Being trapped in a closet can be useful in some instances; like when you are R. Kelly and you feel the need to write a bad song; or if you’re that gay cousin at a redneck family reunion, or perhaps when there is someone attractive locked in said closet with you while playing a hardcore game of “Seven Minutes in Heaven”. I’d have to say the most useful example of being trapped in a closet comes from the tale of one Roger Wilco. You see, Roger was never really what we would call a smart guy, I mean, he lives his life as a Janitor on a space ship. Cool to be on a space ship, not cool to have to clean the toilets. Well, it just so happens that one day, while being trapped in a closet, Roger avoids certain death when Sariens invade his space ship. Roger manages to escape the closet after the main attack on the ship; however, there are 15 minutes until the ship self-destructs. As Roger uses his dulled wits to bumbles through the space ship and look for his escape, he learns from a dying scientist that the Sariens have taken the Star Generator. The scientist then gives him access to a computer cartridge that has the plans to build another generator.

Eventually Roger makes it into a escape pod and crash lands on a desert planet called Ulence Flats, full of exotic… well… sand. As he wonders along aimlessly, he eventually falls into a cave, disarms some traps, and is offered a mission from a local alien. After completing the mission, he is given a little hovercraft, to get him past the giant worms that live in the sand and take him to the nearest town. Once he is in town he can go to a bar, buy some drinks, chat with the locals, and even gamble his way to a new robot and space ship. Upon leaving in your newly bought (yet stolen) space ship, he sets his coordinates to a space system to intercept the Sarien Spacecraft.

Once on the spacecraft, he cleverly hides himself in a laundry machine (go with what you know I suppose) and ends up in a Sarien Uniform. He is then free to move around the ship and do what only Roger Wilco knows to do… bumble about the space ship until he eventually gets the self destruct code for the Star Generator, shoots a couple of bad guys and then makes his way to a different escape pod, just as the Sarien ship explodes. “Save the Universe” high five!

Short and sweet is how I would classify this game. It was very rad back in its day, and I would recommend this game to any gaming nerd who feels the need to go splash around in space heaven for a while. Recently released in a collection with the other 5 Space Quest games, this is the game that launched Sierra Online and PC RPGs alike.

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