Al Lowe puts his source code collection on eBay
Al Lowe of Seiria-Online and Leisure Suit Larry fame is putting his source code disks and original disks up on eBay:
https://www.ebay.com/dsc/i.html?_nkw=al_lowe
Some more information on this story here: https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=18/12/01/0420231
Al Lowe's Sierra Xmas Card
https://www.ebay.com/itm/183561121405?nordt=true
Al Lowe's Dragon’s Keep for Apple ][ 1982
https://www.ebay.com/itm/183562111305?nordt=true
Al Lowe's Source code to Leisure Suit Larry 2
https://www.ebay.com/itm/183561164182?nordt=true
Al Lowe's Source code to Leisure Suit Larry 1 1987
https://www.ebay.com/itm/183561134340?nordt=true
Al Lowe's Bop-A-Bet, Apple ][ game by Al Lowe, 1982 edition
https://www.ebay.com/itm/183562092536?nordt=true
Al Lowe's "Softporn" floppy disk only, no box, inspired Al Lowe to create Leisure Suit Larry
https://www.ebay.com/itm/183561117878?nordt=true
I remember that "A Softporn Adventure". It was a cheesy text-only interactive fiction game (No graphics, imagine that!), but everyone had a pirated copy of it. It was written by Chuck Benton of Blue Sky Software, and distributed by Seiria On-Line (Originally "On-Line Systems").
I'M IN A SLEAZY BAR. BEHIND THE BAR SITS
A BARTENDER. A SIGN HANGING OVER HIM
SAYS 'BEER-$100 WHISKEY $100'
THE PLACE ISN'T FURNISHED TOO WELL. A
CURTAIN HANGS ON ONE WALL
NEXT TO THE CURTAIN IS A BUTTON.
A FAN WHIRLS SLOWLY OVERHEAD- MOVING THE
STAGNANT AIR AROUND.
WHAT SHALL I DO? _
A few years later, Al Lowe used it as the basis for the graphical comedy "Leisure Suite Larry".
Be sure to read the comments in the eBay listings, there is some interesting history there.
Ken wondered if I could "bring it up to date" by using Sierra’s new AGI engine. I said that, while I had played it back in its day, I couldn’t remember much about it. He gave me this disk and sent me home to play it. I did.
I reported back to him that "this game is so out of touch it should be wearing a leisure suit!" and got a big laugh from everyone in the room. I continued, "The only way I could do this game is if I could make fun of it. Make it a comedy." Since I was going to create the new game on spec, with no advances, he agreed.
Comments
Okay everybody, we just need 20-50k in donations before the end of auction and we'll have at least a couple of these on WinWorld in a jiffy.
In what? Dollars? Euros? Do you mean 20,000?
Given it was a joke, it could be Zimbabwean dollars for all that it matters. Up to over $8,100 USD for Leisure Suit Larry 1 (1987) alone, a few of the lesser known titles are cheaper.
Oh, Al. I remember loving his games. Especially Torin's Passage. He seems like quite a character…
Wow, that Bop-A-Bet is sitting at $10,000.00 right now.
As a huge Sierra fan, this is pretty amazing stuff!
It's a bit sad that IMO whoever buys these will sit on them in some collector's vault forever. If I could afford them, I'd buy them just to release them for everyone and the sake of posterity. This makes me remember the fight over Resident Evil 1.5 being "found".
It's sadder to me though that Al didn't just release all this for free. Not just because that would have served gaming history far better, but the idea that he's doing this because he needs the money (when of all the Sierra creatives, he's the one who's personal website was the only one that really "gave away" as much as he could) makes me depressed! A guy like Al, with his talents and resume, should be raking in cash... certainly more than some of the unimaginative, greedy hacks in today's industry churning out safe, lazy trash or screwing their own companies/employees/customers.