Yeah, I was talking about the Amiga as it was when the game was made. The AGA wasn't released until 3 years after this game.

I'd like to reiterate the question to all Tex Murphy fans that was asked by several other posters before but hasn't really been answered yet: If someone isn't familiar with the series yet and only wants to check out one game for now (and one game only), which one would you recommend the most and why? UAKM, PD or Overseer?

Also, does the order in which you play these games matter? Will playing one before the other spoil some things? Do they require any previous knowledge of the characters and setting to be fully enjoyed? Is it safe to skip TM1&2?

And last but not least, I take it UAKM and PD run with DosBox? Does Overseer, too, or is it a Windows game? I often experience sound issues with DosBox based GOG's and since the Tex Murphy series heavily relies on voiceovers, a Windows version might be more enjoyable for me, assuming I'd have less troubles with sound stuttering.

I played the Tex Murphy games way back when Martian Memorandum was new in box. Personally, I think Under a Killing Moon is your best bet for a starter - it's the first one that establishes the 3D/cinematic style that the next two games use, and does a better job of introducing the characters that you see in the next few games.

Pandora Directive has better production values (especially in the cinematics) and numerous points where the decisions you make can affect with cinematics you see and the eventual ending. I played Pandora Directive probably eight separate times to see everything.

Overall, Pandora Directive is actually the best of the series, but I recommend starting with UAKM because I'm sure anyone who plays it will love the game and eventually purchase the other ones, and UAKM sets up the start of PD.

Just don't buy Overseer to start. It's still good, but definitely isn't the best of the series.

I've had no problems running any of them with DosBox, but PD does hang occasionally.

Pandora Directive.

The first two games are a little dated.. The big "new thing" they brought to pc gaming was mainly the fact that during dialogue with characters, you could actually hear & see them speak; with real audio through the PC speaker no less. Mean Streets also requires taking notes and coordinates and has a blocky flight-sim mode for getting around. Real oldschool shit.

UAKM brought a much fancier "3D" engine to the mix, along with a solid FMV performance by Chris Jones (guy who plays Tex). Supporting cast much more over-the-top cheesy. I enjoyed the gameplay but some people still say its pixel hunting in 3D. Good puzzles. Great audio, with humourous descriptions for almost everything you see. Good story as well.

Overseer is a buggy but decent re-telling of Mean Streets. I'd say save it for last. Slight visual 3D engine improvements, but the story is meh. Too many characters, red herrings, etc.

So why PD? It takes everything UAKM did and improves on it. Story, characters, performances, puzzles, pacing, humour.

I think that if you can stomach the retro feel of the first two, it'd probably be best to play through in order of release. But it's perfectly fine to go with UAKM, PD, Overseer and skip the others. If you're only getting one though, get PD.

Overseer is a Windows game, but is somewhat buggy.

Thanks, your post helped me make up my mind finally. I'm going to buy UaKM and PD and forgo the other two. I prefer my gog collection to consist only of games I like, so I'll take only the best out of Tex. :)

I've never played any of the Tex Murphy games either but I think I'll try to start with 1, because that's important to me for some reason. If I really can't get into it (which I doubt), I'll fire up UaKM.

I often have sound stuttering in dosbox games on my netbook, but nothing so far in UAKM, only an occasional short sound-skip. Actually it's one of the best-performing dosbox GOG's I've tried so far.

At last! Tex Murphy games sale. Long waited for this.
Somehow I I missed them in 90's - though I remember reading the review of UAKM.
But in that time I was still on Amiga, and later, after switching to PC there were other games to play.

Thanks GOG!

Which version of DOSBox do they use? I've discovered lately that quite a lot of stuttering GoGs under 0.72 run much better after I replaced it with 0.74.

UAKM uses dosbox 0.73

Yeah, if the target machine was e.g. Amiga 500 (which is was the most widespread Amiga model ever), IIRC normally Amiga games supported 32 simultaneous colors, even though I recall sometime seeing one Amiga action game which used the special 4096 color mode, but I think it was not usually that useful.

So a 256 color DOS VGA game would be converted to a 32 color Amiga game, which can be seen on some games like Space Quest 4, Monkey Island 2, Wing Commander etc. as less colors and/or more dithering. Unfortunately (but understandably) Amiga => PC ports didn't usually seem to gain any more colors, e.g. Xenon 2, Speedball 2 and Gods seem pretty much identical to me on PC and Amiga.

Amiga had this problem as well with games that either were ported from Atari ST, or got a simultaneous Atari release. So, 16 colors instead of Amiga's 32. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the three games mentioned above were in fact 16 colors.

In Mean Streets' case though, it doesn't seem that they only changed the number of colors, but some of the graphics are quite different, like the start screen you mentioned. For some reason some of the sideview/action scenes' graphics seemed much clearer on Amiga though.

Good release of games which i now all have due to last promotion for them :)

These are some of my favourite games of all time. I remember buying Under a Killing Moon when it came out. CD Roms were just taking off, and I think I bought a CD Rom drive especially for this game.

And at these prices an absolute bargin, I paid £60.00 (around $100 US) when it came out originally. That was the3 asking price at Game ( I think it was that much, but it may have been £49.99, I know it was really expensive though)

Worth it though, this game, along with the Secret of Monkey Island has a lot to do with my lifelong love of computer games. Definatelly pick them up if you like a good adventure, a good story and decent interactive movies.

It's probably not for everyone (if you only enjoy playing fast paced shoot em ups, you may not enjoy this), but at these prices, give it a try.

PS, Start by playing Under a Killing Moon first, followed by The Pandora Directive and then Overseer. I'd give Tex Murphy 1 & 2 a miss if I were you, maybe try them for nostalgia (or completeness) and to see how far the series progressed.

Your GoG account should be revoked. You don't deserve such loyalty!