By Justin Polak
Co-founder, Ambassador to the Mushroom Kingdom

It’s not often that I speak of PC gaming, but that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate it. Although I’ve always preferred consoles, it used to be that PC games were like looking into the future of where console gaming could go, mainly in terms of graphics.

Calm down PC fanboys, that’s still the case. But the gap between the graphical prowess of a PC as opposed to a console is much wider the further you go back in time. My family actually did end up getting a PC back when I was a child, and I did have staples such as Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? However, two of my closest cousins always seemed to have the best PCs back in the late 80′s/early 90′s.

Image from emuparadise.org

That’s where Space Quest, a series originally published and developed by Sierra, comes in. My first experience with the series was Space Quest III: The Pirates of Pestulon. One night when a cousin of mine and I were hanging out, he showed me a bunch of PC games. I was impressed with all of them, but the only one that stood out in my memory for years was Space Quest III. If anything, that game was my introduction to the adventure genre, and I was wowed by the simple fact that success was based on inputting the correct commands via typing on the keyboard and having a good sense of investigative logic.

Of course, I ended up trying all three games in the series that were available at the time and failing miserably. That was okay though because when the main character Roger Wilco died, the end result was hilarious as well as gruesome. Roger didn’t simply fall over dead or leap off the screen when the grim reaper met him. Based on how you failed, you would watch Roger’s fate unfold followed by a text box cheerfully explaining all the details of his demise. Some games in the series, like many Sierra games, had an accompanying picture that showed the unforgiving nature of death.  Space Quest III had the most creative and graphic depictions of sheer failure.

If anything, I believe the first three games in the series are the best because of how simplistic they are. A newcomer will find  the games challenging, but I feel the style and attitude for adventure games worked better in a time where a Sound Blaster PC card was a huge deal and a mouse was an innovative idea.

Image from abandonia.com

While Space Quest III—along with Space Quest: The Sarien Encounter and Space Quest II: Vohaul’s Revenge—may seem ancient, they are well worth playing to this day. I’ll admit they’re better appreciated if you grew up with gaming like I did and can place your mind on the limitations of games back then, but I believe they are still relevant and engaging games. Be warned though, the first two games feature points that cause you to be stuck forever if you aren’t careful. Multiple save files are your friends.

Having said that, the only game in the series that I think dropped the ball was the last installment, Space Quest 6: The Spinal Frontier. Many puzzles boiled down to guesswork, the humor seemed very forced, deaths were there for the sake of being there instead of feeling like peril came naturally, the overall story up to that point seemed to be ignored and the voice acting was downright annoying. The only other game in the series that had voice acting was Space Quest IV: Roger Wilco and the Time Rippers. But the voice work in that particular game was charming, with the right amount of melodramatic cheese sprinkled in it.

Image from queststudios.com

Speaking of the last half of the series, while I did say I like the first three more, I can’t deny the awesome plot elements, creative thinking and advancements that Space Quest IV and Space Quest V: The Next Mutation brought to the table. Space Quest IV had a very cool time travel plot that had the player rip back and fourth through past and fictional future Space Quest games. At the same time there were many fourth wall breaking moments that I found very creative. For example, all the characters didn’t refer to the time by a year but rather what game they were in. You literally heard characters say things like, “I had to come back to the Space Quest IV era!” The status bar on the top of the screen also changed with what time/games you were in. I wish the series had extended to the future eras of the series just to see what the rest of the adventures were like!

Space Quest V, on the other hand, was like playing an interactive parody of the original Star Trek series. The premise alone provides an interesting twist to that point in the series. Roger Wilco’s  entire hook is that he was never a suave hero. He never had aspirations beyond being a janitor. That’s right, you play as a simple janitor that happened to be in the wrong place at the right time throughout the series. By Space Quest V, Wilco made an off screen decision to enlist in Star Con instead of simply being a janitor for the organization. The combination of cheating on a test and a power fluctuation whilst scanning said test landed him the job as Captain…of a garbage collecting ship! Still, he was the man in charge with a memorable crew.

Image from infoaddict.com

It’s worth noting that Space Quest was created by Mark Crowe and Scott Murphy. Back in the early days, they were known as the Two Guys from Andromeda. They worked together for the first four games in the series. Space Quest V only had Crowe on board, while Space Quest 6 had Murphy as a creative consultant (which explains why that one was such a bad game). Although I liked the fifth game, there’s no denying how beautifully these guys worked together. If two people sit down and create game that actually makes players want to find each and every way to die, then you know they’ve done something right.

The best part is that the Space Quest series can still be played today. The most common and efficient way to purchase these games are through Steam. In fact, all six can be bought for one $20 package. If you have the time and the money to spare, I recommend playing through at least a couple of them. Obviously, I would say the only game to steer clear from is Space Quest 6, but five out of six well crafted adventure games are worth the price of admission.