DOS Days

Space Quest III: The Pirates of Pestulon

Released: 1989
Published by: Sierra Online, Inc.
Developed by: Sierra Online, Inc.
Author(s): Mark Crowe, Scott Murphy, Douglas Herring, Jerry Shaw, Ken Allen, Desie Hartman, Jesse Jesserun, Deena Krutak, Nathan Larsen, Mark Siebert

System Requirements

Introduction

One of Sierra On-Line's first games to use their new SCI interpreter, Space Quest III features basic mouse controls, a much improved text parser (the last of this series to use a parser), and audio support for the Sound Blaster and Roland MT-32.

From where can it be run?

The game can be run from floppy disks or installed to your hard disk (recommended). To install to a hard disk, insert Disk 1 into your floppy drive and run INSTALL.EXE. Once you have answered the questions, you will be asked if you want to install the game to your hard disk. At this time, a new file called RESOURCE.CFG will be written to the floppy disk - you must ensure the disk is not write-protected to allow this to be written.

If you are playing the game from floppy disk, it is recommended you have a formatted save game disk handy to allow you to save the game.

Game Audio/Video

Copy Protection

There is no direct copy protection to play the game, but the user manual is necessary when going through the story.

How to Setup

To configure the game for your hardware, run the provided INSTALL.EXE utility. There are two main versions of the INSTALL utility, one which is black & white, and the later one that's in colour.

1) Intro screen and graphics adapter choices:

2) Sound card choice and advice if you chose MT-32:

3) Keyboard type:

4) Joystick and mouse options:

5) Option to install game to hard disk or exit.:

The newer install works in much the same way, but has built-in detection for your sound card and also asks you about your extended memory:

1) Intro screen and main menu:

2) Select graphics and sound card:

3) Select joystick and mouse:

4) Use extra memory (EMS or XMS) and Create boot floppy disk:

5) Further advice shown if you've chosen Roland or Roland/Sound Blaster combo, and memory advice:

6) Warranty and exit:

To abort the setup and return to the command prompt, press ESC from the main menu.

Choosing the Roland Sound option requires an "Intelligent" mode interface such as the MFC-IPC or equivalent. Simply connecting it to your sound card's MIDI/Game port will not work. It also does not work with SoftMPU.

Official Sound Blaster Patch

Sierra Online released SQ3 with a bug in the Sound Blaster driver (SNDBLAST.DRV) which meant that on many sound cards you wouldn't hear Roger saying "Where am I?" during the game intro, as well as other special sound effects. Some cards did output the correct PCM digital audio (sound effects) as well as OPL music - most only output the music.

They later released an updated driver that fixed this bug. The GoSierra patch includes this updated driver but also bundles other drivers that allow the audio to work on faster PCs. A slightly differently bundled GoSierra is here, in case you have problems with the one above.

To Start the Game

If running the game from floppy disk, insert disk 1, type SIERRA and press ENTER. If running the game after installing to your hard disk, go to the game directory and run SQ3.BAT.

Problems

Issue: My game character walks too fast!
Cause: You are playing the game on a computer that is too fast for the game.
Resolution: You can change the speed of your character in-game by using the '+' and '-' keys, by hitting Ctrl-S, or by going to the Speed menu with the mouse and setting it there.
If the game speed is still too fast on the slowest setting, I recommend you slow down your entire computer by disabling either the L2 (motherboard) cache, L1 (CPU) cache, or both. Remember this game was designed to be played on an XT or early AT machine, not a Pentium 200!

Issue: I receive a message "Insert Disk #" when I have already inserted that disk.
Cause: Your DOS configuration needs to be updated to allow more files to be accessed at the same time.
Resolution: Edit your CONFIG.SYS file and add the line "files=15". Restart your computer and run the game again.

Issue: I have chosen Roland MT-32 for audio, but I only hear music - no sound effects.
Cause: When SQ3 was released users simply did not have more than one sound card in their computer (most had none at all!). As such, this game only supports a single sound card being driven at any one time. This means that if you choose Roland MT-32 as the audio option you get the glorious music but no digitized sound effects in the game.
Resolution: In 2013, Vogons user NewRisingSun cleverly created a patch that allows you to play MT-32 audio with Sound Blaster digitized effects. Simply extract the contents of the .ZIP file to your SQ3 installed directory, re-run the Sierra INSTALL.EXE program and select the option called "Roland MT-32 Plus SoundBlaster" when prompted for the audio option. NRS' patch also removes the MPU-401 "Intelligent" mode instructions so the driver will work in UART mode. Vogons user Tikalat added some further effects on top of NRS' patch. His version is here.

To Quit the Game

Press Ctrl-Q in-game and hit Enter to return to DOS.

Supporting Documents

Here are the original documents that came with the game:

• User Manual (Original)
• User Manual (Space Quest Collection)

Additional Files, Drivers and Utilities

This section includes any additional files, updated drivers (original and third-party) or utilities that help make the game a better experience.

• Ravi's General MIDI driver (BETA) - This SCI0 game driver uses a bastardized version of Rickard Lind's patch mapping algorithm, taken from the FreeSCI project, to map instruments in the MT-32 track from each game their GM equivalents.
• As mentioned further up, a revised Sound Blaster driver fixes both the special sound effects on these cards, plus allows the game to be played on a faster machine (486+ !) (corrects the "Error 29: Unable to initialize audio hardware" message).

Save Games

By default, save game files are stored in the game directory, though you can choose "Change Directory" to select another. Each save stores data to a file called SQ3SG.000, SQ3SG.001, SQ3SG.002, etc. In addition the descriptions of the files are all stored in a single file called SQ3SG.DIR. None of these files are text-readable/editable.

You can backup your save games simply by copying all SQ3SG.xxx files in the directory to another location. It is unlikely save games from one version of the game will work on a different version of the game.

Versions of the game known to exist

Original Floppy Disk Contents

The floppy disks have no specific volume label.

Disk 1 of 6 (5.25" 360 KB DS/DD): Directory of A:\ RESOURCE 001 170,496 03-22-89 10:07a RESOURCE MAP 5,598 03-22-89 10:14a SCIV EXE 74,337 03-21-89 5:34p SIERRA COM 538 11-29-88 1:44p INSTALL EXE 20,329 03-13-89 11:25a INSTALL HLP 7,322 03-16-89 8:36a EGA320 DRV 1,952 03-13-89 11:35a MCGA320 DRV 1,602 03-13-89 11:35a TANDY320 DRV 1,650 03-13-89 11:35a CGA320BW DRV 2,017 03-13-89 11:35a CGA320C DRV 2,376 03-13-89 11:35a HERCMONO DRV 2,193 03-13-89 11:36a PCJR320 DRV 1,660 03-13-89 11:36a STD DRV 2,393 03-14-89 12:47p JR DRV 2,935 03-17-89 10:26a TANDY DRV 3,337 03-13-89 10:53a IMF DRV 2,221 03-13-89 10:55a MT32 DRV 2,743 03-13-89 10:56a ADL DRV 8,803 03-13-89 10:54a MT540 DRV 2,450 03-13-89 10:56a IBMKBD DRV 442 09-09-88 4:59p TANDYKBD DRV 491 03-16-89 8:43a JOYSTICK DRV 494 09-09-88 12:54p SQ3 BAT 25 02-01-89 3:46p __INSTH BAT 1,191 03-16-89 1:38p INSTGAME BAT 679 03-09-89 4:12p GODIR COM 507 09-05-88 9:24a EXISTS COM 574 09-09-88 2:52p SPACE COM 500 09-04-88 5:11p QAFILE 67 01-04-80 2:11p 30 file(s) 321,922 bytes 24,576 bytes free
Disk 2 of 6 (5.25" 360 KB DS/DD): Directory of A:\ RESOURCE 002 312,537 03-22-89 10:08a QAFILE 67 01-04-80 2:11p 2 file(s) 312,604 bytes 48,128 bytes free
Disk 3 of 6 (5.25" 360 KB DS/DD): Directory of A:\ RESOURCE 003 325,576 03-22-89 10:10a QAFILE 67 01-04-80 2:11p 2 file(s) 325,643 bytes 35,840 bytes free
Disk 4 of 6 (5.25" 360 KB DS/DD): Directory of A:\ RESOURCE 004 321,377 03-22-89 10:11a QAFILE 67 01-04-80 2:11p 2 file(s) 321,444 bytes 39,936 bytes free
Disk 5 of 6 (5.25" 360 KB DS/DD): Directory of A:\ RESOURCE 005 328,162 03-22-89 10:12a QAFILE 67 01-04-80 2:11p 2 file(s) 328,229 bytes 32,768 bytes free
Disk 6 of 6 (5.25" 360 KB DS/DD): Directory of A:\ RESOURCE 006 356,560 03-22-89 10:14a QAFILE 67 01-04-80 2:11p 2 file(s) 356,627 bytes 4,096 bytes free
Disk 1 of 3 (3.5" 720 KB DS/DD):
Disk 2 of 3 (3.5" 720 KB DS/DD):
Disk 3 of 3 (3.5" 720 KB DS/DD):

Installed Directory Contents

Once installed, the following directory structure exists in the game directory.

Directory of C:\SIERRA

.            <DIR>         11-21-21  12:53p
..           <DIR>         11-21-21  12:53p
SQ3          <DIR>         11-21-21  12:53p
SQ3      BAT            25 02-01-89   3:46p
        4 file(s)             25 bytes

Directory of C:\SIERRA\SQ3

.            <DIR>         11-21-21  12:53p
..           <DIR>         11-21-21  12:53p
EGA320   DRV         1,952 03-13-89  11:35a
MCGA320  DRV         1,602 03-13-89  11:35a
TANDY320 DRV         1,650 03-13-89  11:35a
CGA320BW DRV         2,017 03-13-89  11:35a
CGA320C  DRV         2,376 03-13-89  11:35a
HERCMONO DRV         2,193 03-13-89  11:36a
PCJR320  DRV         1,660 03-13-89  11:36a
STD      DRV         2,393 03-14-89  12:47p
JR       DRV         2,935 03-17-89  10:26a
TANDY    DRV         3,337 03-13-89  10:53a
IMF      DRV         2,221 03-13-89  10:55a
MT32     DRV         2,743 03-13-89  10:56a
ADL      DRV         8,803 03-13-89  10:54a
MT540    DRV         2,450 03-13-89  10:56a
IBMKBD   DRV           442 09-09-88   4:59p
TANDYKBD DRV           491 03-16-89   8:43a
JOYSTICK DRV           494 09-09-88  12:54p
EXISTS   COM           574 09-09-88   2:52p
__INSTH  BAT         1,191 03-16-89   1:38p
RESOURCE 001       170,496 03-22-89  10:07a
RESOURCE MAP         5,598 03-22-89  10:14a
RESOURCE CFG            75 11-21-21  12:53p
SCIV     EXE        74,337 03-21-89   5:34p
SIERRA   COM           538 11-29-88   1:44p
INSTALL  EXE        20,329 03-13-89  11:25a
INSTALL  HLP         7,322 03-16-89   8:36a
RESOURCE 002       312,537 03-22-89  10:08a
QAFILE                  67 01-04-80   2:11p
RESOURCE 003       325,576 03-22-89  10:10a
RESOURCE 004       321,377 03-22-89  10:11a
RESOURCE 005       328,162 03-22-89  10:12a
RESOURCE 006       356,560 03-22-89  10:14a
       34 file(s)      1,964,498 bytes

Total files listed:
       38 file(s)      1,964,523 bytes