From Space Quest Omnipedia

Contents 1 Back in the days 1.1 That pesky FAQ 1.2 Novels 2 Personal life 3 Old profile

[edit] Back in the days

[edit] That pesky FAQ

My claim to fame within SQ community: Author of the Space Quest FAQ. To the best of my recollection, the first version was written in 1996, but it wasn't until the first revision (that is, version 1.1) that the document was officially released. The document grew to absurd proportions and, by the time it had reached its final revision, was reportedly larger than the shooting script for Star Trek: Generations.

In its final days, the FAQ was fully sanctioned by Sierra On-Line and featured commentaries and other additions by people closely affiliated with the production of the series, including Scott Murphy, Mark Crowe and Josh Mandel.

Work on the FAQ ceased when Sierra announced the cancellation of Space Quest 7. As most teenagers do, the news hit harder than it should, and, along with whatever predictable biological ailments (mental and physical), prompted the end of the FAQ updates. As of today, the FAQ, in its current form, still, inaccurately, claims that SQ7 is in production.

The ownership rights (which had little or no basis in actual legal terms to begin with, other than to scare people away from plagiarizing its content) were "officially" handed over to Frans van Hofwegen on a date that escapes me. He used the information in the FAQ to build the goofs, in-jokes and other trivia sections on his website, usually verbatum (and God, I wish he hadn't). Frans also added new information (such as the Josh Mandel easter-eggs in the shuttle in Space Quest 6) that was uncovered after the FAQ ceased to be updated.

I've been tempted many a times to update the FAQ - or, more often than that, completely rewrite the sucker - but my efforts have always petered out, due to either:

1. A burst of apathy following the initial burst of enthusiasm
2. A sudden burst of other activities that take greater priority

Recently (actually, this morning), I had the idea of writing a book centered on the Space Quest series and the behind-the-scenes exploits of each installments' production as a sort of history book; chronicling the rise and fall of adventure games through the examination of one of its most popular series that somehow managed to span most of the genres days of glory. God only knows where that idea might end up - but don't steal it, or I'll invoke my semi-legal threats of copyright again.

[edit] Novels

I wrote a novelization of Space Quest 1 in and around 1996. The reaction from the fan community was of mild approval, even though the story took several artistic liberties. One in particular raised the ire of original designer Scott Murphy, who politely pointed out that Vohaul was not on the Sarien ship, the Deltaur, when Roger blew it up during the finale, and its destruction was not the reason why Vohaul appears as a horrible cripple in SQ2, as suggested in the novel. The novelization is thusly not canonical in any conceivable way.

In collaboration with writing partner Leonard Kramer, I subsequently wrote an original novel-length story, based around the world of Space Quest 6 entitled "Lone Voyager". Reactions to this from the fan community were virtually non-existant and it ended up serving as little more than a useful writing exercise for its authors. Although the plot had a somewhat reasonable premise (the crew of the DeepShip encounter one of Earth's Voyager satellites who, during its millions of years of travelling, has attained sentience), as well as many comically zany twists and turns, it also had very little direction and no real actual narrative plot to speak of. One could argue that neither had most of the Space Quest games, but that's admittedly a poor excuse for not bothering to write a plot outline before writing the actual novel.

With Australian writing partner Daniel Stacey, the Total Series Novelization project was instigated - and, slowly but surely, went nowhere. Daniel wrote a completed novelization of SQ2, taking an equal amount of artistic liberties to make the story suit a narrative. In a baffling move of technological blundering, the novel was irrevocably lost forever before it could be published. (Daniel would, much later, come into pure adventure game adolation when he rewrote Roberta Williams' King's Quest 2 for AGDInteractive's remake.)

Incompleted drafts of SQ3 and SQ5 novelizations exist, but these were ultimately abandoned. The SQ3 draft was the shortest because, as with SQ1 and SQ2, the plot required a lot of restructuring in order to make it work in narrative form - and I was much more keen on completing the SQ5 novelization first. The SQ5 draft was much longer, but was abandoned in the end because Mark Crowe was unable to explain a plot hole that occurred once the crew reached the Genetix lab.

I also wrote a bunch of fan fiction short stories, but, like most internet fan fiction, these are best ignored.

[edit] Personal life

Currently, I am 26, attending university in Denmark in the hopes of becoming a journalist (in some manner or another). I've settled down noticeably, losing much of the abrasive personality that was prevalent during my late years as an active SQ community member, finding love, marrying said love, and generally realizing that there's no point in moping about if one wants to lead a happy life (and don't we all?). Rest assured, however, that none of this can be even remotely attributed to spiritual or religious enlightenment.

In my spare time, I play in a couple of local bands (drums and keyboards), taking an especial active interest in the writing and producing aspects of the recorded material.

Daniel Stacey and I had a terrible falling out that I still regret to this day. Leonard Kramer and I still get together and fire up a Space Quest game every now and then.

[edit] Old profile

This is the introduction from the first Space Quest FAQ, composed in 1997. I have no idea why this would be included, but it was here from the start and it may have nostalgic value. And who am I to get in the way of nostalgia?

Greetings, fellow WilcoWorshippers!

My name is Troels Pleimert, and I am a 16 year old Danish WilcoWorshipper and high school sophomore. My first Space Quest game was SQ2, which I played sometime in 1987 on an old 8086 with a Hercules-monitor. Then, when a mail- order company screwed up my order for Sam & Max, I got the remake of SQ1 as a token of apology. I immediately ordered the SQ Collection afterwards, and got really hooked.

Today, I live with my parents and annoying kidbrother in a nice, two-story house with a garden we never use and a masochistic pet cat in the small Danish town of Holbaek. I love computer gaming, the Internet and playing around with musical instruments. And of course, working on this FAQ, which I find to be an enormous, but quite enjoyable task.

I consider myself the "Freelance Space Quest Historian". I have taken it upon myself to study the history of Space Quest as thoroughly as I can. I can answer any question about Space Quest that you throw at me, provided the information can be retrieved from some valid source of information (not much info is provided through the games themselves, but it doesn't take much to piece the info from the documentations and websites and e-mails together). I got this idea from a friend of mine who was a complete Star Wars fanatic, and could answer absolutely ANY question you threw at him about Star Wars -- down to the planet names in the galaxy where the action takes place. I'm trying to be like that. If you wish to test my knowledge, please don't let me stand in your way.