Police Quest 3 on CD-ROM

[Unknown,Unknown]

This is a tricky one… For the longest time I’d always assumed PQ3 did not have voices and was never released with in a CD-form. I have never seen an ISO available anywhere, and I have never seen a copy of the CD-ROM version available on Ebay. However, recently I realized that this would have been right between the time of the no-voice VGA games (SQ1 VGA, PQ1 VGA) and the Voice games (where there was some overlap such as KQ5 and KQ6).

So I took a trip over to IMDB, and found this entry…

http://imdb.com/title/tt0289398/ 

You’ll see there are clearly several voice actors associated with the game there.

But then I took a trip to Moby Games, and their cast listing seems to imply they are “Actors” I have never seen a non-FMV game refer to their voice talent as “Actors.” And considering KQ5 was released a whole year earlier and had voice actors, it’s thoroughly confused me.

Now, I own the PQ Collection (the first of two, I believe, with SWAT 1&2 and a preview for 3), I know there was a second collection. However, I can verify that there is no voice version of PQ3 on that disc.

Two questions:

Can anyone confirm that there is in fact a released voice-acted version of PQ3 out there? Or are these actors only the actors who posed for the artwork in the game?

If there is a voice version, on the second SWAT collection (which includes SWAT 3?)

Thanks a ton!

[Unknown,Unknown]

its funny that you bring this up because i have just finished collecting all of the police quest games and i keep feeling it isn’t complete because i have this weird memory of their being a cd version of police quest 3. i never owned it, but i seem to remember ads for it.

i think i can even remember the specific ad. it was for sprint, and if you signed up with them you could select 2 sierra cd games from a list that they were offering. get this, leisure suit larry 5 was also on the choice list! and this wasn’t just a text list of games, there were actually pictures of the games on cd.

i think what may have happened was that it was released on disk first, like almost all of the other sierra talkies. then maybe there were plans to put it on cd, and they started advertising it before it was made. then it got cancelled. i am probably completely wrong since im basing this on my old memories.

or maybe the games were just released on cd, but not actually talkie games.

good luck. if you find it, let us know.

[Unknown,Unknown]

Quote:
“…This is a tricky one… For the longest time I’d always assumed PQ3 did not have voices and was never released with in a CD-form. I have never seen an ISO available anywhere, and I have never seen a copy of the CD-ROM version available on Ebay. However, recently I realized that this would have been right between the time of the no-voice VGA games (SQ1 VGA, PQ1 VGA) and the Voice games (where there was some overlap such as KQ5 and KQ6)….”
That assumption is correct, none of the ‘Sonny Bonds’ PQ’s were released on CD, except for ‘Sierra Originals’ rereleases which are just disk games put on a CD.
PQ3 was made well before PQ1VGA, which was amde after Jim Walls left Sierra for Tsunami (as did other Sierra employees).
In fact PQ1VGA fits between KQ5 and 6. 🙂

Quote:
“…So I took a trip over to IMDB, and found this entry…

http://imdb.com/title/tt0289398/ 

You’ll see there are clearly several voice actors associated with the game there.

But then I took a trip to Moby Games, and their cast listing seems to imply they are “Actors” I have never seen a non-FMV game refer to their voice talent as “Actors.” And considering KQ5 was released a whole year earlier and had voice actors, it’s thoroughly confused me….”
I just checked the page in question.. nowhere does IMDB say that the people are ‘voice-actors’. (Though I DID skim the page..)
Rather, those people are ‘screen capture artists’, pictures of people (largely Sierra employees it seems too!) playing characters, which Sierra did a LOT, especially around that time.

KQ5 original disk version was released in 1990, yes. KQ5CD was reelased later, probably in 1992.

Quote:
“…Can anyone confirm that there is in fact a released voice-acted version of PQ3 out there? Or are these actors only the actors who posed for the artwork in the game?…”
I think I summed it up.. no voice PQ3, just capture artists (‘actors’).

Next post:

Quote:
“…its funny that you bring this up because i have just finished collecting all of the police quest games and i keep feeling it isn’t complete because i have this weird memory of their being a cd version of police quest 3. i never owned it, but i seem to remember ads for it.

i think i can even remember the specific ad. it was for sprint, and if you signed up with them you could select 2 sierra cd games from a list that they were offering. get this, leisure suit larry 5 was also on the choice list! and this wasn’t just a text list of games, there were actually pictures of the games on cd….”
LSL5 never got a voice release either. Maybe Sierra planned it, but it never happened..

Quote:
“…i think what may have happened was that it was released on disk first, like almost all of the other sierra talkies. then maybe there were plans to put it on cd, and they started advertising it before it was made. then it got cancelled. i am probably completely wrong since im basing this on my old memories.

or maybe the games were just released on cd, but not actually talkie games….”
This actually is fair logic. Either of thsoe are entirely plausible.

Quote:
“…good luck. if you find it, let us know….”
Sure, if you find anything, spill. 🙂 But there’s no PQ3 CD, other than a ‘CD release’ which just has the disk files on CD rather than floppies.

Regards,
– Alistair

[Unknown,Unknown]

Thanks for all the info… I was suprised that IMDB (which I understand is a user-supported DB) would list guys who essentially posed for pixelated still shots as “actors” but your defintily right, there is no PQ3 voice version.

Now to find the elusive EcoQuest 2 Voice version! I think that’s the last CD-ROM game I need to require (from ’90-’95 anyway).

[Unknown,Unknown]

Back in the early nineties, I believe Sierra intended on doing talkie versions of many of their already released 256 colour VGA disk-based games, but never actually got around to doing it. (There are some other threads on here detailing some of those projects.)

In many cases, we’ve actually seen CD versions of games being advertised, but never actually produced and sold. You’ll notice that some issues of Interaction carry third-party ads for CD versions of Conquests of the Longbow (there’s a short demo on this site), Larry 5, etc. And we know the CD version of SQ5 had all the planning done, i.e. was ready to go into the sound studio, when it was canned (and what a shame!).

And as far as I know, there never was a CD version of EcoQuest 2.

[Unknown,Unknown]

No CD version of EcoQuest 2 either, sadly enough.. similar deal to PQ3. Now where to you get your information from? 🙂 That’s what I want to know.

– Alistair

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