Space Quest III: The Pirates of Pestulon (1989) In-Depth Review 

Best gaming related channel on RU-vid. It's a crime it's not more popular.

Another year, another great review by GeorgGreat. Joking aside, thank you for doing it so thorough and high-quality despite the lack of any profits. This is truly a timeless monument of yours that many can only dream of.

The dynamic between you and seal reminds me of two friends who always bicker and fight but just can’t seem to get rid of one another, and I love it (also another amazing review as always)

Even though the game is more linear than it presents itself, I always loved the way the space map feels like an open world. It gives an awesome sense of freedom, that once you get in that spaceship and get it working, you could go anywhere. But it was just the illusion of choice lol

Oh boy, looking forward to this. I loved this game when I was younger, but it was also a brutal and unfair game too. Thrilled that you're continuing the Space Quest series of reviews.

Wow. My personal way from putting this video on "watch later" list to actually watching it was long. Yet again totally worth it. Thanks for your "dialogue" that gives you an opportunity to present better argumentation on what you think about the game. So differend from all those one-sided fan/hater reviews RU-vid is filled with. Hope you're ok in these dark times.

Awesome work, as usual Georg! Lots of entertainment and information wrapped in one video! :)

Welcome back, I love the space quest series.

Yes! A new video! I discovered your channel one day looking for a review of prince of Persia and I've been hooked on your style of video making ever since. Keep up the amazing work Georg.

I’ve been waiting for this video since I discovered your channel. Disappointed to hear of your distaste for SQ3 as it’s the one I grew up with, but your criticism is entirely valid. Anticipating videos on the further instalments in time to come 🙏🏻

Happy new year, Georg! Thanks for the awesome video, love your work!

Was really great to see another video from you, seems like its been forever since we talked outside the comments! I never played the Space Quest series of games, but this is a very interesting and insightful look into not only some of the former games, but the latter ones as well. Explains why I had heard such mixed things over the years too. Adventure games do tend to speak a different language, and part of that is for the player to learn not only whats being asked of them, but also to try and solve some pretty obscure UI issues at times too. You've pointed out before how this can be both a good and a bad thing. Good in that it can draw you in as a player when you need to get into the headspace that the game is pushing you toward, increasing your immersion and investment. But if its executed poorly that can be a real problem too, especially in the case of a regression in design. I found the narrative of wanting to punish the in-game developer characters for inflicting so much frustration on you to be an amusing tale. Some of that banter almost suggested that the developers (whether real or character-based) had been forced to create this game, and thus they were using all kinds of 4th wall breaking and intentionally frustrating elements at times, delivering a poorer quality experience as you got deeper almost on purpose. Its hard to tell if this was strongly intentional and planned or just budget / time pressure during development then trying to be funny about it after the fact. One thing that you've often done in your videos is discuss ideas why developers would make certain design decisions in their gaming, and that has helped me enjoy a lot of aspects of some games that never really came together for me. When encountering some (both positive and negative) elements it will make me stop and think 'what could they have been thinking / trying to convey' at this point. I often see excellent examples of design in some tutorial areas and at the start of some games that can show just how thoughtful a developer was being when creating those elements. Maybe its just a lucky coincidence and not intentionally designed at times, but it always makes me appreciate a game even more when im able to get closer to the mindset of the creator, either to understand what they wanted me as a player to experience, or simply to appreciate how some aspect was designed with a thoughtful intent. Maybe thats why I've always appreciated talking to developers and creators over the years, hearing their insights and passions, what they wanted to do, whether or not they feel they succeeded, all of that adds so much more depth to a lot of the almost faceless products we come to experience. That sort of meta analysis and discussing it with friends can often be quite a highlight to an otherwise mediocre or even great game experience too, and as you always do it in such an entertaining manner, it makes these videos something that i return to every now and then and recommend to friends who enjoy discussing these sorts of things. Even if you and Seal seem to be in disagreement about Space Quest 3, thanks for another passionate and enjoyable video looking at memorable and nostalgia inducing games from the early years!

Another fantastic video, mate. This game would most likely frustrate me endlessly, but I can appreciate its aesthetic and art. Making something that looks that great using so few colors is truly an impressive feat. I guess they were trying something a little different with the self inserts and such, but maybe it backfired a bit. Can't say I've played many games with that sort of thing, so it's at least a bit memorable.

Great video! I seem to remember something about SQ3 originally being made with a mouse interface in mind. That might explain some of the issues with the parser.

The older AGI Sierra games basically operated at half resolution (each pixel was actually two pixels wide, so you played at 160x200) even though the background were vector drawn and filled (I was playing in a Hercules monitor the resolution was like 720x348 and it looked super crisp, and for some reason the parser paused the game like the newer games), so I knew the engine was able to handle it, but they had ugly EGA/VGA graphics for some unknown reason. That's why this game looked more detailed even though it was the same screen mode - it just didn't have weird fat pixels.

Sort of reminds me of the vague and frustrating puzzles of Phantasmagoria 2. Thankfully other aspects of that game carried me through like you in this game. Great review as always. Staying tuned for Ultima 5! (and the rest of them)

Excellent as always! And today I was able to catch the video when it was still fresh! About the game itself, it feels as if this is something they were "forced" to make just because the first two games sold well so they just went with it. Make it silly and funny and terrible. Kind of like the movie Gremlins 2.

Another great review Georg. I was shocked how bitter the devs were with this one. Anyways keep up the good work!

With adventure games having a renaissance it really makes you think, why hasn´t these games gotten a remaster or a modern day sequel. My guess is that perhaps the Kings Quest game from 2015 was a test run to see if people where up to getting some old Sierra games. But if the game didn´t sell well enough future remastering of their other properties might have been cancelled. Which is a pitty would love to see this games series along with their other games get a remaster proper graphic, voice acting etc etc. Sure game play would have to be changed a bit since the old spelling out your actions wouldn´t work here.

you find some real obscure stuff- I dig it

Yes, he's still at it! Haha

all your videos are great

for 10 year old me this one had the best moments for sure.

Great job as always!

Great video (again) jajaja, no really, high quality content as aways. You are almost tricking me in to play some dos stuff. Hope u doing well friend.

Great review! Unfortunately the side effect of it is to have altered my opinion about one of my nostalgic favorites from childhood 😭 Oh well, I still have Quest for Glory 🙂

31:28 I believe TVTropes calls this "Tropes are tools"

I think seal and I would be friends.

Are you going to ever make that VA-11 HALL-A review?

Finally saw this after it was released for a year... I couldn't agree more with Georg's analysis of all 3 games to this point: Space Quest II is SEVERELY underrated, and I think it's the best of those first 3. And Space Quest III I found to be a general disappointment. The later games got better for a bit (Space Quest 5 was fan-TAST-ic), but #3 felt sloppy. It went from a focused narrative when escaping the garbage scow to almost this anthology of great-to-ok moments that didn't hang together. The overall story actually falls apart when you just happen upon the hidden message in the arcade game that you have no reason to look for. They really should have gone back to the drawing board with this, kept the garbage scow and the terminator bits, and rebuilt everything else from the ground up.

Awesome!

Nice review, but could you please include subtitles? Thank you!

Yay!

That's the great!

I recently played Space Quest 3 for the first time myself. Your complaints seem ridiculously exaggerated. Much in the same way your gushing praise of Monkey Island reached absurdity. Are you inflating your experience just for the sake of the video? I mostly enjoyed watching it anyway, but maybe Seal should do the next review.

Something makes me want to say this episode was "cool".... hmm.. I'll chalk it up to subliminal messaging I guess.

Jeez, man... bad review after bad review! What are you, Statler and Waldorf's long lost cousin?! Is there no pleasing you?!