FATAL MISTAKES (WITH INSTANT REPLAY!) | Space Quest I VGA pt. 2

[@Autumnal_willow]

"Thank you for dismembering the orat and presenting it's oozing viscera to us, I am pleased by this. Also we are peaceful, we swear."

[@spacequesthistorian]

Totally not a weird request. "This creature on the surface, who appears lonely and hungry, is really bothering us. Go fuck him up for us. There's a good lad."

[@jaecynthiakendrick]

@@spacequesthistorian I've always pitied the orat.

[@cybercop0083]

Yay! I found my "I'm meltiiing!" Thank you again SQ Historian! As usual have been a real handhold. As in holding my hand to find the goods!

[@richardperspective]

"We are a peaceful race. We only turn visitors into our personal assassins."

[@spacequesthistorian]

"Yeah, you know. Prove yourself by defeating this hulking mass of flesh and teeth. No biggie, right? Did I mention we don't get a lot of visitors? I should say 'not a lot of *return* visitors.' Anyway, off you scoot!"

[@redshirtveteran5688]

@@spacequesthistorian Eh, more like pest control than assasination.

[@G00berella]

I like the fact that you can trip. Yes, annoying, but it makes it feel much more like those terrifying nightmares where you can't run and there's danger approaching from behind.

[@spacequesthistorian]

It's a nice addition that ups the tension -- *when there's still time to get up and run away from it.*

[@MagusMarquillin]

I love the screens that you can piece together into a VGA panorama. This section, (and the Arcada) is great art and more evocative then it's EGA counterpart. In the second half someone threw up color (and references) all over the screen, and made me long for a drab, generic Tatooine-like planet.

[@spacequesthistorian]

I agree, the desert bit on Kerona in this game is my favorite as well. Which is good because there's a lot of it.

[@ShadeMeadows]

20:23 Welp... That is the most Disturbing Death-Screen. Also: "Grrrrreel~"

[@spacequesthistorian]

That is actually a bit disturbing, yes. But when I first saw it as a kid, I was puzzled by it: "When did Roger turn into a robot?"

[@ShadeMeadows]

@@spacequesthistorian Yeah, not very easy to tell what's goin' on the first time~

[@lancebaylis3169]

The Orat's Cave music might be my favourite one in the game. Just epic.

[@Sephex]

I really like the sports commentator deaths. Especially with the arrows like they use in NFL games. And again, it may be overdone, but damn I love color cycling. Scorched Earth also had cool color cycling.

[@spacequesthistorian]

Scorched Earth had color cycling like health nuts have bran in their diet. Wonderful game, though.

[@Terezar]

I love that the gadget looks like a babel fish from Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy. While this remake may not be the best thing ever the little touches still make me laugh.

[@spacequesthistorian]

If you like the Hitchhiker's references, trust me, there are more coming up. 😉

[@MagusMarquillin]

A good adventure gamer searches a bit before moving on, and it's hard to miss the shard of window now (compared with the original where you don't see it without a "look at"). Worse is if you don't turn on the translator, the Keronian dumps you outside without instruction, and the broken path is bound to kill you on your last trip. Though that's still just a small section to play over compared doing the same thing over the whole of King's Quest 2, with no feedback that the bridge crossing is limited besides noticing it gives you a point each time.

[@spacequesthistorian]

I think, beyond the behind-the-scenes shitshow that went on and the somewhat baffling art style, the main criticism I have with SQ1VGA is that it doesn't try to fix any of the bullshit that the EGA version had. You're still stuck in the cavern with no way to get back up top if you forgot the glass shard (and, in this case, the sticky plant). You're still screwed if you didn't look at the translator and realize you had to turn it on. You're still screwed *ages* down the line if you don't remember to take the cartridge back from the computer in the Keronian underground. And lord help you if you forgot to write down the sector that the Deltaur is at, 'cos that info is only coming at you once. All of these issues could have been fixed (the same way they "fixed" the slot machine puzzle) but they didn't.

[@jaecynthiakendrick]

@@spacequesthistorian You're correct about the shard dead end, but you can actually get a sticky plant in the cavern. It's used to connect the broken piece of stalagmite to its base. You can scrape it off with the hand icon.

[@jaecynthiakendrick]

And I mentioned in a comment to your previous episode that you can view the cartridge in a computer on the Deltaur. But your other dead-end criticisms remained strangely unresolved in this remake.

[@TheInkPitOx]

You could rival AVGN for the amount of times you say the word fuck

[@CountryRoadist]

25:04 - GET UP! GET UP YOU PIECE OF......shit. Hahaha.

[@spacequesthistorian]

Whoever coded in the "Roger can stumble" action in this game can eat every corner of my ass.

[@davvigtu]

2:30 "the the landing's impact" eh? :)

[@derosiflo6524]

Well that's colorful.

[@jankjason]

They put the goofy scream in SQ1 and the Homer doh in SQ5, I wonder if the same guy decided both of these things.

[@spacequesthistorian]

I doubt it, since those games were developed in two separate places by two separate companies.

[@jankjason]

So why would anyone do this?

[@MagusMarquillin]

It's common enough in lesser creative writing to think making a reference to another popular property is enough to be funny - and to be fair I thought SQ5's Doh's were _hilarious_ at 10 years old. Also, seems fairly ballsy though to risk a Disney lawsuit.

[@spacequesthistorian]

I think they were just infatuated with the idea they could have digital sound effects. Also, it was kind of a wild-west approach to it back then. I'm not even sure those are sampled directly from Goofy cartoons (or the SQ5 "d'oh" is sampled directly from The Simpsons). It *sounds* like it but I gather Sierra would argue that they just had some dude from accounting do those sounds during a lunch break and it just *happens* to sound like something recognizable.

[@mrcampbell7674]

This just occurred to me, but where do they get the water needed to make the steam?

[@spacequesthistorian]

That's an excellent question. Maybe they somehow filter the acid stuff? Or maybe they have a team of really flatulent people taking turns getting in a fart chamber?

[@GeminiDoesEverything]

11:12 Went with the Gary Owens pronunciation of "ass", I see.

[@spacequesthistorian]

Haha! 😂 Umm yeah, that was totally on purpose and not because my tongue slipped and momentarily forgot what language it was supposed to be speaking.

[@NunoGuitarsSilva]

Cool videos!!! :-) I'm playing the VGA version and here I'm always dying thirsty no matter what. Any tip? Thanks

[@spacequesthistorian]

Did you take the survival kit in the crashed pod? Open it in your inventory. It contains a bottle of "dehydrated water."

[@NunoGuitarsSilva]

@@spacequesthistorian yes, but Roger is always thirsty and I need to stop multiple times. When I sent it to pass a part of the level, I always die thirsty. (Thanks for your help)

[@spacequesthistorian]

@@NunoGuitarsSilva Ah, that's probably because the timer is screwed up. That happens if the computer speed is too fast. Are you playing in DOSBox? You can lower the CPU cycles by hitting CTRL-F11 - I recommend somewhere around 1000 cycles. Or you can just play it in ScummVM instead, where these sorts of timer issues are non-existant.

[@NunoGuitarsSilva]

@@spacequesthistorian wow thanks, I never imagined that... I will try that later on, it's been frustrating since I finished the game in the original version in the 80s, and now I'm almost 50 and doing it in the VGA 😃 really appreciate your help and cheers from Portugal!

[@NunoGuitarsSilva]

@@spacequesthistorian and yes, I'm using Dosbox playing it. Sometime I just discovered last year during the pandemic. Thank you so much! 🙏

[@Gradius6]

This is the second or third time now you mentioned "rotoscoping". What exactly is that? Is it a technique used in sprite art specifically?

[@dragonfurry69]

Rotoscoping is basically tracing over a video to turn it into animation. Some early Disney movies, like Snow White, used it, as well as the music video for "take on me" by A-Ha.

[@spacequesthistorian]

Thank you, David, for that explanation. That's really all you need to know. I will unnecessarily add that, in computer games at least, perhaps the most famous example of rotoscoping is the first Prince of Persia game. Jordan Mechner famously filmed his younger brother running around, jumping, and pretending to do swordplay, then meticulously drew over still frames of that video to create the fluid animations of the Prince and his enemies.

[@AidanMillward]

@@spacequesthistorian the original Star Wars movies before that. Obi Wan and Vader’s lightsabers were done using rotoscoping.

[@dannastic7160]

The underground facility reminds me of the liposuction machine at La Costa Lotta in Leisure Suit Larry 6...

[@spacequesthistorian]

Oh god. The trauma.

[@JDHJANUS]

Little known fact. Yuri from DDLC voiced the alien hologram on Kerona! Who knew? Clearly the SQ Historian!! :) I do have a question. When you were running from the Spider Droid, right before it killed the Orat, it noted you were thirsty. But you didn't drink. Do you get several warnings about the water? Like do you have a timer? Just curious.

[@spacequesthistorian]

You are on a timer and you do get several warnings (three, I believe). And, yeah, my voice acting range is pretty limited. 😂

[@COCHESEkramer]

Must be Tuesday... 😁

[@mjc0961]

15:51 - 😶

[@spacequesthistorian]

Oh come on, that's, like, my best line delivery in the entire episode. 😄

[@redshirtveteran5688]

@@spacequesthistorian Yeah, you did a grate job.

[@dannastic7160]

Is it weird only to me that the closest moon of Kerona is considered to be the "second moon"? Shouldn't it be from the planet's viewpoint, i.e. the closest moon is the first, then the outer moon is the second..? 🤔

[@MagusMarquillin]

Maybe it's just the younger moon?

[@dannastic7160]

First come, first served? I guess it's a possibility... 😜

[@spacequesthistorian]

Maybe they just have weird orbits. But I like Magus's explanation better. 😋

[@FatalFoxtrot252]

Most things Fatal are a mistake ;)

[@richardperspective]

See, I get the objection to the graphics in this one, but I still think the Deltaur looks pretty awesome, and just can't really see a HUGE gulf between going for a retro style and literally having Voltron or Luke/Obi-Wan in the background. Except the title screen. That's incredibly ugly.

[@spacequesthistorian]

Standing on its own, I can see the appeal in the graphics. They certainly aren't objectively horrifying. But Space Quest they're not!