Police Quest 1: In Pursuit of the Death Angel is a PC game written by Jim Walls (based on his then experience after resigning from the California Highway Patrol) and published by Sierra. It serves as the first game in the Police Quest series. The game is followed by a sequel, Police Quest 2: The Vengeance.
In the mid-1980s (early 1990s in the VGA version), Lytton (in California) is experiencing a rise in crime, including drugs. Sonny Bonds of the Lytton Police Department (LPD) is among the officers confronted with the growing drug epidemic. During an investigation into a car crash, Bonds finds out that the dead driver is drug dealer Lonny West, who was shot in the head. During the course of his works, Bonds meets with "Sweet Cheeks" Marie Wilkans, a prostitute who was once one of his classmates in high school. She tells him that a drug ring is trying to get into the city's underworld.
Bond is later promoted assigned to work as a plainclothes officers in the LPD's Narcotics Division. He later investigate Jessie Bains, known as the Death Angel, for his involvement in dealing drugs.
Police Quest 1: In Pursuit of the Death Angel (EGA) provides examples of:
- All Bikers are Hells Angels: The bikers who are hogging the parking spots in front of the café next door very much look and act this way. You have to convince them to leave with as little force as possible. Which requires beating the shit out of one with a nightstick in self-defense.
- Betting Mini-Game: You are required to play a game of poker against three other characters twice. In the remake, you have the option to skip this and choose to win, or even lose. Of course, you won't win the points you get for playing and winning legit.
- Big Damn Heroes: In the original, if you told your backup the room number of Bains's room before going in, they will make it just in time to save Sonny. Subverted in which it buys Sonny enough time to shoot Bains himself. Not so flashy in the remake though.
- A Birthday, Not a Break: Jack, Sonny's fellow officer, talks about how his life is screwed up (his daughter is doing drugs - foreshadowing a related event -, he has a drinking problem, and his wife is ready to leave him). Subverted shortly after as his depression fades with the surprise party and the gag dancer showing up to lift his spirits. Things do not get better for him, though: his daughter later dies of a drug overdose, and the second game personnel files show that he quit.
- Bribe Backfire: Helen Hots (the woman who ran the red light) will attempt to buy you off with sex if you don't give her a ticket. Telling her no is the correct course of action. She will immediately and flamboyantly lose her temper. Of course, you could accept the offer for sex, which the narrator berates you for. You can follow up with it later, only to discover she is the wife of a big-shot member of the police force, which is very bad news for you.
- Briefer Than They Think: Because there's no day-night cycle and no break from any of the action, the game appears to take place in less than a single day, with the first patrol shift starting at 1pm, the second shift at 7pm, and the sting happening at night. With all the events going on, many players feel the timeline is quite a bit longer.
- Butt-Monkey: The mysterious Gremlin has made Sergeant Dooley the target of several amusing (to everyone but him) practical jokes. Though the audience only gets to see two first-hand (the live chicken left on his desk and the memo soaked in mace), Dooley's reaction makes it clear that the prankster is a serial offender.
- But Thou Must!: If the player doesn't stick in the application for a transfer to narcotics, the division will request him to be promoted anyway.
- Can't Get Away with Nuthin': If you neglect to walk around your car before leaving the station, you will get a flat tire.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- Taselli/Hoffman has a tattoo of a flower above his left nipple. This is important for preventing a judge from giving him bail (by showing that Taselli and Hoffman are the same person, and since one is wanted by the FBI in multiple murders, giving him bail would just let him get away), and for identifying his corpse after Bains kills him and dumps in the river after Taselli escapes prison.
- Opening Sonny's locker at the start of the game reveals two outfits in addition to his uniform. The first set is Sonny's off duty civilian attire, which he wears to The Blue Room for Jack's birthday. The other is an old pair of jeans and a white t-shirt that becomes his outfit as a detective.
- Defied with Sonny's service revolver. While you gain points for taking it from the locker and loading it, it never gets fired throughout the game. The Derringer concealed in the trick cane does get used, but without the player's input.
- Chick Magnet: Sonny receives several suggestive comments from his female co-workers with one officer in particular wanting desperately to *ahem* partner up with him. One traffic stop attempts to seduce him in order to get out of a ticket, though actually taking her up on it is a bad idea. Finally, by the end of the game, Sonny hooks up with his old school friend, "Sweet Cheeks" Marie Wilkans.
- Continuity Snarl: Occured due to the decision to replace Hotel Delphoria's male bartender Woody Roberts with a female bartender named Alexandra Parker in the remake. This causes a continuity error since Police Quest II also features Roberts when he gets killed by Bains for testifying against him. This was Hand Waved by saying that the remake —despite otherwise being nearly identical to the original— exists in its own continuity; Police Quest II is therefore not its sequel.
- Cutscene Boss: The final shootout with Bains requires no player interaction, though it is Sonny who fires the deciding shot.
- Drinking on Duty: Defied. Doing so will give you an instant game over. On the other hand, a beer or two is OK if you are off-duty (e.g. Jack's birthday party) or are undercover.
- Dye or Die: Part of your disguise for going undercover (as a pimp!) involves a blond dye job. Apparently Sonny (or Marie) liked the look: he keeps it for the second game, going back to brown in the third.
- Funny Background Event: The narrator of PQI enforces this by pointing out (twice) that a fellow officer uses the shower all the time because he's too cheap to use his own.
- Gender Flip: The bartender at the Hotel Delphoria is a male in the original version of PQI and a female in the VGA remake.
- Good-Guy Bar: The Blue Room is the local hangout for Lytton PD cops off duty. The place is even owned by a former LPD officer.
- Halfway Plot Switch: The first half of the game is "a day in the life of a patrolman", with occasional links to the overarching plotnote . The second half of the game is the setup and execution of a drug sting, and has a significantly different feel from the first half.
- Handy Cuffs: A drunk driver will ask if you can handcuff him on the front because he isn't feeling so good. Do this, and he will knock you out shortly after (or immediately in the remake).
- I Just Shot Marvin in the Face: Sonny can fire his gun while it's still holstered with predictable results.
- Jiggle Physics: In the original PQI. Not in the traditional sense, because the AGI engine certainly couldn't handle that, but a closer look at Marie's sprites shows her chest bouncing nonetheless.
- Jive Turkey: Jefferson, the janitor in the first game. Understanding what he says may take some concentration.
- Little Useless Gun: Averted by the derringer hidden in the cane that Sonny is given when he goes undercover. He ends up using it to shoot Bains non-fatally in the climax.
- Luck-Based Mission: The two illegal poker games near the end of the game, which require luck (or Save Scumming) to make enough money. You can skip them in the remake at the cost of points.
- The Mall: You never go inside, but if you look at it on the map the game points out if some hostile foreign power for some reason wanted to decimate the town it would destroy the mall on any weekend.
- Meaningful Name: A minor character is named Helen Hots. She's the only character in the game to have a fully rendered human portrait, and is also the only character who you can ask for sex from (even though it will never happen).
- Minor Insult Meltdown: Helen Hots, the first person you pull over in the game, tries to talk her way out of a ticket by seducing you. When you (correctly) remain professional and write the ticket, Helen delivers a series of insults and threats to Sonny that get increasingly unhinged, to the point that when you're walking away, the narrator lampshades the ridiculousness:You're doing your job, you're trying to promote safe driving, and then people like her have to rain on your parade.
- Mood Whiplash: An infamous aspect of both versions. Due to Al Lowe being brought on board as a writer to "make it less depressing", there are a few instances where the change in tone shifts pretty hard. The racy Helen Hots episode, the Gremlin placing a molting chicken on Dooley's desk as a prank (which Jim Walls claimed to have happened while on the force), one officer making a lewd joke about the difference between oral and rectal thermometers (the taste), and a scantily-clad dancer at Jack's birthday revealing herself right after Jack complains about how the Death Angel had personally affected his daughter, all present humorous interludes in an otherwise serious story.
- Morton's Fork: The fate of Jason Taselli. You end up jailing him and it's a race against time to get a No Bail warrant to keep him locked up. Fail to do so, he gets bailed out and escapes. Succeed, however, and he will jump a guard and escape anyway. Not that it matters in the end, as either way, Bains murders him for being too much of a liability and dumps his corpse near the Clearwater River.
- Motorcycle Dominoes: You can knock over the parked bikes in front of Wino Willy's for a few laughs. "Someone has to answer to four angry people!"
- Mutual Kill: When pulling over Taselli, getting out of your car before waiting for backup will make him get out and shoot you. If you're quick enough, you can shoot him too, but he'll still get you anyway. If your backup is with you, making a wrong move will prompt Taselli to pull his gun on you and get shot by your backup officer - though too late to stop Taselli from shooting you.
- Poor Communication Kills: A non-lethal example is not keeping Laura informed during a drug bust, which can result in the dealer running away.
- During the sting operation at the end of the game, your backup gives you a fake pen with a small transmitter in it. When you're following the Big Bad back to his room, you need to make sure they know which room it is before you go inside, because Bains is about to find out that you're a cop and kill you, and your backup needs to distract him so that you can take him down instead. Failing to do that will get you killed for trying to do everything on your own.
- Press X to Die: In many cases, typing "remove clothes" will lead to an instant game over. Even if you are in the locker room or in the shower.
- Revolvers Are Just Better: Sonny carries a .357 revolver as his police sidearm (the game was developed and released before the shift by police forces to semi-automatic handguns).
- Rule of Three: There are 3 bars in Lytton, the Blue Room, Wino Willy's and the Hotel Bar. Sonny must visit all three at some point in the game.
- Shoe Phone: During the undercover portion of the game, Sonny is issued two gadgets to assist him; A radio transmitter disguised as a pen and a tricked out cane with a Derringer concealed as the handle.
- The Stoic: In the remake, Sonny has even more speaking parts, and his portrait is shown in a weird, robotic looking expression that never changes even when he's disguised. Try to imagine him talking like a robot the whole time.
- Take Off Your Clothes: Can be invoked on command, where you can walk out of the locker room in nothing but a towel, or even type in the right command to immediately strip. You will get a game over either way. You can even give your clothes to the front desk!"Sure, we'll take it. But you'll never get it back!"
- Threat Backfire: The bikers will intimidate Sonny, and one will proceed to take him on. Intimidating them back with the nightstick will make them cower away. In the remake, the leader still won't have a problem wanting to beat you down, but Sonny does actually fight back with the night stick (taking him down with one strike), convincing the biker that assaulting an officer (especially an armed one) isn't a good idea.
- Three-Act Structure: The game's plot is divided into three different policing tasks, each with increasing relevance to the Death Angel investigation. The first portion of the game has Sonny as a patrol officer, with the murder and subsequent apprehension of the culprit being interspersed with more mundane patrol situations, such as a DUI and a car running a red light. The second part involves Sonny becoming a detective and dealing with a drug bust and attempting to keep the murder suspect in jail. The final act has Sonny go undercover in order to bring down Bains' operation by infiltrating his illegal poker ring.
- Useless Item: Enforced with messages, which the game will throw away immediately, forcing you to note the contents down or commit them to memory. The only truly useless item in the game is the briefcase, which only serves to hold your ticket book, notebook and pen (if you put the briefcase back in your locker, the game automatically returns all three items to it, so you must keep the briefcase on you through most of the game).
- Violence is the Only Option: Downplayed with the bikers at Wino Willy's. If you try to talk to them, the head biker will murder Sonny's sorry ass. You will have to beat the head biker up with the nightstick to "persuade" him and his gang to leave. Shooting him, however, will give you a game over.
Police Quest 1: In Pursuit of the Death Angel (VGA) provides examples of:
- Anti-Frustration Features: The VGA version at least gives the player the option to skip the poker segments near the end of the game. You have to play and win to get all the points, but that was a nice bone to throw players not interested in mastering poker.
- Color-Coded Speech: In the VGA version, some characters have a different color for the speech window than white while speaking. This gets a frightening effect when you discover one of the characters in the game is the Death Angel, causing their window to go from brown to red.
- Evil Laugh: Heard on the game over screen in the remake.
- Hide Your Children: There are no children anywhere in Lytton. According to the newspaper reference material provided with the VGA remake, there is a program in place to keep the children protected.
