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 four adventure games, the first three of which were designed by former policeman Jim Walls, with the fourth title designed by former LAPD Chief Daryl F. Gates.
A spin-off from the Police Quest series, Daryl F. Gates' Police Quest: SWAT, was released in 1995 but was a FMV tactical simulator rather than a traditional graphic adventure. Both SWAT and the real-time strategy game SWAT 2 still carried the Police Quest name, although subsequent titles in the series would drop the Police Quest title.
Games in the series
Police Quest: In Pursuit of the Death Angel
Released in 1987 using Sierra's Adventure Game Interpreter parser engine, Police Quest cast the player as Sonny Bonds, a 15 year veteran police officer 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. Sonny continues to give a traffic violation citation, single-handedly face a tough gang of drunken bikers, and make a DUI arrest. As the game progresses, he goes from patrol to temporary narcotics detective and finally undercover, tracking "The Death Angel", a murderous drug dealer named Jessie Bains. 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 in the late 1980s when compared to Leisure Suit Larry, King's Quest, or Space Quest, and featured many puzzles where proper police procedure is required to succeed.[1] It was released for the IBM PC, Apple II, Macintosh, Amiga, Atari ST and Apple IIGS. A SCI1.1 enhanced remake in 256 color VGA was released in 1992, which was also the first game released in the series not to feature dead ends.
Police Quest II: The Vengeance
Released in 1988. After arresting Jessie Bains, Bonds is permanently promoted to the homicide division. He begins dating Marie Wilkans, 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 Bains escapes from prison and seeks revenge. With the help of his partner Keith, Bonds must protect his girlfriend's life as well as his own while pursuing The Death Angel once again. Despite Sonny's efforts, however, Bains kills several people who were involved in his arrest and abducts Marie. Sonny pursues Bains to Steelton, the current home of Donald Colby (a reformed drug pusher from the original Police Quest).
Police Quest II is notably more 'mature' than the first title in the series, and relies much more on proper procedure; failure to properly maintain Sonny's firearm at various points throughout the game will cause it to malfunction or misfire, and proceeding into a dangerous situation without proper backup will usually prove fatal.
Police Quest III: The Kindred
Sonny and Marie married following Bains' 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.
Sonny must deal with a partner with questionable ethics as well as find patterns in crime to find his next lead. The Bains family also plays a role in this game.
Released in 1991 for SCI version 1, PQ3 is completely mouse-driven. It was only released for the IBM PC and the Amiga. Before the completion of this game, Jim Walls had left Sierra for reasons that have still not been publicly explained, and SWAT founder Daryl F. Gates was named to take over the Police Quest series. As a result of Wall's early leaving, Jane Jensen had to finish the final in-game dialogue and messages.
Police Quest: Open Season
Daryl F. Gates' first game for Sierra departed completely from the style of 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, must track down a serial murderer in L.A.
Numerous mature themes are depicted in the game, including hate crimes, Neo-Nazism, and youth involved in crime. Graphic imagery within the game also includes the body of a child murdered by gang violence and a severed head in a refrigerator.
Using SCI2, the biggest difference visually is the use of scanned photos as backgrounds, unlike the hand-drawn scenery used before, and character sprites of higher quality. It was released in 1993, for both IBM PC and Macintosh. The game is generally incompatible with Windows 95, and later editions; the game may crash at certain points in the game, e.g. the shooting gallery and the shoot out. This, however, was fixed with the release of the CD version with Windows installer.
This game is the most 'mature' of the main-series Police Quest games; while previously only a peripheral element, the themes of drug abuse, police corruption and gang violence play prominent roles in this game. Police procedure is less of an element in the game, pushed aside for the sake of storytelling.
Police Quest: SWAT series
Although the Police Quest series continued for two more games, these releases became the SWAT series and are in different video game genres. The first of the games was later re-released as part of the Police Quest Collection Series (the second Police Quest compilation). The three SWAT games were later released in a compilation entitled "Police Quest: SWAT Generation."
Police Quest: SWAT
The fifth game of Police Quest series, and the first SWAT, Police Quest: SWAT was a full motion video (FMV) tactical simulation. It retained some adventure game elements such as the inventory and had similarities to other FMV games released around the same time by Sierra. Although not referred to as PQV in the title screen, it is referred to as such in several other locations in the game including the files. It was re-released as part of the second Police Quest Collection, and later as part of Police Quest: SWAT Generation.
Police Quest: SWAT 2
Police Quest: SWAT 2 is the sixth and final game of the original Police Quest series. It is a real-time strategy game. It retained only a few adventure game elements in the form of an inventory and use of a few puzzle items such as a pizza (to draw a suspect out of a house). It is referred to as PQ6 in a few locations including its files. Sonny Bonds is one of the agents you may employ in the game. It was included as part of the Police Quest: SWAT Generation compilation.
SWAT 3 and 4
SWAT 3 and SWAT 4 are both tactical first person shooters, the only games of that type in the series. SWAT 4 is the final game in the full eight game series, though by this point it had nothing to do with the original games (with the exception of a cameo by Marie Bonds in SWAT3 and Sonny Bonds as a main character in SWAT4).
Collections and Re-releases
Sierra's first re-release of the games in a collection was in 1995 as "Daryl F. Gates' Police Quest Collection: The Four Most Wanted".
The second re-release collection was released in 1997 as "Police Quest Collection Series". It contained Police Quest 1-3, Open Season, and SWAT.
In 2003, the first three SWAT games were released in the "Police Quest: SWAT Generation" compilation.
In September 2006, Vivendi Games re-released a new "The Four Most Wanted" collection including four games of the series. It included four classic Police Quest games in one compilation (minus the original AGI version of PQ1). The new package is designed to be compatible with Windows XP, thanks to the use of the DOSBox emulator.[2]
Since January 18, 2011 Police Quest 1+2+3+4 pack (including the first four games of the series) and Police Quest: SWAT 1+2 (Police Quest: SWAT and Police Quest: SWAT 2) is internationally available at Good Old Games in the form of digital download. The former collection is much like the Vivendi collection and lacks the AGI version of Police Quest 1.
See also
References
- "Game Information Police Quest Collection", "Sierra", Accessed May 23, 2007.
- ^ Chaut, Michael (1988). "Dusting the Death Angel: Sierra's New Police Adventure". Computer Gaming World: 22–23.
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External links
- A brief history of Police Quest
- Police Quest series at MobyGames
- Play Police Quest Online
- Police Quest Omnipedia
- Police Quest music
- Synopsis and hints for the Police Quest Series
- The Music of Police Quest
- Police Quest Collection Homepage