| Space
Quest 4 Fun Facts
Space
Quest 4 was the first Space Quest game to feature a voice talkie.
Fans where introduced to Gary Owens - the popular narrator voice
in Space Quest 4 (and later again in Space Quest 6). Here are some
cool funfacts you might not know about Gary and a photo to match
that famous voice:
 Gary Owens ...
... was born on May 10, 1936
... was born in Mitchell, South Dakota
... appeared in The Love Bug
... appeared in Border to Border
... appeared in Spy Hard
... appeared in Eek! the Cat
... appeared in The Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Show
... appeared in Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
... appeared in That '70s Show
... wrote a book called How to Make a Mllion Dollars with Your Voice: (or Lose
Your Voice Trying)
... wrote a book called Crazy Gary's Mobile Disco
... wrote a book called The Drowned World
... acted in the movie ''Midnight Cowboy''
... sadly passed away in 2015 following complications with diabetes.
The
Multimedia PC CD-Rom (the one with the garbage bin and transport
shuttle) features a nice typo. On the edge of the CD, it reads: "trademards" instead of "trademarks". Woopsie.
There's
a bug in the CD-Rom version that sometimes forget to give you
points.
So it might be possible you did everything right but don't have
full score at the end of the game!
 The
resource.aud file that contains all the sound files of Space Quest
4 is NOT coded as is the case with other resource.aud files from
Sierra games. Download this
sound player for Windows, load the resource file and you can
listen to it! You can find this file on your Space Quest 4 cd.
Or, if you have the Space Quest Collection in the Space Quest
4 folder. Some of the sounds aren't in the actual game, like Roger
reading the items in Hz So Good, instead of Barry Smith.
"Amazingly
enough, no women's organization sued us. I was practically astounded
and disappointed by the lack of protest. NOT that I want that. No
way. I just thought someone would say something." - Scott Murphy.
All
the foreign versions of Space Quest 4 (and SQ1VGA) also have the
English language files included. Just go to the control panel and
click on the Sierra About Logo. The last button on the right changes
it from English to whatever the foreign language you're playing.
Apparently, SQ4 and SQ1VGA are the only Sierra games that include
this option. This concerns foreign versions of the disk release
of Space Quest 4.
The
Super Computer's hard disk contains King's Quest XLIII and Leisure
Suit Larry IV. The hologram of the scientist talks about a virus
actually emerging from an LSL game, and Roger Jr. refers to it as
the "Vohaul Virus". In this case, Al Lowe really wrote
LSL4.
 There's
a timepod code that takes you to the surface of Ortega (see
easter eggs). Obviously you
don't
have
your thermal
underwear
so you will die. The death message is a direct spoof from an American
drug campaign. A man gets some eggs and says: "This
is your brain". He then proceeds to fry them and says: "This is your
brain
on
drugs". He then looks churlishly at the camera: "Any questions?"
If
you wait long enough in
the Xenon Sewers (about 2
minutes), Roger looks at the screen, shrugs,
and asks you player: "So why am I standing around?" He
can also scratch his ass, instead of shrugging.
You
can talk to the ingredients in Monolith Burger. Also try sniffing
and tasting them. This can only be done in the CD-Rom version.
 In
Space Quest 4, there's an appearance by an Eveready Engergizer-bunny.
Sierra wrote Duracell and asked for permission, since the bunny
is owned by Duracell everywhere except in the States, where they
lost it to Eveready. Later, they got an angry letter about it. Scott
Murphy adds to the story: "Our legal counsel at the time did
contact Duracell asking permission to use a likeness of the bunny
in our game. I'm sure they thought this as amusing as the rest of
us did. I don't think he'll ever forget nor live it down. He eventually
contacted someone by phone at Eveready and got a verbal agreement
with a token fee in exchange and all looked fine. Hey, free advertising
or "product placement", as they call it now. After the
disk version had been out for a full year and we had been working
away on the CD speech version of SQ4 we did get one of those letters
from a different member of the Eveready company. Ken's thought and
rationalization for continuing to use it on the CD version was that
we had already sold most of the number of units we expected to sell,
we had the verbal agreement, it was a legal parody blah blah blah...
Anyway, the back of the rabbit has a black and copper looking battery
in it, it was ignored and finally went away."
Contributed
writer Josh Mandel posed as Hymie Lipschitz for the parody box cover.
The glasses, hair and other accessories aren't his own, but it's
him under there.
Neil Matz,
one of the programmers for Space Quest 4, dropped by at the
Janitorial Times and shared a nice easteregg with us: "In
the room under the grate (where the jar & the holograph are),
move just to the left of the table and then walk as far south
as possible (you should not be able to see your feet). Then walk
as far left as possible. In the inventory select the buckazoid
and click it on the lower left part of the screen (you will only
see a quarter of it when you click). Where you are standing and
where you click the buckazoid are different locations, btw."
And the egg does work! This
picture shows what happens. For those of you who like to see
Neil in action: the Pickle in Monolith Burger is his voice. And,
can you remember the Current Inside Copy video that came with
the Space Quest Collection? Neil's the SQ-Fanatic at the end of
the movie.
Shortly after Space Quest 4 was released the famous Two Guys
from Andromeda (aka Scott Murphy and Mark Crowe; the designers
of the Space Quest series) broke up! Mark Crowe moved to Oregon,
to work for Dynamix (a Sierra sister company at that time)
and Scott Murphy stayed working in Oakhurst. Scott Murphy:
"It wasn't so much 'running out of ideas' as it was that
we needed some change." Scott and Mark would never again
work together on a Space Quest game. |
Most people who play Space Quest 4 today, play the cd-rom version.
That's because this version is supplied with the Space Quest collections
and because after the cd-rom version was released, the disk version
wasn't sold anymore (or not sold in those quantities as the cd-rom
version). You probably think there are tiny differences between
these versions. After all, it's the same game. That's true, but
there are some remarkable changes....
- Speech: that's the main difference. But we all knew that.... I
hope. In the cd-rom version, you can choose between speech or
text, not both. Too bad the Two Guys didn't thought of this (though,
that's not entirely true, read the last funfact for more info).
The cd version has nicer icons, and character close ups. Just like
the image to the right.
- The disk version is a DOS only game. The cd-rom version was adapted
for Windows 3.11 and later for Windows 95. Windows was pretty new
back then and Sierra wanted to make sure their games would run perfectly
on this new operating system. Now, that's all fine with me but I
think they did a half ass job! Why? Space Quest 4 is designed
to run in a resolution of 640 x 480 at 256 colors. Not only does
the disk version runs perfectly in Windows 95 or 98, but also if
your screen is set to a color mode higher than 256 colors (16bit
or 32bit), and a resolution higher than 640 x 480. The game will
still run in full screen and the colors will look as they should.
You won't have that luck with the cd-rom version. You'll need to
turn down the settings yourself to 640 x 480 at 256 colors to fully
enjoy the game. Space Quest 4 (and 6) are not the only Sierra games
with these problems. They could have programmed something into the
games to automatically adjust the resolution and color pallet of
Windows. Only because they wanted their games to run in a stupid
window, sheesh! Not to mention that the disk version has no
timer problems.
- There are also some cosmetic changes to the game. The clerk of
the Software Excess store, for instance, actually waves with his
hands all the time when it is talking, while the cd counter part
version is a stationary lump, so to speak! The design team also
changed the monochrome bikes. In the disk version, the bikes are
colored. But in the cd-rom version, the bike are monochrome, just
like the boys who ride them. Then there's the Super Computer structure.
The disk version has a beautiful sky color which looks more "threatening"
than the sky in the cd-rom version. The lightning in the back also
looks better, I think.
Cd-rom
version
 |
Disk
version
 |
Cd-rom
version
 |
Disk
version
 |
You can actually
get speech and text at the same time. Here's how it's
done. You have to be in the Software Excess-store in the Galaxy
Galleria. Look at a box in the bargain bin. While the narrator
is talking, press space. The guy will keep talking, but a box
will appear, asking you weather you want to keep the box or what.
Choose exit. There! Text and speech! Now you can't get rid of
it, unfortunately. The following also works. During the introduction,
when Gary says "We rejoin our friend and semi-hero Roger
Wilco ...", hit the space key. A window will pop up, asking
whether you want to skip the introduction. Note how Gary still
yabbers on, even though the game is now paused. Elect to SKIP
the introduction. Okay, so you won't get to see the introduction
but the rest of the game will now have text AND speech. This little
bug might cause some funny things to the game - for instance,
some of the speech seems to disappear in certain places.
When playing
the disk version of Space Quest 4, you can avoid the guards in
a different way to the standard skate-o-rama sequence. Go to the
arcade and get the sequel police on your ass. Now, if you go to
across the skate-o-rama arena, losing the sequel police, and go
out the other side. Now, go to the entrance screen of the mall
and turn around again, go past the software store and into Radio
Shock. If you're quick enough this
will happen.
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