"Do You Remember Space Quest?" (by Stacy Davidson)
I have written every which way about the Space Quest series. I shared some of my personal memories in The Treasure of the Sierra On-Line (SQ), explored my sarcastic side in Space Quest 7: Buckazoids from Andromeda, came to my senses in Space Quest: A Greatly Exaggerated Tale of Adventure, and chose the spiritual successor to Space Quest, SpaceVenture, as my number one game of 2013 in The Year of the Adventure Game. You might think that, by this point, I would have nothing else to write about it. Call me a real pantload for punishment, I guess.
Ace Hardway and his robot sidekick, Rooter.
As much as I have written about Space Quest, I have written very little about SpaceVenture. To be fair, the game is still deep in development, so there is not very much that can be said. However, some tidbits of material have been released through the backer-only blog, such as early conceptual art by Mark Crowe and 3D modelling/rigging by Brent Forrest and Mike Penny. Beyond that, I cannot say. Not only because I am sworn to a backer agreement, but also because I fear for what Scott Murphy will do to me.
Oh, that. Yeah, I backed SpaceVenture during their Kickstarter last year. I chipped in a pretty penny, or for you Space Quest fans out there, a pretty buckazoid. As I was saying earlier about being a real pantload for punishment. Something compelled me to do far more for them than I ever should have. I chalk it up to that strange sensation some people refer to as nostalgia. I contacted every living person that I knew, and told them about SpaceVenture's campaign to raise $500,000 on Kickstarter. This resulted in more than a few blind stares. I even resorted to something truly underhanded. I sent out a mass e-mail to all my online contacts via the Space Ruckus message forum. I would rather not take the time to explain what Space Ruckus is, but suffice it to say, I received a few angry replies.
Ace Hardway's idol/alter ego, Cluck Y'Egger.
As time has gone on, I have continued to support SpaceVenture, but through nothing so drastic as abusing my contact list. I tweet things out for them every once in a while, and occasionally write articles (like this one). This past week, I sent them a little surprise. It was another pretty penny/buckazoid. I left this note attached to the PayPal receipt: "Late Christmas gift for Mark, Scott and company. I didn't know what to get you guys, so I figured that you might like money. I hope you like money." Spoiler: They liked it. I feel like stressing that you only have until February 1st to make a PayPal donation, and thereby make your mark on SpaceVenture's development. Or would that be, keep Mark (Crowe) in SpaceVenture's development? Game developers do need to eat.
I just want to close by saying, thank you to Mark Crowe and Scott Murphy for the wonderful memories of Space Quest, and thank you for reuniting to develop another fantastic sci-fi adventure game. It may not be Space Quest, but by God, does it even really matter? These two have not worked together in 20+ years, and everything that they did together was pure gold. The future will be most interesting for ALL OF US.
Also, be sure to pledge your support to Ken Allen's Under The Half Dome. Ken wrote music for the Space Quest series, and he is now the lead composer for SpaceVenture.
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