Space Quest III
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Space Quest III: The Pirates of Pestulon | |
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Single-player |
Space Quest III: The Pirates of Pestulon is a 1989
Plot
Space Quest III takes place in a universe which parodies notable science-fiction franchises such as Star Trek and Star Wars. The game continues the story of Roger Wilco, a simple janitor who has saved his homeworld twice from disaster. Following the events of Space Quest II, lowly janitor Roger Wilco is in cryogenic sleep, while his escape pod drifts through space.[1] An automated garbage freighter brings it aboard, where Roger awakens. Forced to find a way out, he discovers a derelict spaceship, the Aluminum Mallard, in the freighter's garbage hold. After repairing the ship, Roger pilots it out of the freighter. Visiting the desert planet of Phleebhut, he find himself confronted by an Arnold Schwarzenegger-like android terminator, who was sent to deal with him for failing to pay for a whistle in the previous game. However, Roger outwits him and obtains his invisibility belt.
At an orbital Monolith Burger station, Roger comes across a hidden message in an arcade game he plays, stating that its programmers (known as Two Guys) were abducted by ScumSoft, a sinister video game company on the Planet Pestulon - owned by Elmo Pug, leader of the "Pirates of Pestulon". Roger learns the programmers need rescuing, as ScumSoft intends to use them to design awful games to flood the galaxy. Deciding to rescue them, he visits a lava moon orbiting the planet Pestulon to neutralize a shield generator. Heading to the planet's surface, Roger uses his invisibility belt to infiltrate the base, and secures a disguise in the form of janitor overalls.
Exploring the company, Roger tracks down the Two Guys, but is trapped by Elmo, who forces him into an arena battle using giant Mecha robots (based on the Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots game). Roger overcomes Elmo, defeating him and escapes with the Two Guys. After fighting off several ScumSoft space ships, the trio realize that the warp drive is broken. After tinkering with it, and with no warp course set in, the trio are warped into a parallel dimension via a black hole, ending up before the planet Earth. Roger delivers the two game designers to Sierra On-Line's president, Ken Williams, before departing the planet to return home after being turned down for a janitorial job.
Gameplay
PC versions of the game support mouse movement and a new, heavily improved text parser. Mouse movement was still in a primitive state at the time of the game's release, so Roger is unable to automatically find his way around obstacles in the game world, instead stopping if he encounters a barrier. Computer mice were relatively new at the time, and Sierra's mouse movement would greatly improve in subsequent games.
Astro Chicken
Astro Chicken is an
Development
Space Quest III was developed using an early version of Sierra's SCI engine. Unlike the series' previous installments, the player is no longer able to choose the protagonist's name. From this game onward, the character is known as Roger Wilco, the name that had previously been the default.
It features music composed by Supertramp drummer Bob Siebenberg, and was one of the first games to support the new Sound Blaster sound card.[2] Sound effects include digitized audio sampling, such as the voice of Roger saying "Where am I?" during the introduction. The digitized effects can be heard in the Tandy, Amiga and Macintosh versions of the game. Though Space Quest III was designed to utilize the Sound Blaster's ability to play digital samples, the inclusion of an incorrect audio driver left the effects unavailable to IBM PC users with the Sound Blaster card.
The game features a scene at ScumSoft where parody versions of Sierra's president, Ken Williams, and director of operations, Rick Cavin, are depicted as overseers cracking whips over software developers in cubicles. Murphy designed this scene to satirize the negative trends he observed at Sierra at the time.[3]
Space Quest III was released on March 24, 1989.
Several fan remake attempts were cancelled over the years.[4] On 2003, a non playing VGA demo was released.[5][6] In 2023, a fan remake titled Space Quest 3D was released.[7]
Reception
In the September 1989 edition of
The editors of
In the May 1990 edition of
According to Sierra On-Line, combined sales of the Space Quest series surpassed 1.2 million units by the end of March 1996.[18]
References
- ^ "Space Quest III: The Pirates of Pestulon Walkthrough". Adventuredoor.net. Retrieved 2024-04-13.
- ^ Kirk Green (Spring 1989). "From Supertramp to Space Quest III: An Interview with Bob Siebenberg". Interaction Magazine. Retrieved 2024-04-13.
- ^ Kosta Andreadis (2014-08-31). "Clearing Up Space Quest's 25 Year Old Mystery". IGN. Retrieved 2024-04-13.
- ^ "Space Quest III - A classic Sci-fi adventure sequel reviewed by Cola Powered Gamer". indieretronews.com. 2019-10-07. Retrieved 2020-02-22.
Sadly, the game did not receive a VGA remake or a fan remake. There were several attempts by the fans to make a Space Quest III remake, but they never came to fruition.
- ^ "Space Quest 3 VGA Non-Playable Demo". Adventure Game Studio. 2002-08-17. Retrieved 2020-02-22.
- ^ Space Quest 3 VGA [non-playable demo] at the Internet Archive
- Hookshot Media. Retrieved 5 June 2023.
- Computer and Video Games. No. 94. p. 68.
- ^ Lesser, Hartley; Lesser, Patricia; Lesser, Kirk (September 1989). "The Role of Computers". Dragon (149): 78–79.
- ^ Lesser, Hartley; Lesser, Patricia; Lesser, Kirk (December 1991). "The Role of Computers". Dragon (176): 62.
- ^ Guerra, Bob (November 1989). "Space Quest III: The Pirates of Pestulon". Compute!: 134. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
- ^ Plotkin, David; Reese, Andrew; Cushman, Carolyn (January 1990). "Strange New Worlds to Conquer". STart. Vol. 4, no. 6.
- ^ Lombardi, Chris (August 1989). "Review: Space Quest III". Computer Gaming World. No. 62. pp. 36–37.
- ^ "Game of the Year Awards". Computer Gaming World. October 1989. p. 8.
- ^ "The 15 Best Ways To Die In Computer Gaming". Computer Gaming World. November 1996. p. 107. Retrieved 25 March 2016.
- Game Player's PC Strategy Guide. 3 (2): 11, 12. March–April 1990.
- Games International. No. 14. p. 46.
- ^ Sierra On-Line Form 10-K (Report). Bellevue, Washington. March 31, 1996. pp. 7–9. Archived from the original on April 16, 2018.
External links
- Space Quest 3D - a 2023 freeware point-and-click 3D fan remake made with Unity (game engine)
- Space Quest III at MobyGames
- Space Quest III can be played for free in the browser at the Internet Archive