Points of Interest from the Space Quest 5 Beta Version

An early version of SQ5 (version 0.028, to be precise) found its way onto the Internet and was downloaded by many a user. Not only is this version much more bug-ridden than the later version of SQ5, but there are also a lot of interesting differences between SQ5 and the SQ5 beta.

Most of the differences in version 0.028 are errors of punctuation (periods, commas, etc. are missing), and some of the dialogue is slightly different or shorter than the release version's. There are also quite a few spelling errors -- all of the text I've typed here is copied verbatim from the text in the game itself.

The lemur-like animal in the foreground as the bridge simulator powers down in the intro is absent.

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The description of the ship on the right side of the docking bay near Roger's classroom is: "This sleek little beauty is for sale and can be yours for a mere 10,000 buckazoids. Dial 1-503-555-1-GUY and ask for Mark."

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The message that appears when Roger recognizes Beatrice reads: "Omigosh, it's her! The woman from the holodisk in SQ4. Now's your big chance, Roger. Say something witty and romantic."

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After meeting Quirk and Beatrice, Roger doesn't try to warn Quirk about the slipperiness of the rotunda.

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The narration of Roger's exploits after completing the test calls the Eureka the SS Eureka instead of the SCS Eureka.

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Flo introduces herself by saying, "And I'm Flo Qwerty, com specialist Grade 4" instead of "Flo's the name. I'm your com specialist – Grade 4."

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The red glow in the bridge's ceiling doesn't fluctuate (Jonathon contributed this observation).

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Roger doesn't try out the captain's chair immediately after he trips over it – the "It was the chair – honest!" dialogue never appears.

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Flo's description in this version is inadequately punctuated – It calls her "happy go lucky" instead of "happy-go-lucky" (with hyphens). Fortunately, they fixed this in the release version.

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After Spike is picked up, Cliffy only reports that there are scratching noises coming out of the waste compartment instead of scratching and whining noises.

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The green lights in the three tubes on the left side of the Eureka's engineering section move along the tubes in unison instead of one at a time.

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The description of Cliffy's toolbox spells the Eureka's name "Eureaka".

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The message you get when you clean up the toolbox is "You replace all the tools back where you found them" instead of "In order not to irk Cliffy, you put back the tools where you found them."

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The description of the Habitube is quite different: "Performing maintenance on this specimen container is a tankless job – just ask Cliffy."

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The description of Spike in your inventory is a little more juvenile – it describes him as "not completely potty-trained".

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When you talk to Droole after reaching your first destination and ask him about how he got assigned to the Eureka, he tells you that he got "sh*tcanned" after his mistake on the SCS Stupendous instead of just "canned".

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When WD40's ship hits the Eureka with a torpedo, Droole only says that the ship has been caught in "some kind of tractor beam".

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Roger doesn't yell "D'OH!!" when he grabs the dead limb on Kiz Urazgubi.

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The message you get after WD40 shoots out of the pool is worded differently:

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If you try to grab the fruit before poking it with a stick, the message you get is missing a crucial word. The first sentence reads "You can't quite reach this piece fruit."

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Different inventory description of the fruit: "Tough, inedible fruit from Kiz Urazgubi. (What else do you expect from a planet with that name?)"

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The description of WD40's detatched head is a little more descriptive: "You see a round metallic, roughly head shaped object."

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Cliffy's dialogue is different when he gives you the "souvenir" from WD40: "I was putting the Oakhurst Queen back together and I had this piece left over. Thought you might want it."

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You get a harmless error message complaining that it can't find the appropriate message when you try talking to WD40 while Cliffy is reassembling her. Fortunately, this problem was fixed in the release version.

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Droole's comment about taking some time off is slightly different: "Captain, we've been on duty for quite a while now sir, and I think we could all stand some R and R."

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…As is his dialogue as he and Flo rush to the transporter: "Let's party! Last one down to the station is a rotten swinefalcon ova!"

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In the Spacebar, Roger threatens to kick Quirk's tailpipe into the next quadrant. I guess the designers thought "aft side" would be a little less vulgar.

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Klorox II is mispelled Clorox II throughout the game.

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All that the mutant says before he starts launching mucus globs at Roger is "Try and dodge my death loogies, Monkey Boy", to which Roger replies, "Get off me!! And get a dermatologist." The loogie dodging sequence also quickly fades out, then in again after each successful dodge – a little disconcerting.

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The mutant's last words are "Look to the west…secret path…". Roger doesn't say "What a bunch of gibberish!" in response to this.

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The last description of the Primordial Soup canister is "If found, contact Genetix at coordinates 41666".

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As Roger is plummeting to his death in the escape pod, the conversation between the aliens watching him is somewhat different. Crumpella says, "I wish I had never bought Rexx Nebular" when Slep tells her to make a wish, and he says nothing in reply. This is a badly disguised jab at the Microprose adventure game Rex Nebular and the Cosmic Gender Bender, which came out around the same time as SQ5 and is quite similar to Space Quest. However, Crumpella's wish was changed in the final version of SQ5 before Microprose got wind of this.[Added 1-24-08]

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Now for the infamous messages fired after the transport accident on Genetix:

"The probability of an insect flying into the transporter field at the exact moment of beamout is approximately 1,365,500,012 to 1 against."
"The odds of a transporter feedback overload during beamout are calculated at 2,069,432,112 to 1 against."
"The likelihood of both of these events occurring simultaneously is about equal to the probability of your computer monitor suddenly jumping up off your desk and smacking you on the head."
"But as the Xenonions of Roger's home world are fond of saying: ‘Doc Premis Wilco Whoopsie" which translates roughly to "If it's going to happen to anyone it will happen to Roger.'"
(I personally think this text kicks the release version's text in the proverbial hindquarters.)

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Roger is a little less composed when he manages to contact Flo on Genetix:

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The Projects section of the Genetix computer is really bizarre -- instead of telling the player about Primordial Soup right away, it has a table of contents listing various other projects such as "Project Out of Sight Out of Mind" and "Operation Urban Releaf". The first project, "Project Overkill, says this:

"**After repeated experimental trials and the expenditure of several billion Buckazoids, we been unable to dtermine if the light DOES stay on when the refrigerator door is closed.
Keep going"
After this paragraph, there is a block of gibberish made up of five-letter words like "isput", "tatqu" and "aliqu", with the occasional "Keep going" line between paragraphs. There is a section for each of the projects, but the contents of all of them save "Project X" (Primordial Soup) are the same gibberish. The Primordial Soup entry is quite fragmented as well.

Quirk's full name in this version is James T. Quirk, according to the Genetix computer. The designers changed his first name to Raemes for the release version.

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After she is cured, Beatrice asks Roger, "OK but I've got one question. How'd I get this tattoo?"

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When Droole says that they need to try taking over the Goliath after Beatrice is cured, Roger scoffs, "And pigs might fly out my butt!". "Pigs" was replaced with "space monkeys" in the release version.

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Cliffy's request for Roger to come to the lab to look at his plans for boarding the Goliath is pretty bland in comparison to the one in the release version.

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The only safe section the Goliath is different in this version! In the release version, it's the section second closest to the engines, in this version, it's the section directly adjacent to them (which you can't select in the release version).

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When Flo contacts Roger after the Goliath's crew is saved, the beeping that the communicator makes has subtitles – the words "beep beep!" appear on the screen twice, first in small, then larger fonts.

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The first message you hear when you are beamed back aboard the Eureka after the blob comes into being is "***Captain get up here quick! The puckoid mass is attacking the Goliath!" (Puckoid? Sounds like a monster that plagues ice hockey rinks.)

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When the blob escapes the compartment, the message that appears is "***Yeeuuck! The giant, undulating blob has burst through the trash containment hatchway! You're in deep doo-doo now!…literally!"

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There is no closing text – the game just jumps directly to the credits.

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