Ever since seeing those rare screenshots of a blonde Roger Wilco in Space Quest II and III, I've always wondered how his 'modern' design would look in actual motion in the first three games of the series. At first I thought it would look terrible, but I was actually surprised by just how well it worked (at least, IMO). Then I learned of all the various version differences, unused assets and remaining bugs/oddities for both games, and figured I had enough material for a patch or two.
So here they are: update patches for the EGA versions of Space Quest I and II that aim to give Roger a modern makeover (or not, if that's what you'd prefer), re-implement some removed/unused content, and address a few remaining bugs and issues.
Change list for both games are below:
SPACE QUEST I
COSMETIC CHANGES
- Roger's hair is now blonde, and he is wearing his usual standardized uniform (white vest and pants, purple undershirt, black boots, dark grey badge/patch on left breast) during the first act on the Arcada, as well as the ending sequence. To maintain consistency, the dead crewmen on the Arcada are now also wearing the same type of uniform (Archive contains alternate patch that reverts this).
- The usual text overhaul (spelling, punctuation, removal of needless spaces, etc.).
- Added quotation marks for several instances of dialogue lacking proper punctuation (e.g., Keronian settlement, Tiny's, Deltaur armoury).
- Fixed missing red border around translator gadget inventory image (both in its 'on' and 'off' states).
- Slightly repainted DBU's entrance in pic 36 (behind the bar) to more accurately reflect how the storefront looks up close.
- Jetpack Roger is now properly coloured (jetpack now also more closely matches inventory image).
- Animation loop for gassing yourself as Sarien Roger w/ helmet redrawn to actually include the helmet.
ENHANCEMENTS
- Restored the Ken Williams easter egg from version 1.0X (just input "ken" on the very first screen; try it again after restarting or changing screens for an additional message)
- The death music from Space Quest II now plays when Roger is killed (yay or nay?).
- Restored two additional global death messages (both display randomly along with the original message).
- Added sound effects for certain animations that were silent before (Orat exploding, getting crushed by the meteor, the other two ships at Tiny's, Star Generator control panel, etc.). Still not quite sure about some of these - any suggestions for alternative sound effects would be great!
- You can now kill Orat at any time, as he is always hanging around in his cave, even if you haven't encountered the underground hologram yet AND the Spider Droid has already landed.
- The elevator to the Keronian underground is now accessible at ANY time (no longer tied to either the hologram event or killing Orat).
- In version 2.2, typing "look arch" on screen 17 (elevator to Keronian underground) while standing closely to the right side of the right curved pillar would trigger a hidden McDonald's gag/reference ("Near the base, you notice some very small printing. If you're not mistaken, the characters translate to '497 Quadgillion Served.'"). Now, simply typing "look arch" while standing closely near either of the curved arches will alert the player to its presence with an additional message ("Near the base, you notice some very small printing"). Just type "read/look letters" when close enough to view it.
- If you are not standing in the right spot to drink from the acid pool in the Keronian underground, the game now displays an appropriate message ("That act cannot be performed from here").
- The dialogue script for the hologram room has been altered so that the hologram always gives Roger his mission the first time its speech is translated, and also speaks appropriate/corresponding alien gibberish on subsequent visits without the translator gadget turned on.
- Restored unused general description of Ulence Flats for when the player types "look/check city" when standing outside the Oasis Bar (the game defaults to the description of the current area in version 2.2).
- When the nav droid ask for sector coordinates, typing in anything but "hh/sector hh" will prompt the droid to ask "Say what, sir?" (restored and slightly reworked an unused message in the room logic)
- Interacting with the trunk outside the Deltaur airlock is now much more straightforward, as the logic consistently recognizes other variations/word groups for the word "trunk" (including "box," "case," and "can").
SPACE QUEST II
COSMETIC CHANGES
- Roger's hair is now blonde, and he is wearing his usual standardized uniform (white vest and pants, purple undershirt, black boots, dark grey badge/patch on the left breast) during the whole game (Alternate patch in archive reverts this).
- In some view files, Vohaul's skin complexion is an obviously incorrect ruddy pink. He now sports his usual deathly pallor all throughout the game (Alternate patch in archive reverts this).
- The usual text overhaul (spelling, punctuation, removal of needless spaces, etc.).
BUG FIXES & ENHANCEMENTS
- Restored unused animations for the background & foreground technicians on XOS 4 (in fact, none of them are stationary now).
- Restored a couple of messages that weren't displayed in previous versions of the game (Roger opening his locker near the beginning, hanging upside-down in the hunter's trap on Labion, etc.).
- When emerging from the underground maze, Roger now has the gem in his mouth (which he removes during the subsequent message).
- When blowing the whistle, the sound now plays when displaying the first message rather than the second ('print' and 'sound' commands were in the wrong order in the logic file)
- Fixed an original game bug (version 2.0F): re-entering room 43 (outdoor waterfall just before the Labion Terror Beast) with the rock in Roger's inventory would cause the message "They are strangely square, but not significant" to endlessly display (caused by a faulty conditional statement).
- Restored previously inaccessible "Labion Terror Beast Zone" warning sign on the same screen in which you encounter it (originally controlled by a faulty conditional statement based on whether or not Roger had the whistle in his inventory, which is silly and needlessly obtuse anyway since the sign should still be there, regardless of the state of Roger's inventory)
- Edited scripts and vocabulary to allow for more verb choices when changing the altitude setting in the shuttle cockpit on Labion. Also fixed the mispelling of 'attitude/altitude' so that only 'altitude' is accepted, and included more variations for the term 'ascent thruster' (makes this 'puzzle' less of a pain in the ass to guess the correct phrasing)
- Made it easier to find the glass cutter on level 4 of Vohaul's asteroid (entering either "look" and "look closet" while inside the janitor's closet now consistently indicates whether the cutter is there or not; previously it would only do so if the player only types "look" - caused by another botched conditional).
- Restored unused message congratulating Roger after aborting the clone salesmen launch.
I used AGI Studio v1.38 BETA 1 for the majority of the work. I wasn't quite so concerned about preserving the original file structure (seeing as how both games were less than 1MB in size), so everything is contained in a single VOL file. I also pretty much just aped the general format of NRS's binary difference patch he used for the SQ1VGA project (hope you don't mind, NRS).
These current releases are in no way final, so any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Enjoy!
NOTE: THESE PATCHES CAN ONLY BE APPLIED TO THE MOST RECENTLY RELEASED VERSION OF EACH GAME (v2.2 for SQ1, v2.0F for SQ2)
