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History
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The Colonel's Bequest was an innovation. It totally rearanged the adventure genre by adding real-time events. Not only that, but it was the first modern-computer era mystery game. It had such colorful and realistic characters such as Ethel Prune, Henri Dijon, Lillian Prune, Rudy Dijon, Celie, and, of course, Laura Bow.
The setting itself was also innovative. You, as Laura Bow, have been invited by your friend Lillian her uncle's bayou mansion on a secluded island. You meet your friend and her family, and sense an internal conflict. Eventually, the guests of Lillian's Uncle start to die. After discovering many of the mansion's secrets and the killer making his final kill, you finally travel back to your home in New Orleans safe and sound.
That was not the end of Laura Bow. The game had generated much frenzy in the gaming world, and a sequel was in order. Thus was the advent of The Dagger of Amon-Ra. Roberta Williams, though, had less to do do with this game.
"The writing and puzzle designs of Laura Bow II were handled by Bruce Balfour. It was
my job to make sure the feel of The Colonel's Bequest and The Dagger of Amon-Ra
remained consistent. I wanted to make sure Laura Bow was the same person who would respond in
the same way. I was involved in the beiginning, working on characters, art, style, and the look
and feel of the game. Then Bruce took over. It was a rewarding experience; I was freed from the
huge time commitment to manage every single detail of the project, and I was delighted at the
fresh ideas Bruce brought the game."
After many false starts (and, of course, many grisly deaths), Laura finally escapes the museum, gets a reporting job at the New York Daily Register Tribune, and manages a romance with the hand some Steve Dorian. You'd think a game like this, on top of it's predecessor, would get an other sequel, right?
Wrong.
The Dagger of Amon-Ra was released at the end of Sierra's "golden age." It was one of the final games to be released for DOS on hard disk, along with Quest for Glory 4: Shadows of Darkness. There was a record low in adventure games sales, and both Amon-Ra and Shadows were low sellers in series that had historically out-sold their competitors. What happened?
Sierra, especially lately, has seem to enacted a "Let's screw the fans!" policy. They have only recently decided to make a fifth (and final) Quest for Glory game, and this right on the heels of Space Quest 7's cancellation. Quest for Glory V is being made only due to overwhelming fan response. What abour poor Laura? Am I the only one who thirsts for more?
I sure hope not. If you want to support the Laura Bow Coalition, see the "Support" section below.
Get information about the coalition by emailing me at chixdiggit@foxinternet.net.
Sign the Petition to bring back everyone's favorite heroine, Laura Bow!
View the Petition and everything everyone else had to say!
This page, and coalition, started April 4th 1998.