Space Quest II: Chapter II - Vohaul's Revenge (DOS)

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Description

The ace janitor Roger Wilco thought he'd seen the last of Sludge Vohaul. However, like every evil scientist is supposed to, Vohaul returns with an even meaner scheme. This time he intends to infest the planet Xenon with thousands of genetically engineered door-to-door life insurance salesmen. The last thing he wants is Roger messing things up, and so the brave janitor is captured and brought to the planet Labion to spend the rest of his days working in Vohaul's mines. Fortunately, the shuttle that takes him to the mines crashes, and Roger is the only survivor. He will have to survive the dangers of the jungle planet Labion, and eventually stop Vohaul from executing his mad plan.

Vohaul's Revenge is the sequel to The Sarien Encounter, and the second game in Sierra's humorous Space Quest series of adventure games. The player navigates Roger Wilco around with arrow keys, and interacts with the world by typing commands. Like in the previous game, there are many ways for the player character to die. Much of the gameplay is dedicated to avoiding the many traps and hazards Roger will meet on his way. Some actions must be performed quickly in order to prevent Roger from getting killed.

Screenshots

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Alternate Titles

• "SQ2" -- Common abbreviated title
• "Space Quest: Chapter Two - Vohaul's Revenge" -- In-game title
• "Space Quest 2" -- Informal title

Part of the Following Groups

• Game Engine: Adventure Game Interpreter (AGI)
• Physical Bonus Content: Comic
• Setting: Space station / Spaceship
• Space Quest series

User Reviews

Suspense and adventuring in a concise form	Oleg Roschin (181731)
Fair but very average sequel in the series	Jayson Firestorm (156)
Similar to the first, but inferior	Andrew Fisher (583)
The game that introduced me to my favorite villain of the series	Katakis | カタキス (39490)
15 hilarious ways to die	Alex Man (32)
Hysterical follow-up to another great game	ex_navynuke! (48)
A worthy sequel. Another of Sierra's high-quality games.	Mirrorshades2k (282)	unrated

Critic Reviews

The Games Machine (UK)	Mar, 1988	95 out of 100	95
Adventure Classic Gaming	Mar 23, 2011		80
Techtite	2000		80
The DOS Spirit	Dec 10, 2012	4.5 out of 6	75
Power Play	Dec, 1988	69 out of 100	69
Joker Verlag präsentiert: Sonderheft	1993	63 out of 100	63
Adventure Gamers	Aug 01, 2008		60
Just Adventure	1999	C+	58
Aventura y Cía	Apr 28, 2002		20
Computer Gaming World (CGW)	Jul, 1988	Unscored	Unscored

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Trivia

Astrochicken

The back of the (original release) box said that Vohaul is "...madder than a drenched Astrochicken". An intriguing phrase to use, as Astro Chicken hadn’t yet been seen in either of the games - it would make it's debut appearance in Space Quest III.

Buckazoids

Space Quest II is the only Space Quest where you do not use Buckazoids (the Space Quest intergalactic currency).

Character name change

For some unexplained reason, Sludge Vohaul's name has mysteriously changed from Slash Vohaul in the first game. (It's not really known why - maybe Sierra thought "Slash" could be taken to sound a little rude for a family game?) Either way, it would remain as Sludge Vohaul for the rest of the series.

Extras

The box included a comic book named "Space Piston" to acquaint newcomers to Roger Wilco, the ex-janitor which became a hero in Space Quest. In the comic book, Roger Wilco is shown as having blond hair, however in the game he has brown hair. Budget re-releases of the game had a copy of the in-box comic in black and white instead of the colour original (well, it was a *budget* re-release!).

Graphics

While it is mentioned on the box that VGA and MCGA are "supported" (they were introduced the same year as this game), they are not "used". The game still used AGI's 16 color low-res mode.

Hidden message

When you select About SQ2 from the Sierra menu after you die, you'll get a message that says

We hope you're not looking for someone to blame just because you died

rather than the usual message.

References

• The game contains allusions to the Larry series. When Roger is caught outside the swamp and thrown into a cage during his unconsciousness he dreams about being a character named Larry and having some incidents with women.
• Sludge Vohual is of course a spoof of Darth Vader from Star Wars, and the monkey guards are a spoof of Planet of the Apes.
• When you're inside Vohaul's asteroid, go to the bathroom on the 4th floor and enter the booth that isn't occupied. Close the door and type:
  
  READ WRITINGS
  
  Among the responses (just repeat the command a couple of times to read them all) the game gives you there's this one referring to the hero from King's Quest:
  
  "Sir Graham Cross Dresses!"
  
  Another one is:
  
  "Ken was here! (So was Al, but we had to repaint afterward.)"
  
  Ken & Al are of course Sierra developers Ken Williams & Al Lowe.
• In the decontamination area (this is where you change your clothes at the start of the game) open your locker. In your locker there are two objects you can take but there's also this joke. Type:
  
  GET CONDOM
  
  The game will respond with:
  
  Sorry. The used Nancy Reagan autographed "Just Say No" condom had to be removed for the shipping version.
  

Information also contributed by Gothicgene, Jayson Firestorm, *Katakis*, Ricky Derocher, and Roedie

Related Web Sites

• Hints for SQ2 (These questions and answers will help you solve the game without spoiling it for you.)
• "Roger Crawling" screen saver for Windows (Figuring out how to convince the parser that you wanted to hold the glowing orium gem in your mouth was the hard part! Now enjoy the fruits of your labours as Roger kicks in with psychedelically-illuminated wanderings (and a relevant, toggleable MIDI soundtrack) through Labion's caves (including squid!) on your desktop to save your monitor from the anachronistic plague of burn-in. From Chris Geroux, as "ScumSoft".)
• ScummVM (supports the DOS, Macintosh, Amiga and Apple IIgs versions of Space Quest II: Chapter II - Vohaul's Revenge under Windown Linux, Macintosh and other platforms.)
• SpaceQuest.Net - Space Quest 2 (Extremely comprehensive site about Space Quest 2: Basic game information, hints, documentation, downloads and behind the scenes stuff, for example a downloadable PDF manual, scans of the official hint book, easter eggs, fun facts, cancelled stuff etc. etc. etc.)