Mean Streets (computer game)

Mean Streets
Studio	Access Software The Code Monkeys (Amiga)
Publisher	Access Software U.S. Gold (ST & Amiga)
Senior Developer	Bruce Carver, Chris Jones
Erstveröffent- lichung	MS-DOS , C64 1989 1989 (C64) Atari ST , Amiga 1990
platform	MS-DOS , Commodore 64 , Atari ST , Amiga
genre	Adventure
Game mode	Single player
medium	Floppy disk , download
language	English

Mean Streets is a graphics adventure game developed and published by Access Software in 1989 for MS-DOS and Commodore 64 . A year later, ports for the Atari ST and Amiga followed exclusively on the European market . It is the first title in the Tex Murphy series and is set in a dystopian cyberpunk / neo noir world. In 1991 the successor Martian Memorandum appeared , in 1998 Access Software released a remake with the title Tex Murphy: Overseer .

action

The player takes on the role of Tex Murphy, a seedy private detective in post-apocalyptic San Francisco in 2037. Tex is hired by a beautiful young woman named Sylvia Linsky to investigate the death of her father, Dr. Carl Linsky, a professor at the University of San Francisco . Even before his death, Linsky refused to speak to his daughter about the secret project he was working on. A few days later he was seen falling off the Golden Gate Bridge . Sylvia suspects a murder behind it, but the police describe the whole thing as an ordinary suicide. Tex receives $ 10,000 and some clues to begin the investigation. Tex discovers that Linsky was working for Gideon Enterprise, an electronic surveillance company, and that several scientists have also died in connection with Dr. Linsky worked together. However, it remains unclear for Tex at first whether there was a murder assignment or whether Linsky's daughter is all about the stately life insurance that her father had taken out shortly before his death.

Gameplay

The game begins in Tex 'flying car, which the player can control himself and freely. The control options include forwards / backwards, ascending / descending and switching between different camera angles. In the glider, the player also has access to a computer system. The player can recruit his secretary and informants or receive faxes with information from the glider .

Most of the game consists of interviewing other people. The interviews often yield new information that deepens the plot. The player also has the option of offering the respondents money or threatening them if they are uncooperative. In some cases, the player receives other people's addresses. These addresses consist of a four-digit code that the player must enter into the computer of his glider. Once the code has been entered, the destination is marked with a glowing square and can be controlled by the player. Tex travels to various locations along the California coast as the game progresses .

In addition to the interviews, the player searches apartments and laboratories to find further clues. This includes u. a. deactivating alarm systems and searching computers. The main objective of the game is to find eight access cards and passwords and use them to stop the project that Carl Linsky was last working on.

development

After the release of the 3D flight simulator Echelon , Access wanted to develop another 3D flight game. To make it more interesting and to avoid the competition from bigger competitors like Microsoft Flight Simulator , the developers decided to add a storyline. This plot was supposed to be based on the story of a homemade video called Plan 10 from Outer Space , which the developers shot about a film noir detective in their spare time to regenerate from work. The detective was called Tex Mutant and its design was influenced by Philip Marlowe and Roy Rogers , among others . The shooting of the film was accompanied by numerous mishaps and the result of the shooting turned out to be extremely poor, but some elements seemed to the developers to be good starting points for a computer game. From this concept, Chris Jones and Doug Vandergrift then developed the character of the private detective Tex Murphy. Jones also played the role of Tex Murphy for the design of the packaging and as a template for the digital image of the detective, from the third part of the series onwards as an actor for the video sequences. In the course of the development of Mean Streets , the adventure elements pushed the simulation aspects more and more into the background.

Mean Streets is one of the first DOS games with VGA graphics in 256 colors, at a time when VGA cards were not yet widely used. It was one of the first games to use RealSound technology for DOS games, developed by sound engineer Steve Witzel and patented by Access Softwares . This technology uses the system loudspeakers to generate digitized sound (speech, music, sound effects) without the use of additional hardware. However, with the advent of the sound card, this technology has gradually become obsolete.

reception

Computer Gaming World praised the " exhilarating " interactivity of the game: " Mean Streets offers a fully realized environment [...] this license, this freedom, is refreshingly adult " (German: " Mean Streets offers a completely realized environment [...] this license, this freedom, is refreshingly adult ”). Tester Ardai praised the excellent graphics and the "authentic hard-nosed demeanor and voice". Nevertheless, the “mechanical” gameplay, such as the repetitive searching of the rooms and the questioning, prevented it from being rated as a great game.

In 1996, the magazine listed the game as # 139 of the Best Games of All Time because it "set a new standard for 286 games and is a tribute to Raymond Chandler's crime novels."

Since Mean Streets was more successful and seemed more promising than other Access products, such as the Countdown that appeared in 1990, the developers decided to further develop the series.

Remake

→ Main article : Tex Murphy: Overseer

With the third part of the series, Under a Killing Moon , the presentation and the gameplay were changed significantly, towards an interactive film . In 1998, Access therefore released Tex Murphy: Overseer as a retelling of the Mean Streets plot and in the style of the newer games. It uses a frame narrative that retells the events through a series of flashbacks.

Web links

• Mean Streets at MobyGames (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} gameological.com
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} adventureclassicgaming.com
3. ↑ Charles Ardai: Popcorn Not Included II / Access software's "Mean Streets" . In: Computer Gaming World . No. 67, January 1990, p. 39.
4. ↑ 150 Best Games of All Time . In: Computer Gaming World . No. 148, November 1996.