The Dagger of Amon Ra

aka: Colonel's Bequest II, Laura Bow 2, Laura Bow: Der Dolch des Amon Ra, Roberta Williams' Laura Bow in The Dagger of Amon Ra
Moby ID: 462
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Description official description

One year after the events described in The Colonel's Bequest, Laura Bow, fresh out of college, is hired by a New York newspaper to write a story about the newest exhibit acquired by the local Leyendecker Museum, an ancient Egyptian dagger. However, during a party to celebrate the opening of the museum's new section, someone is murdered, the dagger is stolen, and Laura, after asking to be allowed to investigate, is locked in with the rest of the guests. This sets the stage for a series of murders, and it is up to Laura to find the person responsible for them.

The Dagger of Amon Ra plays similarly to the The Colonel's Bequest, focusing primarily on exploration and clue-gathering rather than on solving puzzles, although there are more instances of inventory item collection and usage in the sequel. With the exception of the introductory act, the entire game is set in the museum. The player navigates Laura through its rooms and interacts with characters to gather information and uncover their true motives. The game's clock advances when it is triggered by certain actions or simply by moving from location to location. Some information and events may only be available in specific places and at specific times. Near the end of the game Laura will be asked to make a case to to the coroner, which involves answering a series of questions concerning the crimes. Depending on his playing style, clues discovered, and deductive skills, the player may or may not have the correct answers to all the questions.

Unlike its predecessor - and like most other contemporary Sierra adventures - the game utilizes an icon-based interface instead of typing verb-object commands to interact with the environments. Topics can also be chosen from a list when the player selects the "Ask" command. The CD version features full speech, including narration.

Spellings

  • פגיון הדמים - Hebrew spelling

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Credits (DOS version)

107 People (99 developers, 8 thanks) · View all

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[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 75% (based on 12 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 67 ratings with 7 reviews)

Laura Bow moves to the Big City

The Good
The Colonel's Bequest (1989) is an underappreciated classic, graphic adventure game created by Roberta Williams and published by Sierra. In it, spunky student Laura Bow visits her flapper friend and her eccentric family on their posh estate. Naturally, this weekend getaway quickly descends into a murder mystery. The Dagger of Amon Ra is the second and, sadly, final entry in the series. Having graduated from college, Laura Bow is now a reporter for a big city newspaper where she investigates a new murder mystery involving a new cast of eccentric characters, with their own secrets, and, as the title suggests, Egyptology. The sequel features improved graphics and sound, along with an engaging storyline that weaves in a 1920s society that is both realistic history and glamorized Hollywood. Gone is the pesky requirement that all commands must be typed, with a new, more, user friendly, point n’ click interface. The CD-ROM version also adds some fine voice acting to the mix.

The Bad
As is typical of many classic Sierra adventure games, Laura Bow will die often and face certain puzzles that are difficult only because they are too abstract or illogical. The point n’ click interface beats having to type in commands, but having to repeatedly flip through the Laura Bow notebook for a noun is a cumbersome method of asking other people questions. In terms of the story, The Dagger of Amon Ra is not sure if it wants to depict the 1920’s accordingly to history or Hollywood. Case in point; the game does an excellent job addressing the sexism that Laura Bow, as a woman, would face. Yet, when it comes to depicting the 1920s in terms of race, class and sexual orientation, the game seems to be returning to a sanitized Hollywood where celluloid innuendos and gentlemen’s agreements ruled the day.

The Bottom Line
The Dagger of Amon Ra is an enjoyable point n’ click, graphic adventure game. The graphics and sound do their job well, but will probably not win any awards. Likewise the voice acting is good, but not above some cheesy dialogue and stereotypical accents. It stands out for its heroine, in an industry where damsels in distress are far more common, and its period storyline that, while not always historically accurate, does create an engaging murder-mystery atmosphere.

Windows 3.x · by ETJB (428) · 2010

The excellent sequel to TCB – more involved and bloodier

The Good
Way back in the early Eighties, Sierra On-Line was quite new to the computer industry. There were only two people running the company: Ken and Roberta Williams. Both of them created the first graphic adventure game ever. Titled Mystery House, the game saw the player trapped in a Victorian mansion along with nine other people. They must find who is killing them off before they themselves are the next victim. It was the best-selling computer game of all time.

Nine years later, Roberta herself created her second detective game called The Colonel's Bequest, a game starring a university student named Laura Bow going around doing what real-life detectives do best: asking questions, searching for clues, and investigating murders. The game uses a real-time feature where events take place at certain times. It also features multiple endings, and the game encourages the player to try it again in case they missed any clues the first time around.

Now, we get to The Dagger of Amon Ra, the sequel to TCB released in 1992. If you brought the game back, you probably notice that the text above the title mentions Roberta's name. Ironically, Roberta wasn't even involved with the project due to time constraints. So she handed the reigns over to Bruce Balfour. However, she still worked as creative consultant, so she made sure that the quality of the game was on par with the first one.

After graduating from university, Laura lands a job in New York as a newspaper reporter. Her assignment: write a newspaper article about the theft of the infamous Dagger. Her boss gives her permission to attend a charity fundraiser being held at the Leyendecker Museum. There, the museum is in lockdown due to some suspicious activity that occurred that night, and everyone, including Laura herself, is a suspect. The characters are easy to warm up to, with Wolf Heimlich being the amusing one of the lot.

The Dagger of Amon Ra delivers a point-and-click interface, which makes things easier. When talking to characters, you use Laura's notebook to ask them about other characters; and not only that, but you can also ask them about places Laura visited, things that she picked up, and any miscellaneous stuff. And you don't even have to type anything in. It is rather interesting to hear what characters think of others.

The gameplay mechanics are the same as TCB, but Dagger is more involved. You have to search through people's offices and gather evidence. You also have to draw your own conclusions based on conversations and the evidence you gather, and use that at the end of the game, where you have to face up to the coroner.

The game focuses heavily on Egyptology, and it is obvious that Sierra did a lot of research. Click the eye cursor on almost any object in the room, such as the Rosetta Stones in the Egyptian exhibit, and you'll get the history of that object. It is much easier if the history was read out to you in the CD-ROM version, instead of just having it read. There are also hieroglyphics in some rooms, and at one point, you need to translate some of the hieroglyphs to solve a puzzle near the end of the game.

The graphics reflect the Egyptian setting quite well, and there are some smooth animations, like Rex the talking dinosaur with his mouth moving. The murders are a lot gorier than the first game, with more than one instance of blood pouring out the victim. Some of the victim's faces are horrifying, especially Ziggy's and the Countess'. You also get to see some of Laura's gruesome deaths. Seeing the bad ending to the game was confronting the first time I watched it.

The music in the game also reflects the Egyptian theme quite well, and it sounds more realistic when it is coming from the Roland MT-32 sound module. The CD-ROM version delivers speech, with most of the characters voiced by Sierra employees. The narrator has a bit of an attitude when you do inappropriate things with the bodies, such as touching Yvette Delacroix's breasts or trying to pull down Dr. Carter's tuxedo pants. I am not sure whether that the Archeologist song was present in the disk version. It's been a while since I've played it.

What I enjoyed about the game is that chase scene in Act Five. The music keeps you on edge as you make your way through the museum, trying to escape the killer. One wrong move, and you may be killed. Also, I enjoyed playing through the second act, eavesdropping on group conversations. The funny thing about this is that Laura is acting conspicuously.

The Bad
Sometimes, right from the beginning of the game, the game refuses to let you restore from a previously saved game. You get this message “You did something we weren't expecting” and the game just terminates, even if you're playing on a slower machine. It seems to be location-based, so the only way I can get by this problem is by saving the game at different locations.

More often than not, I found the control panel disabled so I could not even save the game (when you can take control of Laura) when I want to. I would have liked to save just before I found a body or when it's time to attend an important meeting.

There aren't any patches to fix these problems, either.

The Bottom Line
Dagger of Amon Ra is the sequel to TCB; and while the gameplay is similar, there is a lot more involved, particular when you get near the end of the game. Everything in the game, including the sound and graphics, reflect those in the 1920's era. The game could be a precursor to Sierra's horror game Phantasmagoria since the murders are bloodier. Finally, there may not have been a third Laura Bow game, but that would stop Roberta from doing a remake of this game. After all, Jane Jensen and Al Lowe both did remakes of their previous works. Come on, Roberta, get out of retirement and make it happen.

DOS · by Katakis | ă‚«ă‚żă‚­ă‚ą (43092) · 2015

A Classic Adventure Game

The Good
The Dagger of Amon Ra is a superior sequel to The Colonel's Bequest. As sequels go it features superior graphics, better music, and far simpler control mechanics. This game succeeds both as a sequel and as its own game.

The game is set in the 1920s and stars Laura Bow. Ms. Bow is an idealistic, plucky young reporter who has relocated to the big city, from her quaint rural hometown. Can Ms. Bow succeed in the big city?

Success requires you to explore the city, interact with its many citizens, collect items and solve puzzles. The big puzzle in the game is a high profile murder mystery that can make you famous or dead.

True to the tenor of the times, this game features many of the historical elements of the 1920s. This was the era of the flapper, fabulous gender nonconformity, free love, underground speakeasies and widespread love for Egyptology.



The Bad
While the gameplay mechanics are much improved from the first game, it is still a bit of a headache asking questions. I never got comfortable using the notebook to select various topics to ask people about. The sequel is miles above its predecessor, but it's still a bit of a pain.

Beyond the slight gameplay headaches, some of the voice acting in the game is probably a tad bit, "politically incorrect". I am talking about the police officer with the thick Irish accent or the Chinese laundryman who does not speak English terribly well. I will leave it to the player to decide for himself or herself whether or not this is a problem.

This game was published prior to the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB), but I would personally suggest that the game is suitable for players 13+. Some of the death sequences can be pretty brutal to watch, and this game has a fair share of mild sexual innuendos to giggle at.

The Bottom Line
The Dagger of Amon Ra is a wonderful adventure game from the early 1990s. Fans of adventure games, or a good murder mystery, should give this game a try.

Windows · by Edward TJ Brown (118) · 2019

[ View all 7 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
UK version v.1.1? Edwin Drost (9175) Feb 15, 2017

Trivia

Archaeologist Song

Both the CD and the disk version of Dagger of Amon Ra feature a digitized song, a cheeky one-minute ditty in Charleston style called Archaeologist Song. It is one of three pieces that play in the seedy Harlem speakeasy in Act 1, and is repeated in the ending credits.

The tune was composed by Chris Braymen, who also plays the trombone in the song. The other performers are Sierra’s sound designers Dan Kehler (bass) and Mark Seibert (guitar); the singer is Susan Kehler. The Dagger of Amon Ra’s producer/designer Bruce Balfour contributed the lyrics. They go as follows (transcript by Danelope):The Archaeologist Song

I want to marry an archaeologist

And keep his artifacts warm

I'd travel with him through jungles and deserts

And weather out every storm

If he wants me to, I'll burrow and dig

On burials small and castles big

Oh, I want to marry an archaeologist

What a marvelous gig

Mummy would love him and Daddy too

We'd be famous and well-to-do

Oh, I want to marry an archaeologist

Then I could boop-e-doo, swahoo

I could boop-e-doo, ooh

We'd play peek-a-booYou can listen to the Archaeologist Song over at Queststudios.com.

Brontosaurus

The Brontosaurus painting's commentary in the T-Rex room gives the story of a controversy between Othaniel Marsh and Earl Douglas about which kind of head the Brontosaurus had. "Only time, and more fossil evidence, will conclusively prove which of these esteemed gentlemen is correct", ends the description, accurately staying within the frame of knowledge of a 1926 museum.

For curious players, here's what time has proved: Douglas had been right; all Brontosaurus displays of the period featured the wrong kind of head. It took almost fifty years until the problem was settled in 1975.

CD version

The CD conversion of The Dagger of Amon Ra makes use of several Sierra staff members for the voiceovers, including some not involved with the game’s production – such as Gabriel Knight mastermind Jane Jensen (playing a lewd flapper) or Scott Murphy of Space Quest fame. Both the game’s producer Bruce Balfour and writer Josh Mandel feature heavily in the cast, Mandel lending his voice to as many as five characters. Other notable guest voices: Lead programmer Brian K. Hughes as a bartender and supporting writer Lorelei Shannon (later co-designer of King’s Quest 7) as street urchin Stinky.

Besides adding voice-overs for all game characters including the narrator, the CD version removes the copy protection, cuts the taxi rides short (which last as long as the ride music in the disk version) and solves a few minor bugs.

Cover

The woman posing on the front of the game's box was actually Sierra's desk receptionist at the time. Roberta Williams said she found it cute when people asked where they had seen her before. In the game Laura Bow has red hair but on the box cover she is a brunette.

Deaths

There are numerous ways to die in The Dagger of Amon Ra. All of them are represented by a unique animation, some well worth seeing:* Walk on the street in any of the New York locations * Use your press pass on the speakeasy door * Walk down the stairs to the basement without replacing the broken lightbulb * Take the cheese from the rat trap in Wolf Heimlich’s office * Stir the alcohol vats three times in a row * Enter any secret passage without the lit lamp * Open the steamer trunk in the storage room and wait for too long * Be bitten by Dr. Myklos’ snake * Be caught by the murdered in Act 5 * Fail to solve the riddle of Amon Ra at the cult ceremony * Open the furnace door in the basement * Fail to chase the snakes or the rats away in the tunnel from the furnace room * Enter the left doorway at the top of the tunnel from the furnace room * Leave the T-Rex room while being chased by the murderer * And finally, of course: Fail to solve the case at the coroner’s interrogation!

Development

In the manual for the Roberta Williams Anthology, Roberta Williams writes about The Dagger of Amon Ra:

The writing and puzzle designs for 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 remeined consistent. I wanted to make sure Laura Bow was the same person who would respond in the same way. I was involved from the beginning, 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 with the fresh ideas Bruce brought the game. By the way, on the box cover, we asked our receptionist Lisa Crabtree to pose as Laura Bow. It was kind of cute how visitors would sometimes ask where they’ve seen her before.

Gags

Here are some fun things to try in the game:* Touch everybody.

  • Talk to the fossils in the Mastodon room.

  • Look at every item in the medieval room. Examine the dog armor with the magnifying glass.

  • Touch the dagger case in the Egyptian room.

  • Press the top two button on the intercom in Dr. Carrington’s office and talk into it repeatedly.

  • Try to take any weapon on the rack in Wolf Heimlich’s office EXCEPT for the sword.

  • After the discovery of Ziggy’s head and the interrogation, touch the head on the wall.

  • When you find the dead Countess, examine the papers around her with the magnifying glass.

  • When you can enter the storage room in the preservation lab after 1.00 AM, you encounter Daisy, Dr. Myklos’ ferret. Ask Daisy about Dr. Carrington, Yvette Delacroix, Detective O’Riley, Wolf Heimlich, Olympia Myklos and the piece of cheese. You can also use the snake oil on her.

  • Examine the mummy in the case on the right side of the door in the sarcophagus room.

Hieroglyphs

The hieroglyphs used in the game are not fictitious. They follow the transliteral system, a representation of the 26 modern alphabetical letters by hieroglyphs. Such a transliteration was first published by Erman and Grapow in 1926, which would fit the timeframe of the game.

The representation of the Rosetta Stone in the game is (purposefully) wrong though; neither is it broken into two parts, nor do its hieroglyphs follow a transliteral alphabet.

References

  • The musical theme that plays when you visit Dr. Olympia Myklos' office is the same as one of the themes that was used in the Addams Family 1960s TV series.
  • The oceanliner Andrea Doria seen in the intro and on the docks is clearly inspired in shape and name by the famous Andrea Doria, which sunk after a collision near the Massachusetts coast. That was in 1956; the ship had been launched in 1951. Since The Dagger of Amon Ra is set in 1926, we can only assume that the ship in the game is a different Andrea Doria. Or an anachronism.
  • According to the game, the Leyendecker museum is named after its founder Ignatz Leyendecker, a banana tycoon. The fictional Ignatz Leyendecker might have borrowed his unusual name from Joseph Christian Leyendecker, who really existed – he was one of the US’ most famous illustrators who, among other things, popularized the mainstream image of red-coated, white-bearded Santa Claus.
  • The Leyendecker Museum’s front is clearly modeled after the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. All architectural details match.

References: Sierra

As with most Sierra adventure games of the era, The Dagger of Amon Ra contains several allusions to other Sierra franchises.* When Laura probes the storage vats in the museum’s basement, she finds a unicorn ("Possibly left over from a King's Quest game") and King Edward of Daventry preserved in alcohol. Edward is the ruler of Daventry in the first King's Quest (1984).

  • In Carrington’s office, Laura discovers a telephone directory. The entry "T. Dargan" refers to Tammy Dargan, a producer at Sierra (Police Quest). "R. Williams" is, of course, Roberta Williams.

  • If Laura examines the water glass with the magnifying lens, she finds an inscription: "Manufactured by Leyendecker Glassworks, Coarsegold, California". Coarsegold is an actual city in California, but it's more familiar to Sierra fans as the name of the town from Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist, a game which was in production at the time when The Dagger of Amon Ra was released.

  • When Laura examines the stars in the night sky from Dr. Carrington’s office, she discoveres the star Deneb Kaitos Ecoquestus, in the constellation Cetus. This is a reference to EcoQuest: The Search for Cetus (1991).

  • On the close-up of the Anonymous Bosch painting, Laura can examine the person depicted there to learn that it’s “a dead king named Graham”. Graham is the protagonist of the first, second and fifth instalment of the King's Quest series.

  • When Laura and Steve flee from the furnace room and encounter the snakes in the tunnel, there is a line of faint hieroglyphs etched into the wall. Translated, they read: BUY SIERRA PRODUCTS.

References to the game

What happened to Laura Bow and Steve Dorian after the events in The Dagger of Amon Ra? Apparently, they got married! A note on the bulletin board in Tulane University in Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers informs students about a lecture on "Investigative Reporting techniques" to be held by "octogenarian Pulitzer Price winner Laura Bow Dorian". Octogenarian means: someone in their 80s.

Awards

  • Computer Gaming World
    • November 1996 (15th anniversary issue) – #7 Least Rewarding Ending of All Time

Information also contributed by -Chris, Istari, LepricahnsGold and willyum

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    Provides extensive background info for The Dagger of Amon Ra, pictures of the cast and examples of voice-overs, full credits with shots and info about the design team, a demo of the game, specific details about the game, various goodies, all musical themes, shots of every location in the game, saved games, a list of reviews, including a "nostalgic "review and tech specs.
  • The Dagger of Amon Ra Help
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Eurythmic.

Windows added by Cavalary. Windows 3.x added by Jeanne.

Additional contributors: Derrick 'Knight' Steele, Jeanne, formercontrib, martin jurgens, Crawly, Garcia, 6â…ž of Nine, Patrick Bregger.

Game added November 23, 1999. Last modified January 21, 2024.