Jim Walls

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Jim Walls as pictured in Police Quest III: The Kindred, 1990

Jim Walls is a retired police officer, who in 1971 joined the California Highway Patrol. He retired after 15 years on the force[1] after a shooting incident that left him traumatized[2].

During his recovery from the shooting incident, Jim met Ken Williams who was then a developer for Sierra Entertainment (then Sierra Online). Ken asked Jim to his house for a game of raquetball, and over drinks after the game, Ken told Jim of his idea of starting an adventure game series with a police genre. Ken told Jim that all he needed was a real police officer to be involved with the design in order to maintain realism.[3]

Following this meeting, Jim went on to become a game designer for Sierra Entertainment (then Sierra On-Line).

Jim claims "When I first sat down in front of a computer to begin the design story of the original Police Quest I had to be shown where the on/off switch was. I typed the entire story with two fingers (after all, the only skills I had at the time were chasing people down and throwing them in jail)."[4]

Walls' best-known works were the first three Police Quest games (1987's Police Quest: In Pursuit of the Death Angel, 1988's Police Quest II: The Vengeance, and 1990's Police Quest III: The Kindred). Walls also created an espionage game called Codename: Iceman in 1989, but this sold poorly in comparison to the Police Quest titles. The games included real situations that he had lived through his career.

The final games in the Police Quest series (Police Quest IV: Open Season, Police Quest: SWAT and Police Quest: SWAT 2) were designed by Darryl F. Gates after Walls left Sierra. While titled with the Police Quest name, it is commonly accepted that Police Quest: SWAT and Police Quest: SWAT 2 are actually part of the latter SWAT Series.

Walls also created Blue Force, another adventure game featuring a police officer, in 1993 for Tsunami Games. He is also credited on Earth & Beyond, in 2002, for Electronic Arts Inc., Pirates: The Legend of Black Kat in 2002, for Electronic Arts Inc. and had a cameo as a weapons handler in a police station, in the adventure game Blade Runner in 1997, for Virgin Interactive Entertainment, Inc based loosely on the 1982 movie of the same name. Jim is sometimes credited as James Walls.