Space Quest is a series of six comic science fiction adventure games. They were released between 1986 and 1995. The games follow the adventures of a unlucky janitor named Roger Wilco. He becomes involved in space adventures involving different galaxies.

The games were created by Sierra On-Line. The creators were Mark Crowe and Scott Murphy. They called themselves the "Two Guys from Andromeda." The games make fun of science fiction stories like Star Wars and Star Trek. They also include jokes about popular culture, such as McDonald's and Microsoft. The humor in the games uses wordplay and funny, exaggerated stories. Roger Wilco is shown as someone who saves the universe by accident. However, he is often ignored or punished for breaking small rules.

The Space Quest games are known as "beloved cult classics." They are also considered important adventure games from their time. Many collections of the games have been released since the 1990s. The games are still sold today on modern websites.

Development

Mark Crowe and Scott Murphy met at Sierra. Crowe worked at the company in marketing, and Murphy joined as a programmer. Both enjoyed science fiction and believed Sierra needed a game to stand out from fantasy-themed games like Sierra's main titles, King's Quest and The Black Cauldron, which both had worked on. They also noticed that Sierra's games often had serious stories and no comedy games featuring a "regular guy" as the main character.

They believed Sierra focused too much on medieval themes and serious content. Crowe said, "Sierra was in a mindset where everything was medieval and it was all fairly serious. I wanted to do a game that was more fun. We even liked the idea of 'fun death'! I mean, if the player is gonna die or fail, they should at least get a laugh out of it."

Sierra's management was hesitant to approve a science fiction comedy game, thinking it might not sell. The studio head, Ken Williams, refused the first game idea in 1985. Crowe and Murphy made a short prototype during their free time and pitched Williams again. This time, Williams agreed.

Space Quest I was created using Sierra's in-house AGI engine. The game was designed through "trial and error" because game development was still a new field and not well organized. Writing and artwork were created as the game developed, and changes were made even during testing.

Games

The first Space Quest game was released in October 1986. It was different from Sierra's other games, which were more serious and had medieval themes. A remake of the game was released in 1991 and called Space Quest I: Roger Wilco in the Sarien Encounter.

The second Space Quest game came out in 1987. It followed Roger Wilco a few months after the events of the first game. Critics praised the sequel as an improvement over the first.

The third Space Quest game was released in 1989. It was the first to use Sierra's SCI engine, which replaced the earlier AGI engine. This game also included support for sound cards for the first time.

Space Quest IV was released in 1991. The next year, it became the first Space Quest game to be released on CD-ROM. The game used 256-color graphics, had a point-and-click interface, and the CD-ROM version included recorded voice acting.

Space Quest V was released in 1993. It was the first Space Quest game made outside of Sierra and the first not to include Scott Murphy. The game was developed by Mark Crowe at Dynamix, a company owned by Sierra.

The last Space Quest game was released in 1995. Its development was difficult, with Josh Mandel leading the project and Scott Murphy acting as a consultant. Mark Crowe was not involved.

• A demo for Space Quest 6 was released. It included a scenario that was not part of the full game.
• Sierra released a collection of minigames from the Space Quest series. The collection was called Roger Wilco's Spaced Out Game Pack.
• The video game Take a Break! Pinball includes pinball boards inspired by Sierra games. Three of these boards are based on the Space Quest series.
• Sierra's Hoyle's Official Book of Games, Volume I includes Roger Wilco as a computer opponent. Volume III also includes Roger Wilco, as well as the villains Arnoid and Vohaul.

Cancelled games

In early 1997, Sierra started creating a seventh game in the Space Quest series, with Scott Murphy as the director. Workers at Sierra said they were making an early version of the game, and Murphy mentioned that this game would include multiplayer features for the first time.

In August 1997, Sierra released a Space Quest collection that included a video showing a planned release date of "late 1998" for what was then called Space Quest 7. However, by the end of 1997, development was put on hold permanently to focus on other projects. Two years later, Sierra announced many job losses, and work on the seventh Space Quest officially stopped.

In 2002, rumors spread that a company called Escape Factory was making a new Space Quest game. Over the next few years, leaked game materials confirmed the rumors, but Escape Factory and Sierra never officially announced or confirmed the project. Unlike the other games in the series, this one would have been a 3D action-adventure game.

Escape Factory canceled the still-unnamed project after one year of development for unclear reasons. Images, screenshots, and video clips from early versions of the game have been shared online. Industry sources said the game was planned for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox, but not for home computers.

Other media

• The Adventures of Roger Wilco (1992): Adventure Comics, a part of Malibu Comics, published three issues of a Space Quest comic book. The series tells the story of Space Quest: The Sarien Encounter.
• The Official Guide to Roger Wilco's Space Adventures (1991, 1993): A step-by-step guide and story version of the Space Quest series written by Jill Champion. The first edition (1991) includes Space Quest I–IV, and the second edition (1993) adds information about Space Quest V.
• The Space Quest Companion (1992, 1993): A guidebook for the Space Quest series written by Peter and Jeremy Spear. Like The Official Guide, it includes step-by-step guides and story parts told from Roger Wilco’s perspective. The first edition (1992) covers Space Quest I–IV; the second edition (1993) adds coverage of Space Quest V.

Legacy

Space Quest is known as an important adventure and comedy game series. Along with other games made by Sierra, Space Quest helped set the standard for point-and-click adventure games. Critics say the games were full of humor that appeals to fans of science and technology and helped create a path for future comedy adventure games. Many later games and a strong fan group, famous for making many fan-made games like Space Quest: Vohaul Strikes Back (2011), were influenced by the series.

On March 25, 2012, Mark Crowe and Scott Murphy announced they had come together under a company named Two Guys from Andromeda to create a new space-themed adventure game. Chris Pope, also known as SpacePope, joined the company and became its executive producer. The game, called SpaceVenture, was meant to be a new version of the Space Quest series, featuring a character named Ace Hardway, a worker on a spaceship. A Kickstarter campaign for SpaceVenture started on May 12, 2012, and just met its funding goal on June 12.

The development of SpaceVenture faced many problems, including delays, setbacks, and changing release dates. By 2015, the game was seen as extremely late, and a version for supporters was not released until 2022. The game was finally made available to the public on April 1, 2025, as a partially finished version on Steam Early Access.

Critics gave several reasons for the long development time. The team struggled with the Unity engine, lacking the skills and tools needed to manage the project. Personal issues and events, such as the death of Gary Owens in 2015 (the narrator of Space Quest IV and Space Quest VI, who was set to return for SpaceVenture), also affected the schedule.

SpaceVenture received poor reviews, with critics saying the game still had many bugs and was not finished. The version for supporters was called a "mess" full of problems, and the April 2025 release was described as a "disaster." The game left Early Access with a full release on December 23, 2025.