PRIVATE EYE: PHILIP MARLOWE

Blondes, Bullets, Murder - and You!

Humphrey Bogart played him. Robert Mitchum played him. Now it's your turn to become Philip Marlowe, the world's most famous private eye!

All other private eye games are imitations. This is the real thing. The first interactive murder mystery based on Raymond Chandler's legendary detective.

This game is a fully-interactive, richly-designed CD-ROM in the film noir tradition.

Meet starlets, confront a manic mobster, search Hollywood for clues you can take. Hundreds of interactive decisions are yours!

It all starts with an innocent girl who hires you to find her missing brother, but it soon leads to a trail of greed, blackmail, revenge, deceit and murder!

Find out who is guilty before the bad guys or the cops get you. If you don't solve the crime, no one will! 

• State-of-the-art 3D graphics combined with 1940s-style cel animation
• Rich dialogue and fully-developed characters in the authentic Chandler style
• Intriguing mystery with multiple endings and outcomes
• A responsive world that constantly reacts to the player's decisions and actions
• Loads of takeable objects and searchable rooms
• Two different versions of the game with different clues, motives and endings - both are repplayable
• An intuitive interface with functional map, radio, telephone and a dynamic case-book that visually records your sleuthing
• Original jazz score recorded live for this game
• No frustrating dead ends - dozens of hours of gameplay
• Direct link to the Private Eye World Wide Web site

• A multi-layered gaming experience with more animation than a feature film!
• 3D graphics recreate Hollywood of the 1940s!
• You become Philip Marlow, Chandler's famous sleuth!
• Different clues and game endings for replayability!

~ from the back of the box

 
Long before pixelated gumshoes point-and-clicked their way across glaring monitor screens, Raymond Chandler defined the archetype of the private detective with his creation of Philip Marlowe. Chandler’s novels and short stories from the 1930s and 40s helped forge the film noir aesthetic - moody lighting, morally murky plots, and a lead character who could out-snark any mobster. His work, and especially his 1949 novel The Little Sister, crackles with dialogue and urban grit that practically begs for adaptation. And in 1996, Brooklyn Multimedia dared to try through the medium of a PC game.

Private Eye: Philip Marlow is a smart, surprisingly faithful adaptation of The Little Sister, and one of the rare adventure games that puts storytelling before scavenger hunts. Yes, this is a consequence driven adventure with a wildly branching narrative that still manages to stay consistent with the source material. It leans heavily into Chandler's prose - literally, since much of the dialogue is lifted right from the book - and Marlowe himself sounds the part thanks to solid work from Stephen D'Ambrose wisely avoiding a full-on Bogart impersonation. Instead, he delivers a cool, world-weary performance that feels lived-in, with just the right amount of bourbon-soaked bite. Paired with smoky jazz and period-authentic radio snippets, it’s noir credentials are top of the line.

Access useful tools, such as character dossiers, case notes and map from this menu (left).

You inventory is stored at your office in the evidence cabinet (right).

But's it's not just house it sounds that makes it noir, it's how it looks. Private Eye uses a crude yet effective animation style that oozes in atmosphere. Characters look like they've wandered in from a cel-shaded Saturday morning cartoon and yet somehow it works. In contrast, the backgrounds are pre-rendered CGI that provide the right amount of balance to the characters imposed on top of them. You need more detail here as you will spend some time scouring for clues and evidence. It doesn't always mesh well, but the voice acting and dialogue are strong enough to carry the game when the aesthetics do not.

Where Private Eye really shines is in its structure. This isn’t an adventure game about hoarding trinkets and combining rubber chickens with pulleys. This is about people; their motives, secrets, and social webs. The detective work feels authentic. You’ll follow leads, suspect everyone, and even pop the cork on Marlowe’s desk whiskey to trigger an internal monologue hint system (which, frankly, is genius). Collecting evidence is a double-edged sword. Pick everything up and the police will be on your back. Leave items of import and you will not gain the information you need to move forward. But forward the game moves regardless, as every decision alters the storyline in subtle ways. If you become a person of interest to the law enforcement, sneaking into locations won't go unnoticed and a police siren will warn you of an impending arrest if you don't scarper quickly. 

Occasionally you will be given a binary choice during cutscenes which Marlowe will explain in voice over.

Here, the pocket represents asking more hardnosed questions about the case while the hat is more personal.

You don't have an inventory in the traditional sense. Instead, collected items are stored in an evidence cabinet at your office. From here you can look closer at them or, if they have a phone number scribbled on them, pick up a receiver and dial those digits. While this is a valid way to gather information, it is not the only way. Marlowe carries a series of go-to features accessed by clicking on the border of the game window. You can peruse character dossiers, case notes detailing a list of collected items and visited locations and a map to travel to them. Twiddle the knobs of the radio and you might just get a useful news report or intercept pertinent police communications. Sometimes, the phone on the top left will also ring and if it does it's best you answer it. It might impart information you might not have got elsewhere.

While most of the game is viewed rather than played, the cutscenes are so well done I doubt it would bother most players. They are also packed with information forcing you to be an active viewer with notepad at the ready should you want to find the best ending. You have been hired by potential femme fatale Oriamay Quest, who is looking for her missing brother, Orrin Quest (both of which should be indicted to the Cool Name Hall of Fame). This leads you to the seedy underbelly of Los Angeles, meeting Hollywood starlets, rich entrepreneurs and scummy mobsters. Not all of them with survive - it is a film noir after all.

You have the option to take evidence when found or leave it for the police. Both have their consequences (left).
Pour yourself a whiskey at the office to get a brief rundown on the investigation, and some hints too (right).

Where the game does fall is in how it pieces all of these plot points together. The next point of action may be obscured by the wealth (or dearth) of information you have and your decision may lead you down the path to a bad ending without knowing until you get there. When it deviates from the source novel, the plot becomes less focussed making the problem even worse. It's as if the designers ran with the "What if..." of it all (even including a totally new alternative take on the story changing suspects, allegiances and the final culprit itself). It's a double-edged sword and without it there would be no game, but you can tell you're not doing well if the plot gets a little too haphazard. Even so, you will get an ending and the ones I came across were still satisfying.

Private Eye: Philip Marlowe is a surprisingly forward-thinking take on interactive storytelling. With its emphasis on voice, dialogue, and human drama over pixel hunting or puzzle solving, it feels less like a game and more like an interactive radio play wrapped in noir shadows. While it does have its shortcomings, fans of Raymond Chandler or detective fiction in general will find a lot to love. A jazz-infused, smoke-curled slice of interactive fiction that understands exactly what kind of story it’s telling - and tells it well.

To download the game, follow the link below. This custom installer exclusive to The Collection Chamber uses the DOSBox-X build of DOSBox running Microsoft Windows 3.1 to get the game working on modern systems. Manual included. Read the ChamberNotes.txt for more detailed information. Tested on Windows 10.

File Size: 343 Mb.  Install Size: 532 Mb.  Need help? Consult the Collection Chamber FAQ

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Private Eye: Philip Marlowe is © Byron Preiss Multimedia Company, Inc
Review, Cover Design and Installer created by me

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