Trivia / Space Quest

• Fan Translation: In the early 90's, Russian programmers translated Space Quest V. Notable because unlike other Russian fan translations at the time, which only translated the text in the game files and leaving everything which would require extensive graphical editing alone, they translated almost everything, like the miscellaneous words on the walls and animated graphic text, leaving only the Sierra logo and the Main title untranslated. They weren't above putting jokes where it was harmless though, like translating the Space Bar as Bar "Probel", as in the Russian name for the spacebar on the keyboard.
• Killer App: The intro to Space Quest III: The Pirates of Pestulon was a common demo for the Roland MT-32.
• Screwed by the Lawyers: The series' constant parodies of real-life brands attracted lots of lawsuits from trademark holders, necessitating changes to future versions.
• Technology Marches On: Signs all over the place, a lot of them very blatant.
  • In the VGA remake of Space Quest I: The Sarien Encounter, the Arcada's archive room is explained to have a CRT monitor. And the data cartridge Roger picks up resembles an 8-track tape, which was already out of date when the original version of the game was released, let alone the remake.
  • The ultra-hi-tech supercomputer in Space Quest IV: Roger Wilco and the Time Rippers (or XII) turns out to have a Macintosh 7.5-ish desktop placed over a Windows 3.1 window.
  • Space Quest IV: King's Quest XXXXVIII - Quest for Disk Space has a pile of 3.5" floppies on the cover. The game takes up over 12 gigabytes, an unheard of amount for a game at the time. Note that DVDs can hold up to 9 gigabytes of space (less than ten years after Space Quest IV's release), and Blu-ray several years after that can hold up to fifty gigabytes of space.
  • There's also the long list of old computer stuff in the Genetix lab of Space Quest V: The Next Mutation, including SCSI drives, Base-T network, and a 9000 baud modem.
  • And a few more examples in Space Quest VI: Roger Wilco in the Spinal Frontier:
    • Roger has to read a CD-based magazine. Those didn't last very long back then.
    • In cyberspace, he wanders onto a Windows 3.1 desktop.
    • And the narrator plays this for laughs when describing Roger's bed having an 8-track player, complete with an intentional sound glitch.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Space Quest VII: Return to Roman Numerals. The Space Quest Collection came with a Space Quest VII demo movie with no gameplay footage. The game was still in early development, planned to be 3D and multiplayer.
  • Escape Factory's Space Quest, an In Name Only action-adventure platformer for PS2/Xbox, starring "Wilger".
  • Word of God said that the floppy disk that contained Vohaul's memory would have been found by someone and it would lead to a future game with Roger facing his arch-nemesis for the third time.

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