Frede

As time goes on, I wonder whether a new SQ is really the way to go, or whether it might be better to allow another universe to be created. Something fresh, something built on the 20+ years that have happened since.
 
If there were something, very loosely, called SQ, about the only thing I would keep is the conceit - a space janitor being plunged into a major crisis and bumbling his way through despite himself. EVERYTHING else, from the Sariens via Vohaul to Beatrice can be forgotten about.
 
Or, to put it another way. I would want a game to be written that had a great story - if the authors then want to set it within the SQ universe, I'm OK with that. I just wouldn't want a game that leant on the nostalgia name value and ignored game mechanics and plot as a result. Or one that tried to hard to recapture some imagined "magic" rather than pushing forward.
 
But let me be very clear, Kent. If they ever make a new SQ, you can have all my money.

Ryan's a bum-paddle.  Good lord, I've had to read lengthy PMs and emails from him that are pretty intense.  But he's mostly harmless, like Earth.
 
Sierra Gamers is an odd group, for sure.  But I know who my friends are in the community - I can't believe people were dismissive of you, Collector, or that they deleted your posts.  Just about everyday I wanna send you a gift basket.  But I digress.
 
Of course a new SQ isn't going to be VGA P&C.  I never expected that.  I just wish Activision would have given Mark and Scott the fucking millions they provided TOG with to make an SQ game or to Space Venture.  Space Venture looks great to me so far, and imagine what it would be if it had a multi-million dollar budget.  Sigh.
 
Anyway, you're all a bunch of assmunches and I'm glad you're my friends.
 
 
Bt

I turn 30 in two months' time, and I still love to throw my toys out of the pram at regular intervals.

It's technically still in progress, but we haven't made any progress in a while; everyone seems to be busy with other stuff  :(
 
Hopefully, we will still be able to finish it some day; AFAIK, more than half of it is done.

Many of "those massive flamefests" were instigated by Ryan Nicotera. I left the Sierra Gamers group too. I was getting tired of the flaming crap as well. But that was not the only thing. I was having a number of other things that I had just got tired of. One of the admins kept deleting my posts, even though I was not posting anything offensive. I had one of the admins contacting me for help over technical issues and then never respond to my messages. Many of the new members that were never part of any of the core Sierra communities were pretty dismissive of me. Not that I need my ego stroked, but to be treated by some outsider as if I knew nothing about solving problems with playing Sierra games is a bit much. Then some would just tell others to ignore what I poated and get the game from GOG, not realizing that I have designed many of GOG's releases directly or indirectly. After Rudy turned over admin of the group I had decided I had had enough.
 
That said, I am not sure I want to deal with a new group started by the author of many of those flamefests, as much as I would love to have the rights for a new SQ given to the 2 Guys. I think that is inevitable if the new KQ does well enough. Additionally, a new SQ group can only further spread the SQ community too thin. Brandon Klassen had already started his SQ fans group. If anything, any FB presence of the SQ community should be an extension of this one. Does anyone know who admins the main SQ group on FB?

I'm wary, but meh, I've joined. There are more admins in the group, after all. I can't see it hurting anything. At least it's a positive statement to make.
 
I did quit Sierra Gamers and Sierra Chest because of those massive flamefests, but truth be told, the impulse to do so had been there for a while. Nostalgia is often spoken of as a good feeling, but in my experience, it's also responsible for a lot of vitriol and miscomprehension.
 
No, a game published by a major studio in 2015 is never going to boast VGA graphics and a point'n'click interface. Said major studio will never "give" or "lend" its valuable IP to the original designers. Ken Williams was a shrewd businessman, not Santa Claus. Addressing someone as "Sir Knight" and referring to your social sphere as "Daventry" will never be anything but extremely awkward. And so on. On a more superficial level, I've also found it tiring to have to scroll through the same questions asked by newcomers who are seemingly unable to stay informed. There's no excuse for a "fan" of Space Quest to have missed SpaceVenture at this point. Am I being too harsh? Quite possibly. But I do think a Sierra-related group that looks forward is a breath of fresh air. I always make a point out of reminding people that Sierra never looked backward. 
 
That said, all things above considered, I did turn down a friend request from Ryan in the aftermath of those incidents. It's no different than Ben Lindelof and Benjamin Penney who aren't my cup of tea at all. I have been able to gather that the feeling is mutual, so it's not something that bothers me, but why pretend people like that are my "friends" just because of one shared interest?
 
I have little doubt Ryan regrets some of his antics. I've been there. But it's a little too son after telling everyone they should "fuck off and die". People probably didn't really feel like chatting with me after the infamous SpaceQuest.Net hack or some of the other crap that went on back then anyway. Some people mellow. We'll see, but till then, I don't mind giving him the benefit of the doubt with something like this.

And the music is great!

Thanks for the kind words! "Mind candy for your drugs" might be my favorite description yet. :)

Seriously, give this game a spin.  It's like mind candy for your drugs.  Or something.
 
I loved it enough to endorse it without being paid anything, and I'm a giant corporate shill, so this should tell you something.
 
 
 
Bt

Press X to Cedric.
 
Frede will love it! :D

Some of you might remember that I was tinkering with a 3D version of SQ3 intro a while back. Well here it is now. With a tune borrowed from Alien.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgv9_n_dg9Q&feature=youtu.be
Here's some additional renders

I feel your pain. I had to break mine into bits and stitch them together. Had to do the same for my segment in the first SQH podcast. I got rid of all the outtakes for both, but by god, there were a lot of farting noises, angry faces, a meowing cat (yes, really) and expletives (both in Danish and English) in there.

It seems I underestimated mr. Trowe immensely. Kudos to you, Paul - as we all know, it takes some serious balls to ask for forgiveness like that. Hope you stick around in some capacity :)
 
Now, I realise the following is quite irrelevant now, but I just want to clear something up...
 

I know Paul Trowe doesn't have anything to do with Activision. I was trying to stress how glad I am that the Guys have opted to stay in charge, rather than cutting a deal with Activision or the like. I've still got quite a way with words, huh? ;)

OKAY

So I've been scouring the game's resource files with SCI Viewer. I discovered something a little extra, though not at all helpful to actually get this thing triggered (at least not yet). I looked at the disassembled script, the messages resource, and the heap resource for the Time Pod room. According to the heap file, this is the frog's instance:
instance frog of Sq4Feature {     x               = $0     y               = $0     z               = $0     heading         = $0     noun            = $0     modNum          = $ffff        ; -1     nsTop           = $b7        ; 183, setMark     nsLeft          = $1b        ; 27, mode     nsBottom        = $bd        ; 189, open     nsRight         = $3e        ; 62, '>', replay     sightAngle      = $6789        ; 26505     actions         = $0     onMeCheck       = $6789        ; 26505     approachX       = $0     approachY       = $0     approachDist    = $0     _approachVerbs  = $0     lookStr         = $25        ; 37, '%', message     doVerb() } Notice the nsTop, nsLeft, nsBottom, and nsRight values. Being familiar with SCI0 code conventions, these are values for a bounding box on the screen. In this case it seems to be for a click event. Here's a picture of the area the bounding box encloses, which happens to be Roger's left shoulder when sitting in the Time Pod, which makes sense given the content of the message itself:
 

 
So what interaction is it? At first glance it seems to definitely not be use, look, or talk as none of those trigger it. Indeed, looking, using, or talking to Roger's shoulders yields generic responses for the entire pod. No inventory object I've tried works either. Everything else is greyed out (lick, smell, walk). At first I thought that Blocky here was correct and that it was probably an interaction for one of the greyed out icons. Yet, in the heap resource the message is tied to an identifier called "lookStr" (presumably "Look String"), which logically would mean that it is only triggered by looking at it. But it obviously isn't. This leads me to believe that it only triggers under certain circumstances. So what are those circumstances?
 
I thought it might be illuminating to boot up the beta version of SQ4 and see if I can somehow find a way to trigger it. Unfortunately, the Blue Frog line isn't in the beta version. However, it is in the disk versions. Sadly, the debug mode was removed from all SCI1+ final releases. I'm going to continue to dig into the script and heap files, though, and see if I can spot some condition under which it triggers.

Greetings!
 
As you may have seen elsewhere on social media, several members of the Space Quest/adventure gaming fan community participated in the recent Adventure Jam event and created an original point-and-click adventure in just two short weeks.

The end result is Late Last Nite, an adventure in excess -- available for download now! I'd provide some details on the plot, but I hate to spoil the surprises. Let's just say that things get weird.
 

 
As for the familiar faces who worked on the project, there's Akril, Datadog, drdrslashvohaul, Frede, Resulka, Troels, and me.

We invite you to play the game and let us know what you think! Oh, and if you feel inclined, leave a rating for us on Late Last Nite's Game Jolt page.

Take care!

Jess

Good question!  :)
 
I think Gareth said it pretty well. To me, the remake eschews all kinds of subtlety. With all fear of sounding a tad pretentious, it's just a loud, busy game. A spaceship entering hyperspace looks like Space Quest IV's time rip tunnel on LSD. Yes - merely travelling in space apparently looks more spectacular than travelling through time or entering a black hole. Roger screams like the Wicked Witch when he's melted by acid, and BOOM - we've got an instant replay lined up for you too! Which I don't really think of as a classic Space Quest moment, btw. It's a one-off that's unique to this game, isn't it? The backgrounds look like Ray Harryhausen on a sugar rush.
 
I could go on, and I do realise that none of the stuff I highlight above is inherently bad. But it makes it extremely different. I'm not sure I agree 100% with Gareth that the remake has no artistic value. It does have a very interesting style, which adds a unique twist to the game, but we do know that adding artistic value to SQ1 was not Sierra's main motivation for remaking it.
 
Applying the jazz standard terminology, the loud, busy SQ1VGA is not just another interpretation of Some Day My Prince Will Come or Greensleeves. It's Weather Report's take on Rockin' in Rhythm. And, like I said I do enjoy SQ1VGA's art style, I actually like that version, but I can also totally understand why an oldschool jazz purist probably won't. Much like I can relate to the more negative points of view here.

Well, admittedly, the above has made me more critical of SQ1VGA. As a fan, I care about this kind of trivia, so how could it not? Something that has not been mentioned is that KQ1 got a remake that is way closer in spirit to the original. Which is interesting, because King's Quest, as Ken's darling, was always used as the guinea pig for technical innovations. Interestingly, this one time, this status arguably allowed KQ1 to get a faithful, authorised-by-the-designer remake. I think that's rather telling as well. 
That said, SQ1VGA was always the odd man out, style wise. And I definitely fell for it more so than the original back when I first discovered Space Quest. It had more immediacy to it, so it got easier across to me. Now that I'm older, it feels a little overblown.

Well, admittedly, the above has made me more critical of SQ1VGA. As a fan, I care about this kind of trivia, so how could it not? Something that has not been mentioned is that KQ1 got a remake that is way closer in spirit to the original. Which is interesting, because King's Quest, as Ken's darling, was always used as the guinea pig for technical innovations. Interestingly, this one time, this status arguably allowed KQ1 to get a faithful, authorised-by-the-designer remake. I think that's rather telling as well. 
That said, SQ1VGA was always the odd man out, style wise. And I definitely fell for it more so than the original back when I first discovered Space Quest. It had more immediacy to it, so it got easier across to me. Now that I'm older, it feels a little overblown.

Good question!  :)
 
I think Gareth said it pretty well. To me, the remake eschews all kinds of subtlety. With all fear of sounding a tad pretentious, it's just a loud, busy game. A spaceship entering hyperspace looks like Space Quest IV's time rip tunnel on LSD. Yes - merely travelling in space apparently looks more spectacular than travelling through time or entering a black hole. Roger screams like the Wicked Witch when he's melted by acid, and BOOM - we've got an instant replay lined up for you too! Which I don't really think of as a classic Space Quest moment, btw. It's a one-off that's unique to this game, isn't it? The backgrounds look like Ray Harryhausen on a sugar rush.
 
I could go on, and I do realise that none of the stuff I highlight above is inherently bad. But it makes it extremely different. I'm not sure I agree 100% with Gareth that the remake has no artistic value. It does have a very interesting style, which adds a unique twist to the game, but we do know that adding artistic value to SQ1 was not Sierra's main motivation for remaking it.
 
Applying the jazz standard terminology, the loud, busy SQ1VGA is not just another interpretation of Some Day My Prince Will Come or Greensleeves. It's Weather Report's take on Rockin' in Rhythm. And, like I said I do enjoy SQ1VGA's art style, I actually like that version, but I can also totally understand why an oldschool jazz purist probably won't. Much like I can relate to the more negative points of view here.

Let's remember that trying to do it on the cheap was probably necessary given the lower sales of the remakes. The remakes did not sell well enough to warrant their continuation. People wanted new games, not remakes of games that they had already played. Ken once said that he had learned that you can't really hurry the creative people, so taking the remakes out of the hands of the original designers was probably a necessary measure to keep a low return game within budget. Also, the 2 guys would have been commanding higher salaries. I'm sure that Ken also wanted his primary designers working on new games where sales could be expected to be higher. The one paying the bills has to make sound fiscal decisions.

I like the art style, even though it's different, and I very much like Josh's writing. SQ6 is more overtly funny than the other games, and that resonated very well with me, back when I'd still miss some of Scott's more subtle jokes because of the language barrier. It's the Curse of Monkey Island of Space Quest, and CMI is one of my overall favourite adventure games.
 
But the story I find very forgettable. I don't care much for Stellar either. So the whole plot, in my opinion, ends up playing second fiddle to the click events, the dialogues, Roger bickering with the narrator, etc. And that's ultimately quite a weakness.
 
I reach for SQ6 very rarely, but when I do, it always manages to at least raise a chuckle. But the story never manages to make me care.

Just don't know if we would be able to get him...

Longtime Two Guys fan, SpaceVenture backer, finally registered after ages of lurking to post on this thread.
 
Gary Owens was a true legend.  His work was a major part of my inspiration to pursue the work I do now in performing, radio, and voice acting.  He'll be missed terribly by all his admirers, and SpaceVenture will definitely feel his loss.
 
 
George Lowe started his version of Space Ghost by trying to slightly imitate Gary Owens' original.  The Owens impression was soon dropped entirely, though, as the Cartoon Network version of Space Ghost quickly became a comedic character completely seperate and distinct from Owens' original.  Lowe's Space Ghost voice rapidly evolved into a differently-textured and uniquely-performed character, he made the performance all his own.
 
If Lowe were interested in doing SpaceVenture (and I'm not assuming he would be, I usually hate these fantasy-casting things as there's so much more that goes into the decision for an actor to take a part) it'd be a perfect nod to Owens while keeping the narration unique and great to listen to in its own right.

I think Anatoly's opinion of Ivan Lohzin might well be fair. It's easy to be biased against something that is inherently a rip-off, but he also loves the first Duke Nukem (or "Nukum") game, and that game is infamous for lifting sprites and textures wholesale from other games. So, yeah, Ivan Lohzin could very well be that bad.
 
That said, I do know he kinda has his angry shtick, which is something that goes for most comedic reviewers on the 'net, I think. I can't quite decide whether I'm fond of that style or not.
 
Also, not having completed at least the shareware episode of Doom is what we call a "serious character flaw" around here  ;)

From a completely selfish standpoint, as a coder myself, I'd love to hear more about behind-the-scenes programming stuff.  I'm curious what the really hard parts about building the early Space Quest games were, and how those challenges changed as technology advanced.  Culminating in, I suppose, a comparison with which parts of SpaceVenture are proving difficult and why.  I know we've heard bits and pieces about this already in previous episodes, but hearing about the progression of programming over time would be fascinating.
 
To me, at least.  :)