I waited 23 YEARS to see this easter egg in Space Quest 6

This easter egg was reported to me way back in the mid-90s, and I put it in the Space Quest FAQ - but I could never get it to work. But now, thanks to SQH Discord denizen Samuel, I can now see what I've been missing for nearly a quarter of a decade. (Also, a bonus: how to enable the strange but very useful debug mode of SQ6!)
Podcast episode where Akril talks about all the hidden stuff in SQ6's resource file: spacequesthist...
(fast forward to 10:55 to listen)
Join the SQH Discord: / discord
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#SpaceQuest #EasterEggs

[@spacequesthistorian]

I highlighted the wrong paragraph in the FAQ screenshot that's briefly visible at 3:01. It was supposed to be the following paragraph that says, "Has anyone gotten this to work?" You can check it yourself: wiw.org/~jess/SQFAQ20.txt

[@Vokabre]

One can say, that the easter egg was ~nebulous~

[@spacequesthistorian]

Oh, have a like, you. If I could, I'd give you two.

[@kiko335]

I just finished watching your SQ6 playthrough recently, so this was a nice little treat ^_^ thank you!

[@ThePorpoisepower]

I fucking love making the spider fall!

[@EmeraldLavigne]

Illegal command: GOD

[@anthonykoeslag]

I'ts cool, would have liked more... of anything really So what is your story? How did you become the SQH? What started you down this path? Just interested. I'm going through all your play lists today, just enjoying the content and vibe

[@spacequesthistorian]

Thanks for looking through the channel. As for how this all came about, phew, that's a long story. The gist of it is: I was part of the early Space Quest fan community back in the mid-to-late 90s, started a KZbin channel about 12 years ago as an excuse to play more games, and then some stuff happened, and here we are now. :)

[@Nonamearisto]

My only experience with Space Quest VI as a child was its brief appearance on a video advertising computer and video games which also featured Myst and Fury 3 (well, "cubed", not 3); both of which I had, along with Doom and several others.

[@Gunbudder]

6:19 i always liked the marriage proposal easter egg on this screen, but i never got it to work. i only know its there from the two guys commentary

[@kevinwallace5050]

Time to update the FAQ!

[@spacequesthistorian]

Yeah nah. 😅 This channel is my FAQ now.

[@Kawa-oneechan]

I *had* this whole comment written down about my deeper studies into this easter egg, concluding that it's not actually counting the clicks but is in fact highly dependent on your timing. But then, even though I could see the comment, one refresh later it was all gone. But yeah, the most intricate part boils down to the exact time you clicked at, in mere milliseconds if not smaller. At least that's what my dive into the decompilation told me.

[@Kawa-oneechan]

Also the "I'm Roger Wilco and I'll kick your ass" line? I couldn't find it.

[@spacequesthistorian]

That's weird, 'cos it seemed to trigger with the same amount of clicks each time I tried. Maybe I just got bizarrely lucky. The "I'll kick your ass" line plays in a different easter egg - the Renegade Credits. Ctrl+click 7 times (or timer-wise? Who knows 😅) on the tv screen in 8-Rear. After the credits are done, Roger says that line. Weird about your comment! I didn't delete it, and I don't see it in my "auto-flagged by KZbin" list. Bizarre.

[@Kawa-oneechan]

​@@spacequesthistorian The "viewScreen" object (the tv screen) *does* actually count up. One of the conditions is (>= (++ local7) 5), and it resets local7 to 0 when hit, then sends you to room 435, "regCredits"... and that plays message 0 0 20 0, module 98... and yeah, turns out the message text doesn't match the voice line. No wonder I couldn't find it.

[@AvSias]

Pretty cool stuff, but how did people find out about it in the first place? Did they click every possible pixel in the game to see what might happen?

[@spacequesthistorian]

Excellent question. I have no idea. I can't remember who submitted it to the SQ FAQ, and I don't recall asking them how they found it. It is entirely possible that they just found it by accident, or maybe it was submitted by one of the programmers. I remember William Shockley (lead programmer) submitted a couple of fun tidbits about the game - notably that he proposed to his then-girlfriend with this game ("Michele Aleshire, will you marry me" sometimes appears on the movie marquee on Polysorbate LX) - but I can't remember if the color cycling nebula was one of them.

[@AvSias]

@@spacequesthistorian Interesting stuff, that's what I think too, one of the programmers probably told a bunch of people :p

[@tremendous2464]

What are your favourite easter eggs from any game? (Open question for all) I really like the bar room in the SQ2 vga remake, in particular that conversation between the devs where they talk about putting the Easter egg in. I can't remember what game it was but the first easter egg I found was a tiny secret room with a literal easter egg in it. I don't think I knew what I had found at the time.

[@aaronking4610]

Sorry that SQ2 VGA remake doesn't count to most of us, because it is fanmade- not made by Sierra.

[@SpaceDriving]

Прикольная игра:)

[@spacequesthistorian]

Yes, it is!

[@AvoozlPlays]

But was it intended as an easter egg?

[@spacequesthistorian]

Absolutely. Some programmer put that in there, possibly while bored. Since color cycling isn't used anywhere else in the game, I speculate that the easter egg is there to sort of prove that they *could* do it - if they wanted to. ;)

[@dragonfurry69]

So, was it worth the 23 year wait?

[@spacequesthistorian]

Honestly? Eh, not really. But I'm just relieved I didn't accidentally put a red herring in the FAQ 23 years ago. 😅👍