In 1981, ” Softporn Adventure ” was born, a text adventure that sought to open new frontiers exploring sexual themes. What struck him most is his classic cover, with three naked women bathing in a Jacuzzi accompanied by a fully dressed waiter serving them drinks.
They were not models or actors hired for the occasion, the jacuzzi was Ken and Roberta Williams, the owners of the company that would end up being Sierra, then called On-line Systems, and the women were an employee of the company, the wife of another employee,
and the queen of the adventure itself: Roberta Williams, wearing a splendid 28 years back then. The game and the impressive cover led to TIME magazineto publish his first article on the videogame industry, but he did not initiate any large-scale trend for erotic games.
After a while, with the company converted to Sierra and already one of the major references in the sector, another employee of the company took interest in the concept and raised the possibility of updating it and turning it into a graphic adventure. Of course, that employee was
Al Lowe, professional saxophonist and self-taught programmer that Sierra had hired after buying the rights to his first three homemade games. The funny thing is that in the time he had been working at the company he had specialized in Disney adventures of children like the Black Cauldron or Winnie of Pooh and only the cancellation of another project of that court allowed
Lowe to propose to Ken Williams reinvent Softporn Adventure with the SCI engine of King’s Quest . This is how Larry, Larry Laffe,would be bornr, the most famous “playboy” in the videogame world and an iconic character where there are.
About to turn forty, virgin and desperate to find the “true love”, Larry is equipped with his party outfit of the 70s, mouth spray and the worst phrases to flirt in the story of the flirt to go to the city of Lost Wages , a place of sin and perversion where he hopes to find the woman of his life.
Although initially it would go unnoticed, word of mouth managed to make Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of Lounge Wizards become a great success and ultimately in a saga as successful as King’s Quest itself, one of the names that defined the success and influence of Sierra.
After saying goodbye in the best possible way, with the excellent Love For Sail , considered by many fans as the best of the series. It would have been a great way to close the hectic life of Larry Laffer, but when Activision merged with Vivendi he not only acquired Blizzard.,
which by name and independence maintained its name and independence, but acquired a long list of properties belonging to the French giant, including all Sierra properties, including Larry . In order to get something out of the matter, two games were developed, to which
worse: Magna Cum Laude and the misfortune that is Box Office Burst . For those who grew up with this saga it was bad enough to know that there was not going to be more, but on top of having to see how good Larry was crawling through the mud was doubly regrettable.
That’s why when in the first batch of big Kickstarter projects appeared ” Leisure Suit Larry: Reloaded“, Many fans looked with hope.
Tim Schafer had opened the doors with his promised return to the graphic adventure, reaping millions of dollars of fans eager for the return of the author of Grim Fandango to the genre, so Al Lowe was also encouraged with the matter, although from a different position. Tim Schafe spoke as the founder and owner of Double Fine, so his bet was greater,
Al Lowe was not the owner of the group responsible for the project, Replay Games, and his role in the remake is of designer and consultant, as well of the fundamental thing that it turns out to have in pursuit of credibility. This and the fact that it was a remake, made the campaign not as explosive as other Kickstarters of classics, but would end up getting a very respectable $ 650,000 to resuscitate Larry and, perhaps, to lay the foundations for new adventures if everything went well.
