Space Quest IV: Roger Wilco and the Time Rippers

Space Quest IV: Roger Wilco and the Time Rippers is a single-player point-and-click adventure game. It continues the misadventures of Roger Wilco, a hapless space janitor who repeatedly finds himself caught in intergalactic crises far beyond his cleaning duties.

The story begins with Roger relaxing at a spaceport bar when heavily armed enforcers storm in, announcing that his old enemy, Sludge Vohaul, has not been defeated after all. Just as Roger is about to be executed, he is rescued by a mysterious stranger wielding an unusual weapon and hurled through a rip in time. He lands in the dark future of Space Quest XII, where Vohaul has taken control of his home planet, transformed it into a dystopia, and populated it with deadly cybernetic minions. To survive and fulfill his role as an unlikely hero, Roger must navigate across different eras of the Space Quest series, eluding pursuers and untangling a fate that connects both his past and future.

The game is the first in the series to abandon the text parser interface, replacing it with Sierra’s icon-based SCI system. Players use a set of visual icons to perform actions: walking, looking, using, taking, talking, and interacting with the environment through touch, smell, or taste. As with earlier entries, progress comes from solving inventory-based puzzles, deciphering environmental clues, and navigating timed sequences where poor choices often result in Roger’s death.

Animated cutscenes advance the narrative, while voice acting is present in later CD-ROM editions, giving Roger and supporting characters voiced personalities.