Laura Bow Mysteries

Lore & Background

The Laura Bow Mysteries series was created by Roberta Williams for Sierra On-Line. The first game, The Colonel's Bequest, was released for MS-DOS in 1989, with ports for Amiga and Atari ST following in 1990. It used Sierra's Creative Interpreter (SCI) with 320x200 16-color EGA graphics and supported AdLib, Sound Blaster, and Roland MT-32 sound hardware. The game was one of Sierra's last to use a text parser before the company transitioned to VGA graphics and point-and-click gameplay. The sequel, The Dagger of Amon Ra, was released in 1992.

The series focused more on characters than puzzles. In The Colonel's Bequest, it was possible to finish the game without solving any puzzles or identifying the murderer. The game was designed to be replayed, with hints revealed at the end about missed content. Characters made plans to be at specific locations at certain times, and the protagonist Laura Bow could annoy characters by snooping, though this only affected dialogue. Deaths were mostly accidental, though the murderer could kill Laura in later phases.

The plot of The Colonel's Bequest is set in 1925. Laura Bow, a Tulane University student and aspiring journalist, is invited by her friend Lillian to a weekend at Colonel Dijon's decaying sugar plantation. When the Colonel gathers his quarrelsome relatives for a will reading, tensions lead to murder. Laura must learn family secrets and identify the murderer, with an optional subplot about hidden treasure. The ending depends on Laura's final actions, with different outcomes if she shoots the Colonel, lets Rudy win, or wounds Rudy.

Reader's Guide

The Laura Bow Mysteries series is significant as an early example of a story-driven adventure game that prioritized character interaction and atmosphere over traditional puzzle-solving. The Colonel's Bequest received positive reviews upon release, with critics noting its lack of difficulty but praising its humor, audio, and innovative approach as an 'interactive play.' Retrospective reviewers have called it one of the best murder mystery adventure games and a triumph of atmosphere and style. In 2011, Adventure Gamers named it the 84th-best adventure game ever released.

The series was short-lived, consisting of only two games. The Colonel's Bequest was reissued in 1993 to supplement the release of its sequel, The Dagger of Amon Ra. This reissue corrected some errors with special effects. GOG.com released an emulated version for Microsoft Windows in 2017. The series is remembered for its unique approach to the adventure genre, allowing players to simply observe events without taking action, and for its use of characters named after prominent figures of the 1920s, such as Rudolph Valentino, W. C. Fields, and Clara Bow.

Did You Know?

• The Colonel's Bequest was one of Sierra's last games to use a text parser before the transition to point-and-click gameplay.
• The game's title avoided the word 'Quest' despite Sierra's tradition of including it in nearly every graphical adventure title.
• Most characters in The Colonel's Bequest are named after prominent figures of the 1920s, such as Rudolph Valentino and Clara Bow.
• The game can be finished without solving any puzzles or identifying the murderer.