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The last any of us saw
of the “real” Roger Wilco, he was spinning off into space
with a lit rocket strapped to his back. That was in the tiny
video promo which is all that ever came to light of Sierra’s late
lamented Space
Quest 7. In some ways, it was a fitting conclusion for
everybody’s favorite hapless space custodian. But many fans of the
classic Space
Quest series just couldn’t accept that was the end.

Yet, the heyday of the
graphic adventure, the Nineties, was frenetically drawing to a close.
It looked like just about everyone involved was packing up and heading
for greener ($) pastures, or the hills. The other great Sierra Quest
series also crashed and burned, as did Sierra
On-Line itself, about this time, or not long after. The original
and most celebrated, the Kings
Quest series, tapped out on number 8. The Mask of Something
or Other. It was desperately trying to attract the brand new legions
of Lara
Croft fanatics. Actually, a very good game, but the zeitgeist
had simply moved on. We all know of the travails of the team that
has just recently, after many years of setbacks, come out with a fan-made
Kings Quest sequel, The
Silver Lining.

No one that I know of ever
made a tribute game out of Police
Quest, which made it to only four installments. The beloved

Leisure Suit Larry managed to reach six (out
of seven) official games. You can count the 3D Magna
Cum Laude, starring Larry’s less charming and even more
lascivious nephew, as a further installment, but count me out if you
do. Let’s not even talk about BOB,
shall we?

Over at the other star
adventure stable of the era, LucasArts,
their series were dying off as well. It’s a little hard to track the
Indiana
Jones games because they include text adventures and
old DOS action games, finally winding up with another couple of Lara
ripoffs (after, of course, Lara had so saucily ripped off Indy). There
is, however, at least one promising fan-made sequel in the works,
Indiana
Jones and the Fountain of Youth. So far all you get is
a very good demo. Looks like they’re running into the same troubles
that most games of this sort do – hard to keep everyone working
in the digital salt mines for free.

In fact, there seems to
have been a very promising fan-made
version of Space Quest 7 in the works, until
Vivendi
got wind of it, or at least that’s what the game’s website claims.
Judging by the trailer they did manage to produce, the project looks
to have been on a par with the quality of Silver Lining.
Which, perhaps, is what did it in, cease-and-desist-wise.

It seems the only way a
fan-made game gets made and then actually released is if it is the
somewhat modest product of one talented, dedicated individual. For
some unknowable reason, Roger Wilco has inspired more of these folks
than any other classic game I can think of. There have been four notable
fan-made Space Quest tribute games made over the
years, all still available as free downloads.

I like the Space
Quest series as much as anyone — well, up until I ran into
Stooge
Fighter 3* at least. But I have no idea why of all the great Sierra
series, Roger has the most loyal fans among the technically accomplished.
Perhaps SQ is simply the easiest one to deconstruct,
to rip out its parts to rebuild new episodes. I say this because it
would be great to have other fan-made tribute games of the quality
of these four for the other old Sierra classics. Maybe it’s just that
those two
guys from Andromeda, Scott Murphy and Mark Crowe, are less litigious.
Who knows? I do know that we fans of classic adventures are lucky
to have at least these four gems. They differ a bit, but all are well
worth playing, and all will transport you back to the rip-roaring
Nineties, when Roger and his ilk ruled the gaming shelves.

*Webmaster’s note:
SF3 is first mentioned appx 42 seconds into the video

Space Quest 0:
Replicated

If
Jeff Stewart had released his game to the general public, say, between
Space Quests II and III, I don’t think anyone would have realized
it wasn’t an official Sierra product. I cannot think of any praise
higher than that to bestow on this remarkably Roger-like, fun and
challenging game. Yes, it does employ the old-time AGI
Sierra game engine, with glorious 16-color graphics, versatile
text parser and no mouse input, but of course that’s half the nostalgic
fun to be had in playing it. But this is no slap-dash demo. It is
a full-length space quest. And, unless you play it directly from a
walkthrough, you will have your hands full getting to the end of it.

The
trouble begins when Roger awakens from another of his legendary naps
aboard his new space vessel to discover that, once again, something
dastardly has taken place while he was out. Some mysterious individual
or entity is laying waste to everyone aboard, and of course Roger
(given absolutely no other option, that is) sets out to find out who.
Soon, with the ship only moments away from self-destructing, the still
unknown villain manages to take the last escape pod, stranding (almost)
our hero on the doomed ship. For the rest of the story, Roger will
overcome obstacles aplenty as he tracks his quarry across a nearby
planet.

This
is easily the best and the most faithful recreation of the Space
Quest series. I imagine even those two guys from Andromeda
would relish this clever tribute. More impressive still, Jeff has
managed to pack it into a modern executable. The game exe runs fine,
in a window, on my Win7 laptop.

If for general reasons
of comparison we say that Sierra’s Space Quest IV rates a full five
Golden Mops*, I’d have to award SQ0:R a stellar 4
GMs.

*Webmaster’s Note:
At the end of Space
Quest Chapter 1: The Sarien Encounter, Roger’s efforts
are rewarded when he receives the Golden
Mop** as a token of eternal gratitude from the
people of Xenon and becomes an instant celebrity.

**http://members.chello.at/theodor.lauppert/games/sq1.htm,
fifth paragraph

Space Quest: The Lost Chapter

While
SQTLC
is assuredly in the same league as SQ0:R, I can’t
recommend it quite as highly because the Vonster (aka Vonster D. Monster,
or, rumor has it, a fellow by the name of Vaughn Gosine) unfortunately
has indulged his inner imp a bit too much in the construction of his
tribute game. Like SQ0:R, The Lost Chapter
employs the old AGI Sierra interpreter (I don’t understand any of
this technical stuff, I’m just repeating what I find in the readme
files). It too is rendered in lush 4-bit color and has a standard
text-parser interface. The problem is that the Vonster is a tad too
fond of those classic Roger death scenarios.

Yes,
Roger dying fairly frequently and often spectacularly is indeed a
genuine part of the SQ experience. Space Quest 0
also has some fun with this device, but SQTLC really
goes to town with it. It is no exaggeration to say that you (as Roger)
are almost certain to die a thousand deaths before you reach the end
of this game. You may die a dozen times on the same screen. Almost
everything Roger does, everything he touches, everywhere he goes,
results in a sudden and inglorious demise. The Vonster in particular
has a penchant for deaths involving tentacles and other alien limbs.
Yes, it is funny the first several dozen times Roger buys the farm,
but there is a full-length game to be played here and when you finally
knuckle down and want to make some real progress it is extremely irritating
that Roger is murdered by half the things you try. Not to mention
the half dozen or so clicks (or returns) you need to punch to get
through the endless line of text boxes describing Roger’s death and
your ineptitude.

Moreover,
SQTLC is one of the most challenging games I have
played in a while. Part of that, to be sure, is the text parser. Interactive
fiction games are almost always harder than point-and-click games
simply because there is an infinite number of things you might type
and an equally infinite additional number of ways you might phrase
what you type. This, frankly, is probably what did in the text parser,
because otherwise it is a very nimble and rich interface. Like SQ0:R,
SQTLC is a full-length adventure, with a rather large
playing area. And pay no attention to the points total in the menu
bar. You will pass the top score of 255 somewhere about half way through,
and then it resets to zero and you begin the long, hard climb anew.

Like
SQ0:R, The Lost Chapter of course
borrows the Roger sprites from the original Sierra games, as well
as some of the backgrounds. But much of the scenery here is original,
and the story (again, ditto for SQ0:R), while reminiscent
of other Roger escapades, is original and well constructed although
at times unforgiving. There are also a couple of mildly excruciating
“action” sequences. That too is true to the original Sierra
series but it’s the one thing I wish the fan games had junked.

There
are several versions of the game to be downloaded. I’d recommend you
get the latest one with the mouse support and the “stack blown”
patch, whatever that is. Also, unlike the Windows-friendly SQ0:R,
you’re going to need DOSBox
or a really old PC to play this one.

Irritations and excesses
aside, The Lost Chapter is another excellent full-length
tribute to Roger Wilco and Co., and earns three and a half Golden
Mops from me.

Cosmos
Quest I-III

We
leave behind the classic text-parser tributes and return to the world
of VGA and the mouse with the three installments (though, as we speak,
a fourth installment is apparently under construction) in the Cosmos
Quest series. We also leave behind Roger himself, because
though his likeness (and his sprites) appear in CQ,
he has acquired a new name and identity. The hero of Cosmos
Quest is Apo Lanski and while he may get into just as many
scrapes in as far-flung a section of the universe as Roger, he is
not the hapless janitor we all cherish. One might even argue that,
for this reason, the CQ series is not a direct Space
Quest tribute game. It also makes little attempt to mimic
either the AGI or SCI Space Quest user interface.
However, much of the game play, the environments, the story and the
puzzles are reminiscent of the SQ series.

The
three Cosmos Quest games were built by Ilia (from
Bulgaria) Kinanev with Chris Jones’ versatile Adventure
Game Studio. And while each game is a direct continuation of the
previous one, the graphic style of each makes a rather dramatic leap
forward. As, I assume, the creator advanced in game-making skills.
Moreover, the third installment, which only recently was made freeware
like the first two, has a completely different hero, Sgt. Henry Getz.
Same story, different lead.

In
CQI, you begin the game stranded on a rather barren
planet. Once you manage to power up your space shuttle you will visit
a space station and end up on the desert planet that serves as the
base for your enemy, the Ayatolians. I’ve played all three games and
I’m still a little in the dark about who my enemy is. As best I can
figure it, we’ve got a Star Wars kind of dilemma here. The good guys
from Earth who have colonized space are under attack from some evil
alien race, or something. The villains must be stopped or civilization,
as they know it, comes to an end.

Don’t
worry too much about the back story. It’s the immediate game play
that matters, and all three CQs offer the same kind
of adventure-game puzzles that made SQ so much fun. It is true that
CQI sports the weakest graphics but the best puzzles,
and that trend reverses somewhat over the next two games. In CQII,
our hero is back at his colony’s giant space station, grappling with
its bureaucracy as much as the bad guys. But once again, he gets his
hands on a shuttle and zooms off into further adventure and trouble
amid the stars (including, alas, one extremely annoying asteroid-field
action sequence).

In
CQIII, the new hero Sgt. Getz is on the same team
as Apo, as he must rescue some fellow citizens imprisoned on an enemy
planet. This is the shortest of the three games, and the easiest,
as well as the most technically and graphically advanced.

The author clearly has
a fairly large space opera in mind that he’s unveiling step by step.
I have no idea how many more Cosmos Quest installments
there will be, but the first three are well worth downloading. They
may be, especially the first, somewhat crude compared to your average
commercial adventure, but the story is good, the puzzles are clever
and the prospects are promising.

The three Cosmos
Quests we have now do all differ noticeably in style, but
overall the project is another winner and earns a conglomerate three
Golden Mops from me.

Space Quest IV.5

Finally,
we have another admirable AGS effort in Space Quest IV.5. This time
Roger is back at the helm and the game tries its best to recreate
the mid-series SQ experience. Unfortunately, the Roger Wilco of SQIV.5
isn’t really Roger. He’s a much more competent, far less buffoonish
character. Not unappealing, just not our Roger. The story begins at
that bar and used-space-vehicle lot from SQIV, where once again Roger
must tax his brain to get his ship space-worthy. Eventually, he ends
up in SQV territory, battling it out aboard a large space cruiser.
Hence, of course the IV.5 of the title, as the story ostensibly occurs
“between” SQs IV and V.

Though
the shortest of the four games (counting, that is, all three CQs as
one), SQIV.5 is technically competent, the puzzles are SQ-worthy and
the story is more than acceptable. It also is the one that best recreates
the VGA SQ experience and the Sierra action icons. Like Cosmos Quest,
it will in all probability run fine, full-screen, on your recent version
of Windows. It too rates three Golden Mops.

So, there you have it,
Roger fans. Start your downloads! And when you’re in the middle of
SQ0:R and having the time of your extraterrestrial life, reflect on
the rather remarkable fact that all that fun has been packed into
a folder that takes up less than two megabytes on your hard drive.
Which to me is the last word in the argument of whether it’s story
and puzzles which make an adventure great or cutting-edge graphics
and game engines.

Links

The Games:

SQ0:R homepage
and download
http://www.wiw.org/~jess/replicated.html

SQTLC: Stack blown
patch page (and home page)
http://www.frostbytei.com/space/

Cosmos Quest I-IV
homepage (IV demo 60 percent done)
http://www.cosmos-quest.com/

SQIV.5 AGS page
(download and info)
http://www.bigbluecup.com/games.php?action=detail&id=1029

Other:

SQ7 fan game (on
indefinite hold; thanks again, Vivendi!)
http://sq7.org/index.php

Indy FOY homepage

www.barnettcollege.com