Gameology: Commentary and Resources for the Game Studies Community

I wonder is you are even a fan of such games given the observations you make. Non-intuitive puzzles? That's pretty much a staple for the genre. Space Quest is hardly the worst offender in this regard either. Are you telling me Zak McKraken didn't have non-intuitive puzzles? Unsolvable without a hint book you say? To that I would respectfully reply that you are a noob, or just impatient. Space Quest doesn't even come close to the punishment that earlier games would inflict on you.

Awww, the cockpit screen in the escape pod didn't show you that there was something to pick up? (A modern game would have the survival kit highlighted on your minimap, mentioned in your questlog, and be flashing and rotating on the ground painly visible for you to see of course) It's not like you cannot go back to the escape pod later when you discover that you can't get past the chasm area. If you couldn't get the kit after leaving the pod I would understand, but just because you can get stuck doesn't make it bad design.

Moreover, why wouldn't you search the escape pod before you left? That's the first thing I would do if I was stranded on an alien planet. And what about typing "LOOK AROUND" every time you enter a new screen? That's pretty much a staple for these game and was mentioned in just about every game manual for this genre, along with helpful nuggets such as "try to pick everything up" and "save often".

As for the mini-games, yeah they kind of suck can't argue there. But this line is the kicker:

"Thankfully, Space Quest is a short game that can be completed in a little under an hour--more than enough time for the game scholar to see what the game has to offer."

If this is true, then a pox on all "game scholars"!