Johnathon

As little as possible.
 
I remember having cheating my way through a couple adventure games when I was younger; but even then, shortly after doing so I was able to notice I'd taken most of the fun out of it. I made a rule of thumb pretty quickly to only seek a hint if I were stuck for at least a full month.
 
That is, spending about two hours a day (what my parents had allowed me on electronics), 7 days a week, for one full month. If I couldn't figure it out by then, I'd cheat on the current puzzle at hand. That means even if I only progressed one screen or something, and got stuck on the very next puzzle, I'd wait another full month before cheating again.
 
That, of course, was when I had access to the internet (or happened to have a specific hint book for the game I was playing). Sometimes I didn't, and so there wasn't even monthly cheating. I remember I began PQ2 when I was about 11, and didn't beat it until I was 16 (and yes, it took cheating).
 
But that's talking about hint books. Walkthroughs are a crime to both the designer and the player.

I'm curious about this too. Anyone know?

Please take what I have to say below with a grain of salt, as it is only my immediate sense on the matter. Nonetheless, given that I probably don't have as much know-how or background information as some of you guys do on Trowe, given what I did witness him saying here on this board months ago, and what he's just posted now on the update, here is what I honestly think; clear-cut, and non-sugar-coated. I could be wrong on some points or even on all, but anyhow:
 
If you ask me, Paul does believe in the project, and he does not believe that it is going to fail, and that is why he is behaving the way that he is. He is jealous of the Two Guys. He is jealous of the uniqueness and quality of the product they're producing, in comparison to his own resevoir of accomplishments at replay, and he is threatened by the idea of the project being finished and being successful.
 
I also believe that some of the influence to his sour behavior roots back to some bad blood between him and Mr. Scott Murphy, and the possibility that Paul, in some twisted sense, feels that Scott owes him something, because, unfortunately, Mr. Trowe doesn't seem to possess a true understanding of the concept of "charity" towards a friend. He seems, for example, to hold the unfortunate misconception that charity by definition means to help someone who is desperately in need so that you can grow him/her as a plant later on, only to cash in for your "friendly deed," because that is the easiest and most personally beneficial application of the virtue. (See Paul's attitude here)
 
And, I also believe that holding the position of CEO of a company implies it's own unique stresses.
 
And I think, as others have mentioned already, that he is also jealous of Chris Pope.
 
And... most notably... I believe that the more he continues, as he has been, the better he's going to make SpaceVenture look, and possibly the worse his own company. I take no pleasure in the irony of it for his company's detriment, but I must say, if it helps the Two Guys...
 
 
...not that they need it, Paul, not that they need it.
 
 
Again, I could be wrong, but this is what I've taken away from what I've seen over the past year. You guys tell me if I'm making any careless judgements here.

Please take what I have to say below with a grain of salt, as it is only my immediate sense on the matter. Nonetheless, given that I probably don't have as much know-how or background information as some of you guys do on Trowe, given what I did witness him saying here on this board months ago, and what he's just posted now on the update, here is what I honestly think; clear-cut, and non-sugar-coated. I could be wrong on some points or even on all, but anyhow:
 
If you ask me, Paul does believe in the project, and he does not believe that it is going to fail, and that is why he is behaving the way that he is. He is jealous of the Two Guys. He is jealous of the uniqueness and quality of the product they're producing, in comparison to his own resevoir of accomplishments at replay, and he is threatened by the idea of the project being finished and being successful.
 
I also believe that some of the influence to his sour behavior roots back to some bad blood between him and Mr. Scott Murphy, and the possibility that Paul, in some twisted sense, feels that Scott owes him something, because, unfortunately, Mr. Trowe doesn't seem to possess a true understanding of the concept of "charity" towards a friend. He seems, for example, to hold the unfortunate misconception that charity by definition means to help someone who is desperately in need so that you can grow him/her as a plant later on, only to cash in for your "friendly deed," because that is the easiest and most personally beneficial application of the virtue. (See Paul's attitude here)
 
And, I also believe that holding the position of CEO of a company implies it's own unique stresses.
 
And I think, as others have mentioned already, that he is also jealous of Chris Pope.
 
And... most notably... I believe that the more he continues, as he has been, the better he's going to make SpaceVenture look, and possibly the worse his own company. I take no pleasure in the irony of it for his company's detriment, but I must say, if it helps the Two Guys...
 
 
...not that they need it, Paul, not that they need it.
 
 
Again, I could be wrong, but this is what I've taken away from what I've seen over the past year. You guys tell me if I'm making any careless judgements here.

Please take what I have to say below with a grain of salt, as it is only my immediate sense on the matter. Nonetheless, given that I probably don't have as much know-how or background information as some of you guys do on Trowe, given what I did witness him saying here on this board months ago, and what he's just posted now on the update, here is what I honestly think; clear-cut, and non-sugar-coated. I could be wrong on some points or even on all, but anyhow:
 
If you ask me, Paul does believe in the project, and he does not believe that it is going to fail, and that is why he is behaving the way that he is. He is jealous of the Two Guys. He is jealous of the uniqueness and quality of the product they're producing, in comparison to his own resevoir of accomplishments at replay, and he is threatened by the idea of the project being finished and being successful.
 
I also believe that some of the influence to his sour behavior roots back to some bad blood between him and Mr. Scott Murphy, and the possibility that Paul, in some twisted sense, feels that Scott owes him something, because, unfortunately, Mr. Trowe doesn't seem to possess a true understanding of the concept of "charity" towards a friend. He seems, for example, to hold the unfortunate misconception that charity by definition means to help someone who is desperately in need so that you can grow him/her as a plant later on, only to cash in for your "friendly deed," because that is the easiest and most personally beneficial application of the virtue. (See Paul's attitude here)
 
And, I also believe that holding the position of CEO of a company implies it's own unique stresses.
 
And I think, as others have mentioned already, that he is also jealous of Chris Pope.
 
And... most notably... I believe that the more he continues, as he has been, the better he's going to make SpaceVenture look, and possibly the worse his own company. I take no pleasure in the irony of it for his company's detriment, but I must say, if it helps the Two Guys...
 
 
...not that they need it, Paul, not that they need it.
 
 
Again, I could be wrong, but this is what I've taken away from what I've seen over the past year. You guys tell me if I'm making any careless judgements here.

Please take what I have to say below with a grain of salt, as it is only my immediate sense on the matter. Nonetheless, given that I probably don't have as much know-how or background information as some of you guys do on Trowe, given what I did witness him saying here on this board months ago, and what he's just posted now on the update, here is what I honestly think; clear-cut, and non-sugar-coated. I could be wrong on some points or even on all, but anyhow:
 
If you ask me, Paul does believe in the project, and he does not believe that it is going to fail, and that is why he is behaving the way that he is. He is jealous of the Two Guys. He is jealous of the uniqueness and quality of the product they're producing, in comparison to his own resevoir of accomplishments at replay, and he is threatened by the idea of the project being finished and being successful.
 
I also believe that some of the influence to his sour behavior roots back to some bad blood between him and Mr. Scott Murphy, and the possibility that Paul, in some twisted sense, feels that Scott owes him something, because, unfortunately, Mr. Trowe doesn't seem to possess a true understanding of the concept of "charity" towards a friend. He seems, for example, to hold the unfortunate misconception that charity by definition means to help someone who is desperately in need so that you can grow him/her as a plant later on, only to cash in for your "friendly deed," because that is the easiest and most personally beneficial application of the virtue. (See Paul's attitude here)
 
And, I also believe that holding the position of CEO of a company implies it's own unique stresses.
 
And I think, as others have mentioned already, that he is also jealous of Chris Pope.
 
And... most notably... I believe that the more he continues, as he has been, the better he's going to make SpaceVenture look, and possibly the worse his own company. I take no pleasure in the irony of it for his company's detriment, but I must say, if it helps the Two Guys...
 
 
...not that they need it, Paul, not that they need it.
 
 
Again, I could be wrong, but this is what I've taken away from what I've seen over the past year. You guys tell me if I'm making any careless judgements here.

NICE!!! On eBay, it's probably still there, there's a Vesa local bus 486 motherboard with the 2MB screen card and lots of mem (like 64MB I think, wow, that's a lot for a 486) for only $100. (it's not mine, so no, not a shameless self promotion :) )
 
The only real way to play classic games in my opinion is on the real hardware (whatever that means haha). I just installed SQ4 on a 400MHz machine with Win98SE, but thanks to the AMAZING support for these games found in the "Archive" section of this site, SQ.net, I was able to update the program with patches, and on that computer, which is way too fast to normally play SQ4, but way too slow to play it in DOSBox, it can now be played, with all the music and digital sound effects including narration, timing issues resolved (no instant robot death!) and full screen, all smoothly with no lost frames (as would be the case under DOSBox).
 
I find that even on my faster, newer computers, games under DOSBox will lose frames, or even have a low framerate, while playing them on a "proper" machine imbues the game with the same fluid smoothness that they originally had. I tend to think that we, as people in general, forget how good gaming actually was (or has always been), as we view classic games through the modern lens of slow framerates under emulation and blurry images on non-multisyncing LCD screens. (remedied by using a CRT! :) )
 
Sorry for the ramblings and super long run-on sentences. :)

Alright, so... I gather some may be wondering as to why I'm bothering to post this, considering that we have DOSBox; but some of us perfer not to deal with minor glitches that come along with DOSBox, or may be severe hardcore retro gamers who want to play some of the games that DOSBox is not compatible with.
 
Or, some of you just may be serious 486 nerds like myself, so...
 
I thought I'd point you to a rare find:
 
You can buy Baby AT 486 motherboard (the ESA TF-486) from this website, newly designed by ESA to industrial standards, for $200.00. It has very nice expansion ability, the rare ability to use PS/2 keyboard and mouse with a 486, from the looks of it it meets all the standards necessary to easily build a custom SQ PC refering to Frans' article, and this board will probably last you forever. Retro Motherboards are literally the most difficult component to find at a good price and working condition these days (oftetimes getting ripped by bad sellers on eBay because they're availability has gone down and their price up.)
 
ESA would normally require a higher fee, as far as I know, to have them build you a new 486 motherboard, by calling them and getting a quote, but it seems they have produced extra of these for a particular client who didn't need them all, and so now the extras are being sold at this website.
 
Peripherals to go with a system based on this board could also easily be purchased from this other site. Memory, I recommend getting from S.A.Tech, as I've used them several times already.
 
And... here would be the manual for the motherboard.
 
Happy Building, for those of you geeks like me! :D

Great find! Not the sort of thing I'm into, but I'm always fascinated by people that buy old tech and do some good with it. There must be millions of obsolete chips and components out there that could be doing a serviceable job.

Alright, so... I gather some may be wondering as to why I'm bothering to post this, considering that we have DOSBox; but some of us perfer not to deal with minor glitches that come along with DOSBox, or may be severe hardcore retro gamers who want to play some of the games that DOSBox is not compatible with.
 
Or, some of you just may be serious 486 nerds like myself, so...
 
I thought I'd point you to a rare find:
 
You can buy Baby AT 486 motherboard (the ESA TF-486) from this website, newly designed by ESA to industrial standards, for $200.00. It has very nice expansion ability, the rare ability to use PS/2 keyboard and mouse with a 486, from the looks of it it meets all the standards necessary to easily build a custom SQ PC refering to Frans' article, and this board will probably last you forever. Retro Motherboards are literally the most difficult component to find at a good price and working condition these days (oftetimes getting ripped by bad sellers on eBay because they're availability has gone down and their price up.)
 
ESA would normally require a higher fee, as far as I know, to have them build you a new 486 motherboard, by calling them and getting a quote, but it seems they have produced extra of these for a particular client who didn't need them all, and so now the extras are being sold at this website.
 
Peripherals to go with a system based on this board could also easily be purchased from this other site. Memory, I recommend getting from S.A.Tech, as I've used them several times already.
 
And... here would be the manual for the motherboard.
 
Happy Building, for those of you geeks like me! :D

Alright, so... I gather some may be wondering as to why I'm bothering to post this, considering that we have DOSBox; but some of us perfer not to deal with minor glitches that come along with DOSBox, or may be severe hardcore retro gamers who want to play some of the games that DOSBox is not compatible with.
 
Or, some of you just may be serious 486 nerds like myself, so...
 
I thought I'd point you to a rare find:
 
You can buy Baby AT 486 motherboard (the ESA TF-486) from this website, newly designed by ESA to industrial standards, for $200.00. It has very nice expansion ability, the rare ability to use PS/2 keyboard and mouse with a 486, from the looks of it it meets all the standards necessary to easily build a custom SQ PC refering to Frans' article, and this board will probably last you forever. Retro Motherboards are literally the most difficult component to find at a good price and working condition these days (oftetimes getting ripped by bad sellers on eBay because they're availability has gone down and their price up.)
 
ESA would normally require a higher fee, as far as I know, to have them build you a new 486 motherboard, by calling them and getting a quote, but it seems they have produced extra of these for a particular client who didn't need them all, and so now the extras are being sold at this website.
 
Peripherals to go with a system based on this board could also easily be purchased from this other site. Memory, I recommend getting from S.A.Tech, as I've used them several times already.
 
And... here would be the manual for the motherboard.
 
Happy Building, for those of you geeks like me! :D

Hey, guys. Happy Easter. It's Space Quest Historian time. Yes, with a new intro lovingly rendered by the always amazing Christian Giegerich (the announcer may sound familiar, but don't worry, he's harmless). And some invaluable help from Michael Smith (SokarsStudio) for rendering the video -- apparently, the sheer amount of awesome generated by my special guest left my computer incapable of rendering it.
 
Anyway, enjoy. And sorry for the long, long, long-ass wait. (The guest appearances were filmed back in November/December!)
 
http-~~-//youtu.be/AlHXLJHBO8s
 
Big thanks to Colin Davis, PCJ and you-know-who for being great sports. :)
 
So, episode 2? Umm ... let me think about that ...

can you imagine how devasted I was when I found out Sierra fired Mark and Scott, every so often I chat with Al Lowe via Email, love chatting with the guy, he's a lot of fun, would like to meet him person one day and listen to him play the Sax

I will be happy if SQ7 ever get's made, I shipped out for the Army 1 year before the original release date and when I got done with Boot and AIT I went online looking for it and was very upset, hell when I called Sierra On Line they thought I was clueless, I told them I had the SQ Collection and it was showing Summer of 98, she still thought I was full of it but oh well

new to the forum, been coming to the site for a very long time, been a Space Quest Fan since 1992 when I was first introduced to SQ4 by a friend of mine, I later bought the SQ collection in 96 when it first came out seeing as I bought SQ5 the year before, as the years went on I was unable to play SQ on the newer operation systems and with Dial up at that time it was hard to get Dos Box set up until I finally got my hands on the XP Collection in 2007, I've played a lot of Sierra On Line games over the years, a lot I do miss playing including the old Dynamix Games such as Stellar 7 and Nova 9

Happy Birthday, Frans! Thanks for once again giving this place new life and allowing us to run it! Or for SpaceQuest.net just at all!

Happy birthday, Frans, you wonderful Dutch whirlwind, you! Brandon beat me to it, but yes, giant big-ass thanks for this playground in the sky we have come to know and love as the conjoined monstrosity of "SpaceQuest.net: The Virtual Broomcloset." I hope Your Dutchness has a great, fantastic one -- birthday, that is -- and many more to come.

\o/
 
Ceeeeeelebrate good times, c'mon (doo doo doo doo)

You're all going to hate this, but...
 

 
So happy 30th, Frans!

And now that you bring this up, I just thought I'd add: I think I recall Scott and Mark mentioning (or someone else saying they mentioned, during an interview, not necessarily recently, but years ago), that it was because of the "current" (of that time) goings on that Space Quest 4 resulted as such a dark game.
 
However, Space Quest 4 is a jewel of its own species (still worthy of being part of the series, in every respect, I think; yet so unique in its apocalyptic undertone), and I do believe such is one of the most invaluable qualities of a great author and storyteller; that is, to be able to utilize his/her current state of mind, whether on the up or down, to inspire his/her work in a way which brings it to life in an honest and convincing way.
 
I realize we're discussing a comedic series here, but I think the concept still applies. In any form of creative expression, an author's desire must be into it if it's going to be worth expressing to others - and that means if the work needs to ring a little close to home for the author, or to a degree serve as a means of therapeutic outlet, then, all the better - so long as it is balanced and doesn't completely overtake the work.
 
Perhaps I'm projecting too much my own strategy and values here. I'm not certain exactly how Scott and Mark have felt throughout the years; but every work is an expression and revelation of its creator(s), that is unavoidable.
 
Just try and tell me for a moment, even looking at Space Quest 3, that the whole bit about the Software Pirates ruining the series, and the cubicles with the overworked programmers being whipped wasn't a form of comedic outlet, or displacement therapy. And, if you ask anyone, they'll probably tell you they found it funny as hell when they played it.
 
From what I've read here, I have no doubts that Scott and Mark have every ability they need to make SQ7, and if they decided to (even and despite whatever feelings from the present or past that reside) it would still be awesome.
 
It's simply a matter of whether or not they desire enough to do it.

Aren't we all special? That's what my mother and my school said about me.

And now that you bring this up, I just thought I'd add: I think I recall Scott and Mark mentioning (or someone else saying they mentioned, during an interview, not necessarily recently, but years ago), that it was because of the "current" (of that time) goings on that Space Quest 4 resulted as such a dark game.
 
However, Space Quest 4 is a jewel of its own species (still worthy of being part of the series, in every respect, I think; yet so unique in its apocalyptic undertone), and I do believe such is one of the most invaluable qualities of a great author and storyteller; that is, to be able to utilize his/her current state of mind, whether on the up or down, to inspire his/her work in a way which brings it to life in an honest and convincing way.
 
I realize we're discussing a comedic series here, but I think the concept still applies. In any form of creative expression, an author's desire must be into it if it's going to be worth expressing to others - and that means if the work needs to ring a little close to home for the author, or to a degree serve as a means of therapeutic outlet, then, all the better - so long as it is balanced and doesn't completely overtake the work.
 
Perhaps I'm projecting too much my own strategy and values here. I'm not certain exactly how Scott and Mark have felt throughout the years; but every work is an expression and revelation of its creator(s), that is unavoidable.
 
Just try and tell me for a moment, even looking at Space Quest 3, that the whole bit about the Software Pirates ruining the series, and the cubicles with the overworked programmers being whipped wasn't a form of comedic outlet, or displacement therapy. And, if you ask anyone, they'll probably tell you they found it funny as hell when they played it.
 
From what I've read here, I have no doubts that Scott and Mark have every ability they need to make SQ7, and if they decided to (even and despite whatever feelings from the present or past that reside) it would still be awesome.
 
It's simply a matter of whether or not they desire enough to do it.

It's an issue with limited color pallettes. Admittedly, as a modern game, RCR doesn't technically *have* a limited color pallette - but the effect is done anyway, on purpose, since RCR is trying to emulate NES games (which all had the same issue). With only a limited number of colors and/or memory space to work with, you have to make sacrifices.
 
Classic NES sprites, IIRC, can only have up to four or five colors apiece. Thus, certain parts of things that logically should be different colors, often aren't - in this case, both the mop handle and head are comprised of black and three different shades of yellow/orange. In the case of RCR, if I remember correctly, almost *all* weapons are that same yellowish color - even the guns. It's necessary to make them visually distinct from the player character, who in this case is mostly blacks and blues (which would drown out any dark-colored weapons). It's especially important in RCR, as you can change your character's appearance with different hairdos and outfit colors - I think he chose yellow because it stands out very well against almost anything that isn't itself yellow or green.

Google Plexers it is. Feel free to use it in all future posts.

It looks like Nockgeneer is right, but how could such smart people have missed out on this opportunity for a cool name...?
 
Anyways, I'm changing my (largely irrelevant) vote, "google plexer" is too good a name to waste.