Space Quest: The Sarien Encounter | A Friday Night Arcade Respective

[@amewilcox9483]

My first entry was actually Space Quest 5, but I always loved these ones as well. I played Quest for Glory mostly so the text parser and graphics and humor are all very fun and familiar to me. Worth noting that most of the Sierra collections are on Steam!

[@FridayNightArcade]

Indeed! GOG has them as well, DRM free. And for the ones that aren't officially available anywhere, myabandonware.com and DOSbox can usually get you going. Curious, which was your favorite Quest for Glory game? The only one we had was Part II. Thought it was super cool, but as kids we always just got lost in the city wandering around the streets and then we'd get frustrated and quit. At some point I'm going to cover that series on this channel as well. Thank you for sharing!

[@tomober2889]

Friday Night Arcade Do space quest 5!!

[@Y2Kr4SHM4N]

Amelia Wilcox My first was Space quest III, then II, then IV, then V and lastly I the VGA version. I had no sense of humour, so took most of everything seriously, but loved all the sci-fi references and didn’t like it later when things got too cheesy later, especially in VI.

[@andrewmilici1779]

"You hear footsteps" used to scare the crap out of me as a kid

[@davidprice7162]

The Space quest series was one of the greatest things about the 1980s & 90s. I can't wait to play space venture when it's finally finished one of these decades.

[@wilddhaemers]

I love all the Sierra games Kings, Space and Police Quests. Also Gabriel Knight and Phantasmagoria. Magical years of gaming.

[@maxwelsh6121]

One of your best reviews ever , so full of info and life... this one sure looks like it'd be fun!

[@FridayNightArcade]

That's very kind of you to say... glad you enjoyed this one, Max!

[@SidBarnhoorn]

I played the whole series when growing up and loved it! Still do! Glad to have them in their box and my old DOS machine to play them on at times!

[@FridayNightArcade]

:D

[@Comascape]

I miss these types of games. The Dagger of Amon Ra will always be my favorite. Space Quest series is a very very close second. :)

[@WhiteRhinoPSO]

I remember being a kid and watching anxiously at my brother's shoulder as he tried his best to navigate through this game. Good times.

[@Webhead123]

In the mid-90's, my mother had an IBM laptop (with Windows 3.1!) that she got for work and it had two games on it. One was a tank simulation game (possibly Sherman M4 or Battlecommand) and the other was the VGA release of Space Quest. I didn't get a whole lot of time on that computer (being a work computer and all) but I remember being fascinated by Space Quest the most. I never got very far but the game reinforced my love of adventure titles that began with Shadowgate and inspired me to continue to seek them out, eventually leading me to the Monkey Island series and others.

[@awesomeblossom2417]

Played this game and police quest when I was 8 and loved it. Was hooked on Sierra games since.

[@classicmikecade]

Excellent work Aaron! I loved the side by side comparison screens. So great. Never knew about these games until I came across your page. Thanks for your hard work on this one. We all learn something new with each new video made.

[@FridayNightArcade]

That's very kind of you to say, Mike.

[@natecw4164]

I love how soundcards worked back in the day -- this sounds so dramatically different than the beeps and boops of the PC speaker I had (I know some of the tunes aren't from the game but the ZZ Top sample, for example, was just beeps on my PC)

[@FridayNightArcade]

As cool as the Roland MT-32 sounds, I actually really like the PC speaker sound too! That's what we had back then.

[@natecw4164]

@@FridayNightArcade Oh the day we got our first soundblaster card... :) These videos are awesome man, glad someone took the time to remind people about this criminally underrated and forgotten franchise!

[@pjgathergood6987]

Really enjoyed this review. 'Space Quest' is a classic, really set the standard and the tone for the series. Whilst obviously shorter than later entries, to this day I love the variety and the ideas crammed in there; so much to explore and do and different locations to visit, it really did feel vast - I was the same that I'd complete a puzzle but still experiment to see the outcome of things. Likewise I far prefer the original EGA version of this and the other Sierra games over the VGA remakes as I love to play things as they originally were, and I actually far prefer the text input as it allows for so much more exploring and easter eggs and mischief! I did beat SQ in fair time and really enjoyed every moment. Some of it does require many save/reloads and luck as was the norm back then, particularly the desert skimmer sequence, and the infamous gambling machine (or which Sierra used to love putting into their games...!) where the best tactic was to save, enter all of your money and just keep playing/restoring until you got lucky. "Funny" story: When my Dad bought home his IBM 386 that he had 'inherited' from work and this game was installed on it, for ages I assumed that the default name of Roger Wilco was the name of someone he worked with who had previously been playing the game (and had got quite far, judging my the save states) and used to ask him who he was! It wasn't until later I realised Roger Wilco was the default name of our hero. (Okay so it wasn't that funny!) Not a common opinion but I personally regard SQ1 one of the best in the series.

[@Iankill2121]

I love the aesthetics of the ega graphics. It's strange their primitive but highly detailed the type of thing that can't really be reproduced today. It feels like an interactive painting

[@FridayNightArcade]

100% agreed. To me that's more appealing than anything by today's standards. Now everything just looks... weird. That's cool, but it's hard to be impressed by any of it. I'm basically playing a CGI movie/game thing on PS4. Go back 30 years ago and you're seeing these big chunky EGA graphics with perfect placement of the limited color palette that they had to work with and it just looks awesome. I always talk about too how when I started out, I was playing straight text adventures like Moonmist or Colossal Cave. Moonmist came with some feelies in the box, sure, but the actual game was 100% text. No pictures. So then when I played Space Quest III for the first time where you have this hybrid text adventure but there are ... GRAPHICS.... 7-year-old Aaron's frickin' head exploded. Great stuff, thank you for sharing.

[@FF2Guy]

Nostalgia! I remember playing this game when I was 7. I found it a bit too unforgiving. I couldn't beat it without the hint book. Stupid invisible glass from the shipwreck.

[@littleterr0r]

My favorite Space Quest was Space Quest 2 probably because it was the first one I played and the first big box Sierra game that I got as a kid and still remember my mom buying for me at the computer store (probably Radio Shack).

[@FridayNightArcade]

😀

[@Hawkeye26]

I purchased the Space Quest Collection on Steam as a "just in case", because I love the Leisure Suit Larry game (only really played the first) and Police Quest (only really played the first). But was still on the fence about trying this one...then was going to give the code to a friend and accidentally pasted it in my own Steam when trying to copy and paste a different game there, so I technically have it now and will probably try it;. This video probably helped convince me that it IS worth the effort to see how it goes.

[@bytejourneycodes]

Your game reviews to me are from the better ones that I have seen compared to other channels. Keep at it, I'm sure with this amount of effort you put into your reviews your channel will become big.

[@FridayNightArcade]

That's very kind of you to say - thank you for checking out the show.

[@JStryker47]

Kind of ironic that they show Elwood and Jake singing, to the tune of I Can't Turn You Loose, when that song is actually an instrumental. In the VGA version, they're playing a different tune and you can actually see and hear Elwood playing his harmonica. ZZ Top were apparently none too pleased with their likenesses being used in the original game though, so they're replaced with Madonna in the VGA version.

[@tahustvedt]

Love these games. BTW there are two ways to kil Orat in SQ1. I found both ways a few weeks ago when I played through it. You showed leading the spider droid into his cave, but there's another way too.

[@roguerifter9724]

I always wondered if the character of Roger Wilco wasn't partially inspired by the protagonist of Planetfall, a scifi text adventure released a few years earlier by Infocom. (When the game begins the protagonist is the lowest ranking officer on his ship, is routinely assigned janitorial duties such as moping decks, and is so bored he is close to deserting. In the Sequel released in 1987 the protagonist has been promoted to doing boring paperwork and riding automated space trucks on missions to pick up request forms to requisition another type of request form.)

[@AaronWigwam]

This was a wonderful video! Great presentation and you have a great narration voice.

[@FridayNightArcade]

Hey thanks!

[@darklink1113]

I'm new to your channel and am primarily a old NES and Sega fan, and probably will not be playing these older pc games, but they are super interesting to me. I never had the money for the hardware required, but these games were always fascinating. me.

[@FridayNightArcade]

Thanks for checking out the show and glad you at least found these old PC games to be interesting. It was just a different way to game.

[@JoeStuffzAlt]

You should mention DosBox having a Tandy mode for better audio for games like this.

[@JonDGAF]

Love this game so much.

[@jasonblalock4429]

7:28 Nothing borderline about it. ZZ Top threatened legal action, and Sierra had to reissue the game with them taken out. And that would only be the first of many times where jokes in Space Quest games resulted in nasty letters from IP lawyers.

[@7thangelad586]

I hate that I missed this series! My early gaming memories are of the IBM and C64 games. Choosing EGA/VGA was beyond my seven year old head, so I had to guess at it on every game! I’m glad to hear the title The Black Cauldron. The game has been imprinted in my mind for three decades. I wonder if you can eventually cover Rogue, Castle, or Scarabaeus.

[@FridayNightArcade]

Nice, thank you for sharing. Sorry to hear you missed out on these ones though. The good news is you can still get the SQ games on Steam or GOG. They're a little finicky to get running on modern hardware. If you buy them, they come with DOSbox although I reccomend checking out SCUMMVM instead to play them. Much better sound emulation and easier to customize to your liking. Thank you for mentioning those... I'm not sure how I'm going to approach them, but I want to do some deep dives into some of the old old school adventure games like what you mentioned at some point.

[@jaredcoleman2460]

loved the first space quest

[@bbertram2]

ahhhh....I found MORE!! keep it up!

[@Qmarine555]

All right! Space Quest is my jam!

[@FridayNightArcade]

:D

[@dfortaeGameReviews]

Nice job. I love Space Quest!

[@FridayNightArcade]

Thanks!

[@compilerofvideos]

original Space Quest for DOS FTW

[@Nklecz1980]

I had KQ 4 and 5 but somehow missed spacequest growing up. These games were fun but horribly frustrating. After looking at walkthroughs for KQ4 and 5, I realized that there was no way I would have finished those games as kids. Can you do an episode on Leisure suit Larry or Kings Quest sometime?

[@ryanyoder7573]

Love the Sierra games. Space Quest was more fun than Kings Quest though in my opinion.

[@mattcrowell5875]

8:04 Hmm... I thought you were supposed to give the red beast dehydrated water to drink...

[@FridayNightArcade]

There are multiple ways to do it :D

[@rayceeya8659]

Gotta go with Space Quest 5. My only complaint was, it was too short.

[@MrBoBoTom]

Great vid man.

[@FridayNightArcade]

Thanks MrBoBo.

[@larryfisher2670]

Great video!

[@FridayNightArcade]

Hey thanks, Larry!

[@colinmcdonald2499]

I never got to play any Space Quest series. Looks like fun Why not a video on Liesure Suit Larry by Sierra. The sarcasm reminds me of Space Quest. I was never any good at any of the Sierra adventure games... But they were fun

[@LUCKO2022]

Chicken music from Police Quest in the backround on this video.

[@tbone5757]

You should do all of the SQ games live like you did with 3. I'm not sure which one is my fav but I really got into the first 4.

[@FridayNightArcade]

I haven't decided when, if or how I'm gonna live stream again... but I'd definitely like to do the entire series at some point. I'm trying to come up with a weekly schedule that makes sense. And someone else sent me the EGA version of SQ4 which is awesome to finally see (never was a fan of the VGA graphics).

[@tbone5757]

@@FridayNightArcade I'm a mailman and I listen to KZbin while I deliver mail so I'd listen and occasionally take a peek while I work. I'm usually on the road delivering between 10 am and 4 pm est so anytime during that period would be optimum, at least for me.

[@Shikkadance]

You got a new subscriber!

[@FridayNightArcade]

hey thanks!

[@i-evi-l]

Did you ever do an episode for The Dig. Man that game was a pain in the butt.

[@FridayNightArcade]

No but I've heard of it.... gonna have to look into it.

[@i-evi-l]

@@FridayNightArcade It's a Lucas Arts puzzle, quest style game that was released in 95. Seems like it would be up your alley.

[@root42]

3:15 "You can control Roger with the keyboard or mouse" -- really? AGI had mouse support? Joystick, perhaps. But I never saw that it used the mouse. Didn't that start only with SCI games?

[@ion-shivs]

You are correct. You could not use a mouse on the AGI games.

[@RazielEverdark]

You should do other quest he's hero quest and king quest ECT

[@mikebianchini2230]

Have you heard of sarien.net/? It is a really cool concept ; too bad it doesn't seem to support audio and is super glitchy. But the multiplayer idea is awesome!

[@Mike_Toulon]

Have you ever done a video on Manhunter: New York or Manhunter 2: San Francisco?

[@FiggsNeughton]

This looks great! I was a kid in the 80s but I somehow missed out on adventure games. I was stuck with lowbrow entertainment like Frogger. But I have a random question... watching this video, I suddenly remembered watching a movie in which a kid was playing what might have been a Sierra adventure game, involving a fight with a wizard. The kid died, but at the end of the movie, I think he figured out what to do, and he beat the wizard. Any idea what that movie was? Could it have been War Games?

[@FridayNightArcade]

You're thinking of Tom Hanks in the movie Big! Sadly, it wasn't a real game .. just something someone whipped up some code and programmed on the fly for those two scenes in the movie. But it's definitely got Kings Quest vibes to it. Thanks for watching!

[@FiggsNeughton]

@@FridayNightArcade Aaaaah you're right! Thank you sir!

[@vidkiddo4595]

Hey FNA, I have been a fan for a year now, but I'm only just watching your Space Quest videos. Do you know if there is anyway or anywhere to play it?

[@FridayNightArcade]

Yep! You can buy them pretty cheap off Steam or GOG. They come with a DOS emulation program called DOSBox which works pretty well for playing these old PC games. For the Space Quest games, I prefer a different emulation program called SCUMMVM. The sound emulation is just a bit better. So you can buy the games, then go download SCUMMVM free and use that program to play them. Or the included DOSBox program is fine too. Enjoy!

[@vidkiddo4595]

@@FridayNightArcade Thanks! I'm downloading them on steam right now.(They are on a sale for 4.99 for anyone that wants to have the whole series for cheap.) Also wow you still reply to comments from 1 year ago. Neat

[@AllGamingStarred]

just a nitpick but why use the term DOS PC? It was Either DOS or PC back then so i assume you are referring to the collection?

[@eatwhaturgiven]

Love this review, you do it brilliantly! Love for you to join FB Group @Sierra on-line Fan club :) I hope you continue to do all Sierra games just like this.

[@FridayNightArcade]

Thank you, Ross... glad you enjoyed it. Hmm, I looked and could not find the FB Group. I've got a FB page, maybe you could send me the link there so I could check it out? facebook.com/FridayNightArcade Thank you again very much for the kind words!

[@eatwhaturgiven]

@@FridayNightArcade facebook.com/groups/155252511851025/ Would love to see you there and you can get few more views on your channel

[@whispersignal1]

BEWARE THE JELL-O RAY #spacequest3

[@thomasheer825]

Have been looking for years a upgraded version that would work on later versions of Windows, say Windows 10.

[@reagandow850]

First baby!! I loved these games!! I’d love to play through these again.

[@FridayNightArcade]

Awesome -- they're out there on GOG and Steam :D

[@reagandow850]

Friday Night Arcade - yeAh, I know but I have a Mac..the whole eco system and I’ve heard steam just doesn’t work all the well with Macs..Watching this video however I may have to give it a try because these games were some of the best. Leisure suit Larry was also a ton of fun!! These guys had the best sense of humor!!

[@Cecilbags]

I got SQIV in the box with all its 5 inch disk glory, mint condition. that, PQIII, and heart of china are the games that held up physically through the decades for me... lol Im pretty sure SQIII is the best one, SQIV had some issues to say the least. curious what your stance is.

[@FridayNightArcade]

Awe man, that's fantastic. Glad you still have them! That's the goods right there. Space Quest III is definitely my favorite as well... that's sort of a running joke on this channel is that I compare everything else to SQ3 and all else is crap lol. It was the first video I did all the way back 4+ years ago. Figured if I was only going to do one video ever, wanted it to be about Space Quest III. I feel like it's the perfect mix of peak EGA graphics, reasonably solvable puzzles and the music is fantastic. Plus I just loved cruising around in the Aluminium Mallard. Only wish it went on just a little longer, but that's the mark of a good game I guess. Leave you wanting a little more.

[@lovishb_bawa]

Love from India

[@FridayNightArcade]

Cheers mate!

[@ion-shivs]

Which audio hardware is being used in game shown here? This doesn't sound like the PC or Tandy audio.

[@FridayNightArcade]

This footage was recorded using the ScummVM emulator with the Roland sound option although there really isn't much actual audio in the original 1986 DOS game. The main title theme and then some bloops and bleeps here and there. So I also supplemented that with Roland audio recorded from the 1991 Space Quest I VGA Remake which is where most of the backing music came from. *I'm not much of a fan of the VGA Remake, but the music is really good so I tried to marry the two things together with this video.

[@ion-shivs]

@@FridayNightArcade That makes sense. Thanks!

[@SodaGumX]

i never finished 1 2 and 3 because the typing commands is so annoying so much better when they went point and click

[@moviemetalhead]

I never did play Space Quest, however I did play some early Leisure Suit Larry games. Heh. Did you ever play any of those Aaron?

[@FridayNightArcade]

Pretty sure the adult figures in my life back then wouldn't have let me play those ones and I haven't really gone back and tried to check them out today. They're in my perpetual backlog though and at some point I want to try to cover them on the channel. Which one was your favorite i.e. would you recommend someone start out with?

[@moviemetalhead]

@@FridayNightArcade No of course not, man, I meant I only I heard of them, as a kid and got to try them on a friends PC when I was in high school. The first 2, Land of the Lounge Lizards and Looking for love, because they've got the old Sierra charm.

[@Gangularis]

@@FridayNightArcade They released remakes of Space Quest I, Leisure Suit Larry I, and Kings Quest I as a combo pack back in 1991. That's a great version of Leisure Suit Larry to get. The VGA version.

[@FridayNightArcade]

Good to know, thanks.

[@rayceeya8659]

My favorite is always going to be Space Quest 5. No offense, but I always found the parser interface tedious.

[@FridayNightArcade]

SQ5 is pretty dang great. Love that Roger finally gets a ship and crew as well as the whole Star Trek vibe.

[@painter194]

I want to play this game. What do you recommend for how I should play this game? What’s the easiest way to emulate this game today?

[@tbone5757]

Look up SCUMMVM and download the emulator. There is a mobile version too from app store/ google play. Then you can dl the game from emuparadise.com if the site still exists and wasn't sued to the ground by Nintendo.

[@FridayNightArcade]

What he said... except you can get a legit version of the games from GOG. But SCUMMVM is the best way to play - especially with the Roland sound emulator.

[@AllGamingStarred]

Why are you given 15 minutes? The least they could've done was release the collection with the ability to bring up the original feelies to help new gamers but nope, so fullscreen gameplay is not an option. BTW, use SCUMMVM for the collection, no need for the patch

[@AllGamingStarred]

maybe down the road but i'm not a fan of trial and Error

[@-Tristan-]

The original looked so much better than the VGA version. I never liked the VGA remakes by Sierra... they looked pretty sloppy.

[@FridayNightArcade]

100% agreed!