The Dagger of Amon Ra

One of my very favourite adventure games of all time is Laura Bow in The Dagger of Amon Ra, an old Sierra classic from 1992ish or so. In it, you play the intrepid young reporter Laura Bow for one long night in the famous Leyendecker Museum, sloshing through piles of crime, including theft, forgery, conspiracy, and lots and lots of murder.

This image includes most of the main cast, a colourful bunch of suspects - that is, until the later stages of the game, by which point most of them have become victims.

Laura herself is (naturally) seen front and center. The rest of the cast, from left to right:

Dr. Olympia Myklos
Ernie Leach
Ramses Najeer
Wolf Heimlich
Yvette Delacroix
Dr. Archibald Carrington
Dr. Pippin Carter
Steve Dorian
Detective Ryan O'Riley
Ziggy
Countess Waldorf-Carlton
Dr. Tut Smith

WOOT.

This piece has been sitting around half finished for a month. I rushed through about 80% of it in one day and then got stuck and hated the sight of it. It's taken me this long to finally come back and finish it and I'm already really dissatisfied with it - I just haven't got the energy to start over. So let that be a lesson to you - don't rush, take your time, and do it right the first time so you don't have a finished piece that just makes you keenly aware that you could have done better.

Anyway, it's lovely suspenseful fun. You can get the game online for free (from Abandonia.com, for example) and it works with DosBox, so if you've never played it, you should! It's the second of two games starring Laura, so while you're there, pick up The Colonel's Bequest, too. The games are independent enough that it really doesn't matter which one you play first, but The Colonel's Bequest is older and has much lousier graphics, which might jar you if you play it last.

Good times.