Space Quest IV: Roger Wilco and the Time Rippers

Space Quest IV: Roger Wilco and the Time Rippers Multimedia (aka Space Quest IV: The Time Rippers) is a CD-ROM release developed and published by Sierra On-Line on March 4, 1991 for DOS and Windows, with the CD-ROM version being released December 1992. The game features voice acting, with Laugh-In announcer Gary Owens as the voice of the narrator. Using the SCI engine, it featured 256 colors, hand painted graphics, and a full, mouse-driven interface. It was one of the first-ever games to use motion capture animation. The game cost over $1,000,000 US to produce, but sold more than its three predecessors combined.

The game would be followed in 1993 with Space Quest V: Roger Wilco and the Next Mutation.

Background
Join Roger Wilco and the Time Rippers on a fantastic journey to the future and beyond. Stumble through time and space, staying one step ahead of the savage Sequel Police. They're out to make sure this is the last Space Quest ever!

Space Quest IV Multimedia must be experienced to be believed. Ever hear an alien talk? Ever hear a sniveling space hero or a giant mutant sea slug? Well, you're about to. Rip time with Roger, CD style. With the first scrolling screens ever in a Sierra game, a terrific rock 'n roll soundtrack, and a no-typing, point-and-click interface, Space Quest IV is the coolest space opera this side of the Milky Way.The MPC version of this award-winning comedy/adventure is narrated by Gary Owens (of Laugh-In fame).

Synopsis
In this installment, Roger embarks on a wacky time-travel adventure to Space Quest games both past and future. A reborn Sludge Vohaul from Space Quest XII chases Roger through time in an attempt to capture and kill him. Besides this postapocalyptic era, Roger also visits Space Quest X (Latex Babes of Estros) and Space Quest I, where the graphics and music become retro and Roger is threatened by a group of monochrome bikers who consider Roger's 256 colors pretentious.

Differences

 * The title screen begins with the words "Space Quest" appearing first pulsating. Then the stylized IV appears in the background spinning and flying in before it settles beneath Space Quest logo. The pulsating effect is slightly slower as well. The game simply switches directly from the Sierra Logo to the "Space Quest" logo, before the "IV" appears.
 * The Roger Wilco and the Time Rippers subtitle screen is more '3D' looking made up of three layers text in different colors (it comes in from the left).
 * Cedric is added to Ms. Astro Chicken: Flight of the Pullet in this version.
 * The MediaVision Airplaine is added to Ms. Astro Chicken in this version.
 * Various content and extra script lines are changed, or removed. Some replaces the original games text.
 * The Sierra Logo is golden and more stylized "3D" in this version, somewhat resembling a medallion or a buckazoid).
 * Brand new full-color cursors with a golden theme in this version. The walk icon for example, also has hair. The tongue icon has a red tongue and golden mouth, and the eye icon is blue eyes with a golden outline. There is also a full color 'wait' icon)
 * Some new sound effects for various things (added or changed). Varies depending on sound card (MT-32 being different than Sound Blaster, and Adlib having its own). With the CD-Rom changing them to fully digital (assuming the game is set to Sound Blaster).
 * The alien who vomits disintegrates in his own vomit in this version.
 * Xenon is a bit lighter in this version, and artwork details are different. The fog or hazy mist on the Super Computer, and town have been removed and some of the details on the super computer also removed/smoothed over.
 * Some of the background arts assets throughout the game look more 'washed out' with loss of detail, as well as color 'artifacting'. This was due to compression of the artwork to fit all the sound on the CD-Rom.
 * A number of puzzles were changed due pc timer related issues at the time.
 * There are a few screens in which Roger can hide from the zombie/droid of death by hiding under the eaves of the buildings (and he will be hidden as long as no part of his body is showing). Two options include the screen where Roger can catch the bunny or the screen where the ruined speeder is. In both instances if Roger is hiding, the player loses control of the character. The pattern of the Droid o' Death has been changed, slightly modifying this puzzle. The appearance of zombie and droid is more random. The Droid o' Death can appear at any moment, heralded only by a change in the background music; the zombie won't necessarily appear to give you a visual warning. On the other hand, it still can appear. This situation isn't as bad as it at first seems: you will still have control of Roger (unlike in the disk version), and can attempt to walk him behind cover or off the screen. You won't have much time to do this, but you'll usually have enough time to succeed. Still, it's never a sure thing. Either of these actions counts as hiding from the Droid o' Death as far as scoring is concerned.
 * The slime puzzle has been changed. In this version, especially if you're playing directly off of the compact disk itself, the problem can be a bit trickier. You use the same solution but you have to be much faster in scooping with the bottle, much closer to the slime, faster in stepping away from the slime, and much, much luckier. However, there are five grates from which the slime will ooze (in the orignal it would only come out of a certain vent and move in a predictable pattern): the others are spaced around in the various screens of the sewers, and the slime will flow out if Roger walks past the grates in a downhill direction. lf you save the game when Roger enters the sewers, and keep trying, you will eventually load up on the green stuff.
 * The escape from the Galaxy Galleria occurs differently, with slightly different puzzle. In this version at base of the stairs is the Zero-G Skate-o-Rama. Walk Roger inside and immediately begin moving him straight down. A Sequel Policeman will appear on the stairs behind him and start shooting. If Roger isn't moving, he'll die. The Wait icon will appear. Start clicking this (and the Walk icon when it reappears) at the very bottom of the screen, even if the icon partially disappears. Keep clicking. Don't stop; you must be very fast here-very fast. The trick is to move Roger to the right edge of the screen, but not into the lower-right corner. If he survives to the right edge, move him straight up. Dodge left just a bit to avoid the top-right comer, then move up and into the dome above. Shortly after Roger arrives in the dome, so do both of Vohaul's minions. When they show up, move Roger back down to the bottom of the skating rink and onto the stairs. Keep moving. If they don't show up in the dome, move Roger a bit higher in the screen, and then down. Don't dawdle. Once down, take the stairs back up to the moving walkway and follow it back to the arcade. NOTE: The Skate-o-Rama problem can also be solved if Roger enters it on its far side. Just move him the same way, relative to the Sequel Policeman, only here you are avoiding the bottom-and top-left corners. Again, the trick to this problem is to move at once, never stop, keep clicking the mouse, and stay out of corners. Also, have a "save game" position for the start of the sequence, be patient, and maintain your cool. This one may take a lot of tries to finish.
 * The game will be remarkably harder due to faster processing. Various places where you need to quickly avoid the Sequel Police will be made almost impossible because they appear almost immediately. This was fixed in the 2016 compilation (which slows it down with dosbox timings). That being said earlier version relied even more on pc timings than the CD-Rom version. Most of the timer related puzzles were changed because of processor issues.
 * Not only does the death by slime reacts differently, it gives a different message, and death graphic. The can of Slime Food: Cream of Roger replaced the box of "Slime Chow".
 * You have to be quick to leave the manhole to reach the SP shuttle (especially in this version) or Roger will get shot.
 * The copy protection is omitted (so has the manual it was printed in). Sierra On-Line assumed that few people would want to copy all 175 megabytes of the game onto their hard drives (or onto floppies, for that matter). When the CD-ROM version of the game is installed to disk, only about six megabytes are copied to disk, with the rest remaining on the CD. This has changed with digital releases of the game.
 * The "Buckmaster 2000" replaces the ATM Machine. It was also given a close-up interface system.
 * "Hz. So Good" replaces Radio Shock. Hz. is pronounced "hertz")
 * The subtitles on Dr. Lloyd's hologram are presented differently, with only one line of text per conversation in the CD-Rom rather than split into two lines on the same screen (this also causes the conversation to go longer in the CD-Rom).
 * References to Dandy removed from the Pocketpal.
 * New welcome screen on Hz. So Good catalog replacing the Radio Shock one. Adds Division of Blazt Ent. replacing reference to "A Dandy Company".
 * The Monochrome Boys bikes have all been made monochrome.
 * In the intro are new voice over/subtitles in which Roger tells his backstory to the aliens. In the original version, it simply describes that he is doing while the sequel police walk up to the table. Most of the backstory is cut-off by the arrival of the police before he can finish telling it. The only way to get subtitles in the intro is to have no speech drivers in the games config settings. You cannot get to the text/speech/both icon in the intro.

Development
The Space Quest Companion explains the differences between floppy and cd versions as being alternate histories caused by the influence of Sludge Vohaul's time travel (or later time travel) and multiple attempts at revenge.


 * Since the first edition of this book was published, Sierra On-Line has released Space Quest TV: Roger Wilco and the Time Rippers in a CD-ROM version for IBM-compatible computers. Both the CD-ROM and the disk-based versions of the game are all but identical in nearly every respect. However, because of technical reasons beyond the understanding of we puny humans, the solutions to a few problems are different in the CD-ROM version. We are told that this is because of how certain timing routines behave, but we think it might be just another of Sludge Vohaul's petty revenges. Even if you install the CD-ROM version of the game onto your hard drive (which Sierra On-Line recommends for better performance), the solutions will still differ. We will cover these changes when we get to them in this walkthrough, so don't sweat it if you are one of the lucky folks playing Space Quest IV on CD-ROM.

Staff Roll

 * Original Concept: Mark Crowe and Scott Murphy
 * Project Leader: Scott Murphy
 * Lead Design: Mark Crowe and Scott Murphy
 * Programming: Oliver Brelsford, Juan Carlos Escobar, Brian K. Hughes, Mike Larsen, Randy MacNeill, Doug Oldfield, Raoul Said, and Jerry Shaw
 * Graphics / Artwork: Jane Cardinal, Eric Kasner, Jeff Crowe, Desie Hartman, James Larsen, Nathan Larsen, Suzi Livengood, Cheryl Loyd, Michael A. Milo, Gerald Moore, Jennifer Shontz, Cheryl Sweeney, Willis Wong, and Jon Bock
 * Music / Sound Programming: Ken Allen, Robert Atesalp, and Mark Seibert
 * Special Thanks to: Oliver Brelsford, Brian K. Hughes, Josh Mandel, and Doug Oldfield
 * Development Team: Corey Cole, Dan Foy, Pablo Ghenis, Eric Hart, John Hartin, Robert Eric Heitman, J. Mark Hood, Terry McHenry, John Rettig, Larry Scott, Jeff Stephenson, and Mark Wilden
 * Executive Producer: Ken Williams
 * Creative Director: Bill Davis
 * Producer: Guruka Singh Khalsa
 * Art Designer: Mark Crowe
 * Lead Programmer: Scott Murphy
 * Music Director: Mark Seibert
 * Additional Material: Josh Mandel
 * Quality Assurance: Mike Harian and Daniel Scott
 * Manual Editor: Marti McKenna
 * Manual Design: Cheryl Sweeney
 * Manual Contributors: Flip Quasar, Hugh Iotta, Josh Mandel, Brian K. Hughes, and Joe Krittik
 * Box Design: Terry Robinson

PC-98 Staff

 * International Producer: Sabine Duvall
 * Translator: Akiko Maeda Skjellerup
 * Japanese Adviser: Tomoyuki Shimada
 * Slang-English Adviser: William R. Shockley
 * Japanese PC-9801 Programming: Tomoyuki Shimada
 * Special Thanks to: Gary Kamigawachi and Sean T. Mooney
 * Quality Assurance: Mike Pickhinke, Tom Shimada, and Kenji Hashimoto

Amiga Conversion Team

 * Lead Programmer: Steven Coallier
 * Programmer: Christopher Carr
 * Sound Programming: Eric Hart
 * Amiga System Development: John Crane, Randy Moss, John Rettig, and Steven Coallier
 * Amiga Producer: Stuart Moulder
 * Amiga Art Conversion: Phyllis Cucchiara, Terrence Falls, Richard Powell, and Nathan Larsen
 * Amiga Music and Sound Effects: Aubrey Hodges and Robert Holmes

Voice Cast

 * Narrator: Gary Owens
 * Roger Wilco: Jeff Bender
 * Roger Wilco Jr.: Stuart Moulder
 * Sludge Vohaul and The Mustard: Scott Murphy
 * Zondra: Kelli Spurgeon
 * Monolith Burger Manager: Josh Mandel
 * Maebot: Jane Jensen
 * Sequel Police 1: Mark Seibert
 * Sequel Police 2: Orpehus Hanley
 * Monochrome Boy, Hz. So Good Salesbot, and Bartender: Barry Smith
 * The Pickle: Neil Matz
 * The Lettuce: Max Deardorff
 * The PermaBuns: Bill Hilton
 * The Mayonnaise: Vana Baker
 * The Ketchup: Bill Shockley

Behind the scenes

 * While managing Vohaul's server, there are various icons on his desktop. One of them is a King's Quest game, which when deleted will remove a lot of data, referencing the increasing size of King's Quest games. One of them is Space Quest IV itself, which when deleted will close the game.
 * If you skip the arcade sequence, you will lose points.
 * Space Quest IV appears to take a lot of inspiration from the Back to the Future movies.

Patches

 * Space Quest 4 Updated VGA Driver (SQ4VGA): Replacement 256 color VGA/MCGA driver
 * Space Quest 4 Updated SoundBlaster Driver (SB16DRV): This updated AUDBLAST.DRV corrects a problem with some SoundBlaster 16 ASP sound cards in which only the first digitized sound effect is heard.
 * Space Quest 4 CD Updated Sound File (SQ4CDTB): This new sound file will prevent a lock up problem when the "zombie" screams if you have a Turtle Beach Multisound card or another sound card that doesn't support variable sound sample rates through Windows.
 * Space Quest 4 Update (SQ4TEXT): This fix will correct the Text.001 message when throwing something at the sequel police at the mall. If you try to throw something at the sequel police, the game won't crash but will display a box in the center of the screen, sometimes with nonsense in it. Just click or  and it will go away.
 * Space Quest 4 (SQ4CD_NRS): This non-Sierra update is one of NewRisingSun's script level timer bugs patches. Extract SQ1_NRS.ZIP into the directory where the game is installed. Fixes:
 * Xenon: Droid-o-death
 * Xenon: Boarding the transport shuttle
 * Xenon: Entering the time pod
 * Estros: Sequel Policemen's timepod
 * Mall: Skate-o-Rama sequence NOTE: The sequence is still very hard to finish (that's how it's designed, so expect to get shot several times), but no longer impossible.
 * Various animation issues
 * NOTE: Previous saved games will work only if they were saved in an area whose script code is not affected by the patch.
 * Space Quest 4 (114_AUD): This file was on the Sierra originals version of Space Quest 4, but was not on the original disc.
 * Space Quest 4 Save Games (SQ4SG): Space Quest 4 was designed to run systems with a 386 to 486 class of processor. Newer systems from Pentium-class or faster may encounter speed and timing problems in the following areas of the game:
 * Immediately after successfully boarding the Sequel Police patrol craft on the streets of Xenon in the SQ12 time period.
 * While Roger is seated in the timepod for the first time).
 * After the submarine ride on Estros.
 * After completing the Skate-O-Rama sequence in the SQ10 time period.
 * Seated in the timepod at the arcade.
 * After shutting down the droids in the Super Computer, back in SQ12.
 * This is due to the faster clock speed of more recent systems. These save games are designed to start immediately after the above listed problems to allow the player to finish the game.
 * Space Quest 4 update for the CD-ROM version: This excellent update, developed by Space Quest fan "New Rising Sun" contains the following improvements for the CD-Rom version of SQ4:
 * superior graphics, taken from the floppy version
 * ability to hear speech and read text at the same time
 * corrected timing
 * various bug fixes
 * Added room of "stuff removed for legal reasons" (no speech there).
 * Readded removed Radio Shock products (sorry, no speech for them).
 * Added "Stunt Flyer" and "Dacron Danny" bargain bin games.
 * Added priority information to sound resources.
 * Orbs now emit sound during captiveScript sequence.
 * Removed volume change during speech output. If the music is too loud, lower the volume in the game's control panel.
 * Fixed scrolling in the video driver.
 * RESOURCE.000 is no longer PKDCL-compressed. This means shorter loading times for DosBox users and yields better compression ratios for the .zip archive as a whole.
 * The windows interpreter called "SCIWV" is neither included nor supported. Don't use previous saved games. Please note that this update renders the other patches below useless. They are here to historical purpose only.
 * Space Quest 4 and 5 sound patch: This update corrects a problem with some Soundblaster cards in which only the first digitized sound effect is heard. It also fixes the "unable to initialize audio hardware" error.