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"Roger Wilco flushed into his past, present, and future. Film at 11."
As far as the Space Quest series goes, this game is one of my favorites. The game begins as Roger, Space Janitor and unlikely hero Extraordinaire, is coming to a seedy rest stop after dropping off the two guys from the previous game. He is then accosted by two cyborgs in black suits who work for Vohaul, the same jerk who tried to send insurance salesmen at large in Space Quest II. Apparently he managed to survive (well, part of him anyway) and has traveled back in time from Space Quest XII to take out Roger before he can become a problem in the future (Confused? You won't be, after this episode of...Soap! No, wait...). Fortunately, our lovable slack-jawed simp is saved at the last second by some guys who look suspiciously like Rebels from another Star epic. They send him into the future, hoping that Roger will understand soon.

Will he? Well, no, at least not right away. Roger must bumble his way across several Space Quests, some in his future, some in his past, to stop Vohaul's evil schemes once and for all. And if he doesn't? Well, hopefully everyone on Xenon will get over that post-apocalyptic look and unpleasant smell.

GRAPHICS: 9
This was the first game of Sierra's to use the brand spankin' new (for 1992) 256-color VGA engine, and don't they look pretty compared to that godawful 16-color EGA graphics (do any of you young'uns remember THAT bit of hardware? Yeah, those things that came out before 3D accelerators and polygons. Yeah, there were computers before polygons came out). The graphics may seem a bit dated now, but this was state-of-the-art at one time (i.e. 1992), and I still think that they're really not that bad. There's been worse done, and more recently too.

SOUND: 10
Ah, one the first Sierra games to be given the speech makeover. Helmed by the voice talent of Laugh-in's Gary Owens, who plays narrator, the voice acting in SQIV rivals many of the more recent games in the console market (ANYTHING Roger says in this certainly can't be worse than the 'acting' in Resident Evil 1). Sound effects are done in the usual Saturday Morning cartoon fervor, with splats, falling noises, zaps, bams, booms, and yowzas. (On a final note, how can anyone hate a game where Gary Owens says, "Thanks for playing Space Quest IV. As usual, you've been a real pantload.")

CONTROL: 10
Sierra finally dumped it's "Take object and shove it" typing interface and replaced it with the far more user-friendly (but still not TOO friendly) point-and-click interface. Roger walks where you want him with a simple click, looks with a click, picks up or manipulates...well, you get the idea. This feat alone should give Sierra a pat on the back, as other game companies (cough, cough, LUCASARTS, cough...) had never worried about typing in the first place, and it was time Sierra got on the bandwagon.

GAMEPLAY: 9
In one word: Hilarious. This game still makes me laugh, and I must have played it dozens of times by now. Not only does anything Gary Owens say have some kind of sarcastic comment attached to it, but everything in the game is a satire of the whole gaming industry in general. The Galleria Mall is THE prime example, with each shop being some kind of satirical bent (Radio Shock, which was renamed Hz (Hurts) So Good after Mark Crowe and Scott Murphy got in trouble (I have a copy that still has the original title), Sacks, and Monolith Burger name a few). The computer store in the mall has a bargain bin in which several competitors have been placed, ranging from Broderbund to Lucasarts to even their own company. But besides the well-written satire, there's some few genuine laughs everyone can appreciate. For instance, SQIV must be the first game to include the main character dressing in drag in order to solve a puzzle (Sorry Cloud from Final Fantasy VII, but Roger got there first). Try walking into the Monolith Burger while dressed like that and you'll see what I mean.

If you don't have a copy of this classic game, I'm sure you can find one in a bargain bin (ironic, eh?) somewhere. If you do, do yourself a favor and play it again. It's a lot of fun and well worth the time spent on it.

"If it's not the best Space Quest game ever, it's darn close."
If you ask any Space Quest fan to rank from least favorite to favorite the games in the Space Quest series, chances are excellent that Space Quest IV will be somewhere at the very top of the list. Released in 1991, the game comes in two flavors: the floppy disk version, which came first, and the CD-ROM version, which came not too long thereafter and primarily featured added voiceovers and some altered graphics. Regardless of the version, Space Quest IV showcases some of the best (if not the best) graphics, music, challenges, plot, and humor that the series has to offer.

The game opens as Roger Wilco, everyone's favorite clumsy space janitor and accidental hero, is just starting to unwind in a bar after the events of Space Quest III. He soon discovers that Sludge Vohaul, his supposedly-deceased nemesis, is still alive, and has sent his goons to do away with Roger. Roger narrowly escapes death by jumping through a sort of portal that sends him into the future--specifically, he's sent into Space Quest XII, where his home planet of Xenon is in ruins. It's up to you to help Roger to survive long enough through this time-traveling adventure to figure out what's going on and to defeat Sludge Vohaul once and for all.

If you couldn't tell from the description above, this Space Quest is somewhat more plot-intensive than the ones before it. The plot development is well-paced; the introduction sets everything up nicely, and subsequent cutscenes are seamlessly blended with normal gameplay, never disrupting the flow. Time travel opens up a lot of interesting possibilities for a story, and SQIV makes great use of it.

Actually, SQIV makes great use of basically everything it has to offer. For starters, there are the graphics: The 256 colors available allow for vibrant and detailed hand-painted graphics that make the characters and locations come alive. Each location has a unique and memorable atmosphere, from the dreary streets of Xenon to Vohaul's ominous and Giger-esque fortress. It's a pleasure to look at all the locations, but there's more to do than just look.

Interacting with your surroundings in each location is easier than in the previous three Space Quest installments thanks to the point-and-click interface, a distinct change from the text parsers of old. I have no preference about which interface an adventure game uses as long as it is implemented well, but SQIV leaves no doubt that a point-and-click interface is the best choice for this adventure; you can do plenty of things that would be hard to do effectively or efficiently with a text parser, and there are more than enough unique responses from interacting with your environment to make up for the fact that you can't type in obscure commands such as SCREAM or DRINK FLIGHT SUIT. You are given a Walk cursor to get you from place to place, a Hand cursor to pick up and use things, an Eye cursor to look at what's around you and find out more about everything, a Talk cursor to make conversation, and even a Nose and a Tongue cursor that serve no real purpose but provide frequent laughs (and I might add that they return far more responses than they do in the VGA version of SQI). And, as usual, you can try to use all of your inventory items on each other and on your surroundings.

An interesting thing about the inventory items is that there are fewer of them than in any other Space Quest game (15 items, to be precise), and almost half of them are unnecessary for completing the game. As you might guess from this, SQIV does not rely heavily on inventory items for its puzzles, unlike many other adventure games. In addition to the few situations where you need to use the right item in the right place, you'll hide from a floating Droid-O-Death, outrun Vohaul's goons, piece together a time code to take a time machine to another era, and even assemble burgers on an ever-quickening conveyor belt.

The challenges are varied and require patience, logic, memory, skillful movement, keen observation, interaction with your environment, and/or good reflexes--basically, a little of everything. This diversity of challenges offers something for everyone and keeps the game from traversing too far into action territory like SQIII does or degrading into an item hunt like SQ:TLC. Very few puzzles offer more than one solution, though, so there's a bit of potential for further replay value that wasn't realized; also, a few sequences are especially tricky to survive, so you'll probably do more saving and reloading than you'd like, even once you know what you're supposed to do.

Yet, this is a Space Quest game, and saving and reloading is a must if you want to have the full Space Quest experience. I am, of course, referring to the many deaths of Roger Wilco. SQIV offers 47 comical ways to die, and regardless of whether you're trying to get Roger killed or not, you'll probably chuckle when you get scooped up by a sewer slime, impaled by a spear hurled by an angry woman, electrocuted by an obvious but invisible force field, or run over by a speedy sand bike. Truth be told, fans of the creative and exotic deaths seen in other Space Quest games might be disappointed because most of the time, Roger just gets shot. It's not like I'm trying to be weird and sadistic here; if you're reading this, you're probably already familiar with Space Quest and know that the death sequences and subsequent messages help to give the series its character and provide a great deal of humor.

And humor abounds! The game is hilarious throughout, and even when there's nothing overtly funny in sight you can start clicking on everything with the many icons at your disposal for some great laughs. Looking at Roger's own head at one point with the Eye icon gives you the message, “That's your head, Roger. Now, USE IT FOR SOMETHING!” Click on the mustard, buns, and other burger parts in the aforementioned burger assembly arcade sequence to have them actually talk to you with statements like this one, from when you smell the lettuce: “Get yer nose off me! What do I look like, a nostril mat?” There's enough humor packed into the game that you're likely to discover at least a few new jokes every time you play through, and the laughs range from brief chuckles to some truly gut-busting guffaws.

SQIV delivers its comedy through witty remarks, rampant sarcasm, sight gags, and parodies of and references to such things as Star Wars (as always), Get Smart, Leisure Suit Larry, and scads of other computer games of the time, not to mention the old Sierra hint books. Adding to this humor, if you're playing the CD version, is the presentation of the jokes by the voice actors.

That's right: voice acting! Virtually all of the voice actors are Sierra employees (read: not professional voice actors), and yet they do a much better job than some of the voice acting I've heard (Mega Man 8 comes immediately to mind). Regardless, everybody sounds as you would expect them to, or they at least come very close. Roger is appropriately dense, Vohaul is repulsive and sinister, and the narrator, well... The narrator is none other than Gary Owens; you may remember him as the announcer from Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, Garfield and Friends, and a multitude of other shows, or perhaps as the voice of Blue Falcon and the original Space Ghost. I have one word concerning this casting choice: perfect. If I had to have a narrator describing everything I touch, smell, taste, and look at, I'd want someone who speaks with eloquence, varied inflection, and gusto. Roger Wilco has such a narrator, and his life, and deaths, are better for it.

Everything else there is to listen to is perfect or nearly perfect as well. I don't usually have much to say about sound effects unless they're atrocious or extremely unique, so I'll just say that the sound effects are good, and I'll leave it at that. The music, though, is where I take a special interest, and I feel that SQIV has one of the most solid soundtracks in the series. The music lends great ambiance to each location, and many of the tunes are ones that you'll be humming or whistling long after you've stopped playing. The bar music from the introduction is energetic and extremely catchy. The music for the burger assembly game isn't terribly noteworthy, but it gradually speeds up to make the experience as frantic as possible. The music for the showdown against Vohaul sounds exactly like facing off against your old nemesis should. And I don't know about anybody else, but the hold-me-mommy-I'm-about-to-wet-my-pants music of Xenon's streets and sewer are downright creepy, especially when you know (or don't know) what's lurking just around the corner. You might also notice the return of the Monolith Burger and Astro Chicken themes from SQIII and that Vohaul's theme from SQII is subtly worked in here and there. The entire soundtrack is very enjoyable, and even at it's worst it's merely unremarkable.

I only have two complaints about the sound, but they're fairly minor. First, one area of the game has no music whatsoever, and no ambient sound effects such as wind blowing or birds calling to fill the noticeable void. Second, there's an arcade with overlapping and clashing sound effects that really do capture the feel of an arcade... but they become grating before too long.

Honestly, SQIV really doesn't have many flaws. Its biggest problem isn't with the content of the game but with the program itself: on modern computers, it can be very difficult to get SQIV running properly. The CD version has numerous timer issues that make the action sequences impossible, and getting the sound to work correctly can be tricky. There is a patch available that addresses these and other issues, but even with it the game can be tougher to get running optimally than most other games its age.

Anything else wrong with the game is more a matter of preference than anything else. The disk version is slightly different from the CD version, so you might find, for example, that you prefer the way Vohaul's fortress looks at a distance in one version but you prefer some of the dialogue in the other version. Moreover, SQIV offers a greater degree of freedom to explore than almost any other Space Quest game, so if you prefer more linear adventure games, you might be bothered by having no clear idea of where to go next at times, and you might also be bothered by the backtracking you have to do once you've figured it out.

Overall, SQIV has very few problems and many great successes. The plot, challenges, humor, graphics, and sound are among the best in the series, if not the best in the series. The voice acting in the CD version is a wonderful addition that really brings the game to life. The fairly freeform nature of the game and the fact that there are items and countless jokes that you might miss the first time around add to the replay value. No matter which Space Quest is your absolute favorite, the polish and solid execution of SQIV should make it a strong contender for that coveted top spot on your list.

"The Space Quest series evolves..."
Introduction- With this installment, the Space Quest series went the King's Quest route and used VGA graphics as well as a new point-and-click interface. The end result is a good adventure game with plenty of laughs. However, playing it all the way through isn't easy today. Read on.

Gameplay (4/10 or 10/10)- People complain that the point and click interface took away a lot of challenge from the series. It's true, it's much easier to get things done, there's very little searching left. Personally, I like the format. It works well in this game. You have walk, look, talk, pick up, as well as taste and smell (which are there more for laughs). The gameplay is different from the earlier games in the series, but still pretty involving.

Here's the problem, though. If you have the CD version, then you can't beat the game without a device like MoSlo. The game runs okay at first glance, but it quickly becomes apparent that crucial moments run wayyyy too fast. Getting in to the Sequel Police ship and Time Pod is not easy, but possible. The Skate-O-Rama chase is unbeatable. The CD version does NOT run well on modern systems. It's cool to hear Roger talk (not to mention the hilarious narration by Gary Owens), but it doesn't matter if you can't get anywhere. You could get the regular disk version (it figures my 5.25s are corrupt now), but that lacks the benefit of actual talking.

Story (9/10)- After saving the Two Guys from Andromeda, Roger stops at a little bar. While enjoying a drink, he's escorted outside by the Sequel Police, who it turns out are working for Vohaul. Roger is ordered killed, but is suddenly saved but an unknown guy. They jump into a portal, and Roger lands in a future Space Quest. Yes, the game is about time travel, and it's especially great when Roger visits past Space Quest games, like Kerona from Space Quest I (and no, they didn't update the graphics). The story is a little different from previous entries, but it's fun.

Graphics (10/10)- The graphics look great. Roger looks the best ever, period. He even looks around when standing still (keep in mind it looks like he's having a seizure in the CD version on a modern system). The backgrounds are amazingly detailed. They left the environments of Space Quest I and III alone (you can only get to III by punching in a random code in the time pod, and you always melt there). The new graphics work very well for the game. They are less blocky than Space Quest V, and not as cartoony as 6.

Sound (10/10)- Just as good as the graphics. All the music is great. From the opening scene to the bar, to the end, it sounds awesome. Even the sound effects are good, and finally fairly realistic. Thumbs up!

Replayability (5/10 or 8/10)- It depends on the version. If you're playing the CD version, then you'll get tired of this, fast. If you're playing the original, then replayability is much better, though the time codes get annoying. After awhile you'll simply get tired of travelling all over the place. If you're like me, you'll goof around the mall for awhile, it's probably the funniest part of the game.

Final Recommendation- If you have an older system or you have MoSlo, get the CD, but other than that I'd say get the disk version (3.5 is what I prefer). It's too bad, because this entry is truly hilarious, though it would be beaten by the next entry. The final SQ by both Mark Crowe and Scott Murphy is also the most common, they're all over ebay and used game stores. Heck, you'll probably trip over a few on a walk down the street :-).