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"Very easy and short, but hilarious"
Introduction- Mark Crowe and Scott Murphy made up for the well-selling but unsatisfying Space Quest II with this masterpiece of a game. Not only were the graphics and parser dramatically improved, but the game featured a killer soundtrack and limited mouse support. This game would be perfect if not for the relatively short time it takes to complete it, as well as being on the easy side.

Gameplay (8/10)- When you type, the game pauses and the parser bar comes up, giving you time to make split second decisions. The graphics keep everything easy on the eyes, and you can move Roger with the arrow keys (preferred) or with the mouse, though you can only move him with the arrow, there's no cycling through actions like Space Quest IV on up. All of this adds up to game that plays incredibly well. However, the game is perhaps the shortest of the series. After you leave the junk freighter, you go to the different planets, complete the objectives (none of which are very long or difficult), and head to ScumSoft. You can beat the game in a breeze, which hurts the replaybility, but it's good to mess around with at work if you don't have a lot of time.

Story (10/10)- Brilliant. After entering the escape pod in Space Quest II, Roger fell into a deep sleep. Well, in this installment, Roger is jarred awake when his ship is sucked into a junk freighter. After escaping, he stumbles on to the evil scheme of one company called ScumSoft. They have captured the Two Guys from Andromeda, Mark and Scott. It's up to you to save them! I won't reveal anymore to keep the game fresh for first time players.

Graphics (10/10)- They used a whole new graphics engine in this game, and it looks great for when it came out. Roger looks good and is animated nicely, and the areas you travel through are very detailed and fun to just look at. The junk freighter in particular is filled with various objects spoofing all sorts of science fiction. The game is definitely hilarious. No wonder it's considered the best of the series by some.

Sound (10/10)- This sucker uses a sound card! The music is professionally scored, and is very memorable and catchy. The title theme rocks, and the freighter theme will stay in your head for the rest of the day. The game is filled with great music. Sound effects are also improved, though still not especially realistic sounding, but a heck of a lot better than the previous two games.

Replayability (7/10)- You can easily play through this a few times in a day, it's that short, and very easy. If you die, it's probably by accident. My brother and I used to bet on whether I could make it the whole way through without dying, and I made it more times than I didn't. I think that should say something about how short and easy this is. That's not a horrible thing, but anyone looking for brain teasing challenges and puzzles should look elsewhere.

Final Recommendation- This game made up for all the faults of the previous one, and got the series back into the groove it would maintain until the 6th installment. I'd say pick this one up, though don't pay too much for it, you'll play through it a few times, maybe come back a few months later, but there'll be almost no challenge after the initial run through. Still, great to play simply for all the jokes and sight gags. This is considered to be the best of the series by some, and for good reason. Highly recommended.

"A good way to kill an Afternoon."
Ah, Space Quest. The series has always been a short but sweet (And Hilarious!) Game, and the 3rd game is no different. There are many different puzzles and the like in this game, as well as beautiful graphics and a really reminiscent type of music. In fact, the only real problem with this game is how short it is.

GAMEPLAY:7/10
You use the arrow keys to walk and ya type in everything else. From "Push Button" to "Restore Game" (Which, if your like me, you will be doing ALOT.) The controls are simple and anyone could easily understand them.

STORY:9/10
Continuing where Space Quest 2 Left Off, Roger awakens in the escape pod he was in after it lands in a garbage freighter. After escaping the freighter, He goes to a Mcdonalds-Like place where he plays a game called Astro Chicken. After beating it he receives a message that the creators are being held hostage and forced to make games for an evil company. So Roger goes to save them. It is truly an innovative storyline which is not based off of anything, which is why it impressed me.

CHARACTERS:8/10
We have Roger Wilco, a brave and somewhat stupid hero that just seems to get into one mess after another, the 2 Guys from Andromeda, the game equivalent to the creators of Space Quest, who are forced against their will to make crappy game after crappy game, and Elmo Pug, the owner of the evil company who loves forcing his workers into hard labor, as well as a good Dukem Nukem ( A play on rock 'em sock 'em robots) Fight.

GRAPHICS:8/10
I've always loved old Sierra games simply because of how beautiful the graphics look. They are really low bit, but are put together in a way that looks simply amazing. They have an amazing amount of detail for only 16 colors.

SOUND:6/10
Eh, the sound in this game could be better, as with most sierra games. The only plus to it is that it use internal speaker sound so you can play these games with needing to hook up speakers. Still though, I am always reminded of childhood when I hear little blips and bleeps.

OVERALL:8/10
This game overall is a very enjoyable one. It has great graphics and a good storyline, decent gameplay, and, at the very least, reminiscent sound that really reminds me of the good old days.

"Simple, short but entertaining graphic adventure"
Space Quest I was created by Sierra in 1987. It was one of the first graphic adventure games, where you had to actually type in commands in order to make the game work. Space Quest I introduced Roger Wilco, a janitor aboard the spaceship Arcada. He was happily snoozing away in a broom closet, when some deadly aliens called Sariens took over the ship, stole a precious device known as the star generator, and killed everyone on board apart from Wilco. He wakes up shortly after hearing the emergency call that the ship is going to explode in 15 minutes. After escaping from the ship, the object was to retrieve the star generator, and lead Roger safely home.

Because this was one of the first adventure games out, Space Quest I was obviously a great success, and it was no surprise when a year later, Space Quest II came out. Space Quest II was based shortly after Space Quest I. Sludge Vohaul (who was the bad guy from Space Quest 1), was accidentally defeated by Roger when he blew the Sarien ship up. In Space Quest 1, Vohaul intended to kill all of the people on Xenon (Roger's home planet). In Space Quest II, his plan was to dump a whole load of insurance salesmen onto the planet instead. Although lacking the depth of the original, Space Quest II was a great success. So it was no great surprise when two years later, Space Quest III came out.

At the end of Space Quest II, Roger Wilco blasts off from Vohaul's asteroid in a pod. In the pod was a sleep chamber, which Roger quickly stepped inside. Space Quest III starts some time after Space Quest II, where Roger's pod has been picked up by a humongous robot controlled garbage freighter. As the pod lands hard on the debris in the junk freighter, the pod opens the sleep chamber, which awakens Roger from his deep sleep. Space Quest III was made nearly two years after Space Quest II. So did this long time away mean any significant improvements over the previous two games?

The graphics in Space Quest III are absolutely amazing considering that they were made in 1989. There seems to be amazing amounts of detail on everything. Roger now looks much more lifelike, and is animated much better than in the previous two games. The scenery has also had lots of detail applied to it, and all of the backgrounds look very well drawn. The whole game is still in EGA graphics, but the graphics are so good that you could easily mistake them for being VGA. The graphics were so good, that they even won an award for best PC EGA graphics from Game Player's magazine. Unlike the other two games, an incredible amount of attention has been paid to the graphics in Space Quest III. Back in 1989, the graphics in Space Quest III must have been absolutely amazing, and that's the way people should try and remember them.

For those of you who have played the previous two games, you may have realised how terrible the sound was. What sound there was, came from the PC's internal speaker. The sound consisted of beeps of different pitches, and was basically terrible. Thankfully, Space Quest III is the first Space Quest game to have stereo sound, and it uses it very well. The sound effects usually consist of crashes, beeps and other simple but effective noises. The music is excellent, and can be heard in most of the games locations. The music and sound effects in Space Quest III are a vast improvement over the previous two games.

Space Quest III is totally different from the adventure games these days. Usually with adventure games, you use the mouse to get, use or look at certain objects, simply by moving the cursor and clicking on various objects. In Space Quest III, you use the keyboard to do everything. To walk left, right, up or down, you use the arrow keys. To get, use or look at certain objects, you actually have to type in what you want to do, such as ''get the object''. This is actually a much more fun way of playing games, as it requires you to think about what you are typing. In the previous two games, this typing interface was a bit of a problem, as the game could hardly understand what you were typing in.

Things have been much improved in Space Quest III however, as the game understands even the most complex sentences. The game is very difficult in places, requiring you to really think about a puzzle before you can get past it. The game is non-linear, meaning that you don't have to follow a strict and certain path. This is good, as it encourages you to go off exploring in the game whenever you like. Another aspect of what makes the game so good is trying to find all the points (738 is the most you can get). When you complete the game for the first time, it's unlikely that you will find all the points, as there are many different ways to complete this game. This game has great game play as there are just so many things to do. For those of you who have played the previous two games, you may have noticed that Space Quest II was considerably more difficult than Space Quest 1. With Space Quest III, the game is even more of a challenge than the previous game. The locations in Space Quest III are both original and varied, and you may just spend yourself spending a few minutes admiring all of the detail. The puzzles have been made extremely difficult in this game, but luckily the typing interface has been improved so that it understands more when you type in commands.

So, is Space Quest III better than the other two games? Well, the graphics have been much improved. Even though they are still in EGA, the graphics have been updated, detailed and drawn as far as EGA can possibly go. The sound is also a major difference over to previous two games. There is actually stereo sound in this game, something which was unfortunately missing from Space Quest 1 and Space Quest II. The game play has been made more difficult, but also remains just as fun, due to the fact that the typing interface seems to understand basically every word you type in. The last ability has also been improved. There are more puzzles, more secrets, more things to do, and many more locations. Overall, Space Quest III greatly improves over the previous two games.

"This one’s purely a matter of taste."
Since its release in 1989, Space Quest III has been the object of both popular and critical acclaim. The plot, music, technological advances, and humor of the game are frequently cited for their excellence. That the game is easy and too short are often cited as shortcomings. Perhaps more than for any other Space Quest game, how you feel about Space Quest III depends on how you feel about the execution of the elements of the game--plot, graphics, puzzles, etc.--that are most important to you.

Space Quest III picks up where Space Quest II left off: You, Roger Wilco, space janitor, are asleep in an escape pod, adrift in space. Appearing to be nothing more than space junk, your pod is picked up by a robot garbage freighter. You awaken from your slumber to find your pod inside the freighter among piles of wreckage and abandoned or damaged spaceships.

If you're reading this review, you're hopefully already familiar with a text parser interface such as the one in Space Quest II. If not, consider playing through Space Quest II (after reading my review for it, hint hint) before you start playing this one, as everything will make more sense. Regardless, the text parser here is an upgrade from previous versions: first, the game's vocabulary is surprisingly large, allowing the parser to understand more commands and synonyms than ever before; second, typing in a command will pause the action, finally saving slow and inaccurate typers from untimely deaths in situations where every second counts. Depending on how quickly you type and how your game is configured, you might see an occasional lag in what you're typing (specifically after you've deleted some text), but it's hardly an issue.

With this improved text parser comes improved graphics. The text is flashier than before because of the fancy serif font it uses, which may or may not take a little bit of getting used to. It's difficult to believe that the entire game only uses 16 colors; everything is so detailed and colorful, which helps to make the characters and locations some of the most memorable in the series. There are a few places where all the screens start to look the same, but that might be intentional, as it adds to the atmosphere and challenge of the places in question.

Also adding to the atmosphere is the music, composed by drummer Bob Seibenberg of the rock band Supertramp. The music is energetic, tense, creepy, pleasant, atmospheric, and ridiculous, all in the right places. It's a huge step up from the sounds of the PC speaker heard in the previous two installments, and it's very catchy.

The sound effects are equally good. I generally don't have much to say about sound effects unless they're truly obnoxious--years of listening to Mega Man's charging blaster have trained me to ignore most of them--but Space Quest III does them right, and does them well. All the clanks and swooshes sound just like they're supposed to.

In fact, atmosphere-wise, nearly everything is perfect. Space Quest III looks and sounds exactly like a Space Quest game should. The character designs, the items, the backgrounds, and the computer displays all feel like they really belong, and the sounds match what you see.

One thing that might seem out of place is the ending. Granted, beating the game is a very gratifying experience, but the ending sequence breaks away from the established atmosphere in a big non sequitur, becoming a farce that might be construed as going too far, even by Space Quest standards. If you're just looking at this game as merely a means to amuse you, then the ending shouldn't be any problem. If you've become engrossed in the Space Quest universe and want to stay there, then you might take issue with the ending.

Aside from that, only the death messages feel out of place. This is the first game in the series to feature a close-up picture of poor Roger after he's met his terrible fate, and there's a surprising amount of gore in most of the pictures. This might not bother some people, but the often-disgusting Space Quest deaths are made even more disgusting to the squeamish with the inclusion of blood and, occasionally, guts; this might discourage some players from intentionally lingering too long in the den of vicious rats, falling into lava, opening the glass case holding a dangerous Anterean Slime Devil, or doing anything else that would kill off Roger for a laugh.

Some of the death messages are particularly funny. For instance, you'll receive this message after falling to your death from one particularly high height: “We haven't seen footwork like that since Gerald Ford! Unfortunately, your fall causes you to make contact with the non-moving deck below. The resulting impact forces the cancellation of your subscription to life.” Sarcasm, irreverence, and self-mocking permeate the game, shaping the humor of some of the responses to the commands you type as well as the numerous sight gags. There's even humor in the menu bar if you poke around enough. The game also features a respectable number of spoofs and references ranging from Transformers to McDonald's to The Terminator. These parodies are not limited to the realm of science fiction, nor are they so overdone that they overshadow the originality of the game. All in all, the humor is very satisfying.

Based on what has been described so far, the popular and critical acclaim Space Quest III garnered seems well-deserved. And, if you feel that the play control, graphics, sound, and humor are all the most important aspects of a Space Quest game, then yes, this game is every bit as good as they say it is. However, all that might not be enough for you to give this game such high marks.

If you've read any documentation about the game, you'll probably know that the real plot of the game is to rescue some software programmers, the Two Guys From Andromeda, from the clutches of the evil software corporation, ScumSoft. If you just went ahead and started playing the game without knowing much about it, you'd think that the point of the game was to explore the garbage freighter until you figured out that you were supposed to find a way out of it, and then fly around the galaxy, desperately looking for something to do next. In order to discover that the two guys have been kidnapped, you need to play one of the worst arcade games in history until a secret message pops up that can only be decoded with an item that you may or may not have any idea exists. That is, assuming you didn't give up on the game after the first or second failed attempt.

Of course, you can't find this secret message until halfway through the game. Until that happens, you are merely traveling to different locations, trying to stay alive long enough to figure out what you're supposed to do. Even when you do learn of the Two Guys' plight, it becomes apparent that Roger Wilco simply has nothing better to do than to risk his life to save two guys he knows next to nothing about. The secret message doesn't even say why the Two Guys are being held captive; maybe they were stealing paper clips? There's too little at stake here; up until the very end of the game, you are only fighting for your own life, and half the time for no other reason than that you have nothing else to do.

Much of the game is set up that way: either you are fighting for your own life or you have nothing to do. The garbage freighter and parts of the volcanic planet Ortega are really the exceptions to this, for they play much more like the rest of the games in the series, allowing you to explore an area, collect items and perform actions that are necessary to achieve a clear goal, and fight for your life in a few designated spots. Half of the rest of Quest III is characterized by constantly moving and acting quickly in a struggle to survive (two parts of the game involve non-optional arcade sequences, I might add). For some players, the fast-paced action might be right up their alley. For players who have difficulty with arcade sequences and players who prefer using their minds over their reflexes, this might not be so appealing. The other half of the rest of the game is drastically opposite: you get all the time in the world to sit around, look at the scenery, buy things, and try to figure out what you should do next, and only the humor makes you feel like what you're doing is not a waste of time.

There are only a few really solid non-action-oriented puzzles throughout the game, and most of them are found in the garbage freighter. Those that remain are a mostly a matter of having the right tool for the job or doing the same thing at least twice, if not many more times. Repetition is fine for some adventure game tests to make sure the player succeeds on skill instead of luck, but the repetition in some of these puzzles and in some of the arcade sequences precariously straddles the border between challenge and lazy extension of how long it takes to beat the game.

There are also several screens, most notably on Ortega, where there are no puzzles at all, no action sequences, nothing to interact with, and little or no humor. Maybe these screens were meant to add to the atmosphere, but they cry out for something--anything--to come along and fill them. Perhaps, like some of the repetitive puzzles, they are an attempt to superficially extend the length of the game, as it is unquestionably the shortest in the series; it is very possible for a first-time player to go through the entire game in a single afternoon. A short game is not necessarily a bad one, but with as relatively little adventuring as there is to do in Space Quest III, you might wind up feeling gypped.

Overall, Space Quest III is not a bad game. Its interface, graphics, music, sound effects, humor, characters, and atmosphere strongly argue that it is, at the very least, a decent game. However, your opinion on the plot, clarity of goals, puzzles, action sequences, length, deaths, and ending will determine whether it's anything other than just a decent game. I, for one, find that I like about as much of it as I dislike, but it is still very much worth playing for its positive aspects and how it figures into future Space Quest games.