Space Quest I: The Sarien Encounter

Space Quest I: The Sarien Encounter.

Space Quest I: The Sarien Encounter is a comedic graphic adventure puzzle video game developed and published by Sierra On-Line in October 1986 for MS-DOS, and later ported to various home computers of the day. It is the first game in the Space Quest series and uses the Adventure Game Interpreter. The game was primarily designed by Mark Crowe and Scott Murphy who go by the moniker "Two Guys From Andromeda." A VGA remake was released in 1991 called Space Quest I: Roger Wilco in the Sarien Encounter.

Personal

My cousin had Space Quest II: Vohaul's Revenge back in the late 1980s, and we played it on his Tandy 1000. Since the game was a sequel, I knew there was a first game, but I never saw it at the time. It wasn't until years later until I was able to play the game. At first, I found the weaker graphics to be a bit of a turn off, but the game's humor quickly made me appreciate it. I made it to Deltaur before getting stuck. A few years later, I played the game again and beat it.

Status

I own a digital copy of this game in the Space Quest Collection. I have beaten the original DOS port.

Review

6	4	5	2	4

Best Version: MS-DOS

— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

• The game has a lot of hilarious dialogue. Much of it is laugh-out-loud funny. It also satires many different science fiction films.
• The title song is quite nice.

Bad

• Other than the wonderful title song, the game is pretty lacking in audio.
• The game suffers from the typical Sierra mentality of punishing the player with death for pretty much every action except the correct one. Thankfully, there is some pretty hilarious dialogue for when it happens.
• The poor controls and monotonous game play of the land speeder action sequence isn't very fun.
• On the ports to superior platforms, like the Amiga and Apple IIgs, none of the graphics or sound are reworked to take advantage of the superior hardware.
• The game's manual is awfully spartan.

Ugly

• The game has several ways to put the game into an unwinnable state. The one with the salesman is extremely difficult to predict, and will get a lot of players stuck. There are also some with the space ship, and crossing the land bridge.
• At one point in the game you're required to win big at a slot machine in order to progress, but you can also die from it. Placing the player's progress on an entirely random even is bad game design.

Media

Box Art

• 

  The original PCjr and Atari ST boxes use the original cover, which is pretty dull, but it had a fold out page with screenshots and a game description.

• 

  This redesigned box was used by most releases. It has a plastic model of a vintage car flying in space next to a big Space Quest logo. An ugly screenshot ruins the effect.

• 

  The last ports of the game and re-releases used this modified cover. The screenshot is replaced with the game's subtitle, the car has engine exhaust, and more stars are added. This is my favorite.

Documentation

• 

  PCjr Manual.

Maps

• 

  Arcada.

• 

  Kerona Desert.

• 

  Underground Complex.

• 

  Ulence Flats.

• 

  Deltaur.

Videos

Ways to die.

Easter eggs.

Longplay - Amiga.

Longplay - Atari ST.

Longplay - MS-DOS.

Download

A non-playable demo of Space Quest is showcased in Sierra AGI Demo number 1.

Links