SPACE QUEST III - The Solution - By Bill Burton

Notes: Where appropriate, the commands that you should type in will be
shown in capitals. Also, from time to time I will mention the need to
save a game in progress before proceeding. Occasionally I will point
out some of the ways your character, Roger Wilco, can be killed. Some
of these are worth exploring. After all, part of what you paid for is
getting bumped off in style. In almost every case, there are a number
of like intentioned commands which will work equally well in a given
situation. In this walkthrough, I have generally gone for the tersest
commands I know to be valid, simply because I hate typing. In most
cases I will skip the step where you LOOK at something before you
GET/TAKE or USE it. If you want to play the game to its fullest, you
may feel free to look first and take or use later. Finally, the game
concludes with an arcade shoot'em up sequence which is much easier to
win if you have a joystick or mouse available as a control input. If
you have either of these, I recommend that you install the game
accordingly. Keep in mind that the keyboard is the preferred input
until this final sequence.

****************

This adventure begins as the space pod in which you escaped Sludge
Vohaul (Space Quest II) docks inside a large salvage freighter. You
walk out of the escape pod in a daze and the pod's door slams shut
behind you. You're on your own now, Roger.

Look at the smallish, round, striped object on the floor - you do this
by walking up to it and typing: EXAMINE OBJECT. It's a warp motivator.
That's space-speak for something you will need later. Exit toward the
bottom of the screen then proceed right past the saucerlike craft.
Continue right and you will see a conveyor assembly that is lifting
buckets of space slop upwards to points unseen. Stand in the
conveyor's path and you will be lifted by the next bucket that comes
along. When you reach the top of the conveyor, the bucket turns over
and you will be dumped onto a moving belt. You must act very quickly!
STAND then JUMP. Just before you get dumped into the metal shredder,
you will escape to a rail that is suspended over the belt. The rail
should be navigated using the left or right arrow keys only! If you
try to move using a mouse or a joystick, the imprecision of your
movement command will probably cause Roger to fall and die. If you try
to command any motion other than left or right, adios Roger! Enough
said!

Walk left on the rail until you pass through an arch. You will be in a
control room where a droid is monitoring some gauges. Don't linger too
long here or the droid will notice you. If he does, you die. There is
a cart, actually a grabber, suspended from the rail. When you are in a
position to climb down into this cart, ENTER GRABBER. The grabber is
operated with the left (backward) and right (forward) arrow keys. Use
the backward key until the grabber has exited through the rearmost
exit on the screen. Continue until the grabber is near the right of
the next screen and PRESS CLAW. If you have done this in the correct
location, the claw will descend from the grabber and it will pick up
the warp motivator. If you miss, it will be easy to discern the
correction. Continue backwards until you have rounded the bend at the
right end of the salvage complex. Just after you are again headed to
your left, stop the grabber and PRESS CLAW again. If you guessed the
right spot, the claw will deposit the warp motivator in the rear
compartment of an abandoned space ship. You may be wondering how you
knew that there was an abandoned spaceship in this area. Well, if you
had wandered about on foot at the beginning, you would eventually have
discovered the ship, but this walkthrough skips the superfluous.

Back the grabber up past the conveyor belt and through the exit that
leads to the control room. There are three connected platforms in the
foreground right near where the grabber was parked when you found it.
Stop the grabber by the center platform and EXIT GRABBER. Remember, if
you dally, the droid will blow you away. Walk toward the bottom of the
screen and you will fall down a chute.

You are now in some sort of garbage pit. When you have climbed out of
the mound of trash that cushioned your fall, follow the overhead wire
to your left. LOOK AROUND and EXAMINE HOLE. You have discovered the
portable reactor that powers this part of the salvage complex. GET
REACTOR and walk to the ladder at the right rear of the screen. CLIMB
and be sure to note the exact point behind the bowtie fighter - yep
you heard right, a bowtie fighter - where you emerge on the original
level. You will be climbing down this same ladder shortly.

Walk to the rear of the screen and you will be back where you started.
Continue to the right and walk into the skeleton of the tubelike
structure at the right. Continue to the right and stop near the left
edge of the second screen. You are inside the remains of a tanker
ship. Where you see wires hanging from the missing paneling, stop by
the leftmost wire and TAKE WIRE. Do not let Roger reach the middle of
this screen before getting the wire or you will have some extra (and
boring) work on your hands. Assuming that you do have the wire, go
right, and when you reach the middle of the screen, a giant rat will
jump out of the ceiling panel and mug you. When you recover enough to
check your possessions, you'll find that the rat has taken the reactor
and wire. Now you'll have to figure out what the rat did with them.

If you were paying attention when you landed in the trash heap, you
undoubtedly noticed the rats looking down at you. Maybe that's where
they bring their trophies. Go back to the exact spot behind the bowtie
fighter where you emerged when you climbed the ladder and CLIMB DOWN.
You are now back in the garbage room. Go back to the spot on the left
where you got the reactor and SEARCH HOLE. So that's where the rats
hid your stuff. GET REACTOR and GET WIRE. Go back to the ladder and
CLIMB. When you have done this, TAKE LADDER. I'll bet you didn't know
you could fit a ladder in your pocket.

Go back to the tanker and walk through it to your right. This time the
rats will leave you alone. You will find yourself by the head of a
giant robot whose right eye is missing. Be very careful not to fall
off the bottom of the screen! Walk to the area near the missing eye,
then CLIMB. Aha, you have found the spacecraft in which you earlier
deposited the warp motivator.

Walk to the middle of the spacecraft on the side nearest the bottom of
the screen and USE LADDER. If you have picked the right spot, the
ladder will move from your pocket to an upright position beside the
ship. Then CLIMB. You will be warned that the top of the spacecraft
affords treacherous footing. Do not take this warning lightly. Walk
next to the round hatch on the top of the ship and ENTER HATCH. You
are now inside the ship.

There is a computer screen on your right which is used to diagnose the
ship's systems. You could try this now. but there wouldn't be much
point since you still have the power source in your pocket. I'll bet
the reactor would fit in that open panel at the lower left. There are
a number of eloquent ways to proceed here, but the simplest is to USE
REACTOR followed by USE WIRE. Then, USE COMPUTER to diagnose the on
board systems. Way to go, Roger, you have repaired the ship. Those two
empty seats on the left look interesting, but you don't need to pay
them any heed - yet.

Now you're ready to blow this joint, so ENTER COCKPIT. If you check
out the panel, you'll discover that all the ship's controls are
accessed via a computer screen, so USE SCREEN. The screen has several
numbered options that are accessed by the corresponding number keys.
Fire up the ENGINES, engage the RADAR and TAKE OFF. After a few meters
of flight, you will bump into the inside wall of the salvage ship. You
need an exit hole, so you'd better blast one now. Use the computer to
engage the WEAPONS SYSTEM. Choose SHIELDS (either front or rear) and
press the space bar to FIRE. You are now in outer space. USE SCREEN
again and select NAVIGATION SYSTEM. Use the 1 key to scan until the
planet Phleebut is selected then use the 2 key to compute the course.
You will need to use the computer again to select LIGHT SPEED for
efficient travel. Oh, oh, that terminator is coming to get you and
he's one mean dude. You'd better be careful. When the computer alerts
you that its time to land, LAND.

When your ship plops down on Phleebut, EXIT COCKPIT and PRESS BUTTON
to exit the ship. Do not walk toward the bottom of the screen unless
you have just saved the game. If you venture out to the left, don't
walk under the overhang where the pods live. You want to get to the
World of Wonders tourist attraction which is two screens to the rear
and two screens to the right of the spot where you landed. Meanwhile,
the terminator has landed elsewhere on the planet. Look closely to see
if you can figure out what part of his equipment makes him invisible.
It would be wise to save the game at this point. As you proceed from
the landing site to the World of Wonders, you should walk near the
edge of the screen. If the deadly scorpazoid should appear, you may be
able to escape to an adjacent screen. Note the thunderstorm raging in
the background. If you go too far toward the rear (past World of
Wonders) lightning will zap you. Depending on the route you select,
you may see a menacing looking giant beast in the background. Don't
worry, it is only Mog, the mechanical monster, and the World of
Wonders is a souvenir shop situated between his feet.

Outside the entrance to World of Wonders look inside the glass case,
but don't open it! Enter the store and SHOW GEM to Fester. Accept the
third offer he makes. Then BUY HAT, BUY ORAT and BUY UNDERWEAR. READ
POSTCARD - and repeat - until you have read them all. Pay particular
attention to the one that describes how travelers adapt to the
volcanic climate of Ortega. EXIT STORE and the terminator will grab
you.

After the terminator has threatened you, he will give you a ten second
head start - he will suggest that you use this head start to try to
return to your ship. Don't bother, you'll never make it. Instead, exit
to the left and enter the door in Mog's foot. Get in the elevator and
PRESS UP. exit the elevator and climb the stairs. Position yourself
right next to either of the hanging pulleys. This is a primo time to
save the game. The terminator will come at you and when he is nearby,
SWING PULLEY. If you did this right, the terminator will be digested
by the spinning gears. Climb down the stairs, walk over toward the
terminator's remains and GET BELT. You now have the means of becoming
invisible. You will be using the belt later in the game and you must
WEAR BELT before that becomes a viable move. Enter the elevator and
ride down with Fester. Return directly to your ship and remember to
watch out for the scorpazoid.

Getting the ship airborne is essentially a repeat performance of what
you did earlier, except that this time you won't need to explicitly
turn on the radar - it remains active from the last flight. When you
select the NAVIGATION SYSTEM, search for Monolith Burger and set your
course for that quadrant.

Your ship will dock at Monolith Burger and you will enter without your
having to type anything. Go to the left one screen and stand by the
counter. When the clerk talks to you, ORDER FOOD. It wouldn't hurt to
order one of everything. When you are done ordering, PAY CLERK, then
walk over to one of the empty tables and EAT.

Note: Once when I played this game, a message informed me that I had
found a decoder ring in my empty food bag. Another time I had to LOOK
IN BAG. In either case, don't proceed until you have the ring. If you
want to die in style, enter the airlock on the left twice. Make sure
your game is saved first.

Go up to the video game and PLAY GAME. When you have digested the
instructions, INSERT COIN and play. You can get quite crazy trying to
master this sucker. You will run up points each time you can get Astro
Chicken to land on the pad, but the real trick is to get two or more
successful landings during a single play. Quit the game (with whatever
key is appropriate for your particular computer) and hope that the
coded message appears. Sometimes it helps to wait a bit before you
quit. When the coded message is displayed, USE RING (to decode it).
There is no way the program can tell if you have actually bothered to
do this, so, if you're feeling lazy, you can skip this step. The gist
of the message is that the Two Guys From Andromeda are being held
captive in the headquarters of the Scumsoft Corporation on Pestulon, a
moon of the planet Ortega, and that it will be especially difficult to
rescue them because Pestulon is guarded by a force field generator,
which makes it impossible to land there.

You have now done all you can at Monolith Burger, so walk back into
your ship. In all probability, you will have to make a detour to lose
your lunch right next to where people are ordering their meals. Yuk!
I couldn't help but wonder if the guys who designed Monolith Burger
had a real junk food chain in mind, and if so, which one. Gee, that
big 'M' looked almost like the Golden Arches.

Fire up the ship - by now hopefully a familiar procedure - and head to
the planet Ortega. Before you PRESS BUTTON (to exit the ship), be sure
that you have remembered to WEAR UNDERWEAR. After exiting the ship, go
left and then down towards the wobbly looking little land isthmus near
the lower left of the screen. I'll bet that baby can't be walked over
twice. In fact, if you aren't careful, it can't even be walked over
once, so save the game. Continue towards the bottom of the screen and
you will see two guys working with some seismic devices. Hide behind
the rock until they leave. If they see you, you're Jello (literally).
Go up to the telescope and USE TELESCOPE. Congrats, Roger, you have
discovered the force field generator. Go to the anemometer - it's the
wind measuring device on a pole - and GET POLE. Then go to the small
crate and GET DETONATOR. Walk carefully to your right, remaining aware
that there are places where a misstep will cause you to plunge to your
death. You will be returning via the same route and this mistake is
especially easy to make on the way back. Continue going right until
you get to a path that goes up. Follow that path until you reach the
bottom of the force field generator. When you get far enough back,
toward the right edge of the rock in the center of the screen, you
will automatically get to the stairs.

Before you climb down the stairs, look for the long skinny ladder on
the right side of the rear wall. That is where you are headed. The
path to the ladder is fairly obvious once you have descended the
stairs. When you get to the ladder, CLIMB.

You are now at the rim of the force field generator. Save the game
here and walk very carefully to the edge. When you are in a good
position, DROP DETONATOR. Kaboom! You have disabled the generator and
you may now travel to Pestulon. But first, you must return to your
ship.

Walk carefully to the ladder and CLIMB down. Retrace your route
carefully. What's this? the wobbly isthmus has collapsed and you
appear to be stranded. Don't worry, you took that pole earlier. So,
stand near where the isthmus was, and VAULT CHASM. Then walk back to
your ship and get in. Depending on the angle at which you approach the
ship's ramp, this may not be that easy to do. If you get stuck on the
ramp, just walk away and try again. This might be a bug in the version
I played, or it might be one of Sierra's little pseudo-problems. I'm
not sure. Once in the ship, follow the familiar steps to set your
course for Pestulon.

You are now on Pestulon. EXIT COCKPIT and if you haven't already done
so, WEAR BELT, then PUSH BUTTON to exit the ship. Go one screen in any
direction and you will be hiding in foliage near the heavily guarded
entrance to Scumsoft's headquarters. When you see some guards leaving
(to search for you), USE BELT and ENTER SCUMSOFT. You remain invisible
for just long enough to make a quick and deliberate entrance. If you
delay or walk erratically, the guards will notice you and you will be
shot. Go down the stairs and look for a button by the left side of the
door. Position yourself nearby and PRESS BUTTON. Good show, Roger, you
have penetrated Scumsoft.

You find yourself in a circular hallway that is navigated with the up
and down arrow keys. When you get to a door that you want to enter,
you do so with the left or right arrow keys. One of the two doors on
your right has controlled access. We'll worry about that door later.
Walk toward the bottom of the screen with the down arrow key until you
come to a door at the inside of the hallway (screen left). Enter that
door. If you didn't screw up it will be the familiar janitor's closet.
If you did screw up it will be the door you first entered and you will
have to try again. SEARCH CLOSET and WEAR COVERALLS. Check your
inventory and see if you have a trash vaporizer. If not, SEARCH CLOSET
again and then SEARCH COVERALLS. Eventually you will have this all
important vaporizer. Exit the closet and continue around the hall,
looking for a door on the outside of the hallway (screen right). If
the door you find has a card reader near the right door frame, you
can't get in, so continue to the other door and enter it by pressing
the right arrow key.

You are now in Scumsoft's accounting office which looks like a maze
because it is one. Save your game here! Now try to walk to the rear of
the maze. Oops! Now how did they know you were a bogus janitor? You
got caught because you walked by a trash basket without vaporizing the
trash. The way to solve the maze is to head for each basket of trash,
stand directly in front of it (this is important) and ZAP TRASH. By
the way, there are a couple of wastebaskets that are less obvious than
the others. If you walk by one inadvertently, you die. There are
several ways the maze can lead you, but you'll know you're heading the
right way if your general progress is toward the rear of the office
complex. Eventually you will reach Elmo Pugg's office in back. Just as
I thought that the burger joint was modeled on something out of real
life, I couldn't help but think of the young and very successful boss
of a major real-life software company when I first ran across Elmo
Pugg. At any rate, enter Elmo's office, zap his trash and leave his
office. Go out the hallway in back and LOOK. It appears the Scumsoft
lackeys have discovered your ship. When you come back inside, you will
notice Elmo's office is vacant. Go into his office and TAKE KEYCARD
from his desk. It is that little white flyspeck on the top right of
the desk. You know, before I even opened the box this game came in, I
knew that sooner or later I'd find a keycard.

As you exit the accounting office maze, your objective is the copying
machine at the lower left of the complex. Just before you reach the
machine, you will see a picture of Elmo on the wall. TAKE PICTURE and
go to the machine where you COPY PICTURE. On your way back, REPLACE
ORIGINAL (the picture). Head out to your right and one partition to
the rear and you will be able get to the door where you first came in.
You now have what you need to enter the controlled access door!

Go around the circular hallway until you are abeam the door with the
card reader. Stand by the door and USE KEYCARD. This will enable a
verification by facial scan. Unfortunately, your face is not in
Scumsoft's Approved Access data base. No problem! Immediately after
the keycard has been read, you must USE PICTURE. When the scanner
reads Elmo's picture, you're in! Well, Rog, you've found the Two Guys,
but they're on the other side of a long drop and they're encased in
Jello. When you PRESS BUTTON, a bridge will come out of the wall and
you will be able to reach the Two Guys. Get real close to them and
VAPORIZE JELLO. When you do, the score bar on the top of the screen
will indicate that you have attained 737 out of a possible 738 points,
a pretty decent showing. Alas, the euphoria is short lived. After a
few moments, all sorts of viewing panels open up and you realize that
virtually the entire Scumsoft staff has been watching your failed
triumph with great amusement. Your score drops precipitously and you
are led away.

Now comes the first of two really hard parts. Elmo has decided to
dispatch you personally in the Nuke'em Duke'em robot boxing game. As
he tells you the (non)rules, you get the idea that this is something
he's very, very good at. It's just the sort of thing at which someone
as gifted and bratty as Elmo would excel! I highly recommend that you
save the game in progress before the first punch has landed. Just for
fun, try duking it out with Elmo. You're guaranteed to be slaughtered
every single time! There's got to be another way.

Once you discover that your offense is no match for Elmo's, it should
occur to you that maybe defense is the answer. It is! The key to
winning this game can be found in the energy reserve indicator bars at
the top of the screen. Your winning strategy is to anticipate Elmo's
punches and retreat from them so that he only connects with air. When
this happens, his wasted energy from the missed punch will more than
compensate for the energy you have wasted by retreating. Whenever you
gain an energy advantage, save the game. When this advantage improves,
save again. Having told you this, I must also tell you that evading
his blows will not be easy, and that each little energy advantage is a
hard won battle within a most difficult war. The keys to winning are
backpedaling judiciously, never throwing a punch, blocking a punch
only when there's no more room to backpedal and, most importantly,
saving the game every single time the energy differential improves, no
matter how slightly. With patience and practice, you will win, but it
will be a bitch!

When you finally manage to dispose of Elmo's punching robot, you and
the Two Guys escape in your spaceship. This happens automatically.
When you get sick of listening to the Two Guys bitch about the lack of
food on board, USE SCREEN. You will find out that Light Speed and the
Navigation System have been rendered non-functional. You will still be
referencing the cockpit computer screen when you are informed that the
Scumsoft Skull Fighters are attacking. You may remember that I said
that the robot boxing match was the first of two difficult challenges
that you still had to face. This is the second of those challenges,
the one I mentioned at the outset which is best played with a mouse or
joystick. While you still have time, select ATTACK SPEED and engage
the WEAPONS SYSTEM.

The first attack wave will be from the rear, so make sure that your
rear shields are deployed. The next attack will be from the front and
your shields must be repositioned before the attack gets underway.
From this point on, the attack waves will alternate from one end of
your ship to the other. The important thing for you to do is to have
the shields in the correct position before any attack phase begins.
Any errors here will doom you for certain.

You will discover that when you blasted your way out of the salvage
freighter at the beginning of the game, you destroyed half of your
weaponry. Depending on how your shields were positioned back then, you
will be without either your front or rear firing cannon. It doesn't
really matter because you can complete the job with the one that still
works. As the skull fighters attack, the Weapons System will inform
you about which cannon is still operational. Save the game before you
fire the first shot!

When a Skull Fighter attacks the end of your ship where only the
shields are working, all you can do is watch. When the other end of
your ship is attacked, you can fire back. You destroy a Skull Fighter
by positioning the targeting cross hairs over the ship and pressing
the space bar to fire. You must splash the first five Skull Fighters
that you are given the opportunity to shoot at. If you miss even one
(by letting it get out of range), your shields will expire and you
will be destroyed. So, whenever you destroy a Skull Fighter, save the
game immediately, and whenever you miss one, restore the game that you
had saved previously. When you've waxed five in a row, that's the
shooting match. The remaining enemy will turn tail and your ship will
escape to - Nah, I won't tell you.

Final note: There is an abacus like screen overlay called VaporCalc
that can be invoked with the Control C keystroke combination (at least
in the IBM version). Does anyone have any idea what VaporCalc is for?
If so, tack an appendix on this walkthrough.