Leisure Suit Larry

Leisure Suit Larry is the title character of a series of adult adventure games written by Al Lowe and published by Sierra On-Line from the 1980s to the present. The character, whose "actual" name is Larry Laffer, is a balding, dorky, sexually double entendrish speaking, leisure suit-wearing (but still somewhat lovable) loser in his 40s who spends much of his life trying (usually unsuccessfully) to seduce attractive women.

Related Topics:
Adult - Adventure game - Al Lowe - Sierra On-Line - 1980s - Larry Laffer - Balding - Double entendrish - Leisure suit

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The "Larry" games were one of Sierra's most popular game series during the genre's heydays. 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 and nudity.

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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."

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The original game was based on a text-only adventure called Softporn Adventure, created by Chuck Benton in 1981 for the Apple II and published by Sierra (then named On-Line Systems). Benton is mentioned in the Larry credits, because the entire layout and the puzzles of the game are the same as in Softporn Adventure; the jokes, however, are Lowe's.

Related Topics:
Text-only adventure - Softporn Adventure - Chuck Benton - Apple II

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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. This frustrated some non-American gamers, and the multiple-choice questions in the third game and the first game's remake 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.)

Related Topics:
American - Adolescents

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The series was inexplicably popular with women, perhaps because Larry is depicted as a complete loser and men in general are frequently the butt of jokes.

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