I've finished "The Dagger of Amon Ra" in 5 hours!

Ace reporter makes headlines!

After my previous post, a couple more bodies showed up and suddenly I was catapulted into the end game. I remember when first playing The Dagger of Amon Ra that this is a timed chase sequence where you need to stall your pursuer so you can make your escape. Forget to block one door, and the culprit catches up with you and bashes your head in.

Nothing beats a good back rub!

I didn't make it all the way through this time either. There was a pixel hunt where I had to cut a cable by clicking on the exactly right spot, which took some tries of frantically clicking. I also found Steve Dorian passed out in the furnace room, and he had lost one of his boots somewhere, so he burned his foot as soon as he got up and fell down again. So I restored my game and this time made sure to explore the museum some more before entering that one room that triggers the chase.

Goin' down with Laura...

And good thing I did, because there were some more pieces of evidence lying around that I hadn't picked up yet. After the chase, I had to answer a load of questions during the coroner's inquest pertaining the killer and their motives, and my replies need to be supported by the items I collected. I had to give that another try too, and frankly even after getting the good ending I still don't understand the reasoning behind all the murders, though I did understand at least a lot more when I first played this game and didn't yet have such an extensive grasp of English vocabulary...

How big IS this place?

So I finished my replay in five hours! It's fast this time because I only did the essentials and didn't explore fully. It was amazing how I can't remember what I ate yesterday but most of the details of this game came back to me after probably twenty-five years since playing it last.

My next playthrough will be of a more recent game again, about some murders in some German city...

You can find The Dagger of Amon Ra on GOG!

I'm 3,5 hours into "The Dagger of Amon Ra" and my suspects keep dying!

Peekaboo!

After my first session of my "The Dagger of Amon Ra" replay, I spent an hour talking to all the guests at the museum fund raiser, and eavesdropping on their private conversations. Then I finally got the chance to explore the exhibits. Security guard Wolf Heimlich blocked the way at first, but had conveniently moved location. And that's how I discovered the first murder victim of the night...

Yvette admiring the modern art...

Yes, I do say, first victim, because the bodies keep dropping in this game! It felt like every time I turned a corner, one of my suspects would no longer be a suspect. I'm moving rather fast through this game since it's a replay, and I still remember all the times I died when I first played this game. So I already know where to go, what to do, and most importantly what to pick up.

Always dreamt of an office like this...

Which means I'm not really taking the time to enjoy the scenery, which is a shame. There is so much to look at in this game, so many elaborate descriptions, not just informative but also often funny. I really love the writing in this game, and I'm not just saying that because it's Josh Mandel... The artwork as well is amazing to look at, so detailed. You can spent hours exploring the museum and examining everything.

Ooh la la...

Besides the dead bodies, I've found lots of notes of appointments the different characters have with each other. Each time you make some sort of discovery, the in-game clock moves forward. You can then go to the respective meeting place for that time and eavesdrop on the people. You get lots of information this way, which I remember you need later on.

I feel I'm close to the finale, which I recall gave me a really hard time as a novice adventure gamer. Hopefully I can do a better job this time around...

You can find The Dagger of Amon Ra on GOG!

Classic time: "The Dagger of Amon Ra"

Replay!

Time for another great classic point 'n click adventure. I'm REplaying The Dagger of Amon Ra. It's the second Laura Bow game after The Colonel's Bequest. It's actually one of the first Sierra games I played, (after Police Quest) and I'm still the proud owner of the big box and the booklets that came with it!

Is this Cruise for a Corpse?

I'm one hour into the game, running the files from an external drive through ScummVM. Immediately I'm thrown back in time, not only to 1926 when the story takes place, but my own teenage years playing this in my bedroom. I can hardly believe that since then I've actually visited New York City myself, and I didn't even get mugged! (I did get run over by a car, which is actually a random death you can encounter in The Dagger of Amon Ra...)

First death scene: getting run over by a car...

This first hour of gameplay is spent mosly visiting all the different New York locations jotted down in your notebook, and talking to all the people. There's your colleague at the newspaper, a desk sergeant in the police station, a stoolpigeon in a local speakeasy, a stevedore at the docks, Lo Fat the laundry guy. The interview system isn't that user friendly, though. Instead of automatic replies when you click the topics in the notebook, you have to close it first and then open it again to ask your next question. I'm glad later games - like Gabriel Knight - improved on that.

The Roaring Twenties...

Having played this game countless times in the past, I was suddenly stuck trying to get ready for the fund raiser at the museum. I found a dress, but no idea how or where I was supposed to change into it. So that cost me some time before I realized which location offered that possibility. So now I'm ready to talk to everyone at the party, as Act 2: Suspects on Parade, kicks off!

Like flies on a turd...

You can find The Dagger of Amon Ra on GOG!