Space Quest Series - Thoughts, Ideas, & Opinions

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blacktails
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Space Quest Series - Thoughts, Ideas, & Opinions

#1 Post by blacktails » Fri Nov 22, 2013 6:00 am

I've played Space Quest II VGA a few times now, and i think it is a good remake. Certainly a foundation (hopefully) for more
in the series to be remade. However, I did say 'good'. There are still problems with the game that, if were fixed up, would
make this remake 'better' or even 'best'.

Here is a list of things I've come across in the game or suggestions I feel would make the game better:

*The Prologue which details what happened in the last game goes by too quickly for you to read. I think it either needs the
time before going to the next one extended or to have a click then proceed added

*Visual/Vocal Syncing. basically, when a characters head comes up on the screen when they start talking, this would make what
you hear actually look like what they're saying. This was done with the King's Quest Remakes, and was I thought a very nice
touch to those games, so it would be equally nice for this game as well

*A fullscreen option would be better as well. i found playing the game annoying in a window because if I moved the cursor too
far in one direction, the cursor in Windows would take over, and that really bugged me.

*Death messages need to be spoken. They were in Space Quest IV, which is presumably supposed to be the template for all other
remakes, so this should be put in to bring the remake in line with that game.

*Restart message needs to be spoken. Same reason as above.

*An interaction with the Droole look-alike on board the space station would be good.

*When the salesman are revealed, the pause in between seeing them revealed and when vohaul starts talkin again isn't long
enough for the player to take in what it is that's actually been revealed. I'd say maybe a 5 second pause is needed here
before vohaul starts talking again.

*Normalized sounds. When playing I've noticed the sound levels spike up and down throughout the game. The major issue is that
roger has a sort-of high voice, while the narrator has more bass, so I found i was turning up the sound to hear the narrator,
then turning it down if roger said anything because he was too loud.

*Clicking the taste icon on the swamp monster when it pops its head up makes roger 'speak' the wrong line

*Swamp monster dialogue 'Unfortunately, your desire to breathe...' isn't spoken

*Sound of swamp monster grabbing you only plays when dialog comes up when you aren't covered in berries

*No splashing noise when roger re-enters the water after getting the gem

*Sounds for wading and treading water through the swamp would be nice

*Sound for bubbles coming to the surface from swamp creature would also be nice

*Sound for the tree when it falls. You here the tree crack but no sound when it lands between the two ledges

*Text when looking at the tree 'Upon climbing the old tree...' isn't spoken

*If you climb down the rope too far and fall off, you get the text 'You reach the end...', but when spoken, it cuts off
half-way saying the last word. Instead of saying 'gravity', it says 'grav' then cuts off for some reason

*Text 'Wow! A minecart...' isn't spoken

*Text 'Some particularly deadly-looking...' isn't spoken

*Voices for Monolith robots overlap. That is, if you use the taste or smell on one robot, you will be told not to do it by
the voice of the other robot

*You can take the Monolith burger, but if you eat it, you die. However, you can't dispose of it, so that would be a good
addition

*Look text 'Joop Katana...' isn't spoken

*Smell text 'Don't go smelling...' isn't spoken

*Taste text 'When Joop Katana...' isn't spoken

*Taste text 'Disclaimer...' isn't spoken

*Sound effects for the alien kissing you and when it comes out of your body would be good

*When clicking on the wall robots, the texts 'Pease don't hurt me...' and 'Typical!' aren't spoken

*When you talk to the wall that leads into vohauls lair, the wrong speech file plays

*Using taste on the same wall results in the same bug happening

*The text 'The floor here is riddled...' isn't spoken

*Clicking the smell and taste icons on dead vohaul result in the wrong speech file playing

*When the time runs out for the self-destruct, the asteroid doesn't explode if you are in the corridor

Most of the problems deal with sound, speech, and dialog mainly, but if they were fixed the game would be a lot better than
it is at the moment

Moving on to the rest of the Space Quest series...

At the moment, it seems to me that Space Quest just isn't that popular as King's Quest, as nobody seems to be doing anymore
remakes of the games. You might be reading this and thinking 'oh, but theres only one left to do, and thats Space Quest III',
but you'd be wrong.

For now, SQIII seems to be the elephant in the room. Groups have picked it up to remake, then don't follow through on it.

But as I've just said above, SQIII isn't the only one that needs revisiting.


Space Quest I VGA- This game needs to be given a revisit, not because of the graphics, but because of compatibility issues
such as with Windows, sound, music, and timing issues. As well, it needs to be converted to a 'talkie'. Apart form the
original dialog, I'd also like to see singing parts for the bands at Ulence Flats. I think it would be a nice touch, as well
as adding something like a secret button in the bar that, when pressed, eletrocutes roger, but has the side effect of
reverting the bar to EGA. But that's just me. There isn't much to be done with the game as far as extending the plot, because
it's all tightly wound together and putting more stuff in to extend it just wouldnt seem right. Also, there are certain
things that happen in the game that would normally result in a sound effect, but they aren't in the game. Two examples are
when the lad technician comes in and lands on the floor, and when you enter in a wrong system and the Romulan Bird Of Prey
decloaks. A simple thud for the scientist would be nice, and the decloaking sound from Star Trek, as well as the torpedo
sound from the Original Series would do well here as well. There are other instances, but i won't go into them now.

Space Quest III- Needs to be converted to VGA, a full Point-N-Click, a talkie, AND have that annoying Astro Chicken game
given an overhaul/upgrade to make it easier to land them on the pad. Because the plot has roger going to different
planets in a ship, there's an opportunity to extend the plot by visiting more worlds. Whether anyone who actually follows
through on remaking this game actually does that or not, who knows? One thing I would like to see is more spacecraft from
Sci-Fi series in the debris on-board the freighter. I enjoyed the references to the ships, as well as the same later in
Space Quest V.

Space Quest IV-You're probably either thinking 'what's wrong with it?' or 'It ain't broke, so don't fix it!'. But this game
does have issues. Mainly with compatibility as I've mentioned above, sound, music, and voice issues (either two will work
but one never seems to) and timing issues. Rather than have to download a third party program that will try to fix the
problems, it would be nice if the fixes were built-in. Also, just off the top of my head, I think there was a bug with the
PocketPal Connector. You never knew which one you had to buy so you had to save your game, and go through the whole lot
until you got to where you can plug in the PocketPal to see for yourself. More references to more Sierra titles in the
gaming shop would be nice. But the main thing with this game that sets it apart from the rest is that it has the biggest
potential for plot expansion than any other in the series. because roger is going through time to previous and future
games, the plot can be extended to visit more of these, such as Space Quest V or VI, or Space Quest II or III, with the
'secret' code that got you to Ortega being replaced with a planet or situation from either a different series, or even
from one of the fan-made games, such as Space Quest Replicated. The possibilities for this game are huge.

Space Quest V-Compatibility issues, sound, music, and timing issues all need to be fixed up. And the game needs to be made
into a talkie as well. Since roger is going through space visiting worlds like in SQIII, there's potential for the plot to
be extended. Whether it's more planets to pick up garbage from before everything kicks off, or more to visit in order to
gather evidence of what's going on, I don't know. I would like to see the part towards the end where you are crawling
through the Goliath made more meaningful. More to do on the decks in-between Engineering and the Bridge would be better.
Also, two sound effects that I think would be useful here are the cloaking sound from Star Trek for WD-40's ship, and the
jetpack sound of the Dark Trooper in Dark Forces used for her jetpack. They'd definitely not go unnoticed when heard.


Future Titles

Even though they were just spoofs, I'd actually like to see a Space Quest X and XII made. I think that would be really
interesting. i think there's just enough information to come up with a storyline for both. The Star Wars cliche of Vader
being Luke's father could also be converted into sludge vohaul turing out to be roger's father. It would certainly be an
interesting, if not somewhat expected plot twist. What I would like to see though is some twist that makes roger a StarCon
Captain again, and to bring the old crew back from SQV for a grand adventure. I don't think the designers realized how many
avenues for a plot they really had.

So there's my $1.10 worth (inc. GST), so I'd just like to know how everyone else feels about it or anything else related to
reviving the Space Quest Series.

adeyke
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Re: Space Quest Series - Thoughts, Ideas, & Opinions

#2 Post by adeyke » Fri Nov 22, 2013 2:18 pm

AGDI wasn't involved in the SQ2 remake. It was made by Infamous Adventures, so your feedback would be more appropriate over there.

As for your comments about other potential remakes: it's easy to say "someone should remake this". It's much harder to actually create the remake. It takes months of effort. And in the case of the VGA games, that's months of efforts just to recreate something as it already exists, without really being able to significantly improve it or make it one's own. No one's going to do that.

As for the PocketPal in SQ4, what you're supposed to do is get to the end, see what connector you need, then take the time pod back to the mall to get it.

goatmeal
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Re: Space Quest Series - Thoughts, Ideas, & Opinions

#3 Post by goatmeal » Sat Nov 23, 2013 1:45 am

To piggyback on Adeyke's comments...

1. Interesting you didn't mention SQ6...

2. While most, if not all, of your bugs have likely been mentioned before, Infamous Adventures will NOT be supporting/updating their two games, nor will they be working on SQ3VGA (which they had every intention of doing). You can read more about this decision in the July 27, 2012 post by Klytos titled Infamous Adventures - One Door Closes... on their home page:

http://www.infamous-adventures.com

3. After an onslaught of spam attacks, Infamous Adventures has suspended their forums indefinitely. However, you can contact them at:

http://www.infamous-quests.com

4. Why have they moved to Infamous Quests? They are branching out into making their own commercial games using their own ideas, much like Himalaya and POS are doing. Again, you can read about in the post mentioned in #2 above, and learn more about their upcoming game, Quest For Infamy, in #3 above.

blacktails
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Re: Space Quest Series - Thoughts, Ideas, & Opinions

#4 Post by blacktails » Tue Dec 10, 2013 11:25 pm

Well, since Vivendi are richer than god and responsible for shutting down many a fan-created Sierra game, I guess I can only hope they release the games again.

The new Larry title/s (there's more to come apparently) resolution would be great for the Space Quest Series.

I'd also like to see Replicated and The Lost Chapter re-vamped and added to the Space Quest line, as they're good games.

I think when it comes to Space Quest, it's a bit of a void in the middle between Larry and King's Quest.

The Larry series is getting a brilliant makeover, so no-ones going to top that for years to come, and because of the absolutely brilliant job you guys did with King's Quest I-III, no-ones going to go there for awhile either.

I did check out a VGA KQIV and a '3d' KQIV and I've gotta say, I prefer the VGA one. But that's just me.

Well, there's my thoughts.

At the risk of getting negative feedback, It would be nice to see the Keens remade...

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