The Colonel's Bequest
1989 · Adventure · PC/DOS
Overview
The Colonel's Bequest (1989) is Roberta Williams's Sierra murder mystery, in which student Laura Bow investigates on a decaying sugar plantation island off Louisiana in 1925.
Deep Dive
Laura gathers clues about the other characters' backgrounds and relationships while the clock advances a quarter-hour at a time, one act per hour. There is no visible score, and the game can be finished without solving a single puzzle; at the end a screen hints at everything that was missed. The ending depends on what Laura does in the attic.
Developer Story
Roberta Williams wrote it and directed it with Chris Iden, with Jacqueline Austin as designer and Ken Williams producing. It ran on Sierra's SCI0 engine in 16-colour EGA, with support for AdLib, Sound Blaster and Roland MT-32 music. Amiga and Atari ST versions followed in 1990.
Did You Know?
- It was one of Sierra's last games with a text parser, along with King's Quest IV.
- Its sequel, The Dagger of Amon Ra (1992), takes Laura to New York as a reporter.
Sources & further reading
- The Colonel's Bequest — Wikipedia
