Trivia
Police Quest 4: Open Season actually contains two mini-games. These can be accessed at 'The Short Stop' bar by clicking on the arcade games (An Asteroids clone and dune buggy game are available).
Contributed by
Rambutaan (299) on Aug 17, 2004.
In addition to what I suspect is Tammy Dargan's cameo as the final victim, there seems to be yet another developer cameo in the game. Dumping the contents of memory while playing the last hours of the game reveals that the unfortunate "Mr Head", who can be found in Mitchell Thurman's refrigerator (and whose - headless - corpse is probably stacked in Mitchell's bathroom), is apparently played by someone called Dave. Since "Mr Head" is unbilled, this is most likely a macabre cameo by the game's programmer Dave Artis.
It seems that the matchbox - not easy to find and not having any practical use in the game - may have been a trigger for some Easter Eggs, judging by certain messages that the game stores in the memory. For instance, there is a clear suggestion present in the memory to try and use the matchbox to light Mitchell Thurman's cellar *after* it's already lit. Doing so in the game displays an obscene message.
Some other Easter Eggs: the "Red Dogs" entry in the gang database is apparently a reference to Sierra developers ("hanging out behind fast food restaurants, hiding somewhere in the Sierra Nevada mountains...") or perhaps their friends (the "gang leader" is named "Billy D." - and Billy D. is credited as playing the character of Dennis Walker in the game)
Try looking up the registration plate "1ADAM12" in the DMV database on the Homicide Squad server - this is probably a reference to the old TV series. (The server itself is named "Sonny" - probably a reference to Sonny Bonds)
Though the CD version of the game is vastly expanded, it's also censored in one place - in the floppy version, Dennis Walker - the Nazi ruffian - is listening to music with Hitler's speech clearly audible in the background. This sample is present in the game's resource file RESOURCE.SFX. In the CD version, only the music is audible, and the file RESOURCE.SFX contains no trace of Hitler's speech anymore.
Both versions of PQ4 have bugs which allow the player to gain more points than he's supposed to. In the floppy version, Carey can call Varaz multiple times and score points. In the CD version, this bug is removed, but another one is present - in some situations, the "flamethrower" can be constructed an infinite number of times, and every time the player scores points.
The game has two cameos by Chief Daryl Gates - he's on one of the top floors
of Parker Center, and at the very ending of the game, as he speaks and gives
the Medal of Valor to Detective John Carey.
All the texts in the game are encrypted and can only be read by dumping
memory contents while playing the game, at its various stages. This also
reveals some interesting notes left by the programmers - such as a funny
habit of referring to John Carey's character as to "ego" (Editor's Note: This is because all of the "actors" in Sierra graphic adventures were called "ego"s in the game interpreter.). Some seemingly
critical comments regarding the LA Mayor from the game can also be seen -
and Chief Gates, the game's designer, left his post mostly because of
heavy clashes with the LA mayor at the time! Also, the names of the characters'
sprites, visible in memory dumps, seem to indicate that Mitchell Thurman's
final victim - the unconscious woman, unbilled in the credits - was played
by the game's producer, Tammy Dargan!
All the locations in the game are real, though some names are fictitious. Chief
Gates wanted to keep the game as realistic as possible and insisted on using
actual LA locations. Some of those were only available to the police
and it was only thanks to Chief Gates' connections that the designers were
able to photograph them! The Short Stop bar, featured in the game, is not
only real, but infamous for a number of public disturbances involving police
officers that occurred there. As the LAPD Chief, Daryl Gates disliked the bar
for this reason so strongly that when he appeared there with the Sierra crew
to take photos for Police Quest IV, the bar's owner thought they came to shut
the place down.
"PQ4" was re-released in a CD version which had new music, full speech
(done by different actors than those who played the characters), numerous
bugs removed, and many changes to graphics. The cursors were redesigned
and their size decreased, all objects in the inventory were redrawn or
rephotographed in a higher resolution, and many backgrounds and objects
in background were reshot in higher resolution (and thus higher quality)
again. You could also play arcade games in the Hollywood/Vine bar. The CD
included a short promo film on the game's making.
This superb game was severely and often unjustly criticised by some players
after its release (many wanted the colourful though less realistic world of
Sonny Bonds back). It has been reported that such protests were one of the
reasons why Sierra decided to abandon the Police Quest adventure line
altogether and move to the SWAT strategy/simulation games.
