The Three Stooges (video game)

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title = The Three Stooges


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developer = Incredible Technologies
publisher = Cinemaware
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designer = Bill Zielinsky
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artist = Timothy Skelly
composer = David Thiel
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released = vgrelease|NA=1987
genre = Adventure
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platforms = Amiga, Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy Advance
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"The Three Stooges" is a video game by Cinemaware and Activision originally released in 1987 for the Amiga and later ported for different systems including the NES and GBA. The game involves Stooges Moe, Larry and Curly playing arcade mini games derived from the Stooges' classic films in an effort to raise enough money to save an old widow's orphanage. The game was fairly advanced for the time, featuring sampled speech ("Calling Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard") and multiple winning endings, with the orphanage in various states of spiffiness depending on how much money the trio had collected.

Gameplay

The Three Stooges come upon an old widow, her three daughters and their orphanage, which is in extreme disrepair. On top of that, an unscrupulous banker demands the mortgage payment of $5000 within thirty days. The trio immediately sets out to collect the money.

Several options for getting (or not getting) money are presented: from dropped wallets to finder's fees to participating in competitions:
*Hospital: The Stooges must follow a nurse on her way to the operating room, collecting the medicine packs she keeps dropping from her cart. In order to make it faster, they race after her on go karts but they must watch out for the patients. This option is based on the Stooges short films "Men in Black" and "Calling All Curs".
*Boxing: Curly is to fight in a boxing match, but in order to win he needs to hear "Pop Goes the Weasel". Unfortunately, Larry's Stradivarius breaks and he is forced to make a run to the next radio shop to get a radio - which develops into a steeplechase, with bundles of newspaper, street lights and lazy dogs lining the way. This option is based on the Stooges short film "Punch Drunks".
*Pie-Serving: The Stooges find work for a day in a restaurant, and the main dish is pies. However, the patrons are less than polite and so the Stooges decide to serve the pies in the most direct way possible: by throwing them into the customers' faces. Of course, the customers respond in kind and the player collects points with each hit on a guest, but if the Stooges themselves get hit 5 times, the round is over. This option is based on the Stooges short film "In the Sweet Pie and Pie".
*Radio Quiz: When this option is chosen, the player must answer a multiple choice trivia question about the Stooges. If the answer is wrong, Moe shares out some clouting.
*Crackers in the Soup: Curly is to eat as many crackers as he can spoon up in this competition. However, oysters hidden in the broth do their best to narrow the winning margin. This option is based on the Stooges short film "Dutiful But Dumb".

There is also an interesting option which seems trivial at first, but becomes important as the game progresses: Each day, the choice of options is made by a hand moving randomly between several panels, which also include one or several mouse traps. As the days pass, the hand speeds up, and if the player is not careful, he will lose a finger (and a full day) to the trap(s), and if all fingers are disabled, the game is over. With a special option, the speed can be reduced by having the Stooges "blow off steam"; the player controls Moe as he attempts to hit either Larry or Curly, and for each hit the selection speed is reduced.

The story may end in one of the following ways:
*The Stooges do not succeed, and the banker has the last laugh;
*The Stooges manage to collect $5,000, just enough to pay the mortgage;
*with $ 10,000, the orphanage can be fully restored;
*and for $ 20,000, the Stooges may wed the three daughters.

The Commodore 64 version requires different income levels:
*The Stooges manage to collect $4,000, just enough to pay the mortgage;
*with $ 8,000, the orphanage can be fully restored;
*and for $ 12,000, the Stooges may wed the three daughters.

Ports to other systems

The game was ported to the NES and Commodore 64 in 1989 by Activision, and then to Game Boy Advance and PlayStation in 2002 by Metro 3D. The game was updated for release on Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh in one of Cinemaware's "Digitally Remastered" editions. [http://www.cinemaware.com/3stoogesremaster_main.asp]

Cameos

*This video game has a cameo in the action movie "Lethal Weapon 3", where Mel Gibson accidentally activates the pie-serving sequence.

*In the very beginning of the game, a logo for "Defender of the Crown" comes up. But as the Stooges walk to the logo, they walk away trying to find their own. In the NES version, the prototype logo for Activision's "Ghostbusters II" game is used instead.

External links

* [http://www.cinemaware.com/clsgame_stooges.asp Cinemaware's Three Stooges game page]
* [http://hol.abime.net/1384 "The Three Stooges" on the Amiga] at the [http://hol.abime.net/ Hall of Light (HOL)]