Leisure Suit Larry is a series of adventure games written by Al Lowe and published by Sierra from 1987 to 2009. The main character, is Larry Laffer who, though still somewhat lovable, is a balding, dorky, double entendre-speaking, leisure suit-wearing "loser" in his 40s. The games follow him as he spends much of his life trying (usually unsuccessfully) to seduce attractive women.

Overview[link]

Originally stemmed from ideas of Sierra's adventure game Softporn Adventure created by designer Chuck Benton,^[1] the "Larry" games were one of Sierra's most popular game series during the genre's heyday when it was first released in the mid 1980s. As such, they remain well-known among fans of the type today. The series stands out among Sierra's catalog in that they are the only games the company produced that contain significant sexual themes.

In general, the games follow Larry's escapades as he attempts (and mostly fails) to convince a variety of young nubile women (rendered with increasing sophistication throughout the series) to have sex with him. A common link between the games are Larry's explorations of luxurious and cosmopolitan hotels, ships, beaches, resorts and, more commonly, casinos. One of Larry's trademarks is his manner of introducing himself: "Hi, my name is Larry; Larry Laffer", a reference to James Bond's introduction style, "My name is Bond; James Bond."

Because of the nature of the games, the first and third episodes of the series featured an age verification system, which consisted of a series of questions to which the authors reasoned only adults would know the answer. However, many of the questions were U.S.-centric and this frustrated some non-United States gamers. Also, the multiple-choice questions did little to deter adolescents with some patience and a notepad. (The verification system could be skipped by pressing Alt-X in episode one, or Ctrl-Alt-X in episode three.)

After the gleefully seedy first game, the series - despite becoming infamous for its saucy content - gained something of a reputation for not actually featuring all that much raunchy material when analyzed, particularly the mid-entries to the series. This became even more evident in later years, when more genuinely racy games appeared in the market, like Cobra Mission. At most, the raunchier moments were usually hidden as Easter eggs. Things began to become racier again toward the end of the series, particularly in the (original) final installment, Leisure Suit Larry: Love for Sail!.

In Shape up or Slip Out!, Love For Sail!, Casino, and Magna Cum Laude, Larry is voiced by Jan Rabson. Larry Lovage, the protagonist of Magna Cum Laude, is voiced by Tim Dadabo.

In March 2007, Vivendi announced Leisure Suit Larry: Love for Sail! for the mobile phone. This version will be a remake of the previous game where the player plays Larry from the Magna Cum Laude game. It is also announced that parts of this game will take place in a plane.

On the Howard Stern radio show on November 27, 2007, comedian Artie Lange mentioned that he had recorded dialogue for a character named "Big Al" in a new Leisure Suit Larry game. On May 20, 2008, Lange confirmed that he had completed recording dialogue for the game. His salary was thirty thousand dollars for work which took "about an hour and a half," amazing Howard and his staff. On July 29, 2009, Artie again referenced doing this work on Leisure Suit Larry but said that he made twenty five thousand dollars.

On January 17, 2008, Sierra Entertainment announced Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust for PC, Xbox 360, PS3 and mobile phones.^[2]

Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust was developed by Team 17 and the publishing rights were offered to Codemasters who published the game in March 2009.

On June 21, 2011 Replay Games announced on their blog that they had acquired a license for the Leisure Suit Larry series. Replay Games plans to re-release the titles it has licensed for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, XBLA, PSN, On-Live, and Steam. It is also announced that Al Lowe will be involved with the development of the new releases.^[3]

In April 2012, Replay Games initiated the Kickstarter project Make Leisure Suit Larry come again! which finished funding on May 2, 2012 and secured a total of $674,598 ($655,182 via Kickstarter and $19,416 via Paypal) in funding. Compared to the $500,000 that was asked for. The "HD" Version of the game has a completion date of October 2012 listed, but it might be delayed to December 2012 or early 2013 since hitting the $650 000 mark. The $650 000 mark will add more story, dialogues and one more character.^[4]

Development[link]

According to Lowe, Leisure Suit Larry was "modeled after a salesman for Sierra that shall remain nameless. He would return from sales trip and brag to us about how much ass he had gotten. Those of us sitting there coding hated him." "Leisure Suit" came from Lowe's statement to Sierra founder Ken Williams that its early game Softporn Adventure was so dated that it should be wearing a leisure suit.^[5] While making In the Land of the Lounge Lizards, Sierra staff had to decide the character's name. They agreed that he should be named after Lowe's friend, Jerry (Lowe never made his last name known to the public), who had visited him at work and became well known in the Sierra studios. Jerry thought of himself as a great lover. He became an infamous point of comical reference among the staff, so the game creators agreed that since Jerry's character suited the game's "hero", they should jokingly tribute him.

However, since they thought it would cause the real Jerry offense or possibly provoke litigation, "Jerry" was then altered to "Larry", a similar name, in honor of famed injury attorney Larry H. Parker, Al Lowe's childhood friend. Lowe had to find a new surname, and having in mind the many L-words of the title, skimmed through the "L" volume of an encyclopedia in order to find a suitable word or name. He fell on the entry of Arthur Laffer, and the name caught his attention due to its phonetic resemblance to "laughter".

Arthur Laffer for years had no idea about the existence of the games until much later when Al Lowe sent a letter asking his permission for the publication of a program under the title Laffer Utilities, a Larry spin-off which could potentially confuse the public due to the ambiguous title. Laffer asked his secretary if she knew about the games and she told him that she had played them for years, but never made a connection. Laffer gave the permission and also paid a visit to the Sierra studios.

Adventure (Leisure Suit Larry) games[link]

• Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards (1987 - remade in 1991 and being remade again for a 2012 release)
• Leisure Suit Larry Goes Looking for Love (in Several Wrong Places) or Leisure Suit Larry 2 (1988)
• Leisure Suit Larry III: Passionate Patti in Pursuit of the Pulsating Pectorals (1989)
• Leisure Suit Larry 5: Passionate Patti Does a Little Undercover Work (1991)
• Leisure Suit Larry 6: Shape Up or Slip Out! (1993 - CD version in 1994)
• Leisure Suit Larry: Love for Sail! or Leisure Suit Larry 7 (1996)
• Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude (2004) (Without involvement of Al Lowe)
• Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust (2009) (Without involvement of Al Lowe)

Canceled games[link]

• Leisure Suit Larry 4: The Missing Floppies (This non-existent 4th game was skipped and is an often jokingly referenced in-game for the series.)
• Leisure Suit Larry 8: Lust in Space
• Leisure Suit Larry: Pocket Party
• Leisure Suit Larry: Cocoa Butter

Collections[link]

Several Larry collections have also been compiled:

• Larry 3-Pack (1991): this collection included the first three games that were available at the time.
• Leisure Suit Larry's Greatest Hits & Misses (1994): this 1-CD collection included all the Larry games up to #6, including both versions of Larry 1, the VGA version of Larry 6, the Laffer Utilities, and the original Softporn game. A limited edition print of the Leisure Suit Larry book was also included called "My Scrapbook".
• Leisure Suit Larry: Collection Series (1997): this 2-CD collection included everything the previous collection contained, plus the SVGA talkie version of Larry 6, a Larry 7 preview, and Larry's Big Score: Pinball.
• Leisure Suit Larry: The Ultimate Pleasure Pack (2000): this 4-CD collection was, again, otherwise identical to the one before it except that it also included the 1998 Larry's Casino and the full version of Larry: Love for Sail.
• Leisure Suit Larry Collection (2006): This barebones collection only contains the 1-6 Larrys originally released on floppies (Substituting the remake of Larry 1 for the EGA original, and excluding the full-talkie CD edition of Larry 6). According to www.Allowe.com, Vivendi excluded Larry 7 from the collection in fear that the hidden easter egg ending would give the collection an Adults Only rating. It is not known why the EGA version of Larry 1 is missing from the collection. Unlike previous collections, this does not come with any printed documentation (instead including PDF files containing the original manuals for copy protection purposes), and the "Runs on Windows XP" blurb on the box is justified by an included copy of freeware application DOSBox, leaving many to see this edition (And the simultaneous releases of the Police Quest, King's Quest, and Space Quest collections) as a cash-in to measure the viability of future games in the series.

Other software[link]

• The Laffer Utilities (1992) (A parody of the Norton Utilities package)

• Leisure Suit Larry's Datebook (1992) (Mentioned in a 1992 Sierra Catalogue as "Larry speaks! Custom Larry screens pop on to tell you about meetings, birthdays, work habits, and hard-drive hygiene! Let Larry organize your life. Scary, huh?" Never released. In fact, according to Al Lowe, he did not know it existed and had no plans to make it.)
• Leisure Suit Larry's Casino (part of the Crazy Nick's Software Picks line of games, includes slot machine, blackjack, and poker taken from the LSL1 vga remake and LSL5)
• Leisure Suit Larry's Casino (1998) (Larry Laffer, the protagonist of the Leisure Suit Larry adventure series, is running a casino. Leisure Suit Larry's Casino offers 5 casino games, 3 party games, a full gift shop, 3 restaurants, 3 bars, and a few surprises. Also featured an online component which allowed for players to upgrade their hotel room, and participate in other online-only activities.)

• Leisure Suit Larry's Sexy Pinball (2005) A pinball game for mobile phones.^[6]

• Leisure Suit Larry Bikini Beach Volley (2006) A beach volley game for mobile phones.^[7]

• Leisure Suit Larry Love for Sail (2007) - A Mobile game based on Leisure Suit Larry 7, Love for Sail.^[8]

• Leisure Suit Larry Magna Cum Laude (2008). A game based on Leisure Suit Larry Magna Cum Laude for mobiles showing some mini games to play with the number pad.^[9]

Other products[link]

• The Official Book Of Leisure Suit Larry (1990) (Written by Al Lowe and Ralph Roberts, containing background information and hint guides). The book was revised and edited so that there was a second (1991), a third (1993), and a fourth (1997) edition, and Special Edition (released with a Larry Collection).
• The Authorized Uncensored Leisure Suit Larry Bedside Companion (1990) (Written by Peter Spear, it contains the stories of the first three Leisure Suit Larry games, as well as detailed walkthroughs, point lists and maps). The book, like other Sierra books by Peter Spear such as The King's Quest Companion, was revised and edited so that there was a second edition (1991) covering Larry V.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Al Lowe's Leisure Suit Larry Troubleshooting page
• Al Lowe (creator) Interview - Adventure Classic Gaming
• Leisure Suit Larry Series at the Open Directory Project
• Al Lowe's Leisure Suit Larry page
• The only remaining preliminary test video for 3-D Larry in Leisure Suit Larry 8
• New Statesman article on Leisure Suit Larry's age verification system
• Extensive Interview with Al Lowe
• LarryLaffer.net Leisure Suit Larry Website.

Leisure suit convention

A leisure suit is a casual suit consisting of a shirt-like jacket and matching trousers,^[1] often associated with American-influenced fashion and fads of the 1970s.

History[link]

Example of safari jacket based leisure suit, 1976

Leisure suits originated on the west coast of the US in the late-1930s as summer casual-wear for the wealthy,^[2] possibly derived from the heavy tweed Norfolk jacket or khaki safari jacket worn by English sportsmen.^[3] Made from lightweight fabric and originally known as "Hollywood suits" these were worn until the 1950s, especially in the Southwest where, together with suits derived from the Ike jacket, they became popular formal-wear and often featured contrasting yokes, collars and cuffs^[4] (see Western fashion). Suits of this pattern, embellished with embroidery and rhinestones, were made by Nudie Cohn^[5] for 1950s Country and Western musicians, including Tex Williams and the young Elvis.^[6]

Suits as casual wear became popular among members of Britain's mod subculture in the 1960s, but only achieved widespread popularity in the United States when—with the creation and popularization of synthetic materials—unprecedented cheapness met with a culture that had come to hate formality. They are frequently associated with that era's disco culture.^[7] Leisure suits gained popularity by offering a fashionable, inexpensive suit which could conceivably be used in formal business, yet was casual enough to be worn out of the workplace setting.^[8] The leisure suit height of popularity was around the mid to late 1970s, but fell from fashion in the very early 1980s. Today it is commonly considered emblematic of 1970s American kitsch.^[9]

The leisure suit became associated in popular culture with bars, gangsterism, and conversely, with clueless dressing - the adventure game Leisure Suit Larry being an example.^[10] A sub-genre of the leisure suit culture is the "full Cleveland", a leisure suit combined with a white belt and white dress shoes.^{[citation needed]}

By extension, Full Cleveland also refers to anything outlandish, excessive or exaggerated.

Today[link]

Leisure suits are still being offered and worn today, although not in the form of bellbottoms and pastel colors which came to be most associated with the term. Fashion labels such as Dior Homme and Dolce & Gabbana include casual suits among their collections, which are more reminiscent of suits in the style of British mod than American disco. Also, progress since the 1970s in technology of synthetic fabrics such as polyester has resulted in the creation of visual and tactile textures.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Leisure Suits at The Bad Fads Museum

Jennifer "Jenn" Lynette Sterger (born November 29, 1983) is a model and television personality, and former online columnist for Sports Illustrated. She has worked as the "Gameday Host" for the New York Jets^[1] and was a co-host of the 2010 Versus sports news show The Daily Line.^[2]

Career[link]

Modeling and acting[link]

Sterger was one of a group called the FSU Cowgirls, known for wearing skimpy clothing and cowboy hats to football games, and she first came to attention when she was shown on national television during a 2005 Florida State–Miami football game. On seeing the shot, announcer Brent Musburger commented that "1,500 red-blooded Americans just decided to apply to Florida State."^[3][4]

Sterger has posed in Maxim^[5] and Playboy magazines and was a spokesperson for Dr Pepper^[4] and Sprint.^[6] Sterger was featured on the E!: Entertainment Television show Byte Me: 20 Hottest Women of the Web that originally aired in March 2008, where she was #19 on their list.^[7]

In 2009, Sterger had her breast implants removed, stating that they had served their purpose for her career, and that she was tired of being stereotyped.^[8][3]

Sports journalism[link]

After contributing two articles to Sports Illustrated,^[9][10] Sterger, for some time, wrote a Wednesday feature on SI.com's "Scorecard Daily." In August 2008, the New York Jets hired her to be the "Gameday Host" for the team.^[1]

Sterger was a regular segment host on the ABC show Race to March Madness. The nationally televised weekly show highlighted the best teams in NCAA men's basketball and how the season was shaping up prior to the tournament. She hosted a weekly segment where she visited a top school's campus and interviewed players, coaches and fans of the respective teams.^{[citation needed]}

After seven months on the air, Versus cancelled The Daily Line, a show she co-hosted, as of November 4, 2010.^[2] In 2011, Sterger worked as a reporter on specials for Fuel TV.^[11]

Allegations against Brett Favre[link]

In October 2010, reports surfaced on the website Deadspin that NFL quarterback Brett Favre was alleged to have sent Sterger several suggestive text messages, voicemails asking her to come to his hotel room, and explicit photos of himself while he was the quarterback for the New York Jets and she was a sideline reporter for the Jets (these events were said to have happened during the 2008 football season).^[12][13] The league said its sole focus was on whether Favre violated workplace conduct policy, not to “make judgments about the appropriateness of personal relationships.”^{[14][dead link]} Favre admitted to sending voicemails, but not images to Sterger.^[15] He was later fined $50,000 for "failure to cooperate" with the investigation. The NFL stated that it "could not conclude" that Favre had violated the personal conduct policy, and that there was not sufficient evidence to establish if Favre had sent the photos.^[16]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Sterger's official site
• Sterger's official blog
• Sterger's stories at NFL Gridiron Gab
• Jenn Sterger at the Internet Movie Database