Manhunter 2: San Francisco

Last updated: January 13, 2026

Overview

Manhunter 2: San Francisco is a 1989 science fiction adventure game developed by Evryware and published by Sierra On-Line.¹ Picking up immediately where Manhunter: New York left off, the game has the player crash-landing their stolen Orb ship in the City by the Bay, continuing their covert rebellion against the alien occupation.² The game represents a huge departure from Sierra’s normal adventure games, offering a dystopian horror theme with a first-person interface and mixing minigames with puzzles—a remarkable accomplishment for its time.³

The Manhunter series stands as one of the weirdest science fiction adventures ever made, featuring a post-alien invasion apocalyptic dystopia with no dialogue at all.⁴ The alien Orbs that terrorised New York have now spread to San Francisco, where humans must wear hooded robes and may not speak to one another on pain of death.⁵ As a Manhunter working for orb-shaped aliens, players must find and join the underground movement to free the Earth from slavery while maintaining their cover.⁶

Many of the things the Manhunter games pioneered would later become popular in adventure gaming: first-person adventures, puzzles of the kind seen in Ripper and Black Dahlia, graphic horror, and detective-based gameplay.³ The games foreshadowed later landmark titles like Myst with their first-person perspective and environmental puzzle-solving approach.⁷ Though not among Sierra’s best-remembered titles, lacking the recognizability of Space Quest and Leisure Suit Larry, the series earned a devoted cult following for its atmospheric storytelling and distinctive gameplay.⁴

Game Info

Developer: Evryware¹ Designer: Barry Murry, Dave Murry, Dee Dee Murry¹ Publisher: Sierra On-Line¹ Engine: Adventure Game Interpreter (AGI)² Platforms: MS-DOS, Amiga, Atari ST, Macintosh¹ Release Year: 1989 Series: Manhunter Protagonist: Unnamed Manhunter Sierra Lineage: External Development

Story Summary

The game opens with a dramatic continuation from the first game’s cliffhanger: the player character, having stolen an Orb ship at the end of Manhunter: New York, crash-lands in San Francisco while pursuing the serial killer Phil Cook.² The Earth has been invaded by the Orb Alliance, and a tightly restricted regime has been instituted for the humans that remain.⁸ Two years after the invasion, humanity lives enslaved by the Orbs, forbidden from communicating or showing any individual identity.⁹

The Orbs, who look like giant floating eyeballs, have implanted all humans with global tracking devices, forced them to wear nondescript robes, and forbidden them from speaking or communicating.¹⁰ Speaking is forbidden, brown robes must be worn at all times, and human activity is monitored through the MAD (Manhunter Assignment Device).¹¹ It’s a capital offense for any human to speak at any time, making the resistance’s communication network all the more dangerous and vital.¹²

As a Manhunter working for the alien occupation, the player must track down humans suspected of resistance activities while secretly working against their alien masters.¹³ The player is an unnamed Manhunter employed by the Orbs to investigate the human resistance while also chasing a psychotic murderer through the ruins of San Francisco.¹⁴ The game is split into three days, following the same structure as the first game, with each day bringing new assignments and revelations.²

The game reaches its climax when the player is on the verge of catching Phil Cook. Phil narrowly escapes in an Orb ship with the player hanging on to the outside, flying off towards London—setting up a third game that was planned but never produced.¹⁵ This cliffhanger ending left players anticipating a conclusion to the trilogy that would never materialize.

Gameplay

Interface and Controls

Playing the game involves no text input at all, making it a groundbreaking departure from Sierra’s parser-based adventures.⁵ Everything is controlled by cursor keys, joystick, or mouse, with options accessed from pull-down menus.⁵ This approach made Manhunter: New York the first Sierra-published game to break the text parser interface entirely.⁸ The game uses a very Myst-like first-person perspective, remarkable given that all other Sierra games of the era were third-person.¹⁶

The unique interface includes a tracking mechanic using the MAD device, allowing players to tag and follow other characters’ movements throughout the day and unlock additional locations to investigate.¹⁷ The background artwork and character portraits are extremely well done and highly detailed, compensating for the lack of traditional dialogue with strong visual storytelling.¹⁷ The game tells its story entirely through visuals and environmental clues, requiring players to pay close attention to details on screen.¹⁸

Structure and Progression

The game is divided into three days, maintaining the same structure as Manhunter: New York:²

• Day One: The player crash-lands in San Francisco and must establish their cover while beginning to investigate the local resistance movement.
• Day Two: Investigations deepen as the player uncovers more about both the serial killer Phil Cook and the organized human resistance.
• Day Three: The climactic confrontation leads to the pursuit of Phil Cook and the dramatic cliffhanger ending.

Each day presents the player with a set of locations to explore and suspects to track, with progress gated by puzzle completion and successful navigation of the arcade sequences.²

Puzzles and Mechanics

In spite of the arcade sequences, this is a clever game that requires players to really look at the screen and remember what they see.¹⁹ The game combines a mixture of adventure and arcade action, with investigative puzzles punctuated by action-oriented minigames.¹¹ The Manhunter series mixed adventure puzzles with mazes, math puzzles, and arcade sequences in ways that were innovative but occasionally frustrating for players seeking pure adventure gameplay.³

The core detective gameplay involves tracking suspects using the MAD device, examining crime scenes for clues, and piecing together the identities and activities of resistance members.⁶ The game has less frustrating arcade sequences compared to the first game, addressing one of the primary criticisms of Manhunter: New York.⁶ An “OOPS” feature allows the programmers to appear and give hints if the player makes a fatal error, providing some relief from the game’s difficulty.²⁰

Reception

Contemporary Reviews

Computer and Video Games awarded Manhunter 2: San Francisco 61% in their 1990 review, finding it showed potential but needed more development to be considered more than a worthy peculiarity.¹⁵ The publication noted that while the game offered interesting puzzles, it fell short of its predecessor in some areas. Keith Campbell of Computer and Video Games wrote that having persevered with the first game, he was “currently impressed and intrigued by its puzzles,” though his assessment of the sequel was more measured.¹⁹

The Manhunter series as a whole received mixed contemporary reception. Power Play Issue 01/1990 named Manhunter: New York the #2 Best Adventure of 1989, indicating the series had significant industry recognition despite its niche appeal.⁸ Computer Gaming World praised the original game for requiring players to really examine the screen and remember details, and similar observations applied to the sequel.¹⁹

Modern Assessment

Modern retrospectives acknowledge the series as an important but flawed experiment. PC Gamer’s Richard Cobbett wrote that “these were not particularly good adventures, but it’s easy to see why people remember them so fondly.”⁴ The game is recognized as one of Sierra Online’s lesser-known games, lacking the recognizability of flagship series while offering a uniquely atmospheric experience.⁴

The games are considered solid underdogs, but not for the faint of heart or anyone who is reflex-impaired due to the arcade sequences.⁶ Fan communities continue to express strong appreciation, with players noting the series featured “great atmospheric games, with a superb story line and universe.”²¹

Aggregate Scores:

• MobyGames: 60%²
• Abandonware DOS: 4.00/5.00²²
• MyAbandonware: 3.99/5⁶
• HOTUD: 3.99/5⁶

Development

Origins

The Manhunter series was created by Evryware, a small development team consisting of siblings Dave Murry, Barry Murry, and Dee Dee Murry.¹ The Murrys had previously developed The Ancient Art of War before moving to adventure game development.²³ Sierra On-Line published the games, though development was handled externally by the Evryware team, giving the series a distinctive voice separate from Sierra’s in-house productions.³

The original Manhunter: New York was inspired by Blade Runner and other dystopian science fiction, creating a unique blend of detective work and post-apocalyptic survival.¹² The success of the first game, which sold approximately 100,000 copies, led directly to the development of Manhunter 2: San Francisco.²⁴ Manhunter: New York was even named Game of the Year in 1988, further justifying the sequel’s production.²⁴

Production

The developers actually visited San Francisco to accurately represent city locations, bringing the same attention to real-world detail that characterized the first game’s depiction of New York.² For the original game, the Murrys had spent two days photographing New York locations for game accuracy, establishing a methodology they continued for the sequel.¹² This commitment to authentic settings was unusual for adventure games of the era and contributed to the series’ distinctive atmosphere.

Development used Sierra’s Adventure Game Interpreter (AGI), despite the newer SCI system being available by the time of Manhunter 2’s development.⁷ The game represents one of the last titles to use the AGI engine, with only King’s Quest IV sharing that distinction among later releases.¹⁷ The technical accomplishments with the AGI engine were impressive given that the engine wasn’t designed for the type of game Evryware was creating.³

Development Credits:¹²

• Designers: Barry Murry, Dave Murry, Dee Dee Murry
• Additional Design: Barbara Ward
• Composer: Barry Murry
• Engine: Sierra Adventure Game Interpreter (AGI)

Barry Murry handled both design and music composition duties for the series, creating the atmospheric audio that complemented the dark visual style.² Sadly, Barry Murry passed away in the mid-2000s, and any hopes for revisiting the series died with him.³

Technical Achievements

The Manhunter games pioneered several innovations that would become standard in later adventure games. The first-person perspective was remarkable for Sierra titles of the era, all of which used third-person views.¹⁶ The point-and-click interface without text parser input was groundbreaking—Manhunter: New York was the first Sierra game to break entirely from text input.⁸

The MAD tracking device represented an innovative gameplay mechanic, allowing players to observe suspect movements throughout the day and unlock new investigation areas.¹⁷ The games used unusual camera angles and picture-in-picture techniques that pushed the AGI engine beyond its intended capabilities.¹² The modified AGI interpreter allowed for presentations that other games using the engine simply couldn’t achieve.

Technical Specifications

DOS Version:⁶

• Resolution: Below 320x200 (AGI standard)
• Audio: PC Speaker
• Disk Space: Approximately 1 MB
• Media: 3.5” and 5.25” Floppy Disks

Amiga Version:⁶

• Disk Space: 3 MB
• Input: Keyboard, Joystick, Mouse

Atari ST Version:⁶

• Disk Space: 7 MB
• Input: Keyboard, Joystick, Mouse

Cut Content

Manhunter 3: London was planned as the conclusion to the trilogy but was never created.¹⁴ The cliffhanger ending of Manhunter 2, with Phil Cook escaping toward London, was specifically designed to set up this third installment.⁴ The developers had even conceptualized a potential fourth game set on the Orbs’ home planet, showing ambitious plans for the series’ future.⁷

According to forum posts from Mike Murry, a prototype for Manhunter 3 was being developed as of April 2008, tentatively titled “Manhunter 3: Ultimate Online Adventure.”²⁵ However, the series ended due to business negotiations with Broderbund and lack of continued Sierra support.²⁵ The planned third game remains one of adventure gaming’s most mourned unrealized sequels.

Version History

Version	Date	Platform	Notes
1.0	Mid 1989	MS-DOS	Initial release15
1.0	Mid 1989	Atari ST	Initial release15
1.0	Mid 1989	Macintosh	Initial release15
1.0	1990	Amiga	Delayed port2

AGI Interpreter Version:²

Game Version	Interpreter	Type	Notes
1.0	AGI	AGI 3	Final AGI game

Note: Manhunter 2 was one of the last games to use the AGI interpreter, released alongside King’s Quest IV before Sierra transitioned fully to SCI.¹⁷

Technical Issues

The game requires special setup to run on Windows 10 and higher, and the configuration must be done every time the PC is restarted.²⁶ Unofficial patches have been created to address various graphical glitches and bugs, including miscolored pixels in animations and cursor glitches during specific interactions.³

Known bugs addressed by unofficial patches include:³

• Miscolored pixel in home elevator animation
• Incorrect hand color when walking with MAD at home
• Incorrect leg color when sitting on restroom toilets
• Incorrect Phil’s hand color during knife fight minigame
• Profile format inconsistencies in MAD/HDS system
• Cursor glitches when viewing certain scenes

Easter Eggs and Trivia

The Manhunter series includes creator cameos: the Murry siblings appear after the player dies, delivering limerick-style death descriptions.²³ This tongue-in-cheek approach to player death was unusual for the otherwise dark and serious tone of the games.

• The game contains no dialogue whatsoever, telling its entire story through visuals and environmental clues.¹⁶
• The series was notable for featuring heavy gore content, especially for its era in gaming.¹⁷
• Manhunter was one of the last AGI games made, with only King’s Quest 4 coming afterwards using that engine.¹⁷
• The game’s setting in 2004 (referenced from the first game) has become an interesting piece of retrofuturism, depicting an alien invasion occurring just 16 years after the game’s 1988 release.¹²

Legacy

Sales and Commercial Impact

Manhunter 2: San Francisco sold approximately 100,000 copies, matching its predecessor’s commercial performance.¹⁵ While not a blockbuster by Sierra standards, this was sufficient to demonstrate market interest, though not enough to guarantee the planned third installment. The game’s intellectual property is currently owned by Activision, following their 2008 acquisition of Sierra’s catalog.¹⁵

Collections

Unlike many Sierra titles, the Manhunter games were never released in CD-ROM collections and remain available only in their original retail floppy versions.³ The series has not appeared on digital distribution platforms like GOG or Steam, despite fan requests for a Manhunter Bundle containing both games.²¹ This absence from modern storefronts has contributed to the series’ obscurity among contemporary adventure game enthusiasts.

Fan Projects

Unofficial fix patches have been created to address minor glitches and graphical issues in both Manhunter games.³ These patches correct various visual bugs that were present in the original releases. The fan community has worked to preserve and document the games despite their lack of official digital releases.

Fan sites like the Manhunter Shrine continue to host documentation, patches, and preservation resources for both games.²⁷ The series maintains a small but dedicated fanbase who appreciate its unique contributions to the adventure game genre.

Related Publications

• Manhunter’s Field Guide: Included documentation establishing the game’s dystopian setting, opening with “It’s been two long, tedious years since the invasion. They came suddenly, like a thief in the night… it was all over by dawn’s first light.”²³

Critical Perspective

The Manhunter series occupies a unique place in adventure gaming history as a bold experiment that pointed toward the genre’s future while remaining anchored in technical limitations of its era. The games were recognized for their “real-world” settings and distinctive gameplay, differentiating them from the fantasy and comedy titles that dominated Sierra’s catalog.²⁴ Though not commercially dominant, the series demonstrated that adventure games could explore darker themes and alternative interface paradigms.

Modern critics acknowledge the Manhunter games as important historical artifacts despite their flaws. The series’ influence can be traced through later detective-based adventures and first-person puzzle games, from Ripper and Black Dahlia to the Myst phenomenon.³ While not Sierra’s best work, the games represent a fascinating creative risk—a dystopian horror series with no dialogue, first-person perspective, and mature themes that stood apart from everything else the company produced.⁴

Downloads

Download / Preservation

• MyAbandonware – Manhunter 2: San Francisco

Note: The Manhunter games are not currently available on GOG or Steam. The series rights are held by Activision.¹⁵²¹

Series Continuity

Manhunter 2: San Francisco picks up immediately where its predecessor left off, continuing the unnamed protagonist’s rebellion against the Orb Alliance.² The game maintains all the core gameplay mechanics and dystopian setting established in the first game while expanding the scope to a new city. The cliffhanger ending was designed to lead directly into a planned Manhunter 3: London, which was never produced despite fan interest and developer intent.⁴

The series was conceived as a trilogy with potential for additional installments, but ended after only two games due to business complications and the departure of Evryware from Sierra-affiliated development.²⁵ The unresolved storyline—with Phil Cook escaping toward London and the player literally hanging onto his ship—remains one of adventure gaming’s most memorable cliffhangers.

• Previous: 1988 - Manhunter - New York
• Next: Manhunter 3: London (Cancelled)

References

Footnotes

1. Wikipedia – Manhunter 2: San Francisco – developer, publisher, designers, platforms, release dates ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

2. MobyGames – Manhunter 2: San Francisco – release dates, technical details, gameplay description, aggregate scores ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³

3. Banjo’s Mods – Manhunter – development history, bugs, engine details, industry influence ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹

4. PC Gamer – Saturday Crapshoot: Manhunter – retrospective analysis, critical assessment ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

5. Computer and Video Games Issue 100 – interface description, setting details ↩ ↩² ↩³

6. MyAbandonware – Manhunter 2: San Francisco – platform versions, file sizes, user ratings ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

7. Classic Reload – Manhunter: New York – Myst comparison, planned sequels, engine history ↩ ↩² ↩³

8. MobyGames – Manhunter: New York – interface innovation, awards, platform details ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

9. Retro Freak Reviews – Manhunter: New York – setting description, historical context ↩

10. OldGames.sk – Manhunter: New York – game description, Orb mechanics ↩

11. MobyGames User Review – Katakis – gameplay description, MAD mechanics ↩ ↩²

12. Adventure Gamer Blog – Manhunter 1 Introduction – development notes, Blade Runner influence, location photography ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

13. Sierra Gamers – Manhunter 1 – gameplay description ↩

14. Sierra Fandom – Manhunter – series overview, planned third game ↩ ↩²

15. Wikipedia – Manhunter 2: San Francisco – sales data, C&VG review, plot summary, Activision ownership ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

16. Banjo’s Mods – DOS Games/Manhunter – first-person perspective, no dialogue, unique features ↩ ↩² ↩³

17. Alex Bevilacqua Blog – Manhunter: New York – MAD tracking mechanic, artwork quality, gore content, AGI history ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

18. Computer Gaming World – visual attention requirements ↩

19. Manhunter Fandom – Manhunter: New York – CGW review, Keith Campbell C&VG review ↩ ↩² ↩³

20. Lemon Amiga – Manhunter Documentation – OOPS feature, gameplay mechanics ↩

21. GOG Wishlist – Manhunter: New York – fan requests, copyright holder, community appreciation ↩ ↩² ↩³

22. Abandonware DOS – Manhunter 2: San Francisco – user rating, platform information ↩

23. TV Tropes – Manhunter – developer history, easter eggs, Manhunter’s Field Guide quote ↩ ↩² ↩³

24. Manhunter Fandom – Evryware – sales data, Game of the Year, real-world settings ↩ ↩² ↩³

25. Sierra Gamers Forum – Why Was There Never a Third Game – Manhunter 3 prototype, business reasons for cancellation ↩ ↩² ↩³

26. Steam Community – Manhunter Guides – Windows 10 compatibility issues ↩

27. Larry Laffer.net – Manhunter Shrine – fan patches, preservation efforts ↩