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The information from this article is from a fan game or fan fiction and is therefore not canon.


SQInc Poster 169

Space Quest: Incinerations

Name:

Space Quest: Incinerations

Team lead(s):

Datadog

Start date:

January, 2006

Release date:

January 11, 2012

Website:

Space Quest: Incinerations

Releases:

Download the game

Summary:

When a time traveller sabotages Roger's future along with the fate of universe, Roger must race against a rival captain to defeat an army of Space Chickens, destroy a deadly super-weapon, and recover his missing luggage.

Engine:

AGS

Position on the SQ timeline:

Post-Vohaul Strikes Back

Space Quest: Incineration is a 2012 fan-made sequel to the Space Quest series, created by Chris Ushko. It had been previously started in 1999 as a team project, cancelled, and then revived again as an almost completely different game. Information for both versions of the game are kept on this page.

Completed Version[]

About the Game[]

Space Quest: Incineration is developed using Chris Jones' AGS engine, taking place about ten years after the events of Space Quest 6. As an indirect follow-up to the dark ending of Vohaul Strikes Back, SQInc completely re-imagines Space Quest in the style of a sci-fi action thriller, combining explosive character-driven drama (with emphasis on the explosive) with tongue-in-cheek humour and traditional puzzle-solving.

The game was originally started as a team project back in 1999 following the cancellation of the official Space Quest 7, was cancelled, and then revived again in 2006 by the original team lead. The new version and style of the story was actually conceived while the team leader was working as a mall janitor, and had been forced to spend two weeks listening to the Halo 2[1] soundtrack on loop while painting the hallways behind a Laser Tag. Having been dabbling in 3D animation, he designed the new game with fully CGI backgrounds, cell-shaded characters, and full-motion videos for the cinematics.

The story, while originally inspired by "Halo", updated Space Quest with many elements from contemporary science-fiction movies and games (including "Starship Troopers" and "Mass Effect"). Many newer cliches were included, such as a militarized space government, armoured battle mechs, epic space battles, an FPS rail-shooter sequence, tons of explosions, a convoluted time-travel conspiracy, and a darker introspective into the characters. Having grown up over the years, the characters themselves were also re-written for the story, with their relationships going in different directions than the ones established in previous games.

The game was released on January 11, 2012 as part of "The Big Three", having been released almost a week after Infamous Adventures released their VGA remake of "Space Quest 2", which was shortly released after "Vohaul Strikes Back". It has since been featured on G4TV and as a "Let's Play" on ThatGuyWithTheGlasses.

The game contains over 45 minutes of fully-animated cut-scenes, over 100 CG backgrounds, and over an hour's worth of music.

Team[]

For a majority of the game's development, only the original SQInc team leader, Chris Ushko was at the helm, writing the script, programming the game, and animating the graphics as he went along. Three years in, his VSB associate, Frederik Olsen offered to join and help write the game's soundtrack.

The rest of the team was outsourced at random during development, with a few SQ fans lending their assistance with art and programming. Many free models were downloaded from various 3D sites and modified to suits the game's needs. At a later point, more musicians were brought on for a few months to help fill out the rest of the game's soundtrack, with Matthew Chastney providing the game's opening title theme.

While the game's ending credits go on for much longer, the opening titles credit the following people:

  • Chris "Datadog" Ushko - Team lead, writer, animator, programmer, graphics
  • Frederik "olzen" Olsen - Music
  • Matthew Chastney - Music
  • Akril - Concept Art
  • Andres "mjomble" Kalle - Additional Programming
  • Patrick "pcj" Johnston - Additional Programming
  • Petros Tsoulkas - Additional Music
  • Robert Bäckman - Additional Music
  • Peter Engel - Additional Music
  • Chris Jones - AGS Engine
  • Stuart "Sslaxx" Moore - Beta-Testing
  • Arseni Kondratenko - Beta-Testing
  • Alan Luckachina - Beta-Testing
  • Scott Murphy, Mark Crowe, Josh Mandel - Original Space Quest Developers

Plot[]

Years after the events of "Space Quest 6", Roger finds himself worse off than ever when a strange temporal mishap causes him to lose five hours of his life. The next thing he knows, he misses the job interview of his life, loses his girlfriend to a rival space captain, make enemies with an omnipresent operating system, and to top things off, misplaces his luggage.

Roger is soon approached by a mysterious visitor from the future who warns him that his life has been sabotaged - and that in order to restore the time-line, Roger must find and destroy a ship known as the Incinerator within three days. But things aren't going to be easy for Roger as he must race against the military forces of Aries 6 to save the galaxy first, while thwarting both new and old adversaries along the way.

Technical Details[]

SQInc was developed in Chris Jones' Adventure Game Studio engine. The graphics were developed in Autodesk Maya, and both edited and composited in Adobe Premiere and After Effects. The program Particle Illusion was used for all the environmental effects such as explosions and dust clouds in the cut-scenes.

Gameplay[]

Most of the game plays out as a traditional Sierra point-and-click. Much like the earlier King's Quest games, you get to use the walk, look, hand, and talk icons along with your inventory to solve puzzles. The additional lick and sniffs icons features in SQ4 do not make an appearance here, although in a few cases, the talk icon can act as a tongue. Later in the game, you get to drive your own Armech with access to weapons and jumping abilities. This part also plays out like a traditional adventure game. Anything puzzle-related is often highlighted with text at the bottom of the screen, although everything in the game is already clickable, with custom messages for every look/hand/talk interaction possible.

Near the end of the game, there is an optional arcade sequence done in the style of a first-person rail shooter. In it, you click on enemies to shoot them, and cinematic cut-scenes will take place between waves. Anybody who gets to the end of the arcade sequence without skipping will get to solve an additional puzzle.

The game also features a trophy system. You automatically get two freebie trophies over the course of the game and unlock others by either doing mundane tasks, completing unusual quests, or completing scavenger hunts such as finding all the deaths or cleaning up all the trash. There are twelve trophies in total.

The game also has multiple endings. Along with the default ending, you can easily unlock two more endings and a post-credit scene by talking to people near the end of the game. In addition, there is a fourth unlockable "happy ending" when you get a complete score, and a fifth "bad ending" for when you get the lowest score.

Characters[]

  • Roger Wilco: Our bumbling space hero. The years haven't been good on Roger and it's beginning to show. He's losing his grip on reality, neglecting his girlfriend, making bad decisions, and ultimately just not being the great guy we've come to love. But when he hits rock bottom, it'll be up to him to crawl back up from the wastes and be our saviour again.
  • Beatrice Wankmeister: No longer an ambassador for StarCon, Beatrice works in resource management at Aries 6 orbiting Xenon. She too has grown weary over the years and is finally ready to settle down - but with Roger always off saving the galaxy or just plain slacking, she's starting to wonder if it's time to move on.
  • Stellar Santiago: Roger's gal pal from Space Quest 6 returns, and she's not too keen on finding out what trouble Roger is cooking up this time. Nevertheless, when Roger starts acting suspicious and goes missing, Stellar will take it upon herself to go after the bonehead and keep an eye on him - for everyone's sake.
  • General Bruce Havoc: He's the poster-boy of Aries 6 - the lean, mean killing machine who's won over a hundred wars and is finally itching to settle down... with Roger's girlfriend, that is. When he and his fleet go on a mission to rescue Beatrice, Roger will stop at nothing to make sure HE saves Beatrice first.
  • Doomtron: An armoured battle mech tossed into the scrapheap, Doomtron is salvaged by Roger and joins him on his mission. The two of them totally hit off and start the ultimate man-robot bromance as they battle their way across the galaxy, flying blind on dumb luck and shooting at everything that moves.
  • Chronarr: A time-traveling ninja robot assassin who has his eyes set on Roger and Beatrice. A typical henchman at first glance, Chronarr has more schemes up his sleeves than even his supposed superiors can imagine. He's always one-step ahead of everyone and he'll let nothing stand in the way of his objectives.

Reviews[]

  • Rock, Paper, Shotgun: “Incinerations was a wonderful surprise. It’s not Space Quest as we know it, but it packs every bit as much charm, considerably more action, and isn’t afraid to poke a little fun at itself where necessary … it has no trouble impressing with the kind of action the Space Quest series never came close to, and to a scale that goes above and beyond the call of duty for any fan-made game.”
  • Adventure Gamers: “…Space Quest: Incinerations is one of the best fan made adventure games out there. Had it been released in the late ‘90s, it could easily have been a commercial spiritual sequel to Space Quest 6, with its top notch visuals, clever puzzles and an intriguing storyline that keep you coming back for more.”
  • Adventure Game Studio Page: SQInc currently holds a 100% player rating

Old Version[]

About the Game[]

Incinerations

Prior to the completed 2012 release, "Space Quest: Incinerations" was one of the earlier cancelled team efforts from 1999-2001, predating the Space Quest 7 fangame. The Incinerations project was a democracy, and drew in members of the community, with no real sense of direction, but did manage to get a script and graphics finished, although some accused them of writing by committee. The project was ultimately doomed, however, due to the lack of strong leadership, and the democratizing nature of the project.

The project was revived in 2006 by the original team leader and completed in 2012 with a different team, along with improved graphics, movie-style cut-scenes and a modified story. The new version still carries elements of the original plot, but is instead re-imagined in the style of a sci-fi action-thriller.

Team[]

Seehithurtz

THAT's interesting.

  • Chris Ushko: Project Lead, Writer, Art.
  • Barak Michener: Programmer Lead.
  • Neil Schuh: Programmer, Art Team, Composer.
  • Jon Jakobsen: Programmer, Art Team, Composer.
  • Cool Guy: Animator.
  • Troels Pleimert: Music and Sound.
  • Robert Bäckman: Composer.
  • Colin Panetta: Character Designer.
  • Diane LaJeune: Consistent Joke Credit.

Plot[]

SQ IPic01

Some characters in Incinerations.

During a space battle, the SCS Deepship 86 is accidentally destroyed by Roger, who was just fooling around. Roger returns safely to StarCon HQ, where he's put before a holographic courtroom scene and laid off from work until the big cheeses upstairs can decide what to do with him. During his time off, Roger goes out on a date with Beatrice. Shortly after the date, when Roger returns to his quarters, and ends up getting trapped in the closet, the entire station is then hit by a wide-range stun phaser and every living thing on it is rendered unconscious. A renegade group of Space Chickens storm the station and finds Beatrice upstairs unconscious in the conference room, where she is taken captive. The Chickens then proceed to Roger's quarters where they discover he's trapped in the closet. As the chickens attempt to torch open the closet, they are suddenly summoned back to their home ship. Outside, the SCS Forager, captained by Stellar Santiago, chases away the enemy ship. After the encounter, when everyone is awakened, a ransom message left in the place of Beatrice demanding 54 quadrillion buckazoids is discovered. Roger finally escapes his closet and is the only other person whose room was broken into. StarCon decides to send out the SCS Forager to recover the ambassador. Roger accepts to be part of the rescue operation and is stationed aboard the Forager. While the Forager is out searching for the Chicken Ship, they suddenly find themselves trapped in warp and about to break up. Roger somehow manages to shut off the engines and break them out of warp in time, but renders the ship immobile.

Sqincinchar2

Heh...fowl play.

Foul play is suspected and the entire ship is searched until finally, a Space Chicken in disguise is discovered. The Chicken is forced to explain how he and a group of his kind went to the future to recover the Vohaul disk and make the evil one their leader. As it turns out, Vohaul plans to use the ransom money for the ambassador as payment for a new super weapon called the Incinerator, capable of computer generating suns and controlling them. Stellar and Roger find out that the factory where the machine is being built is on the neo-roman planet, Astate. Since the Forager is useless, Roger and Stellar get on a shuttlecraft and take off for Astate. After arriving on the planet, Roger and Stellar are quickly arrested for destruction of sacred property. Roger is thrown into a gladiator show as Stellar attempts to find a way to save him. During this time, Stellar is given information leading her to the factory. They escape the arena via chariot and flee the city after a chase scene. They arrive in another town where Stellar must find the secret location of the factory, and Roger must buy a hovercraft to take them there. After a little incident in the Sharpei tower, and playing slave to Fester Blatz, they get on their way to another island. After a hectic boat ride they infiltrate the factory and find their way to where the Incinerator is being built. Vohaul has set a trap for them and beats them to the punch. Vohaul explains that StarCon has already paid for the ambassador and returns her. He takes the machine and calls up the Gippazoid Novelty Company to come and take Roger. Bea and Stellar are also taken captive by the Gippazoid Company, and the three are forced to work in a giant cubicle with thousands of other workers. Roger escaped his chains and jumpstarts a revolution in the workers, overthrowing the company and hijacking the ship. They set course for Vohaul's station.

NOTE: Bea must not find out about Stellar and Roger's relationship. This is crucial to the series.

They are dropped off in space by the station, where three break into the station via a garbage duct. They quickly find a shuttle which will be used to escape after. Bea is to remain at the shuttle and summon StarCon to come destroy the station, Stellar is to find the power source and shut it off so that they won't be detected when they escape, and Roger must find and destroy the Incinerator, so that Vohaul doesn't use it when StarCon attacks.

SQ IPic02

Those look like Bjorn ships.

NOTE: You only play as Roger at this point.

NOTE: They will also have communicators so that Roger can speak to Bea and Stellar at any time, should any help be needed.

Sqincinpost

Poster!

Roger sneaks through the station, avoiding all the chickens, and soon finds himself in Vohaul's quarters, where the Incinerator lies. After deactivating the Incinerator Force Field, Roger is confronted and chased out of the room by a Space Chicken. Roger goes into the reactor room and leads the chicken into a trap that causes it to fall in the reactor core and become Kentucky Fried. Roger returns to the machine, and sets it to destroy itself, when Vohaul overrides the system and meets Roger in the form of a character in a supercomputer. Roger connects some circuits, frying Vohaul's circuitry. Vohaul comes back to life by regenerating himself using energy all over the ship. Roger manages to open the airlock and suck Vohaul out into space. As Vohaul goes flying, he mentally activates the Incinerator and causes a star to comes straight for the station. After closing the airlock, Roger accidentally unplugs the Incinerator and saves the day. A group of chickens come in to kill Roger, but Stellar shuts off the power in time, just Bea calls Roger to inform him that StarCon will be arriving shortly. Quickly making his way to the shuttle, Roger discovers that Stellar is trapped and is unable to get back. With only seconds left, Bea and Roger escape the station safely, while the chickens run around in the dark. StarCon ships blow apart the station with Stellar inside (ALA Armageddon). Stellar survives by rewiring her communicator to make a force-field emitter which protects her from the explosion and the dead of space. After picking up Stellar, the three return to StarCon, all happy.

Music[]

Chicken1ani

Run, chicken, run!

(audio)

"(10KB) An orchestral re-arrangement of the familiar Space Quest theme, composed by Mark Crowe." File:SQInc-Orch.mid

"(880KB) For Chris Geroux's SCS Eureka Trash Pickup, I composed a short remix/rehash of the SQ5 spacebar music. Here it is again, in OGG format."

"(1500KB) Another theme composed for Chris's E.T.P. This one never made it into the game, but it's still a nice song. And now it has been recreated in OGG format."

"(12KB) I tried to make a new theme for Space Quest but I'm not sure if it would work in the game. (My mom said it sounded like Irish music, hmm.)" File:SQInc-Intro.mid

"(7KB) Vohaul's base? Decide for yourself." File:SQInc-Vohaul.mid

"(13KB) Not much to say about this one really. Some blues there, some bass here, and some Bond influence at the end." File:SQInc-Blues.mid

"(21KB) It's an idea to a last battle theme. It's got both the old Vohaul theme (at the beginning) and the new which I introduced in "Vohaul's Theme". Plus one heck of a beat!" File:SQInc-Battle.mid

Problems listening to the files? Space Quest Omnipedia:Media help.

Similarities Between Versions[]

  • Both games open with Roger escaping the destruction of the ship he's stationed on.
  • Roger, Stellar, Beatrice, and Vohaul are returning characters
  • In both versions, Space Chickens attack the station and kidnap Beatrice. Roger is saved from the Chickens at the last minute thanks to the arrival of the Forager's captain (Stellar in the old, Havoc in the new).
  • Roger goes after Beatrice on the Forager, which is sabotaged halfway to its destination.
  • Farty Marty appears in both versions. In the old one, he's a spy on the Forager. In the new one, he's a sanitation worker on Aries 6.
  • In both versions, Vohaul's disk is recovered from the future.
  • The main super-weapon is called the Incinerator, also capable of creating a mobile star (in the old, the star is remote-controlled; in the new, the star is a force-field around the ship)
  • After arriving at the planet, both Roger and his sidekick run into some local trouble and escape via a chase scene
  • Between Vohaul's base and the Incinerator, Roger and Stellar have a brief detour at a remote outpost (Gippazoid ship in the old, abandoned asteroid in the new)
  • Roger and his two comrades infiltrate Vohaul's ship and split up.
  • Roger has a fight inside the reactor core, defeating the final chicken by pushing him into the reactor core.
  • Vohaul takes on a living bio-electrical energy form (in the old, he's still just a head, in the new, he has a complete body - an unintentional Watchmen reference).
  • In both versions, the main villain controls the Incinerator via neural link.

How Not To Make A Fan-Game[]

by SQInc Director Chris U

  • Publicly declare that you want to make a massive fan-game with no prior experience in anything!
  • Piece together a very cliched storyline with key-in-door puzzles and familiar locations!
  • Let everyone write the script! If they want to take a few months to write two pages, give them a year!
  • Game engine?! Pshaw!!! We don't need no schtinkin' game engine!!!
  • Continue hiring writers!
  • Get a huge website put together! Continue advertising and talking about how awesome the game will be in your thousands of forums!
  • Spend more time working on the game logo than on graphics and animations!
  • Ignore the fact that you still don't have any programmers!
  • Work on and finish two Monkey Island fan-games in the interim! Show your commitment to the team!
  • After one year, take the script into your own hands, finish it off, and piss off 75% of the team who wanted to finish it themselves! Wave them goodbye!
  • Realize you're really bored with the project! Watch everyone have the same revelation and know you're in good company!
  • Don't forget: nothing says failure like a wrinkled suit!
  • And now you can not make a fan-game all by yourself! Go get 'em, tiger!

External Links[]

Space Quest Fan Games
Remakes SQ2 VGA Remake · SQ3 3D Remake
Spinoffs SQ-1 · SQ0 · SQ:TLC · SQ4.5 · VSB · Space Quest: Incinerations
Full list Category:Fan Game (Complete)
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