This solution allows you to step through each stage of the adventure by
pressing RETURN. If you press the space bar you will be presented with
a full screen of clues in order. To quit at any time press Q.
Fighting crime in the streets of Lytton used to be a mostly nice &
friendly job with just the occasional serious offence that comes with
the territory - or so Jack says. Fact is, he's been a member of the
department much longer than me - I never thought of my job as merely
"nice & friendly". What with dope dealers, murderers, rapists and other
hoodlums on the streets these days Lytton is no longer a nice quiet
town. So it's up to us to keep it as much of a safe place as is humanly
possible.
It was the morning of what might have been just another day in the
field and I was waiting for Dooley's briefing to help me & the public
safely through another day. I went into the locker room, took my gun
and ammo, loaded, took my briefcase and walked into the briefing room
to get the latest news.
Hi everyone to another glorious day in the business of solving
adventures. Not a fantasy or s.f. role-playing simulation this time,
but the latest text/graphics adventure from the guys that created
Leisure Suit Larry,
Sonny Bonds is the name of the blue-uniformed police officer that
you're supposed to guide through traffic accidents, arrests, seductions
and many other situations that will prove a definite health hazard if
not properly executed. Police Quest is a "typical" Sierra game that
features a good deal of variation, a reasonable deal of dry wit (not as
much as Larry but then this is supposed to be a more or less serious
challenge) and all the advantages and disadvantages inherent to this
particular kind of game. You are advised to make a lot of different
save positions and keep them on a (backup) disk because you may find
that a fatal mistake is not always obvious at once; and when you find
out that you made an error two hours of play before and you don't have
a save position prior to that point you can get very frustrated.
Believe me.
Now, Sonny Bonds, must you always be late for briefing?
Briefing was short and if it wasn't for the Lytton Tribune and the
other note my time there would have been wasted. So I read the news,
got myself a radio and the keys to my patrol car and checked a couple
of things on the computer. Then, ready...set...go! checked the car and
its contents and boy, driving sure is a hard thing in Lytton these
days. But as usual I survived and after driving aroun town for a while
looking around a bit I got a call from the station about a traffic
accident. I called in, responded to the news and shortly arrived at the
scene where some silly dude (who later on appeared to have been shot)
had tried to enter a building with a car - and without bothering about
such things as an entrance.
I reported the situation and, while waiting for help, talked to an
anxious looking young man who seemed positive that the accident was not
an accident at all but the result of a brutal murder. The news he gave
me neatly fitted some other scraps of information but it wasn't enough
to build a case on so I waited for my relieve and subsequently drove to
Carol's Coffee Castle where Steve was waiting for me. Good coffee and
an interesting telephone conversation kept me thinking while I hit the
streets again, ready to write a million tickets.
I hadn't gone two miles when some hot red sports car jumped a red light
and disappeared around a corner. I followed that car for a long time
before finally the driver realised it wasn't going to work and slowly
drove over to the curb. I took my ticket book and pen, called in, and
walked to the little red car.
And found a spoiled rich girl with the looks and manners of a 20th
century Cleopatra. She tried to talk me into something but a
professional man doesn't yield to temptation (aargh!) so I kept cool
and checked her license, wrote a ticket, ignoring all kinds of abusive
language and finally making it back to my own car where I discovered
that I was profusely sweating and had completely forgotten to sign the
ticket and hand it to her. Well, you can't win 'em all.
After that poor excuse for a policeman's work I decided to make up for
it first chance I got - and that chance came all too soon. When I
entered Carol's I saw some bikes standing in front of the door and I
just knew there was going to be trouble. I talked to Carol and got
invited (instructed is more like it) to ask the guys to be less liberal
in using up her parking space. So I went next door into Wino Willy's
beer joint and was immediately provoked by some unshaven beer-drinking
half-human motorgang hoodlums but the good use of my nightstick quickly
reminded them of the "force of the law" and with a polite excuse they
removed themselves. And their bikes.
The next chapter in crime-fighting Sonny Bond's short & daring career
was the prolonged pursuit of a very erratically driving very drunk dude
whom I merely had to give a test to convince him of better places to be
than on the street in his own car. I checked his license and read him
his Miranda rights and witnessed how the jailer shared my opinion and
when I left the drunk in his custody, replaced my gun and went to my
car I really felt like I'd done a good job protecting the public - but
much more was to come.
I called in and realised that now was as good a time as any to drop a
request for promotion to narcotics, so I left a memo in the basket and
did all the things necessary to change clothes and hit the streets in
my Corvette. I was still thinking about the infamous Gremlin's actions
(kind of funny so I didn't even bother to find out who it was) and made
my way to the Blue Room.
Inside, I played some music and drank some wine and listened to a sad
story from Jack and suddenly I didn't feel like dancing and drinking
anymore. Luckily someone reminded me that it was my turn for late duty
so I got out fast and returned to the police station just in time for
another visit to the briefing room where I located an interesting note
and (once outside) also established that my memo was "under
consideration". How nice.
I hit the streets once more and before long I was in pursuit of that
Cadillac - a very dangerous driver and a very hard job but after many
attempts to escape he finally realised he wasn't going to shake me and
parked his car. Seeing that we were supposed to be dealing with a very
dangerous criminal here I called in and requested backup.
Following the entire procedure and not forgetting to take the man's
weapon from him I booked one Marvin Hoffman but we both knew that this
was not his real name. Found some interesting things in his car before
I brought him to jail on a charge of Drug Trafficking - hoping he would
stay there for an indeterminate time.
A message from Morgan (I had been promoted!) convinced me that an
indeterminate time would prove to be no time flat if I didn't find some
way to prove that Hoffman was dangerous and should be denied bail. I
checked some notes and files and found that one Hoffman was the same as
one Jason Taselli (not only the faces matched but also the tattoo) and
quickly went to court where I boldly asked the clerk to let me in for
an emergency.
Judge let me in and gave me a chance to offer her the file and the
poster and explain my case, I told her something about that flower
tattoo and when I left the courtroom I had a no-bail warrant for Mr.
"Hoffman". I went to jail and arrived just in time to prohibit
Taselli's premature release from custody. I think I made the jailor's
day there; he was real friendly to me.
My next operation in the field of narcotic warfare was breaking up and
busting two dudes dealing in the park. With gorgeous but professional
Laura as my backup, and never forgetting the correct procedure to
follow, we found lots of interesting stuff (not sugar!) and booked both
suspects. After this little success, things rapidly went downhill.
First of all, I got the news that Jack's daughter had died of an
overdose, and another thing was that the guy I'd booked earlier on,
Jason Taselli (alias "Hoffman") had escaped from jail and was later on
found dead in the grove - I had to identify him and once more saw that
tattoo. Then Sweet Cheeks Marie got busted but Morgan had a good idea
and in order to nail the infamous Death Angel who was responsible for
most of the bad news spreading around town it was suggested I got Marie
released from jail - if she agreed to help the hotel operation, which
she did.
The things you have to do to be a narcotics agent; I even had to bleach
my hair. So, after thorough briefing, I left everything that might give
me away in the police station and kept the things that might come in
handy and went on my way to the Place of the Clue: the Hotel
Delphoria.
I got a room there, made some calls and soon found myself playing poker
with two illegal gamblers and - oops! - the Death Angel himself. He
seemed impressed with my play and asked me to join in for a private
game later on; I accepted. But first I got myself a voice transmitter
so as to be able to keep my backups informed.
Later that night I played some more poker, won, and was invited to join
Frank "Death Angel" in his private room. What I didn't know was that
he'd found out my true identity - as I soon discovered when he aimed a
gun at my undervalued hulk. But right then my backups arrived and in
the heat of the firefight the Death Angel was severely wounded.
Strange, he didn't even try to fly away. Must not have been an angel
after all.
Medals, decorations, praise, and a 97-year no-parole sentence for
Jessie "Death Angel" Bains were the result of my short but eventful
career as Lytton Police Officer. Not bad for a few days' work; I'll
make Captain yet. Perhaps I'll see you on the team soon.
Okay, Sonny Bonds, well done, but now's the time for some serious
reflection. Those of you who are familiar with Sierra's line of
adventures will know what to expect, but those who are new to this kind
of game should be informed of some of the peculiarities related to
text/graphics arcade adventures.
For one thing, keep in mind that you will be dealing with a very
"modest" and simple parser (the parser being the programming structure
that analyzes typed-in commands), which means that you can't give
complex orders. In fact, many words that are being used in the
descriptions of certain locations are not recognised by the program -
this can be frustrating, but on the other hand is should be obvious
that a word that isn't recognised is unnecessary to solve a particular
situation.
Example: if you type "look table" and the computer responds with
something like "There's an oak table with four chairs next to it" then
it's quite likely that "look chairs" or "examine chair" will result in
"What's a chair?". Illogical but that's the way it works.
Another feature inherent in these games is the "one solution only"
symptom. Although various commands me be used to the same effect
("look", "check" and "examine" are the same thing, so are "take" and
"get") each situation needs a particular phrase to solve. So when you
wish to get the drunk into your custody and he starts giving you a
hassle about not having done anything wrong you need to test his
sobriety (or lack of it). If you type "test man", nothing happens. But
"give test" does the job for you - you'll see that finding the right
command can be a bummer.
Last but not least, this kind of game is not logical. A perfect
example: once you've arrested "Hoffman", you can do everything that's
necessary to take him to jail - cuff him, read his rights, bring him to
jail. But when you're at the city jail and you take off his cuffs he'll
shoot you - unless you've taken his gun away while he was on the ground
in the spot where you arrested him. If you wish to take away his gun
("search man") outside of the county jail where's there's all the room
in world and nothing to keep you from searching your suspect, the
program says "you should have thought of that when you had him on the
ground". And although a whole parking place is at your disposal, you
can no longer put the man on the floor and get his gun. Which means
that, if you've saved your game after putting the suspect in your
patrol car, you can start all over again. And this, my friends, is what
I truly and positively dislike about any game: Lack of logic.
And yet, all in all, Police Quest is an o.k. game to play because
there's lots of variation and a good deal of interesting stuff to do.
That, and some witty remarks and situations (big dude in jail cell:
"Hey man, get me outta here, I didn't know copying disks was illegal!")
should keep Sierra fans happy.
Good luck with Police Quest and when you're on the streets, remember
that there's small choice in rotten apples.
