Troels Pleimert

I don't think Astro Chicken is loaded with explosions, in the sense that he automatically detonates whenever he comes in contact with something ... but hey, artistic license. Just seeing Scott's face before he springs the feathery little weasel is priceless. :) The animation of the ScumSoft guard getting gunned down is my personal favorite. Not because he gets gunned down, mind you, but the animation in that particular moment is just jaw-droppingly spectacular.

Wanna hear something odd? I always thought the Radio Shock/Hz So Good theme was in an odd time signature. This is the first time I've heard it in straight 4/4. When I play the CD version of SQ4 with OPL-3 music (AdLib/SoundBlaster), that theme loops funny and turns into 14/8. Which I gotta admit, I actually thought was rather clever -- like the robot was slightly broken, perhaps -- until I now realize it was an accident. :)

I have listened to it a couple of times, but need to give it a few more listens. All I can say so far is I'm very impressed. :)

This is an interesting point. Because of the events in SQ6, fans have somehow turned this whole Bea/Stellar/Roger thing into a love triangle that may or may not have staggering repercussions. All because The Two Guys painted themselves into the "Bea bears Roger's young" corner at the end of Space Quest IV, and the sudden, unexplained appearance of Stellar in SQ6. That being said, @Datadog's portrayal of Beatrice in Incinerations was perhaps one of the most apt, realistic portrayals of Roger's "damsel-in-not-so-much-distress" as a three-dimensional character I could ever have hoped for. I think it's because we've only got the events in SQ5 to go by, to be perfectly honest -- where Bea and Roger's relationship is just in its gestating period, and Bea is perhaps a bit underwhelmed (to put it mildly) with Roger's personality. We know that, somehow, these two work things out ... but, like many relationships (cough), Bea and Roger are off to a rocky start, and this is what SQ5 shows us. With that as a basis, Bea continues on in fan works as a somewhat overbearing but overly critical woman who points out Roger's flaws and gives him a hard time for his bumbling personality. Well, on the other hand, you have to wonder what Bea sees in him, apart from his ability to rescue her from situations that catch her off-guard. ;)

Cheers, guys! That was a lot of fun! Despite the late announcement and the resulting low turn-out, I couldn't be happier with how it went. I hope everyone had a blast, and I sincerely hope this hasn't been the last time we've hung out with The Two Guys. Well, maybe if we keep the tentacle porn discussions down to a low murmur next time, we'll have our shot. ;) (I'm just kidding. Bring on the tentacles.)

This is true. Until we know more about Ace's back story, it's hard to really get a feel for him in terms of what kind of protagonist he'll be. But we did get some juicy insider info , so we know we're not too far off. ;) Good point. Roger may be accident prone, but (in the game world) a really, really lucky guy. The NPC's in Space Quest games aren't aware of how many times Roger has been skewered, eviscerated or mutilated over the course of the series. So to them, he must be the luckiest guy in the galaxy, really; having survived all of the weird things he has experienced with little more than a deep-felt sense of self-preservation and copious amounts of dumb luck. Ace doesn't seem like the type who would rely on dumb luck, however. He seems more in control of his surroundings. His motivations, however, seem rather similar to Roger's: he's not really here to save the world or go gallivanting off on some noble pursuit for the sake of glory and fame; he just wants to get by. A reference I know Scott would relish is, "The dude abides." (Lower-case 'D' intentional.)

Those are all great input; thanks, guys. As we're probably aware, Chris is head honcho of something called Social Stars Web, which helps celebrities use this newfangled socia media technology we're all so terribly excited about. And, like most of us, he was a major Sierra fan as a kid who found a way to turn his adolescent obsession into something tangible and rewarding. These two things combined sort of explain how he came to be Space Pope and also why the SpaceVenture has such illustrious voice actors attached, although I was definitely planning to probe that field of inquiry more deeply. Heh. I said "probe." Also, this thing rocks.

Hey, Akril! Yeah, sorry for not being more specific the first time round. If you haven't noticed, I'm basically making this shit up as I go. ;) I wasn't expecting you to do all that. ;) Just whatever you feel comfortable with, then I'm sure someone else will step in and fill in the blanks. Okay, raise of hands? No one? LucasArts-style, to start off with. Someone else can fill in the glorious portraits, if one should need them. Chest height. Standard fare. The latter. That animation could be used for anything, including bending down to crawl through something. Who said anything about clothe-- er, standard "purple Xenon janitor's uniform" for Roger and "green StarCon power woman" suit for Bea. Again, standard fare. Thanks for playing, by the way. I know this isn't a lot to go on, but this is sort of "reverse game design" philosophy at work here: whereas artists usually await inspiration from the game designers, this time we're all (I guess?) waiting for the art to inspire us. But think of it this way: this means you get to throw us a few curve-balls, and we'll have to design around it. Or at least Photoshop our way out of it. ;)

Great job! Really fantastic work. Kinda reminded me of the intro to Delphine's Flashback, if you've ever played that, although you really nailed the SQ3 style (and I love that you used original sprites, like the Guys walking animation, or the warp animation!). I'm adding this to the Two Guys From Andromeda Google+ page immediately.

Hey, Akril! I was dearly wishing you would drop by this thread. ;) Insert long, blathering, sycophantic run-on sentence about how fantastic the graphics in Pledge Quests 1+2 were. Well, we haven't really talked that much about specifics. But just to get the ball rolling, I could lay out some details for a "starter kit" and we could build from there. Or people could break off and do their own thing. But -- even though I can't speak for others -- here are the bare minimum of what I would need to build a generic Space Quest fan game: Resolution: Since you suggested keeping to the Pledge Quest style (and I really like that, because they were great), let's stick with 320 x 200 SCI VGA style. Color depth: As high as you want. Backgrounds: Inside of Aluminum Mallard with cockpit Xenon in orbit Space shot - just space :) Space station hallway Some planet surface 1 Some planet surface 2 Any planet surface you dream up is good. Gets the imagination going. Surprise us. :) Also, the 3D models you had lying around would be great. Game makers could use elements from the backgrounds to construct new ones in Photoshop to spice things up. Sprites: Roger (walking, talking, crouching, grabbing) Beatrice (walking, talking, crouching, grabbing) Some kind of alien 1 (walking, talking) Some kind of alien 2 (walking, talking) Some kind of robot 1 (moving, talking, special move) Some kind of robot 2 (moving, talking, special move) The "special move" could be anything, like breathing fire, shooting electricity, falling apart, whatever. Surprise us. :) Assets (to be photoshopped in wherever needed): Face of Vohaul as a hologram Aluminum Mallard outside Wrecked spaceship outside Xenon Orbital Station outside Inventory items - just your standard fare: Keycard Flashlight ID Card Crowbar Batteries Piece of paper Bizarre electronic doohickey of no obvious description I can think of a hundred ways the above list could be morphed into a game with very little Photoshop effort.

The Hangout with The Two Guys From Andromeda from the Geek Media Expo in Tennessee will be live at this url: http://youtu.be/1JUFhtA_Cro

The Two Guys are confirmed for Hangout at 1 pm CDT GMT -5:00. I'll start the Hangout half an hour earlier, in approximately 50 minutes, so we can get settled. Hope to see you there!

Ah, something sensible at last. ;) And it's coming from Fred? Holy shit! ... Nah, just kidding; you know I love you all equally. Seriously, thanks for the input, Fred! The social media angle was definitely something I wanted to touch upon, but I didn't know if it would be interesting to other people or just come across as two nerds blowing smoke up each others' asses. Glad to know at least one more person is intrigued! :)

Hey, one more ticket holder for the conspiracy train! Welcome aboard, sir. So, anyway ... How about that Ace guy, huh? Do you think we as Space Quest fans are ready to steer someone with a slightly more evolved (okay, PRESENT) moral compass around? Will we miss the "loser" aspect of Wilco? I only ask because I seem to be the one most fixated on the "loser" aspects of Wilco's character. Everyone else seems to hold him in pretty high regard. ;)

I am finally getting round to listening to this. It's in my ears right now as I write this, and I'm only up to the Xenon sewers, but ... Man, WOW. Can't wait to hear Prof. Lloyd's theme. This is really good stuff. Could perhaps use some higher levels in mastering, but that's next stage, I realize that. Ooh, Lloyd's up! Aw, sweet ...

Thing about the thing is, they never actually fired him. So he's never been rehired for anything. You could argue that he probably deserved to get fired, by StarCon logic, after the mess he made in SQ5. I always thought it was just stupid government bureaucracy that let Roger keep his "job." He was a hero after SQ1 (but didn't get a promotion), he was a faded ex-hero in SQ2 (still a janitor), he got lost in SQ3 and SQ4, and decided to try out for Captain in SQ5, but ended up being demoted back to janitor in SQ6. I think Admiral Toolman and the brass probably recognized that he saved the galaxy and the Star Confederacy from pukoid annihilation in SQ5, but being sticklers for rules they decided to bump his ass down for destroying property anyway. Also, as it turns out, Admiral Toolman might have been working Roger's demotion through Sharpei's influence all along, so maybe it wasn't even a StarCon decision at all. Maybe Roger was destined to remain Captain, even though he totalled more than a few ships during the course of SQ5 (hey, so did Kirk, and everyone loved the guy!), but Sharpei's plot in SQ6 necessitated his demotion in order to invade his body. There's one major gap in the conspiracy interpretation, though, and it can be summed up with one question: "Why, of all people, Roger?" I never did work that out. Maybe Josh knows.

We all know it's me, so shut up. ;)

Hey, kids. As you may have noticed in a previous post somewhere, the venerable Chris Pope has agreed to let me turn the tables on him and interview the man himself for his own podcast. So, of course I've got a lot of burning questions myself, but one can only talk about the man's hair for so long ... So I figured I'd give some of you space denizens the chance to butt in. If you have any burning questions for The Pope himself, let 'em rip in this thread. I can't promise I'll pick up all the questions, but I'll try to run with the best of 'em. In all seriousness, the interview is primarily about who Chris Pope is, what he's doing up in our SpaceVenture, and how much of an intrusive influence he has over The Two Guys (hint: none at all). And also where he got that cool hair. Okay, I'm kidding, it's mostly going to be about his hair. You don't need to chime in. Forget I said anything. I've got everything I need.

The way I saw it, he didn't actually do a great job as much as he barely finished in the nick of time -- AND was completely unfamiliar, or at least very uncomfortable, with the equipment. :)

Actually, the jury's still out on whether Roger was actually any good at his job. ;) Sure, Admiral Toolman praises his black heel mark removal skills in the SQ6 opening, and Roger reminisces fondly about untangling Christmas lights in Orion's Belt, but we've never actually seen him finish a cleaning job. Hell, his first appearance ever is him emerging from a broomcloset, fully emerged in shirking his janitorial responsibilities. Sure, SQ2 says "ace janitor," but that could just be sarcasm. I mean, the guy loses his third broom of the week before the player even gains control of him.

I had the good fortune to speak to Scott recently, and we talked a bit about what kind of guy Ace Hardway is ... especially as opposed to what kind of guy Roger Wilco was. Now, full-on disclaimer: I don't know any details about the game itself, or the plot, or any of the other characters. I don't have any spoilers to give. All of what follows is purely subjective opinion and does not necessarily reflect what will end up in the final SpaceVenture. So, Ace Hardway ... What a guy. Just from the way he has that casual swagger about him (SpaceVenture backers will know what I mean -- you've all seen the test animation of Ace, right?), you can tell he's a laid-back kind of guy. A guy who may be down on his luck, and up to his knees in other people's shit, but he doesn't let it get to him -- he just powers through, in his own laid-back, don't-give-a-fuck kind of way. I mean, just look at him: Now, take our ol' pal Roger Wilco for comparison. Roger's perpetually bewildered, always out of his depth, and his main motivation throughout at least the first four games (I'm gonna start calling that "the original quadrilogy") is to just get back to that nap he was having on board the Arcada. Neither of these guys are "heroes," in the traditional, medieval, valor-and-honor sense. Ace strikes me as a guy who just takes things as they come, with a sly smile and a funny remark. Whereas Roger is more of an unwilling hero; someone whose motivations are actually in direct opposition to what he wants out of the situation. But that, in my opinion, makes both of them that much more fun: I've always had sort of a resistance towards the traditional "heroic" type of protagonist; one with a moral compass more finely tuned than a conservatory harp. Do-gooders are boring. I don't prefer Ace over Roger, or vice versa, but I'd much rather prefer to play a "hero" who isn't necessarily out to save the world, rather than some conceited jerk with a Lancelot complex. So, which do you find most compelling? Bear in mind, I may be completely wrong about Ace. It's fun to speculate about, though, until we can finally see for ourselves.

Hey, cool cats. Here's how the coming Hangout with The Two Guys is gonna go down. (Yeah, I'm layin' down the law. Respect my authoritah! Er ... sorry.) We won't know until Friday when the exact time is. The Pope and The Two Guys have to play by the convention's rules, and that means being available at pretty much all times. At most, they'll be able to join the Hangout for about an hour. Knowing full well that we usually have a lot more to talk about, I propose we schedule the Hangout time around The Two Guys' appearance thusly: Hour one: The Hangout starts an hour before The Two Guys' projected arrival. Hour two: The Two Guys join and we fawn over them like infatuated schoolgirls. Hour three/four: We sit back, post-nerdgasm, and have a chat about what just happened. For the Hangout itself, the theme is Favorite Moments. We'll be doing it in a roundtable kind of way, with me as M.C., and I propose we all think of two (2) things we want to highlight: 1. Our two favorite moments from the Space Quest series 2. The two things we're most looking forward to with the new SpaceVenture From that on, I'm sure we could have plenty of cool stories to tell and interesting conundrums. For The Two Guys' appearance, I propose we all get a turn in with a question or comment for The Two Guys -- again, I'll try to hold the reigns (and not talk too much myself in the process -- yeah, I know, it's going to be a stretch). And finally, if things start to wind down, I propose we all get out a single item of tactile Space Quest goodness that we are most proud of/in love with. By tactile goodness I mean any real-life item, like a game box, a book, a manual, last week's Twinkie Nose Tuesday cake ... Remember, there are only 10 slots available. Who's coming? Raise of hands. I know these slots are already filled: - Myself - Jess (Decaffeinated Jedi) - The Two Guys + Chris Pope - PCJ - Frederik Olsen (I know 2GFA and Pope will crouch together in front of a single camera. Not sure if PCJ will be joining us separately, or if they're going to try and squeeze in for a romantic foursome?)

Still trying to work out the precise time for Saturday's Hangout, but I've announced the hell out of it now. ;)

This also means that Space Quest: Incinerations and every fan fic that mentions StarCon takes place in the "alternate timeline." :) For good measure, I just want to reiterate that SHOULD The Two Guys reclaim the rights to Space Quest and actually go ahead and make Space Quest 7, this does not necessarily mean that StarCon will be ret-conned right back into the black hole from whence it came. It was just part of a fun conversation I had with Scott.

Well, there are a few assumptions along the way that we've always sort of taken for granted, but which could be explained away by the very ambiguous ending to SQ4. Actually, we need to start calling the SQ4 we know "time-travel SQ4" or something, because, where the timeline is concerned, SQ4 never actually happened. The big thing we always take for granted is that Roger was transported back to Magmetheus or Xenon in the "present" of SQ4 after the events in "time-travel SQ4" and presumably joined the StarCon Academy ... which, somehow, has come into existence, despite never being mentioned in any of the previous games. So yeah. Alternate timeline. Because regardless of where Roger got spat back after "time-travel SQ4," it creates a paradox where there's now a Roger in the Magmethean space bar, drinking with aliens, not getting interrupted by Sequel Policemen. Meaning, the Roger that got spat back after "time-travel SQ4" occupies an alternate, redundant timeline (the one SQ5 and SQ6 takes place in), and the real Roger is still in that bar somewhere, or possibly outside, trying drunkenly to find the keys to the Mallard. Alan Luckachina figured it out first, though. ;)