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Fan-Made Space Quest Prequel Released

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the flash-from-the-past dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Earlier this week, a new fan-made prequel to Sierra's Space Quest series, Space Quest 0: Replicated, was released. Designed by Jeff Stewart, Replicated features a hilarious story centered on cloning, retro graphics and interface, and tons of the wacky death scenes that made the SQ games famous in the first place. You can download Replicated at the Virtual Broomcloset." I adored Space Quest in my younger days... not sure if this will be worth it, but it brings a tear to my eye to see new AGI games being fan created ;)

15 of 176 comments (clear)

  1. PC only by sebi · · Score: 3, Informative

    It doesn't explicitly say so on the page, but the game seems to be Windows/Dos only. The download-able zip doesn't include a read-me, but it does include an .exe.

    --
    Hank! White!
    1. Re:PC only by JMcEttrick · · Score: 3, Informative

      This game is written in Sierra On-line's old AGI, language, which compiles to bytecode, so it can then be run on any platform for which there is an interpreter. In the 80's this allowed Sierra's adventure games to run on DOS, Apple II, Amiga, etc.

      To run it under GNU/Linux, try http://samhain.cc.huji.ac.il/agi/ , wherein lies a linux AGI interpreter (and studio for game creation). I didn't try it, but it ought to work.

    2. Re:PC only by nsonneveld · · Score: 3, Informative

      The interpeter that comes bundled with SQ:Replicated is actually called NAGI which is a clone of the original Sierra AGI interpreter. It has been ported to Linux.

      Debian Package of NAGI(will probably have more luck with this)

      NAGI homepage

      If you're interested in writing your own AGI games, you might want to check out the rest of the site.

      - Nick Sonneveld

    3. Re:PC only by Jonner · · Score: 4, Informative

      It seems to work fine with Sarien as mentioned in the shameless plug. In fact, everything was amazingly intuitive. I saw the post about Sarien, downloaded the source tarball, did "./configure && make", went to the directory of the game, ran sarien, and it was up and running.

    4. Re:PC only by Bostik · · Score: 4, Informative

      I just experimented with NAGI out of mere curiosity. Unpacked the zip of SQ0 to a separate directory and ran NAGI there. *poof* Instant jump to opening screen and on with the game. From the short experience it seems to be very true to the originals.

      As if I didn't have problems with my personal scheduling already. Damn.

      --
      There is no such thing as good luck. There is only misfortune and its occasional absence.
    5. Re:PC only by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      You get stuck in the pod if you use Sarien (i.e. the game is unbeatable).

    6. Re:PC only by Midnight+Thunder · · Score: 2, Informative

      It doesn't explicitly say so on the page, but the game seems to be Windows/Dos only.

      That's what I noticed as well, so I decided to go off on a quest of my own see what I could find. Turns out the best place to go is to the AGI Development Site and see what's available. You will need to download one of the interpreters, which are listed on the 'links' page.

      The one I decided to download was the Java AGI. It comes with no documentation so you will need to compile it yourself and then realise that you need to create an empty 'agi.conf' file (will need to investigate the config values) in the classpath and use com.sierra.agi.tools.AGI to get things running, oh and the 'user.dir' should point to where the game is installed. After all this I am only at the stage at listening to the music, as I see no graphics. This is all on MacOS X, with JDK 1.4.1.

      --
      Jumpstart the tartan drive.
  2. Tierra Entertainment by master_p · · Score: 4, Informative

    http://www.tierraentertainment.com/

    They have excellent remakes of the King's Quest 1 and 2(especially).

  3. Re:I wonder... by Alpha_Nerd · · Score: 4, Informative

    Sierra doesn't even own the rights to the name Space Quest... Space Quest is a registered trademark of Children's Museum of Indianapolis.

  4. Shameless plug by almightyjustin · · Score: 5, Informative
    This game was written using the old Sierra AGI engine, which used bytecode and intepreters to allow games to be run on just about every platform back in the day (PC, Amiga, Mac, Tandy, even Apple II and CoCo).

    Sarien is a very mature reverse-engineered interpreter that carries on that tradition and will run on just about every modern platform (protected-mode DOS, Win32, *nix, pre-OSX Mac, OSX, Photon, PalmOS, even original platforms like real-mode CGA DOS and Amiga). It even offers improvements over the original AGI like high-res graphics and multi-channel sound even on PCs.

    *Disclaimer* I'm an official project member, so I may be slightly biased. ;)

    --

    Omnes arx vestrum sunt adiuncta nobis.

  5. Fanmade Zac McKracken is ... by rasjani · · Score: 4, Informative

    here Quite faithfull follower of the original.

    --
    yush
  6. SQ 7 by dominic7 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Space Quest 7, http://www.sq7.org/ looks great. There's a little teaser trailer in quick time and wow, I'm salivating. I wasted much too much time on these games but I'm ready to waste again

  7. Re:Running it on *nix by mjrauhal · · Score: 3, Informative

    Sarien worked for my until trying to launch the
    escape pod. Then the game got stuck, while still
    accepting input.

    Nagi, on the other hand, got me onto the planet.
    So, apt-get install nagi ;)

  8. Re:stuck in the pod by gpinzone · · Score: 2, Informative

    You are going down the wrong path. Don't go in the escape pod. Go through the garbage chute.

  9. Re:stuck in the pod by pimpybra · · Score: 2, Informative

    type "press one" or "press two" or "press three"