The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes | |
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Developer(s) | Mythos Software |
Publisher(s) | Electronic Arts |
Producer(s) | Christopher Erhardt [1] |
Designer(s) | R. J. Berg [2] |
Programmer(s) | Scott Cronce [1] |
Artist(s) | Nancy L. Fong [1] |
Writer(s) | Eric Lindstrom [3] |
Composer(s) | Rob Hubbard [2] |
Platform(s) | MS-DOS, 3DO |
Release | Fall 1992 (MS-DOS) 1994 (3DO) |
Genre(s) | Graphic adventure |
Mode(s) | Single-player |
The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes (fully titled The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Serrated Scalpel) is an adventure game developed by Mythos Software and published by Electronic Arts for MS-DOS in 1992 and 3DO in 1994. A sequel was developed and published by the same respective companies in 1996 titled The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Rose Tattoo .
In November 1888, Sherlock Holmes is engaged by Inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard to help with the murder investigation of a young actress, Sarah Carroway. She was killed outside a theatre in the Mayfair area of London. Lestrade thinks the manner of her death shows that this is another strike by Jack the Ripper, but Holmes believes someone else committed the crime. It appears that the victim was killed with an unusual knife, one shaped like a scalpel but with a serrated blade.
The investigation takes Holmes and Dr. Watson to many parts of late 19th century London, including a perfume shop, the zoological gardens, the morgue, a pub, Scotland Yard, Surrey Commercial Docks, Savoy Street Pier, St Pancras railway station, and of course 221B Baker Street. They encounter a number of characters connected to the case and also get assistance from Inspector Gregson, the leader of the Baker Street Irregulars named Wiggins, and the invaluable tracking dog Toby.
The player moves around London via an elaborate overview map. Additional locations become available when Holmes finds additional leads. In each location, the player can select nine different verbal options to interact with objects or people. When accessing the inventory menu, the player has three different verbal actions to manipulate any items Holmes has picked up. When talking to people, Holmes has different dialogue options to gain information or try to get their cooperation. Dr. Watson can give his views, which may serve as puzzle hints. He may even help Holmes to perform an action he cannot do alone. Dr. Watson's journal also references the events in the gameplay.
The graphics are VGA, with MIDI music and a few scenes with digitalized speech (in the intro and end sequence, and the cutscene at St Pancras Station. In the other scenes there are sound effects, but no speech). The player interacts with the characters through a command menu with verb icons that is intuitive for anyone who had played other adventure games of the period. The 3DO version consists of full voiced dialogue and the portraits of the talkers were replaced by clips with filmed actors, but also drops Dr. Watson's journal feature.
In the video clips in the 3DO version, Sherlock Holmes was played by David Ian Davies, [4] and Dr. Watson was played by Laurie Main. [5]
Publication | Score |
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Electronic Gaming Monthly | 6.6/10 (3DO) [6] |
PC Zone | 48% (DOS) [7] |
3DO Magazine | (3DO) [8] |
Computer Gaming World 's Charles Ardai wrote that "The Case of the Serrated Scalpel tells an unusually good story and is filled to the brim with audio-visual niceties, but ... it is not a game ... just a series of animated vignettes". He gave as example how the computer, not the player, chooses the chemicals and tools in Holmes' laboratory. Ardai concluded that "this game wants, more than anything else in the world, to be a Sherlock Holmes movie. Though it would be a very good one if it were, it is not. Therefore, it is deeply and resoundingly unsatisfying ... as a game it is simply, regrettably, another misfire in the Sherlock Holmes canon". [9]
Computer Games Strategy Plus named The Case of the Serrated Scalpel its best adventure game of 1992. The magazine's Theo Clarke wrote: "This game wins for the sophistication of its controls and the sheer scale of the game. It is not simply that there are many locations and many characters. The point is that all of these elements combine to form a satisfying whole". [10]
The reviewers of Electronic Gaming Monthly wrote of the 3DO version: "Great graphics, excellent sound effects – this game really shows off the system's capabilities while providing a challenging mystery". They scored it a 6.6/10 average. [6]
In 2011, Adventure Gamers named Case of the Serrated Scalpel the 22nd-best adventure game ever released. [11]
The Baker Street Irregulars are fictional characters who appear in three Sherlock Holmes stories, specifically two novels and one short story, by Arthur Conan Doyle. They are street boys who are employed by Holmes as intelligence agents. The name has subsequently been adopted by other organizations, most notably a prestigious and exclusive literary society founded in the United States by Christopher Morley in 1934.
Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century is an animated television series in which Sherlock Holmes is brought back to life in the 22nd century. The series is a co-production by DIC Entertainment, L.P. and Scottish Television Enterprises and was nominated for a Daytime Emmy for Special Class Animated Program.
Detective Inspector G. Lestrade is a fictional character appearing in the Sherlock Holmes stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle. Lestrade's first appearance was in the first Sherlock Holmes story, the 1887 novel A Study in Scarlet. His last appearance is in the 1924 short story "The Adventure of the Three Garridebs", which is included in the collection The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes.
Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective is a full-motion video game released in 1991. It is based on a tabletop game-gamebook hybrid of the same name first published in 1981, and features the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, created by Arthur Conan Doyle.
The Baker Street Boys is a British television series made by the BBC and first shown in 1983. The series recounts the adventures of a gang of street urchins living in Victorian London who assist the legendary detective Sherlock Holmes in solving crimes and find themselves tackling cases of their own.
The stories of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle have been very popular as adaptations for the stage, and later film, and still later television. The four volumes of the Universal Sherlock Holmes (1995) compiled by Ronald B. De Waal lists over 25,000 Holmes-related productions and products. They include the original writings, "together with the translations of these tales into sixty-three languages, plus Braille and shorthand, the writings about the Writings or higher criticism, writings about Sherlockians and their societies, memorials and memorabilia, games, puzzles and quizzes, phonograph records, audio and video tapes, compact discs, laser discs, ballets, films, musicals, operettas, oratorios, plays, radio and television programs, parodies and pastiches, children's books, cartoons, comics, and a multitude of other items — from advertisements to wine — that have accumulated throughout the world on the two most famous characters in literature."
Sherlock Holmes has long been a popular character for pastiche, Holmes-related work by authors and creators other than Arthur Conan Doyle. Their works can be grouped into four broad categories:
221B Baker Street is a 1986 video game published by Datasoft, based on an earlier board game of the same name. The game was inspired by the exploits of Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional detective Sherlock Holmes and derives its title from the detective's residence at 221B Baker Street in London. The original board game was created and copyrighted by American writer Jay Moriarty in 1975.
Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective Vol. II is a full motion video computer game released for the Mega-CD, TurboGrafx-CD, Mac OS, VIS and DOS. The game is based around the adventures of the titular character, detective Sherlock Holmes, and his assistant, Dr. John Watson.
The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Rose Tattoo is a graphic adventure game developed by Mythos Software and published by Electronic Arts in 1996. It features the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes created by Arthur Conan Doyle. The game is a sequel to The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Serrated Scalpel.
Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Silver Earring is a video game developed by Frogwares and published in 2004 for Windows by Digital Jesters in Europe and Ubisoft in North America. While the game is "inspired by The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", it uses an original plotline — set in London in 1897 — and allows the player to investigate a murder as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John H. Watson. A version for Wii was also released in Europe in 2011. By 2010, Secret of the Silver Earring had sold 500,000 copies worldwide.
Sherlock Holmes Versus Arsène Lupin is an adventure game developed by Frogwares. The fourth game in the Sherlock Holmes series, it was released in October 2007 and is distributed by Focus Home Interactive. It was preceded in 2002 by Sherlock Holmes: The Mystery of the Mummy, in 2004 by Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Silver Earring and in 2007 by Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened.
Sherlock is a 1984 text adventure developed under the lead of Philip Mitchell by Beam Software. It was published by Melbourne House. Five programmers worked for 18 months on the title and a Sherlock Holmes expert was employed full-time for a year to advise the team on accuracy.
Sherlock Holmes Faces Death is the sixth film in the Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce series of Sherlock Holmes films. Made in 1943, it is a loose adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 1893 Holmes short story "The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual". Its three immediate predecessors in the film series were World War II spy adventures with Holmes and Dr. Watson helping the Allies thwart enemy agents, but this one marked a return to the pure mystery film form. Though several characters are military men and there are frequent mentions of the ongoing war, it is not the focus of the story.
Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective Vol. III is the title of a full-motion video computer game released for DOS and Mac OS. The game is a sequel to Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective Vol. II and was released in 1993.
This article describes minor characters from the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and from non-canonical derived works. The list excludes the titular character as well as Dr. Watson, Professor Moriarty, Inspector Lestrade, Mycroft Holmes, Mrs. Hudson, Irene Adler, Colonel Moran, the Baker Street Irregulars, and characters not significant enough to mention.