Space Quest III
Space Quest III: The Pirates of Pestulon is a 1989 graphic adventure game by Sierra On-Line and the third entry in the Space Quest series. Players control Roger Wilco, a space janitor who must rescue two computer programmers from the evil game company ScumSoft on the pirate-run world Pestulon.
In this installment, Roger wakes from cryogenic sleep and ends up on a garbage freighter that drifts into a derelict ship, the Aluminum Mallard. After repairing the ship, he travels to the desert planet Phleebhut and outwits a Terminator-like android, who was sent after him for not paying for a previous game. Roger learns that the Two Guys, programmers behind a game, have been abducted by ScumSoft, led by Elmo Pug, to design terrible games and flood the galaxy with them. To rescue them, Roger heads to Pestulon, disables a shield on a lava moon, and infiltrates ScumSoft’s base using a disguise as a janitor. He defeats Elmo in a giant robot arena and escapes with the Two Guys. After fending off space battles, their warp drive breaks and the trio are pulled through a black hole into a parallel dimension that lands them near Earth. Roger hands the Two Guys over to Sierra On-Line’s president Ken Williams and then heads home.
Gameplay and features: Space Quest III uses Sierra’s SCI0 engine and supports mouse movement plus a notably improved text parser for its time. It was released for DOS, Macintosh, Amiga, and Atari ST. The game includes the Astro Chicken arcade minigame, a Lunar Lander–style challenge where landing a chicken on a trampoline can yield a hidden distress message from the Two Guys. The soundtrack was composed by Bob Siebenberg of Supertramp, and the game features digitized voice effects on supported platforms.
Development and reception: The game is known for its humor and parodies of sci‑fi franchises like Star Trek and Star Wars. It also satirizes industry trends with a scene depicting ScumSoft overseers in a mockustachioed parody of Sierra leaders. Space Quest III was praised for its graphics, sound, and presentation, though some reviewers noted long loading times and a clumsy early mouse system. It earned a Special Award for Sound from Computer Gaming World in 1989, and by 1996 the Space Quest series had sold over 1.2 million copies. A sequel, Space Quest IV, followed in 1991. Fans continued to remake the game, including a 2023 fan project named Space Quest 3D.
The game remains a beloved chapter in Roger Wilco’s adventures, continuing the series’ blend of sci‑fi parody, quirky humor, and puzzle‑driven exploration.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 10:39 (CET).