Laura Bow 1: "The Colonel's Bequest" Quiz

Answer: Tulane

Laura Bow is a very intellectual 20-year-old woman who is devoted to her studying. She rarely parties.

If you've played "Gabriel Knight," you could've gotten this question even without having played this game. When Gabriel goes to Tulane to watch a lecture on voodoo, he sees a notice on the bulletin board that Laura Bow will be doing a presentation on detective work (Sierra always loved to reference their other games). Gabriel doesn't attend, because by the date of the presentation he has to learn on his own. It's just as well. Gabriel is probably a better detective than Laura anyway.

Answer: Putting on perfume

If you want to get the perfect score, you have to type "Look at Lillian" twice for the game to realize that Laura notices this. How you're supposed to know this without a hint book is beyond me. Sierra games, especially those designed by Robert Williams, were notorious for having purposefully absurd puzzles designed to sell hint books.

Answer: Taking a shower

If you type "Take shower" or "Take bath" Laura will take off her clothes, and then the game will cut to darkness except for Laura taking the shower. In the darkness, you will see a dagger entering the room, then, to increasingly scary music, the dagger will move closer and closer to Laura until it finally slashes Laura's throat and she will be dead. The death message then reads "Hasn't Alfred taught you anything?" This is a reference to the movie "Psycho" by Alfred Hitchcock.

Personally, I think this is the most ridiculous adventure game death ever. I haven't played every adventure game ever written, but I'm pretty sure I won't find a more ridiculous one than this. Who expects to be killed by taking a shower? Not all of us have seen "Psycho." Even if you have, the game gives you no hint that taking a shower will kill you (until after it does). You're in a bathroom. Taking a shower seems like a reasonable thing to do.

So, in my first playthrough of the game, I died within 30 seconds of beginning the game. I know now that's not even the fastest I could have died.

Anyway, using the toilet will get you a "Leisure Suit Larry reference."

Answer: Her mother

Another absurd thing in this game is the secret passages. In order to get most of the interesting information in the game you have to find the secret passages. How do you find them? Well, probably by using a hint book. The game gives you a few hints but they are not obvious. It mentions that there are scuff marks near the armoires, but if you try to examine the scuff marks, the game does not understand "scuff." So how you are supposed to know that those scuff marks mean you can "move armoire" is beyond me. Thee are also paintings... on the 4th wall! Those painting have hollow eyes which is supposed to be a hint. How you are supposed to know about these paintings is also beyond me. But you do have to discover the secret passages or this game won't be much fun.

At the beginning of the game, you learn that Lillian and her mother do not get along very well (if you use the secret passage).

Answer: Race horse

Clarence and Wilbur embezzled money from the colonel and bought a racehorse with it. The race horse failed miserably. Gertie knows about this.

Answer: Celie

Celie, the cook, is very nice to Lillian. Celie cooks a pie for Lillian to help her feel better. She also teaches Lillian something. Lillian seems to like Celie better than anyone else on the island, even her supposed best friend Laura.

Lillian used to get along very well with the Colonel, but that changed.

Answer: Gertrude Dijon

Gertrude is thrown out of the window of her own bedroom. At first, Laura thinks it may have been an accident or suicide, but then it becomes clear it was murder. She tries to tell people, but no one believes her.

Answer: E.P.

E.P. stands for Ethel Prune. Could that be a hint?

Answer: Clarence Sparrow

Clarence doesn't seem to take it very well. Gloria says she is doing this because she is a famous actress and she's dating a famous director. Laura doesn't believe this since she has never heard of Gloria.

Answer: Crackers

Laura walks into the butler's room uninvited and, with the butler's permission, takes his crackers. These crackers can be given to Polly the parrot for clues.

Answer: Wilbur C. Feels

Dr. Wilbur C. Feels' bag can be seen on his bed at the beginning of the game. In act 2, it goes missing. Shortly thereafter, Wilbur is killed and we don't see his bag until the end of the game.

Answer: Celie

There is a necklace in the doghouse. You have to give the dog a bone to move him, take the necklace, and then give it to Celie. Celie will then consider you her friend, and she will help you out immensely later in the game. If you don't give her the necklace you miss out on a lot.

How you are supposed to know that this necklace belongs to Celie is beyond me.

Answer: Oiling the knight's visor

Sierra was always looking for cheap ways to kill the protagonist, and no game is more guilty of this than "The Colonel's Bequest."

The chandelier stays put for the entire game until you walk right under it. Then and only then does it fall and kill you. And the area underneath the chandelier and the center of the hallway that is in the center of the house. You can always hear the chandelier when you can see it, so it sounds important. Unfortunately, it's just a death.

Walk into the left side of the railing at it collapses, and so does Laura. Yes, the Colonel has millions of dollars but can't afford to keep his house fixed up for some reason.

When you see a door in an adventure game, usually you figure it has to be significant. But, the door to the closet in the left upstairs part of the house leads to a death.

Oiling the knight's visor is something you need to do to complete a side quest and get the perfect score. Oiling the knight's left arm (which is holding an ax) is what's going to kill you.

Answer: He can walk

The Colonel spends most of his time in a wheelchair. But, Gertrude tells Laura that there is more to the Colonel than meets the eye. Laura later spies on the Colonel and finds that he can walk. Apparently he's a dishonest man.

Answer: Gloria

Clarence then becomes the main suspect, as he is the one person to have a possible motive for all three murders. Gertrude and Wilbur knew about his racehorse scam and Gloria had broken up with him right before she died.