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The Colonel's Bequest

aka: Laura Bow 1, The Colonel's Bequest: A Laura Bow Mystery

Description official descriptions

The year is 1925. Laura Bow is a young student attending the Tulane University in New Orleans, and an aspiring journalist. Her friend Lillian invites her to spend a weekend in a mansion belonging to her uncle, Colonel Henri Dijon, a veteran of Spanish-American war and the owner of a large, but decaying sugar plantation on a secluded island. During the dinner Laura meets members of Lillian's extended family and their alleged friends. As Laura begins to explore the mansion and talk to its inhabitants, she unravels old family feuds and realizes some of those people - if not all - have their own plans and schemes. It all gets much worse when strange accidents and murders start to occur. Laura must investigate those gruesome events and find the culprit.

The Colonel's Bequest is a detective mystery adventure game very similar in style and presentation to Agatha Christie's novels. The game world is confined to the island and consists of numerous interconnected areas, such as various rooms in the mansion, garden, smaller structures, etc. The player is free to explore much of the game's world right from the beginning, with only a few areas being initially inaccessible. The game's clock advances a quarter of an hour each time Laura performs an action pertaining to the plot. Characters have their own schedules and clues are often obtained by discretely observing their actions.

The player interacts with the environment by typing verb-object command combinations (such as "Look Garden", "Talk Colonel", etc.). Some of the most common actions have keyboard shortcuts. The gameplay largely focuses on exploration. Much of the plot stays in the background and can be uncovered by talking to the characters about various topics (mostly other people). There is an inventory and a few puzzles, but they play a much less prominent role in the game compared to other adventures by Sierra. It is possible to complete the game without having discovered the entire plot or even without having identified the murderer. There is no scoring system, but after the game is finished the player is given a detective ranking and told about story branches or other elements he might have missed.

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Credits (DOS version)

14 People

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Trivia

Copy protection

In one of Sierra's more creative copy-protection schemes, The Colonel's Bequest came with a red-lined foldout with "fingerprints" of characters in the game. Using a special red-gel "magnifying glass," you would identify these fingerprints for entry before being allowed to start the game.

Fifi

In the sequence in Fifi's room while she get ready to meet her lover-boy Jeeves, when she goes behind the screen to change type in "Open Door" and you can see Fifi in her underwear.

Laura Bow

Laura Bow, the heroine, was modeled after Clara Bow, a well-known actress from the 1920's.

References

Once Laura is in the washroom, type in "Take Shower". Laura strips, gets in and scrubs away while the hooded killer slips in and murders her in a parody of the horror classic Psycho, complete with high-pitched violins playing.

Information also contributed by Itay Shahar and uclafalcon

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  • MobyGames ID: 461

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Eurythmic.

Amiga added by POMAH. Windows added by Cavalary. Atari ST added by Belboz.

Additional contributors: Trixter, Jeanne, formercontrib, Patrick Bregger, Nate Ridley.

Game added November 23rd, 1999. Last modified May 3rd, 2023.