Police quest 1
Anyone remotely interesting in games should instantly recognize the Sierra name and altough they make diverse game these days in the beginning it seems like they made only adventure games. Police quest is one of their adventure series and unlike the others this one takes things quite seriously. You play the role of Sonny Bonds, a police officer in the Lytton police department and you have to do your day to day tasks until you have to stop a drug dealer nicknamed the death angel. The original title of the game was police quest: in persuit of the death angel but commonly referred to as police quest 1 as there were a number of sequels.
The game uses the same interface of other Sierra adventure with your character onscreen and you can walk around using the cursor keys. You can type in any commands on the bottom of the screen like picking up items or interacting with people. The game starts in the police station with the briefing about to begin. You still have some time to get stuff out of your locker like your gun and badge but don’t be late or you’ll be dead! Yup that’s right this game is very high on procedure and if you don’t follow the rules it will be game over before you realize it. It can become rather annoying that a tiny mistake can lead to death even more so than other Sierra games.
Anyone who’s played Sierra adventures before should instantly recognize the game’s graphic style with lowres graphics and blocky characters. Some of the areas are still fairly detailed though but like many earlier games there is no real sound or music during the game as it only supports the pc speaker. The amiga and apple versions do have some sound effects but nothing really spectacular. There was also a remake that has improved EGA graphics just like the first king quest game.
Altough I like many of Sierra’s adventures the police quest series was probably my least favorite with it’s high degree of procedures. I can understand why a police officer has to walk around his car to check for any damage or anything before he drives off but in a computer game it simply doesn’t make much sense. The fact that it tries to be realistic is alright but on the other hand is totally unrealistic like if you are late for a meeting you simply die which is rather ridiculous. Still there must have been plenty of people who like the game because there were several sequels made. If you are one of those people or want to have a go at being a police officer I suggest you check it out but for people who haven’t played it yet you might want to take a look at some other adventure game.
Overal rating: 5/10
This game was released for several different systems here are some notes:
| Apple | Released in 1987. Game has been tested but not completed with the ActiveGSapp R4. Like many of Sierra’s earlier games the apple was the first version, it has some sound effects. |
| Amiga | Released in 1987. Game has been tested but not completed with winUAE v0.9.91. Practically the same as the apple version. |
| DOS | Released in 1987. Game has been tested but not completed on a DOS PC. The graphics look the same but the pc speaker doesn’t make for any proper sound effects. |
| Others | This version is not available. Atari ST released in 1987. |
| Date added | May-23-2005 19:33 |
| Name | Police quest 1 |
| Developer | Sierra on-line |
| Publisher | Sierra on-line |
| First released | 1987 |
| Genre | Adventure |
