MAKING A KILLING\Gumshoe games target new PC users.

Byline: Yardena Arar Daily News Staff Writer

Forget Colonel Mustard with his dinky old lead pipe in the library. With today's high-power PCs, multimedia is the name of the murder mystery game.

Filmed with real actors and full-motion video on budgets rivaling those of modest feature films, a slew of new and upcoming CD-ROM games invite users to track down killers and other criminals by gathering clues, solving puzzles and otherwise using their wits as opposed to their trigger fingers.

Titles such as "The Beast Within," "The Elk Moon Murder" and "Psychic Detective" are aimed squarely at the millions of Americans who have spent $2,000 or more on multimedia PCs and want to use them for recreation that doesn't involve shooting, flight simulation or a virtual golf course.

"These things (multimedia mysteries) are for adults," said Terry Coleman, reviews editor for Computer Gaming World, a 200,000-circulation monthly whose average reader is 35.

Coleman believes sophisticated gaming capability is the hidden reason for the explosive demand for high-end computers. "You do not buy Pentium 133s so your 8-year-old can do Mathblaster, or so you can do spreadsheets."

"Mystery titles seem to work particularly well for interactive games, because the whole idea of solving a mystery is to interact with other people, ask questions, gather information and solve puzzles," said Rebecca Buxton of Sierra Online, publisher of the currently hot "Beast Within."

Dan Bennett, editor of PC Gamer, said today's sophisticated mysteries are a subset of the adventure genre that has been around since the dawn of computer gaming in the 1970s, when text-based games such as Zork first appeared. In those games - the ancestors of the MUDs (multi-user dungeons) on the Internet today - players navigated through fantasy worlds and solved puzzles by typing simple commands.

As PCs became more graphically oriented, so did the games. Early examples of mysteries with graphics included Broderbund Software's "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego" and Viacom New Media's "Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective" series.

"People who are not into computer gaming tend to think of most computer games as being like 'Doom,' or like video games that you play on set-top machines, but they've really had more depth than that," Bennett said. "It's just that the biggest hit in recent years has been a shooting-reflex game ('Doom')."

However the current crop of gumshoe games probably owe at least something to another hit, "Myst," the sleeper CD-ROM hit of 1994 in which players clicked their way through a series of photorealistic illustrations of fantastic worlds. Since its release - late 1993 for Macintosh, early 1994 for PC - "Myst" has sold an estimated 2 million copies at $40-$50 a pop, turning creators Rand and Robin Miller into multimedia tycoons.

Jeff Blyth, the creator of Calabasas-based Cyberdreams Inc.'s upcoming film-noir game "Noir," drew his inspiration directly from "Myst," said Cyberdreams development director David Millich.

"He was playing 'Myst' one day and he said, 'This is a really great game but they could have gone out and photographed real trees on a real location,' " Millich said.

The 35 characters in "Noir" inhabit a world created with some 1,600 still photographs along with 75 video clip sequences shot on historical sites such as Bradbury Building, Union Station, Griffith Park, a freighter in San Pedro, as well as on soundstages.

While different from today's whodunnits because it unfolds in an uninhabited series of worlds, "Myst" did prove the market potential for a game that involved an investigation and elaborate graphics.

"What 'Myst' taught us was that there is a big mainstream audience looking out there for an entertainment experience using software," said Dana Henry, spokeswoman for Novato-based Broderbund, which licensed the PC and Macintosh rights to "Myst" from the Millers' Spokane-based Cyan, Inc.

Broderbund is hoping to reach that audience again with "In the 1st Degree," a game in which players assume the role of prosecutor in a San Francisco murder case.

"People who read John Grisham novels, people who watch 'Law & Order' on TV - those were the people that we we're going after," Henry said.

"Tony Hillerman meets 'Twin Peaks' " is how Diana Mack, producer of Los Angeles-based Activision's "The Elk Moon Murder," describes the first title in a planned series of Santa Fe Mysteries.

Mack hopes the title's relatively low price tag of $29.95 will prove a selling point for a target audience of new PC users seeking cheaper, user-friendly games.

While Activision made "The Elk Moon Murder" and a second title in the series for about $1 million, some developers are willing to risk several times that much to reach that audience of nontraditional computer gamers.

While no multimedia mystery to date costs anything close to the $12 million budget of Origin's upcoming "Wing Commander 4," Salt Lake City-based Access Software spent about $3 million on "Under a Killing Moon," an interactive mystery that gave new life to Tex Murphy, a sort of Sam Spade sendup living in a post-apocalyptic 21st century city.

Published on four disks with a suggested retail price of $99.99 but a street price in the $65 to $70 range, "Under a Killing Moon" was the upscale multimedia title of Christmas 1994 - and with sales to date in excess of 300,000, it has definitely recouped its development cost, said game writer-designer Aaron Conners.

"The Pandora Directive," a sequel due by the end of April, is even more ambitious - six disks that offer three principal story paths with seven different conclusions.

"I think the most difficult part for us is convincing people, first of all, that it's not an arcade game - that they don't have to have a quick finger on the mouse to shoot things," Conners said. "That's still the general image of computer games."

Cracking the $4 million mark is Take 2 Interactive's "Ripper," a futuristic slasher murder mystery featuring performances by Christopher Walken, Karen Allen, Burgess Meredith, Ossie Davis and other bona fide movie stars.

Lance Seymour, marketing manager for the New York-based game company, said a good deal of the capital for the game was raised through overseas sales.

However while the business model for multimedia games is in some ways similar to that of feature films, there are major differences.

"One difference between the software industry and the movie industry is that unlike 15 years ago, it's very difficult to lose money on a movie. Even if it does nothing at the box office, you sell the rights for cable broadcast, video and overseas distribution," Seymour said. "With software it's a much riskier proposition."

Bellevue, Wash.-based Sierra Online spent a relatively modest $1.5 million on "The Beast Within," the six-disk, live-action sequel to the animated "Sins of the Father," the first Gabriel Knight mystery.

But spokeswoman Buxton said that budget doesn't include any charge for use of the $1.5 million Oakhurst production facility Sierra built for - and charged to - its first full-motion video game, the blood-soaked, $4.5 million "Phantasmagoria," which grossed $12 million in its first weekend of release last summer.

"That's more than most movies make," Buxton noted.

In fact, more and more Hollywood talent is showing up in the credits for multimedia titles, which are sometimes referred to as interactive movies. All the major unions now have provisions covering the new media.

Electronic Arts' "Psychic Detective," directed by Emmy Award-winner John Sanborn and written by Writers Guild of America member Michael Kaplan, even made its debut at a film festival in Mill Valley last fall. It subsequently was shown at the New York and Dallas Video festivals, and is being featured at the current Sundance Film Festival as part of an Apple Computer-sponsoredC New Media Center.

Controversial science-fiction scribe Harlan Ellison collaborated on Cyberdreams' CD-ROM game based on his famed short story, "I Have no Mouth and I Must Scream."

But the top game creators still tend to come from Silicon Valley rather than Hollywood.

"What has seemed to happen in the industry is that the original love affair with Hollywood has proved somewhat futile," said Sierra Online's Buxton. "Hollywood gives us excellent production values and marketing, but for the most part interactive fiction is a breed of its own."

MYSTERIES ON CD-ROM

Current and upcoming multimedia mysteries. Prices at certain retail outlets may be $5 to $10 cheaper than the suggested retail price.

The Beast Within: A Gabriel Knight Mystery (Sierra Online, six discs, estimated street price $64.95), current. Sequel to last year's Sins of the Father, but this time done in full-motion video using Gothic German settings. Getting rave reviews from game magazines.

The Dame Was Loaded (Philips Media, two discs, $49.99), February. Very 1940s. Nine different conclusions, jazz soundtrack, game includes playing poker for cash and clues.

The Eleventh Hour (Virgin Interactive Entertainment, four discs, $70), current. Sequel to the pioneering 1993 hit. Once again the player must solve puzzles to unravel bits and pieces of the story.

The Elk Moon Murder (Activision, two discs, $29.95), March. First in a planned Santa Fe Mysteries series set in the Southwest, described by producer Diana Mack as "Tony Hillerman meets 'Twin Peaks.' " Amanda Donohoe stars. Shorter game play than more costly titles.

In the 1st Degree (Broderbund, two discs, $49.95), current. As prosecutor Sterling Granger you must not only gather clues in the slaying of a San Francisco art gallery owner and bring your suspect to trial. If he/she gets off - or is convicted of a lesser offense - you get to try again. Getting high marks from gaming magazines.

The Pandora Directive (Access SoftwaCre, six discs, $70), April. Tex Murphy, the Sam Spade-ish gumshoe born 100 years too late, strikes again in another whodunnit set in the 21st century. This time there are three different story paths with seven possible endings. Players also can choose between the easier entertainment and more difficult game player modes.

Psychic Detective (Electronic Arts, three discs, $59.95), current. Psychic Eric Fox, who has spent his life coasting on his mind-reading talents, must solve murders and thwart a band of colleagues even less scrupulous than himself. Psychic Detective premiered last fall at the Mill Valley Film Festival, making it the first CD-ROM to debut at a film festival.

SOURCE: Daily News research

CAPTION(S):

PHOTO[ordinal indicator, masculine]CHART

Photo (1--Color) "In the 1st Degree" is a game that allows players to assume the role of prosecutor in a San Francisco murder case. (2--Color) The movie poster-style scene is from "Under a Killing Moon," an interactive mystery. (3) "Beast Within" is a multimedia game intended to tax the adult mind. Box MYSTERIES ON CD-ROM (See text)