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Manhunter: New York

Last updated: January 9, 2026

Overview

Manhunter: New York is a post-apocalyptic adventure game released in 1988 by Sierra On-Line, developed by the husband-and-wife team Barry and Dave Murray with artist Dee Dee Murray under their company Evryware1. Set in the year 2004, two years after an alien invasion by creatures called the Orbs, the game presents a dystopian vision of New York City under alien occupation2. The Orbs, described as giant floating eyeballs, have enslaved humanity and forced all humans to wear concealing robes, remain silent, and carry tracking devices34.

The game represents a significant departure from Sierra’s typical family-oriented adventure games, featuring a gritty, sometimes gory visual style and mature themes that set it apart from the company’s other titles5. As described in the official manual, “Manhunter: New York is a Sierra 3-D Animated Adventure Game, simply stated, is an interactive movie where you become the main character”6. The player takes on the role of a human “Manhunter” - a tracker working for the alien overlords while secretly investigating the human underground resistance7.

Story Summary

In the year 2002, Earth was invaded by the Orb Alliance, alien creatures that appear as enormous floating eyeballs2. Two years later, the surviving humans live under a totalitarian regime where they are forbidden to speak, must wear hooded robes to conceal their forms, and are implanted with tracking devices that monitor their every movement910. The aliens have established strict rules: “No humans must ever speak. All humans will wear concealing, hooded robes, to hide their disgusting forms”1.

The player assumes the role of a Manhunter, one of the few humans selected to work for the Orbs as a tracker and investigator11. Using a device called the Manhunter Assignment Device (MAD) and an authentic map of New York City, the player must track human activities and investigate suspected resistance members1213. As the story progresses, the Manhunter discovers that the Orbs are actually harvesting humans as a food source14, leading to a deeper investigation into the human underground movement and the true purpose behind the alien invasion6.

Gameplay

Interface and Controls

Manhunter: New York features a revolutionary interface for its time, completely abandoning the traditional text parser used in most Sierra adventures. As noted in a contemporary review, “Playing the game involves no text input at all. Everything is controlled by cursor keys, joystick, or mouse and options accessed from pull-down menus”15. The game uses what Sierra called an “object-oriented interface” that would later become standard in adventure gaming7.

The game is presented from a first-person perspective, described as “a huge departure from Sierra’s normal adventure games, offering a dystopian horror theme with a first person interface”16. Players navigate through haunting locations that are replicas of a post-holocaust Manhattan, using authentic New York City geography as the foundation for the game world12.

Structure and Progression

The game is structured around four acts or days, during which the player investigates different cases assigned by the Orb overlords4. The core mechanic involves tracking human movements using the MAD device, which displays where suspects have been and allows the player to follow their paths through the city17. As described in the manual, “Each adventure has a main goal, and yours in Manhunter is to track down humans for the Orb Alliance, learn the whereabouts of the human underground, and ultimately discover the true purpose behind the alien invasion”7.

Puzzles and Mechanics

The game requires careful observation and memory skills, as noted in one review: “In spite of the arcade sequences, this is a clever game that requires you to really look at the screen and remember what you see”18. Players must piece together clues by visiting locations, examining evidence, and following the movements of suspects across New York City. The game also includes some arcade-style minigames and action sequences, though these are secondary to the investigation mechanics10.

Reception

Contemporary Reviews

PublicationScoreNotes
Computer and Video Games88%“Having persevered with it, I am currently impressed and intrigued by its puzzles”18
The Games Machine67%Mixed reception18
Computer EntertainerN/A”We found Manhunter: New York a fascinating and very sophisticated role-playing game that is quite out of the ordinary”19

Modern Assessment

Modern retrospective reviews have been mixed but acknowledge the game’s unique contributions to adventure gaming. Adventure Classic Gaming gave it a 2/5 rating, with reviewer Jeremiah Kauffman describing it as “A game that is bad, yet interesting, with something in between that evades definition”2. On aggregate sites, the game has received varied scores: IMDb users rate it 7.2/1020, while MobyGames shows 65% from critics and 3.5/5 from players1.

PC Gamer’s Richard Cobbett noted that “Manhunter is one of the weirdest SF adventures ever made” and observed that while “These were not particularly good adventures, but it’s easy to see why people remember them so fondly”21. User reviews on preservation sites like MyAbandonware show a rating of 4.32/510, suggesting the game has found appreciation among retro gaming enthusiasts who value its atmospheric qualities and unique approach to adventure gaming.

Development

Origins

Manhunter: New York was developed by Evryware, a company founded by the Murray siblings, rather than Sierra’s in-house development team22. The game was designed by Dave and Barry Murray using a modified AGI (Adventure Game Interpreter) system11. Despite Sierra having their newer SCI (Sierra Creative Interpreter) system available, the sequel Manhunter 2: San Francisco also used the older AGI system16.

Production

The development team included executive producer Ken Williams, with the game system developed by Jeff Stephenson, Robert Heitman, and Chris Iden1. Documentation was handled by Jerry Albright and Dave Murray, while location research was conducted by Dr. Gary Stonedahl and Julie Stonedahl1. Barry Murray also served as the composer for the game’s music1.

The game represented a significant technical achievement, as one analysis noted: “Technical accomplishments with AGI engine were impressive, making a kind of game it was not designed for”16. The Apple II version included a unique feature where players could skip the challenging sewer maze due to memory limitations on that platform16.

Technical Achievements

Manhunter: New York was groundbreaking in several technical aspects. The game featured 16-color EGA graphics and supported multiple graphics modes including CGA, MCGA, EGA, Hercules, Tandy/PCjr, and VGA8. It was distributed on two floppy disks and required only 256KB of RAM, making it accessible to a wide range of computer systems4.

The game’s use of real New York City locations and its first-person interface were innovative for the time. As one retrospective noted, “Many of the things the Manhunter games did would later become popular (first-person adventures, puzzles of the kind seen in Ripper and Black Dahlia, graphic horror, ‘detective’-based gameplay)“16.

Legacy

Despite its unique approach and technical innovations, the Manhunter series was discontinued after the second game. However, as one source clarifies, “Contrary to popular belief, the Manhunter series was not discontinued owing to poor sales or lack of consumer interest. The games were critically acclaimed and sold well, and the series was never (and still has not been) officially canceled”5. Two additional games were planned for London and other cities but were never produced4.

The game has maintained a dedicated fan following, with users on GOG’s wishlist expressing continued interest in seeing the game re-released. Fan comments include praise like “one of the better games from Sierra,” “It’s a masterpiece that should not be forgotten,” and appreciation for its “superb story line and universe”23. The game’s influence can be seen in later adventure games that adopted similar first-person perspectives and detective-based gameplay mechanics.

Fan-created unofficial patches have been developed to address minor technical issues, demonstrating the game’s enduring appeal among retro gaming enthusiasts22. The game remains notable for being very different from other AGI games in both interface and perspective16.

Downloads

Purchase / Digital Stores

  • Currently not available on major digital platforms
  • GOG Dreamlist - Community wishlist

Download / Preservation

Series Continuity

References

Footnotes

  1. MobyGames – - Developer and designer credits ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9

  2. Adventure Classic Gaming – - Game setting and year ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  3. Old Games – - Orb description and occupation details ↩

  4. PC Gaming Wiki – - Basic game premise ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  5. Classic Reload – - Visual style and thematic differences ↩ ↩2

  6. Archive.org Manual – - Official game description ↩ ↩2

  7. Abandonware DOS Manual – - Game objective and role ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  8. MobyGames Specs – - Platform information ↩ ↩2

  9. Lemon Amiga – - Game plot description ↩

  10. MyAbandonware – - Alien occupation rules ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  11. Retro Freak Reviews – - Manhunter role description ↩ ↩2

  12. IGN – - Game summary with MAD device ↩ ↩2

  13. TV Tropes – - Gameplay mechanics ↩

  14. Wikipedia – - Plot twist revelation ↩

  15. Abandonware DOS – - Control scheme description ↩

  16. Banjo’s Mods – - Interface and theme description ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  17. Lemon Amiga Walkthrough – - MAD device mechanics ↩

  18. Sierra Fandom – - Computer Gaming World review quote ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  19. Sierra Interaction – - Computer Entertainer review ↩

  20. IMDb – - User rating ↩

  21. PC Gamer – - Retrospective assessment ↩

  22. Larry Laffer – - Development origin ↩ ↩2

  23. GOG Dreamlist – - Fan comments and praise ↩

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