The Unofficial, Unexpurgurated, Unassuming Complete History of Sierra's Space Quest

By Adam Rodman

Back in 1985, Sierra On-Line was a small company based in Seattle that developed adventure games. After the surprising success of Roberta Williams' game, King's Quest, two of the Sierra members that had worked on it approached CEO Ken Williams with a proposition: could they make a humorous science-fiction adventure game based on the trials of an intergalactic janitor? Their names: Scott Murphy and Mark Crowe, a programmer and an artist, respectively. Ken was, to say the least, skeptical. So the two valiant programmers put together a demo, which would later become the first four levels of Space Quest 1: The Sarien Encounter. Scott programmed, Mark did the art, and Ken Williams absolutely loved the demo.

In the mid-1980s, point-and-click games weren't even considered a possibility by developers. Graphic adventure games were little more than souped-up versions of text-only games. Space Quest was programmed in the Sierra Adventure Game Interpreter (which the technical freaks called AGI for short). The character was moved around by the arrow keys, and everything else in the game was controlled by use of a text parser. It would set quite a few records in the gaming industry, including the first adventure game to include a live-action puzzle (the acid drops on Kerona) and the first adventure game to include an arcade sequence (the skimmer on Kerona). Space Quest enjoyed critical and financial success, receiving the SPA (Software Publishing Association) Gold Medal. PC Magazine called it "... rollicking, mouse-swinging, keyboard-blasting fun." After the success of their first game, Scott and Mark would forever been known as "The Two Guys from Andromeda."

In Space Quest 1, you play a cowardly janitor who manages to escape destruction from the evil Sariens because you are asleep at your post. Throughout the game, you must not only save your own hide, but your home planet of Xenon as well. In Space Quest 2, subtitled Vohaul's Revenge, the evil dude you managed to defeat in the last game has an even more diabolical plot to destroy Xenon: cloned insurance salesmen. Published in 1987, it was a widely anticipated game and was a huge seller. The box sported the Two Guys from Andromeda with their new look--red Mohawks and snouts. Space Quest 2 won an award for best documentation.

Space Quest 3 was a landmark in PC gaming. For the first time, it featured mouse support, a full general midi soundtrack, and VGA colors. Released in 1989, it was also Sierra's first product programmed in SCI (that would be Sierra Creative Interpreter). Subtitled The Pirates of Pestulon, it chronicled the adventures of Roger Wilco as he rushed to save the Two Guys from the evil clutches of their competitors, ScumSoft. It had the most critical acclaim of any Sierra product to that date, including the 1989 SPA Excellence in Software Award, Best Fantasy Role Playing Adventure Program, Best PC VGA Graphics from Game Player's Magazine, Computer Game of the Month, August/September 1989, Game Player's Magazine, and Excellence in Musical Achievement Award, Computer Gaming World.

Space Quest 4, subtitled The Time Rippers, was released in 1991 and later released in CD-ROM talkie version in 1992. It was one of the first CD-ROM games on the market and one of the first SVGA ones as well. The game was about Roger's trip through time as he rushed to save the future Xenon from his old nemesis, Sludge Vohaul. After the programming was complete, Scott Murphy told an interviewer, "We won't be doing another Space Quest; that's not to say that there won't be another game in the series, it's just that we won't be doing it. Although we have no solid ideas of what type of game we'd like to do next, we've lived with Roger Wilco a long time now, and though we like him a lot, we're ready for a break." Fans across the world were upset at this news, but Mark Crowe, the other Guy from Andromeda, was not about to give up programming games in the Space Quest series.

Space Quest 5: The Next Mutation featured high-resolution, colorful graphics and played like a comic book, complete with word bubbles. It was the first of the Space Quest series to be programmed by only one of the Two Guys from Andromeda. The plot was as whimsical and funny as an original Star Trek episode and covered Roger's rise to the rank of Captain ... of a garbage scow. Though the slapstick sarcasm of Scott Murphy was greatly missed, Space Quest 5 became one of the most loved adventure games of all time. A talkie CD-ROM version was planned, but Sierra never produced it.

Mark Crowe faded out of the Space Quest scene, and Josh Mandel was made the lead programmer of Space Quest 6: The Spinal Frontier. However, as programming on the game progressed, Scott Murphy became the lead programmer and Mandel was kicked down to writer. Space Quest 6 was the first of the series to be released in CD-only format. The graphics and sound made the game look like a cartoon. Roger Wilco returns to his old uniform after being stripped (literally) of his rank and demoted to janitor. The plot advances as an attempt on his life fails and one of his friends is killed instead. Released in 1995, this would be the last of the Space Quest series.

In 1997, Sierra announced that they would begin programming a Space Quest 7. The lead programmers would have been the Guy from Andromeda, Scott Murphy, and the self-proclaimed Gal from Andromeda, Leslie Balfour. The team only got one year into development, and after releasing a promo movie, Sierra canceled Space Quest. Scott Murphy was fired, and the rest of the team was transferred to other parts of the company.

And thus ends the story of Space Quest, one of the oldest and most respected series in the history of computer gaming ...

Ah ... but this is only the beginning for our Space Quest retrospective! Be here soon, same Just Adventure time, same Just Adventure channel as Adam Rodman begins his reviews of the Space Quest games.