Space Quest IV: Roger Wilco and the Time Rippers: Classic Gaming


	Platform PC Genre Adventure Developer / Publisher Sierra Online Released 1990
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Space Quest 4: Roger Wilco and the Time Rippers

Four is the magical number for video and computer games. If a series reaches the fourth installment it’s practically a guarantee of a fifth and a sixth episode. Space Quest reaches that magical number with Roger Wilco and the Time Rippers. Sadly, it also marked the last time the "Two Guys from Andromeda" (Mark Crowe and Scott Murphy) worked together and the height of Sierra’s adventure game era.

Space Quest IV (SQ4) starts with the series hero, Roger Wilco, being thrown into the future – escaping from the Sequel Police, who have orders to eliminate Wilco. It turns out Sludge Vohaul, last seen in Space Quest II, is behind the whole thing and has put into the works another nefarious plot, which has entangled Wilco’s own son! Once again, it’s up to Roger to sort things out and restore order to the galaxy and save his son. Along the way he’ll have to defeat a sea slug, capture a pink bunny that keeps going and going, plunder Luke’s old landspeeder, play Ms. Astro Chicken, do some cross-dressing and dodge the Sequel Police at every turn.

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SQ4 is one of the shortest in terms of length. If you know all the answers and solutions it’s practically a walk in the park. But until you get to that point, you’ll face challenge after challenge. It’s a tough game – one that is unforgiving to experienced and inexperienced adventurers alike. (Save now, save often!) The parser interface is gone and replaced with (the now standard) point and click. Fortunately, the interface is implemented

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well. Taste and smell icons have been added, allowing for some very funny descriptions and actions. More importantly, the interface doesn’t get in the way of completing the puzzles. However, the puzzles can be mind-numbing at times – until you figure it out, at which point you say, "That’s so obvious." Some of the puzzles require precision timing. For example, escaping from the Sequel Police at the Skate-o-Rama will have you swearing a blue streak. You’ll also expend brain cells escaping from the Latex Babes, evading killer droids, and visiting Space Quest I (EGA!). There are a couple of arcade sequences – thankfully one involving Monolith Burger can be skipped. And here’s a tip that’s too often overlooked: always write down the codes to the time pod before and after you use it! There’s some time jumping involved and nothing is more frustrating than trying to go back in time and not have any clue what the code is! For the most part, though, it’s a typical Sierra adventure game.

As a series, Space Quest has always had consistent sound and music, and the 4th installment is no exception. The theme music is very memorable. The CD version, released a year after the initial launch, adds more digitized sound effects and voice-over work throughout – a big advantage over the floppy disk version. Gary Owens (of Laugh In fame) provides the narration and is perfect. His delivery is excellent, which can’t be said of all the other characters, but you hear more narration than anything else so it’s not cause for complaint.

Laughter is the best medicine, which makes SQ4 high on the list of games that cure the blues. I still laugh when dealing with the central computer system that lets you "flush" a file named SQ4. (Doing so boots you out of the game!) And if you’re a veteran gamer, root through the bargain bin at Radio Shock for some very funny parodies. Even today, they’re still funny.

The graphics were of the very good variety – the kind of graphics you looked at and said, "I remember when 4 colors was a luxury!"

Some games are timeless, Space Quest IV is one of them.

- Omni

* Screens from spacequest.net