Thanks for the link to that interview! I haven’t read it in forever.

I know! When listening to the show I kicked myself for not mentioning the missing LSL game/SQIV link.

I’ve never heard of those Dynamix games, but will have to check them out. I believe I’ve heard of the Incredible Machine series before.

Thanks for listening, and especially for your input Sean. Space Quest will come up from time to time around here for sure, so keep your eyes peeled. Maybe we can try and do an interview podcast someday… Scott Murphy loves being interviewed all the time, right? In the meantime, we’re planning on keeping the classic adventure podcasts coming, so stay tuned.

I definitely agree to the aspect that Scott Murphy was the one who was responsible for the darker side of the series. None of the games after really captured that weird area between sinister and goofy that Space Quest IV had. I kind of get the feeling he wasn’t a very treasured employee at Sierra. In this interview Scott Murphy seems to acknowledge some bad blood that was created with Crowe because of SQ5 (Which actually shows in the included Galactic Inquirer, Mark Crowe stealing his ideas from a Star Trek book) as well as talking about the favoritism that existed in the company: http://www.adventureclassicgaming.com/index.php/site/interviews/234/ (Yes I have a link this time!) Scott Murphy hasn’t worked on a game since Sierra shut down, which is a shame.

Makes me wish Sierra paid more attention to their talent within the company outside of King’s Quest, which in my opinion, were really below average adventures in terms of both writing and design. The only good one is King’s Quest VI, which seems to only be good because it is largely designed and written by Jane Jensen, who’s picture is not on the box but instead the standard photo of Roberta Williams naming her “the adventure game queen.”

Now I’m going to type random bits and pieces.

The missing Leisure Suit Larry game sort of tied into a major plot point in Space Quest IV, though. But that in-joke may be way too meta these days.

Also, Dynamix did make some really cool games, although I’m surprised you guys didn’t bring any up outside their flight simulators. Jeff Tunnell, the company head, designed 3 great adventures there that you may have heard of called Rise of the Dragon, Heart of China, and Willy Beamish. They are also responsible for (I think) the well-known The Incredible Machine series, even though that’s attributed to Jeff Tunnell productions. But all of that stuff started before Space Quest V, which was probably the last adventure Dynamix produced.

One last thing, although I may be wrong, I’m pretty sure Josh Mandel wrote all of the descriptions in the software store in SQ4 as well as the hint book. I think he also had a hand in writing for the Popular Janitronics and Galactic Inquirer mags that came with 4 and 5.

Thanks again for the great retrospective. It’s been a lot of fun for an old Space Quest fan.

Glad you enjoyed the show

It was a trip listening to this podcast…I love hearing new thoughts about these games!

Here’s where you can download the playable SQ6 demo:
http://www.wiw.org/~jess/sq6demodl.html

–Josh