• Tag Archives Roberta Williams

  • The Colonel’s Bequest (DOS, 1989)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

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    The Colonel’s Bequest by Sierra for the Amiga, Atari ST and MS-DOS

    Source: Sierra News Magazine – Autumn 1989

    The Colonel’s Bequest, while perhaps somewhat less well known than some of Sierra’s other releases, is a graphics adventure game of a somewhat similar style to the King’s Quest series. It was released in 1989 for DOS based computers and then ported to the Amiga and Atari ST in 1990. Compared to other Sierra/Roberta Williams adventure games, this one is a little less puzzle oriented (though there are still puzzles to solve) and a little more focused on solving the mystery of the character.

    Another, at least somewhat unique, aspect of the game is that it is not fantasy based. I know it’s always seemed to me like most adventure or RPG games are fantasy based…maybe 99 percent…with perhaps another 0.9% being sci-fi based. This game falls into that 0.1 percent “other” category with this particular one being a murder mystery set in the present day. A dispute about a will leads to murder and the protagonist ends up trapped on an island surrounded by potential suspects. You must figure out who the guilty party is.

    Like most other Sierra adventure games, this one is part of a series, albeit a short-lived one. The sequel, The Dagger of Amon Ra, was released in 1992 for MS-DOS and Windows computers along with a re-release of The Colonel’s Bequest. It features the same protagonist, Laura Bow, as the first game. Also, while not a technically sequel, The Colonel’s Bequest has many game play elements from a much earlier Roberta Williams game called Mystery House which was released in 1980 for the Apple II and is considered to be the first graphical adventure game.

    For those who are a fan of this style of game from this era, then there is no reason not to try this one. It does not have as high of a difficulty level as other Sierra games and I guess that may be a plus or a minus depending on how hard core you are. In any case, it maintains pretty much the same level of quality as other Robert Williams games. If you do want to give it a try, versions of both The Colonel’s Bequest and The Dagger of Amon Ra that will run on modern versions of Windows can be found on gog.com for a few bucks. Or if you are a purist, you can find an original and get it set up in DOSBox or better yet, a real DOS machine.

    Screenshots above are from the DOS version of the game.


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  • Phantasmagoria

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Phantasmagoria (1994)

    http://darth-azrael.tumblr.com/post/176475254056/retrocgads-usa-1994-phantasmagoria

    While a lot of early “multimedia” games were nothing but crappy FMV products with little to know play value or point-and-click adventures with nonsensical puzzles and questionable plot, there were some pretty good ones too. Phantasmagoria is one of those.

    Phantasmagoria is in fact a point-and-click adventure but it was designed by Roberta Williams so you know it is going to be something better than average. This was a game with a huge budget. it cost over $4.5 million to make which for 1995 was massive. This game was also far larger than similar games of the time and spanned 7 CDs.

    Fortunately, it all paid off for Sierra. Phantasmagoria was a huge hit and Sierra sold $12 million worth of games in the first weekend. This type of point-and-click adventure/interactive movie was reaching the peak of its popularity around this time and Phantasmagoria was one of the best in the genre. It was just the right game published at the right time for Sierra.

    The plot of Phantasmagoria involves a mystery novelist (whom the player controls) and her husband purchasing a mansion once owned by a famous musician whose five wives all died under mysterious circumstances. Adrienne (the novelist) explores the mansion looking for inspiration for her next novel. Before you know it, a demon is accidentally released and bad things start to happen…

    If you like point-and-click adventures of this type, then Phantasmagoria is a great one to try. However, since it has not been re-released to the best of my knowledge, you will have to struggle through trying to make it work on modern hardware or play on a vintage PC or Mac. A Sega Saturn version was also released but unfortunately it was only available for the Japanese market.





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