| Scott
Murphy
SpaceQuestography:
Co-Creator of the Series
Designer / Writer / Programmer for Space Quest 1, 2 and 3
Director for the Space Quest 1 VGA Remake
Designer / Writer / Lead Programmer / Voice Actor for Space Quest
4
Designer / Writer / Voice Actor for Space Quest 6
Designer / Writer for Space Quest 7 (project got cancelled)
 Biography:
"I didn't start out to make computer games my life's work.
It was an accident. I saw an adventure game before I worked here
(Sierra -ed), and I liked it. I had a job I hated and I kept bugging
Sierra until they let me come and work as a dealer returns person.
And I kept learning things. So I became a support representative
for games and then for business products, then I ended up managing
the support department.
Then
the big crunch hit (in the mid-1980s Sierra On-Line weathered a
bankruptcy threat through a major reorganization -ed) and I started
doing QA (Quality Assurance) work as well as support stuff. As I
got closer to where they were creating the games, I saw Mark Crowe
and Doug MacNeill working on graphics for King's Quest 2 and Black
Cauldron, and I was intrigued. I started bugging Ken to let me try
a game. I saw people working on programming, and I knew that if
they could do it, I could do it. So I kept bugging Ken, and finally
he shut me up and let me try it. I put in a lot of free time over
his house debugging Black Cauldron. And then I ended up being the
only one working on it. After a while, Ken and Al Lowe bailed out
on me. So I got Black Cauldron shipping, and I was hooked."
Scott
and Mark Crowe (the other guy behind the Space Quest Series) first
met eachother during work on "the Black Cauldron" game.
The two got together and decided to do a game of their own, in their
favorite genre - science fiction. The Two Guys were determined and
in their spare time programmed what later became the first four
rooms the Sarien Encounter. Scott programmed, Mark did graphics
and Ken loved the demo and gave them green light to proceed. And
the rest, is history.
After
work on Space Quest 4 was completed, Scott Murphy left Space Quest
indefinately. Scott Murphy tells it this way: "It wasn't so
much 'running out of ideas' as it was that we (Scott and Mark -ed)
needed some change.". After Space Quest 5 was released, Sierra
decided they wanted another Space Quest and called upon Scott Murphy
to do it. However, he was then busy programming for Police Quest
4, so Sierra recruited Josh Mandel instead. Scott later joined the
team as creative consultant, but ended up having influences on storyline
and design as well. Shortly before Space Quest 6 was finished, Josh
left the project and Scott was left with the job of getting Space
Quest 6 done.
Scott
Murphy was working on Space Quest 7 for a short period of time,
together with, Leslie Balfour, Jay Lee, Bill Shockley, Mark Aro,
Richard Powell, Lori Lucia, Tim Loucks and Craig Alexander. Around
February 1998, rumours spread that Scott was fired and would supposibly
be re-hired if the SQ7 project was to be restarted. This indeed
happend a year later in January/February 1999. However, on the 22nd
of February 1999, Chainsaw Monday struck, and Scott Murphy had to
leave Sierra as his contract was expired and was not being renewed.
Current
whereabouts:
Scott and Mark formed Guys From Andromeda LLC in 2012 and are working on SpaceVenture, the spiritual successor to Space Quest.
Mark
Crowe
SpaceQuestography:
Co-Creator of the Series
Designer / Writer / Graphics / Music for Space Quest 1 and 2
Designer / Writer / Graphics / Programmer / Hint Book Writer for
Space Quest 3
Designer / Writer / Art Designer / Animator for Space Quest 4
Producer / Director / Game Manual Contributing Writer for Space
Quest 5
 Biography:
Mark Crowe has been at Sierra On-Line since 1983, first at what
became Sierra Publishing, and eventually at Dynamix in Eugene, Oregon.
Mark tells it this way:
"I
started with Sierra in the Art Department, designing packaging and
documentation and what not, so I used my illustration skills there.
My first computer graphics project was creating the graphics for
Winnie the Pooh and the One Hundred Acre Wood. Then I did animation
for King's Quest 2 and then Black Cauldron. Black Cauldron was the
first project Scott Murphy and I worked on together."
The
second project was to be Space Quest I. Mark and Scott knew there
was an audience for a funny science fiction game. After designing
SQ1, SQ2, SQ3 and SQ4 with Scott Murphy, Mark moved to Sierra's
sister company Dynamix. According to Craig Alexander (general project
manager of the first cancelled Space Quest 7), Sierra was swamped
with projects in Oakhurst. Dynamix volunteered to do the next SQ,
and Mark Crowe wanted to move to Dynamix anyway, so he grabbed the
opportunity. Mark Crowe himself tells the story this way: "Let's
see. It was back in '90/'91 that I was directing Police Quest 3
after Space Quest 4 was released. SQ4 had been a particularly stressful
development (I still consider it to be my masterpiece product) and
I was ready to move on to something different for my next project.
I was impressed with the work Jeff Tunnel was doing at Dynamix,
and was ready for a life change so I came on board there in Eugene,
Oregon. I had a few product ideas in mind that utilized Dynamix'
adventure gamer development system, but shortly after my arrival,
I was asked to do SQ5 using Sierra's SCI." Scott Murphy stayed
working in Oakhurst and they would never again work together on
a Space Quest game. Mark Crowe continues: "I was aware that
Josh Mandel (co designer of SQ6 -ed) was working on a design for
SQ5 at that point of time. I don't know about all the politics surrounding
that. They asked me to do SQ5, I had some ideas for a story so I
said SURE!" Mark Crowe did a great job, but it was to be his
last Space Quest.
Current
whereabouts:
Mark Crowe used to work at Pipeworks
Software. He quit in 2012 to form Guys From Andromeda LLC with Scott. Together, they are working on the spiritual successor to Space Quest, entitled SpaceVenture.
Josh
Mandel
SpaceQuestography:
Contributing Writer for Space Quest 4 and its manual
Voice Actor for Space Quest 4
Contributing Writer for the Space Quest 5 manual
Designer / Writer / Manual Writer for Space Quest 6
Writer for the Space Quest 7 fangame
 Biography:
Josh started at Sierra On-Line in 1990 as an assistant producer,
his first project being the SCI remake of King's Quest 1. But he
preferred to spend his time writing sarcastic texts for any designer
who'd let him. Unkowingly for many Space Quest fans, Josh Mandel
did a huge amount of "behing the scenes" work for the
Space Quest Series as contributing writer. Scott Murphy and Mark
Crowe gave him his first opportunity by allowing him to write the
parody software boxes and bogus hint book for Space Quest 4. He
was, in fact, working on a design for Space Quest 5 for a short
period of time. But that before Mark Crowe was allocated to the
project. Besides the Space Quest Series, he has been a contributing
writer on most Sierra adventures, as well as director, writer and
co-designer of Freddy Pharkas, Frontier Pharmacist.
Josh
Mandel set out to design Space Quest 6 but just as the project neared
completion, Josh had to leave the project. Scott Murphy did the
rest. Space Quest 6 was market as a 'Scott Murphy solo job'. But
in fact Josh had designed the whole game. Scott: "I want to
publicly apologize to Josh for this. It was a difficult situation
for both of us. The 'solo job' thing I honestly had no clue about
until I got my packaged copy of the game. Anyway, Josh did get screwed
over and I hope he accepts my too-late apology for any part I may
have played. I made a mistake I'm not proud of."
Current
whereabouts:
Josh Mandel briefly worked on the Space
Quest 7 fangame before it was cancelled. He has retired from the games industry, but regularly helps out fans with their projects. He teaches people how to make balloon animals (no, seriously), ande's webmaster of his family site (being quite
the family guy these days), located at josho.com.
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