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Space Quest 2
109 Plays10 hours ago
Ben wants to talk about Lighthouse: The Dark Being, but Jess demands that we continue talking about Space Quest.
Quest Quest podcast is Ben Vigeant and Jess Morrissette.
Editing by Ben Vigeant
Show art by Kevin "WilcoWeb" Wallace
Watch us on Twitch!
Ben: https://www.twitch.tv/ps_garak
Jess: https://www.twitch.tv/decafjedi
Give us a review, they help people find this show! Unless you hated it, in which case, don't.
Talk with us on Discord!
https://discord.gg/ve9fqjgPp2
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Banter
00:00:32
Speaker
Hi. This is Quest Quest. The Adventure Game Podcast. That's my line. That's my I know. I decided to step on it today. Don't step on my line. I was, you know, i was, I was, you know what I was just thinking about?
00:00:46
Speaker
what What? We just got here. So I like just ran into the room. I'm out of breath. Yeah. I barely made it in time for recording. Ben, what have you been thinking about?
Retro Gaming Reflections: Atari and ColecoVision
00:00:54
Speaker
ah I just started thinking about Adventure for the 2600 for the VGS. Yeah. Yeah.
00:01:01
Speaker
Did you ever beat that? No, I think that was one of those games that was so inscrutable to me. Like I put it up there with like the Indiana Jones 2600 game where it's just like, I know I'm moving something around on the screen.
00:01:18
Speaker
But it the Indiana Jones 2600 game, doesn't that require you to use like the second controller? It may, it may. And I didn't have a lot of friends.
00:01:29
Speaker
So no, no, it wasn't, it wasn't that you used it. like that it needed a second player is that like the second controller like you used it to like select things in your inventory yes that's right i think that is how it worked what i like to do with my second controller on 2600 chew on it I was going to jokingly say chew on it.
00:01:52
Speaker
Because that rubber, like the rubberized coating on a 2600 controller has a very pleasant mouthfeel. If you like chewing on pins or things like that, I can't recommend a 2600 controller strongly enough.
00:02:06
Speaker
um This is matt yeah how we always talk about what we like to eat at the beginning episode. I'm going to say 2600 controller is way up on my list. I am... Did what? all right.
00:02:18
Speaker
So you had a 2600. Did you have what? ah would Did you have any other ah consoles of the 80s? i Like a Coleco vision. You had a Coleco. We had a Coleco as well. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. incredibleible joystick Yes.
00:02:33
Speaker
Yes. If you're unfamiliar with ah the Connecticut leather company's video game console, ah it's, it's a controller.
00:02:44
Speaker
It was like a touch tone phone. ah with an extremely so stiff and difficult to like move around knob up at the top. Yes.
00:02:56
Speaker
And then dial basically. Yeah. And then two little like side buttons um either side. Like it was shaped like a remote control. Yeah. And all like the touch tone phone numbers, like you would only use once because at the very beginning, when you like booted up a game, it would give you like an option of it's like how many players and what the difficulty option is. And it's like so select one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight or nine.
00:03:30
Speaker
Uh, and it's just like, this seems so yeah like was unbelievably unnecessary. And there were lots of overlays for it. Like that was something that a lot games get, like I had some sort of game. I can't, I should look, I'm sure this would be easily discoverable, but I had like,
00:03:47
Speaker
some kind of like space sim star fieldy kind of game for it that like had a special overlay that went over all those buttons so you could control it and i mean so it did use it it did use it for it did use it for actual gameplay in that one but generally speaking yeah it was just like we're going to ignore that you're going to use the terrible dial and two buttons uh to play a game on the worst controller imaginable which is a shame because the system quite nice. It was, it was a pretty nice system. It had a very good port of Frogger, which I played for hours and hours as child. That wasn't Sierra Frogger on the Coleco, was it? I don't know if that was Sierra Frogger. don't think so.
00:04:27
Speaker
Yeah. I think they had, i think that was the, their Froggers were, were mostly various different types of like, uh, like home computers. Yeah.
00:04:41
Speaker
Yeah, I think you may be right. Let's see. here i'm I'm now on movie games. Maybe an Atari 800, which was a computer. So I guess, yeah. yeah um For the TRS-80, a company called the Cornsoft Group developed frockery.
00:04:59
Speaker
The Kornsoft group is an amazing name. Okay, here we have it. We have it. Sierra did the Atari 8-bit version. Yeah. So that would be the piece, the computer Atari. Let's see here who did the Odyssey 2. And it probably moved over to, what was the one, what was the Atari console that was based off of their 8-bits? Was that the 5200? Might have been the 52. That had like Star Raiders on it.
00:05:27
Speaker
but had ah like star raiders on it Yeah, Parker Brothers did a lot of these, it looks like. Sierra did the PC booter, of course, of course. Yeah. Oh, wait, here Commodore 64. Yeah, so it's like Sierra handled mostly the home computer market, which tracks.
00:05:43
Speaker
That makes perfect sense. the uh i played a lot of frogger on the coleco of course i played uh the the donkey kong which was uh port which was their killer app hey um uh there was this game called lupin which was uh not like a thief yeah not him no l o o p i n g looping um uh which was like you piloted like this little plane that was constantly in motion like you couldn't slow it down ah very difficult to maneuver sounds like america's airports right now oh very good uh
00:06:27
Speaker
i'm gonna jump right to it uh i had a really great dinner Oh, tell me about your dinner.
Milkshakes, Air Fryers, and Unique Dining Experiences
00:06:33
Speaker
So ah today i went perhaps to it. ah Yeah, I'll jump. i I'll jump right to the point of this podcast.
00:06:46
Speaker
Just like we jump straight on to recording. I went to one of ah ah my favorite places here in Chicago, which is this ah Middle Eastern burger joint called Ragadon.
00:07:00
Speaker
e And what it is, is that the ah the the the owner, like head chef of it, is, um ah like like, he is a, think a first generation, yeah, he's a first ah generation American ah from ah Jordanian ah ah parents.
00:07:23
Speaker
And when he was growing up, and this is just me reading their website now, it's like his diet was hamburgers and falafel. Oh man, that's living life. like, I want to make a restaurant that's hamburgers and falafel.
00:07:39
Speaker
And you want to know what? Okay. It's a really good... And so what he does is like he'll he'll make like these great falafel sandwiches and he'll make these incredible burgers.
00:07:49
Speaker
And sometimes he has stuff that is like kind of a little bit of a bridge between the two. yeah. Like, for example... And I didn't get this because I was like... think this would put me ah right to sleep ah before I record a podcast.
00:08:05
Speaker
They have incredible milkshakes and i most i was so they have a variety of them and they're all really good but the one that i always get is they have a baklava milkshake oh man and it's the best yeah you can't have that you can't have that and record a podcast there's no way like yeah i mean like three bites of baklava is like verging on too much it's too wonderful and too sweet and and too perfect it's a milkshake a milkshake form yeah you gotta be kidding me so it sounds amazing so this this time i i went to the burger side of the house and i got uh the oklahoma onion burger which was excellent and uh that it that's so it's the burger a shitload of caramelized onions yes really really good american cheese
00:09:01
Speaker
and And then this is where we we get the little mix here. Zatar mayo. Oh. Which is really tangy. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. yeah Ben, can I ask you a question? Are we incorporating like lamb or any other meats into the burgers? are we strictly beef? It says ah beef patty.
00:09:18
Speaker
okay beef patty there you go but uh all right next time you're you're here in chicago i'll take you here because this place kicks out me up it is i love a good one of uh and i'll recommend this to anyone that's listening if uh if you're in chicago or have the occasion to visit ragadon in uh uptown uh chicago like the neighborhood of uptown chicago truly an exceptional little uh like a like a little hole in the wall. Like I have not had a bad thing from there.
00:09:47
Speaker
Everything I've had there is really, really good. Um, they have this tahini ranch fried chicken sandwich. Oh my gosh. That sounds amazing. Yeah.
00:09:58
Speaker
So, uh, that's, that's what I had. And, because I care about the integrity of this podcast, I didn't have a delicious milkshake. That's right. Now, Ben, do you have a milkshake that you're like, is that why I keep seeing you ducking out of frame over and over again as we record? No, no.
00:10:19
Speaker
Yeah. Yes, that's just cocaine. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, that's the, I mean, you take the milkshake to, to come down. You, you, you take the bump to get back up to record. No, I get it. That's, that's called the podcasters. Delight is what we call that.
00:10:35
Speaker
Now, uh, uh, Jess, did you have anything interesting, uh, for your dinner or. I may have had the least interesting dinner that you can have. All right. Okay.
00:10:47
Speaker
Roasted chicken breast. All right. And ah salad. Yeah, I'm going to tell you. There's not lot of meat on the bone, ironically enough. Was it good?
00:11:00
Speaker
It was delicious. I don't know, Ben, are you an adherent to air frying? are you Are you an air fryer guy? You know... I would have gotten because I, I, I, I love to cook and I love to get all sorts of shit for my kitchen.
00:11:14
Speaker
i have, I have too much. I've, I've ah yeah too many fucking gizmos. I understand. And I will say Courtney and i'm ah my beautiful wife ah are in much the same boat, like counter spaces at a premium. yeah We can't just have one of everything, every gadget that the kitchen has to offer.
00:11:35
Speaker
The air fryer, we think we got our first one like seven or eight years ago when everybody was getting them. Oh, that's early, I would say. it is It is like the one thing that's stuck around. We use it almost every day. And i have to say, we did some bone-in skin on chicken breasts.
00:11:51
Speaker
We pop it in there for like 25 minutes. Comes out with golden brown crispy skin, just perfectly crisped up. um I mean, this is this was like salt, pepper, cayenne.
00:12:05
Speaker
and I'm telling you yeah chicken's pretty good yeah it's good good message I yeah I I've been tempted many a time but it's yeah I'm just like man I got an instant pot I got a sous vide I got you know like I I've been and and I use those things I but it's like all of them not enough like you know yeah probably the the the kitchen gizmo that I I use the absolute most Other than like something like, you know, a blender, you know, like I'm not going to, that you know, that's, that's a canonical gizmo. Yeah. You have to have that.
00:12:42
Speaker
We're like, ah how else you going to make your pina coladas? That's right. Um, is, uh, is a rice maker, like to the point now where I'm like a rice maker might be a canonical. Like, I i think, I think a rice maker at this point, uh, uh, deserves its space because for years I didn't get a rice maker because I was like, I could just make rice in a pot, but you want to know the recipe.
00:13:05
Speaker
Yeah. Rice, water, heat. Yeah. Maybe a little salt. That's a very boring follow-up. Salt, fat, acid, heat.
00:13:18
Speaker
Rice, water, heat.
Game of the Year: Dispatch Exploration
00:13:20
Speaker
ah You know what, though? That's a pretty amazing combo. I love me some rice. yeah um You know what I i love, Jess? What?
00:13:29
Speaker
Playing games. What have you been playing lately? Oh, Ben, I am in the midst of my game of the year. I'm calling it now. I think, and this is bold with with two months to go in the year.
00:13:43
Speaker
A lot of- Sometimes you know it though. lot of people in the games industry won't lock in this early to game of the year, but here I am in mid-November. It's also been good games year.
00:13:54
Speaker
Yeah, I've barely played anything that came out this year, but what I have played- is Dispatch. And Ben, I'm here to tell you and the listeners, this is the real deal. If you don't know Dispatch,
00:14:09
Speaker
The setup is it's a bunch of ex-Tell-Tell developers. They are developing a Tell-Tell-esque narrative adventure style game with lots of so-and-so-will-remember-that moments and everything. So it's a familiar version of that kind of adventure game. The premise is it is a cartoon superhero workplace comedy.
00:14:33
Speaker
So you are a superhero who is down eyes locked. You've had your super suit destroyed. You can no longer fight crime. You get recruited to be a dispatcher at a corporation that basically sells superhero insurance. You contract with them and in turn, you can call them when you have like a break in at your restaurant and they will dispatch a superhero to help you.
00:15:01
Speaker
And you're put in charge of a group of misfit supervillains who are trying to get on the right track. They're trying their redemption arc. And you, as this down on your luck hero, are trying to mentor them into being heroes themselves.
00:15:18
Speaker
Let me tell you, Ben, it is ridiculously high production value. Like the the quality of the animations, I mean, it is believable, like Saturday morning cartoon stuff, which is pretty remarkable to see. The animation is just smooth as butter.
00:15:34
Speaker
And then and addition to that, I mean, all the Telltale stuff that always works is very good. They've done great job writing the characters. They're very sympathetic. They're very relatable. It's pretty funny. It's a little raunchy in in kind of a fun way. It gets raunchy right, I feel like, and in most cases so far. I'm only about halfway through the game, it's releasing episodically.
00:15:54
Speaker
But also it has this sort of mini game element of you actually have to do the dispatching on these calls. So you have to manage a team, you have to level up their stats, you have to decide who you're going to send on what mission and how to make sure the right hero gets sent to the right call.
00:16:12
Speaker
So all that, I mean, it's such a weird combination of on one hand standard Telltale stuff, but then this kind of superhero sim built in, Honestly, i would almost just play the superhero sim part of it, the dispatching sim, if it were fleshed out a little bit more. I mean, that gameplay loop is very satisfying to me. Throw a Telltale game around it, and it's like catnip for me. this you know When Star Trek Resurgence came out, yeah you and I both said, like man, this seems like a game that is so tailored to our interests, right? you know it's ah it
00:16:47
Speaker
Star Trek Resurgence...
00:16:52
Speaker
you know, this, because was that made by like quote unquote Telltale, like the new Telltale or now? I don't think it was the new Telltale, but I think Telltale people were involved with it, if I recall. It was made by Dramatic Labs.
00:17:07
Speaker
Yeah, well, they got that wrong. And it was founded by former Telltale folks. And it like, you know, you and I had such a negative opinion of that game.
00:17:27
Speaker
Yes, because we're both Trekkies and we're so pumped. It's like we're Trekkies and adventure gamers. And we both are pretty warm to tell, like the Telltale style. yeah yeah like This should have been, ah you know, and an easy and easy win for us.
00:17:42
Speaker
And we both bounced off of it pretty hard. Yeah, and well what's crazy to me is that I'll read, like, you know, I'll check, you know, Star Trek fan stuff, all that, and the reception, like, I think the reviews for Resurgence were, like, kind of, eh,
00:18:06
Speaker
But when i like read like, you know, Trekkies online about it i they all seem to be pretty warm on the game. Yeah, which surprises me. It's very bizarre to me because it's warm. Yeah.
00:18:22
Speaker
Yeah, but I mean, that game should have been like catnip to me also. Right. um It wasn't. This game is right on my alley. I love superhero stuff. I love Telltale games. It's it's good stuff. ah highly If you enjoy Telltale-style narrative adventures or if the superhero genre is important to you, this is kind of the game I always imagined maybe Superhero League of Hoboken was.
00:18:46
Speaker
But since then, I've gone to play Superhero League of Hoboken and... It's not the game I imagined it to be, looking at magazine ads and reviews all those years. i like This game looks perfect to me. I never saw it in a store, so I never played Super Hero League.
00:19:00
Speaker
Dispatch is the game I think I imagined Super Hero League of Hoboken to be. Go play Dispatch. Why have you
Mortal Kombat Legacy Collection Discussion
00:19:05
Speaker
been playing, Ben? You know, so I've been playing, but I put in quotes. I picked up last week the Mortal Kombat Legacy Collection.
00:19:14
Speaker
Oh, so I know what you mean by playing. Yeah. So...
00:19:20
Speaker
I'm going to add a proviso here. i have absolutely no particular interest in Mortal Kombat. And why are you dressed like Kano right now? Well, because it shows off my incredible body.
00:19:34
Speaker
But I don't know. i don't even know how Kano is dressed. Yeah, I mean, it would have shown off your incredible body. You're good. You're fine. Yeah. um But it's like, you know, I i was aware of and I played, I certainly played it sometimes as a kid, like, you know, um as you were alive I'm a, yeah I'm a, I'm a nineties kid.
00:19:54
Speaker
Like, you know, it was inescapable. Um, like, and it was, you were radical too. Yeah. i mean, it was targeted specifically at my age group. And someone was born in 1986. Right. yeah But, you know, like, I'm not a fighting games person. Never have been. um ah You know, never learned any of the moves. Just smashed buttons until i was dead where the other guy was dead.
00:20:19
Speaker
But, you know, I'm less interested Moral Combat than I am interested in Digital Eclipse's ah documentaries that they like and that they do with these collections, which, you know, they did with Atari, they did with Jordan Mechner's
00:20:47
Speaker
And so this Moral Combat collection, which... You know, and I went and I played a couple of the World Combats and I'm like, yep, still not for me.
00:20:57
Speaker
But like the the documentary that comes with it, where you see like interviews with everybody that worked on it and you see like lets you look at like notes, like design notes and photography and stuff like that is a really interesting and fascinating story. And it does make me appreciate Like this game that, you know, that like is again, like i i is not as much of my interest, but it like it leads me to appreciate it a lot more.
00:21:29
Speaker
yeah It's also that, you know, it is a product of Chicago. Midway was based here, like Williams Midway was based here in Chicago. Like I know exactly where their offices used to be. I've been by there many, many times. You know where the toasty guy used to work?
00:21:52
Speaker
Yeah. And also it's like William Midway used to be ah like... the the pinball company as well. And as as well established on this podcast, I'm a massive pinball person.
00:22:09
Speaker
And so it's like the beginning of the story also has it's like, yeah, we were the arcade people. We were like, or like the the arcade cabinet people. That was a smaller thing. You know, our big business was the pinball. And so like you see, like some of the people that they interview are like kind of pinball people, like people I know.
00:22:31
Speaker
And like, or it's like, you know, Ed Boon, who's, you know, one of the main creators of Mortal Kombat, worked as a programmer on pinball machines in the 80s before he moved over to like arcade cabinets.
00:22:50
Speaker
um And so, like, you know, like this is it's it's ah it's local history, which is always interesting ah to me. It's arcade history, which is always interesting to me.
00:23:01
Speaker
And I get a little bonus like it's like, oh, wow, that's Steve Ritchie. I know who that is. He's the the guy that designed the great pinball machine high speed. um And then also true of any like digital eclipse collection, um you know, they make sure to include a couple like ah bizarre and unplayable oddballs that are just kind of fun to see.
00:23:23
Speaker
Like, it's like, I, you know, I appreciate in their collections, they usually put little bit of trash in there. Yeah, you got the trash. Which I really appreciate. I love that they... What the trash this time around? Like, what trash are talking about? The trash that they have in here is that they have, like, portable versions of Mortal Kombat. they have the Game Boy version of Mortal Kombat 1, and think 2.
00:23:48
Speaker
But, like, the Game Boy, like, Mortal Kombat 1 is just, like, dog shit. Like, you can't see anything, and, like, you know, it's just... You know, it's just bad. we have the whole roster? Is the whole roster there? No, I don't think. I think you have a pretty limited. it also has like a Game Gear one It has like this weird PlayStation 1 game that nobody, like everybody hated. like I think it's Mortal Kombat Special Forces or whatever. Yeah. That's supposed to be not very good.
00:24:17
Speaker
and it is, I mean, I will say, though, that I did open it up and it has the Genesis Mortal Kombat 1, which is like, that was a that was a rental. That was a regular rental for me.
00:24:34
Speaker
And so I realized playing I was like, to me... This is Mortal Kombat. I didn't actually play this in arcades that much. And so like when I played like the arcade version of it, I was like, wow, this looks so much better. And then I played like, like, do they do anything to make like, do they like up rest this? And then I played the the Genesis version of it. And I was like, yeah, this is Mortal Kombat one.
00:25:02
Speaker
Exactly as I remember. What I think's funny, like for me, like I was a Street Fighter kid and like my parents literally bought me a Super Nintendo entirely so I could play Street Fighter 2 at home. Like it was ah literally the only game I ever owned for my Super Nintendo. It was just an at home Street Fighter 2 machine was all it was for me.
00:25:30
Speaker
And at the time, like I convinced myself that this Super NES port of Street Fighter II indistinguishable in every way from the arcade version that I love. And I think this was just me like just just lying to myself because i loved this super nintendo and this home version so much and now when i go back in like these weird collections and stuff and i load up a super nes version of uh of uh street factory i'm playing on my my little retro handheld or whatever i'm just like boy this is this is really a poor imitation of the arcade game that i love so much but at the time
00:26:10
Speaker
Just the thought of playing any Street Fighter 2 at home yeah was was fantastic. That was all I needed. And another thing I really like about these, the the Digital Eclipse, like, collections, is that you'll have, like, they they usually make sure to have, like, it's like, you know, here's the original, the arcade version. Now here's a port, and here's another port. And especially like from a period where like a port of a game could be so drastically different.
00:26:44
Speaker
yeah It's actually like, you know, is it a like, is it fun? No, but it's interesting to like see this early, like to to like compare the SNES, the Genesis and the arcade versions, like, you know, as a, as, as a real dork.
00:27:04
Speaker
Like, i like i just find it fast. Like, I'm just like, oh you know, oh oh this is cool. How how curious, you know? Like, And so, yeah, like if you're just someone that is into like kind of like video game history, stuff like that, I, you know, I i recommend anything from from Digital Equips.
00:27:32
Speaker
Now, my understanding is that right now, they're like the online play, like if you look at the reviews for the game, they're mixed on Steam. I think it's people pissed off about...
00:27:44
Speaker
Um, like the, the, the online multiplayer is, is not very good right now. That is not going to affect me. And yeah, that's exactly, that's exactly it. Like, I'm just kind of like, um, and so they say that they're working on and working on building a lobby system and all that crap. And I'm just kind of like, if you're me and you're just like, I just want to look at these interesting curios and watch a bunch of videos of like, um,
00:28:13
Speaker
like old men going like, yeah, you know, I like, yeah, it's I was on California Avenue and in Chicago, Illinois. Actually, they're not that old. But yeah, yeah, but might as well be.
00:28:27
Speaker
i You know, that's like I find all that shit extremely interesting. And you know, you do I know we've talked about before on the disc bar. I love these collections too, even for, you know, like,
00:28:40
Speaker
games that I don't particularly care about. You know, like again, I've been tempted to buy this Mortal Kombat collection as someone who could kinda like take or leave Mortal Kombat myself. It's like I had my moment, like everyone enjoyed Mortal Kombat in the 90s, but it's not a series I've kept up with even then.
00:28:56
Speaker
It wasn't my favoritest thing in the world. But know we've talked about this on the Discord before. It is my dream before it's too late someday to see some company do this with the Sierra or LucasArts catalog. think it be- It would have to be Digital Eclipse because they do yeah such- Yeah.
00:29:16
Speaker
Like the the documentary stuff that they do is just thorough and interesting. And I'm guessing the cost to do that well would never justify the audience.
00:29:28
Speaker
It would never be justified by the audience it could reach. I mean, there are fewer people who are going by that Sierra collection than Mortal Kombat. We know this. Well, yeah, but they did Jeff Minter and that couldn't, you know.
00:29:40
Speaker
That couldn't be, a yeah, I mean, this is true. This is, a yeah I mean. probably owns all of those, whereas Microsoft owns all of the Sierra collection. Yeah. I mean, I don't know how much longer like Jim Walls is going to be with us. We need to get this man on tape.
00:29:56
Speaker
I, you know, I, I think it would, do I mean, you know, maybe it'd be nice to just ask for it for like one of the series. Yeah. Like police. it Yeah. And it would have to be police quest because that' that's the most popular series of all them.
00:30:10
Speaker
Police are more popular today than ever. but anyway, if you're going to ask me what the best one that they did is, ah it's Making of Caretaker, even if you have no interest in that game.
00:30:21
Speaker
but Which I believe has been a game of, you were playing that one week, I think, in an early episode of ah Quest Quest. Probably. I definitely talked about the Tetris one.
00:30:33
Speaker
Yeah, i yeah i I'm a sicko for the digital eclipse. I buy them immediately. I think I really, I just, I love how they they tell their, like, you know, tell history.
00:30:50
Speaker
And maybe one day they'll do it for games that I have a personal connection to. Yeah, because imagine how fun that would be if you cared about the games that you were learning so much about. Like, i've grown to really love Jeff Minter's stuff. Yeah. Like, it's gotten me interested in it. It's like, of course, like Atari 50, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, like, it's Atari 50.
00:31:16
Speaker
I mean, that's ultimately the thing, though, is like, sure, the audience for like a Sierra version of this or LucasArts, I think a Sierra version might be more interesting, honestly. sierra i think we've documented LucasArts history more thoroughly along the way.
00:31:33
Speaker
but You know, it has the potential. Those collections do have the potential to create new fans or to create people that appreciate these works in a way they might not have otherwise.
Listener Engagement and Podcast Reach
00:31:45
Speaker
And yeah, so I guess this is me saying, you know, I can promise you that nearly every Quest Quest listener will buy this if you just produce it, Microsoft or whoever. have an email.
00:31:57
Speaker
have an email
00:32:00
Speaker
Oh, is this from Microsoft? It's from Microsoft. We will do they want me to be product lead on this? Yeah, it's from our friend. Uh, it's from our, uh, friend, uh, Yop. And ah it goes like follow. You could also email us at questquestpodcasts at gmail.com. Hi, Ben and Jess.
00:32:17
Speaker
Your feature on Roberta Williams' Phantasmagoria made me think of this 1999 issue of PC Gamer. Jess, you might be familiar with this as a scholar of a magazine stuff, where they identified the 25 world's best game makers. See pictures.
00:32:35
Speaker
He included some... some photos of this. Roberta was the only female designer selected. I seem to recall this at the time, even then.
00:32:46
Speaker
Yes. And other adventure gaming gods, such as Ron Gilbert, Jordan Mechner, Tim Schafer, Hal Barwood, Steve Marinsky also made the cut. Who would you select for a Quest Quest Edition of 25 Game Gods?
00:32:59
Speaker
That might be an episode. I don't know. Well, 25 is a high number. as The six named above, I'm not sure Hal Barwood would still be on the list. I absolutely agree with you on that, Yop.
00:33:12
Speaker
And then also, Yop asks, I'm very curious to learn how many listeners you have. My wife, by way my wife keeps making fun of me that I listened to this obscure podcast with only five listeners. Thanks.
00:33:28
Speaker
Yop. Um, my wife keeps making fun me for recording this podcast with only five listeners. So I get it. My boyfriend is very sweet and supportive, so he hasn't made fun of me yet about it, but he won't.
00:33:41
Speaker
Not to your face. Yeah. I would say we have about dozen dozen
00:33:51
Speaker
We got a gross. yeah we have we have a We have a gross. I'm going to say, I mean, i think you're airing low here. Just to like give it a highball number, I'm going to 400,000.
00:34:04
Speaker
And I think it's probably going to be somewhere between. It's probably the WTF listeners that came over. Yeah, well, yeah, we we haven't had time for the metrics to catch all of those It was very At the end of that last episode, know, Mark Maron interviews Obama. When Obama shouted out Quest Quest, I cannot believe... Goddammit, Jess, I was about to make this joke.
00:34:23
Speaker
I can't believe we didn't get more, like, more listeners out of that. mean, is that just sort of like Obama's fading star, or does that say something about us? I'm just, I'm looking at this photo, and also I'm pretty sure I recognize ah Peter Molyneux in this.
00:34:43
Speaker
Um... This isn't the article that includes a caricature of Roberta Williams in a hot tub along with this one that like the classy everyone's sitting on couches and black and white photos. It's the classy sitting on couches and they all look.
00:34:55
Speaker
Now I shouldn't know this off the top my head. I also, i see in here Gabe Newell and I definitely see Will Wright and John Romero.
00:35:08
Speaker
I don't recognize everybody in here, but of those not named. I wonder who's the most of the moment one, like the person who's just like, you know, only in this month of PC Gamers history could this guy have been sitting beside like Sid Meier or someone like that.
00:35:31
Speaker
Oh yeah, where is Sid Meier? He's gotta be I don't see him in this photo, but he's gotta be like- Because they chunk it up into a few different photos like smaller groups. stuffmp Again, I should not be able to visualize this in my head, but here we are. I'm not looking at this.
00:35:46
Speaker
I'm just remembering this article. it Yeah, let's see here. Brian Reynolds
00:35:55
Speaker
is in it. And I think Bruce Shelley- Because at the top here, and I'm not going to look this up, and I never will.
00:36:04
Speaker
At the top here in this, like, in this, it has a bunch of last names here. So we got more inspector. There's a couple last names I don't recognize.
00:36:16
Speaker
Sperry? Who's that? Sperry? No clue. Yeah. But, you know, Maritzki is interesting because it's like definitely, and I have immense respect for Steve Maritzki. I think he's a remarkable designer, but it's like oh yeah his best work was in the 80s, right? Like, it's like, yeah not to say that he didn't do good things in the 90s, but like, you know...
00:36:39
Speaker
People are, people still talk about like mind forever voyaging today. yeah We're not really talking about space bar,
00:36:50
Speaker
but anyway, and also like, you know,
00:36:58
Speaker
Anyway, yeah. Who's Sperry? Are you looking this up, Jess? Because I see you like kind of. No, I was. looking I was trying to think of else would be on my list. I was like trying to think of other women that would go on this list at the time.
00:37:15
Speaker
Like, I think. Danielle Buttonberry would be i was an obvious choice. Yeah, dan Danny Buttonberry, she would probably be, like, that was immediately who jumped to mind.
00:37:28
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, that one feels like a no-brainer. I mean, mule, cities of gold, too many other things to mention along the way. she She had unfortunately already passed at that point. Oh, that's true. so i guess She passed away in 1998.
00:37:46
Speaker
Yeah. But, yeah, like, especially, like, with with some of the people. Anyway...
00:37:57
Speaker
Jim Walls is in there. Who did he put? Oh, Jim Walls? Was he on there? See if he's on those couches. See him beside anybody. Just scan it quickly. Yeah, let me scan.
00:38:08
Speaker
I don't see Jim. Do you think he just wasn't available for the shoot, so they cut him from the feature? Yeah, I think so. All right.
00:38:22
Speaker
Okay. You know what? Let's revisit this. This might be an episode. This does feel like an episode. yeah And we're always thinking about hashtag content here at Quest Quest, the adventure game podcast. Yeah. Okay.
Exploring Sierra Games: Space Quest and Lighthouse
00:38:33
Speaker
Well, that's our emails.
00:38:35
Speaker
ah And so ah just this week, you know, last week we indulged your little ah Space Quest little thing. yeah And I appreciate that. I mean, that really did. That meant a lot to me.
00:38:46
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. 30 years, whatever. Yeah. I mean, there aren't a lot of 30 year old websites is all I'm saying. Yeah, who gives a shit? and And so, ah ah you know, this week I thought we would be able to talk about a game I really feel passionate about, which is a Lighthouse the Dark Being.
00:39:05
Speaker
um ah You know, yeah Sierra. So, you know, it's a Sierra game. So, ah you know, i think... I read about it in interaction. mean, like, what I loved about it was like...
00:39:20
Speaker
like Ken Williams was sure this is going to the game to, to take down. Mist has a beautiful cover. Yeah. Oh, it does. It does. It looks like it could be the sequel to Mist, but we know that's Riven, but you know, Ben, i gotta tell you what I know that you played through this.
00:39:37
Speaker
I played all of white house, the dark being. Yeah. And I know I was getting constant texts. It's like, you won't believe this fucking game, man. This is amazing. I'm amazed by lighthouse, ah dark being.
00:39:50
Speaker
Yeah, no. And like, I get it, but you aren't seeing what I'm saying. And what I'm seeing is a deluge of emails.
00:40:02
Speaker
They're being sent directly to my personal address. Uh-huh. Because a lot of readers, but and readers here, I mean listeners. I read the emails. They listen and send the emails. I'm the reader.
00:40:13
Speaker
but ah You're a real reader rabbit. Yeah, that's what they call me. um But a lot of our listeners have been saying, it's like, you can't leave us hanging.
00:40:24
Speaker
You can't talk about Space Quest 1. and not talk about Space Quest 2. It's the game that takes everything you love. You're having a little difficulty holding your conviction with that sentence there, Jess. It's the game that takes everything you love about Space Quest 1 and gives it straight back to you.
00:40:45
Speaker
Jess, I'd like to play a little game with you. Okay. Is it Space Quest 2? Before... Yeah. Yeah. We're going to talk about Space Quest 2. Fine. I'll forget everything that I know about Lighthouse, the dark being. I feel bad that you bought a big box copy of it.
00:41:02
Speaker
Yeah. Well, but I love the cover. It's a gorgeous cover. um I'm going to play two tunes for you. Okay. And I want you to tell me which one is Space Quest 2 and which one is Space Quest 1.
00:41:28
Speaker
All right. Okay. All right. Okay. Oops. Sorry. I love the bridge.
00:41:38
Speaker
Yes, it's very good. Mark Crow, man. All right. Okay. Okay. So enough of that. All right.
00:41:55
Speaker
okay so never all right Now, here is another one.
00:42:19
Speaker
This is good radio. Yeah, it is. This is good radio. I'm listening so hard. I'm listening so hard, Ben. I And you know what? It's a trick question.
00:42:30
Speaker
They're both the police quest thing.
00:42:37
Speaker
This is Space Quest 1. This one? Yeah. And so the first one I played, this one is Space Quest 2? Yes. You're correct. but All right. There we go. There we go. You see, this is why they pay me the big bucks. This is why they call me the space quest historian.
00:42:54
Speaker
I, I, yeah I've always called you that. And I love your YouTube videos now. i
00:43:02
Speaker
You know, and I, and I want to be clear. So I recorded those off of scum VM with the same audio settings for, for, for both. Um, It is interesting they because I was like, I, I thought that they would have just used the same tune for both.
00:43:19
Speaker
I think if you asked me if they use the same tune, I would have yes. i think I have said it's like, yeah, that's the same song. Yeah. And, and so today when I was preparing for it, I was like, huh, I wonder.
00:43:30
Speaker
And so I recorded it and listened to both. And I was like, oh, they are slightly different question. Interesting. Interesting. So I don't know. Like in my head the space quest to theme has more of a March to it. It has like a peppy March tempo going that just like picks it up a little bit.
00:43:52
Speaker
But I think again, if you'd asked me beforehand, I was said, it's the same. It's the same song. Uh, join us next week. And we're going to, and I'll, I'll play the space quest three theme.
00:44:05
Speaker
and Will you be able to discern the space quest three theme? Well, what you should do is play that alongside a bunch of other big super tramp hits and and see if I can pick out which one's the space quest three. Yeah. Like, uh, I'm going to play crime of the century yeah goodbye stranger and the space quest three theme and i have to guess which one was space quest three all right space quest two yeah what's the what's the uh walk me through it okay space quest two roger wilco uh in what year 87 87 one year be like november 87 okay um
00:44:41
Speaker
tail end of eighty seven it's gonna be like november eighty seven calm Roger Wilco, after achieving great fame at the end of the first space quest, receiving the golden mop for saving the galaxy, is once again ah humbled and returned to his roots as a sanitation engineer, this time aboard an orbiting space station.
00:45:05
Speaker
He is ah back to his old thing when he is kidnapped by Sludge Vohal's goons. Who is Sludge Vohal? He is the guy who engineered the whole Sarian encounter in the first place. He sets up.
00:45:22
Speaker
uh this plan to steal the star generator uh roger foils this plan and vo hall is you know intent on revenge so he sentences roger to his mines on the planet labion uh roger is sent there the skimmer that he is taking to uh his doom crashes unexpectedly roger is now loose and trying to figure out a way to survive the dangerous planet labion He is then going to set off for Vohal's asteroid where he stumbles upon Sludge Vohal's plan to release a horde of genetically engineered door-to-door insurance salesmen. Well, Vohal says that. reveals it to tim him early in the reveals that immediately yeah at the very start of the game. That's right.
00:46:11
Speaker
Yeah, this is his evil plan to destroy everything. ah Because how else would you? And so he's releasing what again? It's like door to door insurance salesman, insurance salesman.
00:46:23
Speaker
You know how you hate when people come to your door, trying to sell you insurance. Yeah. I, uh, nothing irritates me more. Yeah, it's that only imagine that on a galactic scale.
00:46:34
Speaker
Wow. Yeah, no, exactly. The cover of the game, if I recall correctly, they are. it question Yeah, I think it's a Ken doll that they have dressed up and taken photos of. Oh, really? Yes. ah Again, this is another, I think, Mark Crow art project um of of compositing what is a paper craft space quest logo he's made that out of paper really yes the space quest logo that appears on the space quest one and two box is a giant paper craft model you can actually see it hanging in the promotional videos for space quest three in the two guys office at sierra oh yeah so that was the actual three-dimensional paper craft model that they built and photographed and i believe those were ken dolls that served as our door-to-door insurance salesman it
00:47:27
Speaker
So I have to tell you, and I think I've said this to you ah before, a massive disappointment to me playing Space Quest 2 was that like I felt like that was going to be i a large part of the game.
00:47:49
Speaker
insurance sell You have to deal with these... like Because is there's something really funny about these guys on the cover. like yeah You see like these these little pods filled with these Ken dolls that are kind of dressed like like Mormon missionaries a little bit. like They've got like a white ah ah a shirt and a black tie and then they have like a maroon jacket.
00:48:16
Speaker
Yes. And... and Like there was something that was funny to me as a kid, i that ah like about like the prospect of like, you have to deal with it. It's like, Oh, what could be worse than these like nondescript men, you know, that you have to handle.
00:48:36
Speaker
It could have been fun. i mean, I imagine you get an opportunity for, you know, the kind of jokes that like later, monkey island would center around you know a salesman like stan uh you know yeah yeah even space quest when you get to monolith burger in space quest 3 and you're making your order right it has like the yes yes options for whether or not you want to you know do a combo and other things like that like Yeah. There's room to have fun with this idea of a pushy salesperson. And the game has no interest.
00:49:09
Speaker
Yeah. The game there on the cover, they're in the plot, like they're in the stated plot of the game. yeah And like, as a kid, I'm like, I can't wait to deal because I think like the comedy of it to me as a kid was, it would be like, Oh, you have to deal with these really annoying guys. And it's like when you're a kid, everything's kind of annoying to you. So it's like the bad guy is like these annoying adults. Yeah.
00:49:33
Speaker
Like I was just like, Oh, this is hilarious. Uh, according to the box. Yeah. And, um, and then the the game's like, uh, no, we're going to deposit you on this jungle planet that will kill you immediately. all right. Bye. like Yeah. And I mean, it's not to workshop space quest to right off the bat, but i think one of the criticisms i have of this game is that the,
00:50:03
Speaker
like final act aboard Vohal's asteroid feels pretty empty. I mean, it's basically riding an elevator around and just gathering a bunch of supplies and then going on to face Vohal. There's really not a ton going on. would have been a great place to throw in some encounters with some of these insurance people. Like, wouldn't that have been a fun...
00:50:23
Speaker
yeah like maybe they're they maybe they have like laser guns and so like you see these like friendly looking guys with like because they're a bad guy if i recall correctly there's there's bad guys that will just shoot you yeah yeah and the asteroid and they're robots and and cleaning droids or maybe like the the ape men could be the insurance like i don't know like yeah i mean that's a funny concept too if like their ape men insurance salesman.
00:50:50
Speaker
I don't know. I i wish I will agree. This is something I'd never thought of until you brought this up, but It's not a bad concept. I mean, I think part of this is about is the story of the development of the game, too, because I think when Scott and Mark have talked about this and people say, why door to door insurance salesman? They're just like, yeah, door to door insurance salesman, you know, came to our house one time, came to my house one time. And I assume they live together because they were best friends and and design partners that came to the two guys house.
00:51:17
Speaker
um and uh you know it's like it was really annoying what ah what an annoying thing to have to deal with if you read death of a salesman that guy seemed depressed you know and it's just kind of funny to think about the prospect of a door-to-door salesman in like oakhurst like in the middle there's only so many doors yeah like that's like the middle of fucking nowhere, like deep in the woods of middle of nowhere, California.
00:51:46
Speaker
And, and so it's just like, yeah like, it's gotta be kind of a, a miserable, uh, salesman, uh, salesman experience.
00:51:56
Speaker
It's also, it's like, you know, I don't think like short of like, you know, like boy Scouts or Cub Scouts selling popcorn or whatever.
00:52:07
Speaker
Like, I don't think, When I was a kid, i don't think there ever was like a door-to-door salesperson that came to our door. Did you ever have that?
00:52:18
Speaker
no I think mostly fundraisers. And we still get that occasionally, like a fundraiser. Yeah. And that's like, that's just something for kids. like That's right. Yeah. You give them money because you feel sorry for them. yeah it's there's a There's a really great ah documentary called Salesman.
00:52:38
Speaker
about door-to-door Bible salesman. ah I've seen Paper Moon. I know this story. ah And that movie is from 1969, that documentary.
00:52:54
Speaker
And, like, within the context of that movie, like, of of the documentary, it is, this is something that's going away.
00:53:05
Speaker
ha ha! like Like, it's very clear that door, like, you know, the idea of doorto- door to door salesman is, is really going out in, in this documentary from 1969. So I'm just kind of intrigued.
00:53:21
Speaker
yes Yeah. Yeah. You know, like this has so little to do with the game. I feel like for me, though, like this is something i only knew really from like Nick at night, like you see, like on like a Donna Reed, like, you know, a vacuum cleaner salesman comes in, like, you know, puts a bunch of dirt onto the floor and then shows how great the vacuum cleaner is at that clean it up, you know, but like, yeah, door to door salesman already is sort of a shaky concept as of 1987. But that's good news because it barely figures into the game.
00:53:54
Speaker
Yeah. Um, you know, yeah. and The, the only door to door thing I get here in Chicago uh, earnest volunteers, ah for, for political campaigns. It's like, get out of here. You 20 year old that wants a better future.
00:54:12
Speaker
yeah yeah. Come on. What do you i have a mortgage? I don't care about the future anymore. yeah, I'm an adult. now So Jess, this game has a reputation.
00:54:26
Speaker
Yeah. Funniest space quest. ah it It is. It is. ah I wouldn't say it has the reputation. It's the worst. No, I think it has the reputation of being pretty low on most people's lists. I find this interesting. Like to me, um I don't know that i necessarily disagree. I don't think this is the strongest space quest in the bunch.
00:54:49
Speaker
Um, I mean, I will, and we'll get to this when we talk about space quest four in a few episodes, we're doing, all the space quests and then all the space quest fan games straight in to mid 2026. So, um, you know, we'll, we'll eventually get to this, but I'm a weirdo who likes this game a little more than space quest for personally.
00:55:09
Speaker
Um, but I know that that's not the consensus. I mean, this is a game where, where is it? Because I was trying to find this and I swear I read this somewhere was that like somebody described it like,
00:55:25
Speaker
Um, and I swear it was in one of like the collection, like manuals, like where it like does a short write up, but I have this memory, but I can't find this. So you tell me.
00:55:36
Speaker
Yeah. that I recall there's a description of it, which is, this isn't, we, we didn't feel that this was our best one. This is really Roberta Williams on a funny day.
00:55:47
Speaker
Is that something that's real or did I just make that up? That is something that's real. I was trying to cite that source and I could not find it. I believe that is in... Submerged in this as you rebuilt or like, you know, updated...
00:56:06
Speaker
ah your website, the virtual broom closet celebrating its 30th birthday. That's right. It is in one of the space quest collections. And I'm looking at those on my website. That was the collection that I right now.
00:56:19
Speaker
um But they definitely say something like this. Like they, they really diss their own game. This is a game that, sir that the two guys, or at least whichever the two guys, probably Scott, who was a bad to take a guess just based on that tone. Yeah.
00:56:36
Speaker
was the one saying this, but yeah, this, um, this was sort of their knock against as well. A game that, maybe they didn't think was their strongest work either. And I've been, let's see here, where in the world does that live? was trying to find it.
00:56:52
Speaker
I was trying to find it. And I mean, I think I parented this line on my website. ah I think like back in one of the earliest things I ever wrote for it. um i wrote a piece like on the evolution of space quest over time.
00:57:07
Speaker
And I just like ripped that line off. I don't guess I said it maybe. It literally says here, although Space Quest 2 is still a great game, sometimes it feels more like Roberta Williams on a particularly funny day than with Two Guys, Madromeda.
00:57:21
Speaker
Wait, okay, here's the question, Ben. Did Jess plagiarize that? I citing you? Did Jess plagiarize that, or is that my original thought that now has been given back to me that I assumed Scott Murphy must have said about Space Quest 2?
00:57:40
Speaker
All right. Well, listeners, ah we ah ah lay this at your feet. um Do you know the answer? Let us know on the discord or shoot us an email or comment on our Spotify quest quest ah podcast with gmail.com is i'm the one who originated this like kind of mean spirited quote about a game. i actually enjoy quite a bit.
00:58:05
Speaker
But yeah did you enjoy it at the time? Because I remember you, I think, because so, you know, we, and when I say we, I mean myself and Grayson.
00:58:16
Speaker
Of course. I always say, yeah, we, we, we tease you. yeah Because when you streamed for the first time on, on your, on your Twitch channel, when you stream,
00:58:30
Speaker
ah i Space Quest 2 for the first time on your channel, you're like, wow, this is actually pretty funny. And then you're like, this is really funny. This writing is really good. like and And so, you know, Grayson and i like, for enjoying something, you know, the greatest sin that anyone could commit.
00:58:49
Speaker
It's cringe. You know, ah yeah, it's it's it's it's cringe to admit that you, you know, enjoyed art that someone put in the world. Yes. And... Yeah, now that's a running joke between the three of us. They're just like, you know, Space Quest 2 is the funniest game ever made because I was really high. But I'm not saying that to be a contrarian. I don't think it's. I mean, no, no, you're definitely not. That's what you just sue, Larry.
00:59:14
Speaker
um But all of them. um But I do. Ben's giving me a look. ah Yeah.
00:59:24
Speaker
i mean Every single one, including four. but ah ah That's that one for the real fans out there. ah Oh man. We have fun here on quest quest, the adventure game podcast, but no, I mean, I'm not just saying that to be contrarian.
00:59:43
Speaker
um It is a game that I think at one time, bummed me out. I felt like it was a little too planet based. at the beginning Like, I was stuck in this jungle forever in a setting that didn't feel particularly science fictiony to me.
00:59:59
Speaker
Um, and then I felt like the more science fictiony part of the game on Vohal's asteroid is was kind of a less boring. Yeah. It's the worst part of the game. Uh, weirdly enough. So it didn't feel very spacey to me.
01:00:12
Speaker
Um, and I think that was as, as a kid, what I was really missing. I wanted something that felt more spacey. Uh, space quest one certainly did space quest three certainly did space quest two is an outlier.
01:00:23
Speaker
Yeah, go ahead. yeah Yeah, I was going to say, as I've returned to it later in life, um I really have appreciated that the writing is sharper. Like Scott Murphy is being it is more himself. Maybe the most himself he ever will be in this series. It is extremely sharp.
01:00:39
Speaker
It has some really... funny writing um and very acidic yes nasty ah writing and so this is this is interesting because i was so you know i was i was revisiting uh space quest 2 today to prepare for this and you know i i had that in mind i was just kind of like you know, is this, ah because I, you know, i was saying this to you ah before, before we started recording, Jess, this is like, I've been really trying to crack the nut in my head.
01:01:23
Speaker
of what is space quest game specifically? Like what yeah what makes a space quest game a space quest game? um Especially because, you know, I was thinking about that because, you know, you've been playing those the the fan games on on your stream.
01:01:40
Speaker
And, um, and the, the, the fan games, uh, well, like, you know, real, you know, obvious labors of love and entertaining and fun in their own right.
01:01:54
Speaker
They don't, they don't quite feel like, like space quest. And of course they're not going to, because they're made by fans they don't have the budget of a, yeah and they're not like, it's not their day job.
01:02:06
Speaker
Um, you know, ah but, I'm like, okay, well, what is it that that makes kind of a ah space quest ah a space quest? Especially because it's somebody that is kind of agnostic on space quest. Not like, you know, I myself, you know, like it, it as I said last week, not it's not my series.
01:02:33
Speaker
Yeah. um and And one of the things I've realized, like there's a bunch of things that makes a space quest a space quest. um But one of them is is that like kind of very dry sense of humor, which like a lot of fan stuff is a lot more zany.
01:02:49
Speaker
um ah And it's also like kind of like nasty in pitch black. Yes. um and And something i love about it is I think it also has like a real, like one of us kind of quality to it too. Like, I think that there's always a little bit of like a, you and the narrator are on the same team. It's like the game almost assumes it's like, yeah, you're thinking these kind of nasty dark thoughts too. We're, we're just bringing you along for the ride with it, which I think is is an interesting part of these early games.
01:03:25
Speaker
Yeah, and it's like, and once once the narrator gets a particularly brilliantly performed voice, it it does change the dynamic, which is, again, not a problem because, like, you know, ah ah it's an incredible performance, especially in Six.
01:03:45
Speaker
One of the greatest narration performances in all of video game history, I think. I mean, honestly, is there is there a better one? Peter Dinklage, maybe in like the original Destiny release?
01:03:59
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Everyone loved that. yeah that was right What a pull. I don't even know. Like, that's a pretty good pull. Halfway through it, I was like, was it really Destiny? Am I thinking of the right game here? But I'm now almost 80% sure it was.
01:04:17
Speaker
ah You know, my my my favorite narration, ah like when we played on my stream, when we played ah Quest for Glory 4, were playing a little bit of a game of ah what headspace is John Rhys Davies in now?
01:04:38
Speaker
Because you can tell, like, obviously all the, like, I assume all of the recordings weren't done linearly like in terms of where you are in the game it's sierra though they literally might have um i mean certainly possible but like so you'll just hear clips uh where like he sounds like irritated to be doing this and he's kind of annoyed and then there will be like clips where like he's having fun and you can tell he's he's kind of enjoying like he's kind of feeling himself and then like ones where he's little sleepy yeah they're definitely one i mean yeah you can pretty much easily group them into before and after lunch at the at a bare minimum um yeah i mean so there's an interesting type of drama to john reese davies's uh narration performance he is locked in a battle with quest for glory for at some level yeah i mean it is fascinating
01:05:33
Speaker
uh, uh, so that was good too. That's a good performance. It's a very interesting performance, but yeah, like, all right. But going back to, I mean, it's tough though. I mean, like to space quest two specifically.
01:05:44
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, and and I think that dark acidic tone at some level, ironically enough, is a bit of a mismatch for Gary Owens. I mean, Gary Owens is... Oh, he has like this game show host voice. But he's a snarky game show host. He's kind of like, you know, this sort of game show host that you see on SNL sketches. Like he's like a Bill Haderian ah style game show host or something.
01:06:11
Speaker
It's like somebody talking to you in the voice of, and a brand new car! Yeah. at at that energy but we're talking about these are later space quests yeah and we'll get to those every single one of them uh and um we have to talk about shivers um and um so shiver me timbers you remember yeah monkey island what a great game that was pirates never heard of it uh have you ever played pirates that's a great game too i i believe we've talked about this um have you ever played spycraft the great game that's a great game
01:06:48
Speaker
Yeah, it takes some real balls. It takes some real balls to have the great game in your game title. And you know what? I've never heard anybody say it's a great game. Freak game.
01:07:02
Speaker
Like, ah Jesus. Like, understand... the like like i i understand I understand that it's not like, you know, that's not what it means.
01:07:13
Speaker
But it's not like they didn't know that sort of like a double meaning in that context. Yeah, I mean, it's like, what idiot's going to go to the software store and buy some game that doesn't explicitly tell you it's great. Have you played it? I'm curious.
01:07:25
Speaker
No, I haven't. I it's great. I've heard it's really good. um and mostly for me it's a full motion video know next semester i'm teaching a course on intelligence and covert action so there's never been a better time to play spycraft the great teaching a class on sid meyer's covert action
01:07:55
Speaker
Have you ever played his Pirates game? It's really good. Sorry. And scene. That was our little, that was a little playlet that we prepared earlier.
01:08:06
Speaker
i hope that you enjoyed it. Now, Space Quest 2. Yes. So. Go halt revenge. The, so. the i so Yeah, as i was as i was thinking about um like some of the the the components of of a space quest, and I was you know revisiting Space Quest 2 today, i would say that is one of
01:08:38
Speaker
and So a thing when when we looked at Space Quest 1 last week was, especially within the context of...
01:08:50
Speaker
That this was like, there was only King's quest before this. We hadn't gotten the leisure suit Larry and we hadn't gotten to police quests all that. But within that context, that the only other quest games were King's Quest, I was like, well, this has got to be like a breath of fresh air. Like the art is so like radically different.
01:09:11
Speaker
And there's like these touches of surreality. And like, you know, you go to like a used starship lot and blah, blah, blah. Yeah. And, and then...
01:09:22
Speaker
like it it does like with that mindset that uh from last week when i revisited space quest 2 today i was just like oh it's just back to the same palette uh that all the king's quests use like other than the like the parts where you like at the very beginning of the game you're in um like a space station, which that section is really cool. That's only like a couple of screens, but you can walk on the walls. Like it's 2001. The walking on the walls and that opening scene, like literally been, think if I had to jot down like the most jaw dropping moments, Oh, it's in my entire gaming life, like realizing that you can walk up to that wall and Roger just reorients to walk up it because he's in zero gravity. You can walk on the ceiling, everything.
01:10:12
Speaker
That as a child is so cool. Yeah. I mean, it's just, it's unthinkable in a CR game and then you just do it and it's, it's wonderful. I mean, and yeah, that, that section looks good. Some of the stuff they do like in the space station where they have,
01:10:29
Speaker
like when you go into the room to meet with your boss and get chewed out, they have like some of the crew members. Yeah. In the foreground. and And really cool. Yeah. And that's something that like, you didn't see a lot of an AGI games. It was real. And then, you know, they you get down to the planet and yeah, it's the, it's the, the very familiar. Yeah. It's like very dominated by that bright green.
01:10:54
Speaker
Yes. ah That is just all over. uh the the first you know three or four lots of brown yeah like very it uses and so like and so that is a little bit like you know thinking about how like you know because you're only frame of reference other than Donald Duck's playground and the dark crystal for an AGI game is those King's Quest games.
01:11:29
Speaker
And it's like, you know, what a, what a kind of a, like a strange breath of fresh air that really it's, it's very different. And then, and then you get to, and you're just like back, like in the middle of woods again.
01:11:43
Speaker
And you're like, oh, I'm in woods again. I'm just wandering woods, just like at the King's Quest. And assuming i am the one who came up with this comparison.
01:11:54
Speaker
but Of it being Roberta on a particularly and are on a particularly funny day. Damn. Have I been thinking you like that was in a game? I thought it too, Ben. I literally went through this a few weeks ago when I was compiling all these manuals for my website.
01:12:11
Speaker
I was like, where's the manual that says this? There's a manual somewhere in here. i was looking for it too. Wait. could it be in the space quest history that shipped with the, uh, with the collection?
01:12:22
Speaker
I don't think I would, I'm not, I wasn't that clever back then. This feels like something I stole from somewhere. And I want listeners to tell us where did Jess steal that from? I'm looking to see if it's in that space quest collection. did do do do anyway so oh It's not, it's not, it's not, I think I just made this up and now accidentally thought that you guys into your, yeah.
01:12:47
Speaker
Yeah, I know. Like you had a dream that somebody was nasty to you and you were mad at them the next day. but, uh, but ah I wonder if that's what I was like trying to capture at a time when I couldn't express exactly why this felt so Kings Quest-y to me. I mean, it is, I mean, everything from the color palette to the, I mean, hey, a jungle is just a forest with more rain.
01:13:14
Speaker
Yeah. That's we call them rainforests sometimes. i Yeah, that's exactly it. You know, It also like has like kind of bullshitty stuff that feels a little more at home in a King's Quest.
01:13:32
Speaker
Okay. Like you have to to like wandering because i mean, you're the expert. You tell me, but Space Quest isn't really a ah stairs thing.
01:13:46
Speaker
ah challenge series. It's not as much of a stare-em-up. I mean, they're in there, but it's not like the bread and butter. There's little bit when you're walking on the railing. There's a little bit in this one where you have to, like, and after you kill Bohol, there's a little diagonal, like,
01:14:01
Speaker
yeah but not not it's not the not the big thing and so that this game and there's there's no because it's like in the desert and one like the stairs up like to the top yeah those are you could you could fall off of them but that's not the point of that segment it's not supposed to be difficult to navigate yeah yeah the um like in this has that you have to navigate like the roots uh like around like this you know venomous plant yeah and ah like and that feels very king's that's like you know that's like a stair that's a kind of stair that's kind of a staircase yeah
01:14:43
Speaker
And then also um it has ah the, like it has the, like an underground multi-screen maze. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. That, you know, like just kind of stuff that just doesn't feel quite as engaging as a lot of the material, like,
01:15:04
Speaker
you know, the the puzzles in one are kind of fun. um Yeah. You know, like, they're they're they're kind of novel and interesting, like, in and different, and you have, like, multiple routes and stuff like that.
01:15:18
Speaker
And, you know, like a maze and, like, kind of a, you know, agi bullshit navigation of an area is it doesn't quite have it as much for me.
01:15:29
Speaker
Yeah. But, I mean, this one, I mean, even, like, the first screen, you have that, like, concealed pit that you know if you just walk slightly in the wrong place where there's a ah sort of faint outline of what appears to be like a rectangle or something there's much more of the you stepped in the wrong place and died that wasn't as present and space quest one necessarily but does feel again very staircase coded yeah So, I mean, and you know, that's kind of like where, it like, you know, I don't think it deserves as nasty na your reputation as you specifically, Jess, invented.
01:16:12
Speaker
What if I am the cause and the solution to Space Quest 2's reputation problem? What if I, A, seeded this idea this wasn't a good game, and now I'm in the process of rehabilitating this game 30 years later. Like what? if That's why this happened here. I'm going to love it when we do get an email and it's like, you idiot. It's in this.
01:16:37
Speaker
Just talked about how he was this taste maker for three decades. And it's like, he just stole it out of the back of the space quest companion. Like, yeah, like it's in something. And it's in something that I saw. And my recollection of it is is that it was in one of the collections. i thought it was in print. I thought it was like a little page that had like half, like a paragraph on each game in the series.
01:17:00
Speaker
Like with some quotes from the two guys scattered through it. Yes. And one of them this quote. This is remember it. So this has to exist. Unless you and are having a shared delusion.
01:17:12
Speaker
Which honestly... If I were going to share a delusion with someone, I feel like there's a decent chance it could be you. so the I mean, it was like jewel case sized, right? Yes, it's jewel case sized.
01:17:28
Speaker
it's square It's like a square orientation. It's not like, yeah. No, Ben, I'm like imagining holding this in my hand and being like, I should copy that word for word under my website and not say where I got it from. um Quest Quest que the psychodrama podcast.
01:17:45
Speaker
i am Man. this is This is tense. this is Yeah, no, this is Lynchian.
01:17:55
Speaker
But, um, but yeah, you know, I think that's, uh, I think those are like kind of my knocks on it.
01:18:05
Speaker
But I, as you said, i the, the writing on it is, is much funnier. Like just the, the narration and making fun of you. It also has, and we were talking about this, uh, before,
01:18:19
Speaker
Even though, like, just because it is playing, like, it's waiting in some of the same aesthetic waters as King's Quest, ah it has some of the best art AGI. Oh, yeah.
01:18:35
Speaker
Mark Crow is on his game here. I mean, we rag on this, this palette feeling very Kings questy, but that in no way should suggest this isn't a fantastic looking game. I mean, Ben, you sent me the screenshot earlier today. ah of yeah what is Exactly what I was thinking. of Yeah. And everyone who's listening to this and who's familiar with, with space quest two knows exactly the scene we're talking about. It is when,
01:19:01
Speaker
Roger ah leaves ah the caverns after meeting the Pinkans, the local residents of Labion. And he emerges from this cave that looks like some sort of alien creature, like retching out water in the form of a waterfall into a pool um And it has like while we call em God beams now, yeah like God beams across God rays or whatever. Yeah, yeah. yeah
01:19:34
Speaker
It's got that coming. I mean, the lighting is beautiful. The shading is out of this world. It's evocative in a way that makes you think maybe like, wow, Labion is a place that has a history. And like, there are peoples who have lived here and there's a culture and maybe your religion that, but no, that's part of the game. It's just like, this is a scene you pop out on.
01:19:57
Speaker
it's just like, wow, that's gorgeous. It's like, I'm staring at it now. And all I'm thinking is Mark Crow did not need to go that no hard. Like this is a scene where nothing happens. You get spat out here and walk one scene to the right.
01:20:12
Speaker
yeah enough i'm also thinking about it looking like it's like if you played this on like a contemporary computer which i know you did jess um is that you have to appreciate this art because if you were playing this on your your tandy or on your pc jr um um it would draw like the outlines of everything and then fill in each individual color. Remember that?
01:20:42
Speaker
Yeah. is there something that emulates that? Because I want to play an old AGI game. We've talked about this when we were there are emulation. I think there may be a toggle in DOS box that can emulate an IBM PC jr. um may listen time with a yeah I love to like see that and then I would get bored after a little bit. It's like, I'm not waiting. next saying 30 seconds for every single screen are you insane i believe i have done this before and on modern systems it draws it in much faster i can't remember how i set it up to do it if it was in scum vm or elsewhere but i mean that was remarkably charming it i mean as a kid i thought it was an intentional choice to create that storybook feel especially for the king's quest yeah yeah i think especially for king's quest all this when we talked about agi yeah but
01:21:34
Speaker
I loved it. And it was so incredibly charming. And to learn that that was just like, yeah, that was how we kept file sizes low. And, you know, this is just a clever tool that happens to have a nice artistic vibe to it. But no, this scene's gorgeous. It's one of many gorgeous scenes in this game.
Space Quest's Legacy and Fan Contributions
01:21:53
Speaker
I mean, Mark Crowe is at the at the top of his game.
01:21:55
Speaker
Again, it's like Mark and Scott are both doing really good work in service of a game that I just don't know is quite as exciting as the game that proceeds or follows it.
01:22:08
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's, yeah. You know what? Like it's, it, it isn't quite the sum of its parts. because it has like exactly like, I'm just repeating what you just said. Like it, um, it has good, like it has some really funny moments of writing. Like there's the moment where Roger passes out and he fantasizes that he's leisure suit Larry.
01:22:30
Speaker
Yeah. Um, like it, you know, has scenes like this one and it's like, so it's like, okay, well, neither of them but was doing a bad job. but It just, you know, it just isn't quite good.
01:22:42
Speaker
It never quite clicks. um I don't know if it's a pacing question. It's because they didn't use the insurance salesman. That would have solved the problem. That's right. That's right.
01:22:54
Speaker
What if Roger was like in danger of being turned into one of these insurance salesmen? This is my, I think it's time someone do a VGA remake of Space Quest 2, but in this version, the insurance salesmen are front and center.
01:23:08
Speaker
Well, all right. Like we were talking about this before where ah it, I like, I'm i'm curious about, Like, it always feels like a ah fan game is a little more zany ah than, like, the Space Quest games were, other than 6.
01:23:28
Speaker
And so it's like, how would, you know, how would you make Because, Jess, the insurance salesman would be pretty zany, and I think that's taking me out of it, you know?
01:23:40
Speaker
Well, Ben, do you know, like, the fan game explanation for the insurance salesman? Is there's one? There is one. This is like the key plot point of Space Quest Zero replicated.
01:23:52
Speaker
Oh, I haven't. you You just streamed that, correct? I did. and I'd forgotten about this until I just streamed it. I'd forgotten this important plot point. But in that game, Space Quest Zero replicated by Jeff Stewart, 2003.
01:24:04
Speaker
ah Roger ah is, he doesn't know it, but he has stumbled upon Sludge Vohal's plan uh, to create a clone army.
01:24:17
Speaker
Um, and at one point, Roger infiltrates his cloning facility. And again, not knowing who Vohal is not in fully understanding his plans through pure happenstance, Roger swaps out the cartridge that is full of information about like military training and all this other sort of stuff.
01:24:38
Speaker
Um, that would have turned these clones into an unstoppable galactic army. And he swaps it out for a cartridge he found earlier in the game on door-to-door sales techniques.
01:24:50
Speaker
So he sabotages Sludge Vohal's army of clones. And this is before Rogue One came out. but Yeah, I mean, a lot of ways, Rogue One is based in part on Space Quest Zero. I mean, if you watch them back to back. for one yeah If you watch them back to back, essentially... No, no, no, no, no. no You watch Andor.
01:25:14
Speaker
Then you watch Space Quest Replicator. And then you watch...
01:25:22
Speaker
That's where it falls in the timeline. If you go to the starwars.com holocron and look at the timeline of exactly how this falls. If you go to Wikipedia.
01:25:32
Speaker
If you go to Wikipedia. um First of all, there's no Space Quest entry there. So someone please create a Space Quest is clearly a Star Wars spoof. Yeah. Those guys couldn't get enough Star Wars. Deserves to be in there.
01:25:44
Speaker
Yeah. You know what say? ah May the farce be with you. Oh, Jez, come on. stop it. Let's do funny. ah ben ah In space, no one can hear you clean.
01:25:56
Speaker
it did Jess, I had to mute myself ah because I was yucking it up over here. Yeah, we actually had to pause the recording. We're coming back now a full nine minutes later.
01:26:07
Speaker
Yeah, I was yucking it and ah Jess was yumming it. It was a terrible collision. Yeah, yeah. He was yumming my yuck. I was yucking his yum. was
01:26:22
Speaker
Yeah, there was... Those are terrible words. there's Terrible, terrible, terrible. All right. ah Space Quest 2, man. I mean, yeah, we I mean, we could talk about certainly ah Infamous Adventures ah released their VGA remake of this in 2011. During this strange heyday for Space Quest fan games, you have...
01:26:46
Speaker
ah this space quest to remake come out immediately followed by vo hall strikes back immediately followed by space quest incinerations followed not long after that by space quest minus one decisions of the elders 2011 2012 was this insane burst of activity in the community was that's that's very interesting and that's when the kickstarter for ah space venture launches So something was in the air.
01:27:14
Speaker
Something was in the air. I think that probably, you know, people had read that section of the broom closet about space quest too. And they were like, we really need to like, they were inspired to create their own space quest thinking they could do better than that.
01:27:28
Speaker
And a lot of ways, I guess I'm responsible for those games too. Yeah. You're irresponsible for so, so much Jess. um Now, it's and totally. Someone realized that.
01:27:42
Speaker
I guess in a way you could call me the executive producer of everything that came out after 1995 related to space. Yeah.
01:27:51
Speaker
but please yeah i mean and this is i mean it's an impressive piece of work it's uh you know it's a uh you know vga point and click it tries to flesh out some of the stuff on vo hall's asteroid base uh a little bit uh it adds some zany in there i believe there's now a monolith burger it's a good retelling of this story is um is that 3d remake of space quest 3 the most recent Space Quest thing? Yes. The most like in terms like full length projects. Yeah. Fan projects.
01:28:23
Speaker
Yeah. The Space Quest 3D by TurboChamp would be your most recent. I think that's 2023. And I guess also Space Venture. Yeah, that's true. In early access now on Steam. Yeah.
01:28:35
Speaker
um But anyway, do you have ah any final thoughts on Space Quest 2? Well, you know, i guess I would say don't listen to me or whatever Space Quest Collection manual said. is...
01:28:50
Speaker
so this is it's not the game. This is a Berenstain, Berenstain bear situation. It really is. Except I may be both somehow, um, both or neither.
01:29:02
Speaker
You're a quantum singularity. Yes. Yes. Yes. Um, man this is going someone's going to write in they're gonna be like dude it's right this is like on the first page of that manual it's like you can you not read it's like hey do you try reading a video game manual while you're recording a podcast with dozens of listeners a dozen dozen a gross yeah a gross We think it's a gross. Ben and I discussed this before the podcast.
01:29:31
Speaker
We weren't sure if that was a gross, but then we also didn't want to to look it up. Now, I think 169 baker's gross. Yeah. Nice. Anyway.
01:29:42
Speaker
um yeah nice anyway ah You know, Space Quest 2. It's a Space Quest game. It came out in 1987. That's the second one. that's all I got to say about it. Yeah, Ben hates it. This whole... Ben's been giving me this, like, this just, like, pouty face. the hot He's like, what about Lighthouse?
01:29:59
Speaker
ah You will hear about the dark being? I want... I want everyone to know more about the dark being. Yeah, I mean, if you had to describe the dark being in a few words, like... I'm not going to. You ruined it.
01:30:15
Speaker
I mean, what would be your favorite puzzle? Oh, there's too many. The one with the lighthouse keeper. like i thought that one. Yeah, that was the one that stuck with like the sliding tile puzzle.
01:30:26
Speaker
um Now. I like the one where you had to manipulate ah the the various machines. i Yeah. I liked when you adjusted the lenses on the lighthouse.
01:30:40
Speaker
The dark being. yeah You know, because there's... Now, Jess,
Episode Conclusion and Social Media
01:30:47
Speaker
here's the great irony of Lighthouse, the dark being, is that lighthouses bring light. So, of course, would be a lighthouse's...
01:30:57
Speaker
Greatest enemy, a dark being. Yeah. You know, Ben, because it's a ah house of light. That's yeah. Yeah. No, I mean, that'd be terrible. That'd be terrible. Yeah.
01:31:08
Speaker
You know, Ben, if you left your, your house right now and went down to a millennium park, you could see a dark beam.
01:31:19
Speaker
All right. Well, thank you so much for listening to quest quest, the adventure game podcast. ah I'm Ben. You can find me ah on Twitch ah as a PS underscore Garrick.
01:31:31
Speaker
And you can find me Jess at a decaf Jedi everywhere. ah And please rate and review five stars um only, only, only look at the same rating you would give to space quest to five stars.
01:31:49
Speaker
ah i'm I'm looking at some screenshots of White House the Dark Being and thinking about all the fun I had. um ah And you can send us an email at questforquestpodcast at gmail.com.
01:32:00
Speaker
And ah be sure to join us next week when we talk about White House the Dark Being.