Tex Murphy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tex Murphy was the main character of five adventure games from Access Software and performed by Chris Jones. He was characterized as a down on his luck private investigator in a dystopian future San Francisco.
Contents |
[edit] Games
- Mean Streets (1989)
- Martian Memorandum (1991)
- Under a Killing Moon (1994)
- The Pandora Directive (1996)
- Tex Murphy: Overseer (1998)
[edit] Tex Murphy universe
The games in the Tex Murphy series take place in a post-apocalyptic 21st century. All of the games take place mostly in a post-WWIII San Francisco. The skies glow red with radiation, and people who don't live in a better-sheltered city or lack genetic immunity to the radiation are disfigured and usually repulsive. Several San Francisco landmarks are still present, such as the Golden Gate Bridge, Coit Tower and Alcatraz, but most of them are completely abandoned; most damaged beyond repair from bombs in WWIII. The futuristic aspect borrows heavily from sci-fi books and films, most notably Blade Runner for its flying cars and impossibly dense tenements.
[edit] The character
Tex Murphy is a hard-boiled PI. Tex is a member of the portion of the population born without any genetic defects making him a normal human (referred by in-game characters as a "Norm"). He is an avid fan of the classic film noir films of Humphrey Bogart. As such, he does his work in the style of archetypal film noir detectives such as Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe. He has remarkable skills of observation (always punctuated with humorous internal monologues); when examining objects or features, he hardly ever misses an important or unusual detail. However, he is also occasionally a bit clumsy and naieve which gets him into trouble from time to time as does his sarcastic wit.
He is honest and generally a good-natured fellow who suffers from a bad back, a little too much alcohol (Bourbon...neat, preferred) and a few too many blows to the head. He runs his Private Investigator's business out of his apartment at the Ritz Hotel on Chandler Avenue in Old San Francisco "among the mutants and the destitute" where several businesses and friends reside, including his love interest, the mysteriously mutated newspaper stand owner Chelsee Bando. Aside from wishing for a respectable, not to mention high-paying, client all he'd like to do is earn her love and respect if he can just refrain from placing his admittedly not too bad smelling foot in his mouth.
[edit] Radio theater
To meet the fans demand for more Tex Murphy, Chris Jones and Aaron Conners released a 6 episode radio theater in 2001. The radio theater stars several of the original characters and voices from the games, including Jones as Tex Murphy. As of 2006 there are no plans to release any new episodes due to the costs. The previous episodes are currently available through The Unofficial Tex Murphy website.
[edit] Future plans
The last game to be released was in 1998 and the developer of the series is no longer in business (Access was acquired by Microsoft, who in turn sold the studio to Take-Two Interactive, who shut it down). It is reported that the rights have passed from Access to Microsoft and now to an unknown game developer, possibly Chris Jones or Aaron Conners. The chances of any new games being made are very remote. Adventure games and especially interactive movies are considered financially undesirable in today's game market and it has been nearly eight years since Overseer. In a recent interview Aaron Conners admitted that making a new Tex game with FMV technology is not likely. However at various times Aaron has hinted that Tex is not completely dead.
