Unofficial Tex Murphy

Our beloved Pandora Directive is turning 10 yrs old very soon.
Seems only yesterday that I grabbed it with my hot little hand...and the first thing I thought when I got it to run (albiet choppily) was...hey.... he just tossed a copy of UAKM, funny in joke....and hey...who was that masked man?

So our favorite (and I think I speak for most of us) Tex adventure has been around for a decade...who here feels old????

I propose that something SPECIAL be done to commemorate this occasion. I don't know what to suggest... but I toss the gauntlet out to the group...and to the powers that be.

Maybe a sticky on this topic...for the time being?

Anyone????


Jen

I completely second the idea. Ten years old is it? Wow ... I DO feel old.

You know some of my favorite memories from, I do agree, the greatest Tex game ever were the following.

1.) This game was the first, and last of its kind. I had never played a full motion videogame before this, and since Overseer, I have never played another one like it. At least in the sense of it being a detective type game. That is the biggest memory for me, the style of the game. If anything, yes I'm a fan of tex and the storyline, but more than that I'm more of a fan of the way it was put together so well in Pandora. If the characters and story were different, and it was "FunFun Bears Jolly Detective Adventure" ... and it played in the same style, I'd buy it.

2.) The Roswell portion of the game. I had, at the time of this release, become a very big UFO nut, and was getting into the X-files at the time, and the alien portions of this game were just like "Wow!" for me. The one part of the game, where you find the alien autopsy video was one of the greatest discoveries in a game for me.

3.) The Tex Murphy gravestone. For those of us who played it on Gamer mode, and tried to get through Autotech the first time ... you've seen it more times then you'd care to. I mean, for you to finally come up with the idea of getting the soap suds, mixing it with the mop, and opening the fire escape ... if you're like me, you felt so damn good at finally cracking, what I think was one of the hardest puzzles of the game, just because of the almost inhuman time limit you had.

4.) The performances. At a time when FMV games were being made so crappy, it made B movies look like blockbuster hollywood releases, The Pandora Directive's acting soared off your computer screen. The talent, Jackson Cross (Oh he still makes me shiver), played by a guy I had only seen in one other movie at that time, which was WarGames, by far stole the acting performance. However, even with the big names, some of the character actors pulled in really good performances as well. Archie was very well done, and a believeable nerd ... and the spot with him and Jackson Cross, oh my goodness, that was a hollywood scene. But the most surprising actor of them all? Chris Jones! He made Tex Murphy into the Bourbon drinking, sneaker wearing, dry witted character we all love today, and he did it very well.

5.) Talking to the Old Lady at the Garden House. Nuff said.

6.) The time limit stuff on the alien hunting you down in the bunker. To me, when I'm being haunted by a time limit, it makes me nervous, and I tend to rush around a lot. These type of moments in games, while I rarely ever make it on the first time around, are the one's I remember for making me sweat. I mean how many times did I blow up myself with that bomb from the elevator, until I quit being nervous, and fluidly hit did everything correctly? I can't even count.

7.) Actually getting to see a space ship in the Roswell facility. You have no idea how pleased I was that they didn't just ... cop out, and not have Murphy find it because it wasn't what he'd come here for.

8.) The chance to play the bad guy! I loved that more than anything. What other type of game that plays like this, actually gave you the oppertunity to play it like a heel? Wow, even though you died in the ending, some of the funniest, and saddest moments in the game came from the boluevard of broken dreams parts.

9.) Spending an ungodly amount of time trying to get into the statue at Wright's house, and then spending another ungodly amount of time getting the puzzle box opened. That was the hardest box out of all of them, for me. Not to mention, the first time I came there, and the alarm went off, and I had to search for the buttons before the cops came, it took me forever to find the hidden button behind the mask.

10.) And the creepiest comment that ever came out of Tex's mouth, to this day I haven't gotten what he meant by it ... "Something's going on behind this window. Something *I* don't want to know about. I spent the better part of two days trying to figure out how to get behind that window, to no avail.

Among other things. This, to me, was the greatest game I ever played, and never will it be topped. Not unless they make a game, based upon the same type of gameplay engine. Heck, they could even replace the FMV with animation. At this point, I wouldn't care. The gameplay engine was what did it for me.

But we do need something to celebrate it's 10th year. I'd love to hear some suggestions. I'm drawing a blank, myself.

wow, 10 years?

I didnt realize that, I remember when UAKM came out I was so excited to get it, then pandora, I was waiting in line once the store opened ont he day it was released. sure deosnt seem like 10 years.

What a good time to make me feel old, lol, A friend of mine from 14 years ago called yesterday, that made me feel old, now pandora turns 10?

-C$

I'm turning 24 this summer. Now you bring up stuff like this? Gee, I really do feel old...

Jim, pass the Geritol please

-Fred

Any chance of a 10th Anniversary Edition?

Eh... it doesn't hurt to ask.

I could settle for an Alien Abductor to remind me of all the tedious work to navigate that little thing.

Yes, Pandora is my favorite as well. Access really knew what they were doing with FMV adventure games and it's too bad that all the other trashy ones killed the market. I don't really understand what's so "bad" about an "interative movie." It's a much more dynamic experience than simply watching your two hour flick in which you have no influence in the outcome. Well, I won't go down that road right now.

Congratulations Pandora Directive!

Ten years? Heck. That's a blink of the eye when you get to me and JTOG's age.

Whow, I do feel kinda old - I got PD for Christmas when I was twelve and finished it in the week between xmas and newyear. I remember playing it on my dads Pentium 166MHz, and having some crazy problems getting behind the Golden Gate to speak with Crazy Gary - the cdrom would start spinning really fast and the game would crash while I yanked pieces of hair out of my head as I realized it had been a couple hours since my last save...those were the days...
Bests, Rockefeller

It's funny that you should mention that, because that is exactly where my game would crash everytime too! Right when I was trying to get to Crazy Gary. Not all the time, but when it did, I remember it was right at that spot.

My sentiments exactly, Doc. (Smiley for Malloy.)

I'd like to wish an early birthday to Pandora Directive, which within the next week will be offically (as much as I can find out) a decade old.
To celebrate...I made a little Word Search Puzzle, just for fun. I hope everyone enjoys it. Easy enough to print out.
Jen




[img][img]http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f375/ ... rdgame.jpg[/img][/img]

Wow... I sued to LOVe these word search puzzles back in primary school! Funnily enough the first one I spotted was Lombard Street.

Either way, it's hard to beleive it has been 10 years since PD was released... and still it is the best PC game I have ever played. Just goes to show nothing beats a classic. Mind you if I had my way today's game would at least try to come close... too bad they don't.

-Cub. =o)

Thanks, Jen! Queen of the amazing disappearing, reappering avatar!

10 years eh.

Something definitely has to happen!

There were really too many awesome parts of that game to recall. Weirdly though, the one that's popping out at the moment is all the time spent on the crossword in the lobby of the ritz.

I think for personal commemoration, i'm gonna start playing the game again

Hmmmm....ten years ago I was 13. Several months ago a mystery shopper showed up at my work and marked down that I looked like I was in my 40's. I got old fast.

10 years ago I was a boy of 12, 12 years ago I was a boy of 10, HAPPY that my friend had a computer, and along with it, UAKM.
He showed it to me and my brother, the amazement was instantaneous. Took me 5 seconds to know that I was in the presence of greatness, the other game I played at that time was prince of persia (I didn't have a computer, though). 5 Seconds and I was hooked! THAT long! THAT long ago! You know what's five seconds in UAKM? Access' Logo makes it's triumphal entrance! Baam - Baaam - BAAAAAAAAAM.
The 'New Day' intro (1st day - "Cheese, eggs and Haam", was it?) confirmed my suspicions - this was to be a memorable day. The sheer impact of this on the mind of a 10year old was enough, I was a fan!
95 came and with it my first computer, a 486 DX4 100, pure power for the time and with it Warcraft2, another one that still holds fond memories, in the end of 95 I went on a trip to the USA and bought (FINALLY GODDAMIT!) my own copy of UAKM and Warcraft2 Expansion. My father had been to houston July 95 and bought me Diablo 1. By the beggining of 96 I was the happiest kid on earth with these 3 games. Still today I play them.
"Ok, why is he rambling about UAKM?" asks you?
96 saw the alignment of the stars and what I thought couldn't happen happened. The earth, on a beautiful spring morning (spring here), saw the coming of It. The coming of The Game. The One to rule them all. The One that deserves Capital Letters.
Yes, ladies and germs, Tex was back. Back in style, he was back in flames! The Pandora Directive was.
It just was.
The opening comes. I'm bewildered. That's the graphics? W00t?? We get in the house. Is that a UAKM box (hi, Jen )? OH NOES! SHE'S DEAD!
And off you go. After a fantastic, still to be beaten opening sequence, you start at a regular find-him-please job. Money is in your pocket. I'm a nice guy, I'll be asking for forgivness and return his wallet. But the game won't stop, after a few days, I'm throwing people off the roof and I'm off to roswell.
What's that you say?
There is something here? With me? Alive? You serious?
Yup. Aham. Aham. Yup again. And now I'm dead and shitting my pants. I re-start Roswell, afraid as Alice, curious as Alice. Ohhhh, I'm suposed to heat up the pan! That's why he wouldn't fill the generator!
Alien dead, Roswell still gives me the creeps. I'm back at the Ave. baby!, back for some box action. The excitment never ends. It's been days since I've monopolized the computer and the excitment never ends. It just keeps getting better and better. And better! That before-the-piramid cutscene betters the opening sequence! Oh man! Aliens! Hi there dude-I-broke-into... Ohhhh boy I'm off to another creeping site, I get past it, the arms are in place, I'm in place. Reagan, would you mind?
What, YOU, Gordon, Alien? I learn that I wasn't that good, and Gordon is now gone. Off to some Bourbon and the Holodate.
It's a beautiful spring morning and I'm exausted. The joy is palpable from my face, the game is over. Congrats Access, you've done it.
(Now you tell me I played in Entertainment and it's capped?)
=================
To this day no game has come close to surpassing the experience The Pandora Directive, aka The Game, brought me. Closest was Diablo 1, then the rest of Blizzard's games (and I don't have a machine to run WoW ).
To this day I play The Pandora Directive as if the first day, but now I know how to do stuff. I know play in Gamer and (according to an also lengthy post about the experience I had of finally finishing as a bad boy and finally being able to finish in Gamer, as I had finally been able to go through the fireball room, (to which I got almost no replies ), I saw for the first time bad boy's cutscenes) I have yet to finish by myself as a good guy.
This Saturday will see the return of the Tex, and as a 10y celebration, I'll finish it without any walkthrough as a good guy!