The 1992 remake of Police Quest is arguably the worst remake of a game I've ever experienced. It was a blatant example of a
rush job performed by people with no real fondness for the original.
The original was set at the time of the game's release - the mid 1980s. The remake, however, retained the 1980s look (the patrol cars were old Plymouth Furys and Dodge Monacos, and Sonny's personal car was an IROC) despite it saying 'The Present Day' in the opening sequence.
Lytton at the time was meant to be a small city, which grew into a large city by Police Quest 3: The Kindred. However, to save on graphics, the cityscape pictures were kept.
The police station (which was remodelled in Police Quest 2: The Vengeance, then demolished and a new one built across the street for PQ3) image from PQ3 was retained. However, the interior was completely different, and the building was far too large on the city map, and in the wrong place.
The highway had all its onramps removed, meaning it could only be entered at the ends (which were in opposite corners of Lytton). This rendered it worthless for travel.
Driving controls were made needlessly complex: seperate icons for 'gas' and 'brake', you had to switch on your turn signal (remember, if you're coming down the screen, right signal to go left), and now traffic lights were present. Worse, the unmarked car didn't have a cherry.
Burt Park from Steelton in PQ2 somehow moved to Lytton and became 'Bert's Park'. Did the designers pay ANY attention to the series they were remaking?
The game is laden with spelling errors, like 'girlfried'.
Loads of graphics are reused... the most amusing being the TV Remote from PQ3 being given a badly drawn antenna and becoming your radio extender!
There were some amusing touches to the remake, however:
The icons were all in colour, and the 'walk' icon would change appearance based on Sonny's appear (including a towel-clad icon when you took a shower!)
Instead of 'ditching' Marie at the hotel, it was possible to click the 'use' icon on her as she sits on the bed and indulge in a bit of sexx0r (although this results in death).
The graphics were mostly terrible, however, when you closed the filing cabinet in the Narcotics office, Sonny would kick it shut with the back of his heel.
Jesse Bains looked just like Jerry Seinfeld.