Space Quest III: The Pirates of Pestulon (PC/DOS) 1989, Sierra On Line

Narrowly escaping the events of Space Quest II: Vohaul's Revenge, Roger Wilco's escape pod floats through space. As just another metallic item of junk, it's soon picked up by an interstellar garbage hauler. Waking up in a pile of trash, quite familiar for this janitor-turned-hero, Roger Wilco must somehow escape. Once given access to the rest of the galaxy, he'll soon find himself having to avoid a collections cyborg for payments overdue, dealing with the corporate prison of software company Scummsoft, and having to digest the greasy food from the galaxy's finest hamburger joint. Space Quest 3 is a graphical adventure. The mouse is functional for movement and inventory access, however the game primarily relies on a text parser for specific commands and manipulation of objects on screen. In addition to the regular gameplay, there are also various mini-games, such as a simple non-scrolling arcade game Astro Chicken, as well as a radar screen representation for ship-to-ship space combat.

[@drewl5221]

There's definitely some kind of magic about these early games that today's games are missing.

[@adamgloyn8540]

100% agreed!

[@DistortedBirth]

early pc games were more story and character driven, therefore they were more creative and interesting.

[@drewl5221]

@@DistortedBirth I agree. Unlike today, when you got a game you got the whole game. All the world building and story had to be done. The game design finished, and sent out complete. I remember playing destiny and thinking how empty the game felt after about 2 hours. I think it's problem was it was 100% online. Back in the day you didn't have an internet connection to fix bugs and add stuff later.

[@rahulshah1408]

Adventure games are just not popular. I love them. The creativity and mental gymnastics to solve the puzzles require patience and tenacity. I’m not going to say that the current generation isn’t capable of those things. But I am going to say, why choose slow satisfaction when you can have a quick round of Fortnite. The world has changed.

[@Jazz5777]

Well, partially it's that your youthful mind and sense of wonder, it sticks in you from that state of the soul. Ask millennials today they might say the same thing about games from early 2000s. When they were innocent .

[@jagsdomain203]

I learned to type with these games. Kings quest. Space quest. Leisure suit Larry

[@xAngoryx]

Yep so true, every Sierra game ever made started me off at being a monster at typing

[@RJ_MacReady]

Same here

[@Miler97487]

I never got to play the Space Quest series back in the day for many reasons. Our family couldn't afford a PC, and we were stuck with an Atari 800XL and TI-99/4A which were fine when we bought them earlier in the 1980s (the TI-99/4A bought at the end of 1981, the Atari 800XL in 1985) but they were certainly obsolete by the late '80s (at least the Atari 8-bit was, as the TI was obsolete by the mid '80s seeing it was discontinued in 1984). So by the late '80s I started to ignore computer magazine articles on games since they were going to be on PC and 16-bit machines like the Atari ST and Commodore Amiga or the occasional 8-bit still getting support in the late '80s such as the Commodore 64 and not the Atari 8-bit. So I never got to know the popular games of the late '80s and early '90s. But in recent years I did a lot of catch up work. But in recent years I kept hearing about the Space Quest series constantly on various KZbin videos and I bought and downloaded them at GOG. Glad I got them and played them all My least favorite was SQ6, the final installment. The SVGA graphics were great but seemed a bit frustrating to get places. But I have say Space Quest III is my favorite of the series. Now I understand why people aren't a fan of EGA graphics (but after seeing CGA, that's far worse) because of the color limitations compared to VGA, but between about 1988 to 1991 (by which VGA totally taken over) there were tons of games being made that pushed EGA to the limits, King's Quest IV, Loom, Secret of Monkey Island, Commander Keen IV, even Alternate Reality: The City (despite the Atari 8-bit displaying way more colors, the PC version took advantage of higher resolution) and they were all very graphically impressive, and the same can be said of Space Quest III. The music to SQIII is by Bob Siebenberg, who was the drummer for Supertramp, played on all their classic albums like Crime of the Century and Breakfast in America. Plus he was the sole American in the band. I heard an interview with Bob in regards to SQIII and he said how he was unfamiliar with computers. But he managed to do it, but then he scored no more computer games probably due to his lack of computer experience and more familiar with being a musician in a rock band.

[@downhome7500]

I'm glad you put this up. I have a PS5 and whenever a new game comes out, I get it but I don't get the same feeling as I did with these games. I think they had the perfect amount of showing you what's going on and leaving your imagination to fill in the rest that made them really good. That's totally missing from modern games.

[@d.-_-.b]

This is why I just have ScummVM installed (works on any PC/Phone) and just check their news page each month to see which retro game from the 90s they newly added support for, then I get the data files for it from the Wayback Engine and I magically have a "new" game to play I never knew about.

[@moschopspaladin5894]

Oh man, I remember playing this as a kid on my new Atari ST. After working all summer to earn the money for it. This was a game I will always remember. I thought it was so funny to order the "Big Belcher Combo" at the burger place and try to leave! Good times!

[@Veldar681]

Besides Hero's Quest and the Quest for Glory line, this was my favorite Space Quest game.

[@adamdesanti6713]

Holy crap, I beat this game a bunch of times and never knew there was a second way to beat the Terminator rather than just the hitting him with the gear in the top of the tower. The thing with the bat monsters and then getting the belt with the grabber stick. I learned something 30 years later!

[@twistedhairball]

Back in time, just before this came out, my mum had a friend who worked for a UK games magazine. He gave me a copy of this game. I was 9. I had an Amsterdam PC1512 CGA. Watching this almost made me cry. Hahahaha thanks, you have no idea. 😂

[@bucknertarsney7674]

Excellent! Played these SQ games a lot when I was a kid and they were new! Lots of awesome memories. Thanks for the trip back in time.

[@fedanimal5955]

Blast from the past. Loved the walkthough. One of my all time favorites!

[@AndREDraut]

one of my favorite Space Quest games, I love the EGA graphics, after that, everything was VGA or SVGA.

[@user-no7vv5gi2v]

I really like the painted look of the VGA games too. Both EGA and VGA were amazing.

[@tyomies6168]

Props to you for having one of the few playthroughs of SQ III on KZbin where you are playing the game with the adlib sounds as it is meant to be played.

[@Abu_Brandino]

Someone’s jealous they didn’t have an MT-32😂

[@doubtingthomas6146]

“bowtie fighter” from the “Cologne wars”? Nice touch.

[@billystink4611]

So weird seeing a comment section for a big part of my childhood.

[@Ms_Princess_Zelda]

43:01 ah yes the frustration with dealing with blind corners in these games

[@sethabel4315]

This game was so wholesome for me as a child.

[@Pingwn]

I miss the text parser, wish we had some modern graphic adventure games with text parser UI, it could create more interesting puzzles and interesting ways to engage us with the story and the game.

[@elainebenes7971]

I played this game for months and never made it off the garbage ship. Little did I know that was just the intro. I was never very good at these type of adventure games.

[@GadgetMan777]

Same. I was probably 8 or 9 or so when I played this some time in the early 90s. I don't think I ever got the ship to take off lol

[@knusern666]

First adventure game I completed.

[@user-ko5uk2it1x]

_"And I am Roger Wilco, Space age swashbuckler and all around nice guy."_

[@DavidJG242]

great game, made you really think

[@andrewlee88]

So many memories!!

[@SteveQuesta]

The game which user dominikavnalikes asks on above is Choplifter. There is a play through posted up on KZbin for it. Space Quest III though was really fun 6:11

[@vhlazz]

Simple and original!

[@JonHuhnMedical]

Once they moved away from the typing input to the point and click interface, it lost some of the magic, and also were much quicker to play through, unfortunately.

[@JohnSmith-451]

Good job, Thriftweed. 👍🏽

[@benolow6529]

These games were hard if you got stuck. There was no internet you had to ask peeps lol

[@0374studio]

Greatest part, imhfo

[@MissSmittenify]

there was a hostage saving game that had 3 levels and each level had a boss that you need to kill before getting to the next level. the final level had a boss in a helicopter that you had to shoot down. Anyone remember the name of that game????????

[@MultiLettuce]

Rainbow Six?

[@Skeeders]

I just got hit with a fairly hard knock of nolstagia. This is one of the first games I ever played on the pc in the early 90's. I was like 7 years old... EDIT: Wow, you are terrible at typing....

[@LettersAndNumbers300]

What are you adding in comparison with the longplays of this game that have been out for years?

[@thriftweeds]

Nothing is just me re-playing this game! Sometimes i tend to include also death/game over scenes, and try to "look at" every object or detail in background to get description.

@@thriftweeds Did you know that in most Sierra SCI games, you can right click on objects to look at them. Often quicker than typing, and sometimes useful if you don't know what words to type...

[@thriftweeds]

@ This is not working in Space Quest 3, Larry 3, Police Quest 2, but right click works on Colonels Bequest ,Codename Iceman, Quest for Glory 1 these i tested so far.. maybe depends on which engine game was on SCI0 (later) or SCI1 ega versions

@@thriftweeds Hmm, I could have sworn I was able to use rightclick in at least PQ2 many years ago. So I've now checked my GOG copy and I can't, so I guess I must have misremembered. Sorry about that.

[@warrax111]

boring... I'm glad it's behind us...

[@angrytheclown801]

You had to be there I guess. Better than the endless micro transactions and loot boxes.

[@warrax111]

@@angrytheclown801 I don't play modern games. I've stopped gaming after Crysis 1 in 2007, but I've played it in 2009-2011, because I've bought better computer only in that time. I've played only some simple games after 2012, like Drakensang online (transaction destroyed it). Gold era of DOS gaming was 1993-1996. first accelerated games were exciting 1997-1999. 2000-2004 was very exciting. but after 2004-2005, it started to be boring. I play retro games, but this is too old, its too limited by technology. Best DOS gaming is 1993-1996, that's why I'm saying, it's good it's behind us. If I imagine, this would be peak of gaming, I would be very sad, doom wasn't even possible. And all exciting games 1993-1996. I'm gladi it's behind us, so 1993-1996 games could come.

[@peartreeproductions77]

I miss games like this

[@warrax111]

@@peartreeproductions77 they are persistent in this age, in indie scene, also, some of the indie games are even focused to mimic pixelart even despite the fact, it is not needed, 2d animation can be smooth in 32-bit colors, and can be dithered. Hell, they are even making new games for commodore now.

[@peartreeproductions77]

Thanks for the upload enjoyed this greatly