Astro Chicken was the name of an arcade game embedded in the Sierra game Space Quest III: Pirates of Pestulon.

The game was later re-released as part of a compilation of Sierra arcade games that were previously embedded in their adventure games. The plot consisted of landing a chicken on a trampoline. Not unlike Jupiter Lander, but land with just slightly too much speed and you would bounce up again, leaving you alive to make another try. When landed successfully, the chicken would exclaim: "Bacock!" As most PC's of the day did not have sound cards with voice output capability, this exclamation was not spoken but written onscreen, comic book style. Typically the player would substitute the missing chicken and "Bacock!" sounds him/herself. (NB: The Space Quest III game did however have AdLib sound.)

In the fictional storyline of SQ III, Astro Chicken was designed by the Two Guys from Andromeda and released by the fictional ScumSoft company. Consoles of the game could be found around the universe, such in places like Monolith Burger fast food chains (a spoof on McDonalds).

The name was likely chosen in parody of the Astrochicken thought experiment by Freeman Dyson.

Its sequel, Ms. Astro Chicken, appeared in the framing game's sequel, Space Quest IV.

External link

• SQ3 site with AstroChicken screenshot and info (http://www.adventurecollective.com/reviews/sq3.htm)