First post, by spiffythedog
Space Quest I's VGA remake, while being very playable, is nonetheless riddled with bugs, typos, graphical oddities, and various instances of sloppy programming and/or poor developer foresight. This patch was developed in order to remedy as many as these niggling issues as possible, as well as to make the game feel as polished and complete as it probably should have been when it was originally released:
Space Quest I VGA - Version 2.1
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GENERAL BUG FIXES (PRESENT IN ORIGINAL VERSION)
- Grammar, spelling and formatting errors in the narrator/dialogue text strings have been cleaned up (while hopefully preserving the writers' original intent).
- Mouse cursor now reverts to the last-selected action/verb icon after saving a game (previously remained an arrow when returning to the current game).
- Any time the user is supposed to select something from a dialog box (Play/Skip arcade sequence, Sell/Don't Sell the skimmer to the mayor, Yes/No to another beer, Yes/No to escaping from the Deltaur), the mouse pointer immediately becomes an arrow (and reverts to the last icon after the dialog box closes).
- A few talker portraits had some transparency issues involving the eye and mouth pieces (i.e. mugger, Tiny, Sarien guard, Graham/Xenon official). These have been fixed.
- Fixed transparency issues for several inventory items displayed in the 'currently-selected item' box in the main icon bar (this is especially noticable with the blue Rocket Bar coupon).
- A number of item interactions no longer produce empty text boxes (e.g. use the bar coupon on the DBU coupon).
- Fixed palette corruption when restarting a game before the introduction has begun.
- During the introduction script, F7, F9 and CTRL+Q now perform their expected functions.
- Once the introduction sequence has reached the scene with the close-up of the Deltaur and the Arcada (where the game would normally start after skipping the intro), you are no longer able to able to summon the window giving you the choice to skip it. This prevents a bug where choosing to skip the intro on this screen causes the game to load the same screen again but with some graphics missing.
- When the dying scientist walks in to the Data Archive room and collapses, leaving the room without either talking to him or waiting for the new music to play out no longer causes the regular Arcada background music to permanently stop playing.
- Buggy interactions with locked elevator door on the Arcada have been fixed.
- Pressing the "DO NOT PUSH" button in the escape pod no longer produces garbage sound from the currently selected MIDI device.
- Palette for image used in death message after pressing the "DO NOT PUSH" button in the escape pod is no longer glitched.
- The spider droid no longer becomes invisible on the screen with the loose vertebrae should you manage to climb the grounded end of the dinosaur skeleton's spine (and on to the next screen) WITH the droid in pursuit but BEFORE it finishes leaving the screen.
- Clicking the Eye icon on the lower pathway while standing behind the open doorway in the acid pool room now consistently displays the intended message ("You'll need to move further into the room to receive a better view") after re-entering.
- In the room with the purple laser fence in the Kerona underground, there was some minor palette corruption for certain items in both the inventory screen and 'currently selected item' window in the main icon bar. These have been fixed.
- Cursor no longer switches to Taste instead of Wait when walking through laser fence in Kerona underground.
- Finally, clicking the Eye icon on the busted laser emitters after having re-entered the room now displays an appropriate message ("There are two metal units here which are no longer emitting beams of energy") as opposed to nothing at all.
- There is an alternate sequence with the giant holographic head speaking its alien language in the Keronian underground, which can be accessed by visiting its chamber either twice with the translator gadget turned off, or once with the translator ON and another time with it OFF (caused by some faulty code).
- Fixed some minor graphical corruption around the lower edge of the shady guy's talker window when accepting his second offer outside the Rocket Bar (still a few pixels of minor garbage around the lower edge of the text box itself, but barely noticable).
- Restored animation loops for triple-breasted alien girl and yellow slug guy in the Rocket Bar (caused by a faulty 'if' statement - loops only play when Detail in original game is set below 2). Have smoothed over and slightly extended the slug guy's drinking animation (no sudden jumps). Also, the Bartender's mouth piece has been correctly re-aligned.
- In the original version, if the 'blue dude gets disintegrated' script is activated any time after the 'walking up the steps' animation is triggered (thus leaving the room), the game would either crash or glitch out so that you cannot leave. This has been fixed so that the 'someoneDies' script will now fully play out before transitioning to the next screen. This also applies for when Roger drunkenly staggers out of the bar after 6 beers.
- Mugger sequence completely fixed (also restored a missing animation loop).
- Clicking the Eye icon on the top part of either of the two force field generators' in the back part of Tiny's (w/ the two spaceships) no longer crashes the game.
- Offering the jetpack to the DBU salesbug prompts his unique on-screen yellow text rather than a regular grey text box.
- When offering the DBU salesbug common items as payment for a droid, his text response no longer spills off-screen (displayed with two text strings instead of one).
- Reinstated missing line of dialogue for the DBU pickup area droid (caused by some faulty coding in the original script).
- Getting zapped four times by the force field generator outside the DBU entrance plays Roger's death animation like normal.
- Clicking the Hand icon on the smallest of the three boxes in the DBU pickup area (after buying the security droid parts) a third time no longer causes Roger to suddenly walk into the force field barrier.
- If you arrive at Tiny's Used Spaceships from the east side of the screen while already having heard Tiny's introductory spiel ("Howdy, bucko! Can I interest you..."), he will instead say his alternate line ("Well, we're back for another look...") for when you enter from the north exit. Originally, he would say both lines in sequence if you entered from the east and had visited him at least once.
- In the same room, getting zapped by the force field generators across the eastern boundary of the screen while Tiny is talking no longer glitches Roger's walk cycle when he emerges on the next screen.
- Clicking any icon on Tiny's electric store sign no longer creates a duplicate 'Tiny sign' graphic.
- Reinstated Tongue message for Tiny's pink spacecraft (caused by some unfinished code).
- Clicking the Eye icon on the top part of either of the force field generators in the backlot of Tiny's no longer crashes the game.
- Discounted ship prices at Tiny's are now displayed correctly (144 buckazoids for the Drallion cruiser and 115 buckazoids for the saucer).
- Tiny no longer negotiates the price of the saucer after you've already bought it.
- Latex Babe easter egg on Deltaur now has correct colour palette and runs across the screen at a more appropriate speed.
- The 'firing laser' animations for the free-roaming Deltaur guards now produce laser sounds no matter which direction they are facing.
- Prevented the possibility of a blue-suited Roger reaching the upper levels of the Deltaur (if the game speed is at maximum) by having the first guard vaporize him in one hit immediately after stepping off the elevator.
- Descriptions/narrator text strings for certain objects on both the upper and lower levels of rooms 59 and 60 on the Deltaur now properly reflect which floor you are currently on.
- Clicking any of the icons on the cleaning droid when on the lower level of room 60 (Wally globes room) no longer causes Roger to walk towards and then use the elevator, thus leaving the screen.
- Clicking the Hand icon on the Wally globes/crackling energy/energy beam in room 60 while standing on the upper level no longer causes you to approach them.
- Description of egg-like container of bottled-energy on top level of room 60 restored (no longer a cut-off fragment).
- Showing the armory droid your Sarien ID for the third time no longer causes the droid to simply check the back room like usual after threatening to 'end your existence.' Upon the third presentation, the droid says its piece and then crushes you with an anvil.
- Clicking the Talk icon on a Sarien after losing your helmet (provided you are close enough) no longer produces the dialogue you'd get if you were still wearing it.
- Blowing up the upper area of the Deltaur by shooting the Wally globes/energy beam in room 60 is no longer bugged (it's now a non-interactive cutscene).
- The unique description/look string for the Star Generator room now displays properly (previously read "You are in another area of the Deltaur").
- When finishing the game without the cartridge in your inventory, the Xenon official's third line of dialogue now displays normally during the award ceremony.
- Fixed some minor graphical corruption around the lower right edge of the Xenon official's talker portrait during the ending.
MISC. REVAMPS (ALTERED SCRIPTS/VIEWS/RESTORED CONTENT)
- In the Restart and Quit submenus, the Two Guys from Andromeda now have talking animations like in SQ4.
- Reinstated a whole bunch of missing text descriptions for certain objects/features (check out the escape pod launch bay, Orat's lair, the DBU pickup area, the Rocket Bar interior and back alley, the Star Generator and laundry rooms on the Deltaur... just to name a few).
- Timing of many animations and events has been carefully fine-tuned.
- The introduction sequence now waits until the Main Title music has played through at least once.
- Restored an unused message for when interacting (Hand, Nose and Tongue icons) with the alert sign on the very first screen while inside the closet.
- Using any item on the dying scientist on the Arcada (BEFORE he tells you the location of the cartridge and dies) now produces a unique message.
- Restored an unused red talker portrait window for the dying scientist on the Arcada (also repositioned the accompanying text box).
- The amount of time remaining in the Arcada self-destruct countdown box would previously turn black for a few moments when using an elevator or regular door. This has been drastically reduced to a split-second flicker. The box itself is also more stable and consistent when moving between screens (meaning both the box AND the remaining amount of time are drawn and displayed on screen simultaneously, rather than the remaining time appearing slightly later than the box itself).
- Cicking the Tongue icon on the lower level elevator light on the first screen now produces a unique message.
- When the Arcada self-destruct sequence finally reaches the 30 second mark, the TV monitors in both the escape pod launch bay and the room with the giant joystick go blank even when Roger is on screen (you previously had to leave and re-enter the screen to see the results).
- The transitory pixels along the grell's back (when he pops out after leaving the screen with the crashed escape pod) have been made transparent, leaving a hard edge between it and the background image.
- The time until the spider droid arrives, until Roger dehydrates, and the speed at which the acid drops fall, are now all relative to the character's movement speed.
- Animations for throwing the chunk of dinosaur vertebrae and crushing the spider droid are now both seamless (no sudden jumps, chunk of vertebrae doesn't briefly disappear and then reappear).
- Reinstated 'Orat Chow' image for death message when he kills you.
- Recoloured and repositioned Orat part lying on the floor in Orat's lair so it transitions seamlessly from Orat's death sequence (also notice the restored conditional look string for the cave floor w/ or w/o the Orat part lying on the ground).
- Death sequences involving the Two Guys from Andromeda in the Keronian underground have been re-timed to make text windows more readable.
- Script for the hologram room now takes into account whether or not you've visited it before, and consistently displays an alternate introductory message ("Again, the massive holographic image appears before you") for your every second visit. You now also have a time limit of 10 seconds to produce the Orat part before the hologram boots you back to the surface. Finally, the hologram now closes its mouth every time it has finished displaying its lines of dialogue.
- Recoloured rock shadows in Arcade sequence to dark red (no purple patches).
- Added Try Again option for dying on the Skimmer arcade sequence like in the Amiga version.
- Original graphics for ZZ Top in Rocket Bar restored (naturally).
- Scripts for ZZ Top and Madonna in the Rocket Bar have been completely rewritten. The ZZ Top drummer now beats in time with the music. Madonna is now choreographed to sing and dance to a fixed set of vocals and music (the 'vocals' for the previous Madonna script had a tendency to get out of sync with the animation and thus abruptly cut off when she shifted to a different random pose).
- In the Rocket Bar, the sequence where the blue guy gets disintegrated and his remains are disposed of by the sweeper has now been made partially interactive (you still can't move, of course). Players can now read the sweeper's previously unused Nose, Tongue and Look messages.
- When overheating the slot machine in the Rocket Bar, Roger now steps back BEFORE it explodes, more closely matching the preceding text description. Some unused animation has also been reinserted to further smoothen out the sequence.
- When learning of the Deltaur's position in the Rocket Bar, the "Score!" sound is now played when the window with the sector appears, not when the window following it appears.
- Tiny's eyes have been recoloured to more closely match his talker portrait.
- If you buy and then pilot the 'mole ship' at Tiny's Used Spaceships with the nav droid in tow, the droid will thoughtfully move to a safe distance when Roger starts climbing into the cockpit. Once you've finished drilling through the ground, the droid will also move towards the subsequent hole out of curiosity.
- The incongruous green shadows cast by the saucer and Drallion cruiser at the back part of Tiny's have been recoloured to a more appropriate dark red.
- Tiny has been programmed to automatically walk off the screen immediately after Roger purchases either the Drallion cruiser or the saucer. This bypasses a potential issue in the original version where Tiny would seemingly 'teleport' to his usual position out the front of his dealership office if Roger buys the saucer and then immediately walks south.
- The left and right gears in the DBU pickup area droid's talker portrait are now animated (blank placeholders were left for both animation loops in the view resource for Robbie's talker portrait, as well as having brief mentions in the original script for room 46).
- Restored unused art assets for manually loading the nav droid into the asteroid scrambler (like in the AGI version).
- The mugger's talker portrait is now displayed when he yells at you after taking off in his Drallion cruiser (also notice the restored look string when clicking the Eye cursor on him!)
- Removed the SQ4 time pod animation when leaving Kerona (fixes a notorious continuity error).
- Description of Enter button when inputting Droid Navigation Code in ship no longer reuses the one for the cartridge retrieval system on the Arcada.
- The random death sequence with the Romulan Warbird now has appropriate sound and animation (screen turns red and shakes, sounds of impact added).
- Death message for fleeing from the sight of the Deltaur originally showed Roger in his red Sarien uniform with his back turned. Now it shows Roger in his blue space suit with his back turned.
- Removed Roger's flat green shadow when floating outside the Deltaur. It not only looked terrible (look at how badly it clashes against the bright red airlock hatch) but Roger never has a similar shadow graphic anywhere else in the game, even where it might have been a more appropriate place to put one.
- Delay when getting zapped by the decontamination unit in the Deltaur airlock is now considerably shorter.
- Death message for when getting shot by the Sarien guards now properly reflects which outfit you're currently wearing.
- The sequence where Roger hides in the washing machine on the Deltaur is now partially interactive (now the player can view the two unique look strings for the Sarien guard that walks in, both before and after he changes into his boxers).
- Death animation for the waste disposal on the Deltaur now includes an additional loop for Sarien Roger sans helmet.
- Added conditional to general description of room 61 (now reflects which level you're standing on).
- Using the cartridge on the giant Sarien guard while on the ground floor produces the same message elicited when using the cartridge on the wandering Deltaur guards ("You don't really want to show an Arcada data cartridge to the guys who blew the ship to smithereens"). Subsequently, you can now only attempt to drop the cartridge on his head while standing on the catwalk above. Also, using the cartridge on the Sarien guard's corpse while on the ground floor produces the same message for when you use the ID on his corpse while also on the ground floor ("You think he might be more interested in it if he were alive").
- In the Star Generator room, both force field emitters are no longer static and non-interactive when the 'Sputnik/Cnythuk' appears on screen.
- Using the Sarien ID on the guards after having lost your helmet now produces a unique message.
- The end credits now loop until the music has finished playing.
AUDIO
- Removed the 'beep' sound effect that "Sputnik" makes during the introduction on AdLib, as it is hardly audible, yet steals a voice from the music, which is quite audible. The sound effect is still played on Roland MT-32.
- Sound effect for when the cartridge retrieval droid holds out the cartridge for you to take is now heard (was previously preempted by the sound of the cartridge console).
- Annoying force field sound effect is now no longer heard during the "Two Guys" sequence on the screen with the purple laser fence.
- In the Kerona underground, the hologram music now starts immediately upon entering the room instead of fading out the cave music and tentacle sound effects first. Thus the hologram now fades in at about the same time as the music builds up.
- Sound added for when Roger randomly backs up and crashes the skimmer before taking off from the underground settlement.
- Music now properly fades out after refusing the shady guy's second offer to buy your skimmer outside the Rocket Bar.
- Sound added for when the mugger shoots you.
- Restored missing mechanical 'talking' sound effect when offering the droid sitting by the DBU pickup area the Rocket Bar coupon.
- In the original game, Tiny's theme music did not clear the Pitch Bend setting on the rhythm channel when played on an MT-32. This has been fixed.
- The missing 'SpaceAlvin' effect in Tiny's theme music has also been restored, and can now be heard with a 'new' MT-32 or CM-32L device, or via Munt with an equivalent rom configuration.
- Tiny's theme music no longer plays at the front 'office' of his dealership after buying the Drallion cruiser, due to the fact that he is no longer there by this point.
- The music track that plays when leaving Kerona no longer immediately fades upon entering the room in which it is cued, and thus can now be heard in its entirety (animation has also been re-timed to be more synchronous with the music). Subsequently, there is now music for the screen in which you feed coordinates to the nav droid.
- The chimes produced by pressing the numpad buttons when keying in the Droid Navigation Code now vary in pitch like they do when retrieving the cartridge on the Arcada.
- Sound added when Roger collapses after getting zapped by the decontamination unit in the Deltaur airlock.
- Sound of fire droid incinerating you now stops once you've been reduced to a pile of dust.
- Laser/disintegration sounds added when shot in storage, laundry or outside armory (after missing with both gas grenades) on the Deltaur.
- Muted sound of crackling elecriticy globes during cartridge reader sequence on the Deltaur.
- Sound/animation added for getting fried by the Wally globes on the Deltaur (regardless of whether they're active or not).
- Digital sounds added for jumping into the waste disposal unit and getting crushed by the anvil in the Deltaur armoury.
- The armory droid now has consistently audible footsteps when walking to and from the counter and the back room.
- Armoury droid's 'speaking' sound is no longer cut short when you shoot him with your laser pistol a second time.
- Sounds added for death sequence when giant Sarien warrior kills you.
- Sound added for getting fried by the force field surrounding the Star Generator.
The patch has been designed to work in both DOSBox and on older legacy systems, although the latter option has only been tested in DOSBOX at 3000 cycles, so results may vary on actual hardware. The patch is compatible with all 5.25 and 3.5 inch floppy releases of the game, as they all share the same resource files. It will not work with ScummVM. MT-32 w/ Sound Blaster is DEFINITELY recommended as the sound driver of choice with this game.
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Place the patch files in the original game folder and then run APPLYPAT.BAT in DOSBOX or native DOS (might take a minute or two).
2. Delete the subdirectory 'OLD' if you don't want to keep the original, unaltered resource files.
CREDITS
spiffythedog: Initial idea, most text and graphical alterations, testing
NewRisingSun: Programming
SPECIAL THANKS
troflip: Creator of SCI Companion
Kawa: Helped with rm45
Iskovlun & OmerMor: Provided several script fixes used in ScummVM