Christian Giegerich

I think its important not to find someone who sounds like Gary, but who has a similar effect on the player. We all know Gary Owens was one of a kind. I find it wrong to search for a similar voice and try to talk exactly like him. It won't be the same anyway and probably would leave a bad taste while playing the game.
 
I've been playing quite a lot of games in my career, and there was one time a narrator had a similar funny effect on me. I'm talking about Bruce Campbell, who was the narrator of the Spider-Man 2 videogame back in the days. As many of you may know, Bruce was an actor in every Spider-Man movie and had a guest role in each one of them, always playing a different guy who was making fun of Peter Parker. Well, in the video game, he was the narrator, and he was picking at the player all the time. 
 
I found a clip on youtube, in which he's guiding the player through the tutorial, take a look, it's hilarious:
 
https://youtu.be/ae9rwSKxAxY?t=138
 
What do you think guys? I think he'd be perfect for either the narrator OR even Ace Hardway. I don't know if he'd be up for it or in the payment range; since he's a B-movie actor it could be a possibility. Broken Age could effort Elijah Wood, too. But first and foremost, it'd be a question of "Would it feel right?". I just want to put this out there (or in here). Maybe its a possibilty! :)  

Here are mine:
 
"The Stomach Bender"
"Taste of Tragedy"
"Innard Implosion"

Brrrrrrr-eat-o Meal - Cryogenically frozen mystery meat shipped from the furthest corners of the universe into the nearest corners of your stomach! So fresh it may be alive.
 
Uacamole - Special zero-G dip.

For your ally is The Sauce?
 
Late Night Menu
El Chupacabra Especial - It's goat suckin' good!
Munchitos Bowl - What's in it? Whatever we have left over. It's 2:00am, you've lost your right to be picky.
Re-heat-a Burrito (or fajita, or whateva)
 
I was trying to think of something loosely tied to the Half Dome, but I got nothin'. Instead:
El Capitan - Be the Captain's No. 2! A veritable mountain of nachos.
 
And if it makes sense for Taco Nova to have a product tie-in with Cluck Y'Egger:
Cluck Y'Egger Meal: El Pollo Loco con Huevos Grande! - Comes with collectible cup and Egg-flinger (chucker?) toy

The beverage llst should read, in its entirety:
Mild (children's size only)
Medium
Hot
Magma
Liquid Solar Core

(x-posted from the SMC forums)
 
Hey folks,
 
To celebrate the Two Guys reuniting, and releasing a new game (albeit not a SQ game), I am proud to pledge SMC's support and celebrate by announcing something I've been working on since the start of April, which is..
<drumroll>
.. the Space Quest IV Soundtrack, the 10th anniversary (of the original recording by SMC of the soundtrack in its' entirety)/20th anniversary (of the game and its' music) edition!
 
The original Roland MT-32 score has been edited from the original game MIDI resources, and will be enhanced with Roland Sound Canvas (SC-55/8820/8850) and Yamaha XG (MU-2000) tracks.
 
 
Now for those who remember the 2002 MT-32 MP3 recordings I have over at Roger Wilco's Virtual Broomcloset, you may remember although it's a good effort for what it was, there's a lot of sound effect tracks that have no music, and tracks start/finish rather haphazardly at times.
 
This is a different animal altogether. There will be no sound effect only pieces, such as "Security Droid" and "Programming Chamber" (although some sound effects will be present in the soundtrack recording), and each piece has been carefully edited from the original game resources, not recorded in-game, so as to give proper starts/endings to each piece.
There are a couple of musical-ish pieces that are basic and ambient, such as the Estros and Ulence Flats background music, but that's about it.
 
 
But don't just listen to me. How's this for an endorsement- Ken Allen (original composer) just previewed the SMC beta for Track 1, the title theme, and gave this preliminary feedback: "The music sounds great".
You can listen here: http-~~-//sierramusiccentral.com/assorted/SQ4Track01.mp3
Or direct download here.
 
Regards,
- Spike

Thanks, guys. It was tons of fun. We'll have a transcript, or rather a summary, of the interview up on SQN shortly. :)

What would be interesting, too, is how his typical day looks like. I think this way, the fans can relate to a lot of things. In the past, people always shouted at Marvel editor in chief, Joe Quesada, for not finishing any artwork in time. (he still had some art for a bunch of books to do back then) Then, they made specials on the websites to show people how much he has to do, how much he has to manage. I think that would make sense here.
 
Yeah, and I think the what would he do different if he would do the Kcikstarter all over again subject makes sense, too.
 
I'm really looking forward to the podcast. Thanks for doing this!

What would be interesting, too, is how his typical day looks like. I think this way, the fans can relate to a lot of things. In the past, people always shouted at Marvel editor in chief, Joe Quesada, for not finishing any artwork in time. (he still had some art for a bunch of books to do back then) Then, they made specials on the websites to show people how much he has to do, how much he has to manage. I think that would make sense here.
 
Yeah, and I think the what would he do different if he would do the Kcikstarter all over again subject makes sense, too.
 
I'm really looking forward to the podcast. Thanks for doing this!

Ask him who his favorite SpaceVenture intern is. :P

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

Today should be officially named SpaceVenture Day in honor of all our hard work and enthusiasm paying off! We did it everyone!!! The Two Guys are back, and we helped make it possible!!! WE KICK ASS!!

Great read, thanks for posting. So looking forward to this game! :)

Sehr feines Interview, werter Mit-Münchener! :)
Thanks!

Hey Space Quest gamers!
 
In the following, you'll read an interview Michael Ecke and I did with none other than Scott Murphy these days. The purpose of it is to promote the SpaceVenture kickstarter campaign. And as long as you'll link it to tgakick.com and credit Michael and me for doing it, you can take it and post it at any site you want for free. It IS its purpose to promote the campaign, so feel free to use it for that. Please. Thanks guys! Enjoy the interview!
 
 
 
AN INTERVIEW WITH SCOTT MURPHY
by Michael Ecke and Christian Giegerich
 
 
It’s been seventeen years since we last saw them together: Scott Murphy and Mark Crowe, known by their loyal fans as THE TWO GUYS FROM ANDROMEDA. With the six-part Sci Fi Parody saga Space Quest for the legendary adventure software company Sierra they’ve written no less than computer gaming history between 1986 and 1995. Then, things go quiet around the two designers and their adorable semi-hero, space janitor Roger Wilco.
 
Now, at last Murphy and Crowe are back – with SpaceVenture, a new graphic adventure in the vein of the Space Quest series. But the comeback isn’t safe yet, for the Kickstarter campaign www.tgakick.com concerning the new game has still a few hours left and the amount hasn’t been reached yet. The future of SpaceVenture is in your hands. If you need any reasons for supporting SpaceVenture with a massive part of your pansion funds, have no fear. The following interview with Scott Murphy has them all.
 
First of all, what's it with you and janitors or craftsmen in general? What makes you turn to characters like Roger Wilco or Ace Hardway for your games instead of picking a more common science fiction protagonist?
 
Scott: Because they aren’t common. They are closer to everyman charcaters, and that lends itself more to humor, which is a very important element of our games. You aren’t a noble knight or prince or warrior. When we started Space Quest that was what all games were based on, and we wanted to make games that were the oppostite of the norm.
 
In SQ3, the Two Guys were abducted by the CEO of ScumSoft, a video game company where employees are being held captive in cubicles by whip-wielding slavers and forced to be creative. Was there any particular inspiration in the industry back then for this part of the story? What would ScumSoft look like if you had to rewrite it to fit the video game business today?
 
Scott: With all due respect to Ken Williams, who’s been so supportive of us, Sierra did inspire us to some degree. We just amped it up by a power of 50. We were packed into the metal building - or the Lube-N-Go as we called it – pretty tightly then. The company had grown quite a bit and we were like sardines in there, and his henchman Rick was more the inspiration for the catwalk trodding, whip-cracking character. In reality, he’d sneak in the door and hide behind the partitions and listen for anybody talking badly about management or complaining about anything else. He was truly a jerk. One of our co-workers knew when he’d be there and would carefully utter a codeword so we’d know, and we’d make things up or just shut up totally to mess with his ridiculous tactics. He made working there a lot less fun.
 
We added Ken because it was pretty much a tradition for us since SQ1. In some games you never saw him unless you typed the correct command into the parser. Oddly, both Ken and Rick brought visitors and sales people into my cubicle for me to show them that part of the game while it was still in development. Who’d be proud of that – other than Mark and I, of course?
 
Was Astro Chicken the original Angry Bird? What would Angry Birds Space look like if it had been made by ScumSoft?
 
Scott: I think you could say that. I know that bird made a lot of people angry, but many players have fond memories of Astro Chicken. We hear a lot about it. We’ve introduced Cluck Y’Egger for SpaceVenture and were getting a LOT of positive response from him – him being a rooster in this case.
 
And actually, Astro Chicken WAS made by ScumSoft when the Two Guys from Andromeda were unwillingly employed by them. That’s where the code was hidden for someone to hopefully find and rescue them.
 
What comes first when you work on a comedy game? Story or parody?
 
Scott: That’s a tough one. We had both in mind. I think it was story closely followed by the parodies. Mark and I did a lot of seat-of-the-pants design. That is to say that we’d pick a beginning and an ending acheivment for Roger. Then we’d come up with chunks of the in-between parts and work on them when we got bored and/or stumped in a design session. Mark would go to his computer to make graphics for what we’d come up with most recently and then start passing the art to me for programming. Once we got started the work would spawn more ideas. It was an unorthodoxed method that worked for us.
 
During the time you both created games together, you never had a fight. Scott, you said you never had a better partner than Mark. There's a distinct chemistry between you guys and it feels like you were born to work with each other. The way things took its course, however, SQ5 was made by Mark at Dynamix and SQ6 was finished up by Scott. Were there major problems you faced when you were creating games separately?
 
Scott: That’s true. Since we’d never had partners in that manner before Spae Quest we didn’t realize how special our work relationship was. When one was down the opther would pick things up. We never had serious disagreements. The worst would be me suggesting something that might have been a little too far out there and him laughing and saying, ’’No, I don’t thinkso!“ And the same for me with him. And we always agreed when management would complain about something. Ultimately we’d have to bend to their whims or just ignore them and hope they’d forget, which did happen, but we always supported each other. We were able to communicate a lot with many less words than other partners might need.
 
I knew nothing about SQ5 being done at Dynamix until a set of working disks showed up in the office of one of the producers in Oakhurst where I was working.
 
With SQ6, I was supposed to design it but while I was programming on another project that ran way late, it was given to someone else unbeknownst to me until it was well under way. When the original designer left in the middle of SQ6 I was handed the project to finish. It wasn’t fun or anyway near the same as doing the work with Mark. It sucked in many ways to have to finish someone else’s work, but there was a great team of artists and programmers in place fortunately, and that made things easier and a little more fun than it might have been.
 
Space Quest was probably at its strongest when you created a somewhat dark setting and then balanced it out with humour. Things that come to mind are pulling the plug on Vohaul’s life support system in SQ2 or the survival horror of being chased around Phleebhut by a killer cyborg in SQ3. Is a serious base necessary for comedy to work, much like Walt Disney’s creed “For every laugh there should be a tear”?
 
Scott: Exactly what we learned through the evolution of our games. You can be totally silly but it seems the contrast of dark and funny is more vivid and memorable. Establishing a mood or foundation and then havng fun on top of it can work very well. We tried to bring more of that with SQ4. Roger had a chance to face his future and that seemed to have a profound affect on players. In our survey, SQ4 came in just above SQ3 for their favorite of the series. Total slapstick, for instance, can be funny but bringing in human emotion really ups the impact of the gaming experience.
 
Considering the popularity of movie- and game-inspired animated gifs on social networks like tumblr, spoofing appears to be more popular and wide-spread than ever today. In modern games, however, comedy and parody in particular are very rarely seen, partly because companies are afraid of legal consequences. Do you feel that the industry has lost the ability to comment on itself?
 
Scott: Honestly, I don’t recall the industry ever having fun at its own expense that I can recall. I could be wrong about that. I took a bit of a break. One of the things we intended from day one was to not take ourselves seriously and to have fun at everyone’s expense, including our own. We intend to resume that. There is a lot of latitude and legal protection in parody. We never intended to portray the things we parodied in a bad manner, just to have some fun with them. We never used any specific intellectual property to sell our games, so we never tried to cash in on the success of what others had created. We just wanted to have fun, and fans responded positively from the first game.
 
One great thing you said you’re planning to bring back if your Kickstarter campaign succeeds is the parser. The new game will be a combination of point and click, but it will also be possible to enter commands directly using the keyboard. What's the main reason for you guys to bring it back?
 
Scott: When I was writing for the parser I had lots of things I could bury in it and people would have to be adventurous to find them. Some of it was kind of ’blue’ but if people didn’t have that sort of mind they’d never see it. You can’t do that with point-n-click, Having a hybrid where you can use the parser in specific situations gives me a chance to bury more fun responses again, something I miss greatly.
 
 
The Sierra brand of adventure games was a direct evolution of text adventures in the sense that they relied heavily on a charismatic narrator to fully flesh out each scene and event where technical limitations didn't allow for a more graphical approach to storytelling. To me, most Sierra games had more of a literary taste to them, while Lucasarts provided a more theatrical experience. What do you feel are the advantages of putting the narrator at the centre of the narrative? Are you planning on mixing these two approaches to storytelling, and if so, how?
 
Scott: Excellent points. To me, the narrator brings another brand of humor, another comic voice to the games. The hero has a limited pespective of his or her world. The narrator can speak to things the main character is oblivious of, or to have fun at the character’s expense. Interestingly, when I wrote narrator lines, just as with any dialogue I write, I have to have a voice in my head to speak them. Gary Owens was ALWAYS the narrator voice in my head from the first lines in SQ1. Yes, I always have voices in my head. J When we were fortunate enough to engage him for SQ’s 4 and 6 I was amazed, and it worked perfectly. Gary is amazing! We fully intend to do the same thing in SpaceVenture. The fans have spoken about their preference to this approach so we see no reason at least with this game to do anything differently. In the future we may take another approach with another style of adventure but this is our signature style for sci-fi comedy, and this is what current backers want. We want to give them that.
 
 
Lastly, what can the public expect from an all new SpaceVenture? What are your main targets for parody?
 
Scott: They can expect fun, travel and find all new ’people’ to meet! The main character is no hero, as usual, but he’s no Roger Wilco either. He works for himself and dreams of bigger things. Roger just wanted to take the path of least resistance. Ace Hardway is a private contractor. He has his own ship systems repair business and his own ship to travel in. He dreams a lot and has a more positive and assertive attitude about life. He also has a little sidekick, a robotic dog named Rooter, who also functions as a walking toolbox. We’ve already gotten great responses from the fans who’ve seen Mark’s awesome artwork so far.
We intend to have fun with a lot of recent and current sci-fi works, but we’ll also be respectful for the most part. No one is safe, but none of them will be hurt either. We have a great track record for treating the works of others with respect. We were far harder on Sierra and ourselves then anyone or anything else.
SpaceVenture Interview catalogue Ecke Giegerich ANSWERS.rtf

No 10.000 bucks bastard backer in sight yet. We can make this!

Mr. Trowe,
 
Let me start by saying I respect the fact that you are willing to come here and post, whether to defend yourself or not. And you are right, we know very little in comparison to you, considering your history and relationship with Scott Murphy. I'll even admit, perhaps in my first post just above, regarding this issue, I was being a bit careless and taking a bit of a premature stance, without knowing everything that is going on.
 
I realize that you said this would be your only post here, but in case you're stopping by at all just to read anything that happens next, please consider the following which I would like to say in response to that post, and it does come from the heart:
 
You are a public figure, at least to us "kids" you are. Your initial comment as posted on Ken Allen's wall regarding the Two Guys, carried alot of negative vibe in the way it was phrased. It sounded much like jealousy at the fact that a mere fan was getting attention from Scott Murphy, and not yourself. It reeked of envy classic and old as known in every human story and legend. As you put it, in such similar words, 'some guy he doesn't even know, and not [you].'
 
It would indeed be foolish for us to assume that we know you, nor that we understand your merit vs. unmerit completely, based upon a single comment, and judging what from else you have to say about Scott Murphy, it seems you are convinced that you have your reasons for being upset with him, and Mr. Trowe, I will not challenge that, because I admit that would be nosy and imprudent of me; however...
 
You consider the way you phrased that comment, and posted it for the whole online community of fans, and try and tell me honestly that you haven't made a public and hurtful mistake.
 
REALLY, if you're mad at Scott for something he did/didn't do to you, way back when, then keep it between yourself and him, and if he doesn't want to talk about it, that's between the two of you... And, when you DO decide to post things like that in public, don't do so in a way which allows other indications of jealousy or bitterness to creep in, which is directed at a fan, in front of hundreds of fans. We admire and respect Scott Murphy and Mark Crowe, and we ourselves, like Chris Pope, are fans. It is only natural for us to want to jump up and defend him when we see this. I'll admit that some people here have gone overboard and I do not approve of the intensity of their responses, but you must know, for your own good (not excusing our mistakes here at this board towards you, but...), you must know that as a public figure, your degree of unprofessional behavior is naturally more offensive than ours.
 
Ask yourself, who is it you're more angry with; with whom is your anger most appropriate: Scott Murphy or Chris Pope? Bashing Chris, by subtle implication or mere thoughtless remark, does no good for your reputation with us. And, if your anger with Scott IS appropriate, and yet so long ago and personal to the two of you, is it not such poor etiquette to make a scene in front of all of us, just when Scott Murphy is getting set for a new project we are all greatly looking forward to?
 
If it's none of our business, don't bring US, into it, Mr. Trowe.
 
This having been said, I find it very, VERY sad (and I am speaking from the heart, not for the sake of further criticizing you) that you are willing to post old trash about Scott here, in front of all of us, that is really quite personal and hurtful. Even if for the sake of defending yourself, and clarifying what is, in your mind, rational behavior on your part in front of the community, there is NO EXCUSE for this kind of harmful flaunting of personal, sensitive information.
 
Slander is false, Gossip is true; regardless of which one you claim to be pushing forth about Scott; both are wrong and inappropriate for you to parade. It's quite immature of you, and it shows your friendship for Scott, if I dare infer, is less selfless than desirable. I wonder what he would have to say regarding your "friendship," knowing you're willing to take such cheap shots at him. You should be the better man, and realize the effect you have on Scott publicly, which may be irreversible once you cross a certain line, and wouldn't it be horrible if you came to realize you could never undo the damage you cause to his reputation, having burned it into the minds of the online community, even after you realize you were inappropriate?
 
One can be right, and at the same time, be a... jackass. Being correct about the facts and going about it in a justified and respectable manner, are two completely different things. I think you're hung up on the fact stage, and being a little thoughtless as to how you're coming across and whom you're affecting.
 
Very sad, Mr. Trowe, but I do respect your personal knowledge of/with Scott Murphy (assuming any of it is true, and for the record, I do NOT simply out of principal!), and do not wish to dig into that any deeper. I nonetheless stand behind my initial comment regarding the tone of your remark, and of how it was misfired partially at Chris Pope, and I certainly stand behind what I've said here regarding your SAD and distasteful kick in the nuts you've given Scott Murphy, at this public message board, regarding some of the apparently most personal and sensitive information (To Scott Murphy: I respect you very much, am looking forward to your game very much, and I do not believe everything I hear).
 
I may be somewhat of a kid, Mr. Trowe, and I may be quite unprivy to what you know; but it doesn't take much to know that what you're doing and the way you're doing it is malicious, regardless of if there is ANY good you see in it or of whether you are correct about it to ANY degree. You must act higher than this. I stand behind that, and I encourage you to take these words very seriously if you have any heart.
 
- Johnathon

SQ4 Poster! Help Fund #SpaceVenture!
http://cgi.ebay.com/...utorefresh=true

I made this ... make this your cover photo on facebook and then you take a picture of your mouth and chin and make that your profile picture.. its fun and helps advertise the kickstarter. Remember to link the kickstarter page in the description of both photos.

Great forum guys. Looks great, comfortable to handle, fascinating discussions.
 
Thanks for your efforts and giving us this platform.

Great forum guys. Looks great, comfortable to handle, fascinating discussions.
 
Thanks for your efforts and giving us this platform.

Guys, is it true that Roger Wilco IS NOT trademarked? Well, then why even care about the license? You could even spin a story out of the fact that Roger isn't in the Space Quest timeline anymore. this is science fiction after all. If Roger is safe and usable in future stories, everythings dandy, isn't it?

Thanks for answering my question, Ken. What I meant was the part at 1:05 of this video here:
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHD1uPVkyk0
 
I thought you guys inserted this section into the opening of SQ4 as a parody to the classic Battlestar series.
 
Nonetheless - I love what you did in Space Quest IV - I really dug the music back in the day. Anytime when I got my hands on a new sound card, the first game I tested it with was Space Quest IV, because the music was so very well done, especially the Opening Credits, the SQ1 bar theme and the Showdown theme. I still get a huge smile on my face when listening to the tracks nowadays. Thanks so much for doing them and sharing them with us though those games.
 
Best,
 
Christian

(Oh, you already asked.)

(Oh, you already asked.)