Earthrise

Earthrise is one of the most Space Quest inspired games I have come across, down to the visuals and propensity for player death.

Yet somehow it misses the mark for me. I think it might be too text-adventure puzzle-y, which makes sense, since I believe it is based on the author's earlier text adventure "Solus", down to the name being used for the mining colony in distress and the subtitle (primarily visible in the game manual).

I didn't finish this one, because there's a bee you can acquire, but you need to keep it alive while you carry it, including monitoring it's oxygen, and I was still in the exploration phase of solving. A terrible choice on my part, I should have just done an exploration pass without worrying about the bee.

The designer went on to make Rex Nebular and the Cosmic Gender Bender, another title that was often cited with Space Quest, but that I also have mixed feelings about.

By which I mean I do not like Rex Nebular. I did not enjoy the writing, the gameplay, or the need to kill a dog to progress. Apparently that "puzzle" isn't on all difficulties, but running into it has cursed me with the burden of knowledge.