
Leisure Suit Larry - radagaisus
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1451923705/make-leisure-suit-larry-come-again
======
kennu
One interesting fact: Leisure Suit Larry is pretty much directly based on the
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Softporn_Adventure> text adventure game. If you
try it, you'll find the plot and the surroundings very familiar.

Personally I discovered this while reading [http://www.amazon.com/Hackers-
Computer-Revolution-Anniversar...](http://www.amazon.com/Hackers-Computer-
Revolution-Anniversary-ebook/dp/B003PDMKIY) which I recommend to anyone.

~~~
tbsdy
Wow... according to Wikipedia, the women on the box were all employees of On-
Line Systems, the precursor to Sierra. One of them is a bookkeeper! I'd be
curious as to how the convinced them to pose naked on the box.

~~~
waterlesscloud
Well, it says one is Roberta Williams, who co-owned the company. And the hot
tub.

~~~
motti_s
Talk about setting an example to your employees...

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i386
The game has no major female characters who aren't hookers.

No arguing that LSL has its place in gaming history, but it doesn't have a
place in a future that is trying its hardest to remove objectification of
women from society.

EDIT: The down voting button is not a disagree button. If you disagree, reply!

~~~
tbsdy
I have to agree with i386. There's a pretty disturbing screenshot where Larry
says that "this is the hooker's seedy bedroom. The bed's a mess, so is the
hooker!".

[http://www.replaygamesinc.com/wp-
content/uploads/2012/04/tum...](http://www.replaygamesinc.com/wp-
content/uploads/2012/04/tumblr_lik4z2KBjJ1qambyno1_400.jpg)

~~~
dagw
Which bit to you find disturbing? The fact that the game acknowledges the
existence of hookers, the fact that the game draws attention to the fact that
many hookers work out of pretty seedy bedrooms or the fact that the game draws
attention that many hookers end up looking less than their best.

Would you have preferred "this is the hooker's fabulous bedroom. The bed's
perfectly clean, so is the hooker!"

~~~
tbsdy
Try not to use begging the question as an argument.

But what makes me sad is the second part. Because it's in a game, and it's
done to be funny.

I'm not shocked by the existence of hookers. I should be, but I'm
desensitized.

~~~
toyg
Oh come on, how could you ever be shocked by what is commonly known as "the
oldest profession"?

I'm not saying it's a nice job, but neither it is fixing sewage pipes. You
should be shocked that _pimps_ exist, maybe, but then again their role is
quite natural and I'm sure some of them are quite the professional. The
massive amount of abuse surrounding the "industry" is a problem, but it's
hardly the only industry where management can abuse the workforce.

~~~
dcrankshaw
While I tend to agree with your sentiment, comparing prostitution to fixing
sewage pipes is not really a fair comparison. Also, the number of industries
where abuse by management involves physical violence is rather limited (as far
as I know). I believe I understand what you are saying, but I think these
points weaken your argument.

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jaredsohn
If you want to play King's Quest I, Police Quest I, Space Quest I or a few
other Sierra games legally in your browser (HTML5) right now, go here:
<http://sarien.net/>. The blog says that they used to also have Leisure Suit
Larry but had to take it down since Activision had sold the IP.

This was posted on Hacker News a couple of months ago:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3591342>

~~~
jaredsohn
Also, various groups have remade Sierra games:

Kings Quest I/II/III, Quest For Glory II:
<http://www.agdinteractive.com/games/games.html>

Space Quest II / Kings Quest III: <http://www.infamous-adventures.com/>

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un1xl0ser
I remember asking my parents for the age verification questions to be able to
run LSL when I was a kid. I would head downstairs and ask her random trivia
questions because it was easier than asking the Encyclopedia Britannica or
what passed for the internet in those days. Obviously this day and age this is
not possible due to Wikipedia, but in it's time and place it made me more
likely to play rogue and/or do something productive with my computer.

Not sure if anyone remembers that aspect of it, but I still do.

If there was a moral story, it was lost on me at that age, and not likely to
revisit it. Certainly better than Custer's Revenge, which is a horrifying
concept and makes me very sad.

If you think that LSL is a good and relevant example of misogyny and bad
attitudes towards women, then apparently you never turn on your TV, watch
movies or look at at advertisements around you. A rehash of LSL is the least
of our problems in this space.

People feel better when you treat them as people, not objects. This goes for
men and women. We're all human and deserve a lot of respect and understanding.

Some people probably like the cheap thrills that the game offers, some are
nostalgic, some may be interested in social commentary. This is all quite all
right and healthy.

// I got Neil Young's "Pochohontas" associated with that terrible game.
AAAAAAAAHHH. :'(

~~~
artmageddon
Do you recall what kind of questions the game would ask? Most games typically
asked something out of the user manual.

~~~
kgreene2
Al Lowe has all the questions listed
<http://www.allowe.com/Larry/1questions.htm>

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danso
I think the fact that this is primarily a PC port with iOS/Android merely a
possibility is a deal-killer for me, thhe content notwithstanding. I'm not
saying that PCs aren't technically the largest gaming platform by user
base...I'm saying that the largest base of casual gamers with money to blow by
far is iOS and Android. From what I remember, LSL and Kings Quest were largely
casual in mechanic.

Secret of Monkey Island and several of the modern Capcom adventure games
(Phantom Detective) have made successful transitions. If this is being built
from scratch, why is this not focused on what is clearly becoming the biggest
casual gaming platform?

~~~
ergo14
Because the game is not going to be casualized, that was clearly stated - they
will not dumb it down. If it's a problem then I guess you don't have to chip
in. Lets just vote with wallets.

~~~
danso
Sorry, just because something is "stated", like, "This game is going to be the
best game ever made", doesn't necessarily make it so. How exactly is LSL going
to be made less casual than the original? Is there a first-person shooter
being integrated into it? 3D graphics? Will it require a dedicated controller?

Assuming all the answers to those questions are no, then this is a game that
would easily fit on the Android/iOS platforms, where much more complex
adventure games have already been ported (Secret of Monkey Island, Capcom's
Phantom Detective, etc).

~~~
jiggy2011
From the video I saw it looked like they were planning to make tablets a first
class citizen with this game.

I can however see this going more for the nostalgia market than the "casual"
market as such.

I can see that it would work well on a tablet but there may be other reasons
to port to the PC first.

For example there the already existing codebase (although massively out of
date). Also their developers may be more familiar with programming for the PC,
so it may just be quicker to bring to market on that platform. Also at the
moment there are just more people that own PCs than there are who own iPads.

If there is sufficient interest/funding for this project I doubt that it will
not be released for tablet devices at some stage.

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bane
Why stretch it out more? LSL was fun, but it's time is passed. Why not
something new like "Skinny Tie Sam" or "Pleather Pants Paul"? Create the world
from scratch and don't be beholden to what's come before.

 _edit_ in case anybody is interested, they should check out Matt Chat on
Youtube, some of the most compelling interviews with adventure game designers
of the past...

Here's Part 1 of "Al Lowe" (designer of LSL)
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PGGEFQdZuw>

~~~
Gring
Agree. Larry was a child of its time. There should be no remake of "National
Lampoon's Vacation", and for the exact same reason, for LSL.

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coderdude
I never played the LSL series but I'm a big fan of the classic adventure games
(Space Quest and Full Throttle -- if you've never played them, you've been
robbed). Maybe if this works out we'll see some more revivals. This genre in
this style was completely lost in the rush to move everything to three
dimensions. There are moments and feelings that simply can't be captured by
other genres. The fact that they hold the rights and have Al Lowe on board
makes this unbelievably cool. Good luck, guys!

~~~
gcp
_Full Throttle_

I had an interesting OMG moment a while ago realizing that was also one of Tim
Schafer's games.

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superrad
Looks like they ran out of money or are just looking to pocket some free
money, considering they announced the project last year :
[http://www.egmnow.com/articles/exclusive-leisure-suit-
larry-...](http://www.egmnow.com/articles/exclusive-leisure-suit-larry-
returns-in-hd/)

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thetron
If amazing adventure game developers of yesteryear continue to start
Kickstarter projects, I am going to end up seriously broke.

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eps
Space Quest! Space Quest! Space! Quest! SPACE QUEST!!

~~~
sgt
I absolutely agree with you. But if they make LSL for now, it'll keep me
occupied and happy for a while before we get to meet Roger Wilco again.

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minikomi
I think this genre of games is ripe for a comeback on iOS. Just try to avoid
having the keyboard pop up all the time and it should be great.. Although
discovering the secret commands and hidden jokes by randomly trying words was
half the fun of the old Quest titles.

~~~
chubs
I've started an ios game in the spirit of SQ2, have done a lot of the code,
production artwork for a few scenes, and scribbled artwork for all the rest.
I'd love to finish it but my designer is too busy to continue.

~~~
eps
Got any scribbles to share? Sounds really interesting.

~~~
chubs
Have a look if you're interested:

<http://lauradesign.com.au/on-fire>

<http://lauradesign.com.au/to-the-bat-cave>

<http://lauradesign.com.au/what-the-rock-is-that>

I've made an objc framework for quest games, ready to go, just need lots of
artwork. Maybe we'll finish it one day...

~~~
Kucher
Too bad the project has stalled... these look great.

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bishnu
Ever wish sometimes you could take money _away_ from Kickstarter projects? LSL
is one of those things that should be left in the '80s.

~~~
tybris
Why? There are people who might enjoy this. How does this bother you?

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adrianwaj
I'm thinking a film would be better as Larry hits the social networks and
stumbles across a plot to spike drinks city-wide, something mixing American
Pie, James Bond and Austin Powers - with/without CGI females?

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TomGullen
Loved this game as a kid. My granddad had a computer with it installed. When
he was downstairs talking to my parents I'd load it up. At the beginning of
the game it had a bunch of questions to 'prove you were and adult'. I rarely
got past those questions! That was half the fun, when I actually got in the
game I didn't really know what to do but loved the way you could apparently do
anything.

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Shivetya
Someone please bring Starflight back. Hell, they could simply use the exact
story of the original and its sequel and have two great games.

Well provided they don't make it first person :P

There are so many great games from the eighties. Many of them had to have
original elements and wit because they were so constrained by the machines of
that day.

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papaver
How sad. A remake for 500k? Really?

The 8-bitness of the old-school games gave the old sierra games their magic. I
would have loved to play a new larry game, but this just makes me sad.

What a waste...

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sgt
I just pledged $25. I encourage others do to the same!

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stanzyamith
This brings back memories

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mkramlich
I wrote an iPhone game that's extremely like Leisure Suit Larry, about a year
or two ago. Same spirit and game mechanics. Called "The Adventures of Khaki
Pants Pete". Pretty much a nod to LSL, even the name was a tongue-in-cheek
reference to it's name. I did it under contract for a dev shop that in turn
did it for the company that owns the Klondike Bar. A lot of people said it was
pretty fun. I thought it was fun. And I'm old enough to have played LSL
version 1.

From the LSL Kickstarter project goals:

* The freedom to play on mobile devices * A modern point-and-click/touchscreen interface * Updated, ultra-high res graphics * Fully voiced characters * Even more of the humor that’s made Al Lowe a household name…like “Borders” and “Enron”!

Khaki Pants Pete did/does all of that, except the voiced characters. Has music
and audio feedback effects, but only on-screen text dialogue bubbles. Though
pretty funny.

I'm not sure if I like or dislike the fact that their KS project has set a
goal of raising $500k to fund developing it. I know our/my budget for making
Khaki Pants Pete was much much less than that. My slice was much smaller
anyway. :)

clarification: I did not design the game play or script, but I did design and
code the entire game engine from scratch, solo.

~~~
pjeide
All of what you have said certainly sounds great for your game.

It sounds as though the only thing missing from KPP may have been fully voiced
characters. Tough to tell -- but, presuming that were the case, would alone be
a drastic difference.

Pile on top of that the nostalgia, association with the character and
franchise, and every other intrinsic benefit of a genuine over imitation and
it becomes a different conversation.

*edit to correct acronym

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gcb
now even kickstarters are going for the 'sequel' trap?

LSL is dated now. it was fresh when it was made.

how much more time they could have put into an ORIGINAL product if they
haven't filled the pockets of big-game-studio?

hint: to people that actually likes games, a title that sports some well know
adaptation is often associated with a bad experience to come. It's often the
cheap game made to cater to parents buying xmas gifts without a clue.

~~~
jaredsohn
They're remaking the original Leisure Suit Larry games (at least the first
one), not creating a sequel (although they said they might also create the
nonexistent Leisure Suit Larry 4: The Case Of The Missing Floppies if they are
successful.)

Also, I don't think these particular games are a good example of games made to
cater to parents buying xmas gifts. :)

I do agree that the games feel dated though (even if they update them slightly
as they suggest.)

