Space Quest 0: Replicated, to give it its full title, is a Space Quest fan game developed by Jefferson Stuart. Intended as a prequel to Roger Wilco's adventures, it is written with the same AGI interpreter as the first two official games in the series.
Story
Roger is a janitor aboard Labion Orbital Station 10, a class 3 cloning facility. Asleep, as ever, in the broom closet, he awakens to find - surprise - the crew's been massacred and he's the only survivor. Glimpsing a strange blue chick slipping into a nearby elevator, Roger sets out to investigate.
The station is severely damaged, and Roger elects to escape. Reactivating the escape pods, he again spies the blue girl mysteriously slipping into the second pod. Unfortunately, his pod's systems are infected with a virus, and it loses control immediately after launch, crashing to the surface of Labion.
Having survived the crash, Roger negotiates the jungle and makes his way through a series of ruins and caverns until he comes across an underground research base. The resident scientist has been brutally murdered with a coathanger. Roger leaves the lab and finds himself underneath the hangar of the Labion spaceport.
Subduing a shore patrolman, Roger sneaks past the police and enters the spaceport. Again he sees the mysterious blue chickie, and overhears that she is a member of anti-cloning organization R.A.L.P.H, the Rebellion Against the Laboratory Production of Humanoids. Not especially interested, Roger steals an impounded ship and flies off to his local Monolith Burger for a meal.
At the Monolith Burger, he encounters the blue girl, who introduces herself as Xavi, expresses her amazement at his resourcefulness, and asks for his assistance. Ever gallant, Roger visits her home on Andromeda and is tasked with infiltrating a the stronghold of the evil Ael, who is cloning a huge army.
Having successfully infiltrated Ael's fortress, Roger swaps the military training disc for a 'how to be an insurance salesman' disc. Defeating Ael in a lightsword duel, Roger is rescued by Xavi just as a flotilla of shuttles carrying ape-like soldiers begins landing and seizing the base. ('They must be guerillas,' says Roger). With the clone menace diffused, Roger and Xavi jet off back to her place, presumably for some hot Captain Kirk - on brightly coloured alien woman action.
The jokes and references come thick and fast in this, so I've divided them up by Space Quest references and pop culture references.
Space Quest references
- Labion is, of course, the site of most of your adventures in Space Quest 2.
- Fester Blatz's niece runs the shop in the Space Port, and mentions to you the development of the jell-o guns from Space Quest 3.
- The shore patrolman is a Sarien.
- Xavi lives on the same street as the aliens seen in the Space Quest 3 manual.
- Both Xavi and the dead scientist own Antarean Slime Devils, which were advertised in the Space Quest 2 manual.
- The 'guerillas' are Sludge Vohaul's soldiers from Space Quest 2, and they're flying in shuttles similar to those seen in Vohaul's service in that game.
- Sludge Vohaul didn't make the clones in Space Quest 2 so much as buy them from Ael, as you see his soldiers stealing them at the end of this game (it also explains why they were life insurance salesmen).
- The carving in the ruins looks to be from the same culture as the ruins you find in Space Quest 2 near the landing platform.
- Both the pilot droids you can buy to fly your ship appear again in Space Quest 1.
- Orat is in the Space Bar helping himself to the free peanuts, presumably to offset the effects of the famous Kerona Ale.
- A Pestulon Skull Fighter is docked at the Monolith Burger, which is attended by the barman from Police Quest 1. The Astro Chicken game is King's Quest LXX, though.
- The ship you buy near the end of Space Quest 1 can be seen flying past at the Monolith Burger... presumably the owner hasn't racked up his gambling debts yet. One of Vohaul's shuttles also flies past.
- Your ship's navigation computer is extremely similar to that aboard the Aluminum Mallard.
Pop culture references
- Labion Orbital Station 10 is shaped like a Dual Shock controller.
- Kaneda's bike from Akira, a Star Trek shuttlecraft, the fighter from Galaga and a Landspeeder are parked in the spaceport bay.
- The bridge of the orbital station is that of the USS Enterprise NCC 1701-D.
- Yoda was a clear inspiration for the little man you meet in the hut in the jungle.
- Hungry Hungry Humus! ^_^
- R2-D2 is for sale in the droid shop.
- Kerona Ale - Corona, get it?
- The Max Rebo Band, who probably met their demise aboard Jabba the Hutt's sail barge, play in the bar.
- Ael looks an awful lot like Spawn.
- The captain of the orbital station is 'Captain Picante'. Also present are Ensign Crushley and Lieutenant Smorf.
- The entire premise of a clone army is straight out of Star Wars Episode 2.
This is a fantastic little game, a worthy addition to the series, and a lot more fun than Space Quest: The Lost Chapter.