ABOUT / GAMES / FAN GALLERY / THOUGHTS / ARCHIVES
Space Quest I
The Sarien Encounter
The Sarien Encounter is one of my favorite adventure games.
It was not the first Sierra game to stick with me though, or that I completed, or that I spent the most time with. It is the one I keep coming back to.
It's the one I memorized how to complete, and I would write wlakhtrough steps out during vacations when I was bored.
It's the well I kept going back to for artistic inspiration. As pastiche as it is of Star Wars and earlier science fiction.
And it's the only Space Quest where you get a droid. That's pretty neat.
FAVORITE DEATH: Oh there's so many good deaths here. Puffing up like a balloon if you step into the open hangar without your suit? Shoving your whole self into a hole to be belched out as bones? The ridiculousness of going full ostrich after a hefty rock while sand skimming? Probably one of those.
FAVORITE INVENTORY: I was always fond of the Pulseray! It stuck in my head as a pretty unique design and name.
FAVORITE MINIGAME: As a kid, definitely the Slots-O-Death. But the Skimmer Sequence is just iconic.
MEMORABLE MOMENT: Making it into and through the ventilation system of the Deltaur.
CLEVER WRITING: In Ulence Flats, the would-be mugger (or actual mugger if you follow them) is the same being whose ship you "buy" from Tiny. The ship where the description is basically "this is a nice ship, I'm surprised Tiny has it". Which has the keys in it already. And needs a piloting droid. Like the one that you need to buy from Droids B Us. Where that sales being says it was sold to them to pay off debts.
SPACE QUEST-INESS RATING: The definition of a Space Quest. Bumbler in a sequence of perils who saves the day through low cunning.