A near-fatal shootout. A chance encounter. An unforgettable game franchise. Jim Walls' story is unbelievable.
As a California Highway Patrol officer from 1971 to 1986, Walls was involved in a shootout that led to his early retirement due to post-traumatic stress disorder. This marked the beginning of a new chapter in his life, one that would take him from the streets to the world of PC games.
While he was on administrative leave, Jim’s beautician wife Donna was cutting the hair of Sierra On-Line co-founder Ken Williams, who mentioned off-hand that he was looking to produce a police procedural video game. Donna recommended her husband for the job, and Williams asked him to write his highway patrol experiences into a short story. This led to the creation of "Police Quest: In Pursuit of the Death Angel" in 1987.
Walls' knowledge of police procedures made the game authentic and engaging as he demanded the player adhere to strict police protocols - the same ones that saved his life. He went on to create two more "Police Quest" games, cementing the series as a beloved franchise known more for its gritty realism than fantasy and adventure.
I had the honour of interviewing Jim for our Sierra On-Line documentary, “Legends of Adventure”, and as a young fan of the series, it shed so much light not only on one of the greatest PC game franchises of the 80s, but the entire wild and crazy world of game development in that era.
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DAVE HODGSON
