Spaceship Warlock is an adventure game created by Mike Saenz and Joe Sparks. The game was released in 1991 for the Macintosh and in 1994 for Windows.
The game is set after the end of the "Terran Empire". Terra has lost a millennial war against the Kroll, who then used a planetary technology to move Terra out of its orbit and move the planet to an unknown location deep in Kroll space. Humans now have no homeworld, and some have ended up as Space Pirates.
Spaceship Warlock contains examples of:
- Asteroid Thicket: Toward the end of the game, where a secret Kroll base turns out to be hidden.
- Banging for Help: When Hammer first captures you and places you in the brig with Stella and her father, the only thing the player can do is bang on the cell door to get Hammer's attention.
- Big Brother Is Watching: The Kroll empire certainly is, with giant video screens on every street corner on Stambul.Kroll announcer: "Bow before the greatness of the Kroll!''
- Boarding Party: After crippling it, the Warlock launches shuttles to storm the Belshazarr and steal everything of value, including you and other Terrans aboard.
- Brain in a Jar: Dying on Stambul results in your brain ending up this way in a museum.
- But Thou Must!: When Captain Hammer prepares to launch your shuttle into the Kroll base, he asks if you're ready to launch. If you say no, he simply says, "Ready or not, you're going in!" and launches you anyway.
- Credit Chip: Your mode of currency while on Stambul. The police give you 10,000 credits on one of these for taking down Hok Tuey.
- Credits Gag: The entire credits consist of every character of the game "As Himself", recorded on-site in the game's locations. True developer credits are hidden in the game files, though.
- Eyepatch of Power: Captain Hammer sports an eyepatch.
- Featureless Protagonist: You are, and the game isn't afraid to mention it. The only hints to your character are the starting point in a Stambul alley, and the various dreams when you sleep.
- Great Offscreen War: Terra lost a thousand-year war to the Kroll Empire, which is only explained in text form in the game's prologue.
- Insignificant Blue Planet: By the time the game takes place, everyone has given up the existence of Terra as myth. All except for Captain Hammer, which is what his mission is all about.
- The Maze: Your first task aboard the Warlock is to find the ship's reactor, by navigating its maze-like Engineering deck.
- Punny Name:
- Stambul's most wanted criminal is Hok Tuey.
- One of the captain's main pirates is named Raskull.
- Puny Earthlings: Many of the alien beings you meet aren't too fond of Terrans such as you. Captain Hammer averts this, being a Terran himself.
- Red Alert: When the player must use the Warlock's guns to down enemy ships, someone reports on the PA: "General quarters, General quarters! All hands man your battle stations! All hands man your battle stations!"
- Starship Luxurious: In both extremes.
- The Belshazarr luxury space liner plays the trope straight, to the point that it even has its own advertisement.
- The Terran military warship, Warlock inverts it, with its spartan, industrial layout.
- Tempting Fate: The minute Stella mentions the Warlock and hopes against meeting them, the Belshazarr falls prey to the same ship. And she and her father end up locked in the ship's brig with you.
- The Many Deaths of You: The game has unique animations for every death, even toward the end.
- Thrown Out the Airlock: This happens if you forget to shut the hatch before launching your Marauder shuttle.
- Verbal Tic: Captain Hammer ends almost every order he gives with "Now!"
- Video Phone: You have to use a public one on Stambul to book a flight out of there. Documents are also received through it by "MegaFax".
- Wretched Hive: Planet Stambul, where you begin. None of the locals like you, and it's littered with trash. One of the native cops even calls the planet a "dirtball".
