Walk-through for Philip Marlowe Private Eye version 4.0
Directions for playing an efficient game which will allow the user
to navigate through the game to one of the endings. It is important
to note that while this is one way to navigate through the game it
is by no means the only way.
General note: Pressing the escape key while an animation is running
will cause the animation to jump to its end. Playing a scene, by
watching it or by escaping through it, will update the game state.
After the logos and opening animation are complete, choose the
"original" version of the game and press start.
Meeting Orfamay Quest
- Following a mysterious murder sequence, Marlowe is shown meeting a
prissy small town girl named Orfamay Quest. Her sister left home
years ago. Her father is dead. She lives alone with her mother. Her
brother moved to California. He has been missing for months.
Orfamay produces a photograph of Orrin.
- Click Orrin. Learn that he didn't smoke, drink or go out with girls.
His one hobby is taking candid snapshots. Marlowe takes Orfamay's
case.
Resources in Marlowe's office
- Go to the desk and open the middle drawer. That's where Marlowe's
gun is. You can arm and disarm Marlowe by clicking on the holster.
Leave the gun in the drawer.
- Open the left hand desk drawer. Click the bourbon bottle. Listen
to Marlowe's thoughts about the case so far.
- Go to the tall file cabinet. Open the bottom two drawers. There
are newspapers and magazines in there that feature articles about
characters in the game and clues to the mystery. Flip through, or
read, now or later.
- Exit through the door. You are now on the interactive desktop.
Where to next?
- Open map, click Bay City. See 449 Idaho St. and Cal Western. Orrin
Quest lived at 449 Idaho St. and worked at Cal Western.
- Click Cal Western
Cal Western - Orrin's last employer
- Listen to foreman and choose to find out more about Orrin. Click
the personnel file and discover that Orrin was NOT the straight
arrow his sister said he was. And Orrin said he was going to be
rich because he'd collect on the wages of sin.
449 Idaho Street - Orrin's last address
- Go to map and choose 449 Idaho Street. Choose to enter building now
by clicking the doorknob. Fight with a hoodlum who pulls a gun and
a knife on Marlowe. Hoodlum is protecting suitcase full of money
and implies that he belongs to a gang.
Lester B. Clausen
- Scene continues. See manager passed out on couch. Click empty
bottles. Learn that the manager, Lester B. Clausen, senses that
Marlowe is trouble. He tries to phone someone to help him. He calls
Vince the Doc and then passes out.
George W. Hicks
- Scene continues with Marlowe going upstairs to get a look at Orrin's
room, number 214. Marlowe doesn't expect Orrin to be there. But the
room is not empty. A bald guy is standing in there with a toupee in
his hand. Learn that the man is George W. Hicks whose in Orrin's
room because its a better room and he moved there from room 215.
- Click the business card in Hicks' hand and learn that Orrin may have
left because he confronted the drug dealers that use the building
and they threatened him.
First dead body - Clausen a la ice pick
- Scene continues. Marlowe realizes that Clausen is no longer snoring.
User can click around room and examine or take items. Examine ice
pick. Click the bottles on the table. Reveal matchbook. Take
matchbook. Examine drawers, take everything. Leave ice pick in body.
Take phone number on wall next to phone by the door. Exit through
the door. If you're interrupted by the police and hauled downtown
before you can complete your search of the murder scene simply
return to the murder scene at your convenience and continue the
search.
- Marlowe leaves the scene of the crime and phones in an anonymous
tip to the police that Clausen has been murdered. This will get
him into trouble with the police later if they find out that he
was at 449 Idaho St. while Clausen was being murdered.
Who are these guys?
- After Idaho Street Marlowe returns to his office automatically.
Click on the door to leave the office and arrive at the desktop
resources. Look through the dossiers on the desktop, new ones
appear as you encounter more characters. So the dead guy and the
little guy with the suitcase full of money both had criminal
records. Play the radio, both commercial and police band. What
do the cops know?
Orfamay's second visit
- Click the map, open Hollywood, click on Marlowe's office. Back at
the office, you find that Orfamay is there waiting for you. She's
telling you things she told you before and complaining that you
haven't done anything. Click Orfamay. Learn that Marlowe thinks
its strange that Orfamay says she's worried about her brother but
acts like he's not really in danger.
Using the resources in Marlowe's office
- Click the bourbon bottle in desk drawer to get Marlowe's opinion of
449 Idaho street.
- Go to file cabinet. Read articles about drugs and crime.
- Go to the cabinet. Click to open. Click the photograph of three men.
One looks like the dead Clausen. One looks like that guy Hicks, who
is the third one? Is that Vince? Click Vince's phone number (scrap
of paper taken from wall at 449 Idaho St.)
- Click to call the phone number. Listen to conversation with Dr.
Vincent Lagardie.
Where to next?
- Open the map and click on Bay City. Go to Dr. Lagardie's office. Dr.
maybe "in" or "out". When "in" you get animated scenes where you
learn what Lagardie knows about Orrin, ice picks, Clausen and drugs.
When "out" you get to break in to the office and search it.
Get phone call from mystery man
- While on the interactive desktop the phone will ring. Click the
phone while its ringing to answer it. Get message from some guy at
the Van Nuys Hotel. He wants you to keep something in a safe for
him. Why should you listen? Because he hints that he knows you were
at the scene of the Clausen murder when Clausen was killed and even
the cops don't know that.
Van Nuys Hotel - second body
- Click on map, Hollywood, go to Van Nuys Hotel.
- Search room. Take matchbook.
- Click on dead man's toupee, take camera receipt.
- Go into bathroom. Watch scene with disguised woman.
- Click on front door to leave. Get scene with detectives French and
Beifus. Learn that George Hicks was better known as Mileaway Marston,
a small time hood. He was killed same way as Clausen, ice pick to the
back of the neck. Learn that whoever killed him was looking for
something. Something small that could have been hidden.
Return to Marlowe's office
- Go to low cabinet. Click on matchbook from the hotel. Its another
book of Dancers Club matches. Click on the matchbook to call the
phone number that's scrawled inside the matchbook cover.
- Learn by calling that the phone number belongs to a Mr. Steelgrave.
How does a rich man's phone number find its way into the hands of a
two bit, now deceased, hood?
- Click on the receipt you got from under the dead man's toupee. Its
a receipt for pictures from a camera shop. Was this what the dead
man was trying to hide?
Click on interactive border
- Look through dossiers. Note all the gangsters. Find Mavis Weld. She
was the women at the Van Nuys Hotel who was hiding in the bathroom
and held a gun on you.
- Play the radio to see what news there is about murders. What do cops
know or suspect?
Return to Marlowe's office - (click view screen)
- Now that you recognize the woman from the hotel as Mavis Weld go to
file cabinet and read newspaper and magazine articles about her.
Go back to Van Nuys Hotel
- Use map to get back to Van Nuys Hotel. At scene of Hicks murder find
fan magazine. Read articles about Mavis Weld and Dolores Gonzales.
- Exit room.
Where to next?
- Click the map, click Hollywood, go to Mavis Weld's apt.
- Meet Dolores Gonzales and Mavis Weld. Mavis Weld recognizes Marlowe
from the hotel but pretends not to. She was there to pay off a
blackmailer. Mavis knows that it was her brother who took an
incriminating picture of her and was blackmailing her with it. She
was confused when a man she didn't know called her and told her that
HE had the blackmail photos and did she want to buy them. Well the
man in the hotel is dead now and all Mavis wants to do is keep herself
and her creepy brother out of it.
- Click on notebook. Learn that Marlowe is protecting Mavis from the
police by not telling them she was at the murder scene. He also
assumes that the only reason she'd go some place with a gun and a
disguise was to pay off a blackmailer. He's right but Mavis pretends
he's not. Marlowe gets thrown out of the apartment.
Where to next?
- Go back to Marlowe's office. Get scene with Alfred and Toad. Two
tough guys hired by Sheridan Ballou, Mavis Weld's agent, to "talk"
Marlowe into stopping his investigation. Exit through the door.
Where to next?
- On interactive desktop open map and click on Bay City. Click on
Bay City Camera Shop to follow the lead on the camera receipt.
Bay City Camera Shop
- Get the photos that Hicks was killed for.
Although many new locations are now available, for the sake of speeding
this walk-through, continue as follows.
Return to Marlowe's office
- Get phone call from Orfamay. She lies. She says she has to see
Marlowe right away because she heard from her brother. Marlowe doesn't
buy it, wants to hang up. Orfamay says fine, she'll call the police
instead, about Marlowe's involvement with recent murders.
You might have to go to another location and then come back in order to
get this call.
- Click on note pad. Learn that Orrin could have gone to his sister
Leila for help after he got laid off. Leila is in California. If
you haven't recognized her by now take a second look at the Quest
family photo in inventory. Leila Quest is Mavis Weld.
- Go to the cabinet, open it and take a very close look at the photo.
Orrin was using this to blackmail his sister. Note date of newspaper
on table in photo.
- Go to file cabinet. Read articles about death of Sunny Moe Stein.
Note that murder occurred same day that photo was taken. Leave the
office through the door.
Where to next?
- Open the map and go to Ballou's office in Hollywood.
Ballou's office
- Get scene outside Ballou's office
- Click the hat. Learn that the man in the picture is Mr. Steelgrave
and that Steelgrave might be Weepy Moyer - a gangster from Cleveland.
Ballou hires Marlowe to investigate and protect his client Mavis
Weld. Can now go to Tantamount Studios, where Mavis is filming.
Tantamount Studios
- Mavis is not pleased to see Marlowe.
- Click the notebook. Learn that Mavis was at the hotel to buy a
blackmail photo. The photo shows Steelgrave having lunch on a day he
was supposed to be in jail. The photo is dangerous to Steelgrave.
Maybe even the knowledge of where he was is dangerous.
Return to interactive desktop
- Read dossiers on Steelgrave, Moyer, Stein
- play commercial radio and police band radio
- click map, click Hollywood, click Steelgrave's Mansion.
Steelgrave's Mansion
- Get scene with Steelgrave.
Dancers Club
- click map, click Bay City, click the Dancers Club.
- Get scene at club.
Return to interactive desktop
- Get phone call from Orfamay explaining that she heard from her
brother. He's hiding at Dr. Lagardie's house and he's afraid to
leave. She says he needs help. If you do not get this call, try
going back to the Dancers Club, Steelgrave's Mansion, or to some
other locations and then go back to the desktop. If you go back
to Marlowe's office, you might get a visit from Dolores Gonzales.
Dr. Lagardie's Office
- Go to Dr. Lagardie's office
- Get scene with Dr. Lagardie
- Click the letter opener. Learn that Marlowe believes Lagardie and
Clausen were running a drug operation. Orrin Quest's blackmail
photo offered the doctor an opportunity to blackmail Steelgrave. He
used Quest, Clausen and Hicks and the blackmail photo to extort
money from Steelgrave.
- Marlowe gets drugged. Passes out and wakes up alone, almost. Orrin
Quest comes through the door and with an ice pick. Orrin is dying on
his feet. Somebody shot him in the back twice. You can stay and
search the room or leave.
Return to interactive desktop
- Get phone call from Orfamay. She knows her brother is dead and she
hopes that Marlowe gets in trouble for it. Again, you might have to
leave and come back to get the call.
- Open the map, look at Bay City and Hollywood. Many places are
available. Go to any 2 of them. . .The phone call you get might be
from Dolores, telling you to come to Steelgrave's right away.
- Get phone call from the police. They want to see you downtown.
This may not happen. If not skip to Steelgrave Mansion part.
Police Station
- Go to police station
- Get scene with police. Orfamay told them that her brother was in
Dr. Lagardie's office and she heard shots. They investigated And
sure enough Orrin is dead. What does Marlowe know about all this?
- Click Marlowe's head. Tell the cops a story about Dr. Lagardie and
Clausen, Orrin and marijuana. Don't say anything about blackmail,
Steelgrave or Mavis Weld.
Return to Marlowe's office
- Dolores Gonzales is waiting for you. Get scene with Dolores. She
knows all about Steelgrave's jail time and the fact that he wasn't
in jail the day that Stein was shot.
- Click Dolores. Learn that she wants to blackmail Mavis herself and
that Steelgrave was once her lover.
- Click the bourbon bottle in desk to see what Marlowe thinks about
the case so far. Click again. There can be more than one hint
available.
Return to interactive desktop
- Open the map, look at Bay City and Hollywood. Many places are
available. Go to any 2 of them. . - Get phone call from Dolores. She
says you must meet her at Steelgrave's mansion right now because
Mavis is in very big trouble.
Steelgrave's Mansion
- Go to Steelgrave's mansion by clicking it on the map.
- Get scene outside with Dolores. She's upset. She pulls a gun on
Marlowe and threatens to kill him, because that would get her in
good with Steelgrave. But she changes her mind, gives the gun to
Marlowe and asks him to kill Steelgrave for her. Marlowe goes into
the mansion and finds Mavis. Mavis is quiet. She tells Marlowe she
shot Steelgrave dead because he had killed her brother. She shows
him the gun.
- Click Mavis. Marlowe confuses the evidence at the scene of the
crime so that it looks like Steelgrave had held and fired the gun
that Dolores had given him. Marlowe wipes the prints off the other
white handled gun that Mavis had held and hides Steelgrave's own
gun in a towel.
- Scene continues with arrival of police. Marlowe claims that
Steelgrave killed Orrin. Cops take him downtown and grill him about
his involvement in the murders.
Return to Interactive interface
- Get phone call from DA's office
You might need to go to another location and then come back.
- Click on the Hollywood map, got to the DA's office.
- Get scene with DA and Mavis Weld. DA threatens to charge Marlowe
with withholding evidence. But Mavis' attorney says that the photo
can't be introduced as evidence. Someone must swear that the photo
was indeed taken on a certain day. No one can do that. Orrin took
the photo and he's dead. Steelgrave was in the photo but he's not
talking, he's dead. Mavis was in the photo but she has no memory
of when it was taken. Mavis is free and clear. She will not be tried
for murder.
Return to Marlowe's office
- Get a final scene with Orfamay. Learn that Orfamay knew all along
her brother was blackmailing her sister. But he wasn't going to cut
Orfamay in on the blackmail money. Orfamay only came west so that
she could track her brother down and get a share of the money. She
found out where Orrin was. She also knew that Steelgrave wanted
Orrin too. She figured she could sell out her brother for a
thousand dollars.
Return to interactive interface
- Get last phone call from Dolores
You might have to go to another location first.
- Click on the Hollywood map, go to Dolores' apt.
Dolores Gonzales
- Get a final scene with Dolores that explains what really happened.
- Get scene of Dr. Lagardie on his way up to Dolores' apartment
- Get final Marlowe scene where he talks about Dolores' death.
- Get epilogue
