Intro
What is Space Quest?
Where did you find out about Space Quest? First game played?

1986, October
Space Quest I: The Sarien Encounter
Other games released that year: Labyrinth (LucasArts), Metroid, Super Mario Bros, Arkanoid, Kid Icarus, King’s Quest III: To Err is Human, Power Pad (NES accessory), Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness, Sega Master System (console)
System requirements: 8088/8086 CPU, 256KB RAM, CGA, EGA, Hercules, or Tandy/PCjr Graphics, PC speaker or Tandy/PCjr Sound Card
Media: 3.5" Floppy Disk or 5.25" Floppy Disk
Price: $49.99
Interface: Text parser, arrow keys for movement

Plot: Bumbling starship janitor Roger Wilco survives a hostile takeover of his ship by being asleep in the broom closet at the time of the incident. He escapes and uses a combination of wits and dumb luck to stop the space pirates from destroying his home planet.
Talk about our own experiences with this game.
Fun facts:
-Scott Murphy and Mark Crowe co-designed the game. Crowe did ALL of the graphics (!) and music, while Murphy headed up the three man programming team. The first few rooms on board the ship were crated on their own time as a demo to show their boss to sell him on the concept. Crowe and Murphy created the alter ego The Two Guys from Andromeda as a way to parody Roberta Williams and other video game designers who put their names and pictures on their games. Okay, mostly just Roberta Williams.
-Kicking one of your dead crewmates will cause you to lose a point.
-Setting the game to “Slow Mode” during the skimmer arcade sequence is actually a part of the puzzle. It’s nearly impossible to do on the normal speed.
- Sold 100,000, a “huge hit”, earning the coveted SPA Gold Medal from the Software Publishers Association.

1987
Space Quest II: Vohaul’s Revenge
Other games released that year: Maniac Mansion, Legend of Zelda, Bomberman, Mega Man, Street Fighter (arcade), Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards, Dungeon Master, Amiga 500 (console)
System requirements: 8088/8086 CPU, 256KB RAM, CGA, EGA, Hercules, or Tandy/PCjr Graphics, PC speaker or Tandy/PCjr Sound Card
Media: 3.5" Floppy Disk or 5.25" Floppy Disk
Price: $49.99
Interface: Text parser, arrow keys for movement

Plot: Roger is captured by villain Sludge Vohaul. He escapes into an alien jungle, and has to figure out a way to stop Vohaul from flooding his home planet with genetically engineered insurance salesmen.
Talk about our own experiences with this game.
Fun facts:
-Bringing up the “About” page after you’ve died reads "Space Quest was designed by Scott Murphy and Mark Crowe. We hope you're not looking for someone to blame just because you died."
-In the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, raising each letter in the computer character’s name HAL up by one gives you IBM. Doing the same with the abort code for the genetically engineered insurance salesmen in Space Quest II, SHSR, gives you TITS.
-Mark Crowe did ALL of the graphics for this game, just like in Space Quest 1, but this time he was doing Leisure Suit Larry 1 simultaneously!

1989, March
Space Quest III: The Pirates of Pestulon
Other games released that year: Hero’s Quest: So You Want to be a Hero (later renamed Quest for Glory), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (LucasArts), Super Mario Land (Game Boy), Super Mario Bros 2, Tetris, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES), DuckTales, Mega Man 2, SimCity, Solitaire and Minesweeper (Windows), Game Boy (console), Sega Genesis (console), Power Glove (NES accessory)
System requirements: 8088/8086 CPU, 512KB RAM, CGA, EGA, Hercules, MCGA, Tandy/PCjr, or VGA graphics, Adlib, Game Blaster, IBM Music Feature Card, PC speaker, PS/1 Audio Card, Roland MT-32, Sound Blaster, Tandy DAC, or Tandy/PCjr sound card
Media: 3.5" Floppy Disk or 5.25" Floppy Disk
Price: $59.99
Interface: Text parser, mouse or arrow keys for movement

Plot: Roger wakes up from his cryogenic freeze trapped on a garbage freighter. After his escape he learns of the ScumSoft video game company’s kidnapping of the Two Guys from Andromeda and set out to save them, all while being chased by “Arnoid the Annihilator”.
Talk about our own experiences with this game.
Fun facts:
-I always hear people talk about the sound on this game. It was one of the first games ever with soundblaster support, whatever that means. I think Roger’s spoken line in the opening of the game (“Where am I?”) might be the first audible voice in a video game. The score was written by the drummer of Supertramp, who I think I’ve heard is the first famous musician to compose the score to a video game.
-If you by the Big Belcher Combo at Monolith Burger, you will throw up.
-Many people consider this to be the best Space Quest game in the series. Including the Software Publishers of America, who named it "Best Adventure Game of the Year"

1990, September
Space Quest: The Sarien Encounter (remake)
Plot: A VGA remake of SQI with a Sci-Fi B Movie from the 1950’s feel.
Talk about our own experiences with this game.
Fun facts:
-This game and Space Quest IV were the only games ever to use the “Taste” and “Smell” icons. They were barely used in either game, and usually only for comedic effect.
-Not really blessed by Scott Murphy and Mark Crowe.

1991, March
Space Quest IV: Roger Wilco and the Time Rippers
Other games released that year: Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge, Super Mario Bros 3, Sonic the Hedgehog, Tecmo Super Bowl, Another World (very artistic video game, first to use polygons), F-Zero, Civilization, Road Rash, Police Quest III: The Kindred (Sierra), Leisure Suit Larry 5: Passionate Patti Does a Little Undercover Work (Sierra), Gobliiins(Sierra)
System requirements: 8088/8086 CPU, 640KB RAM, EGA, MCGA, Tandy/PCjr, or VGA graphics, Adlib, Game Blaster, PC speaker, PS/1 Audio Card, Roland MT-32, Sound Blaster, Tandy DAC (TL/SL), or Tandy/PCjr sound card
Media: 3.5" Floppy Disk or 5.25" Floppy Disk or CD
Price: $59.95
Interface: Mouse

Plot: Roger is chased through future Space Quest games (such as Space Quest X: The Latex Babes of Estros and Space Quest XII: Vohaul’s Revenge II) by the Sequel Police, who are taking orders from Sludge Vohaul. He eventually meets his own son and is told that he has a great future waiting for him with his wife, Beatrice Wankmeister.
Talk about our own experiences with this game.
Fun facts:
-Unlike previous Space Quest games’ graphics, which were created solely on computer, SQIV’s backgrounds were hand painted and character sprites were video captures.
-Cost over one million dollars to produce (King’s Quest was the first game ever to cross the 1 million barrier)
-The first Space Quest game with full voice! Most of the voices were provided by Sierra staff, except for the narrator who was voiced by Gary Owens, better known as the announcer on the camp classic ‘70’s show Laugh-In and the voice of Powdered Toast Man and the original Space Ghost. Although he only narrated two Space Quest games, he is considered a staple of the series.
-When traveling back to Space Quest I or II, the graphics revert back to VGA.
-In the CD-ROM version, sniffing and tasting the burger ingredients in Monolith Burger produces a ton of funny, fully voice acted easter eggs.
-This was the last game designed by both of the Two Guys from Andromeda. They say they needed a change, and Mark Crowe moved to work for a subsidiary of Sierra called Dynamix.

1992
Space Quest comic book
A Space Quest comic book is produced by Malibu Comics. The first issue is in color. The second two issues are in black and white and have a different writer. It is very rare, and very bad.

1993
Space Quest V: The Next Mutation
Other games released that year: Day of the Tentacle, Zombies Ate My Neighbors (LucasArts), Super Street Fighter II, Starfox, Mortal Kombat II, NBA Jam, Myst, Doom, Return to Zork, Kirby’s Adventure, Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers, Jaguar (console), 3DO (console), Police Quest IV: Open Season (Sierra), Leisure Suit Larry 6: Shape Up or Slip Out! (Sierra), Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness (Sierra)
System requirements: 286 CPU, 640KB RAM, EGA, MCGA, or VGA graphics, Adlib, Disney Sound Source, Game Blaster, MIDI, Microsoft Sound System, PC speaker, Pro Audio Spectrum, PS/1 Audio Card, Roland MT-32, Sound Blaster, Tandy/PCjr, or Thunderboard sound card
Media: 3.5" Floppy Disk
Price: $69.99
Interface: Mouse

Plot: A computer glitch makes Roger the captain of a garbage scow, complete with wacky crew. He meets his future wife and competes for her affection with Rhames T Quark, a William Shatner parody. Quark goes bad and Roger and Bea end up together.
Talk about our own experiences with this game.
Fun facts:
-Most of this game is a parody of Star Trek, the original and TNG. Many people are annoyed by this. It introduces the Star Fleet-esqe StarCon, which becomes a staple in the storyline of the Space Quest series.
-Mark Crowe designed this game at the Sierra subsidiary Dynamix, without Scott Murphy. The game is a lot less dark and less mean to the player than previous installments.
-The game was never released on CD-ROM or with speech, due to budget concerns.
-The game was sponsored by Sprint, whose logo appears after communications transmissions.

1995
Space Quest 6: The Spinal Fronteir
Other games released that year: Full Throttle, The Dig, Mortal Kombat 3, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island, Chrono Trigger, Command and Conquer, EarthBound, Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest, Virtual Boy (console), Playstation (console), Sega Saturn (console), Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within (Sierra), Phantasmagoria (Sierra), Torin's Passage (Sierra)
System requirements: 386 CPU, 8MB RAM, SuperVGA graphics, Adlib, MIDI, Microsoft Sound System, Pro Audio Spectrum, Roland MT-32, Sound Blaster sound card, 2X CD-ROM
Media: CD
Price: ?
Interface: Mouse

Plot: Due to a set of convoluted charges, Roger is stripped of his command of the garbage scow and made a janitor again. He uncovers a plot by an elderly StarCon widow to take over the body of his friend Stellar Santiago. Roger has himself shrunk and chases the villain throughout Stellar’s body.
Talk about our own experiences with this game.
Fun facts:
-Working titles for the game include “Where in Corpsman Santiago is Roger Wilco?” and “Roger Wilco in Innard Space”
-The majority of the game was designed by Josh Mandel. He left shortly before completion, and was replaced by former Two Guys from Andromeda member Scott Murphy. The game was promoted as being solely designed by Scott Murphy, which even he seems baffled by.
-Gary Owens back as narrator!
-Between having a different designer and a different visual style (the sprites are illustrated animation), SQ6 is the most visually distinct of the Space Quest games.

Cancelled SQ7s
-Scott Murphy started designing a Space Quest 7 in 1997, but it is cancelled that same year. It is restarted in 1999, but cancelled again when Sierra fires two thirds of it’s employees in one day. There were rumors that Scott Murphy’s SQ7 featured online multiplayer play, but it seemed like that decision was forced on him. In 2002 a company called Escape Factory begins work on a Space Quest action-platformer for Sierra, but it is cancelled in 2003.

Fan games
Although abandoned Space Quest fan games number too many to count, two full length ones have been released. First was Space Quest: The Lost Chapter in 2001, taking place in between SQ II and III. Then was Space Quest 0: Replicated in 2003, taking place before Space Quest I. Both feature retro style VGA graphics. A fan made Space Quest 7 was started in 2001 but shut down by Sierra in 2006. Some games are still in development, including the impressive looking Space Quest: Incinerations.

Websites
SpaceQuest.net- Amazing museum of Space Quest
Many Deaths of Roger Wilco- A directory of every Roger death ever , with screenshots!
Akril’s WSSQUID
Colin’s Space Quest sketch series

Some info from from Wikipedia, but most is copy and pasted from SpaceQuest.net. Some is from my own shaky memory.

“Other games released that year” dates are from all over. They should mostly be American release dates, but who knows.

You should add some notes about the SQ6 demo -- it had stuff that wasn't featured in the final game, IIRC.

Where would I get the info on that, Mad_C33?

You have peeked my curiosity and I'd love to talk about it on the episode.

We got a twitter reply to add to the discussion from Joystiq.com's Ludwig K. -

For instance, here's differences in dialogue in SQ4:
Floppy: Nobody can reach that building from here with their tongue unless they're a member of KISS.

n one of the many lawsuits concerning the Space Quest series, Scott and Mark were sent to court concerning their in-game spoof of Toys-R-Us (Droid-B-Us). They won the lawsuit, but they needed to change Droids-R-Us into Droids-B-Us in the EGA version.

The bar on Ulence Flats has both the Blues Brothers and ZZ-Top. Madonna performs sometimes too, accompanied by the very flitting remark when using the tongue icon: "Her taste in clothes is almost as bad as her taste in music." Scott Murphy adds: "The ZZ Top thing was a problem for us. Somehow after a couple of years they found out about their satirical cameo appearance. Even though we didn't portray them in any bad light, someone there had no sense of humor about it. We then got one of those real solid envelopes in the mail with return address overloaded with names of supposed importance, at least in their eyes. The policy decision at Sierra was that it is easier to make a change to the game rather than go to court and spend a bunch of shark money (legal fees -ed) even if we were found to be within our rights. We do have free speech in this country, but it ain't cheap."

The electronics store in the Galaxy Galleria of the disk version of SQ4 was called "Radio Shock", in reference to a large chain of Radio Shacks in the States, which is called "Radio Shack". The CD-Rom version of SQ4 changed this to "Hz So Good". The Two Guys where almost sent to court. Scott Murphy: "The way it worked from the company side is that it is easier and far economically sensible to make an art and writing change than go nearly the level of litigation. It's costly and time consuming. Oh, and did I mention costly? Mark and I hated to have to make any changes submitted from outside the team, but on occasion you could see the logic (Sometimes I really hate logic!)."