SPACE QUEST III: THE PIRATES FROM PESTULON
REVIEW
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YEAR: 1989
SIZE: 25 MB
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+ Exciting story
+ Hilarious exploits
+ Some puzzles have multiple ways to solve them
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- Tricky arcade mini-game
- Frustrating action sequence
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STORY
After escaping from Vohaul’s asteroid, and putting himself in a deep
cryo-sleep in Space Quest II, Roger’s escape pod has been drifting
aimlessly through space.
After an unknown amount of time, the escape pod is found by a scrap
metal freighter manned by robots. The freighter takes the escape pod
aboard, thinking it to be scrap metal, and not even releasing Roger is
inside.
The experience de-activates the cryo-sleep chamber, waking Roger up.
And his first thought is… ‘Where Am I?’.
Thus begins Roger’s new adventure.
He has to find a way off this god-forsaken freighter. Which is no easy
task! His escape pod is now useless. He has to contend with robots,
conveyer belts, rats, and more. Not to mention, if he DOES find a ship…
how is he gonna get it off this scrap metal freighter?
Despite all the odds, Roger succeeds in his escape! But now what?
Perhaps a tasty meal at the local Monolith Burger will calm his frayed
nerves and give him a chance to think. But a chance encounter with the
arcade machine sets him on a NEW path. He discovers that Two Guys
From Andromeda have been kidnapped, and held against their will by
the employees of ScumSoft. And only Roger can save them.
Will Roger find the Two Guys? Will he be able to rescue them? Or will
he, too, end up as a captive of the evil ScumSoft Corporation?
　
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GAMEPLAY
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Space Quest III: The Pirates Of Pestulon is the third game in the
hilarious Space Quest series. The same good humour and witty
dialogue that you’ve come to know and expect, is still present here.
Surprisingly, this is the first game where Roger Wilco is actually named.
In the previous 2 games, he was just an un-named hero (with his name
only mentioned in the documentation). But here, his name is actually
used in the game itself.
The game uses a combination of the traditional text parser (meaning
you type in commands through your keyboard), and a menu-based
system (click your mouse at top of the screen) to interact with the
game world.
The text parser controls your actions, and you have the freedom to try
anything you want. And the text parser here has been greatly improved
over the previous game, allowing you to try out a much greater variety
of commands. So if you want to ‘Dance On Warp Motivator’, or ‘Throw
Ladder Into Hole’, or ‘Sing To Arnoid‘, you can try that. If you want to
‘Eat Detonator’, you can try that, as well. You can try anything you
want, although you may not always like the result. Press the Tab key
on your keyboard, or use the ’Inventory’ Menu, to see a list of items you
are carrying, while ‘Examine [Inventory Item]’ gives more of a
description of it. Pressing F3 on your keyboard repeats the last thing
you typed, which is very handy if you weren’t quite in the correct
position.
Movement is controlled by using the Cursor keys, or by clicking your
mouse where you want to move.
The menu-based system (click your mouse at top of the screen to see
it) allows you to Save, Restore, Restart, or Quit your game. I
recommend you Save your game often, using different Save slots,
because you can die in this game. A lot. Personally, I find looking for
the various ways to die is half the fun - there are so many hilarious
Death messages! You can also access your Inventory from the Menus
here. The Speed mechanism has been much improved in SQIII. Gone
are the preset Normal, Slow, Fast, Fastest. Instead, you can use ‘+’ or ‘-’
on your keyboard to increase or decrease speed, exactly as you like.
I really love how The Two Guys In Trouble, which Roger has to rescue,
are really Mark Crowe and Scott Murphy, who are the brains behind the
Space Quest games.
On the down-side, I did find SQIII a bit more ‘arcadey’ (is that really a
word?) than the previous 2 games. There is an arcade machine in
Monolith Burger - Astro Chicken - which is insanely hard to complete
successfully. And you have to play it (successfully or not) 10 times for
something special to happen. I think 3 or 4 times would have been
better. And while playing this arcade game is not necessary for
completing Space Quest III, doing so furthers the plot by explaining why
you have to do certain things. Also, near end of the game is a tedious
Tie Fighter style ‘Shoot-The-Enemy-Spaceships sequence. In this, you
have to try and target the enemy spaceships and shoot them, while
frequently keeping an eye on your radar, and moving shields from Front
to Back, and vice versa.
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GRAPHICS
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Space Quest III has some lovely graphics, especially in the Intro and the
Outro. Animation throughout the game is nice and smooth. I love the
cinematic intro, with Roger’s tiny pod getting taking aboard the huge
freighter, and then Roger waking up. Fester’s World O’ Wonders is an
amazing place, with some really unusual merchandise. Where else
could you buy ‘Orat-On-A-Stick’? And Arnoid The Terminator is a
wonderful nod to the Terminator films. The animation of Roger eating
his meal at Monolith Burger is lovely to see, especially when a lump of
food appears in his throat as he gulps it down. And each planet Roger
visits is so different! The whole game has so many references to other
TV programmes and films - just take your time to ‘LOOK’ at everything.
You can see anything from the ACME rocket in Road Runner, to giant
Transformer heads, to references to HAL in Space Oddity, to Star Trek,
and so much more. You even see Ken Williams (head of Sierra) offer a
job to The Two Guys From Andromeda (Mark Crowe and Scott Murphy,
brains behind Space Quest) at end of the game, and it was just amazing
to see the whole outro cutscene play out.
Text is displayed at bottom of the screen as you type, while
conversations are shown in a text box in middle of the screen.
Inventory items can be examined for clues when you EXAMINE an item.
There is so much to explore and love about Space Quest III!
　
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SOUND AND MUSIC
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Space Quest III: The Pirates Of Pestulon is the first SQ game to support
proper sound cards. The game took advantage of showing off sound
card capabilities by including Roger’s voice saying ‘Where Am I?’ in the
intro, as well as giving more depth to background music. There is still
not that much music in the game, but what music there is, is lovely to
listen to. And the music changes sometimes, depending on what scene
you’re at.
Sound effects are also used sparingly, but effectively. Things like the
beep of the Grabber machine, the hum of the force field generator, and
the bangs as the generator are all fun to listen to. The theme song
from the Astro Chicken arcade machine, is also a catchy little ditty that
you’ll be humming for hours.
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Give the game a try - you won’t be disappointed!
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