Even though this game was made all the back in 1989 it is a huge leap forward technologically from SQ2! The game uses a new engine, the Sierra Creative Interpreter or SCI, as opposed to the Adventure Game Interpreter or AGI, that the first two SQs used. Also the game had some fantastically composed music which you really didn't hear unless you had a Roland MT-32 soundcard the Tandy version if you had 516k of memory even had digitized special effects and Roger speaking (he said one line "Where am I?"). The new engine always for mouse support which isn't that useful, but the parser is better as it stops the game to let you type in your commands. For more gritty details on Space Quest 3 see here or here. I've got the Roland Soundtrack and will be putting it up into the posts as we come to the areas that contain the music... For now here is a video of the introduction to the game
Space Quest 3 picks up right where the 2nd one left off! And we're diving right into it. I recommend reading this post while listening to these tracks: the introduction and opening theme.
Roger is now ready again to save something, somehow! Where is Roger? How does he get out of here? How long has he been sleeping? What happened to his soiled jockstrap? What is Pestulon, and why does it have Pirates? Why am I talking to myself? These questions and more will be answered as we Let's Play SQ3!
Roger is back! After stretching his legs he takes in his surroundings:
>look
old spaceware? That sounds boring! What Roger needs is some adventure! He heads south:
Hey! I don't know if Roger recognizes those ships but I sure do!
>look rocket
>look fighter
>look saucer
No cheating! Identify what movies/television shows these three ships are from! Roger tinkers around with a few of these inspecting the ships as he looks closer at the Jupiter 2 he goes to move the a stray piece of metal:
> get metal
Curiosity kills Roger. Stop wasting your time with junk! You've got to get out of here! A quick load of a saved game and Roger is back to normal with his blood flowing in his veins instead of out of them. Doing all that he can do here Roger heads east:
>look
>look buckets
>look gear
>look arm
I don't know how helpful that is... Roger heads back to the shuttle to check out that spaceware he passed by before further exploring the junk frieghter
From the useless escape pod Roger heads east, after finding nothing of interest south of the ship (if you don't count all that neat junk!)
>look around
I tried to look at the skull and the arm in the foreground but Roger seems unable to see them, and or I didn't type the right combination of words, when that happens SQ3 kicks this back at you:
With nothing more here Roger heads into the tube:
>look around
(I like to think that this is one of the corridors from Vohual Sludge's asteroid base) Not much to look at really, there do seem to be a lot of wires though
>look wire
Wires are stupid and Roger still hasn't forgiven it for choking him several times while he was playing with his 'My First Space Electrician' kit his mom got him when he was six, Onward!
>look around
>look head
Even Roger's not that dense! He heads (get it?) over to the Robot and tries to climb through the open eye, but not seeing any immediate attention Roger lets his mind wander... and slips:
*rewind*
>climb eye
Well there's plenty of things to look at here!
>look around
>look small ship
>look small ship
(There might be more, these were the only two I got)
>Look large ship
>look toys (or legos, or tinker toys)
Roger pokes around but isn't able to get in the ship, there is a hatch up there but the ship is too slick/high to climb up, he begins looking for an exit
>look head
Looks like a ladder to me! Roger heads over to it
>climb
As Roger climbs out of the eye of the giant robot he remembers his original reason for returning to the escape pod, the space junk, he hurries through the tube back to the pod:
>look around
>look spaceware
>look motivator
How very fascinating, and useless! Roger begins to think he'll never get out of here... If only there was some way to get over these mountains of junk... some way to get above... Aha! Those junk buckets! Roger heads southeast:
As Roger stands in front of where the buckets emerge from the ground he frantically attempts to get in one, but nothing seems to work, until, he just happens to find himself standing in a bucket?! (yup, no command necessary you just have to stand in the right place)
Roger is slowly taken up into the air and then unceremoniously dumped onto a conveyor:
Sorry, I don't have a screen capture of "look around" for these screens, you can't type anything while the bucket is lifting you and then you only have so much time to get off the belt before... well you get the idea, those grinders aren't made for hugging! Well, sitting on a conveyor belt heading towards grinders doesn't seem like the ideal place for a world saving hero to be...
>stand (yes you have to type this command in before Roger will do anything else)
Roger tries turning around and outrunning the conveyor belt but no matter how fast he moves that inevitably ends with:
*REWIND*
>jump
Roger wasn't really aiming for that beam (he figured the piles of jagged metal junk would break his fall, but he'll take it)
>look around
Well, at least we're safe... Roger, at random, decides to head to the west in search of way off this bar, that doesn't involve this:
Yup, we're not going to do that at all, westward.
least it looks like Roger's getting somewhere!
I forgot to post it earlier but here's the music for when you are walking around the Freighter!
>look around
>look droid
Roger contemplates calling out to the droid but then he remembers this dream he had where his life was being narrated to him and he was told that the robots on this ship had no respect for organics... He heads over to the machine and
>climb down (sound effects here)
He backs the grabber back a little until it lines up with the balcony and
>exit grabber
and walks south...
whoops.
>look around
>look rats (they appeared one by one... While ominous music plays)
Hmm... Well the way out is clearly marked by the ladder there in the upper-right corner... but what else is around? Roger pokes and prods getting numerous generic messages... he also spends some time walking in and out the of lights admiring the cutting edge lighting effects of 1989 (?!)Roger takes a closer look
>look lamps
>look wires
>look hole
The great thing is that Roger understands all of this because of the "My First Space Electrician" kit his mom got him so many years ago... Oh the memories! Memories won't help him get into that sweet looking ship though! Roger is sure the ladder will help though!
Roger heads over to the ladder and
>climb ladder
Roger finds himself back in the ship graveyard
>get ladder
With a means of vertical transportation Roger heads back through the tube, into the eye and back to the Aluminum Mallard (sounds terrifying, I know)
>use ladder
>climb ladder
well the hatch is obvious enough but what's this gaping hole in the back?
>look hole
Well that didn't help
>open hatch
and find ourselves in the ship!
>look around
Ohh, a button! Lets push it
>push button
Lame! What else can we do? Well that monitor is conspicuous enough
>look computer
An Aux. Reactor, huh? All that snooping has paid off! Roger knows just where to get one of those! He exits the ship (going through the hatch again), down the ladder (grabbing it) climbs out of the eye, through the tube, back to the ship graveyard, back up the bucket, across the conveyor, onto the beam, into the grabber, onto the balcony, down the chute, and into the rat nest, where he goes over to the hole and
>get reactor
Roger uses the ladder to get out of the nest, and retrieves it again, and heads back to the tube...
This isn't good!
Next time the hunt begins in earnest!
Still a little shaken and stunned by the vicious attack Roger goes through his pockets and finds that his recently acquired reactor is missing! Roger doesn't feel great about stealing from sentient giant rats that have to live on a garbage freighter, but he also has an overwhelming urge to not join them here, back to the Rat's Nest. Roger goes through the tube, through the ship graveyard, up the buckets, across the conveyor, onto the beam, onto the grabber, across the balcony, down the chute and back into the nest. Roger notices that the lights once again are lit. He grabs the reactor again and uses the ladder to exit, grabbing it as he goes (ouch!) Back through the tube, into the eye, up the ladder onto the Aluminum Mallard and into it: Roger, not having had the "My First Spaceship Construction Kit" as a child doesn't really know where to put the thing but that hole in the flooring looks promising...
>look floor
>use reactor
Hmm... where has Roger seen wire (the UL approved variety)? Oh yeah, all over the tube! Roger exits the ship, climbs out the eye and enters the tube:
>get wire
Back to the ship!
>use wire
Everything works?
>look computer
A Warp Motivator... I've seen one of those! But it looks to heavy to lift and I certainly couldn't climb the ladder using it... How could I? I've got it, the grabber! Back to the junkyard! By now you know the way to get there so I'm not going to recount it here, Roger makes his way to the grabber and settles into it:
(see Roger there in the background?)
Okay how does this thing work?
>look controls
That couldn't be simpler!
Roger pushes down on the claw button
>push claw
Okay so my aim isn't the best, let's move a little more to the east and try again!
>push claw
Alright, Roger's got the motivator! Now to drop it off. I hope we won't need additional wiring
>push claw
Success! Roger heads back to the other u-turn, onto the balcony and down the chute (again.) Then back to the Mallard to run that diagnostic program one more time
>look computer
We see the same 3 screens we saw previously and then this one when it gets to the warp motivator:
Booyah! Roger 1, stupid junk freighter 0!
Roger heads up to the cockpit
>sit pilotseat
>look around
>look control panel
Damn, what do I need to type to actually figure out how to get out of here? and what's that poking into Roger's lower back?
>search seat
Booyah, again! Free money! Roger 2, Universe 0.
>look screen
hmm... what to do first?
>1
I mean:
>7
>1
>8
>H
Well that isn't very helpful... But Roger (and I) have watched enough Star Trek to know that the first thing you do is put your shields up!
>F
So, all we have to do know is blow ourselves a way out of this damn thing!
>[Spacebar]
Roger did it! The game automatically dumps us into the navigation screen:
>1
The navigation system begins scanning each sector scrolling to the right and then dropping a line when it reaches the last, Roger scans the whole gird and comes up with
Ortega:
Phleebhut:
and, Monolith Burger:
And now it is up to you Talking Time! Where is Roger going first?
I showed a few of them in narrative, here's the rest of them!
Trying to walk on the curved rail:
Waiting around in the grabber (or I guess they aren't harmless):
Walking off the Balcony (not into the chute):
Falling off the Mallard (the lethal variety):
Returning to the Rat's Nest without the ladder:
Cutting the engines several meters above the "ground":
Blowing a hole out of the Freighter without turning on the shields:
Roger aims to please and the multiple voices in his head are in agreement: He must eat. Roger heads to sector 62:
>2
Cut Scene!
Warp speed is full of pretty colors
Roger soon finds himself orbiting the future of fast food...
>look around
>look alien
>talk alien
>kiss alien (it worked before!)
Okay, we get it no one wants to even acknowledge that Roger exists, fine he doesn't care *sniffle* he just came for some damn food, into the line!
Damn! I can't get food either?! Well, this screen is bust Roger moves to the west (how is that even possible in space on a space station?)
Ohh, that ship is blue!
Roger heads over to the dock to get a closer look, only to discover that its unlocked?! He heads in...
That's not good!
Uuch... that's just not nice, Roger was only looking! As Roger slowly gets to his feet, making sure he's all there and everything is in working order he notices the aracade machine behind him
>look machine
Astro Chicken? That sounds fun but Roger's sooooo hungry, maybe after he eats. To the menu:
>look menu
Roger can't decide whether everything sounds delicious or disgusting. He's only got seven buckazoids, so the big belcher combo is out. hmm, hmm, well might as well spend it all on something good, God knows how long its been since Roger's last meal
>(F6)
>look clerk
>talk clerk
What the hell?
>kiss clerk
>Talk clerk
Green freaks with giant eyes are never any help... Roger looks at the menu one more time and orders a
>7
Jeez, is Roger ever going to get to eat?
The disgusting alien thanks us for our order and then goes about "assembling" it. Before, Roger knows it he's holding a giant paper sack full of greasy food-like items, and sits down to devour them
At least Roger got a Decoder Ring out of it
Not sure what good it is to him, but Roger no longer questions what items he takes/steals and keeps, not after using his stained jock-strap sling to throw a rock at a sentient monkey man, killing it. With a full "meal" in him Roger returns to the Astro Chicken machine:
>look machine
>use money
Damn! Roger completely forgot about keeping a buckazoids for the arcade machine! Damn, guess he'll have to come back when he's got some money
Eastward to the Mallard!
There you go Talking Time the Monolith Burger! Where to next? Phleebhut or Ortega? You Decide! If you really, really like the Monolith Burger and want to see just what Astrochicken is, don't worry I'm sure we'll be back! Now for the one death in Monolith Burger.
Entering That blue ship again:
Roger set's course for Ortega and sooner than you'd think we're there
>stand
>look window
>push red (this'll open the floor door)
Roger heads south of the ship and then to the west
Looks like our next stop is going to be Phleebhut...
There's only one place Roger can go it seems: Phleebhut. Roger scans for the system and punches it, before he knows it he's landed his ship on the purple(?) planet of Phleebhut.
>look window
>push red (yup, this works!)
Hmm... Maybe he just wants to talk? I mean he kinda looks friendly, right, right?
>look around
Roger, on a whim, heads east to explore the planet
>look around
I tried a number of difference words to get a closer look at those pods but nothing seemed to look (aliens, alien, pod, pods, overhang, etc,) If I go east from here I just end up back at the ship. Roger backtracks one screen to the west and then north
>look around
Since it's the only thing around Roger headstowards the giant blue monster
As Roger approached the Giant he noticed a small alien family parked out front
As the blue alien retreated into the "World O' Wonders" Roger took in the scene
>look around
Roger approaching the door notices a small table with a glass lid, upon closer inspection:
>look table
>open table
That Antarean Slime Devil was a little to friendly...
*rewind*
Roger heads on into the shop
>look around
>look shelves
Roger tries to talk to Fester but he seems more interested in selling Roger things
Fester Blatz has all sorts of things for sale!
All of those things look great, but Roger doesn't have any money... He tries to stall by looking at the postcards on the counter.
If Roger doesn't want to be kicked out of here he better come up with something to do in here...
In a bid to buy more time Roger leans over to
>kiss alien
While Roger was leaning in to kiss he noticed the stones in the display case
>look table
Roger has some of that! The gem he found on Labion!
>sell gem
>no
>no
>yes
With 425 buckazoids now burning a hole in his pocket Roger starts buying
>buy chicken hat
>buy stick
>buy underwear
after each purchase Fester replied:
Well, with nothing else to buy Roger heads back out into the Purple Desert:
Arnoid here is flashing an awful lot as he moves from invisible to visible, it looks like I missed a shot of him... No worries you'll see what he looks like soon enough:
And with that he sets me down. Roger doesn't trust this robot one bit... There's no way he'll ever let him get to his ship... Think fast Roger! Ok, there's two ways Roger can defeat the Arnoid Terminater unit. I'll be showing you both, with the maximal scoring one first.
But first! Last night I realized that I haven't been sharing the music with you guys so far, and that's a real shame because it is all fantastic!
Music inside the Rat's Nest.
Escaping the Freighter, The Navigation Screen, and first Arnoid cutscene
Monolith Burger (I can't get this tune out of my head)
Enjoy!
As soon as Roger is set down he heads south, then east making a beeline for those suspicious looking pods, he's got an idea... He quickly heads to the back of the overhang making sure to stay well away from grounds directly below them. Let's hope it works!
Once in place Roger waits and watches... he notices the foot prints appearing in the sand and crosses his fingers... He certainly hopes that the alien pods are like every other alien fauna he's run into, deadly.
Success! Roger takes a moment to admire his handiwork
An invisibility belt! Roger is gripped by Techno-lust! But how is he going to get it? If only he had something that could extend his grip and grab the belt safely? Some sort of claw on a stick... or an Orat on a Stick! Roger maneuvers himself to the side of the junk and
>use stick on belt
looking over the belt Roger notes that it is low on power.
Now the alternative:
As soon as Arnoid sets Roger down he panics and heads westward, noting that he can enter the giant tourist tap Roger heads in and up:
Once off the elevator Roger heads up to the second floor frantically looking for something, anything to fight Arnoid with... while searching he sees the elevator descend.
These pulleys will have to do, when Arnoid gets close enough to Roger
>throw pulley
the pulley runs along its track, smashing into Arnoid and sending him into the machine works... As Roger heads towards the shaft wondering how he'll get back down Fester appears to give you a ride.
Now that Roger has money again, he can finally play the game that is taking the universe by storm - Astro Chicken. Besides he's hungry again... Killing robots is hard!
After defeating Arnoid, Roger heads back to the Mallard and blasts off of Phleebhut never to return and sets his nav system for Monolith Burger and beofe he knows it he's there! Before Roger plays AstroChicken he grabs a Big Belcher Combo and sits down to eat it, Once he's done its time to play!
>play game
Let's Play!
I was able to land Astro 10 times using only 2 buckazoids! My reward this secret coded message!
But what does it mean? If only I had a decoder! Wait, Roger does! He got it in the happymeal.
>use decoder ring
That isn't very helpful... Good thing as I child I used this code with friends to write secret messages to each other and can read it without the decoder!
The message reads:
Help us! We are being held captive by scumsoft on the small moon of pestulon. an impenetrable 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
Roger doesn't have anything else to do and that name, Pestulon, is in the title of his game so it must be important! To Pestulon! Wait, where is Pestulon? Roger has no clue but the only place he hasn't been is Ortega, so the answer must be there. To Ortega!
(with a quick stop to evacuate the contents of his stomach)
Getting hit by a Scorpazoid (they appear randomly):
Head south too far from anywhere:
Go too far north:
Step under the pods:
Walking into the Gears:
Get caught by Arnoid
Fall down the elevator shaft after defeating Arnoid:
Roger, having emptied his stomach all over the plasteel floor of Monolith Burger is now ready to head to Ortega, he sets the ships nav computer to it and punches it into lightspeed
>stands
>look underwear
>wear underwear
>push red
Roger heads out onto the volcanic surface of Ortega
Now that he doesn't have to worry about melting Roger does some exploring, only to come to the realization that he can only go one way
shaky!
One screen south and Roger stumbles upon, some scumsoft men working on technical stuff (somehow I didn't take a picture of the men working and Roger hiding behind a rock... just screens of narrative exposition, sorry!)
>look men
>look equipment
staying behind the wall of rocks Roger moves east
>look ship
Roger heads back west and waits, after awhile the men finish they're work and move off to their ship, which shortly thereafter blasts off into the sky
Leaving Roger alone on this barren planet...
To play with all their expensive toys!
One of those Scumsoft men seemed to be spending a lot of time looking into that telescope... Roger decides to take a gander himself
(You can't see them in the pics but there are colored rings being shot out of that thing up to the moon, Pestulon)
Looking over the equipment again Roger takes everything he can get his hands on, which consists of the aliometer's pole and a thermal detonator
>take pole
>take detonator
Eastward with the skull fighter gone Roger can progress further up the volcanic slope
He then heads up the volcano, eventually reaching the rim
Roger heads in:
Down those stairs leads Roger here:
>climb ladder
At the top Roger takes a moment to admire the view before dropping the thermal detonator into the hole
>drop detonator
(image shaking while the black hole flashes whites
Well, a man can only admire his handiwork so much... Roger heads abck down off the device
>climb ladder
That's not good, the ground wasn't very firm to begin with...Roger rushes back to his ship (the image will now shake periodically,) only to find
That the only bridge out of town has been washed away, so to speak... Roger quickly goes through his pockets looking for something, anything that would get him out of this predicament and only one thing comes to mind... that aliometer pole
>use pole jump
Success! Roger finds the rest of his trip to the ship uneventful and is soon off of the unstable, uncool Ortega. Let's see if we can find that moon
>look screen
>2
>1
>2
>5
Which means Roger is now hurtling to his destiny at light speed! What will Pestulon hold for Roger and how will he free the brave programmers entrapped within?
In addition to the melting, Ortega has many death options for the suicidal like:
Being seen by a Scumsoft Man
You can fall of a ledge
Cross the shaky bridge with a thermal detonator
Fall off the Generator
Or fall into it
Attempting to vault over the lava with a thermal detonator, a classic this one, one of our customers' favorites:
We last left Roger as he hurtled at light speed toward the pirate moon, pestulon
Roger lands the ship and looks out of his cockpit at the strange landscape before exiting the Mallard
>look window
>stand
>push red
>look around
It doesn't matter which way you go from the ship, they all take you to this cutscene
>look door
No way, Roger is getting in there without being noticed... good thing he looted the android corpse for a kick ass invisibility belt.
>wear belt
>enter building
>look around
Roger stops gawking and quickly enters the door
>look around
Roger pushes the button on the wall and descends into the Scumsoft complex, which appears to be a long circular hallway...
(dig those hi-res graphics folks, this scaling is cutting edge stuff right there! (I believe Sierra did something like this with KQ4, as well but I don't remember any other of their games doing it and I don't really see the rational for it either))
Roger takes in the hall
Seeing as it seems to be circular Roger heads clockwise (towards the screen) The first door he comes to seems to have some sort of lock
Roger looks it over (I don't have a screen capture?) and its a keycard slot and some sort of facial scanner. Roger doesn't have anything to deal with that so he continues onward
I know this looks just like the elevator door that Roger walked out but you'd be wrong! Roger walks in and:
>look around
>wear coveralls
Roger walks out to check out his spiffy (new) threads
Roger continues down the hall until he comes across another door, this one on his right and not requiring keycards and facial scans, he heads in
to cubicle hell!
Huh, now Roger's got to be careful here, if he passes a trashcan without doing his janitorial duty the accounting staff here will know he's a fraud, like so:
So, let's try to avoid that. Roger starts on the left, and he'll be using this handy tool to help:
I don't think I was ever able to catch a pic of Mr. Garbage in action... basically roger holds it over the garbage can and there's a little flash and the trash disappears. Roger heads west
Roger empties the trash can in front of them and then moves to inspect the conspicuous photo
>look
>look picture
>take picture
Roger heads over to the copy machine
>copy picture
and then returns the photo back to the wall
>hang picture
Roger weaves through the cubicle maze, emptying trashcans along the way
Roger finally makes his way north of the accounting department to find himself in programming
"whips? Damn production cycles really are hell!"
>look around
Roger heads into Elmo's cubicle
>look around
Good advice! Roger empties the trash and then heads out to the east
>look around
Okay, so now Roger knows how to get off this planet and has half of what he needs to get through that door, now he just needs a keycard and directions to the parking lot...
Well, Roger can only stare at the parking lot for so long, back inside... What's this Elmo isn't in?
>look around
Time to riffle through his things
>look desk
Hmm... locked his desk? Who actually does that? No matter he left the most important thing behind
>get keycard
Roger weaves back through the accounting department and heads to that door with all the security
>use keycard
Not unexpected
>use picture
And we are in!
>look around
>push button
>look jello
Think Roger, Think!
>eat jello
Welp, I'm out of ideas...
>use mr. garbage (yup, Mr. Garbage)
I wonder what Roger wins?
But, when Roger tries to leave
Hmmm, hard to get off this platform without any bridges...
Plan, what's that?"
..."uh-oh"
Let's get it on!
Elmo drones on but Roger is itching for a fight! Show that uppity nerd who's boss!
Oh, and you can't save either.
FIGHT!
Imagine many more scenes of me punching Elmo's robot... It's really hard to push ctrl-f5 and the punch /block buttons at the same time... eventually (I think I had to restart the fight 10 or so times) Roger is victorious
Let's Get Out of Here! Warp Speed! Eat my astral dust trail, Scumsoft!
Or not...
While Roger (and we) waits for something to happen:
And next time the shocking, stunning conclusion to Space Quest 3!
Soon the screen in front of Roger beeps and he again has something to do!
We head on over to the weapons screen and activate the rear shields
Now begins a boring "action" sequence in which a 3 fighters will approach from the front firing on the mallard and then one will shoot from the rear before Roger will have a chance to fire at it. We'll have to shift the shields back and forth from the front to the back and then to the front. Before he is shot again. If the ship is shot more than 3 times the shields will be depleted and the ship destroyed (and the game will end.) The sequence repeats three times.
he last ship in the three ship frontal wave
Roger's chance to destroy one of the ships after its shot at him from behind
targeting is done using the movement keys (this is very difficult) or moving the mouse cursor over the ship, once the ship is targeted you'll get a lock and then must shoot it before it escapes.
the weapons system has locked on
We go through this 3 times before the ships give up
The rest of the game is cutscenes folks! We've beat Space Quest 3, again with a perfect score. Now the ending:
You can't tell from the screen below but those bits of light are being sucked into the blackness in the center of the screen
After landing, the Two Guys from Andromeda and Roger disembark and talk to the single man who's walked out of the building. Roger has just parked his ship in front of
The two guys mention Astro Chicken of which Ken has never heard
Now the humorous credits roll
The Music of Astro Chicken
Entrance to Scumsoft
The Scumsoft corridors
Going into the black hole
Dropping the Two Guys off on Earth
The Ending Medley
Attempt to enter Scumsoft without using the invisibility belt:
Attempt to walk around the Scumsoft entrance:
Enter Accounting without a dsiguise:
Walk past a full trashcan in Accounting:
Attempt to leave Accounting with Elmo's portrait:
Miss the trash with Mr. Garbage multiple times:
Fall of the Ledge where you find the Two Guys:
Lose at Nukem Dukem Robots:
Fail to have the shields up in the right place during the space fight:
ave your shields depleted by taking too many hits:
Total number of ways to die: 40
Thanks again to TMDORW for all the pics of deaths. It saved my image capture fingers!