Space
Quest 1 Manual
There are two versions of the Space Quest 1 manual. The EGA version
(the original), and the VGA version (the remake). The VGA manual
contains a somewhat different introduction, which is more funny
but contains less background details. A pretty much pointless but
funny detail: the VGA manual is messing up the meaning of the words:
"sun", "galaxy" and "solar system".
According to the manual, Earnon is a galaxy. But later on, it's
made clear that the "sun" of Earnon is dying. AND, it
describes Earnon as an "old system". The manual is actually
talking about the "solar system" Earnon, which contains
a planet called "Xenon". A galaxy contains billions of
stars, not one. A solar system, however, contains one star only.
To put even more weight on this statement, the EGA manual says:
"Far beyond the reaches of known space lies a planetary
system known to its inhabitants as Earnon". Also, the
word "sun" is the name of our star, which planet Earth
is orbiting. The manual should have said "star".
The
manuals themselves aren't all that exciting, but they are both cool
collectors items. So I'll have to warn those who expect to see a
Galactic Inquirer, a Popular Janitronics or Piston Magazine style-like
manual. They are just plain text! The images are scanned, edited
and compressed with great care. Enjoy.
Space
Quest EGA Misc Documentation
Space Quest 1 also shipped with a registration card and a reference
card. The originally supplied registration cards were numbered while
newer ones aren't, but they offered the new "Sierra Newletter"
for free. I've scanned the first version of this card, both front
(32 KB) and back
(144 KB). Also included was this
leaflet (112 KB) to order the official
hint book. The reference card is a six page folded document containing
basic information about the AGI engine:
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