| Space
Quest 4 Spoofs and References
On
the destroyed streets of Xenon, if you click the tongue icon on
the fortress in the background, the game responds with: "The
only way your tongue would reach that far was if you were in a Leisure
Suit Larry game!"
One
of the questions in the on-game hint book reads: "I can't find
the one-armed man anywhere." The answer is given as, "Ask
Bob". This is reference to Twin Peaks.
On
Estros, Zondra demands Roger: "Into the sub, flyboy".
This is a spoof on Star Wars Episode 4. After Princess Leia shoots
the vent into the garbage chute she says to Han Solo: "Into
the garbage chute, flyboy".
One
of the timepod codes will take you to Ortega (see the easter
egg section). Obviously, you don't have your thermal
underwear
so
you
die. The death message is a direct spoof on an American drug
campaign. A man gets some eggs and
says: "This
is your brain". He then proceeds to fry them. "This
is your brain on drugs". He then looks churlishly at the
camera: "Any questions?".
 The
name of the arcade game, "Monaco Princess Stunt Drivin'",
is an interesting mixture of the titles "Super Monaco Grand
Prix", "Stunt Driver" and Tengen/Domark's "Hard
Drivin" series. Also it seems like a tasteless reference
to Princess Grace of Monaco (Grace Kelly), who died in a car
accident.
The
Laptop at Hz So Good is advertised as having a "Chicklet
style keyboard, and Dentyne style mouse." Chicklets and
Dentyne are both types of gum. Hz So Good is a parody of the
Hertz Rental Company and an old song entitled something like
It Hurts So Good.
When
near RadioShock, try to look at the plants. The narrator will
say "This plant is provided courtesy by Shapeir flourists." Obviously,
a Quest for Glory II reference.
 When
you're sitting inside your time pod in the Galaxy Galleria, you
can see Yoda from Star Wars playing on one of the computer games.
It's a bit obscure, but it's the far lard alright!
When
arriving at the Galaxy Galleria, there's a huge crowd in the front
of the Software Excess store. When talking to one of the people
in the crowd, he'll inform you that "The Two Geeks from Andromeda
are in there, signing copies of their latest release." ...
Try using the talk icon some additional times for a laugh.
The
whole inside artwork of the Super Computer resembles an H.R. Giger
album (the art designer of Alien and Species). Remember the alien
ship on LV-426 (Alien)? There's also a small reference to the "Frogger"
game.
The
subtitle for Ms. Astro Chicken, "Flight of the Pullet",
may have been a poke at Spectrum Holobyte's "Flight of the
Intruder".
The
"Ms." in the title "Ms. Astro Chicken" is a
spoof on the old console games Pacman and Donkey Kong. It was a
trend to re-release a game with kiddie graphics and a title like
"Ms. Pacman" or "Donkey Kong Jr".
The
title for Space Quest X, "The Latex Babes of Estros",
seems to be a poke at the old Infocom text adventure, "Leather
Goddesses of Phobos".
| The
electronics store in the Galaxy Galleria of the disk
version
of SQ4 was called "Radio Shock", in reference
to a large chain of Radio Shacks in the States, which is
called "Radio Shack". The CD-Rom version of SQ4
changed this to "Hz So Good". The Two Guys where
almost sent to court. Scott Murphy: "The way it
worked from the company side is that it is easier and
far economically
sensible to make an art and writing change than go nearly
the level of litigation. It's costly and time consuming.
Oh, and did I mention costly? Mark and I hated to have
to make any changes submitted from outside the team,
but on
occasion you could see the logic (Sometimes I really hate
logic!)." Another difference is the pillars of
Hz. So Good, which are animated. The pillars of Radio
Shock
are not. |
Cd-rom
version
 |
Disk
version
 |
All
the games in the software box, except three, are parodies of other
games. The exceptions are the SQ4 hint book, King's Quest 48 and
the Checkerboard Construction Set from Scumsoft. Here's a list of
the parodies:
- "Boom" is a parody on LucArts' "Loom". The
author of the original game was called Brian Moriaty, but is renamed
Morrie Brianarty in SQ4. The parody box describes the game as having
no interface, no conflicts, no puzzles, no other characters and
no chance of dying; as does "Loom". :)
- "Sim Sim" from MaxThis is a parody on the Sim-games
from Maxis - obviously, Josh Mandel (who wrote the boxes) thinks,
Maxis is releasing too many Sim-games.
- "Where in the World is Hymie Lipschitz (And Who Really Cares?)"
from BroderBuns, is of course a parody on the Carmen Sandiago games
from BroderBund.
- "It Came For Dessert" from Enemaware is a parody on
an old Amiga adventure called "It Came from the Desert"
from Cinemaware, featuring a horde of really big ants. Another note
is that the box mentions "Defender of the Crown Rib Roast",
which is a parody on an earlier strategy game by the same company,
with the same title - except for the rib roast part.
- Cluck Egger lets you design a chicken and make it fly over real
barnyard scenery. This is a parody on a flight simulator, called
"Chuck Yeager".
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|
General