Wandering around The Shivering Isles got a bit boring and also the living room tv with the PS5 wasn’t available, so I decided to start an entirely different game: Space Quest I: The Sarien Encounter. A game first released 40 years ago in 1986 and thus twice as old as the original Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, which came out in 2006.
I’m playing this game seriously for the very first time. I wandered around in the starting area a couple of times before in the last 30 years, but never sat down and played it.

EGA

I started out with the EGA version, which isn’t much to look at. Although I guess you can have nostalgic feelings if you’ve played it in the 80s. It’s nice to once again play a game that supports the Roland MT-32 sound. I have it hooked up to the Roland MA-12 speakers. But the sound simultaneously goes through my Technics amplifier with the KEF eggs and a simple subwoofer, which provides a very appropriate spacious listening experience.

The EGA version is also the version I have a physical boxed copy of, albeit the later release which arguably has the nicest boxart. The original release is also great, but a bit understated, and the later release looks a bit weird to me, with the space taxi on the front.

Typing

At first I liked having to type in my commands, because it gives a feeling of freedom, but after dying ten times and doing the same parts over and over again, it quickly becomes tiresome. Especially, when you have to be very specific about your wording.

Dying

After what feels like all the ways you can die on the space ship you start out on (there’re probably a ton more ways though), I managed to escape and land on a planet. I turned left and quickly got eaten by a monster. Next I turned right and got eaten because I looked in a hole. Then I progressed further and got eaten by a tentacled beast. Then it was time to end the play session.

VGA

The next time, I started over with the VGA version. Wow! This looks nice! No more typing. I quickly got to the same point where I left off and managed to progress farther. There are some differences with the older version. One of them being distracting the grate monster. That’s a much better solution than in the old version of the game.
I did find that the EGA version has it’s merits. The spider bot for instance, looks way more creepy in EGA.

what am I going to do with my life?

I’m now at a point where I have to decide what to do with my life: continue on with my janitor job, or try to get off this planet and seek my fortune in space. I’m leaning towards the latter. The aliens here are not particularly friendly and they already have a robot to clean up for them.
But getting a space ship is expensive. Maybe I could buy a robot and let him play the slot machine to win me some more Buckazoids.