History VideoGame / TexMurphy

* BloodFromTheMouth: The injured aline in the video footage at the cabin spits blood.

* Area51: Tex has to search the facility to find the alien power cell.

* ApocalypticLog: Tex watches a Video message of the last surviver inside the Roswell building before that person gets taken by the evil cloud.

* OutrunTheFireball: How Tex escapes Malloy's place.

** Day 6: "[[Film/NorthByNorthwest South by Southeast]]".

** Chapter "[[Film/NorthByNorthwest South by South East]]".

* RansackedRoom: The cabin has been thoroughly searched and trashed by some other party before Tex arrives.* RelationshipValues: Utilized to a small extent. Your actions and conversational choices help decide whether Tex ends up with Chelsee, tries to end up with Chelsee but strikes out, or ends up with Regan ([[spoiler: and ends up dying as a villain for his trouble]]).

* HardboiledDetective: Tex, obviously.

* RelationshipValues: Utilized to a small extent. Your actions and conversational choices help decide whether Tex ends up with Chelsee, tries to end up with Chelsee but strikes out, or ends up with Regan ([[spoiler: and ends up dying as a villain for his trouble]]).

-->--'''Tex Murphy''', ''Under a Killing Moon''

!!These games contain examples of:
* AdaptationalVillainy: [[spoiler: In ''Mean Streets'' Klaus was just one of the 8 scientists working on Overlord. In ''Overseer'' he's an ally of the crypto-fascist Law and Order party and the mastermind behind the killings of the other scientists in order to obtain all 8 passcards to control Overlord.]]

* AlignmentBasedEndings: In ''The Pandora Directive'', you can get up to eight different endings depending on where your KarmaMeter is along the NiceGuy[=/=]{{Jerkass}} axis.
* AllThereInTheManual: The first game, Mean Streets, is near-impossible without the leads first outlined in the manual.
* AlwaysNight: The Daylight Reversal Act mentioned in ''Under A Killing Moon'' caused by ozone layer damage after World War III. Everybody sleeps during the day, which is why it's always dark during gameplay.
* AncientConspiracy: The Brotherhood in ''Under A Killing Moon''.
* AntiVillain: [[spoiler: J. Saint Gideon]] who is also a MagnificentBastard.
* ApocalypseHow: A Class 4, biosphere extinction, is prepared by the AncientConspiracy in ''Under A Killing Moon''.
* ArrogantKungFuGuy: "Big Jim" Slade in Tex Murphy: Overseer as played by Australian-born martial artist Richard Norton.
* AxCrazy: [[spoiler:Jackson Cross from ''The Pandora Directive'' has shades of this.]]
** [[spoiler: Mantus and the Morlocks in ''Tesla Effect'', as a result of going mad from the cryosleep process.]]
* BatmanColdOpen: The first day of ''Under A Killing Moon'' involves Tex catching a serial burglar with no connection to the main plot of the game, [[spoiler: apart from a minor-but-vital part later where Rook agrees to give Tex a much-needed vintage silver dollar as thanks for solving that case]].
* BlahBlahBlah: Used as a date dialogue option in ''Martian Memorandum'', which appears if you already chose the failing conversation track.

* BigGood: The Big P.I. In the Sky, played by Creator/JamesEarlJones. Steers fate in Tex's favour during the events of Under A Killing Moon, and berates him during the HaveANiceDeath sequences.
* BittersweetEnding: Most games. Under A Killing Moon ends with Tex right back where he started, financially and romantically. The normal ending of Pandora Directive likewise, as opposed to the (canonical) happy ending and (jerkass) bad ending.

* CameBackWrong: Tesla perfected cryogenic preservation, but the subjects are killed when they are frozen and revived after being unfrozen. This has some unfortunate side effects for most subjects. Most are turned into partially decayed, insane cannibals known as Morlocks. [[spoiler: Charles Johansson avoided all of the more obvious side effects when he was revived by Gideon Inc., but came back with a dangerous dose of megalomania, turning him into the Translator.]]
* ChessMotifs:
** The first instance is in ''Mean Streets'', where the possible passwords are anagrams of chess terms. In the same room where you find the encoded passwords is a chess set with a bishop missing.
** Pops up everywhere in ''Overseer''. Both John Klaus and J. Saint Gideon are avid chess players, though only Gideon goes as far as to decorate his entire mansion with chess motifs [[spoiler: and use chess-related code names for each aspect of the STG Project]]
* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: [[spoiler: Near the end of Overseer where "Big Jim" Slade betrays and kills his employer Dr John Klaus.]]
* CliffHanger: The end of Tex Murphy: Overseer where [[spoiler: Tex's speeder is stolen and he and Chelsee get a ride from a stranger who, after a few moments of pleasant conversation...turns around and shoots them!]]
** The radio theater sequel [[spoiler: reveals that Tex and Chelsee survived, but got wrapped up in a conspiracy, which also ended on a cliffhanger. D'oh!]]
** [[spoiler:Finally, all is explained in ''Tesla Effect'', although Chelsee only comes back if you put in a lot of effort throughout the entire game trying to determine what her fate was.]]
* CollectionSidequest: The Mike and Ike Hammer Candy Comic books in ''Tesla Effect''. [[spoiler:Collecting all 20 comic books and finishing the game creates a post-game file that unlocks the storage room in Tex's bedroom that allows you to watch the game's cutscenes and listen to songs.]]

* CuttingTheKnot: [[spoiler: Can't get an armoire to open and there's no key for it? Use C4 Chewing Gum to ''blast it apart.'']]
--> '''Tex Murphy''': ''Uh... [[LampshadeHanging maybe that was a little overkill]], but was effective.''

* DamselInDistress: Emily Sue Patterson in TPD and Sylvia Linsky in Overseer
* DarkIsEvil: [[spoiler:The Translator, Dalton, Big Jim Slade and Tex Murphy ([[FaceHeelTurn before]] having his memory erased) in ''Tesla Effect''. They all wear black and aren't exactly the nicest guys.]]
** DarkIsNotEvil: In ''Tesla Effect'', Tex Murphy wears dark clothing and shoes in contrast to the previous games.

* DeathByAdaptation[=/=]SparedByTheAdaptation: A few characters have different fates in ''Overseer'' than they did in ''Mean Streets''. Most notably:
** [[spoiler: In ''Mean Streets'' Slade is just a hired goon and Tex kills him in a shootout about halfway through the game; in ''Overseer'' he has a more prominent role in the story, has a ClimaxBoss confrontation with Tex and Sylvia towards the end, and survives to menace Tex again more than two decades later in ''Tesla Effect''.]]
** [[spoiler: In ''Mean Streets'' it's mentioned that Gideon tried to flee the country and was arrested by the authorities, while in ''Overseer'' he commits suicide after Tex gets the better of him.]]

* DialogueTree: In ''Martian Memorandum'', only [[TrialAndErrorGameplay one path]] in the whole tree is useful. Don't worry, you get [[WelcomeToCorneria multiple tries]].
* DismantledMacGuffin: ''The Pandora Directive.''
* DrivenToSuicide: The fate of Carl Linsky, though as with most of Tex's cases, there's more to it than it seems.
* DuelToTheDeath: Tex vs. [[spoiler: NSA Agent Dag Horton posing as]] The Black Arrow Killer.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: ''Mean Streets'' was scarcely in the same genre as the following games. {{Lampshaded}} in ''Tesla Effect'', when Tex has a flashback to one of the combat sections from ''Mean Streets'' and says that he decided never to get into a shootout again.
* EarthShatteringKaboom: [[spoiler: Revealed to be the side-effect of the Translator's plan to merge Heaven and Earth in ''Tesla Effect''. Fail the final puzzle of the game and you get to watch it happen in a pretty cool CGI sequence.]]
* EndGameResultsScreen: Tesla Effect assigns you a rank based on your score at the end. Getting the highest rank after completing the "Somewhere I'll Find You" story path is an alternate means to unlock access to the storage room in Tex's Office if you fail to find all the candy comics.
* TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt: In both ''Under A Killing Moon'' and ''The Pandora Directive,'' Tex has to prevent this.
* FakingTheDead: For most of ''Tesla Effect'', it's assumed that [[spoiler: Chelsee]] has been dead for a long time after the events of ''Overseer''. However, it turns out [[spoiler: Margaret and her allies faked her death to protect her, due to her actually being Margaret's daughter]].

* GeniusProgramming: Mean Streets could do music and speech on PC speaker. Yes, that very PC speaker that's seemingly only capable of beeps and boops.
* AGodAmI: Dr. Dangerfield goes full megalomaniac in the finale of ''Martian Memorandum'', believing the Oracle Stone will make him this.
* GovernmentConspiracy: [[spoiler: The entire plot of The Pandora Directive began with the supposed UFO crash at Roswell in 1947.]]
* GracefulLoser: At the end of ''Overseer'', [[spoiler: after Tex destroys Overlord, a defeated Gideon graciously shares a final scotch and cigars with Tex, even giving him his lighter as a keepsake, before committing suicide.]]

* HiddenDepths: Gordon Fitzpatrick [[spoiler: turns out to be a partial alien.]]
** [[spoiler: HumanMomNonhumanDad]]
* HypocriticalHumor: In ''The Pandora Directive,'' Tex comments on a book titled "Men are Imbeciles, Women are Erratic," saying ''"The author generalizes too much, and I think all people who generalize are idiots."''
* ImprovisedWeapon: A bra was used as a sling.
* InformedDeformity: Chelsee is considered to be one of the mutants, but whereas all other mutants we meet are obviously physically deformed in some way, Chelsee not only looks totally normal but is very beautiful. Lampshaded in universe in that it's mentioned a few times nobody but her knows what her mutation actually is. [[spoiler:Turns out that she's a norm who was given to mutants for adoption.]] ''Tesla Effect'' has Louie's niece Taylor, who like Chelsee looks perfectly normal. Although Taylor is never explicitly referred to as a mutant, so maybe it's possible Louie had a non-mutant sibling.
* {{Jerkass}}: The player can make Tex a glaring example of this if he chooses the "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" path in ''The Pandora Directive.''
* KarmaMeter: A big part of TPD.
* KleptomaniacHero: In ''Mean Streets'', Tex can take cash and valuables in the locations he searches.
* LaserHallway: Tex has to navigate through lasers on a hoverboard in Big Dick Castro's vault in ''Martian Memorandum''. It's less fun than it sounds, with the camera only showing a small part of what's ahead of Tex. Another laser hall shows up in ''Tesla Effect'', with rapidly moving beams and almost no margin for error.
* LethalLavaLand: [[spoiler: In ''The Pandora Directive'', in the Mayan temple, is a long chamber with a narrow maze above lava. Tex Murphy has to get to the other side and try to open one of the four doors (whichever one opens is random) -- all while avoiding fireballs. This room is only available in Game Player's mode, though.]]

* MacGyvering: Combining random items into whatever crude instrument required to advance past a given obstacle is an absolute necessity in these games.
* MacGuffin: The bird statuette in ''Under a Killing Moon''.
* MacGuffinDeliveryService: The end of ''The Pandora Directive.''

* NamedAfterSomebodyFamous: Lowell Percival is named after Percival Lowell, a 19th century astronomer and mathematician who among other things observed canals on Mars and formed the first theories about the existence of Pluto. ''Martian Memorandum'' also has a fitness instructor named [[Creator/JayneMansfield Jane Mansfield]].
* NonStandardGameOver: In ''Tesla Effect'', most deaths go to a quick RIP sequence, and oftentimes the cause of death is not even explained. Some, however, have special [=FMVs=]. [[spoiler:For example, if Tex throws the Tesla Egg out of the Coit Tower, instead of giving it to Slade.]]

* OddJobGods: In UAKM (and some endings of TPD where Tex dies) there is The Big P.I in the Sky, the God of Private Investigators played by James Earl Jones.
** At the beginning of UAKM, this god hilariously bemoans that all the great private investigators of the past have died of old age, meaning they're stuck with Murphy instead. James Earl Jones knows funny, people.

* PixelHunt: Occasionally necessary, particularly in UAKM, where the pixelated graphics of garbage on the floor are difficult to tell apart from objects you're supposed to get.
* PrivateEyeMonologue: Done straight on many occasions. Also parodied on many occasions.
* RelationshipValues: Utilized to a small extent in ''The Pandora Directive.'' Your actions and conversational choices help decide whether Tex ends up with Chelsee, tries to end up with Chelsee but strikes out, or ends up with Regan ([[spoiler: and ends up dying as a villain for his trouble]]). Likewise, in ''Tesla Effect'' Tex's actions will determine whether he ends up with Taylor, Ariel, [[spoiler: Chelsee]], or none of them because he was too indecisive.
* RoswellThatEndsWell: The catalyst of ''The Pandora Directive''.
* SchizoTech: ''Tesla Effect'' makes lots of references to 2000's technology, yet Tex ''still'' has a fax machine.
* SelfParody: One of the series' main charms is that it doesn't take itself seriously at all.
* SequelHook: [[spoiler:''Tesla Effect'' ends with the BigBad and his [[TheDragon Dragon]] escaping (although the Dragon is seemingly dealt with in the "bad" ending), and ends with a news report of the Nights Templar getting killed. There's also the sub-plot regarding J.T. Donnelly and Anastasia and the White Russians, which is indicated to be entirely separate from the Translator's plot and is never fully resolved. Tex mentions in the closing scene that it all seems to be part of something bigger, and he'd better be ready for it.]]
* ShapeShifterSwanSong: The end of ''Under a Killing Moon.''
* ShoutOut:
** A trenchcoat-wearing detective in a dystopian, near-future city in California, with monolithic buildings and flying cars? [[Film/BladeRunner This seems familiar...]]
** ''Rocky Bullwinkle'' is a bouncer for Big Dick, and is named after the [[WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle cartoon]].
* ShowSomeLeg: Alexis can be instructed to make a distraction, and that's her preferred method.
* ShutUpHannibal: An unusual case where this is delivered ''retroactively'': In ''Overseer'', once Tex is done telling the story in flashbacks, he comments how the game's WellIntentionedExtremist "was probably right". Chelsea's response: "[[PunctuatedForEmphasis NO. HE. WASN'T.]] ''You'' were!"
* TheSociopath: [[spoiler: Jackson Cross in ''The Pandora Directive''.]]
--> [[spoiler: '''Jackson Cross''' (to Tex Murphy): ''I've always wanted to kill you. It's not that I don't like you. I thought you were a very resourceful fellow. I wanted to kill you because I enjoy killing people. [[AxCrazy I find it very satisfying.]]'']]
* TheStarscream: [[spoiler: Towards the end of ''Overseer'', Slade kills Klaus and plans to auction off the 8 Overlord control cards off to the highest bidder. Tex stops him, though. Slade tries to do the exact same thing with the Tesla Egg in ''Tesla Effect'', but this time he gets killed by a vengeful Mantus.]]
* TimeBomb: In ''Overseer'' Tex must remove an implant from his skull before it kills him. Of course the plot requires that you remove it anyway (the entire game is a flashback, after all) so there's no danger of Tex dying permanently.
* TimeSkip: Seven years have passed until the beginning of ''Tesla Effect''.
* TrialAndErrorGameplay: The cryo tank puzzle at the end of ''Under A Killing Moon'' is this. In a hilarious subversion, Tex will complain to the Great PI In The Sky during the HaveANiceDeath sequence how unfair it is, the Great PI ''agrees with Tex'', and gives him a second chance without needing to reload a save game.
* TheTunguskaEvent: The event wasn't a meteorite impact, but the result of a trial run of UsefulNotes/NikolaTesla's Death-Ray.

* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: [[spoiler: J. Saint Gideon plans to implant mind-control devices into the world leaders in order to speed up the peace process. If the program wasn't so easy to misuse for controlling the global population - and so likely to fall into evil hands - Tex might've supported Gideon.]]
** [[spoiler:The Translator wants to merge the living and dead realms into one. This would hedge into BlueAndOrangeMorality territory if every reliable source wasn't certain that all he'd accomplish would be blowing up the planet by accident. He doesn't even do much to directly harm Tex.]]
* TheVamp: [[spoiler: Regan Madsen.]]
* WellIntentionedExtremist: [[spoiler: Ultimately, Dr. Dangerfield's goal in ''Martian Memorandum'' was to get revenge against a mass murderer, in the process putting a handful of innocent lives at risk. Even his AGodAmI megalomania at the end after he got the Oracle Stone wasn't directly malicious against anyone. Unfortunately, his misuse of the technology would have blown up the planet if Tex hadn't stopped him.]]
* WhatDidIDoLastNight: What did Tex do for ''seven years'' leading up to ''Tesla Effect''?

** Although in ''The Pandora Directive'' Tex is so far in debt to various people and businesses in his neighborhood that simply paying them back so they'll talk to him eats significantly into his retainer.
** In Mean Streets, there are plenty of false leads. One location even lampshades this with the suspect eating a red herring.

* TechnologyMarchesOn: Laserdiscs, VHS Cassettes, and Fax machines aren't as ubiquitous today, a mere 10-20 years later. There's no way you'd expect a VHS or laserdisc player in the board room of a research company, and not having a cellular phone is far more debilitating than not having a fax machine.
** {{Lampshaded}} by Smart Alex making fun of Tex for using a fax machine.

* ActorAllusion: Creator/KevinPatrickMurphy is the voice of Tex's personal assistant computer in Tesla Effect. He is surprisingly vocal about bad movies and once spends a good minute quoting Mr Freeze jokes from Film/BatmanAndRobin when Tex finds freeze gun.

* AlternateLandmarkHistory: The Tunguska Event wasn't a meteorite impact, but the result of a trial run of Nikolai Tesla's Death-Ray.

->''"Look, prophecies aren't in my job description OK? I'm just a humble P.I. trying to save the world as we know it."''

Access would go on to make five games; The sequel to ''Mean Streets'', ''Martian Memorandum'' (1991), was released strictly for the IBM PC and was not terribly revolutionary. The third game, ''Under a Killing Moon''(1994), was a whole different ball game: it introduced a 3D virtual world and made extensive use of full motion video cutscenes. The fourth game, ''The Pandora Directive'' (1996), included the same system and was Access' most ambitious effort. Number five, ''Overseer'' (1998), was essentially a replay of ''Mean Streets,'' but brought into the modern video game era with Access' usual movie work.

* AntiVillain: [[spoiler: J. Saint Gideon]] who is also a MagnificentBastard

* DuelToTheDeath: Tex vs. [[spoiler: NSA Agent Dag Horton posing as]] The Black Arrow Killer

* DeathByAdaptation[=/=]SparedByTheAdaptation: A few characters have different fates in ''Overseer'' than they did in ''Mean Streets''. Most notably;

* DistressedDamsel: Emily Sue Patterson in TPD and Sylvia Linsky in Overseer

* EarthShatteringKaboom: [[spoiler: Revealed to be the side-effect of the Translator's plan to merge Heaven and Earth in ''Tesla Effect''. Fail the final puzzle of the game and you get to watch it happen in a pretty cool CGI sequence]]

** ''Rocky Bullwinkle'' is a bouncer for Big Dick, and is named after the [[RockyAndBullwinkle cartoon]].

* ShutUpHannibal: An unusual case where this is delivered ''retroactively'': In ''Overseer'', once Tex is done telling the story in flashbacks, he comments how the game's WellIntentionedExtremist "was probably right". Chelsea's response: "[[PunctuatedForEmphasis "NO. HE. WASN'T.]] ''You'' were!"

* TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt: In both ''Under A Killing Moon'' and ''The Pandora Directive,'' Tex has to prevent this.
* TheFutureIsNoir
* TheObiWan: "Colonel" Dobbs who taught Tex most of what he knows about being a private investigator.
* TheOnlyOne: Tex is a textbook case. Unfortunately, his enemies tend to notice this quality about him, frequently resulting in him being turned into an UnwittingPawn. Tex manages to clean up his own messes in the end, though.
* TheSociopath: [[spoiler: Jackson Cross in ''The Pandora Directive''.]]
--> [[spoiler: '''Jackson Cross''' (to Tex Murphy): ''I've always wanted to kill you. It's not that I don't like you. I thought you were a very resourceful fellow. I wanted to kill you because I enjoy killing people. [[AxCrazy I find it very satisfying.]]'']]
* TheStarscream: [[spoiler: Towards the end of ''Overseer'', Slade kills Klaus and plans to auction off the 8 Overlord control cards off to the highest bidder. Tex stops him, though. Slade tries to do the exact same thing with the Tesla Egg in ''Tesla Effect'', but this time he gets killed by a vengeful Mantus.]]
* TheVamp: [[spoiler: Regan Madsen]]
* TimeBomb: In ''Overseer'' Tex must remove an implant from his skull before it kills him. Of course the plot requires that you remove it anyway(the entire game is a flashback, after all) so there's no danger of Tex dying permanently.

* {{Novelization}}: Two novels were written based on TPD and UaKM.

* RelationshipValues: Utilized to a small extent in ''The Pandora Directive.'' Your actions and conversational choices help decide whether Tex ends up with Chelsee or Regan.

* InformedDeformity: Chelsee is considered to be one of the mutants, but whereas all other mutants we meet are obviously physically deformed in some way, Chelsee not only looks totally normal but is very beautiful. Lampshaded in universe in that it's mentioned a few times nobody but her knows what her mutation actually is. [[spoiler:Turns out that she's a norm who was given to mutants for adoption.]]

** A number of characters die in the novelization who didn't in the games, namely [[spoiler: Alaynah, Eddie Chang, and Eva in ''Killing Moon'', Sandra and Ellis in ''Pandora Directive''. Also, at the end of ''Tesla Effect'' it's strongly implied that Fiske and the Translator go down with the Immortal Coil, while in the game they're a lot further away when the explosions begin and escape unharmed.]] Also, [[spoiler: Mantus]] survives in the novelization of ''Tesla Effect''.

** A number of characters die in the novelization who didn't in the book, namely [[spoiler: Eddie Chang and Eva in ''Killing Moon'', Sandra and Ellis in ''Pandora Directive''. Also, at the end of ''Tesla Effect'' it's strongly implied that Fiske and the Translator go down with the Immortal Coil, while in the game they're a lot further away when the explosions begin and escape unharmed.]] Also, [[spoiler: Mantus]] survives in the novelization of ''Tesla Effect''.

* AfterTheEnd

You can get the Tex Murphy games at [[http://www.gog.com/games#/all_genres/search/tex%20murphy/#search=tex%20murphy GOG.com]].

** [[spoiler:The Translator wants to merge the living and dead realms into one. He doesn't even do much to directly harm Tex.]]

* SequelHook: [[spoiler:''Tesla Effect'' ends with the BigBad and his [[TheDragon Dragon]] escaping (although the Dragon is seemingly dealt with in the "bad" ending), and ends with a news report of the Nights Templar getting killed.]]

* CameBackWrong: Tesla perfected cryogenic preservation, but the subjects are killed when they are frozen and revived after being unfrozen. This has some unfortunate side effects for most subjects. Most are turned into partially decayed, insane cannibals known as Morlocks. [[spoiler: Charles Johansson avoided all of the more obvious side effects when he was revived by Gideon Inc., but came back with dangerously enhanced ambition, turning him into the Translator.]]