Space Quest 1 VGA: The Sarien Encounter
                 A Walkthrough by Lynn Hendricks

   If you bought the entire collection of Space Quest games, you
also got an updated version of SQ1 in VGA. It has the same basic
story line, but with enough changes in the puzzles that you may
have been frustrated if you tried to use a walkthrough for the
original SQ1. Herewith, then, the VGA walkthrough. 

   Despite its updated look, the game is still the product of an
earlier game mentality. The story is almost totally linear --
that is, there is only one way to solve each problem, and they
must be solved in order, and if you can't solve a problem
everything comes to a screeching halt until you do. It's also way
short, almost a game snack rather than a full game by today's
standards. Some of the dumber problems of the original, however,
have been made almost nonexistent by getting rid of the original
game's very elementary parser that made you type in most commands
and didn't recognize even slight variations ("Press open bay door
button" worked, but "Press button to open bay door" only got a
"Say what?"). 

Some basics of play:
   -> When you speed up Roger's actions, the rest of the characters
   stay at their original speed. Very helpful, that, especially
   in cases where the bad guys are far faster than you
   generally.

   -> Pick up everything that can be picked up. If you can pick it
   up, you're probably going to need it later.

   -> When giving directions, I use north to indicate towards the
   back of the screen, south towards the viewer, east for right
   and west for left. Up means the top of the screen and down
   the bottom.
 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
THE ARCADA
   You're Roger Wilco, Space Janitor Second Class, assigned to
the Arcada, a ship that inexplicably looks like a dead chicken.
Your nap in the broom closet has been interrupted by a thump and
a loud noise. You emerge into the hallway to discover all the
alarms going off and the ship's computer informing you that you
have 15 minutes until the ship self-destructs. Huh. Not a good
sign.

   Walk west to the data archive room, where the retrieval droid
stands guard over a huge library of data cartridges and a
computer readout station. Not much to do here, so walk west to
the corridor and quickly to the next screen. (If you "hear
footsteps," it's the invaders, since all the crew members are
dead. Dodge into the nearest door or out of the screen until they
go away.) Oops, a body! Well, Jerry may have been your buddy
once, but he's just game-fodder now, so search his body. Ah, a
keycard. Take it and return to the data archive room.
(Incidentally, I'll save you a bit of time and tell you that none
of the other corpses on the Arcada has anything you want, so
don't bother searching the rest of them.)

   As you enter the data archive room this time, a dying
scientist staggers in the other door. Walk up and look at him,
then use the Hand icon on him; he uses his remaining strength to
tell you that the ship has been taken by the Sariens, who have
taken the Star Generator, whatever that might be. With his last
breath he mutters something arcane (different every time you
play) while looking at the data cartridges, after which he dies.
Well, let's not ignore the hint; sit at the computer station by
clicking the hand icon on it, then use it by clicking the hand on
it in the close-up. Enter the (copy protection) code for the
cartridge the scientist mentioned into the keypad, and take the
cartridge the droid brings you. 

   (Note: If you, ahem, *lost* the documentation that would tell
you the copy protection code, that's a problem. You don't need
the cartridge to continue the game, but there's a spot further on
that can't be bypassed. The best I can suggest is that you write
to Sierra and ask if they might be willing to sell you the codes;
they're too odd for me to reproduce faithfully here.)

   Anyway. Walk west again and take the elevator down (that is,
step into the door to be transported down to the corridor you see
below you) and step into the open door. This is the place where
the Star Generator used to be. Look around if you like, then
notice something sparkling on the SG base. It's a magnet; take it
and go out again. 

   Go east to walk under the data archive room and east another
screen to find a yellow and black striped door; take it. Walk
east in the new hallway and into a large room. This is one place
where the Sariens will reliably show up, and they'll reliably
shoot you every time unless you take the simple precaution of
turn your speed up to the maximum. As noted earlier, this speeds
you up but leaves them at the original slowness -- very handy,
that. Shoot across to the southeast corner of the screen to enter
the next screen, more of this large room with four monitors in
the middle. Again, zip over to the southeast corner to find a
window, a panel with buttons, and a locked door. (You can go back
to normal speed now if you want.) 

   Look at the panel to find a bunch of stuff you can't
manipulate and a button that will let you open the bay doors. Do
so. Use the keycard on the slot next to the door and go in to the
ready room for the shuttle bay. Cool, just what you need if
you're going to get out of here before the ship blows up. Open
the closet at the left to find a spacesuit; put it on. Open the
drawer to the left of the closet to find a gadget, huh. Well, I
guess I'll need it eventually. Go out the airlock door to find
the escape pod, hurray! 

   Inside the escape pod, put on your seatbelt and take a look
at the controls. You have a throttle between your legs (*cough*)
and three buttons on a box over your head. Look at the three
buttons and press the Power button on the right, then pull the
throttle. Zoom! and boom! as the Sarien ship, the Deltaur, takes
off and the Arcada self-destructs. Save the game; you've turned a
significant corner here. If you're feeling curious, push the
"don't touch" button in the middle, then restore your game and
push the Autonav button on the left.

Kerona
   Splat! Autonav has brought you to the nearest inhabited
planet, a dustball named Kerona. Terrif. Undo your seatbelt to
crawl out and find that your pod is a mess. Turn around and get
the survival kit from the wreck. then pick up a piece of highly-
reflective glass that fell when your windshield was shattered on
impact. Open the kit (in inventory, use the hand icon on it) to
find a Xenon army knife and a canteen of "dehydrated water."
Fine, whatever. 

   There are basically four dangers on the surface of Kerona:
the heat, the Grell (a snake thing that lives in the sand), the
Orat (a large reptilian gorilla thing that lives in a cave), and
a spider droid that the Sariens will drop in a minute. The cure
for the heat is water, and getting out of the sun; the others can
be avoided if you move fast and stay out of their way. So turn
your speed to maximum and go east, young man.

   Here you find the dry bones of some massive creature. Go
south and pick up some of the incredibly sticky purple plant
growing by the bones, then go east twice around the bones. At
some point in this trek, a large silver ball will plummet to the
sand containing the spider droid, a Sarien invention that will
follow you and explode if it gets near you. Avoid it. (Duh.)

   At the coccyx end of the bones, the vertebrae touch the sand
and form a ramp that the spider won't climb. Walk up this ramp
and down the spine as far as you can go. If you get thirsty, stop
and take a drink (use the canteen on yourself); if you wait too
long to do this, you'll die of thirst. At the far end of the
bones is something that looks like a sign of some kind; walk up
to take a look at it, and find yourself plummeting down a long
shaft. 

   At the bottom of the ride, you're in a cave. At your right is
a stalagmite with the top glued on; snap off the glued portion
and go west. Here you see a grate spanning the path, ominously
quiet and nonthreatening. Walk up to it cautiously, and a thing
with long tentacles springs out to snag you, yow! There's no room
to get past on the sides of the grate, so you'll have to find a
way to distract the grate monster. What have you got in your
inventory that might keep those tentacles from reaching toward
you? Throw the bit of sticky plant at the grate, and the
tentacles will go after it and become permanently stuck. Hah!

   Walk past the grate and on east to find a circular doorway
with a small geyser next to it. The door won't open to your
touch, so there must be some other way to trigger it nearby. How
about the geyser? It's too hot to touch, but it looks like the
tip of stalagmite you picked up might fit in there. Yes, that
does the trick nicely. Walk through and look at (but do NOT smell
or taste) the little pool; it may be very pleasant to listen to,
but it's acid and will kill you if you get near it. Walk east to
the laser barrier. Oh, this is an easy one. Why else would you
need a piece of highly reflective glass? Hold it in the lasers to
reflect it back on itself and burn out the projector.

   Walk up the hill and around the bend to the east till you get
to the drops. These are the acid drops that fill the pool below.
Walk between the drops as best you can, then save your game. Walk
on east off the end of the path to find yourself in a dark room
with a large tusked entity that speaks gibberish before bouncing
you back to the surface, huh. Wonder what that was all about?
Look in your inventory and examine the gadget you picked up in
the ready room (where you got the spacesuit, remember?). It seems
to be a dialect translator. Cool, just what you need! Restore
your game, but this time turn on the translator (by using the
hand icon) before you enter the room. 

   (Note: You can do this without saving and restoring by
walking back up the spine and into the elevator shaft again --
but there's that weak spot in the spine to consider. You only get
two safe crossings before it shatters for good, at which point
you fall and die.)

   Anyway. Now you find that it's one of the sentient beings who
inhabit the planet. It's offering to help you find a way off the
planet if you kill the Orat and bring it proof that you've done
so. With that, it deposits you back on the surface, oh shoot.
Well, the first thing to do is find the Orat's lair. Take a drink
of water and put the game at its fastest, then walk northeast and
then east to find the skull of the fossil you've been walking
around. Drat, that stupid spider is still following us! Dodge
into the skull to find -- ulp -- the Orat, complete with the
leftovers of his previous dinners. Step behind the large rocks on
the left so you can watch without being seen. If the spider was
following you, he will now waltz merrily into the arms of the
Orat and blow them both to kingdom come. Shazam! Both enemies
gone with one effort.

   (Note: It's possible to kill the Orat by throwing him your
exploding canteen of water, but I don't think it's a good idea,
since (a) you'd be out of water and (b) you'd still have to deal
with the spider. There's no boulder to push onto the spider in
this game, only that bit of collapsing spine...which kills you
when it drops.)

   Trip lightly over and get the piece of Orat skin that's left,
then go east and south to get back to the tail-end of the spine.
Walk its length and fall down the elevator shaft again, then make
your way around to the cave with the holograph again. Drop the
piece of Orat when it tells you to and be admitted to its inner
sanctum. When the being leaves, look at your surroundings. One of
the machines here is a cartridge reader -- maybe you can finally
find out what's on it. Use the cartridge in the machine and read
the stuff that follows. (Slash Vohaul, huh? Wonder what his
relationship to Sludge is. Well, never mind that now.) Make sure
you note the destruct code given at the end, different for every
game -- though if you forgot, don't worry; you'll have two more
opportunities to get it.

   When you're done, exit and take the cartridge, then get into
the skimmer and away. You move off into the desert and are given
the option (thank God!) of skipping the arcade sequence that
follows. If you decide not to skip it, what you're doing here is
steering Roger around the rocks in the path. The skimmer can take
a few hits, but not many, and the big rocks do more damage than
the small ones. Have fun; you get the same points either way.

ULENCE FLATS
   What a dump. Makes Mos Eisley look like downtown Las Vegas.
Wait a bit, and a greasy-looking stranger comes up trying to buy
your defunct skimmer for 25 BZ (buckazoids). Wave him away and
look at the scenery, then he comes back with a better offer (30
BZ and a used jetpack). Accept the offer this time -- you need a
way to get off planet and could use the buckazoids. (Besides, if
you don't he'll steal the skimmer anyway, so you might as well
get a grubstake.) As an extra bonus, he gives you a couple of
coupons. Big deal.

   Step into the bar and enjoy the music for a bit, then saunter
over to the bar and give the bartender the coupon to get a beer
and 5 BZ. That was so good you need another one. Or two. When
your third beer arrives, the guy next to you will start talking
about the last time he saw the Deltaur, which if you didn't know
it was the Sarien ship that destroyed the Arcada. You've got to
find it! Make a note of what sector he said he was in when he saw
it, different in every game (and it was in the first chunk of
conversation, so restore and re-listen if you missed it).

   Man, you've got to get a ship and go after the Deltaur! But
what are you going to use for money? 27 BZ won't buy you any kind
of ship at all. Well, you're a gambling kind of guy, so stroll
over to the slot machine, save your game, and have a pull. A
typical, Vegas-style one-armed bandit -- with the slight addition
of incineration if you lose. Hm. I wonder if there's any way of
changing the odds in our favor? Hey, what about the magnet we
picked up off the Star Generator base on the Arcada? Stick it on
the front of the slot machine, and start raking in the bucks.

   (Note: If you didn't pick up the magnet, it's still possible
to win, though it'll take much longer and rely on chance, which
isn't in your favor. Just keep throwing in the BZ and save every
time you make a big win.)

   When you go over 300 BZ, BLAM! The machine has reached the
end of its usable life. Avoid eye contact with the bartender and
sidle quickly out of the bar with your winnings. (For a bit of
fun, step back into the bar a few times to see who's on the
bandstand this time. There are three that I know of.) Go east to
reach Tiny's Used Spaceship Lot. Nothing here you can use (though
you can buy the little one that's pointing down if you want to
see what happens), then go north to see what else he's got. The
round one in front will kill you if you buy it, but the big one
in the back looks pretty decent. Walk up to it to get Tiny to
talk about it, then hand over the money. Use the Hand icon on it
to clamber in -- and discover that you need to buy a droid to
pilot the thing. Rats.

   Exit the ship and go east twice to get to the entrance of
Droids B Us, a discount robot store. Just what you need. Clump on
in and give the salesbug your coupon, then ask him about every
droid that comes up on the screen for a series of sci fi funnies.
When you get to the NAV-201, give him your BZ to buy it. (If
you're too slow and the screen has gone on to the next droid by
the time you get your money out, just wait till it comes around
again.) Go pick up your droid, then walk west back to your ship
and get in. Off we go! (Notice the ship that appears just as you
leave. This is you from Space Quest IV -- but never mind that
now.)

   Once you achieve escape velocity, the droid asks where you
want to go. Enter the copy protection code for the sector the guy
in the bar talked about, and you're off for adventure! When you
reach the Deltaur, the droid asks nervously if you wouldn't
rather just forget all about it. Tell him no, and he immediately
helps you go EVA on your own.

THE DELTAUR
   There ought to be a handle somewhere to open this outside
hatch -- oh, there it is, on the left. Give it a turn to crank
open the door and go on in, as your jetpack dies with a splutter.

   This first chamber is an airlock, with a decontamination unit
next to the locked door. Get on the right side of the door and
wait a bit; when a droid comes in to see what's making all the
sparks in here, dodge out through the open door.

   You're now in a sort of storage room, which has two large
(unopenable) chambers, a vent high overhead, and a box in the
middle of the floor. The vent is of standard adventure game
dimensions, so it must be the best way out. Push the box over to
the vent and pry it open with your Xenon army knife, then up you
go.

   In the vents, watch the rats scatter, then go up. (Down
doesn't take you anywhere in particular.) At the next vent you
see, kick open the grill (using the Hand icon) and go through it
to find yourself in the ship's laundry. Say, that looks like a
Sarien helmet in the washing machine; might be useful. Try to get
it, and in comes an officer who throws his uniform into the
machine and starts it. Yow! After a few turns you emerge fully
uniformed -- and with an officer's ID card mixed in with the
dryer sheets on the floor, too. Pick it up and exit cautiously to
the southeast.

   In this first hall there are two doors. The one on the right
is guarded, and if you talk to the guard he tells you it's the
entrance to the captain's escape pod. Remember that; it's likely
you're going to need a fast way out of here in a bit. You can
wander around if you like, making inane conversation with every
Sarien you meet, if you want to; along the way (from the two
doors, go east, down, south) you'll discover a cartridge reader,
in case you didn't play the cartridge back on Kerona. 

   Eventually, however, find yourself back in the room with the
two doors where you started. Take the left unguarded one down,
then go east twice to find yourself in the room with the Star
Generator! It's protected by a force field and a very large
guard. Show the guard your ID card to get the destruct code (if
you didn't before) and notice the walkway overhead, then go west,
up, and east to find yourself on the walkway. 

   Continue east to find yourself in the ship's armory. Show the
cynical robot your ID, and while he's in the back open the
countertop and take one of the gas grenades on the shelf, then go
back out. He'll come back and hand you a pulse-ray gun; take it
and go. (You can shoot the robot if you want; he's bulletproof
and will merely sneer at you.) Go back out to the walkway and
throw the grenade down to take out the guy guarding the Star
Generator. Hurray! Making some progress now.

   Go west and -- Whoops! Being a naturally clumsy guy, you trip
and lose your helmet, which the cleaning droid very efficiently
sweeps up and disposes of. You're far too pink to pass for a
Sarien without a helmet, Roger. You'll need to be on your guard
from this point on; any Sarien who sees you will shoot first and
ask questions later, so keep your pulse-ray gun handy and ready
to use on anyone you see. You only get points for the first one
you shoot, but they'll kill you if they can, so keep firing.

   Go down and east to the Star Generator, where the guard is
down but the forcefield is still up. Search the guard to get the
control that shuts off the field and use it on the Star
Generator, then go up to the small control pad at the base of the
Generator. Enter the destruct code to start the countdown, then
turn around and scamper!

   From the Generator room, go west and up the first elevator,
shooting as you go, to the room with two doors. Shoot the guard
and take the right door to the captain's escape pod. Get in and
take off, in the nick of time!

XENON
   Just sit back and watch the credits. What's to do with a
golden mop?

 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lynn Hendricks
                                                       72320,3420
                                                 WordMama@aol.com