, even if it meant it coming out in an unfinished beta format.

Thought you guys might appreciate this, found it on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEI4m8-m854

Let's say an official SQ7 or SQ continuation was ever released. What do you want to see? Where would you want to see the story go? What do you think the next adventure Stellar mentions at the end of 6 should be like? IMO, one of the biggest missed opportunities/tragedies in gaming is that we didn't get an SQ game in '97. Same art direction as Curse of Monkey Island but Space Quest-ified. With some resolution to the Beatrice-Stellar problem and gags on '90s sci fi.

I do wonder if people's opinions about the "vibe" would be different if none of the "art was outsourced to Korea" and "Scott doesn't like it" stuff was known.

I agree SQ6 has a weak story. But when it comes to Sierra games, the plot never really mattered to me as much as the journey itself, if that makes sense. That's why I've never really gotten into PQ or Gabriel Knight and have tended more toward KQ and SQ.

I was born in 1990. First discovered SQ through my dad discovering SQ1VGA in a bargain bin sometime in late '97 or early '98. Was already a Sierra fan though.

May I ask-- What about the vibe feels different? I actually feel that the original 1-3 are different from 4-6 and SQ1VGA in terms of vibe-- SQ1, the original, has some snark, but feels pretty much like straight sci-fi compared to the later games; SQ2 feels like a parody, but...Less snark. SQ3 we get a bit of snarkiness, but aimed at Roger...But again, a bit. In SQ4 we get the beginning of treating Roger like he's a total dumbass, we get the treatment of the player as sort of dumb, too (not to offend, playful of course), we get the very cynical and acidic wit and vibe...SQ5 feels like a return to the more straightforward feel of 1-3 but there's still that acidic undercurrent, and SQ6 takes the cake in it's treatment of Roger and the player. SQ1 VGA feels much more in line (IMO) with 4-6 for me because of this. Plus, SQ1 VGA began the tradition of having the ships look ridiculous - The Arcada looking like a chicken and the Deltaur looking like an insect; the Garbage Scow in 5 looking like a vacuum cleaner; the DeepShip looking like a jock strap. And then you have such classic moments in SQ1VGA like the "Instant Replay" death and the taunting, jaded death message about lawyers; the death message when you die of thirst on Kerona. While the art style might be different, I've never felt the vibe was off...Am curious to hear your POV :)

I didn't say you hated it. I agree the soundtrack wasn't the greatest. The only SQ game I feel that had a totally great soundtrack all the way through was 3.

Thank you. What's interesting is that, while people complain about the '50s look of the game, it isn't really THAT out of touch with what at least Scott wanted: "SM: [sQ5] was interesting. It occurred to me that Mark had been into Star Trek much more than I had, not that that's a bad thing by any means. I didn't really start watching those until the last five or six years (weird, eh?), and I've been digging it. Mark is also a big fan of comic books, as are virtually all the artists I have ever known. The Dynamix development system in those days leant itself well to the comic style, and it did end up with a kind of "Roger Beamish" look, if you will. I was glad that he kept the cartoon look. That was how we'd wanted the games to look from the start and I never wanted that to change." So, at least to Scott, SQ was supposed to have a cartoony sort of look--a look that SQ5, SQ6 and SQ1VGA were blasted for. I've never seen either of the guys criticize the look of the VGA remake, more just that they didn't have as much creative control as they wanted.