Jim Walls

Jim Walls is a retired police officer, who in 1971 joined the California Highway Patrol. He retired after 15 years on the force after a shooting incident that left him traumatized. During his recovery from the shooting incident, Jim met Ken Williams, who was then a developer for Sierra Entertainment (then Sierra On-Line). Walls was introduced to Williams by his then-wife Donna, who worked as a hair stylist for a salon in Oakhurst, California. Williams, from time to time would go to Donna for hair cuts. It was during one of these sessions that the focus of conversation turned from hairstyle to Williams' idea of creating a police-oriented adventure game. He also conveyed that he wanted a police officer to be involved with the design in order to capture the realism. He gave Walls' wife his business card and asked that he would call. Williams then asked Walls to his house for a game of racquetball, and over drinks after the game, Williams extrapolated on his idea of starting an adventure game series with a police genre. Williams told Walls that all he needed was a real police officer to be involved with the design in order to maintain realism. Following this meeting, Walls went on to become a game designer for Sierra. Walls 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)." Walls' best-known works were the first three Police Quest games Police Quest: In Pursuit of the Death Angel (1987), Police Quest II: The Vengeance (1988), and Police Quest III: The Kindred (1991). Many of the incidents depicted in the game were based on real situations that Walls had lived through his career. For instance, Jessie Bains, the main antagonist from the first two games, was modeled after a perpetrator who was constantly escaping custody. Walls also wrote and directed other games, such as Codename: Iceman (1989), which unlike the Police Quest games, was an espionage game. He also had a minor voice-over role in Blade Runner (1997). Now retired, Walls spends his time in his native California.