Police Quest
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Police Quest is a series of computer games produced and published by Sierra On-Line between 1987 and 1993. The original series was composed of three adventure games designed by former policeman Jim Walls, and a fourth title designed by Daryl F. Gates. In addition, Daryl F. Gates' Police Quest: SWAT was released in 1995, but was a tactical simulator rather than a graphic adventure. Although both SWAT and the tactical RTS SWAT 2 still carried the Police Quest name, it is generally agreed that these belong to the SWAT Series instead.
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Games in the series
Police Quest: In Pursuit of the Death Angel
Released in 1987 using Sierra's AGI parser engine, Police Quest cast the player as Sonny Bonds, a policeman in the fictional town of Lytton, California. Assigned to traffic duty, Sonny investigates what appears to be a simple car crash but turns out to be a homicide. As the game progresses, he goes undercover tracking "The Death Angel", a murderous drug dealer named Jessie Baines. Sonny is assisted by "Sweet Cheeks" Marie, his former high school sweetheart who is now working as a prostitute.
The game is the most realistic of those developed by Sierra by the late eighties, and featured many puzzles where proper police procedure is required to succeed. It was released for the IBM PC, Apple II, Amiga and Atari ST. A SCI 1.1 enhanced version was released in 1992.
Police Quest II: The Vengeance
After arresting Jessie Baines, Bonds is permanently promoted to the detective division. He begins dating Marie Wilkins, who helped him in his undercover work in exchange for the dismissal of prostitution charges against her. A dark shadow is cast over his happy life, however, when Baines escapes from prison and seeks revenge. Bonds must protect his girlfriend's life as well as his own while pursuing The Death Angel once again.
The 1989 sequel, developed with Sierra's new SCI engine, focused more on detective work than the traffic-cop beginning of the original, while keeping the same realistic setting. The proper procedures for collecting and handling evidence are the main focus of many of PQ2's puzzles. It was released for the IBM PC, Apple II, Amiga and Atari ST.
Police Quest III: The Kindred
Sonny and Marie married following Baines' death. Promoted once more, Sonny now has to deal with rampant crime as a drug cartel begins operating in Lytton and evidence of a satanic cult starts to appear. When Marie is stabbed in a mall parking lot, Sonny's police work becomes personal.
Released in 1991 for SCI version 1, PQ3 is completely mouse-driven. It was only released for the IBM PC and the Amiga. After this game, Jim Walls left Sierra for reasons that have still not been publicly explained, and SWAT founder Darryl F. Gates was named to take over of the Police Quest series.
Police Quest IV: Open Season
Darryl F. Gates' first game for Sierra broke completely with the previous games. The player was no longer cast as Sonny Bonds, but as John Carey; the action was no longer in fictional Lytton, but in Los Angeles, California. Carey, a LAPD homicide detective whose best friend was killed in the line of duty, has to investigate a series of murders with no apparent connection.
Using the final SCI32 version, the biggest difference visually is the use of scanned photos as backgrounds (unlike the hand-drawn scenarions used before) and character sprites of higher quality. It was released in 1993, for both IBM PC and Macintosh.
Although the Police Quest series lived on in name for two more games, these releases were actually part of the SWAT Series and in a different genre altogether.
External link
- A brief history of the Police Quest series (http://www.adventurecollective.com/editorials/editorial-briefhistoryofpolicequest.htm)de:Police Quest