Commodore User


Space Quest 3: The Pirates Of Pestulon

Publisher: Sierra
Machine: Amiga 500

 
Published in Commodore User #73

Space Quest 3

Come the end of October, Roger Wilco will be back in action again, with the Amiga release of Sierra's Space Quest III. After his recent brush with Sludge Vohaul, Roger manages to cobble together a spacecraft from bits and pieces in the space breakers' yard, and is soon heading at light speed for the planet Phleebhut.

A desert planet of sand and rock, Phleebhut is a tourist attraction in the form of a giant statue, if only you can reach it. Nestling between its huge feet is the World 'o Wonders gift shop, run by a sleazy blue alien who drives a hard bargain. Try to sell him something, and the game enters 'Haggle Mode'; you'll need to pitch your price about right to keep up his interest until you can extract enough cash for your needs.

And cash you will surely need, for you're bound to want to stop off at the Monolith Burger Bar -a space station in the form of a giant hamburger - a sort of Happy Eater for hungry light-speed travellers. Here you can get refreshment that can only loosely be termed 'food', a disappointment made up for only by a game or two on the whackiest arcade machine ever: Astro Chicken!

Space Quest III: The Pirate's Pestulon

Not an easy game mind you, you have to soft-land a plummeting chicken on a landing pad, controlling the degree of its wing flapping to vary speed and direction of plummet. And the control keys do some fairly wild things!

By the time this innocent little diversion has been successfully concluded, you'll have discovered that the two guys from Andromeda are in trouble, and that you must penetrate the not-inconsiderable defences of Pestulon to rescue them from the clutches of Scumsoft. So next it's off in search of the source of those defences and to render them useless, across some very tricky, unstable rock formations that are likely to fall away from under you, on yet another planet.

Once on Pestulon, your earlier brush with The Terminator (who is under orders to rub you out for non-payment for a whistle in Space Quest II) will have proved its worth, for its should have yielded the means for penetrating into the very heart of the Scumsoft empire. Before long, disguised as a janitor, you are negotiating a maze of cost-effective accountants, in a bid to reach the two imprisoned Guys.

By now you are nearing a stupendous climax featuring a gladiatorial contest of Battle Mechs, a spectacular shoot-'em-up in space, as you attempt to escape Pestulon with the Two Guys.

Here's a game with plenty of excitement, and humour too. If you enjoyed Space Quest 1 and 2 then you'll love Space Quest 3. It's undoubtedly the best Space Quest yet.