ScumSoft HQ

ScumSoft logo, SQ3

ScumSoftSoftware Galactic Headquarters is a front organization for the Pirates of Pestulon and a division of Vohaul Enterprises, which has a base of operations on Pestulon. It is a software development company led by Elmo Pug. It became defunct after its acquisition by Sierra Cosmos On-line.

Locations

The Arena

Scumsoft employees often come down here to see Nukem Dukem matches.

Notes

It is apparent that the companies efforts were mostly concerned with establishing some sort of military base rather than computer games. It is unknown as to why the company needed the following:

• an extremely powerful cloaking device/shield found on Ortega in an extinct volcano. This machine had the power to not only hide the moon of Pestulon from visual sight, it virtually wiped it off of the galactic atlas.
• a small observation base on the planet that was routinely visited by the pirates. It included a telescope for viewing the machine, an unknown communications device with a small dish, a long metal pole used for measuring wind, and a box of thermal detonators.
• Each of the pirates was given military standard uniforms complete with firearms. (Jello-shooter pistol and rifle)
• The base itself was a massive, mostly underground, complex. Complete with many offices, a landing bay, a fighting arena, and a supposed medical wing where Elmo Pug was born. The entrance was a small opening in the surface, surrounded by invisible electric fencing. Behind that are large, cone shaped objects. In the distance, a very large dish (probably the machine that picked up the cloaking rays from Ortega) can be seen in the distance.
• The interior is comprised of numerous red-walled office cubicles. Each one is filled with software technicians and other personnel, so far into their work, they don't notice the janitor come in to clean their waste baskets. Scattered throughout the base is numerous office tools. Charts, pictures of the boss, a water cooler, etc. Sometimes to boost productivity, men cracking whips force the workers to trudge on endlessly (One of which resembles Sierra Online. CEO Ken Williams.)
• The Scumsoft Skull Fighter is a revolutionary fighting craft. Top secret of course, it is most likely produced on the moon of Pestulon. See Skull Fighter.
• The prisoner chamber, identified by the doors as the "third one", is a platform rising out of the center of a seemingly endless shaft. Bridges can be extended to the platform for access.

Scumsoft is home to nearly countless employees. Walking around, one sees all are deeply immersed within their work. However, in some sections, slave drivers crack whips to keep the programmers working (one of them bears a striking resemblance to Ken Williams.)

Titles published by ScumSoft include flops such as Stuntflogger, Aquatron and Scumword, as well as Astro Chicken, Ms. Astro Chicken, the Stooge Fighter series, Checkerboard Construction Kit, Tic-Tac-Toe Construction Kit, and Cluck Egger's Advanced Chicken Simulator.

Cultural references

Elmo Pug is thought to be a parody of Bill Gates, head of Microsoft. However this may only be a coincidence. Neither company name, nor the company itself was inspired by Microsoft, but instead was inspired by Sierra On-line itself (although there are associated references to Mattel's Rock'em Sock'em Robots and videogame and arcade console companies like Atari and possibly Nintendo, see ScumSoft Corporation).

Scummsoft name comes from an idea of a company Scott Murphy wanted to make to produce his own games from (which he self-endorsed through the game itself). The company is largley based on Sierra On-Line and its own business practices at the time. This is tied in through the inclusion of Ken (Ken Williams) and Rick (Rick Cavin).

The company's ingame logo is reminiscent of console game maker Sunsoft's logo, the logo as seen above their headquarters entrance appears to be based on that of Sierra competitor Strategic Simulations, Inc.

Elmo Pug is patterned after Ken Williams and is a stereotypical nerd. Infact all the employees are nerds, that all look-alike. Elmo Pug is categorized under 'Nerd' with his office sprite appearing in View.115 (the shared Nerd graphics file) and listed as "Nerd and 'elmo' several times under Script.095 files. He is literally a stereotypical nerd, the boss Nerd, the king of the nerds. One might consider it a race of "Nerds", as all or most of the graphics of the Nerds share Elmo's face and glasses as well

ScummSoft as it appears in the live-action teaser is actually the old Sierra building in Oakhurst, CA.

For some reason the ScumSoft HQ building can be described as soft, scumsoft, dog, sign, or building (see Script.081). Possibly other variations of dog, including wolf and wolve. Maybe if one squints it looks like a 'bulldog' but that's stretching it....

Plot Inconsistency

When disguised as the Scumsoft janitor, if you walk out onto the platform and see the Aluminum Mallard, it shows Roger in his normal lavender and grey space janitor threads, even though he's in the Scumsoft janitor outfit! Unless he has the power to change his clothes in the half second it takes to switch the screen, the two Guys goofed up!