Space Quest: Difference between revisions
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{{tropelist}}
* [[Action Survivor]]: Roger Wilco.
* [[Adventure Game]]: Of the text-parser and later point & click variety.▼
* [[Adult Child]]: Roger has shades of this coloring his bizarre hyper-competence. For example, after taking control of his own starship in Space Quest 5, he gives a rousing (and random) speech to his new crew members, who ignore him, before sitting in his chair and ''spinning around with his hands in the air''.
▲* [[Adventure Game]]: Of the text-parser and later point & click variety.
* [[The Ahnold]]: A deadly collections agent robot. Gender-flipped in [[SQ 5]], when the deadly collections agent robot is a gynoid.
* [[All Your Base Are Belong to Us|All Your Ship Are Belong To Us]]: The beginning of the first game.
* [[Almighty Janitor]]: Roger Wilco, sorta. When you're controlling him, he has these huge insights that allow him to save the galaxy [[The Many Deaths of You|(when you're not sending him to many humorous deaths)]]. Unfortunately, when you're not controlling him, Roger is heavily implied to be a lazy, clumsy, not particularly competent janitor, who also seems to have pissed off people in high places. The first game, you survive the initial Sarien onslaught because you were asleep in the closet. The second, you lose a broom while sweeping the deck because someone beeped you. It was the third one this week. Rogers improves though, as by the sixth game, your supreme capability to get rid of stubborn mildew stains and black heel marks allows you to keep your old post as janitor second class.
* [[Author Avatar]]: The Two Guys from Andromeda▼
* [[Apocalyptic Log]]: Used several times, most notably in Space Quest 4 (Dr. Lloyd's message about the Vohaul-corrupted computer), and twice in Space Quest 5 (from the point of view of a pukoid-infected colonist, and a second from the geneticist who created the toxic waste).
▲* [[Author Avatar]]: The Two Guys from Andromeda
* [[Bag of Spilling]]: Averted in the sixth game, where it turns out that Roger's been stockpiling a lot of his old junk from his previous adventures (like a good adventure game hero ought to), and has them all strewn about his room.
** and the third, where he still has the glowing gem. Where the rest of his inventory went, however, is a mystery.
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* [[Bridge Bunnies]]: Flo in the fifth game is a subversion of one. Instead of an attractive twentysomething lady, Flo appears to be in her late forties and her countless failed marriages have turned her into a bitter old crone...who nevertheless starts [[Squick|flirting with you once the crew starts warming up to Roger]].
* [[Butt Monkey]]: Despite being a pan-galactic hero, everyone still treats Roger like a second-rate janitor (granted, he kinda ''is'' a second-rate janitor). Even after becoming a starship captain, he's still treated like crap, by both his crew (at first) and his superiors. And after stopping the Pukoid threat, he's promptly court-martialed upon return with a bunch of trumped up charges and busted back down to janitor again. He's not even court-martialed for something understandable like blowing up the Space Bar with Space Monkeys.
* [[Caught in a Snare]]: In ''Space Quest II'', Roger [[Stupidity Is the Only Option|accidentally trips a hunter's snare]] (at least you can't see it beforehand), and is stuck there until the hunter who set it eventually comes and takes him down, intending to bring him back to his lair as lunch.▼
{{quote|'''Narrator''': Eventually, the cerebral fireworks begin, and you pass out. [...] You dream you're a man named [[Leisure Suit Larry]]...}}▼
* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: Among them are some of the hypothetical questions posed in the Starcon Academy Test in ''Space Quest V'': For example, one question asks "you are stranded on an alien planet being stalked by a killer robot. What do you do?" This same situation occurs later in the game, and two of the answers to the SAT question are, in fact, the solution to the puzzle.▼
** There's also the dead fish in ''Space Quest 6'', which even the narrator starts to wonder why [[It May Help You on Your Quest|people keep giving it]] to Roger as it progressively decays over the course of the game. {{spoiler|He ultimately uses it to defeat [[Big Bad|Sharpei]].}}▼
* [[Clothing Damage]]: In ''Space Quest IV'', Roger's shoes and pant legs get vaporized by the Latex Babes of Estros in preparation for leg-shaving based torture. Shortly after, you must get replacement clothes in order to enter Monolith Burger, which has a "No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service" policy.▼
* [[Convection, Schmonvection]]: [[Double Subversion]]; stepping out onto lava planet Ortega without special protection will cause you to die instantly from the planet's high surface temperature. The protection in question? [[It Runs on Nonsensoleum|Thermo-cooled underwear]]. Really.▼
* [[Copy Protection]]. Lampshaded in 4 ("Okay, here's the dumb copy protection"). In all cases, the answers were [[All There in the Manual]]. The CD version did away with the copy protection entirely, instead letting a random guess take you where you needed to go.▼
** Was supposed to be averted in ''Space Quest VI'' if the game's head writer hadn't quit halfway through designing the game. By the time his replacement realized the mistake, they had to include the hints that were supposed to be programmed into the game with the manual as [[Feelies]].▼
* [[The Cameo]]: At least one in each installment, most were Sci-Fi related, but occasionally even members of the development crew would make an appearance.
** Space Quest I: Several famous robots appeared in the Droids-B-Us store, including the Daleks from ''[[Doctor Who]]'', Robbie from ''[[Lost in Space]]'' and even the ones from ''[[Laputa: Castle in the Sky]]''. Don't Forget the Rifleman Reference to ''[[BattleTech]]'' in the VGA Re-Release.
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*** Also, the [[Star Trek|USS Enterprise]], a shuttle from [[Star Wars]], and a few other notable ships appear in the space dock at the Starcon station.
** Space Quest VI: [[E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial|E.T.]] can be found on Polysorbate LX.
▲* [[Caught in a Snare]]: In ''Space Quest II'', Roger [[Stupidity Is the Only Option|accidentally trips a hunter's snare]] (at least you can't see it beforehand), and is stuck there until the hunter who set it eventually comes and takes him down, intending to bring him back to his lair as lunch.
▲{{quote|'''Narrator''': Eventually, the cerebral fireworks begin, and you pass out. [...] You dream you're a man named [[Leisure Suit Larry]]...}}
▲* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: Among them are some of the hypothetical questions posed in the Starcon Academy Test in ''Space Quest V'': For example, one question asks "you are stranded on an alien planet being stalked by a killer robot. What do you do?" This same situation occurs later in the game, and two of the answers to the SAT question are, in fact, the solution to the puzzle.
▲** There's also the dead fish in ''Space Quest 6'', which even the narrator starts to wonder why [[It May Help You on Your Quest|people keep giving it]] to Roger as it progressively decays over the course of the game. {{spoiler|He ultimately uses it to defeat [[Big Bad|Sharpei]].}}
▲* [[Clothing Damage]]: In ''Space Quest IV'', Roger's shoes and pant legs get vaporized by the Latex Babes of Estros in preparation for leg-shaving based torture. Shortly after, you must get replacement clothes in order to enter Monolith Burger, which has a "No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service" policy.
▲* [[Convection, Schmonvection]]: [[Double Subversion]]; stepping out onto lava planet Ortega without special protection will cause you to die instantly from the planet's high surface temperature. The protection in question? [[It Runs on Nonsensoleum|Thermo-cooled underwear]]. Really.
* [[Conveyor Belt O' Doom]]: In ''Space Quest III'', Roger must leap off a conveyor belt before falling into a trash grinder at the end of it.
▲* [[Copy Protection]]. Lampshaded in 4 ("Okay, here's the dumb copy protection"). In all cases, the answers were [[All There in the Manual]]. The CD version did away with the copy protection entirely, instead letting a random guess take you where you needed to go.
▲** Was supposed to be averted in ''Space Quest VI'' if the game's head writer hadn't quit halfway through designing the game. By the time his replacement realized the mistake, they had to include the hints that were supposed to be programmed into the game with the manual as [[Feelies]].
* [[The Corruption]]: The pukoid infection from ''Space Quest 5''.
* [[Cypher Language]]
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* [[Heroic Mime]]: Roger in the first three games. Starting with ''Space Quest IV'', he gets regular dialogue.
** Except when he orders a Keronian Ale or three in ''Space Quest I''.
* [[Hints Are for Losers]]: The hint books have several fake hints and berate the player for spoiling the game by looking ahead. ▼
* [[Honest John's Dealership]]: ''Space Quest I''. Hoo boy.
** Hilariously, when you buy the right ship off him (naturally it's the most expensive) and figure out how to get it to take off, you then find out that ''he sold you some other guy's ship''.
*** Even MORE hilariously, if you pay close attention during the takeoff, the guy who comes screaming at you for taking his ship is also a man who will mug you if you follow him earlier. Enjoy some intergalactic karma!
▲* [[Hints Are for Losers]]: The hint books have several fake hints and berate the player for spoiling the game by looking ahead.
* [[Human Popsicle]]: Beatrice in the fifth game. {{spoiler|The Eureka crew also uses it against the Goliath.}}
* [[Indy Escape]]
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* [[Nonstandard Game Over]]: Deleting ''Space Quest IV'' from the supercomputer immediately quits to operating system, with no warning. Also, trying things the game designers didn't anticipate.
* [[Press Start to Game Over]]: Provides the page quote.
* [[Professor Guinea Pig]]: The reason Sludge Vohaul is an ugly, deformed, cripple. ▼
* [[Product Placement]]: The Sprint logo in communication transmissions in ''Space Quest V''.
▲* [[Professor Guinea Pig]]: The reason Sludge Vohaul is an ugly, deformed, cripple.
* [[Recycled in Space]]: The series is the snarkier, raunchier, and somewhat [[Darker and Edgier]] little brother of [[King's Quest]], [[Zig-Zagging Trope|taking on sci-fi tropes]] where King's Quest took on fantasy ones.
* [[Red Herring]]: In the fourth game and the VGA remake of the first, you get the "Lick" and "Smell" commands, in addition to the standard "Walk", "Look" and "Use". They serve no purpose but to add flavor and make Roger seem crazy as he goes around licking and smelling everything.
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* [[Right Man in the Wrong Place]]: Pretty much sums up Roger's place in most of the games.
* [[Save Scumming]]: The hint book recommends you do this as frequently as possible, and it's easy to see why.
* [[Self-Destruct Mechanism]]: The SCS Eureka of SQ5 is equipped with one of those. It's needed towards the end of the game. Ditto for the Arcada in the first game, where it is activated just before the start of the game.▼
* [[Series Continuity Error]]: Whether it's deliberate is debatable, but the Terminator-style robots in 3 and 5 are out to kill Roger because he forgot to pay for a mail-order whistle he received for free in the second game. With compounded interest (and the fact that Roger went into cryogenic sleep between games 2 and 3), the bounty on Roger's head is stated to be over 400,000 buckazoids.
** ''The Space Quest Companion'' [[Hand Wave|Hand Waved]] the coupon as a gift for a public television pledge which Roger (obviously) never followed through on. The Gippazoid Novelty Company which advertises the whistles also makes the "death slot machines" which the player was required to beat in the first game; not exactly the most trustworthy company in the galaxy....
** Another one involves the introduction from ''Space Quest VI'', in which they commend Roger for returning the ''SCS Eureka''. The same ''SCS Eureka'' he blew up to kill the [[Big Bad]] in the previous game.
▲* [[Self-Destruct Mechanism]]: The SCS Eureka of SQ5 is equipped with one of those. It's needed towards the end of the game. Ditto for the Arcada in the first game, where it is activated just before the start of the game.
* [[Shmuck Bait]]: "THIS BUTTON IS NOT TO BE PRESSED AT ANY TIME" in the first game's escape pod. [[Tempting Fate|Go ahead, press it....]]
* [[Shout-Out]]: Blatantly on multiple occasions; the SQ1 remake features one of [[BattleTech|"The Unseen"]], a [[Star Trek|Starfleet]] shuttle, an opening cutscene similar to the capture of the Blockade Runner in ''[[Star Wars]]: [[A New Hope]]'', a Krayt Dragon [[Ribcage Ridge]] from the latter, and a Romulan Warbird. It's a wonder Sierra didn't get sued over it all.
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