Space Quest IV Skate-O-Rama Tips

[NegaByte]

I thought I should post this as I've only just managed to pass this notoriously infuriating section after coming back to it occasionally over the last 15 months and I have not been able to find any advice on it which worked for me.

• As far as I can tell, it is not possible out of the box in the Legacy version. ie. You should be playing the Space Quest Collection version, rather than the Space Quest Collection (Legacy) version.
  
• You should not need any slow-down tools.
  
• You should not need to mess around with the DosBox configuration. The default of 7000 cycles worked for me.
  
• After leaving the arcade, head to the left side of the Skate-O-Rama and save before entering the Skate-O-Rama.
  
• The steps to actually avoid the Sequel Police are below. Note that you will also need to avoid any other skaters, whose movement seems to be random; these generally won't pose a problem, but you may run into some bad luck.
  
  
  1. Enter the Skate-O-Rama and walk to the right so that you are on the skating rink.
     
  2. Keep moving to the right. Each click will give Roger a burst of speed. There is a rhythm to this which can be identified relatively quickly through the animation.
     
  3. Once you are about halfway across, head to the bottom of the screen. Roger will vanish off the bottom of the screen and re-emerge. You can save while Roger is off the bottom of the screen, but make sure to do so to a new save file.
     
  4. Once re-emerged the Sequel Police seem to have a certain number of shots they will miss you with (which is where the timing issues come from and why this can't be done in the Legacy version). Head along the bottom to the right, so that you transition to the other side of the rink. Again each click will give a burst of speed.
     
  5. On the next screen, the Sequel Police Officer here will also miss for x number of shots. Aim to get to the top of the screen in this time to transition to the top of the skating dome.
     
  6. Once at the top, head left again.
     
  7. Wait along the bottom of the screen towards the left.
     
  8. The Sequel Police will eventually emerge from the right. When they do, immediately head down.
     
  9. Head to the stairs and you're home free.

For me, the biggest issue comes from the first screen transition (steps 1-4). If you manage to do this, you should be fine for the rest of it. I am so glad that I finally managed to get past this section and complete this chapter in the Space Quest saga! It's been holding me up from moving onto V and VI for over a year.

[bliss]

Wow. It's been years for me, but I used to just put the game slider on slowest, the go up near the right border, then right then down.

[Demon of Elru]

I remember when this came out and being stuck there for months not knowing how to get past the sequel police. I remember discovering it on accident and being excited lol.

[TargaL]

Also you can hit ctrl+12 and ctrl+11 buttons to change clock speed up and down. Apparently, dos box key bindings work. I did it after hassling for 15 mins.