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Space Quest 3
0 Playsin 4 days
Ben just wants to talk about Spellcasting 101: Sorcerers Get All the Girls but at Jess' insistence we discuss the quite good Space Quest 3.
Quest Quest podcast is Ben Vigeant and Jess Morrissette.
Editing by Ben Vigeant
Show art by Kevin "WilcoWeb" Wallace
Watch us on Twitch!
Ben: https://www.twitch.tv/ps_garak
Jess: https://www.twitch.tv/decafjedi
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Transcript
Introduction: Meet Finn the Dog
00:00:31
Speaker
Hello and welcome to Quest Quest. ah The adventure game podcast. I was trying like there was a... i the I was trying to, i yeah, and Jess is, what's your dog's name?
00:00:50
Speaker
Finn. I'm joined by Finn today. Finn is in the the studio.
Weather Talk and Finn's Rain Dislike
00:00:54
Speaker
This is a daytime record, and Finn has things to say. He also has a penance about adventure games. ah He says they're great for him to poop on. do you remember Triumph, the insult comet dog? I think he's he's still around.
00:01:07
Speaker
Yeah, he's still doing his thing. and oh i is losing it Yeah, this is he's not used to being up. Hey, yeah buddy. What do you need?
00:01:21
Speaker
ah ah yeah ah but but Is it Ben you don't like? Yes. Oh, wow.
00:01:31
Speaker
oh man spelled out we have we have weather rolling through town and finn is not a fan of uh of the rain and wind uh so yeah he's having a rough day it's um
00:01:48
Speaker
we're we're we're at the cusp of weather. yes it is ah Today it is 63 on I believe tomorrow or maybe Sunday.
Podcast Intro Struggles
00:02:01
Speaker
ah Today is Friday as we record. as this As said, this is a rare day record. we are We're gear shifting hard into winter weather. ah ah There's a high of 46 tomorrow and a high of 37.
00:02:14
Speaker
thirty seven on sunday this is fahrenheit friends and uh but anyway i was trying like i didn't quite know what i was doing with that that intro like the welcome to quest quest and then like as i was starting to say it i was trying to do like the like welcome to ju like the jurassic park intro and then i like kind of half gave up on like it i don't even know where my voice was going i don't know what what type of it was just like a ah case of like oh i don't
00:02:47
Speaker
I'm not sure. I don't know. I was going for kind of the Mark McKinney, David Kekner, foppish gentleman from
Mark McKinney's SNL Legacy
00:02:55
Speaker
SNL. That's a good, yeah. You know, Mark, Mark McKinney had a couple, you know, as ah for a guy that,
00:03:03
Speaker
you know, nobody, people are talking about Mark McKinney. They're like, uh, his run on SNL is, is probably at the bottom of the list of things. We're going to talk about Mark. He had a few bits.
00:03:14
Speaker
yeah but Yeah. He had, uh, he had Bill bar Braski. Oh, that's true. Bill Braski. Like, I mean, yeah, obviously Bill Braski, like we, we think of the Bill Braski bit more as a, as a Kechner bit, correct? but Yeah, probably so. mean, it's definitely his shtick. I would imagine he was, I mean, certainly had to be like at least co-writer on those things, right? Like that feels very, very Kechnerian.
00:03:39
Speaker
Yeah. have Extremely Kechnerian. Um, and a little Lynchian. Oh, brother. um but ah But yeah, so I didn't know where where I was ah going with that, and that's you know that's the whole tale.
00:03:53
Speaker
Well, Finn rescued us. He came in with that great... People love animals, like especially when they pop in places there. So I'd say 30 seconds of loud barking is going to be a hit with listeners. No, think people would have actually enjoyed that.
Concert Plans: Paul McCartney in Columbus
00:04:08
Speaker
How doing today, Jess? I am pretty good. I'm having a good day. It's it's been nice Friday as we record this. i am I am looking forward this weekend. I'm going off to Columbus.
00:04:23
Speaker
um yeah I'm getting ready to go off. I'm going off to Columbus. I'm going to try to see ah our old pal, ah paul Paul McCartney, ah Sir Paul McCartney. Oh, wow. ah Do you know if there's going to be any ah surprise guests?
00:04:36
Speaker
No. I don't, but I hope so. I hope we get somebody good up there. I mean, who's Columbus's biggest rocker? um Like, I mean, I'm sure there is Black Keys or somebody. i don't know. I'm i'm i'm i'm sure there's ah very there's somebody.
00:04:53
Speaker
ah but um but yeah, I mean, how many times have you seen? ah How many times have you seen Sir Paul? maca uh i think is the uh mac oh don't know what the british tabloids got yeah i think i've seen three times now this this will be our fourth we don't have tickets we're going up and hoping that we can stub hub like stub hub an hour before the show yeah right now that will be affordable oh well i mean right now it's about 800 ticket Uh-huh. we've been watching other cities.
00:05:26
Speaker
And within about an hour of start time, those drop down to like 150. Okay. so So our goal is, which is still too much to pay for a concert. No question. That's what every concert costs
Concert Costs and The Beatles' Legacy
00:05:38
Speaker
now. Yeah. I mean, it is.
00:05:39
Speaker
i mean, it is, ah the only living significant beetle. Um, and they're making any more of them. Uh, so, uh, beetle stock is lower than ever.
00:05:53
Speaker
And, and, and you've said he's, he's still pretty great live, right? Like, I yeah i mean, last time i time three times. So yeah, two or three years ago. And I mean, it was like a three hour show, very high energy. Um, you know, lots of Beatles hits and then all the solo and wings stuff that you care to hear.
00:06:13
Speaker
it's a good show. I mean, he, you know, for an 80 year old guy, I think the power of veganism really propels him, ah propels him through those performances. Yeah. It's the case of like, you know, ah that is one of those things where it's like you look at the Star Trek, ah the next generation cast, and then and you're like, yeah, you know, they're all old It's fine. And then you look at Michael Dorn and you're like, wow.
00:06:38
Speaker
And then you find out that he's a vegan and you're like, yeah yeah, yeah, you know, he's probably taking care of himself very well. It's like when you look at Bill Clinton today and think, man, that guy looks spry and great and not like a desiccated husk.
00:06:52
Speaker
I've been yeah you know i ah I have a poster of Bill on the wall and every day I look at it and go goals I can't even ironically say that please don't please don't put that in the newspaper I'm sorry they put it in the newspaper oh no it's in the newspaper oh man how many column inches did it get uh you don't even it's uh front page uh no above the regular front page sport um now uh how you doing today jess
00:07:28
Speaker
ah You know, I'm well. I think we already covered this. Oh, yeah. Yeah. We're we' now are is are you getting three tickets or we're going to three tickets? Yes, this will be if this comes together, this will be bees, our daughter's first first big concert.
00:07:49
Speaker
So we're excited. She's a Beatles fan. ah She's ready to go. yeah
Taco Bell and Fast Food's Cultural Shift
00:07:56
Speaker
so we're gonna make this happen i bet that will be lovely yeah yeah if you're able to if you're able to it's gonna be a huge disappointment for everybody um how how long a drive is it over to uh columbus like two hours a little bit more so not bad their plan is we've got a hotel room that's within walking distance of the arena if the plan falls through We just have a nice night in Columbus. We go out to dinner. We enjoy ourselves.
00:08:21
Speaker
ah If the plan works, we just stroll straight over and see s Sir Paul. There's, um, when, uh, when I went there many, many years ago, it's not,
00:08:33
Speaker
I don't believe it's there anymore. There used to be an incredible like children's museum there that blew my mind. Yes. Yes, there is an incredible. Oh, it's still there. Okay. Yes. Like a children's science museum. I think it's like COSI or COSI or something. Yeah. I went there when I was like, i don't know, 15 16. I thought it was incredible.
00:08:53
Speaker
but Yeah. My daughters had a couple of field trips there through the years. So they load them up on the old bus and send them up there. So, peek behind the curtain. ah We recorded i the the previous episode just last night.
00:09:09
Speaker
And so, I don't know. i don't have any exciting food news. No, I mean, I had Taco Bell for lunch, which I feel like I can only talk about for so long. But I do have a Taco Bell scam I'm running.
00:09:21
Speaker
Oh, yeah? What's your Taco Bell scam? I mean, scam's probably the wrong word, but... What I've been doing is i've I've got the app, Ben. You how they always did every restaurant in the world now that I you are using the mobile app. I'm using the mobile app.
00:09:36
Speaker
And every time i use this app, I'm earning a free taco, which can be applied to that meal, which earns me a free taco for the following meal.
00:09:47
Speaker
So I'm on an endless free taco train right now. Now, grant their Taco Bell tacos. So these they're pretty insubstantial. They are. Yeah. I mean, it's a yeah. And I mean, of dubious quality as well.
00:10:02
Speaker
But the price is right. Yeah.
Friend Group Dynamics
00:10:06
Speaker
It's free. You know. Uh, I, I am not, I'll, I'll never poo poo, um, a, uh, Taco Bell, but I just have not had Taco Bell in so long.
00:10:21
Speaker
Yeah. You know, it's, it's like a convenience, quick lunchy thing for, uh, for me. Uh, but you know, i think Taco Bell's fine.
00:10:31
Speaker
I think it's, I can, you know, i can mess with Taco Bell. I don't mind a nice little chicken soft taco. Yeah. It's, it's funny. Do you remember like in like, let's say the Bush era, like the, the mid aughts, there was this extreme, like, you know, we don't go to fast food, you know, like the supersize me era, like, yeah you know, like that kind of thing. And then in, it feels like in the last, uh, like, you know,
00:11:02
Speaker
five or so more years like there's been a it's like actually i'm not too cool for for fast food i love fast food like kind of thing like this kind of like re like anti-snob reaction yes to fast food and i feel that both are kind of a overcorrection Like, yeah like, it's like, I'm not, I'm not going to like, it's like, yeah, you know, if you, if you like it and I'm not also going to like sit here and be like, Oh, you know, like, uh, because you know some people will will try to gotcha you with it. It's like, well, that's all I can afford. How dare you?
00:11:41
Speaker
Like, you know, like they'll, they'll, they'll try to to, to trap you in, in something where it's just like, aha.
Night Trap: A Controversial Classic
00:11:48
Speaker
Why are you so insensitive, uh, to the working poor, Ben? Yeah. And, uh, it's like, I'm not going to like,
00:11:55
Speaker
Whereas it's like, you know, maybe we don't need to really overthink this. Yeah. Maybe, maybe fast food is ah convenience for when you need food quickly and can afford to pay for it.
00:12:09
Speaker
You know, that seems to be like where it fits into our culture and economy. And you know what? Taco Bell, no complaints today. yeah i had Yeah. I love those with the the little like the the little cinnamon twists. Those are delicious.
00:12:24
Speaker
Oh, yeah. You know, they are my favorite. A classic just take on a sweet treat. and Wow. Wow. No, I mean, yeah you yeah own I like lots of sweet things. I mean, yeah.
00:12:40
Speaker
you know, and just not those particularly, but but but listen, I have very normal opinions about food. So yeah, I'm not going to stand here and be lectured by you. Wow. See how, how quickly it turned around from like me being like, I, you know, listen, I'm a no bummers guy.
00:12:57
Speaker
i you know, I'm not going to judge you whether you love fast food or whether you hate it and then immediately pivot to fuck you, Jess. Yeah.
00:13:11
Speaker
here's Here's a question, Jess. Yes. You know how every, every, uh, like group of friends, like has the, the friend that everybody picks on, you know, like, are you that friend?
00:13:25
Speaker
I have been, have various times. And I feel like in my group of friends right now, I am not the consistently picked on, like I'm not
Mortal Kombat: Nostalgia and Mechanics
00:13:38
Speaker
the thought person to be picked on. I'm familiar with that, that role too. It's like, it may come to me occasionally. Yeah.
00:13:45
Speaker
Like you have like the friend that's like the number one like kind of butt of jokes. Yes. And then you have like, kind of I'm trying to push that friend down. Oh yeah. Yeah. Like, so they stay there. Like, yeah, that's what I'm, yeah. My barbs are cutting.
00:13:59
Speaker
Uh, like everybody else is having fun with it, but I'm really trying to like wreck their confidence. and then um And then you have, ah but then, yes, and then you have, like, the class of friends above that who are, like, the the semi, it's like, yeah, you've got a couple things that we we all know. Like, you you have this weird TV show that you are way too into. Yeah. And we're going to make an example of you for being slightly different.
00:14:24
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:27
Speaker
So, okay. No. And then there's like, at the top of that pecking order, you have the person who is either unassailable in the sense that, you they seem to be flawless or more likely the person at the top of the pecking order who you think may get really mad if you ever tease them in any way. Yeah. See, that's the, I think that's, that's the, that's the big thing is that it's actually not like it's, it's, it's, it's more that the person at the bottom generally you know, if you have like a healthy friend friend group is like just really good at being that, like yeah assuming that role and the person at the top is actually the person that would be like, that is absolutely unable to, to accept that.
00:15:11
Speaker
Yeah, and I feel like here on Quest Quest, that's kind of our dynamic is I'm the one who's willing to like, you take a little jab here and there, you know, just for for the sake of the podcast. But God forbid i ever criticize you. Yeah, I know. I'll fly off the fucking handle.
00:15:24
Speaker
ah start screaming. screaming yeah ah you you thought it was bad with finn before i'll start until i'm barking at you yeah that's right i'll start yipping and barking and i'll pee all over the floor ah now what else is new yeah all right but you know what is new what have you been playing in the last 18 hours Yeah, this is going to be a real challenge. i This is one of those ones where I'm just going to start scrolling through my vice ah you know my recently played on Steam to see, it's like, do I have anything to say?
00:15:59
Speaker
Well, let me tell you what I was playing earlier today. What were you playing earlier today? This is shocking to me, but I was playing... more of the 1998 controversial FMV classic Night Trap.
00:16:17
Speaker
I bought the 25th anniversary edition of this game, Ben, after streaming the original. I don't know why. I was a glutton for punishment. i mean I thought, like, yeah, when I was watching you stream the original, I was like, you know, I think a lot of your, like, kind of, prop because I've watched someone stream, like, the remaster. Yeah.
00:16:37
Speaker
And I was like, You know what? I bet Jess would have a much better time with the remaster, which just kind of, like, you know, it just, it it seemed a little less of a bear.
00:16:52
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, the interface, quality of life stuff is much better. I mean, still the gameplay is somewhat broken. I mean, it's a again, it's remarkable this game, like, draws the attention of Congress in the 90s that it's able to, you know, to get people as riled up as it did.
00:17:10
Speaker
but Did I get the date right on that? I way off. I said 98. It's like 93 or 94. Yeah, I know. It's early 90s. Because it's around the same time as Mortal Kombat. Mortal Kombat. Yeah, no, I was way off. Gosh, this is what sort of video game historian am I right now, Ben?
00:17:27
Speaker
But regardless. You know, i've been calling you the Space Quest historian. Well, maybe that's the only thing I know about, yeah it turns out. But yeah, I mean, it's wild that this silly game was controversial, but then also i think I got to this point while I was streaming it and I'm back in it now that I've been playing the the the anniversary edition is it is so close to having something.
00:17:52
Speaker
Like this idea of the video clips of this goofy story about vampires threatening a house full of teenagers who all look to be in their early
00:18:07
Speaker
Like, and then you're like trying to manage these different security cameras and trigger traps to to stop them. It's not a bad
Diving into Space Quest
00:18:15
Speaker
concept. I mean, it's basically ah gameplay loop not dissimilar from Five Nights at Freddy's and some other things like that.
00:18:24
Speaker
But have you ever played Five Nights at Freddy's? I've never played Five Nights at Freddy's. No, I played the Chuck Yeager game that came out as part of the Space Venture project, though that was a knockoff. for Yeah, Cluck Yeager.
00:18:42
Speaker
That was a knockoff of Five Nights at Freddy's. So that's the only way I know that genre. But... Night Trap is almost there, but it makes this mistake that's still there in the in the remastered version of, you have to constantly switch away from the video clips to monitor all the intruders coming into the house. If you sit and watch a video clip from start to finish, even for like a minute straight, you've lost the game already. yeah So it becomes incredibly difficult to actually- I'll have the on you for enjoying the content that we made. That's right. Yeah. I mean, the optimal strategy is not to ever watch the video, just to bounce around the game constantly triggering traps against weird vampire creatures. So I do think, though, I mean, I finished that. I played, like, most the way through the game on stream, and then I went and bought this stupid 25th anniversary edition. So there's something there, right? I mean, there's, like, I don't know. Ben, mystery. I think that, like,
00:19:48
Speaker
Well, first off, I think also the the remaster, I mean, you tell me, I think it doesn't it also have like a mood that lets you just watch the like a story mode. You have to complete the game first.
00:20:00
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, that's bullshit. i It is. And you know, spent like a I spent like 45 minutes this morning trying to figure out how to manipulate like one of the I and I files or something that's in the directory.
00:20:14
Speaker
I saw someone on Steam saying if you just play with that enough, you can eventually convince the game that you've beaten it so you can watch all the videos and I failed to do that. So, yeah, nice try, Jess. Yeah, nice try. Not today.
00:20:28
Speaker
Yeah. Well, Ben, what have you been playing since last night? Well, I will tell you, and this is I. So after after we recorded last night, I did go through and play a whole bunch of Mortal Kombat. Like I didn't watch any of the documentary.
00:20:43
Speaker
And I was like, you know what? I'm bad at this, but it is interesting. Like and there were there were there were moments.
00:20:53
Speaker
and i like you know to To what I was saying last night, like it has like the weird like a handheld versions.
00:21:04
Speaker
Yes. Like that that Game Boy version, the first Game Boy version. da It's fascinating because they really try to fit everything into it. which is like, you know, it doesn't have all the characters, but like, you know, it has special moves.
00:21:19
Speaker
It has like, it has all the, like, it tries to have all the stuff. And does have fatalities? Uh, I did not complete match because I was just like, enough of this. Does it have babalities?
00:21:31
Speaker
Does it have friendships? Uh, well... There is an MK2, which is where when you get the... Yeah. So I don't know, um to answer your question.
00:21:44
Speaker
The Game Gear one, I was actually having fun with. I was having... i was i like... But they all kind of just feel yucky. My big problem right now is is that I don't know at what sort of cadence it wants you to like do the button.
00:21:59
Speaker
Because one of the nice things, so I guess this is why I've been playing the same thing that I was said I was playing ah yesterday. But this time, instead of quote unquote playing by watching a documentary and a bunch of interesting talking heads, i was actually playing...
00:22:14
Speaker
Mortal Kombat's one through four. um And like, just like I would play the arcade version, ah like ah like a round or two in the arcade version. And then I would play a round or two in the Genesis version and a round or two the SNES version.
00:22:29
Speaker
And then a round or two in the Game Boy version and then in the Game Gear version. And I was just like, this is pretty interesting. how do you make the same game multiple times? And they're all like, they're all like, I was playing as Scorpion as the same one every time. And so it's like the, the, the get over here.
00:22:50
Speaker
Get over here. Yeah. Like that. The button input inputs are, are the same for all. See, there's that back, back low punch. Yep. Wow. Where's that living in my brain?
00:23:02
Speaker
Where is that living in my brain? Oh my gosh. Good for you, Jess. Yes. But, um... so that... like so that Those controls, that control is the same across all of them and into like Mortal Kombat 4, which hilariously started to glitch out for me. Like, you know, as as I said, like there there are some like, so the the online multiplayer is apparently having like is isn't in the best of condition right now. And then I was playing the MK4, which is like the 3D one.
00:23:41
Speaker
I was having kind of fun. You could also like up the rendering quality for it, which obviously wasn't in the the game itself. And it it it looks, you know, like it it looks like a like a decent of that generation, like 3D game with the rendering quality up. And i don't know if it was this that did it or something else, like just, you know, a glitch in the emulator or something, but at a certain point,
00:24:08
Speaker
all of the textures got scrambled up. And so like the background would be like the face of like, you know, the image of one of the faces the competitors.
00:24:21
Speaker
And like it would say so-and-so wins and all of the letters were mixed up and mashed up. It was like, Remember this, Jess? Did you do this like when you had game genie and instead of following like the things in the manual, you just pushed random shit in the game genie? Then you'd load it up and the game was all fucked up?
00:24:46
Speaker
Yes. That was such a cool... Wasn't that cool? That's an undocumented feature of the Game Genie. And yeah, it's pretty, pretty remarkable. I mean, you should get a photo of that, Ben, and send it to GamePro.
00:25:00
Speaker
They'd love to print that in their letters column. Yeah. I mean, I kind of love that. I am fascinated by this. Like, i' I was just looking at this collection as you were talking about it, like trying to decide, like, what my sweet price point for it would be.
00:25:17
Speaker
I would $30 is like, so right now it's at $50. That's where I want it. That's exactly where I want it. And we're... Maybe not the winter, like, because what? There's going to be the Thanksgiving, like, fall a sale. So it's $50 right now.
00:25:34
Speaker
oh And so probably not the Thanksgiving sale. would Like, maybe you'll see, like, 5%, 10% off. Right. It won't be a big But maybe, like, the Christmas...
00:25:47
Speaker
or certainly by spring, I think we'll you'll you'll get it around 30. Yeah, that's what I want. This is perfect at 30.
00:25:58
Speaker
I love the idea of the mobile ports. like That sounds really fun to me. like there I know there was, like in in Street Fighter World, a Game Boy Color version of Street Fighter Alpha that I kind of liked. I mean, it wasn't great because the Game Boy Color, there's only so much you can do, but it was better than it should have been. And I kind of like that spirit of mobile fighting games from this era. Like, the yeah, this has no business on this platform, we're going give it a try.
00:26:24
Speaker
There was the the last, the most recent game in the pack, which I think is from, like, 2003, somewhere somewhere around there, is a GBA.
00:26:39
Speaker
Like, they have two GBA games at the end.
00:27:00
Speaker
like, it's a little bit slow and a little bit like, you know, like a little, you know, sluggish in the way that a 3D GBA thing was at the time.
00:27:12
Speaker
Yes. But I'm playing and I'm just like, this is so cool that they did this. i mean I was like, you know, like it it was it was very impressive.
00:27:23
Speaker
Yeah. It's also, it has a progression in it. Like you play in every like win you get like, you know, coins or something and then you can use the coins to unlock like new fighters. Like as a fun little progression or something. Like I only messed around with it a little bit, but I was just like- That's portable.
00:27:42
Speaker
That's good for handheld.
Closing Thoughts and Future Space Quest Discussions
00:27:43
Speaker
Yeah. And the the GBA was such, i mean, I think we've talked about this, maybe not on the podcast, but GBA was such a cool handheld. You know, I never had one at the time, but going back and just even playing the emulated GBA stuff,
00:27:58
Speaker
I love the style that a lot of those games have. I think like the pixel art graphics and GBA games are in my mind, some of the best looking, very retro styled games you're you're likely to find just a platform full of some really gorgeous titles. Yeah, because it's from a it always felt to me like it was kind of like of a period like because it's it's better than.
00:28:26
Speaker
Like it has a better look ah than like SNES. Like I think it do a little bit more, maybe. I could be wrong. um And like the the rudimentary three d is a little more than like the mood ah the mode seven stuff.
00:28:45
Speaker
Uh, and, but, uh, like most of the games are in that, like, you know, 2D, uh, like pixel. And so it, like, it always felt like it was like, oh, we're getting like a little sequel console to the SNES. Like, that's kind of what I was thinking about it at the time. I was just like, all right, like we're getting more kind of,
00:29:04
Speaker
like you know like this this like nintendo smes look which up against the n sixty four is like a real treat right like the n64 is doing everything cannot be like the sequel to the super nes well at that point we have uh at that point we have the gamecube are we already at that point oh my god this is what happens when you just don't grow up with consoles. We're we're at the GameCube at this point because it's also because the GameCube has the... Very good. The GameCube had games that had the connector.
00:29:43
Speaker
Yes, that's right. With the GBA. And...
00:29:50
Speaker
Yeah, that was such a neat, that was one of the very first things I i spent, like, my first, like, actual paycheck on. Ah. Was GBA. Yeah.
00:30:05
Speaker
And you want to know what? I bought a digital eclipse collection, actually, with that because they had, I was at, I bought the Fantasy Star 1 through 3 collection.
00:30:24
Speaker
This didn't have like, this was not like the documentary style. It was just like, here you go. A master system game and two Genesis games. And a brand new menu.
00:30:36
Speaker
yeah and a break Yeah, exactly. It was like, you know, on on DVDs, it would say like animated menu on the back. Yes. It was just like to me, like as somebody that didn't have a ton of, ah you know, as ah a teenager with a summer job and not ah like a ton of like spending cash.
00:30:54
Speaker
It was like this is three games. They were also like three JRPGs. Yeah, that's a lot of that's a lot bang for your buck. Yeah. So anyway, Mortal Kombat, go out there and get it.
00:31:08
Speaker
i You know what? I was having some fun. I don't know. Like one of the, so it has, it has a couple neat things is that you can turn on a move list that just is on the side of the screen.
00:31:21
Speaker
I love this in any sort of fighting game. Yeah. Just give it to me. Just like spoon feed it to please. Very, very helpful. It has this. And then it also has like just a test mode where like it will give you the move list, which is if I really want to go into this and maybe I will.
00:31:40
Speaker
I don't know. I don't know. Um, but it has like the move list. And so it's like, uh, and then it goes into like a test mode, um, in the arcade game where like, you know, just your opponent is just standing there.
00:31:55
Speaker
So it's like, you can figure out how to do the button inputs without having to stress about like, oh there's this guy that's, because that's the problem I have. Yeah. Yeah.
00:32:07
Speaker
yeah um or you know remove his mask and and uh the flame throw you yeah yeah you're gonna be careful with these people anyway so yeah i'm having i'm having a good time maybe maybe you know maybe this is this is the beginning of something but probably not um No emails because, again, no one has emailed us in the last 18 hours or whatever. That's weird. Yeah, it is strange.
00:32:34
Speaker
Get those emails coming. QuestQuestPodcast at Jamel.com. Yeah. And um so ah let's you know let's ah let's get into it.
00:32:45
Speaker
ah ah So today we're going to talk about Spellcasting 101, Sorcerers Get All the Girls. um Now, this is ah Steve Maritsky's first game ah with a ah Legend.
00:32:59
Speaker
um it's it's ah It's a text adventure. And, you know, like he was you know, ah like one of his bestsellers over at Infocom that wasn't licensed. I think Hitchhikers was probably like his number one. But then he had Weather Goddesses of Phobos. I'm sorry. i don't want to interrupt. Yeah, what's up?
00:33:21
Speaker
Spellcasting 101. I played all of this. No. Well, I mean, I don't know. I mean, I did this last episode. Yeah. go and Yeah, please. I mean, I've not played this. I'm not really prepared to talk about You didn't prepare. ah ah You didn't play all of Spellcasting 101 colon Sorcerers Get All the Girls.
00:33:40
Speaker
Ben, I thought we agreed that we were going to do a bit about Spellcasting 101 and then launch into our real topic, Space Quest 3. No, this time it's real. I'm not doing a bit.
00:33:53
Speaker
It's real this time. Oh, no. I thought this was still the bit. No, no, it's real now. How about that? How about that Ernie Eagle beak? um I like the nudity in that game. um ah oh um Yeah.
00:34:12
Speaker
So what what did you like best about spellcasting? um the verbs yeah i love the the verbs the nouns the the compass i loved it all yeah yeah no i mean it does those are great looking games uh all right fine jess where what are we going to talk about today let's talk about space quest 3 the pirates of pestilence
00:34:42
Speaker
oh there it is This probably my favorite version of the Space Quest theme, but you're gonna hear me say that about a lot of things over the course of this podcast, because a lot of Space Quest 3 my favorite things about Space Quest.
00:35:01
Speaker
So that's no surprise. Let's let those drums kick in.
00:35:11
Speaker
You can slap this right on Super Tramp album. Nobody would even think was out of place. So yes, to be clear, this is the first one that uses a digital, like a sound card.
00:35:28
Speaker
And they got, what's the name of the guy? They got one of the guys. We have members of Super Tramp. Beloved character actor.
00:35:40
Speaker
let's see who was to do this music for Space Quest 3 and like and they did that for for King's Quest 4 and also Space Quest 3
00:35:58
Speaker
um like and they they did that for for king's quest four and also space quest or Space Quest, Police Quest 3 as well. Like, they brought an outside...
00:36:13
Speaker
yeah ah Like, talent to to make the music, and all three of those have spectacular...
00:36:25
Speaker
ah music this isn't to put down like the in-house you know ah composers at at Sierra but you know when they they spent to get like these big name you bring in Jan Hammer chanhammers his music in uh like the in please quest uh and please quest three is so good the music in please quest two is also it's very good also very good too best point chime in sierra history yeah yeah
00:37:01
Speaker
Um, but, uh, but yeah, um, no, mean, this is, and I, I'm fascinated by this, like before we even talk about the game, this commitment that Sierra had at the time of, we are going to start supporting what the time are some technologies that may not have terribly wide adoption rates.
00:37:26
Speaker
We are going to advertise this as like the killer feature of these new software products that they all have these awesome soundtracks, especially if you have a Roland MT-32.
00:37:37
Speaker
And we are going to spend time in Interaction Magazine, their newsletters and everywhere else telling you about how much better these games are if you just get a proper sound card. And then we're going to also sell you sound cards or a bundle these games and allow you to purchase sound yeah This through flyers that are inserted into the boxes, through our newsletter, everything else.
00:37:57
Speaker
And they would do this again with the sort of CD-ROM revolution of, you know, hey look, our games are going start being CD-ROM. You need to get the program. And if you aren't ready, we'll sell you a CD-ROM too.
00:38:09
Speaker
It's kind of fascinating. I can't think of any other software manufacturer that's ever just decides like, you know, we want to make these games and we'll just sell you the hardware if we have to, to play it.
00:38:22
Speaker
That's wild to think about. Like, I mean, it's, it's possibly evil. I don't, like, I mean, I think it's, it's, it's, it's part of like, uh, Ken Williams is vision. This feels very Ken Williams. of these Yeah.
00:38:38
Speaker
Kind of premium entertainment products. Yes. And it is like, and it's also, it's like every, every big step towards,
00:38:52
Speaker
a more thorough multimedia experience took them closer to something that was less just for nerds, which is probably also their, their, I mean, certainly also their aim. Like it's, it's like, it's going to more be mass entertainment, like the more like exciting, like that, at least that's one route to it. Right. Like it's like, that's right.
00:39:22
Speaker
Like this big, splashy production value. did I might have talked about this here. The... um on here the um the the first time i heard i when we put the sound blaster in did i have i told this story and don't think so so i have a very distinct memory uh so we had uh our our gateway 2486 what for eighty six
00:39:54
Speaker
which is what like most of these old Sierra games ah we we played on. I'm actually surprised now thinking about it. This 486, so that's pretty like cutting edge at that period. not have...
00:40:10
Speaker
that ah yeah um it did not have a sound card it just had the pc that is surprising that it didn't know that i um yeah like because of that i guess it's a clone yeah like if it was like come to think of it like that might have been a way like you know maybe my like my dad when he was buying it like that was a way of that uh he he tried to like kind of lower the exorbitant price of it because i'm sure it cost like
00:40:42
Speaker
you know, oh yeah like an enormous amount of money. Exactly the same as a brand new nice computer does today, only in back then dollars. Yeah. um And but anyway, so I remember...
00:40:58
Speaker
i Like ah ah we got at the mall a Sound Blaster Pro and um am my my older brother ah installed it into ah the the gateway and and set it up.
00:41:17
Speaker
And I remember, uh, I think the very first game that, uh, he turned on with the sound blaster was, uh, lemmings.
00:41:34
Speaker
Um, and you could really hear him suffer now. Yeah. But the, like, you know, there's very, like, there's a nice little like soundtrack. Oh yeah. That's yeah. And,
00:41:45
Speaker
I remember hearing it and just like not believing that, like not believing it, like just being like, Oh my God. Like, you know, as a, you know, however old I was, let's say probably, you know, seven or eight.
00:41:59
Speaker
Yeah. um And we have to stress to the listeners, Ben and I were both fancy boys who already had three voice sound cards and our computers growing up. I had a Tandy with a three voice. You had a PC junior with a three voice.
00:42:13
Speaker
yeah So, I mean, it's not like we were coming from the beeps and boops of the PC speaker. We were already, you know, cutting edge before this, but it was eye opening mean when you hear Sound Blaster sound for the first time. It was, it was, it was truly incredible. it made, it was, it was, the and it was a similar experience when like years later, ah we installed like a 3D effects card in in our, in the,
00:42:38
Speaker
in our Our next Gateway 2000, which was a Pentium 166, installing ah a ah two megabytes of video RAM. There you go. That's all you need. And the they' still, you know what? We lost our way ah when it became more than that.
00:42:57
Speaker
um but uh three i mean it's a showcase for you know this advancement and sound that sierra's putting out there i mean it's got just gorgeous music at this point literally like the only thing it is missing is digitized speech oh yeah where am i oh where am i i mean that's all the speech you got then how are you doing that without moving your lips where am i Now let me drink a glass of water.
00:43:26
Speaker
Oh my God. This is, this is incredible. Uh, so this blew my mind. you know, this is something I did not experience as a kid.
00:43:36
Speaker
ah I played this game, I think first with a three voice, uh, sound card and then later with a sound blaster. um but of course, uh, the real heads out there know.
00:43:49
Speaker
that if you if you pop this in with your old Roland MT-32 or emulated Roland MT-32 running, ah during the opening scenes of Space Quest III, when Roger awakes from his cryo sleep, you get this little clip of digitized audio of Roger saying, where am I?
00:44:10
Speaker
The first time I saw that on YouTube, I thought, who is this jokester? trying to like do voiceover for this game. I thought it was like a trick that was being played on me, but here we are.
00:44:23
Speaker
It, I think this would have, mean, you were saying, the sound blaster just like blew your mind. This may have melted my brain. If I'd heard this as a kid's good, I didn't hear this until years later, because this is the first speech in a Sierra game. There's no other digitized speech anywhere else in the catalog before this is there.
00:44:45
Speaker
I'm the wrong person to ask, but no, I mean, I can't think of what else it would be. mean, you start having a lot so more digitized. Does any other SEI zero have a voice sample in it?
00:45:00
Speaker
I don't think it does. I don't think it does either. Yeah. I don't think we get like, because you have digital sounds in, in some of them. But it's like I'm thinking about, so this is an SEI. So this is this is a game that, so SEI Zero, that that's the the engine that follows um AGI.
00:45:21
Speaker
And it's still, we're still 16 color and a text parser, but now it's at a like a ah higher resolution Um, and, it supports, uh, sound and a bunch of other stuff.
00:45:36
Speaker
Yeah. And it, I mean, i think this is my favorite era of Sierra games. I mean, this is the era where a lot of my favorite games come from. You know, I feel like this really locked in to me. It was like everything I loved about AGI, ah but better.
00:45:55
Speaker
And then it was followed by that rocky initial rollout of the, you know, point and click interface that had kind of a round of not great games before they settled in and really figured out how to do that.
00:46:09
Speaker
ah So, yeah, this for me, like, especially as a kid, it was like, you know give me Quest for Glory one and two. Give me Space Quest three. Give me Police Quest two. me King's Quest for the you know, Laura Bow. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. The conquest of Camelot.
00:46:25
Speaker
at least su Larry two and three are games that I really enjoy. Definitely my favorite from that franchise. ah So yeah, this was, this was my era in a lot of ways. Did, um, Did he buy this at release?
00:46:37
Speaker
This is 89, right? I did not buy this one at release. This is actually one that I would, I would receive pirated from a friend. um I did not legally purchase this until years later. I know that you've been in correspondence with the two guys from Andromeda who have, ah you know, who designed this. Have you ever, have you ever bared your sins ah to them about this? Have you ever told them Scott?
00:47:05
Speaker
I stole your game. Well, you know, I stole originally Space Quest 2 and 3. Wow. So when I pledged to the Space Venture Kickstarter, I just paid the equivalent of three games worth of pledge money. So I felt like that was that was fair.
00:47:26
Speaker
One for Space Venture and then two more to make up for Space Quest 2 and 3. there was There was one, i forget, I'm trying to remember ah which adventure game Kickstarter had It was like a redemption tier. Will re redeem you from your guilt.
00:47:46
Speaker
Yeah, like an atonement level of pledge. yeah ah would Yeah. Who was that? Was that one of the Kohl's? Like, was that one of the Hero U ones? It feels like a Hero U one to me if I had to take a guess. That feels very Laurie and Corey. Yeah, that's funny.
00:48:03
Speaker
But no, it's pretty great. But no, I did the same here. But no, this is why pirated it. think my friend Andy, who's ah a listener, may have gotten this to me through back channels. um He was my one of my big sources for pirated games across the Tennessee border.
00:48:19
Speaker
ah He would traffic them. to Virginia state criminality. That's right. That may, yeah. I mean, if it wasn't a federal, it's a federal, it's a federal. Didn't you read all the text boxes at the beginning of quest for glory one?
00:48:34
Speaker
my copy had those hacked out uh i never saw that yeah no it just it just said this game hacked by cool leak dudes and then it played like this incredible music that's right yeah something like again talk about blowing your mind there's no way my machine could have been able to do that but it did somehow um what what is the plot of ah space quest 3 um that's a great question so I think the game isn't sure the answer that ah for large chunks of it. I mean, you start out Rogers drifting through space, having escaped Bohol's asteroid at the end of space quest two. He's cryogenically put to sleep. ah His pod encounters a garbage freighter, which pulls him aboard.
00:49:17
Speaker
As he's pulled aboard, he's awakened from his slumber, and he now has to escape this garbage freighter before the robots that run it are his untimely undoing.
00:49:28
Speaker
He finds aboard this ship, ah this freighter, a ah small warp-capable ship, ah the Aluminum Mallard. He sets about repairing it. He escapes the freighter, and now he's kind of just out in the universe. Luckily, he goes to Monolith Burger to get a little snack. He plays some Astro Chicken. Upon defeating Astro Chicken, he discovers a secret message from the two guys from Andromeda, famed software designers who are being held against their will at Scumsoft, an evil sweatshop of a software manufacturer, ah forced to design lowbrow games.
00:50:05
Speaker
And Roger sets off for some reason to rescue them, I guess just because he's a nice guy. And he does. Yeah.
00:50:16
Speaker
the end um yeah and it is it's really funny because i'm i'm with you this game kicks ass like i think this is an extremely good i think this is an extremely good ah adventure game i think it's uh like the the best of these first three and um and but it is very funny how how much, ah and whatever ah the plot is. like It's just like, it really yada yada yada's you. Yes. Especially after one and two. yeah As we've mentioned our previous episodes, like those things are constantly pushed
00:50:54
Speaker
you know pushing Roger forward. Like there is an immediate get off this ship before it explodes, get off this planet before the Sarians take over the galaxy, you know, ah get out of Labion. So you can, you know, get back to face off against Bo Hall.
00:51:11
Speaker
This game is more just like, all right, you off the garbage freighter. Let's see what's waiting for us out here in the big wide universe. yeah it's just go like ah And then, yeah, for some reason, Roger decides that he's going to save these two guys because he,
00:51:24
Speaker
found a secret message in a obnoxious, uh, lunar lander, uh, clone. Um, this is spoken like someone who's not very good Astro chicken. I fucking hate Astro chicken.
00:51:39
Speaker
I love it. I mean, you know, I am a world-class Astro chicken player. I think my problem with Astro chicken was ameliorated when I realized that. So Astro a chicken is this,
00:51:51
Speaker
uh uh like this arcade game that you play in the you know mcdonald's parody um ah monolith burger and uh the the controls for it like it so it's a lunar lander parrot like the type game like you have to land a a chicken on a platform and it and it can't be going too fast um yeah or it bounces off and you can't miss it um and i the last time i i played space quest 3 because when i was younger i had no problem with it this is similar to ah the the the little uh speeder thing in uh space quest 1 uh and as an adult i had nothing but difficulty with it and i think that
00:52:44
Speaker
what, what unlocked it for me is realizing that you're not holding down the arrow keys. Oh, definitely not. Definitely not. Yeah. Like in the SEI zero, the and this is true in AGI as well.
00:52:57
Speaker
Like you don't hold down like the, you know, the right key to move your character to the right. You tap it once to have the character move right consistently. And then you tap it a second time to have them stopped.
00:53:12
Speaker
which is very counterintuitive to nearly every other game that's ever existed, I feel like. It's the idea that you just go careening off in a direction until you tell the character to stop.
00:53:22
Speaker
It's counterintuitive. Like, you know, i figured it out pretty quickly for the adventure game stuff, but like it's counterintuitive for an arcade game where that's absolutely, there like I can't think of an ah arcade game that controls that way.
00:53:36
Speaker
No, I mean, you'd have to think of something like, I mean, asteroids has like hints of it, just but that's just because you're drifting through space. It's not like you do it indefinitely. Yeah, it's momentum. It's not. I mean, yeah yeah, that's like the closest I think you get anywhere else. And then even then, like a second tap doesn't stop you. So it's a weird system.
00:53:55
Speaker
I mean, ah and it doesn't make as much sense. I think that this is 100% of why everyone who struggles with Astro Chicken struggles with Astro Chicken. is because they're holding down the keys.
00:54:06
Speaker
Yeah, this is I mean, once you stop doing that, it's just a matter of finding the the like sweet spots on the screen of where you need to start flapping your Astro wings.
00:54:17
Speaker
And it's also because it's a momentum game like Astro like, you know, because Lunar Lander was like another vector ah game with momentum.
00:54:31
Speaker
And like you're holding up to give like the power on your little wow thrust. yeah Yeah. And so it is, um,
00:54:43
Speaker
uh it is like you know so it's a very similar game in in terms of what your objective and how it's played it just controls completely differently yeah which is enough just to mess you up but no i mean it is it's kind of funny i think that this is a game that a lot of people in the fandom latch on to and i think a lot of this comes down to the freedom the game appears to give you like ultimately you can only travel to a few very limited locations.
00:55:14
Speaker
But just putting Roger in his own ship, which is a pretty cool looking ship. Yep. And allowing him to scan around the galaxy to look for destinations to travel to is I think, something captured a lot of players' imaginations at the time. There's a reason that fan fictions and fan games throw Roger directly back into the aluminum mallard so often know put him back as this sort of like free will and space guy uh but now mean that part of a thing is really important also think um the garbage freighter at the beginning of the game Roger strand this garbage freighter and he has to repair uh the the aluminum mallard to escape not only is that a gorgeous set of screens as you see like
00:56:01
Speaker
junk piled up a lot of it references to other science fiction properties like an old TIE fighter and a Transformers style mech head other things like that the the spline saucer from Lost in Space other other references and everything but I feel like that is one of the most tightly designed little sections that give me that good ah good junk freighter music.
00:56:28
Speaker
I think it's one of the most tightly designed sections of any Sierra game, like just as a standalone. I feel like if you wanted to release a playable demo of Space Quest III, you put out this first junk freighter section,
00:56:43
Speaker
people will buy that game after playing it. I mean, it is a pretty sweet little set of puzzles and just a gorgeous environment. Yeah.
00:56:55
Speaker
And it it does, like, it shows off some cool...
00:57:00
Speaker
Like it has like, you know, shadowed areas where Roger walks into it and then he's in shadow. And then, you know, it has a section where you a pilot like a little vehicle, this little like grabber module. jewel And so you you glide around on that. Like it it does...
00:57:27
Speaker
a lot and it has and it's it's it's funny you know we were talking a little bit about how
00:57:37
Speaker
like, you know, how kind of sly and not like extremely reference heavy some of it is, but this is a ah pretty, I wouldn't say it's reliant on the references.
00:57:51
Speaker
It's just that this is a garbage freighter that's picked up a bunch of space garbage and it happens to be like, yeah as you said, a TIE fighter and the Jupiter. And it's not the focus, you know, it's just sort of background flavor.
00:58:03
Speaker
more than anything. It's not, it's not like just spoof on spoof on spoof. It's more like, oh wow, that's a TIE fighter there. Yeah. And sucked up all kinds of famous ships. The, um,
00:58:16
Speaker
ah It's also a like even before the the freighter, it it opens up with this really impressive cut scene where in Space Quest 1 and 2, it just opens with text.
00:58:29
Speaker
hey And this gives you some text. And then you you have like this really impressive set of animations of like your your little escape pod, like floating through space and being...
00:58:41
Speaker
found by the garbage freighter and beamed aboard. um And like everything, like again, Mark Crow ah does such a great job with all the art. And there's so many, like, you know, later on,
00:58:59
Speaker
you're being chased by this Arnold Schwarzenegger, ah and like the, arndroid. What is it? Yeah. Yeah. Arnoid. Arnoid. And, ah like you have this closeup of him, ah like pulling up Roger by like the shirt and like in his face and Roger like reflected like the, the, the animation, uh, and the closeups,
00:59:27
Speaker
are all really, really well drawn and impressive and kind of show off. It's like, this is what we can do now. It's interesting to me because I think it gets a lot of that cinematic stuff in a way that like King's Quest four didn't quite pull off. Like King's Quest four is certainly trying for something similar and it's big opening cartoon is definitely going for ah You know, that kind of cinematic stuff. And, you know, mean, part of it is King's Quest 4 is sort of breaking in this new engine, whereas Space Quest 3, you know, they've already figured out some of the tricks by this point.
01:00:02
Speaker
But also, know, I think it's a testament to the storytelling abilities of ah Mark Crow as an artist and then, you know, Scott supporting him with but with the text in these opening scenes. ah I mean, it really, yeah, I mean, it feels much more cinematic than I think any Sierra game up to this point.
01:00:23
Speaker
Yeah, I'm looking at the... ah releases and so like King's Quest 4 is first ah Larry 2 is second ah Police Quest 2 and then you get Space Quest 3 yeah So they already have a couple they already have a couple games to kind of figure out what this what this iteration of the SEI engine's going to do.
01:00:55
Speaker
And we were talking about this in the the previous episode where it's just like you know one of the knocks on Space Quest 2 is that you're just kind of on this one planet and it's very...
01:01:10
Speaker
uh like kind of it looks kind of like the the forests that you'd find in a king's quest and as you said like you're on the spaceship and even if uh like it is it's fairly linear and fairly like uh but you you go to a variety of different planets and they all have a different feel and look uh to them like you're absolutely you start out on this garbage freighter which itself has its own look then you go to what fleabit fleabit um which is a like a desert planet where mark crow gets to use his favorite color which is that uh purple yes uh heavily um and then i you know then you hang out on at the monolith burger for a bit then you go to like a volcano planet
01:02:05
Speaker
And then you have a very familiar climate of ah a space quest. ah Apparently that ah every space quest finale so far on these three is you're back in like the ice cooled blues of a, like an enemy space station. Yeah.
01:02:22
Speaker
Yes. Yeah. But i mean, you're right. There is a lot of variety here. Like if you just like I'm just scrolling through at Sierra wallpaper dot com, which is a great place to go if you're ever looking for a Sierra screenshots.
01:02:35
Speaker
um And just the way that kind of from each location to the next, the palette shifts so dramatically. So, the I mean, Ortega, it looks nothing like flea butt.
01:02:47
Speaker
Even though we're still working with 16 colors here. um And it helps with a lot of that problem that we cited for Space Quest 2. I'd love to know if this was a conscious, like we are trying to avoid that pitfall.
01:03:02
Speaker
Or if this is just, you know, they they were on their stuff. yeah yeah They were really, they were just kind of working at a higher level at this point. It's hard to say. But now this game has a lot more variety and that goes a long way for it.
01:03:16
Speaker
the The comedy is a little broader in this one too. i think it tones down some of the, ah some of the acidity of space quest to without losing it completely.
01:03:30
Speaker
um But yeah, I think the comedy is little broader. It has some good silly bits. Like I feel like Fester Blatt's is a pretty good, comedy character i feel like the the whole bit at monolith burger with the pushy counter clerk is very funny very funny stuff good stuff um that's like low-key one of my favorite space quest uh supporting characters i've ah always been a big fan of pushy counter clerk at uh at monolith burger um you know and then
01:04:01
Speaker
I mean, Elmo Pug is a pretty fun, ah yeah guess, stand-in, we imagine, for like a Bill Gates-esque kind of software magnate.
01:04:14
Speaker
um And then even things like, I thought I'd say as a kid, the idea of trapping someone and Jell-O as a way of imprisoning them. That's right up my alley. That's the kind of humor I was here for. I'm still here for it. still think that shooting someone with a Jell-O gun and trapping them in Jell-O as the two guys have been encased in Jell-O and green lime green lime Jell-O is pretty funny.
01:04:37
Speaker
That still plays. When I was like a teenager and in central New York, I don't know if this is still there. good look i think it's Leroy, New York.
01:04:49
Speaker
I went to the the Jell-O museum. Oh, wow. Which is one of those museums that's just in a house and it's like a couple of rooms. Yes.
01:05:00
Speaker
Yes. And, uh, and that's why i have on my ah cookbook shelf, uh, the Jell-O cookbook. I like a good jello recipe.
01:05:11
Speaker
It's easy like a cake with some jello in there. Thankfully, it it it isn't like, you know, you'll see those seventies cooking ah recipes. Yes. Like, you know, you'll see like a hamburger is suspended in gelatin. Yeah.
01:05:26
Speaker
Fortunately, it isn't one of those. um ah specific It does have ah like something that like it has a this. has this.
01:05:39
Speaker
it it has this uh recipe in it which is like this like rainbow jello which is this you know as you you know it's just like make one layer of jello and then that's all and then you pour on the next one and then you you know yeah cool that but then like you put like this like kind of vanilla cream between each one it's amazing oh no mean there's nothing wrong i'll mess with some jello man um
01:06:08
Speaker
uh the the main thing about that museum that i recall is i got a great t-shirt out of it which is that i went through because of course we exited through the gift shop and you know that's where i got the the jello cookbook um but uh the ah what i What I got as a ah teenager, the Jell-O cookbook went to my grandmother, and that's that's part of my my inheritance ah from her.
01:06:34
Speaker
um But I got another thing that used to be based in Leroy, New York, was a Rat Poison Factory. um Now, which is really funny, you have the Jell-O ah factory, and you have the Rat Poison Factory. like You really hope that they're keeping...
01:06:57
Speaker
gotta Keep the hot side hot and the cold side. cold yeah Jason Alexander in there to keep that. And we and so for some reason, like somebody at the, you know, one of the, the people managing the Jell-O museum ah ah was like, you know, we got to sell t-shirts with the logo of the old rat poison factory.
01:07:24
Speaker
Um, and so I had, i wore for years and now I gotta go back because, you know, talking about this, but one of my favorite t-shirts. Oh, this t-shirt that had like this image of like a dead rat. And then like in this, like, you know, florid text around it, rough on rats.
01:07:44
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, man, you got... Man, you have to recreate this as a shirt for yourself. We'll sell it in the Quest Quest store. Jell-O. ah So it's still there.
01:07:56
Speaker
Leroy Jell-O Museum. ah It's called the the Jell-O Gallery Museum. You know, it has all sorts of... Let's see if it's on... I'm i'm on their website right now.
01:08:10
Speaker
Does it... ah Does the the website... Oh!
01:08:17
Speaker
They're still selling that same shirt. Do I buy this right now? You buy it live on the air. All right. Well, first off, let me let me send this.
01:08:28
Speaker
Oh, I'm there. I'm already there. i'm Oh, you're looking at it, too. I'm on my way. Just kick ass, right? Like, look at this. Sure. mike have odd Rough on rats. Kills rats.
01:08:40
Speaker
Kills mice. It comes ready to use and absolutely guaranteed. Leroy, New York. This is an amazing shirt. Ben, be sure to put the link to this shirt in our show notes.
01:08:53
Speaker
um there's Let's see here. and I am declaring this official Quest Quest merch now. yeah this is This is our official Quest Quest t-shirt. Continue paint. We'll earn nothing from it.
01:09:06
Speaker
Yes. ah Continue. I mean, listen, all you gotta do, I don't even need to put the link in it. Jellostore.org.
01:09:14
Speaker
Um, and it is a nonprofit. So, yeah. And it does have now, I don't know if they actually ship internationally, especially with, uh, you know, our, our, our, uh, you know, high quality protective tariff, uh, situation that we have right now.
01:09:31
Speaker
ah But, um, uh, it does have in the dropdown international, uh, uh, so, Or store pickup if you're near 23 East Main Street, Leroy, New York.
01:09:45
Speaker
Let's see here. Typing in. yeah okay there we go. and If you just read out that credit card number. Not even there yet. I'm just, all right. ah ah Shipping nine bucks.
01:09:56
Speaker
You know what? Not a problem. That's fine. Small price to pay. smart We make all that money off this podcast. That's right. but Speaking of which, Blue Apron. um Do you like having ice packs around for when you hurt yourself?
01:10:09
Speaker
Blue Apron will send you one every week. should i Should should i is say like create an account with ah the Jellostore.org? Or check out his guests. Because, you know, how how many but how much more...
01:10:24
Speaker
What's really great about this is also, oh wait, there's just, ah and what what's really great about this is that the store has remained unchanged. And I i think I went there in like 2003. I mean, you're going to have to repurchase this every few years moving forward.
01:10:42
Speaker
So having an account might make sense. You know, yeah, that's that's true. Yeah. I mean, it's going wear out. I mean, I can't, maybe it's a really high quality t-shirt, but you're going wearing it so much, which means you're going washing it so much. It lasted a a good long time. Okay. So here, let's see. Oh, it's got my wrong address. Oh, it's, it's, uh, it's got my previous oh address. Oh no. Auto complete. Come on. auto This is good radio though. Yeah. This is really, you know, listen, people are wondering, will I complete this order?
01:11:14
Speaker
Will I spend the $32 and cents? uh yep that's my address that's my credit card pay right we got a little a little spinny thing amazing and uh yeah yes we have it rough on rats oh it's so good kills rats kills mice comes ready to use ben let's uh let's see you could get
01:11:47
Speaker
You know, there you can also get, uh, I think it only, have they have that only as a shirt, unfortunately. Oh, that's a shame. I am clicking through on their website right now.
01:11:59
Speaker
And so far, no, I'm sorry. The maximum you can order at once is 49 t-shirts. Which is going to be $1,176 plus plus shipping. there's there's There's also here an apron that says Jell-O. Watch it wiggle. See it jiggle. Which just seems a little, you know.
01:12:22
Speaker
Too sexual. It seems a little too erotic. Yeah. I mean, I don't need an apron that's going to make me constantly think about sex. um but uh uh anyway ben this was such a good choice you just made i again when listeners see this shirt they're gonna be like i see why ben spent four minutes of a podcast ordering that live on the air yeah oh you know this the problem with talking about game like space quest 3
01:12:54
Speaker
it's so good. you could easily just like record a podcast where you just keep saying over and over again, how every aspect of it's good. It's like music. It sounds great. Uh, it looks great. Uh, it has two terrible arcade sequences. One that you like. Okay. Uh, a second one, this rock and sock and robot thing, which is terrible.
01:13:14
Speaker
Terrible. And it's like either like just kind of depending on the mood of the like the program at that moment. It's either like extremely easy and you just mash a button ah quickly and it's over or for some reason it's unbelievably difficult.
01:13:31
Speaker
Right. And there's also the dog fight scene where you have to shoot down the skull fighters. and That's, I think kind kind of fun. I, as a kid, imagined that was a lot more complicated of a Sim than it really was. Like I could fill in the blanks that I was really like just super good at it. And that's why it felt so rudimentary.
01:13:50
Speaker
ah yeah, but i mean I loved that too. Like a kid, I was just like, uh,
01:13:58
Speaker
Like, i yeah, this this is great. oh And this has some fun stuff going on. I mean, it's got multiple puzzle solutions, at least on Fleabot, where you have to evade Arnoid, and you can either lead him up into the giant...
01:14:15
Speaker
uh the giant mechazord type statue there at fester's world of wonders and you know kill him in the gears or you can lure him under the hanging pods and have them eat him that's sort of fun i like that you have uh have a multiple solution there the game is starting to play around a little bit with its own continuity by having roger You know, the whole reason he's being chased by this android in the first place is because when he ordered that whistle, ah that free whistle in Space Quest 2, he never paid for his free whistle, ah which you wouldn't think you'd have to, but that seems like a real continuity oversight.
01:14:51
Speaker
ah But he, you know, he he started having to deal with the consequences of this of this action from the previous game. And of course, it ends by breaking the fourth wall in a big way.
01:15:03
Speaker
Roger ends up on earth with the two guys he drops them off at sierra online where they get a job right we get to meet ken williams yeah yeah you know listen i feel like i don't have anything ah like really interesting to say about space quest 3 it's good like it it looks good plays good um it has some bullshit in it but well yeah welcome to adventure games yeah um ben
01:15:32
Speaker
is it better than Space Quest V?
01:15:39
Speaker
I kind of go back and forth on this. I really do too. I think you and I are both very much on the same page that three and five like one and one a, yeah, I, I, I, I've, I've said this.
01:15:51
Speaker
Um, I don't think on the podcast though, that I think that the, the, uh, the, the best, uh, like star Trek space quest joke is that, uh, the, all the odd number space quests are, are the better ones. Um,
01:16:07
Speaker
um because just like star trek where the motion picture is the best search for spock it's not as good and uh the final frontier yeah that one's not good at all yeah so maybe ah yeah maybe it was just the first one no no all three of those are are is it possible it's like prime numbers
01:16:27
Speaker
Yeah, so that'd be one, three, and five. I don't know what prime numbers work. Exactly. i think I think it'd be one, two, three, not four, which I'm okay with. I'm not a space i'm not a Star Trek four guy.
01:16:45
Speaker
Oh. But then five is back. now we got to work on going have to really think about, uh, yeah. Cause I mean, I'm not willing to accept any version of star Trek lore where the motion picture isn't a fantastic film.
01:16:58
Speaker
It's a film, but it's not a movie like the rest of them that you love so much. Yeah. I was, yes, but it's a motion picture, but yeah, I mean, going back to the original question, um, I like, I go back and forth on, on three and five, i think space quest five,
01:17:17
Speaker
does a lot of stuff that I wish more like, I think what, what really makes three and five feel like so much fun is that in both you're in command of a, like a spaceship. Yeah.
01:17:36
Speaker
And this is the secret sauce of a space quest game. Really helps make it like it, like it there there's, there's more stuff to,
01:17:47
Speaker
like what makes me really love, uh, five, but the, the, that you're on a spaceship just, and that you like tell, like, even though you're just going, it's the same order every time. and Yeah. And like, you know, but there's just something about it that you're in a spaceship and you go to a variety of different locations.
01:18:14
Speaker
And I mean, and this is true of, uh, like, You know, you could say, well, in four, you go back and forth through time. um And that's like in your piloting ah ah there too. It's not the same though. It doesn't feel like you the same. It just doesn't feel the same.
01:18:32
Speaker
Ben, is this the same thing where we discussed already with Police Quest as a kid is getting to drive something the ultimate power fantasy. Oh, yeah.
01:18:46
Speaker
And that's what makes these games is it's like, I am driving the aluminum Mallard around the galaxy. I am driving a squad car around Lytton. I am captaining ah starship ah collecting garbage around the universe.
01:19:04
Speaker
is this the secret sauce that, that makes these games stand out at some level? Cause that, I think that's a big part. I think the, the, the aluminum Mallard becomes inseparable from Roger for a lot of fans, even though we only see it in this game. And for a few brief seconds and the opening of space quest for, did you ever play um the galaxy of fantabulous wonderment?
01:19:31
Speaker
No. um That is and it's one of Yahtzee, of his games when he was making games for AGS.
01:19:42
Speaker
um probably now better known for zero punctuation which i don't see do that anymore i don't even know have no idea i don't remember i know there's like there's been constant escapist drama for like 10 years yeah yeah yeah um but um uh galaxy of fantabulous wonderment i think you should try that out um interesting yeah it is ah tabulous let me yep it is um
01:20:14
Speaker
It is a game where ah like where you also like captain a a spaceship and travel around and ah like go from like planet to planet.
01:20:29
Speaker
And just to give it a little extra... um Like, to give you a little more space-faring, it has, like, a rudimentary, like, trading. Like, you have to pay money, so, like, you have to find a couple trade routes in it. is um And, again,
01:20:54
Speaker
like you know, ah like a lot of adventure games and like original AGS games of that that period, like, is it really that different than like just wandering around a big ah like location or having like a Monkey Island style map or something?
01:21:11
Speaker
No, but it feels cool to pilot a spaceship, even if it's that you have like a little map and you tell like you just click a thing and it goes there. Like there's just something really cool about that.
01:21:24
Speaker
It helps with the aluminum mallards, a cool looking spaceship, the the cockpit and the controls that used to fly it. are very fully realized. Like you really get I think some of Mark Crowe's nerdiest instincts are playing out, uh, in, in that ship. And yeah I mean, it pays off here.
01:21:44
Speaker
Yeah. And I think what I'm, I'm saying is it's like, we need, has there, I'm trying to think of for any recent adventure game that, that where you get to to pilot a spaceship.
01:21:57
Speaker
But are there that many of like the recent... there's I'm sure there's something I'm forgetting. but like Because there's so many indie adventure games, like especially in the last like five years, I'd say. Yeah, they're hard to keep track of. We're in a ah period...
01:22:12
Speaker
of like a lot of really wonderful um new adventure games yeah and i feel like the sci-fi ones tend to be like more serious sci-fi rather than like wacky space opera comedy kind of stuff which you know uh you know i feel like a science fiction premise like norco is gonna be a little easier to find out there than like a space quest them up Yeah, and even that, like, you know, or something like Citizen Sleeper.
01:22:43
Speaker
Yeah. Which is, ah you know, kind of a visual novel with light RPG elements. Yeah.
01:22:53
Speaker
Yeah, and but also, neither like Norco doesn't you dont pilot a... You're just in like a terrifying near future. um That's right. New Orleans ah you know slash New Orleans suburbs.
01:23:08
Speaker
And um like the you know Citizen in Sleeper, you're just on a space station. I'm trying to think if there's even any... um You know, maybe the closest analog that I can think of is um ah the ah the games.
01:23:27
Speaker
i'm I'm looking up then at the name now. therere It's escaping me. um Oh, Sunless. The Sunless Skies. Oh. And Sunless Sea, where pilot like you you're captaining like a little ship.
01:23:43
Speaker
Yeah. that that goes around and then you like find little islands and little like little towns that you have like little uh you know little small uh visual novel like yeah style adventures on and then you you head back yeah and so and course friend of the pod richard hobbit did a lot of writing for this that's right that's right yeah that's a really good point fun like i you know those games are i'll even go past kind of fun they're pretty fun like In the Around the World in 80 Days game, did you do any of that sort of... do you Are you piloting or are you just sort of riding? but not. But you are What's great about 80 Days is that it is Like, you ah you you have, like, this massive web of options.
01:24:30
Speaker
And so it's like... And so that it does give you that feeling of... um like the Like, the adventure of travel.
01:24:43
Speaker
which which I think might be part of it, is that, like, this feeling that you're going somewhere, you know, versus that you're in, like, a couple interesting of...
01:24:58
Speaker
ah interesting kind of ah ah you know, spots like between, i don't know. There's, there's something really like, yeah, there, there's something about laen's a good feeling the the the agency of travel, you know? Yeah.
01:25:17
Speaker
Yeah. Like a travel agency. Yeah, exactly. And so that's ah our discussion on a space quest three. Do you have any, any final thoughts or, or is that it?
01:25:27
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, I can't wait next week to talk about space quest four. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. um Well, thank you. You pay every other week. Yeah. And so thank you so much for joining us for Quest Quest, the adventure game podcast. You can send us an email at questquestpodcast at gmail.com.
01:25:48
Speaker
And ah please leave us a five-star review. um And, i you know, be sure to join us next week when I guess we talk about Space Quest 4, colon, that?
01:26:00
Speaker
what what is that Roger Wilco and the time rippers. all right. Yeah. i'm I'm sure we'll talk about that next week.