The Colonel's Bequest

Lore & Background

The Colonel's Bequest is set in 1925 and follows Laura Bow, a Tulane University student and aspiring journalist, who is invited by her friend Lillian to a weekend at the decaying sugar plantation of Colonel Dijon. When the reclusive colonel gathers his quarrelsome relatives for a reading of his will, tensions lead to murder. Laura must learn family secrets and identify the murderer, with an optional subplot concerning hidden treasure. The storyline advances in quarter-hour increments, with new acts beginning every hour, and the ending depends on Laura's final actions, including whether she shoots the colonel or wounds Rudy.

Reader's Guide

The Colonel's Bequest is significant as a forerunner of story-driven adventure games, focusing more on character development and narrative than on complex puzzles. It was one of Sierra's last games to use a text parser, and its design encourages replayability by revealing missed hints and information upon completion. The game received positive reviews upon release, with critics praising its humor, audio, and innovative approach that allowed players to simply observe without taking action. Retrospectively, it has been recognized as one of the best murder mystery adventure games and was named the 84th-best adventure game by Adventure Gamers in 2011. Its sequel, The Dagger of Amon Ra, was released in 1992.

Did You Know?

• The game's title avoids the word 'Quest' due to Sierra's tradition of including 'Quest' in nearly every graphical adventure title; 'bequest' refers to a legacy or gift in a will.
• Most characters are named after prominent figures of the time, such as Rudolph Valentino, W. C. Fields, and Clara Bow.
• The game includes a reference to the Alfred Hitchcock film Psycho, where the murderer stabs Laura if she attempts to shower.
• A reissue in 1993 corrected errors with special effects, such as making fireflies more visible and less erratic.

Design Philosophy & Gameplay Mechanics

The Colonel's Bequest stands apart in Sierra's catalog for prioritizing character discovery over traditional puzzle-solving. Built on the Creative Interpreter engine, it delivers 320x200 16-color EGA visuals and supports AdLib, Sound Blaster, and Roland MT-32 audio hardware. Released for MS-DOS in 1989 with Amiga and Atari ST ports following in 1990, it was among Sierra's final adventures to employ a text parser, alongside King's Quest IV, before the industry shifted toward VGA graphics and point-and-click interfaces. What distinguishes the experience is its structural philosophy: players can complete the game without solving a single puzzle, yet still uncover character backstories and identify the killer. There is no visible scoring system during play, but upon finishing, the game reveals what was missed, implicitly encouraging a second run. Characters may grow irritated with Laura for snooping, though this affects only dialogue. Death is ever-present—balcony falls, chandelier crushes, and a Psycho-style shower stabbing—but the villain rarely targets Laura directly since she has no ties to the Dijon family.

Plot Structure & Branching Narrative

Set in 1925, the narrative follows Laura Bow—a Tulane University student, daughter of detective John Bow, and aspiring journalist—as she accompanies her flapper friend Lillian to the decaying sugar plantation of Colonel Henri Dijon. What begins as a weekend visit curdles when the reclusive, childless Colonel summons his quarrelsome relatives for a will reading, and the resulting bickering escalates into murder. Stranded on the island with a cast of suspects and potential victims, Laura must unravel family secrets in a manner evoking Agatha Christie. An optional hidden-treasure subplot threads through the main investigation. The story advances in quarter-hour increments, with a new act opening each hour; timing matters, as a quarter-hour can pass in mere seconds if Laura is in the right place. The climax finds her using a skeleton key from Lillian's body to open an attic, where Colonel Dijon and Rudy are locked in a struggle over a hypodermic syringe. Laura's choice—shooting the Colonel, letting Rudy prevail, or wounding Rudy—determines which ending unfolds, each revealing different layers of the truth about who truly killed Lillian.

Character Design & Naming Conventions

The cast of The Colonel's Bequest is a deliberate homage to the cultural touchstones of the 1920s and to classic mystery conventions. Nearly every character borrows a name from a prominent figure of the era or a well-known fictional archetype. Laura Bow nods to silent-film star Clara Bow; her friend Lillian Prune echoes Lillian Gish. Colonel Henri Dijon's surname is a clear wink at Colonel Mustard from Cluedo, while his sister Ethel Prune mirrors Professor Plum. Gertie Dijon, the snobbish widow, presides over a household that includes Gloria Swansong—named for Gloria Swanson—and her brother Rudolph 'Rudy' Dijon, a slick gambler inspired by Rudolph Valentino. Clarence Sparrow, the sneaky lawyer, takes his name from celebrated attorney Clarence Darrow. Dr. Wilbur C. Feels, the Colonel's questionable physician, indirectly references comedian W. C. Fields. Even the servants pay tribute: Jeeves is lifted from P. G. Wodehouse's famous butler, and Fifi is the flirtatious French maid. Despite these layered references, the characters function as heavily archetypal figures in a classical murder-mystery framework.

Legacy & Place in Sierra's Catalog

The Colonel's Bequest marks the opening entry in the Laura Bow Mysteries, a short-lived series conceived by Roberta Williams that drew heavily on elements from her earlier game Mystery House. Its sequel, The Dagger of Amon Ra, arrived in 1992, but the franchise never grew beyond those two titles, making the 1989 original a singular artifact of Williams' vision. The game also occupies a transitional moment in Sierra's history: alongside King's Quest IV, it was among the studio's last adventures to rely on a text parser before the industry-wide pivot to VGA graphics and point-and-click interaction. Even the title is a quiet subversion of Sierra's long-standing convention of embedding 'Quest' in nearly every graphical adventure name; here, 'bequest'—a legacy or gift handed down in a will—carries the same phonetic weight while signaling the game's thematic preoccupation with inheritance, family secrets, and the burdens passed between generations. For fans of character-driven narrative in an era dominated by puzzle mechanics, the game remains a distinctive and somewhat lonely achievement in Sierra's output.

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