Previous Next

The saga continues! Roger Wilco is the hibernatic sleep chamber of the space pod in which he escaped from Sluge Vohaul's asteroid fortress in Space Quest II. Drifting aimlessly in space, the pod is detected by a robot-controlled space garbage freighter, and drawn into its gigantic rubbish chamber by tractor beam.

The landing jots the pod's revive circuits into action, and before long, Roger emerges from the craft into what looks like an outsized scrap yard.

Thus begins Space Quest III, in a cinematically animated title sequence. Your job, once again, is to get him out of trouble. The first task is to escape from the freighter, and at a first glance, there is no obvious strategy. But amidst this Sargasso sea of space junk, there are bits and pieces that fit together - if only you can get hold of them.

Soon, you are out in space, and heading for the planets. But in hot pursuit is The Terminator, more than a trifle upset about your failure to pay for a whistle in Space Quest II.

The sound effects and music (30 minutes of musical score in the game) are superb. Combined with the graphics system, Sierra's latest game is like interacting with a sci-fi movie. In addition to user-controlled animation, there are plenty of special animated effects, including a state-of-the-art mobile crane.

The game can be played using either mouse, joystick or number pad/arrow keys Of these, I found that arrow keys wins hands down, giving not only finer control, but making the frequent changeover to text input more comfortable.

An absolute essential is to have a spare formatted disk at the ready for saving your game position, otherwise it's a very long way back in after death, and often death can be neither predicted nor avoided!

The game comes on three double-sided disks for the ST, and the package includes a special pair of death ray shield sunglasses, complete with squidgy false Andromedan nose! Eventually, you'll arrive at the headquarters of Scumsoft, and meet up with the Andromedans themselves. Will you be successful in rescuing them? You'll have to play to the end of the game to discover that!

An enjoyable and addictive addition to the Space Quest series, and a good buy for adventure fans.