Revisiting the streets of my youth via Sierra's Police Quest

[@shadowinthevoid]

You almost sold me on giving this Police Quest a go despite not being a fan of adventure games that like to punish you. I guess in terms of open world games like that if the world is too big your never going to really get to know it all and feel that connected so maybe Police Quest is a good size. If I think about one of the Elder Scrolls games, they're just too big, you'll never have that sense of familiarity. The most modern big studio game I can think of with that had the right sort of scale was Vampyr.

[@TimberwolfK]

The nice thing with PQ as compared to other Sierra games is the feedback is pretty immediate. At worst you might have to restore and drive back to the station to pick something up, and there's a couple places where if you don't search someone at the crime scene you're basically softlocked, but it's generally only 5-10 minutes of lost progress, not "you used something on the fourth screen that you're supposed to carry until the end of the game"

[@WhatHoSnorkers]

Wonderful as always, Mr Wolf. I read a review of Police Quest and ever since I've been wary of mixing radial and ply tyres on the same axle.

[@TimberwolfK]

KZbin offers an automatic answer of "Great suggestion!" for this, possibly before it goes and spins off a corner in its Austin 1100.

[@2talltyler152]

This is one of my favorite videos you've made recently. Well philosophized, and as often happens, I learned about an interesting game from before my time.

[@TimberwolfK]

Thanks - I love hearing people say they enjoy these, I always have that "dip" somewhere during editing where I start going, "only you think this is an interesting idea" so it's great to hear you enjoyed it.

[@sixstringbestfriend]

I don't really have an attachment to this game because I'm too young for it, but thanks for sharing to us what the game means to you. My only experience with Police Quest is oddly specific. One of the games has an authentic LAPD SWAT truck in it as one of the backgrounds. Photos of the real vehicle are impossible to find and somehow the game had it and I was able to use that image for one of my projects. Actually thinking about it, Police Quest walked so that LCPDFR and other police themed games could run. I wouldn't have what I have now with modding without PQ.

[@skRapKlan]

Awesome video! Thanks for sharing your memories and experiences!

[@mogwaay]

Lovely made video TW, made me think about my upbringing too, off in the Shetland islands, pouring over whatever PC magazine i could to find software to fill my 486 with... great bit of whimsy!

[@bubo1]

Fish and chips for my tea tomorrow night I think. Though I will have to make do with my local chippy round the corner and not the other best Fish 'n' Chip shop in the UK 30 miles away in Lincoln, enigmatically called "The Sign of the Fish"

[@StormkeeperPU]

I know how you feel Re where you lived before and getting a house one letter out in the postcode; a place I used to live in was knocked down and replaced by an Aldi, and oddly enough, my mum lives not far from it now! I still feel weird about visiting it decades later every time I visit it! As for the main topic of the video, I've long believed that media such as films, TV shows, games & software, books, and the like are like time capsules, and in a way, the hardware used to play are also time capsules because by playing games and/or using software, we're essentially transported back in time because we're playing it the way we would have back then, either reliving our experiences, or playing it for the first time without prior knowledge! As for the computing and gaming hardware being time capsules, we're dealing with it directly which means we have to deal with the quirks and limitations associated with using them, although there are some modern additions with storage and clones of certain hardware which may "corrupt" the original experience in some peoples' eyes, although I think that it's still a mostly authentic experience! In my case, I think that using, SD or CF cards, or SSDs with older hardware as it makes it easier to maintain, but I am aware that there are IDE SSDs, although some systems (older thin clients typically) did use CF cards as storage! Anyway, thank you for this video as it did give me a lot to think about, although I haven't been able to express all of my thoughts here or at least as coherently as I'd have wanted to, because brain fog, but also translating my thoughts to text can be tricky a lot of the time!

[@TimberwolfK]

It's a weird coincidence but also in some ways makes sense - my parents didn't have much money when they moved there and those old railway houses were cheap in the early '70s, and by a similar token that road I bought in was pretty much the cheapest road in walking distance of the station.

[@maximehamelin156]

Brillant! Stumbled on the game in my childhood too , but being french, it was more trial and error than anything. Your style reminds me of 'how to with John WIlson' ... FIrst video i watch of yours but it's an insta-subscribe!

[@deanolium]

I always find the criticism that Police Quest is too idealistic to be a weird one. Computer games can be about escapism, and wanting to spend some time in a world where the police are all good and society is relatively simple with uncomplicated morality is perfectly fine. It's a way to destress, and where it's seen as fine if it's in a medieval fantasy setting, it should be fine when put in a more contemporary world. Of course, even in PQ1 things a little more complicated with Sonny having a relationship with a prostitute and there's the whole trickster in the police force going on, so a little more muddy. But compared to the rest of the Sierra games at the time, it's positively gritty, even if laughable in any other context.

[@DeanThomson]

I had that same Amstrad PC here in AU around the same time. So many many memories.. I wait I had a 2286/12 mhz ;)

[@TimberwolfK]

That 2000 series did have some rather distinctive design. The one thing I missed on my more generic (if somewhat more compatible!) clone PC was that volume control for the PC speaker. Clever idea!