Mission Asteroidīefore the 40-Year-Old Virgin, there was Leisure Suit Larry (and before Larry, there was Softporn Adventure, but I digress). From the cop camaraderie and constant in-game promotion of Gates' own initiatives (Gates created SWAT and the DARE programs) to the misogynistic, transphobic ending, this is a game that should not exist, yet remains a weird touchpoint for specific Sierra die-hards and police zealots who venerate its place in history. At best, and I'm being generous, it was a boneheaded attempt to romanticize and rehabilitate the LAPD's brutal image. There's a lot to say about this game, most of which has already been said in this piece (opens in new tab) by Duncan Fyfe. And to an extent, Gates' videogame legacy still lives on today, as Ken Williams defended his decision (opens in new tab) to hire Gates in his recent memoir. With PQ4, Jim Walls' wholesome 'cops are your friends' brand of copaganda goes totally out the window (not that it was great to begin with) and is replaced with a vastly more insidious beast that villainizes Black Americans to the point of parody. But the spotlight was on Gates, the disgraced ex-LAPD chief who was responsible for the 1992 LA riots and the police attack on Rodney King. Gates was presented as the author of the game, but most of it was actually designed and written by Sierra staffer Tammy Dargan it was Dargan who was responsible for a lot of the racial caricatures in the game. What better way to begin than with a game Sierra should never have made-Police Quest 4, designed by someone who should never have been allowed to make it.

Adventure quest