Space Quest I: The Sarien Encounter
| Space Quest: Chapter I – The Sarien Encounter |
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Original cover art
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| Developer(s) | Sierra On-Line |
| Publisher(s) | Sierra On-Line |
| Designer(s) |
Mark Crowe Scott Murphy |
| Programmer(s) | Scott Murphy Sol Ackerman Ken Williams |
| Series | Space Quest |
| Engine | AGI |
| Platform(s) | DOS, Macintosh, Apple II, Apple IIGS, Amiga, Atari ST |
| Release | October 1986 |
| Genre(s) | Adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
| Space Quest I: Roger Wilco in the Sarien Encounter |
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Remake cover art
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| Developer(s) | Sierra On-Line |
| Publisher(s) | Sierra On-Line |
| Designer(s) | Mark Crowe and Scott Murphy |
| Series | Space Quest |
| Engine | SCI1 |
| Platform(s) | DOS, Macintosh, Amiga |
| Release | August 20, 1991 |
| Genre(s) | Adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Space Quest: Chapter I – The Sarien Encounter, commonly known as Space Quest I, is a graphic adventure game released in October 1986 by Sierra On-Line. It is the first game in the Space Quest series. It quickly became a hit, selling in excess of 100,000 copies. Total sales are believed to be around 200,000 to date, not including the many compilations it has been included in.
Space Quest was the brainchild of Sierra programmers Scott Murphy and Mark Crowe, who had worked on prior titles like King's Quest II, but had not designed their own game before. According to Murphy, "at that time (1985), everything at Sierra was so somber and had an almost medieval atmosphere. So we decided 'Why not make a fun, silly game?'"
Players of the original game are never told the hero's name, but are instead asked to enter their own. The default name of "Roger Wilco" — a reference to the radio communication, "Roger, Will Comply" — became the de facto name of the hero in the later games of the series.
Roger's name was fitting in that, in keeping with his portrayal as an "everyman" schlub, he took his name from incorrect radio usage. When someone says "Wilco," or "will comply," "Roger" (or "received") is assumed. There is no need to say "Roger, wilco," and this is seen in aviation circles as the mark of an amateur.
Roger is a member of the cleaning crew on board the scientific spaceship Arcada, which holds a powerful experimental device called the "Star Generator" (a thinly-veiled reference to the Genesis Device from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan). Roger emerges from an on-duty nap in a broom closet to find that the ship has been boarded and seized by the sinister Sariens. Using a keycard that he found from the body of a dead crew member, he finds his way to an escape pod and escapes the Arcada.
After crash-landing, he finds himself in the dry and barren wasteland of the planet Kerona. After making his way through the desert and a system of underground caves, he is tasked by an insectoid alien with killing a monstrous creature called Orat. After succeeding in this task, he returns to the alien with proof of his success in the form of a piece of Orat's flesh. As a reward, the alien lets him into an underground complex inhabited by more aliens, and provides Roger with a skimmer, a small flying vehicle which cruises a few feet over the sandy ground (similar to the landspeeders in Star Wars).
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Wikipedia