Space Quest III: The Pirates of Pestulon

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The "Two Guys from Andromeda" (Scott Murphy and Mark Crowe) made a special video-appearence in a humorous (and quite a bit silly) Space Quest III promotion film. The short clip was allegedly recovered in the year 2000, and is now downloadable from several sources on the internet.

Astro Chicken

The irritatingly awkward Astro Chicken game features a irritatingly catchy, dubbed by fans "the Astro Chicken theme" (imaginative, huh). But this piece of music wasn't actually created for this game; it first appeared in the first Police Quest game, when someone planted a chicken on Sergeant Dooley's desk.

After winning the Astro Chicken, you are given a hidden message, written in the Galactic Alphabet. For those of you who can't be bothered to decode it, here's what the message says.

``` HELP US! WE ARE BEING HELD CAPTIVE BY SCUMSOFT ON THE SMALL MOON OF PESTULON. AN INPENETRABLE FORCE FIELD SURROUNDS THE MOON. IT MUST FIRST BE DEACTIVATED. IT'S ORIGIN IS UNKNOWN TO US. SCUMSOFT SECURITY IS ARMED WITH JELLO PISTOLS. WE'RE COUNTING ON YOU WHOEVER YOU ARE.

                       TWO GUYS IN TROUBLE

```

When you retrieve the decoder ring and use it to decode the message, one would think that the game would automatically decode it for you.

Death

Very early on in the game, in fact on only the second screen you come to (depending in which direction you walk), there is a piece of metal that, if you try and pick it up, causes you to cut yourself open and bleed to death, without any warning what-so-ever! This classic over-the-top death seemed to be nodded too in the literature to several LucasArts releases, with wording along the lines of "we don't believe you should die every two minutes for merely trying to pick up an object".

DOS version

The PC version of Space Quest III features digitized sound effects in the Sound Blaster or Tandy DAC (TL/SL) sound modes. The majority of these sound effects were actually recorded from the Roland MT-32 version (with a few exceptions such as the the brief speech in the opening sequence).

Supported music devices

The original version supports various music devices, with the most unusual being the Casiotone MT-540 and CT-460 MIDI keyboards. Space Quest III may well be the only game that ever used them. The keyboards feature MIDI input and output ports and can be connected to the PC just like other external synthesizers. The setup program for the game also contains instructions on how to set them up for playback. Support for these keyboards and some other devices was removed in later versions of the game.

Gags

If you eat the "Big Belcher Combo" at Monolith Burger, when you go to leave Roger will come back in, green in the face, and bring it back up.

Glitch

Before performing this trick, be sure to save your game. Now, this is a neat little thing that I discovered. After you've killed the Terminator, go back into Fester's shop on Phleebut and WEAR HAT after buying it. After leaving his shop, before the computer automatically takes the hat off, begin walking in another direction. By doing this, you're stuck on this screen and can walk anywhere. For instance, attempt to walk off the right side of the screen. Once you disappear, go up and around Mog's foot. You should be able to walk on the sky, through the leg and on the roof of the shop. I'm guessing that this is just a glitch in the game. I've never been able to fix it once it happens.

Plot hole

The terminators in SQ3 and SQ5 come after you for not paying for the Labion Terror Beast Whistle. However, those of us who bought the game when it first came out know that the included coupon specified that the Whistle was free.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack for Space Quest III was composed and arranged by Bob Siebenberg, former drummer for the popular band Supertramp.

Speech

This is the first Space Quest game to make use of digitized speech, although it's only in one small part of the game. During the game's introduction you can hear Roger say "Where I am?"

References

• When you first arrive to Monolith Burger, the USS Enterprise (from the original series) warps out of there.
• There's a TIE fighter (from Star Wars) in the garbage ship. However, it's been renamed to a bow-tie fighter from the cologne wars (the original movie mentions the Clone Wars).
• Also in the garbage ship, the ship Jupiter 2 is from the old Lost in Space series.
• Fester has a postcard from Arrakis in his shop. Arrakis is the planet from the movie Dune.
• There's a small signature hiding in the introduction sequence. The pic where the droid is monitoring the escape pod - in the right lower corner, there's a signature reading "Crowe" (as in graphic artist, Mark Crowe).
• "Monolith Burger" is also one of the places in Socket City, where you can work and eat, in Sierra's Jones in the Fast Lane.
• Near the start try typing in "put gem in mouth" and you'll get a message that says "That's only helpful in SQ II" In Space Quest II, you needed to put a gem in your mouth in order to get through a certain section in the game.
• The logo for Scum Soft is a spoof of the logo for Strategic Simulations Inc, which was a popular software company back at the time that Space Quest III was released.

Awards

• Computer Gaming World
  • October 1989 (Issue #64) – Special Award for Achievement in Sound
  • November 1996 (15th anniversary issue) – #2 Best Way To Die In Computer Gaming (the own body parts will be sold by a butcher after death)
• ST Format
  • January 1990 (issue #06) – Included in the list 50 Games of the Year
  • January 1991 (Issue #18) – #5 Best Adventure Game in 1990

Information also contributed by B14ck W01f, Erik Niklas, Jayson Firestorm, Mickey Gabel, Philip Kuhn, Ricky Derocher, Stargazer, William Shawn McDonie, WizardX and theclue