Space Quest: Chapter I - The Sarien Encounter

The Good
Back in the Eighties, Sierra introduced us to their popular King's Quest adventure game series, with their next series being Space Quest. This would not have gone ahead had Scott Murphy and Mark Crowe (dubbed "The Two Guys from Andromeda") not programmed a four-room demo that impressed Sierra's CEO at the time. I'm not sure if the Two Guys intended to create more than one game, but this first one was successful enough that they decided to make the sequel.

The game centers around Roger Wilco, a space janitor who is stationed on the starship Arcada, where a device known as the Star Generator is undergoing testing. This device is designed to generate a sun that would replace the one on Earnon, a galaxy whose sun is slowly dying. An evil race known as the Sariens find out about the Star Generator, and get on board the Arcada and successfully take it under Wilco's watch. The device must be retrieved before the Sariens use it to conquer the galaxy.

I could not believe how impressive the title looks. Both the red outline used to create the title and the star background inside it blend well with each other. The quality of the graphics throughout the game reminds you, just like other games in the series, that this is purely a sci-fi adventure game set in outer space. The characters you meet through the game are alien-like figures, as you would expect. Most of them are unfriendly to Roger but at least they can be used to his advantage. Out of all the characters in the game, I found the spider droid on Kerona a bit scary. The way it looks and the way its animated is rather disturbing.

The music is brilliantly composed, and it serves as the theme tune for most of the Space Quests. I enjoyed listening to the music that was playing at the Ulence Flats bar, which sounds excellent coming from the Tandy speaker. Sure it is crap today, but the speaker was standard for its time. Also, unlike other adventure games from Sierra, there can be different music playing each time you enter the same scene. When you leave the aforementioned bar, for example, then come back in, you get to hear the likes of The Blues Brothers or ZZ Top.

I like the way that the game provides alternate solutions to puzzles, much like its cousin. The first one of these happen when Roger has landed on Kerona. I enjoyed solving one puzzle, then going back and solving that same puzzle in a different way. Some alternate solutions may not be the best, giving you less points than the other way. But I don't play for points.

The game is packed with humor. Not only are there funny ways to die, but to get past most obstacles in the game, Roger must do things that are quite unexpected by the player. Who would know that you can kill anybody with a water bottle? Also, there are unusual things happening in most scenes, like the slot machine that causes death to the player if they make a specific win. Finally, try kissing one of the Sarien guards. This type of humor continues in every SQ game.

The Bad
I have to agree with everyone here. Space Quest is a humorous sci-fi adventure game, so forcing the player to use a slot machine to try to win a hundred buckazoids not only is difficult without losing a lot of money or dishing up three skulls. Then there's the skimmer trek to Ulence Flats. These two aspects of the game not only are unnecessary, but a waste of time as well.

The Bottom Line
The Two Guys' first adventure game is not only entertaining, but excellent as well, packing good graphics and sound. In addition, it provides plenty of humor and multiple solutions to puzzles. The only drawback is the slot machine and skimmer arcade sequence, but other than this, Space Quest is worth playing at least once.

The Good
The first adventure in the long-running Space Quest series, and one of the best, as you, as intergalactic janitor Roger Wilco (or your own name, if you chose to enter it) must escape the evil Sariens who have invaded the ship you are on, and eventually stop them from using the powerful Star Generator as a weapon.

For it’s time (and bearing in mind it came on a single floppy, as things did back then), this adventure is MASSIVE, with lots of locations to visit, strange aliens to encounter, and many often crafty puzzles to work out.
Hopping around the cosmos really makes the game feel non-linear (even though it is pretty much), and makes the already big game seem HUGE, not being limited to a single island or countryside as in Sierra’s other big ‘Quest’ series, the King’s Quest adventures.

The game is very humorous. Maybe not as much as later SQ entries, where Roger Wilco would develop into his own personality more, but even so it’s very funny in places, and will no doubt please players not as keen on the more serious, rather sappy King’s Quest games.

There are tons of ideas crammed into this game, making it a stand-out Sierra adventure. With loads to do (such as finding the right one of several ships to buy, and then finding the right piloting droid for it) really making the player feeling involved.

There are different ways to solve some puzzles, which is great. This claim on many a back-of-box blurb for many adventures, is kind of bending the truth, as it usually just means it is possible to complete puzzles in various order. But in this game, it’s genuine - for example, when you’re in the desert on planet Kerona, there is more than one way of killing the spider droid and the orat that you must deal with.

The graphics are typically Sierra looking, but are for the time good looking, and do the job adequately, with some colourful, creative backgrounds.

The sound is no more or no less than can be expected from the era; again, it’s adequate considering the limitations.
The signature tune is great – very suitable, and very catchy (I still often find myself whistling it).

There’s quite a Star Wars feel to much of the game, particularly at one of the locations the adventure takes you to, Ulence Flats, complete with it’s multi-alien-filled bar and dusty old space-ships.
There aren’t as many direct sci-fi parodies as in the latter end of the SQ series, though in some ways it helps make the game more original; in later games, at times, it felt as if whenever the writers got a block, they’d just throw in another half-hearted sci-fi parody.

Overall, this game is just great fun to play, and it’s easy to see why the series became so popular and long-running from this first game. One of the very first PC games I ever played, it still stands as one of the best.

**The Bad**
It is very easy to miss some things that are absolutely necessary, quite often being impossible to go back and get them, and leaving the game uncompletable as a result – and you as a player just hoping you’ve got a save game far enough back to go back and get whatever you missed!
A cartridge near the beginning of the game, a piece of glass (rather obscurely placed and very dependant on where you are standing as to if you can see it / get it) and a jet-pack, are both vital but are particularly easy to miss; and the game doesn’t even give the player a clue that the items are there in the first place.

In true Sierra style, lots of saving and restoring is not only necessary, but in many cases is the only way of deducting the correct thing to do, as trying something that isn’t the right action often results in your characters demise (often without no pre-warning).

And as with the majority of Sierra games of the era, there is at least one infuriating “arcade style” gaming sequence that is very much random driven, and sees your character dying every other keystroke.
In this case, it is on-board a ‘skimmer’, as it races across the desert, avoiding rocks on the ground that randomly appear and will knock you to your death off if you take too much damage. I found this section of the game rather irritating and annoying, and awkward to get past.

Ah, and the gambling machine. For some reason, Sierra went through a phase where they felt obliged to include some sort of gambling game, usually a slot machine or card game, somewhere in their releases (Leisure Suit Larry, Police Quest, they all have them…).
Here, it is a slot machine, from which you must win enough money to by a space-craft. It’s best just to play by entering a high bet, randomly playing until you win some money, saving, and so on. Again,
The random “instant death”, where you are zapped if you get three skulls, is harsh, and typically Sierra-ish.

But whilst those points are gripes, there was nothing the could really spoil playing this great adventure.

**The Bottom Line**
A golden classic, that not only sets a high standard of creativity that would run throughout the SQ series, but one that stands as one of the best entries in the series on it’s own (graphic & sound advancements allowing).
If you’re an adventure game fan and have never played it, then track down a copy as soon as possible!
A top-notch start to an excellent adventure series. (Did I mention “classic”?)

The Good
I was 6 years old in 1986, I didn't know much about computers or computer games. My father had just purchased a Tandy SX. I had little to do with the computer when it first came to my house, the obscure commands (DOS) that my Father, and brother used to interact act with ti confused me. That all changed when my mom brought home this classic. I saw my brother playing it and was instantly mesmorized, unlike the cold environment of DOS, the screeen lite up with color and movement. There was your little charcter walking around and interacting with his environment. I watched my brother play it for hours, I didn't understand much of what was going on but I couldn't pull myself away. I was 7 when iIfirst played it myself, playing the game was more addictive then watching it! It wasn't until I was 9 that I beat the game, but I owe so much to that simple old game. In a way it taught me DOS, as I had to know DOS to run the game, and got me hooked on computers, here it is 13 years later and I'm still playing them! The story is cliche, but that's o.k. as the whole game, as the whole series is a spoof of the science fiction genre! The graphics were simple, but the gameplay was great. To this day I still occasionally pull it out and play it.

The Bad
I was 6, the graphics dazzled me, the theme song catchy, and the story funny, I liked it then, and to this day I can't find fault in it!

The Bottom Line
A classic in adventure, set the path for latter humorous series like Monkey Island.