Further proof that I'm not Technology Connections: I'm told an "8-bit unsigned integer" is actually a value between 0-255. *Update 07/13/23 - the ScummVM team have patched their SCI interpreter so the music glitch in PQ1VGA will no longer trigger. Sad face. github.com/scummvm/scummvm/pull/4876

Police Quest 2 apparently confirms that Laura Watts (The Narcotics Officer) was the Gremlin.

This game reminds me of how powerful my childhood imagination was free of the grim reailty of experience, i was able to as a very small child being able to get to the stage where i could get into the car (i was also just learning to write i suppose) and get it going, but i could not do anything except crash into things, i was unable to make my hand eye coordination or childs brain get the driving right, i remember day dreaming about all the incredible places i would be able to drive to, i assumed i could get out at any random house and see it, explore the park, go to the mall, buy a donut, solve random crimes, pull over people and get into gun battles, all in glorious fluro pixels, if only i could get the damn car to work. I know now it doesn't work like that, but i miss when my mind worked this way.

The multiple shifts over the course of a day, Marie getting arrested for soliciting right after being warned about the sting operation, and Jack showing up in uniform immediately after taking a cab home from the bar all lead me to believe that the story takes place over several days without showing the transitions.

Man, I love this game

I crack up every time I watch the KQ fair and balanced reviews. Can't wait for this

Really enjoyed this one, and the editing was great!

Ah yes, the only Sierra "Quest" series I've never played before. I'm looking forward to this very neutral and unbiased review.

Hey SQH! Regarding the identity of the chicken prankster, if you look up Laura Watts' file in Police Quest 2, she's described as terminated for pranks. Fun as always, thanks!

I'm sure you're working on it, but I just wanted to say I'm really looking forward to the next entry in this. I honestly love the Fair and Balanced Retrospective videos in general.

This is a blast from the past. I played this in 1987. I never got the defendant's bond raised. I always screwed that up. But it turns out that the criminal procedure was either very strange in California in 1987 or the game writer was taking shortcuts to keep Sonny more active. Usually, a prosecutor would be involved in a bail hearing, but Sonny had to do basically everything.😅

15:55: To be fair to the criminals, it was 1987. Faces were only a couple dozen pixels in total; most people's hairstyles are their only distinguishing feature.

One thing I though was interesting back when the original Police Quest came out was the entirely mundane environments drawn in a Sierra Adventure game style. It made me wonder what my hometown would look like if it was the setting for one of these EGA games.

My body is ready to do whatever it takes to get out of this speeding ticket.

As someone who's played this game, I feel like pointing out that the part where you have to take a lap around your car is not a joke. That's a required step.

man, your editing has improved so much over the years. i've always enjoyed your channel, but it's so, so slick now. really amazing work

This was an amazing retrospective! Your editing and cutaways are so on point too. Hilarious 😂

Police Quest 1 was my first Sierra Quest game so it holds a dear spot in my heart. You get points for showing me that poker trick but you said Lytton must have a thriving attorney and law business consortium while zoomed into the game LITERALLY telling you Hoffman/Taselli got an "out-of-town, hotshot lawyer"

I will say I really do like PQ 1-3 (PQ 2 is a personal favorite)...perhaps it says something about how much I love male power fantasy, but PQ 4. You have fun with that.

Such fond memories of the sierra games as a kid. Especially police quest 1 and space quest 3. Ahh Sonny bonds

Ooh Boy seriously cannot wait for this. :)

Oh man. This is so good. Been looking forward to your fair and balanced retrospective of PQ1 Thanks for making this video 🎉🎉

We had this game as kids, and we didn't have the manual but we somehow managed to make it a good 1/3 of the way through it up until the drug deal somehow. Trial and error, and boredom are a hell of a thing I guess.

Love this review!! Always enjoyed these games as a kid. Looking forward to the next one!

Really loving the new format mate! great episode!

"The Chicken Reel" was used instrumentally as incidental music in a lot of old Looney Tunes cartoons set on farms or featuring chickens, so that's probably the context for both this usage and the Astro Chicken bit.

I've probably wasted time in more regrettable ways than playing police quest, but it's up there!

One of my all time favorite PC games. 9 out if 10

THERE. ARE. FOUR. CELLS.

"Hoops McGee" is Slam Dunk Donnie. Big thumbs up for pointing out how terrible the driving is. Jim Walls hated the driving in the EGA version too. 15/10 commentary though.

These are great as always. Keep it up man.

Great video!

It’s a crime these vids don’t have more views. These are great!

You got me into Space Quest, what an amazing series that was!

Howling at every crash. That was a good bit

I love how you run into things and die several times. Mirrors my playthrough of the game as a kid lol. Glad I always went with the good 'ole Sierra game playing mantra of "save early, save often" every time I played after learning my lesson in King's Quest I.

Have been waiting for this since KQ8 video premier where you said that you are going to do police quest. Great job!

Oh man you gotta do a Fair and Balanced video on GOLD RUSH :)

I don't know if it's because I've only played this game once, 10 years ago, or that it's not King's Quest, but you seemed more fair and balanced to this one - still a wise-ass of course, but a _fairly_ fair one. (Although complaining about the amount of stuff that appears to happen in a single day could apply to so many other adventures, even after Gabriel Knight implemented day chapters. ) 😏 I didn't _exactly_ find it a chore to play - reading the manual is weird these days, but I think that's appropriate for something even approaching a cop simulator well before in-game tutorials were a thing. It's a unique experience, and I actually like the driving with this map. Always walk around your car before driving, at least in the police yard (the most unsafe and uncleanly place there is) failure to do so will cause your tires to erupt in anarchy (I think Dooley shoots our tire with a sniper rifle if we don't perform the check 😅). It be nice if the consequence of rule breaking were less then the game terminating for reasons Jim Walls doesn't try to justify, like getting demerits and a slightly altered ending Black Cauldron had already done something similar, but more like Longbow would later do. Really, this is a very scripted game with an illusion of freedom - understandable as it's early Sierra trying new things, it's a tad annoying, but it's also sort of fun, and as you say bat-sh!t surreal sometimes. Now, I've got to finally play the other Jim Walls games, if I'm to watch your retrospective.

HHahhaaaa.. I remember how brutal the driving was 😅

Love that your alien persona is getting some well deserved screentime!

Come to think of it, Sonny having no house or life outside of his police work might explain why he's such a bad driver: He keeps falling asleep at the wheel from working back-to-back shifts with only the occasional coffee break.

The astro chicken song isn't the astro chicken song? My life has been a lie all along.

Who can afford a house or an apartment when all your money goes to replacing squad cars you keep ramming into curbs

Given how cop / action movies were at the time, it's a not a bad story at all. I'm surprised how much adult stuff they managed to put in the game. That streetwalker thing is especially surprising. Yeah, Sonny does stuff that is questionable, but that's what makes him less of a typical protagonist. Cool video overall. I bounced off PQ years ago because as you mentioned, it's a chore and now I wish I didn't.

Ah, so nice to have these "fair and balanced" reviews back. It's been ages since I played this one, although for some reason I really liked it as a kid. Mostly for the driving, I think.

I've been looking forward to this for a while, well worth the wait. I really like the vtuber model thing and the writing and editing are as funny as ever, excellent stuff

Ah, the fun times I had with this game. Still one of my most favorite series in the Sierra line-up. Most likely because games in a more 'realistic and contemporary' setting were so very rare. The game has it's weak points, but the manual reading was one of the things I actually enjoyed, it was nice to read more about police procedures. Unlike the quick function key car speed switching required to move around the city. Not to mention the freeway on ramps...

You got a good sense of humor mate! Glad the algorithm recommended your videos

Loved this!

Of the 5 main series that Sierra put out, I feel that this one gets the least amount of attention. I'm interested to see if the SQH liked this game better than the King's Quest Series.

*GOOD GOD, HE'S ANIMATED!!!*

Even as a very young child with a poor grasp of English, I understood that it was implied it didn't all take place the same day!

top kek. great content.

7:42 Missed that metal bonk the first time and got a good laugh out of it. 😄🚓

I remember playing this in elementary school... KQ and SQ we could figure out, but none of us knew anything about the law/police/rules of the road, so it was constant failure. 😂

I kinda hate to admit this, but Police Quest 1 is my favorite of the text parser type Sierra games. Something about it just fits my brain. No moon logic puzzles, just procedure you can follow to accomplish tasks.

Yes! I remember this game, but you remeber it much better than I!

8:54 Apparently the whole "Gremlin" scenario is based on something Jim Walls said actually happened while on the force, INCLUDING the molting chicken prank. I wonder how much of some of the plot elements, as well as the various people you pull over early game, are based off moments from Jim's career.

excellent intro 😂 great build 🎉🎉🎉

Do you think you'll ever play Codename: Iceman? It's hell on Earth, but the soundtrack is worth it.

The game in no way suggests that Sonny has a customer relationship with Pixel Tits (Sweet Cheeks), in fact, when you're in a hotel room with her close to the end of the game he flat out refuses to sleep with her, insisting that it wouldn't be proper. By the end of the game they start dating and she finds herself another job.

Yay! My first adventure game, on CGA RGB mode. Rough. As for poker, like LSL1, you can savescum it by saving after each hand.

The return

I love how no matter what series you do, you will always find an excuse to use the digitized sounds of Space Quest IV, V, and VI.

In this game I got stuck early on when I couldn’t spell “pigeonhole”

12:02 is that trophy on the bookshelf the droid you buy in Space Quest 1 that helps you fly to Sector HH? 👀

I actually think people generally give Police Quest a disservice. Sure, the subject matter is very much of its time and in a world where the police are always good people (more or less), but it does a lot of things which are actually pretty unique. For instance, it's one of the few early adventure games where despite having relatively few locations, there actually is a linear narrative going on. Virtually every other Sierra series (until Gabriel Knight) has it where the story advances with the locations -- each location is pretty static. However with Police Quest there's all kinds of changes. Look at the number of scenes in the jail or the various departments of the station. Even the coffee shop! Something which makes Lytton feel a little bit more alive than the other games where each room feels like a puzzle. Also this at least tries to give some character development even if it isn't particularly well done. Take Space Quest, does anyone in it actually show any kind of progression? Do we know anything about the other characters at all? Not really, they're all stand-ins. Even Sludge Vohaul is a cardboard cut out. Whilst PQ tries to have some stories. The big problem with PQ is that it is all just procedural and doesn't really have any puzzles. But I'm not sure that's a bad thing in principal - it's just a different way to do an adventure game. Not a huge distance away from some modern adventure games really. Of course, there's the other issue that it is written by a cop and it shows: very idealistic and middle American. But that kind of kitsche Americana is all over Sierra outside of SQ. But it's kinda interesting and refreshing to look at that kind of world now and then -- really having much more in common with cop shows than reality.

Great content dude. I thought this game was amazing back then, but I needed help finishing it. But sadly, not much Sierra has aged well.

Fair and balanced as always, loved it!

0/10 Realism: Sonny didn't shoot any pets the whole game.

6:42 You should have knocked over the bikes, Space Quest IV (or is it I?)-style.

Great video

Cool find about the astrochicken music origin

Gremlin was Laura, as far as I remember. It is revealed somewhere along the game, my memory is too rusty to recall when.

Ah, the first Quest game I ever finished. Took me forever to safely arrest Jason Tasellli and his tattoed nipple. Game was a bit of an eye-opener for an 11 year old, needless to say. :D

Was hoping you'd already uploaded the next video in this series. Bummed you havent

Well I’m late to this party Subbed with extreme prejudice

This should be good.

Oh boy I have not seen this game in over 30 years.

Thanks for doing my first, thus favorite, adventure game. I will admit though I didn't enjoy the video as much as your other ones since the linear nature of the game gave you less of a chance to use your razor sharp sarcasm like in SQ, due to your knowledge of the game and dead ends, or in KQ where you have a lot of moon logic and dead ends. But that is not your fault and you can blame the game for that. As always loved it and thanks for letting us relive the memories of our old games. And your editing is always top notch!

An 8bit unsigned integer holds a value between 0 and 255 since the computer represents 0 as a positive integer. 2^8 is 256 and since 0 has to exist, the range is 0 to 255.

Now I'm curious what your "Fair and Balanced Retrospective" would be for "Jones in the Fast Lane."

24:20 this looks and sounds like the cartoon "not so fast" by pilotredsun.

This has better graphics than Starfield.

No Sonny! You're better than her!

To be fair, the "rank up in one day to tke a drug baron" while not exactly coherent with the advertisement of "realism, oh" and a fairly bland the power fantaisy is kind of understandable on accout that otherwise there wouldn't be much of a plot to go on. Yes, I suppose a much more character oriented and more down to earth plot could have been writen but I don't think it would hve sold all that we'll then. (Would be a much better fit now to a ertain small audience). I wouldn't also hold the whole thing taking place in a day againt the game because frankly this kind of time comprehession where action takes lace in an apparent single day/night when it's implied to be across days weeks or month is fairly common in video games. To be clear I mostly entirely agree with most of your points, just puting in perspective some bits. The way I see it, police quest is better seen as ...a product of it's time, the late eighties and early nineties, when TV made cops cool, with no cellphone footage to show you how they really are on the field, when anyone with 'former police/military/whatever experience" though they could be a writer and the crack panic of the eighties was rocking suburbia.

The robot guy has a point - you really don't seem to like ANY of the games you play. Why play them if you don't enjoy them?

Sweet Cheeks. That is all. SWEET CHEEKS.

It'll always be "Theme from Astro Chicken" to me

So, basically, Police Quest is 80's version of GTA?

Poor Sonny, lol.

It's so weird to think that this is where the SWAT games came from.

Troels, do more SCUMM games!!!!! Indy 4 screams for a bit of Pleimert!

Thank you.

Never bothered to get on the freeway.

So, where's the PQ2 video? Scrapped the idea? Or is it coming - any eta?

2 is more of the same, with a chain-smoking partner thrown in. There's also a "Save the Pretty Damsel in Distress" scenario where Bains escapes and kidnaps Marie. I'd like to think that SQH will like PQ2, but I doubt it.

Around 2014, it became a national embarassment when it was publicized that several states still allowed police having sex with prostitutes (as part of their investigation, wink wink). Hawaii and Oklahoma banned the practice in 2014. The last state to ban the practice was Michigan in 2017. I presume California banned the practice decades earlier, as there was no mention of them recently.

I had it on the Atari ST (along with all the other Sierra games of the era) I enjoyed it, but like most Sierra games back then, they did make you want to be able to kill your self more than once.... in real life! The fast pace of the video was great too, unlike the fucking games!