Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective is a full-motion video game released in 1991. It is based on a tabletop game-gamebook hybrid of the same name first published in 1981, and features the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, created by Arthur Conan Doyle.

The video game was originally developed by ICOM Simulations for the FM Towns computer and later ported to DOS, Macintosh, Commodore CDTV, TurboGrafx-CD, Sega CD and Tandy Video Information System with all versions being distributed on CD-ROM. The game was re-released as a DVD for use with a standard DVD player and television in 1999. A high resolution and re-mastered version of the game for iPad, Microsoft Windows, and OS X was released on September 18, 2012.^[1]

The game uses live actors and sets as the player controls Sherlock Holmes and his longtime partner Dr. Watson, trying to solve three separate crimes by visiting various locations, listening to the dialogue, reading the included mock London newspapers, and, when the player gets enough evidence, answering the judge's questions.

At the beginning of each case a full motion video clip depicts Holmes and Watson meeting a client and learning a few background clues about the case. Then the player must choose a particular location or person from the directory to visit, read the London newspapers for clues or ask one of the young Baker Street Irregulars to investigate. A full motion video clip will play each time the player visits a relevant person or location. Selecting an irrelevant location to visit results in a short audio clip of dialogue between Holmes and Watson, and impacts the player's score. The object of each case is to gather enough clues in the lowest number of visits possible, then go before a judge who will then ask the player to answer the important questions about the case. If the player is successful, Dr. Watson will reveal the player's score, based on the number of visits it took to solve the case. The player can view a full motion video clip set in Holmes' and Watson's study where they will review the events that transpired.

There are several general informants (also portrayed by actors) who can be visited in multiple cases across the Consulting Detective games, including characters from Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories, namely Inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard, former criminal Shinwell Johnson, and gossip columnist Langdale Pike.^[2]

The game had a budget of more than $2 million.^[3]

More information Publication, Score ...

Review scores

Publication	Score
AllGame	(Sega CD)[4]
Dragon	(TurboGrafx-CD)[5]
Wizard	B (Sega CD)[6]

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The three volumes of Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective sold over 360,000 copies across all platforms by 1994.^[7]

Dragon gave the TurboGrafx-CD version of Sherlock Holmes 5 out of 5 stars.^[5] Computer Gaming World favorably described the game's videos' production values as "low-end television production quality ... equal to an average public television production". The magazine recommended the game "with qualifications", calling it "a ground-breaking product with whiz-bang technology that demonstrates the full potential of multimedia", but with "limited play life" due to lack of replayability.^[8] In a review for Wizard, Glenn Rubenstein listed the use of live actors and the absence of slow down in the Sega CD version as strong points, but remarked that "the interactivity level is lacking", and that the Sega CD version offered nothing new to those who had played any of the game's previous versions. He gave it a B.^[6] In a retrospective review, Jonathan Sutyak of Allgame gave the Sega CD version a score of 2.5 out of 5 stars praising the actors and the dialogue being clear and well acted, although commenting that there is a large amount of FMV and little gameplay and felt the game does not offer the player enough to do. He thought that Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective will probably bore those who like detective and adventure games.^[4]

• Ação Games (Dec, 1993)^[9]
• Mega Drive Advanced Gaming (May 1993)^[10]
• MegaTech (Apr, 1993)^[11]
• TurboPlay (Apr, 1991)^[12]
• Power Play (Dec, 1992)^[13]