I'm going with the people saying "some years back", but the only statement I remember is "It has been an indeterminate amount of time since Roger Wilco rocketed away from Vohaul's burning space fortress..." The added comment "Its engines long spent" doesn't help because an escape pod probably doesn't have much fuel to begin with, and we can assume that real space and real physics don't matter at all in these silly games (otherwise "...drifts aimlessly through unfamiliar star fields, its course altered many times by small asteroids and space debris... " would imply a VERY VERY LONG TIME, because space is bigger than HUGE, and stuff is REALLY REALLY FAR APART).