RE:Play – Space Quest III
Good old Roger Wilco.
A legendary hero from the days when there was a Babbage’s in every mall. The galaxy’s most intrepid janitor. An every-man whose ambitions were constantly thwarted. A blue-collar hero that saved the day every time and never got a thimble full of credit for it.
The Space Quest series ran from 1986 – 1995 numbering six games in total. All of which were produced by that Eighties gaming powerhouse Sierra Online.
Sierra games covered just about every genre from police procedurals to sex comedies. They made mysteries (Laura Bow*) as well as horror (Gabriel Knight). Post-apocalyptic alien invasion (Manhunter) and even one techno-thriller (Codename: Iceman). In terms of the genre that company was all over the place.
But today it’s mostly remembered for its Quest titles. All of which were puzzlers whose DNA could be traced back to Infocom’s Zork games. However, most of those titles played it straight. Sierra favored dramatic, very serious business. Space Quest on the other hand was at its heart a comedy.
It’s based on a trope known as the Fool Triumphant. Although poor old Roger never triumphed for very long.
“The 3 elements of a Fool Triumphant are:
1) A fool whose innocence is his strength and whose gentle manner makes him likely to be ignored by all but a jealous “Insider” who knows too well.
2) An establishment, the people or group a fool comes up against, either within his midst, or after being sent to a new place in which he does not fit — at first.
3 A transformation in which the fool becomes someone or something new, often including a “name change” that’s taken on either by accident or as a disguise.”
Roger Wilco originally wasn’t supposed to be the character’s name it was a default. In Space Quest I, you, the player were supposed to name the character thus putting yourself in Wilco’s 1960’s era Star Trek boots. Sadly, he never could quite finish the transformation and always ended up back where he started.
Regardless, the first two games were fine, but it was 1989’s Space Quest III: The Pirates of Pestulon where the series really found its footing.
Space Quest III references just about every American science fiction rope that existed from 1955 to 1989. In fact, it starts with a pretty solid nod to Aliens. Wilco’s escape capsule is automatically picked up by a passing garbage scow, looking for salvage. Once aboard, the capsule takes your character out of stasis. A text bubble informs you that the escape capsule has run out of power and is now useless to you. Time for your adventuring to begin.
The Pirates of Pestulon was a product of the technology available to it. The graphics were EGA, and trust me, it was a vast improvement over CGA. But the controls were quite a bit more primitive. Mouse-driven games were just around the corner but in 1989 they were n-o-t quite there yet. You could use a mouse to direct Roger around, but you could easily play the game without it. This was one of the last games that required a lot, (in fact a shit-ton) of text commands. Consequently, Space Quest III lands in a nostalgic sweet-spot. The controls were as old school as you could get but you didn’t need to use your imagination to figure out what the hell you were looking at.
The gameplay itself was pretty simple. Despite the picture you are presented in glorious EGA graphics, you have to “LOOK” at pretty much everything in the game. By that I mean you had to open the text box and type LOOK at whatever it was you wanted to interact with. That told you the proper name of the object you wanted to use. You would then TAKE said object, and stuff it into the portable black hole Wilco apparently carried around in his pocket. Then USE it at need. Note if you do play this game TAKE the ladder with you before you finally leave the garbage scow, or you will deeply REGRET it.
One of the things I remember really liking about this one is that Roger finally got his own ship. The Aluminum Mallard.
Getting it running again was your first procedural puzzle. LOOK at stuff. TAKE stuff and then USE stuff, while trying not to die along the way.
There was actually a bit of a thrill to it when you first fired up the Mallard’s engines and took off…
…and then died in a wreck because you didn’t turn on the Flight Radar. This was a Sierra game and frequent saving was mandatory. There was absolutely no Restore option. And you were going to die in many, many gory and amusing ways no matter what you did.
Aside from the usual procedural puzzles, there are also mazes, crypto, and even an in-game video game that had me laughing my ass off the first time I tried to play it. There was just something about those chickens exploding that did it for me. And honestly, the puzzles weren’t unfair, if you ever play this, get stuck, and consult a guide you will not be left grumbling, “No one ever would have thought of that.”
Of all the nostalgic games I’ve done for this blog, this one left me with the warmest feelings. And I couldn’t tell you why. I guess it is a number of factors. I hadn’t played the game in decades, so it was finally fresh again, (by that I mean my failing memory forgot things like the rat that mugs you for the wiring, and why exactly the Arnoid was trying to kill Roger (turns out vending machine fraud is a capital offense on some planets). And I still find Astro Chicken funny AF. Maybe it’s that the game is still good enough as is, no one has ever remastered it. To this day Space Quest III remains in glorious EGA.
After you work your way through to the end of the game you get to rescue the games’ writers (the Two Guys From Andromeda) as well meet Sierra’s founder and (at the time) CEO Ken Williams.
Roger of course gets screwed and takes off again.
In conclusion, if you ever find yourself in a situation where you have a lot of time on your hands because you can’t leave the house because the world has been shut down by a plague, The Dark Herald Recommends picking up the whole Space Quest bundle from GOG.com.
It’s a fun throwback that doesn’t drive you too crazy and will bring back a lot of memories from a time when your world was brighter and your problems were lighter.
Okay, I’m done here.
