Space Quest II: Vohaul's Revenge | A Friday Night Arcade Retrospective

Taking a closer look at Space Quest II: Vohaul's Revenge on MS-DOS on this edition of Friday Night Arcade!
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[@Komagb]

I played Space Quest series in order, and LOVED part 2 here. The sense of adventure and exploration in the locations really sparked my imagination.

[@PenumbraPlays]

This game is very special to me. Space Quest II or King's Quest IV was the first computer game I ever played. My dad bought the family a Tandy computer from Radioshack back in the day. I wish Sierra was still around. Great stuff FNA, the quality of your videos is awesome.

[@FridayNightArcade]

This is the good stuff - I love to hear stories like this. Thank you for sharing.

[@DOSdaze]

Most kids had Luke Skywalker or Starbuck or Kirk when I was young... I had Roger Wilco. He's still my hero. Thanks for covering this masterpiece of a SciFi adventure series.

[@Y2Kr4SHM4N]

I had em all!

[@holdenmcneil3529]

What a great review. SQ2 was the first game I ever bought, and it started my love of all Sierra games. It's hard to explain to young kids how much freedom a linear game could feel like it had with you typing in commands. Such great games to grow up with.

[@FridayNightArcade]

That's the good stuff - thank you for sharing!

[@ADarkandStormyNight]

I LIVED for Sierra games as a kid, and some of my strongest Sierra memories come from this game. Point and Click ruined the genera though, so sadly by SQ4 they had lost all challenge. It took a solid year to solve my way through some of these early titles, and friends would even come over in excitement when you got just a little bit further. The real time parser in the earliest ones are actually how I learned to type. I can remember struggling to type "pound stake into Dracula"fast enough in King's Quest 2 before he woke up when I was like nine.

[@rtdsbg1]

Crawling through the tunnels always scared the crap out of me as a kid, cause I never knew where the monster in the tunnels was hiding. Getting chills right now just thinking about it

[@FridayNightArcade]

It is kinda creepy - the lighting effects were cool!

[@trueakuma777]

Space Quest 1 and 2 were my introduction to the Sierra Point-and-Click Games, followed closely by Police Quest. I also had a peripheral knowledge of Leisure Suit Larry (as in I could only sneak glances at it while my dad and his friends played it through my peripheral vision, lol), but I didn't even know about the King's Quest games until I played part 4 a few years later. I wouldn't get a chance to play Space Quest 3 until even later after that. All in all, I loved the original games and I liked the changes they made to later games in the series. I highly recommend all of the games and if you do get a chance to play them I strongly suggest playing them in order if at all possible. Thanks for the great video and stay safe out there!

[@brucemckinlay9739]

Talk about a childhood memory explosion! Played these early Sierra games like crazy on my Tandy1000SL.

[@fisheyeguy]

I also had this issue with Wing Commander 1. Wing Commander 2 was my first game of the series, and I just loved it. None of the other Wing Commander games could ever compare, and I’ve played them all.

[@starofjustice1]

I can kinda understand that. I played Super Mario 2 before I played 1, and it was always the more interesting game to me (although SMB3 was where the series peaked, you ask me).

[@eatwhaturgiven]

This is one of the best reviews I've seen of any Sierra games. SQ2 is my fav and you've brought back so many fond memories. Have you played the other Sierra "Quest" series? I'd LOVE to see you review them :)

[@FridayNightArcade]

I haven't officially reviewed any of them, but I've got Quest for Glory II sitting here in a minty big game box just waiting for it. Thanks for watching, glad you're enjoying the show!

[@torchiest]

You actually can get past the terror beast by leaving the screen and coming back.

[@holdenmcneil3529]

I'm glad somebody wrote this. As a kid it was the first time I ever found a glitch in a game.

[@LeighWHeard]

Say the word, but watch out for the cave squid! When I first played SQ2 as a kid I thought that cave section was on a timer and the squid would eat you if you didn't get out fast enough. Then on subsequent playthroughs I realised it only ever gets you if you go to the wrong/right spot. Oh well. Still terrifying regardless.

[@delatroy]

This game was one of my first as a kid and blew my mind with the graphics and really interesting world.

[@arcticdon2454]

Under rated channel Love your work

[@FridayNightArcade]

That's kind of you to say, thank you.

[@Cecilbags]

hehe, i always loved the look of this as a kid. the main villain was always so cool looking.

[@MrJFBro]

The game tells you about needing to be more specific how to kill the root monster because YOU CAN.

[@7thangelad586]

This reminds me of one text-based DOS game called “Mission to Mars.” It had the guess the verb issue as well. But there was a delightful mystery about it that I enjoyed.

[@FridayNightArcade]

Whoa I must have missed that one - will have to find it.

[@KillerNapkins]

Man I was like 7ish when I was playing this... Trying to do this without hints was rough, but good memories.

[@whispersignal1]

One of the best series EVER!!

[@Wingsisaspedheadedped]

im the number 1 janitor.... your the only bloody janitor hilarious

[@fisheyeguy]

I had this problem with Oblivion and Fallout 3. I had never played a Bethesda game until I played Skyrim. I LOVED Skyrim so I bought Fallout 4, and loved it too. When I decided to play Oblivion and Fallout 3, I just couldn’t get into those games like the others I played.

[@LukeAvedon]

I agree. A text parser is superior to the point and click interface. As long as it doesn't turn into an endless "guess the verb" situation. The problem with "point and click" is it always just feels like there are only a finite, limited combinations of things to try. I used everything in my inventory why didn't it work. I like the new Wadget eye games because they use a text parser at just the right moment.

[@FridayNightArcade]

That's a good point. There's a spot in Space Quest III where you have to shove the hook to kill Arnoid in the building and I can never remember if it's called "rope" or "hook" and either "push" or "shove." It's fun but can lead to a few awkward situations. I'll have to check out the Wadget games, I've never really played them myself. Any one in particular you'd recommend? Thanks for sharing.

[@LukeAvedon]

Blackwell series. The first one is a bit rough.

[@LukeAvedon]

and thanks for the reply!

[@foxonoxengames757]

He said, "When you come inside the spaceship". HahaHaha! (Sorry. Childhood humor) Lol!

[@FridayNightArcade]

lol there's always gotta be one

[@aporreco]

Takes me back.

[@sierrakobold6896]

I'm glad the link you have for SQ2 has the correct year it was released, Nov. 1987 so many sites and some versions of SQ2 say '88

[@FridayNightArcade]

Really? That's weird. Maybe it depends on what "system" it was released for? Since you had Tandy, IBM, Commodore, Amiga, etc.

[@moviemetalhead]

This was a cool review, Aaron, because I hadn't heard of this series. I got into a couple text adventure games, back in the day, on MS-DOS like Hugo's House of Horrors and Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade. I'd like to see you're review on those 2, just to offer some suggestions.

[@FridayNightArcade]

Hey thanks metalhead. I'll have to look for those... had never heard of Hugo's House of Horrors and now I'm curious. Thanks for sharing!

[@moviemetalhead]

@@FridayNightArcade No prob man. Since we're on a first name basis, my name is Alex.

[@FridayNightArcade]

Nice to meet you Alex!

[@moviemetalhead]

@@FridayNightArcade Likewise, officially, Aaron. 🤘

[@fisheyeguy]

What background music did you use in the first couple minutes of the video? I really want to try these games. Where is the best place to play them?

[@FridayNightArcade]

These games can be had cheap on Gog.com ... they run in DOSbox on modern pcs or you can use a program called Scummvm which is what I prefer because the sound emulation is a little better. The music at the beginning was the opening title music from the game. SQ1 and SQ2 didn't really have much music but what they had was pretty good.

[@FridayNightArcade]

Also check out spacequest.net for all sorts of cool goodies, soundtrack downloads, manual scans, etc.

[@fisheyeguy]

Friday Night Arcade thanks for the reply! I’ll check it all out.

[@pjgathergood6987]

'Space Quest II' is good - heck, any 'Space Quest' game is good - but I do confess that, after the excellent and varied original, I never liked SQ2 quite so much. Still lots of good puzzles and ideas, but it just felt a bit "less" than the first (also I find it maybe the least funny of the series). In some ways I want to say it's a "more of the same" sequel, but not as severe as 'King's Quest II', which which again good, I did find a "rushed more of the sequel" to KQ1. Like yourself, I had actually played 'Space Quest III' first (it was the first PC game I ever played, on the IBM 386 my Dad acquired from his workplace) before playing the others in sequence, but I actually didn't mind the earlier graphics, as I found/find the evolution of such things fascinating. I do recall the insane short time to type commands in some situations being tricky, though. I also recall deducting to "put gem in mouth" on the swimming screens stumped me for a short while, but otherwise I actually got through SQ2 reasonably fast, in that pre-internet help era. It's actually still a really good game, I do like it, it just feels somehow lacking compared to most of the other entries. They probably coulda done more and had more fun with the "swarming the universe with thousands of cloned salesmen" plot, too. :)

[@Pingwn]

I think those games could age better if you could add more hints and clues about what to do next and block dead-ends, as some sort of mercy mods, not making it too easy but just help you get pass the moon logic without using a guide or try to solve one puzzle for three months, of course with the ability to use the original mod. And I really want some sort of text parsser mod for the later games, I miss the text parser...

[@FridayNightArcade]

100% agreed on the text parsor. I'm not sure what you could do about a mercy mod - maybe have a message block you from leaving an area if there's still something there. "You may want to take another look around before you blast off," or something. I dunno. On the flip side, you can save as often as you want so setting up 20+ saves backtracking to various steps and areas. That's how we played it. But in 2020, I agree that could use some sort of quality of life improvement.

[@parimabartender]

Sq1 and 3 were the best especially 3

[@jimmcclements5229]

Did you ever play the King's Quest series? It too was put out by Roberta Williams and has the same level of humor and same type of game play they made seven games for the PC. They did try and redo it putting it on the the Xbox One and the 360 I think they also put it on the Play Station as well. The original series was better. I would like to see you make a video on the original series. Thank you

[@gamejackthegameboy8647]

Hi! I would love to see you review the original doom or doom 2. That'd be cool.

[@jacobkaiser4013]

Do a remake review on space quest 3

[@FridayNightArcade]

I intend to.

[@imgonelol169]

Ayy

[@parimabartender]

1 and 3 were good I never liked this one