suejak

Fester Mudd is EXTREMELY good if you like early-90s LA adventure games and Josh Mandel-style humour.

No, this is in the final game. You can get it. I have it in my inventory in my most recent playthrough. I tried to screenshot it, but whatever. It's easy enough to get. You can go back and get another spore at any time in the game before you climb down from the log into the cave-maze. This is AFTER you've used the spore on the mean guy with the club -- you can still go back and get another spore. At the end of the maze sequence, you tumble down to where the little pink (?) men are. If you still have a spore in your inventory, it bursts once you hit the ground. This incapacitates Roger, and you gotta stare at your screen for a while, or maybe go pee. It will take him a while to wake up again. When you come back, he'll be awake and he'll have an "empty spore" in his inventory that uses that graphic.

Are there actually people in this world who think that Roberta Williams was a good designer OR writer...?? I think Sierra really started making great games when they began bringing in the genuine writers to supplement the people who were just "in the right place at the right time." Roberta Williams, Scott Murphy, and Al Lowe are all outstanding figures in Sierra lore, but none of them is really legendary for their writing/design talent. Before Sierra, the latter two were small-time programmers and Roberta was the wife of the big chief. Roberta in particular led a long series of mediocre titles that were primarily notable for their technical innovations. In any case, Roberta, Scott, and Al certainly don't hold a candle to Josh Mandel, Lori Ann Cole, and most prominently Jane Jensen, all of whom were primarily writers and designers, and all of whom are associated with consistently quality games (criminally underappreciated in Josho's case, despite his talent and passion: the good parts of SQ6, ignored by marketing; Freddy Pharkas, one my favourite Sierra titles; and Callahan's Crosstime Saloon.) By the way, Mop Jockey, the only thing I really disagree with you about is your repetition of the canard that adventure games are dead (or stagnant or suffering). I don't know how many new adventure game releases annually will be necessary to get people to stop saying things like that. I also don't think you established that Roberta was responsible for the action portions of KQ8. She was a vehement opponent of the industry's trend toward action, calling it a sign that computers were now affordable by the common man instead of "consumers of a certain income level."

Where's Leslie S. Balfour at these days? All I know for sure that she ever did was write a bunch of manuals and play the lawyer in the Current Inside Copy thing... I feel like there were a couple of female writers who could have but for whatever reason never got games of their own.

Really enjoyed this week's podcast, as usual. I wanted to comment on the "hero" topic... Two things, the second more important than the first: First, it seems like people have a preconceived idea of what Space Quest is and who Roger Wilco is, and try very hard to shoehorn the factual events of the games into those pre-conceived molds. Both Troels and the guest commentator claim that Roger is selfishly motivated and a "path-of-least-resistance kind of guy." I'd say this is wrong. In SQ1, there's nothing anti-heroic about Roger going to blow up the Deltaur. "A desire to save his planet" and "a desire for glory" are both offered as anti-heroic by the commentator in the podcast... Really? That is typical Hollywood heroism. Having a personal interest in saving the world (e.g., saving your home) does not make you any less brave and heroic when you could have simply run away. "A desire for glory" is interesting as an "antiheroic" motivation, considering the most self-consciously hero-based Sierra game, Quest for Glory, is literally about a hero being motivated by a desire for glory, at least if the title is to be believed. Are the QfG games about an antihero then? Going to Shapier in QfG 2 or Tarna in QfG 3 are as "antiheroic" as going to the Deltaur: you're going out of your way to save people who aren't yourself, either just to save friends or for glory, right? It's definitely not self-preservation. Now, Roger Wilco IS an anti-hero, of course. But that's just because he's got traditionally non-heroic qualities -- he's awkward, a bumbler, sorta stupid, etc. However, there's no reason to take it to the extreme that everything he does is unheroic. He's very obviously brave and resourceful as well as awkward and stupid. Second, the real purpose for this post is that I wanted to voice something I've always felt: Scott Murphy doesn't really have any idea what he's doing. Now, Scott Murphy is probably a big part of the reason the SQ series is so fun, but that aside. People often point to Scott Murphy quotes to bring insight to a discussion, but I'm not sure why -- Scott has yet to show that he has any sort of clear conception of what Space Quest is, or even that he had a clear idea at the time he was making the games. I've heard him describe Roger as a "path-of-least-resistance kind of guy" before, but think about it: Roger chooses to go to the Deltaur instead of running away in his pod. That's the HARDEST path. In SQ3, he chooses to save the Two Guys when he himself is 100% perfectly safe (although I enjoy the meta interpretation about saving his inventors). SQ5 is pretty obviously heroic, but that's not a Scott Murphy game. In SQ6, Roger goes out of his way to save Stellar, and this time there's no Beatrice time-paradox problem threatening his own existence. So that wasn't the path of least resistance -- you're saving a damsel in distress just because you care. The only games that effectively cast Roger as an accidental or lazy hero are SQ2 and SQ4 -- because Roger is directly, personally threatened. Both games are about "not dying," rather than about going out of your way to save something or someone without being directly threatened. Every plot development in SQ2 and 4 is about Roger being chased and backed into a corner like a rat. He literally flees from one place to another, and the only way to not die is to shut down Vohaul himself (this applies to both 2 and 4). So my point here is less about whether Roger is a hero or an anti-hero, and more about how amazing it is that Scott Murphy doesn't get his own games. I say Scott Murphy is the anti-hero! He's unwittingly given us an extremely fun series, despite himself!

Hmm... I checked out the page of one my favourite fangames, URI Quest, and it was marred with a bizarre negative review by some guy named David Smith. Is there any way for others to offer alternative opinions? There are only a handful of decent non-demo AGI fangames, and this guy makes it sound like URI Quest isn't very good. On the contrary, it's one of the only AGI fangames that is any good at all. There's a pretty clear bias that slips into his review, too, when he mentions that URI Quest "takes from" his game, which I've never played and now have little desire to. Any interest in a) allowing others to leave reviews, b ) having a more neutral review, or c) having a simple description in lieu of a review? EDIT: lol - turns out David Smith also reviews his own (incomplete) games on the wiki, too.　 "The graphics are pretty good on this game. (I drew most of them.) The technical aspects are also pretty good, but this is really much more of a teaser than really a playable demo. The plot is pretty well fleshed out, but unfortunately, the execution for the making of this game was poor. As a group project, it should of gotten done quickly, but poor organization was its downfall. Kenneth really needed to keep tighter raps on the people making elements of the game. Since he was often hard to reach, most people probably lost interest in working on it. I only ever intended to draw a few since just to get it going, but no other artists joined. I have no idea now where this project is going." Does the wiki really need this weirdo's opinions and slander all over every article?

This is great! Thanks, Collector. I had no idea you were involved in so many great projects. I'm a little confused about your work to bring Gold Rush! to modern PCs, though. Correct me if I'm wrong, but most of the classic AGI games work flawlessly in DOSBox, no? I've actually never had significant problems getting most old games to work fine using DOSBox or SCUMMVM. Even Willy Beamish, which is unsupported by SCUMMVM due to no one working on hacking that engine, seems to work fine in DOSBox.

Ohhh, there's an sciwiki and an agiwiki. Cool!

Great post! I've often wondered this as well. Thanks, Collector. Is there a similar page for AGI games? I can't find one on the wiki... So moved that you have my game, MunkeeMan, on there. I made that when I was 13 over Memorial Day weekend, and I actually never submitted it to anyone. I sent it around the AGI mailing list looking for help getting the victory message to show. You'll notice that once you win the game, it just stops responding. Old database entries used to have my dad's name on it, Howard Johnson. Oh well.

This is a little off-topic, but am I the only one here who doesn't view adventure games as some kind of storytelling medium? I've seen that phrasing pop up a surprising amount in this little community, which is surprising considering that Space Quest has never been very strong on the "storytelling" front, per se. Most of the "story" you're told is illogical and arbitrary. The core of the experience comes instead from, you know, the game -- the exploration and the interaction with the world, events, characters, puzzles, etc. In other words, the participatory elements of the story. It seems to me that if you want to be told a story, there are much better media for it. Anyway, back on topic, I'm equally supportive of both self-conscious nostalgia and innovation (especially with old IP). As long as Sierra adventure series are kept within the adventure genre, I'll be excited for any new products. Finally, Sierra's storied and very real innovation was on the technical front -- everyone agrees with that -- but this necessitated gameplay innovations as well. Every substantial change in technology (AGI, SCI parser, SCI icons, FMV, 3D, digital sound, speech, etc) necessarily carried with it changes in the way the game was constructed. My SQ5 experience was worlds different from my AGI SQ1 experience due to the technology used to construct the world I was exploring.

I genuinely considered a Woodruff tattoo once upon a time... ...So glad I didn't do that...

I think the real problem was that the original quote was from someone at Activision and went along the lines of: "I've seen it, and it's not a point-and-click, and it's awesome." This led to misunderstanding that it wasn't even an adventure game at all-- I'm guilty of having made the same mistake and lashing out on Twitter. They corrected the misunderstanding and I apologized. So I think people will only really be upset pre-release if it's not an adventure game... or of course if it looks awful.

Yeah, this is great news! I'm only vaguely cautious in my optimism... The "indie focus," re-release mumbo-jumbo, and the new KQ are all very exciting. The only downside I can envision is that gog.com re-releases tend to be better-supported and better-maintained than big company re-releases. I wouldn't be surprised if an Activision Steam release of the SQ collection lacked the original documentation, etc. -- all the good stuff that gog.com includes in every one of their releases.

:-/ Best response tweet: "you're listed on NASDAQ are you taking the piss."

By the way, check the very bottom of this for some exciting gibberish: http://www.sierra.com/etc/designs/atvi/sierra/scripts/main.js I was surprised how much emotional impact that logo has. They better be careful how they use it. EDIT: Oh wow... https://twitter.com/geoffkeighley/status/497872149403930624

The sierra.com website should have at least thrown us a bone with a classic twinkle, sparkle, or fanfare. The fact that it didn't, and moreover shows a slick 3D animation, makes me suspicious that they'll be doing any decent adventure game stuff. Pulled that right out of my sphincter.

Yeah, I learned from your podcast that for both KQ5 and SQ4, the vast majority of characters are voiced by Sierra employees or (for Roger Wilco) family friends. In any case, it seems very unlikely that someone who would go on to be a pro voice actor would take such a small role, and moreover uncredited.

I recently discovered this podcast. It's really spectacular! I can hardly believe how well-produced it is for an "amateur" affair, and even more importantly the content is so deep and interesting. Blew my mind to hear the Supertramp drummer's interview when I didn't even know he'd done the SQ3 music! From the easter egg stuff to the music trivia, this is a really top-notch thing. (Roger's voice only on Roland for SQ3... wow... Plus it sounds so much better!) The podcast is bizarrely funny too. Even found myself enjoying the fan fiction sections :blink: Keep digging deep and bringing us awesome SQ trivia and music! (And I guess Space Venture stuff is cool too... ;))

Yes, I upset Jaesun :)

Mr Other Guy also did the HL2 G-Man: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTl_EervAuQ

As far as I know, this has been a mystery forever, as the voice went uncredited. This might imply that it was a non-professional or a family friend or something. I can't shake the feeling that the voice sounds eerily similar to the Half-Life scientist voice... Just two different guys hitting the same squeaky-nerd stereotype? Lloyd: http://spacequest.wikia.com/wiki/Lloyd HL Scientists: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvWLceZaXSk If it's the same guy, then I wager the original Lloyd voice actor was either this guy or this other guy. Mr Other Guy, by the way, was Torin in Sierra's 1995 Torin's Passage and worked on many other Sierra titles... He used to lived in Seattle, relatively close to Oakhurst... And of course, the original Half-Life was published by Sierra... Does anybody know?

Hey guys, Long-time SQ fan (I remember writing upset letters to Sierra management when the adventure branch was closed down), but a recent nostalgia binge has brought me back into the loop... Couple things I wanted to say. First of all, I love the overall positive vibe of this community. People like Fronzel Neekburm aside (who really smells like another, much worse classic-gaming site I visited for a while), there is an incredibly mature, fun, mutually supportive, and genuinely funny vibe in this group. The Space Quest Historian podcasts are stellar, and I just got around to all of the fantastic new fan content: the last fan games I'd played were the AGI classics, back when I made my own AGI games as a teenager, and it was incredible to discover the 2012-2013 revival. Second, SpaceVenture looks great. I think we can all agree, if we're honest with ourselves, that the Two Guys have a checkered history in gaming, and I don't think they can be blindly trusted to produce a perfect product. However, I think they have NEVER delivered a perfect product, but they HAVE successfully given so many things over the years (specifically the years 1986-1995) that there's no reason to riot over potential misuse of swiping puzzles or something otherwise unrelated to the core of the game. Nobody wants to make a good game more than these two guys, who have been forced out of the industry twice as long as they were in it. I have no doubt that the game will be funny, fun, charming, and full of half-finished thoughts: just like every Space Quest game. It will be good, swiping puzzles or no. Third, there's a lot of discussion about how 3-4 are the best SQ games. Totally disagree, and I don't get why 1 is always written off. SQ 1, both EGA and VGA, are easily my favourites in the series. The humour wasn't all there yet, but it's such a tight, exciting, and coherent trip, it's probably ironically the best-designed of the series. And of course, Kerona is probably the best planet of the entire series, providing a classic yet generic atmosphere and a nice mix of the wild and the civilized. 3-4 were good for their self-referential fourth-wall humour and oddball plots/locations, but nobody's gonna call The Sarien Encounter "their worst work" while my Internet still works!! P.S. Was funny to see how nice this community was to Paul Trowe even when he was at his weirdest. Good people.