My Scrapbook: Leisure Suit Larry's Greatest Hits and Misses!

My Scrapbook: Leisure Suit Larry's Greatest Hits and Misses! is the manual that originally released with the second Leisure Suit Larry Collections box set.

From desk of Larry Laffer

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Humorous Themes and Development in Late 20th Century Literature ......•....... .. ........... . ......•. 1 Introduction from Al Lowe .................... ...... ........ 2 A Word About the Contents ................................•• 3 Interfaces and Icons ... .....................• ........... .... 4Installation ................. . •..•.......................... 5 Leisure Suit Larry: In the Land of the Lounge Lizards(EGA) ..•• 7 Leisure Suit Larry: In the Land of the Lounge Lizards(VGA) .. 11 Leisure Suit Larry Goes Looking for Love (In Several Wrong Places) ............. .... ................. 21 Leisure Suit Larry 3: Passionate Patti in Pursuit of the Pulsating Pectorals .... ......•............. 27 Leisure Suit Larry 4- •..............................•...... 39 Leisure Suit Larry 5: Passionate Patti Does a Little Undercover Work ...............•....•....................... 4-1 Leisure Suit Larry 6: Shape or Slip Out! ....•............. 51 The Laffer Utilities ............. .. ................ ....... 55 Miscellaneous Larry ...........•... .....•............. ...... 61 Credits ..•.....•........................................... 65 Technical Support & Customer Service ...................... 66

Humorous Themes and Development in Late 20th-Century Digital Literature

 * (Just ignore the title; I'm gonna cry co write this off as a work-in-progress on my Doctoral Dissertation.)

By Al Lowe

Hair has always been one of Larry's downfalls (pun intended!). Follow the numerous references throughout all the games to hair loss, wigs, barbers and baldness. Carefully study my photo on the back of the box. Draw your own conclusions.

Weight loss is another sore point with Larry. Like many of us, he's perpetually fighting his own "battle of the bulge." Again, check my photo. {Where do I gee these ideas?)

Note the multiple clever references throughout every game to the ubiquitous Ken (AKA Kenny, Chief Kenneewauwau, etc.) Many reviewers and critics think these are thinly veiled references to Sierra founder and CEO Ken Williams. Preposterous. Others accuse me of "sucking up to the boss." Ridiculous. Some say I have no imagination for names. Possibly. I like to think of it as "one less person that could sue me for using his name!"

Women's names have been another fun point. Since Larry deals with so many women, it quickly became obvious I needed help coming up with fresh, funny names. Larry 1 was produced around the time of the Oliver North hearings, so "Fawn" seemed a natural name for a character. Larry 3 had lots of women so I made their names all end in "I," Bambi, Susi, etc. By Larry 6, I was so desperate I sank co disguising the names of wines: Charlotte Donay, Cavarrichi Vuarnet, etc. Fortunately, no one ever noticed.

Another example of evolution is "The Leisure Suit Larry Theme Song." It's especially been fun to hear my little rutty change over the years as each new composer gives it his own treatment. By the way, it is still awaiting lyrics. Submissions will be accepted gladly, but not acknowledged! Somewhere I read you should never see a movie with a Roman numeral in the title. That's why I've been careful to ensure all the Larry Sequels use Arabic numerals.

Dear Leisure Suit Larry Fan Club Initiate: Thank' you so much for purchasing "The Absolutely Totally Complete & Thorough Compilation of the Life & Times of Leisure Suit Larry Laffer" (or, as we like to call it internally, "Refried Larry"). You'll be proud to learn your purchase qualifies you for a free "International Gold Level" membership in The Official Leisure Suit Larry Fan Club, bringing with it all the rights, privileges, duties, and responsibilities there into untoward henceforth. The good news? No more waiting for us to bill you! From now on, each month you'll just send your $10.00 membership dues to the Fan Club's post office box, and you'll receive one of Leisure Suit Larry's "Special Surprises." (Unmarked bills only, please; no stamps.) We guarantee you'll be surprised, all right! New OLSLFC members often ask me, "Al, um, how did you, ah, come up with, like, the idea of a, you know, whatayacallit, guy like, ah, Larry Laffer?" To which. I always reply, "That's Mr. Lowe to you!" In truth, the actual story is even more fascinating. Leisure Suit Larry was discovered, lurking inside my brain, fully-formed, waiting, nay struggling to get out, back in the Winter of '87. It only took six months in the delivery room, sitting before a state-of-the-art XT turbo (and some sterile gauze), to loose him upon an unsuspecting planet. (I like to say it was a drug-free, natural birth, but that's only half true.) You're probably wondering why it took so long to assemble this collection. It's simple: over the years I've been asked to do many Larry collectors' editions, Larry software compilations, Larry souvenir coffee mugs, a line of Larry beach wear, even Larry velvet paintings. But it all seemed so exploitative ... That is, until Sierra's founder and CEO, Ken Williams, gave me the chance to produce a collection in the only way I would want it done: "We'll give you a piece of the action," Ken said. The rest is history in your hands. I truly hope you'll enjoy tracing the development of the modern American kinda-hero, Larry Laffer. Revel in the joy of knowing you have every possible bit of Leisure Suit Larry. Now get out of the house! It's a nice day outside.

Sincerely, Al Lowe

A Word About the Contents
There are numerous fabulous perks to owning Leis11Tr! Suit Larry's Greatest Hits and Misses!. If you purchase the collection at full retail, you will notice that your hair gradually stops falling out, your teeth become whiter, and sexy women begin finding your widening paunch an attractive feature. If you and all your friends purchase two copies each, ilie result will be a stable economy and peace in the Middle East. Oh, yeah, and all the babes that can safely crawl over Not only that, but by purchasing Leisure Suit Larry's Greatest Hits and Misses! you get some fabulous games, from classic to state-of -art. Softpom, the text adventure that begat Larry and thrust Sierra On-Line into national prominence, is included. You'll find Larrys 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6. (What's that? Where's Larry 4? That's a whole other story. Write to Al Lowe, care of Sierra's corporate offices, and ask him about it sometime. No, wait. On second thought, DON'T!) You also get a couple of fascinating Windows video clips about Al. Speaking of Windows, Laffer Utilities for Windows and a Leisure Suit Larry pinball game for Windows are included. Larry's Casino Games are on here too. Even a video and interactive demo of the hilarious comedy-western from Al, Freddy Pharkas, Frontier Pharmacist, is included. In fact, everything Al could force on this CD with only determination, elbow grease, and a plunger, is here.

Another Word About the Contents
.The Evolution of L1zardum Lounge"."u_ s _ _..~" Inside this incredible book you will find copies of the original documentation that were actually sold with tl1e first release of mese hilarious games. These important pages are full of information and copy protection mat are critical to you playing eacll game. So reference eacli section VERY CAREFULLY, and DO NOT LOSE, tear, staple or mutilate (Okay, you can mutilate if you want to, please just do it behind closed doors.)

"Larry"

The Evolution of Lizardum Loungeus
Times change, technologies change Back'in 1987, when Lar b · ac Ill and still reelin Zr, u~st upon an unsuspecting with. .g enca, he was a megastud I. his ~azzling EGA smile and his four pixel e1sure swc. As you play the EGA. you dn:!ght find the graphics as dac:~:::'J,:oday, wor g~oo~," but you should consider the ~ames within context. This collection is an •mpo~tan.t historical retrospective, at lease in Lardryshmond! ~s you travel back through rime an tee noloines pl £1 alt! h o· .' ease re ecr on rhe fact that cb 1oug every single thing in the world ' anges, ?'e exception to this rule is that Lar Laffer srnkes out in 16-color cbw1ky h. ry just as he does in or ' grap 1cs 256 l g geous, state-of -the-arr -co or aromavision. ' T.he point is Sierra's software technolo w and IS a product of the times Wh rr as the EGA version of Leisure S~it ~rryn yo.u Phay Laud of the Lounge Lizards yo . h Ill t e lf "N • u m1g r say to yourse : o music. Bummer" B k . mind chars d ds . ' . ur eep '" h Lar oun car weren t even invented ~v en ry pestered his first vircual woman ·~would've been impossible to hear his offe~-so s1ve come-on. The Collection's older game seem dated because Sierra's comm1·cm s b · · ent to nngmg you the latest in computer ad menrs mean h. vancek. st e cu rang edge of technology eeps moving forward.

Parser vs. Point-and-Click Interfaces
"'"'L•;••~ k Interfaces Suit Larry I, 2, and 3 That's why we have save and The Larry series began as did restore features. So SAVE so many h d OFTEN, and you will avot"d I . o~ er en uring compucer al c ass1cs· th pocenti dead-ends. WI · Wl • a parser interface. N len working with the parser ote that the ultimate parser the player types instructions a: the game, ~oftponi, is included in this cursor o,n the screen. If, for exam- collectton. Softpon1 is a text pie, youa ~ike Larry to drink poi- adventure, the precursor co the son, you simply type DRINK 3-D adventure game, and POISON. If the parser recognizes responds only to two word send th~ w?rds, Larry will comply by tence structures. Use very simple nnking the pois If th sence_n~e structure when speakin d on. e parser to this mterface: "verb noun" g oes not r:cognize the words, Larry wont comply. In that cas works quite nicely. you might try different words ~e Leisure Suit Larry I' 2, and 3 S DRINK BEVERAGE, CON- are parser games. The Lar 1 UME LI VGA remake Lar 5 ry QUID, or even DIE .1. th ' ry •and Larry 6 LARRY DIE' • utt tze e po" d 1. . • . f: mt-an -c 1ck mterThe result of Larrry's actions ace. Be sure to utilize every entry G may be good or bad. If you type on tl1e pull-down menus. Al ROPE FRONTAL LOBES d always cries ro lude something Larry doe · ti an funny in there. . . s tt, le gropee might Icons and Cursors: Larry I To open the icon bar, move th mouse cursor all th e e way to the top of your screen. Note: There may b l"gh. · · es1 tvan anons Ill the appearance of icons from game ro game If unsur f. . you are th e o an icons purpose click e HELP b I ( ' sym 0 the question mark located at ch · I th · e ng1t end of . e tc~n bar), tl1e11 click on the icons tn question. In Larry 6 ull ~own HELP and choose ' p Interface." Then just pass the cursor over the screen. enJOY .'c and want to get better acqu~nted: Bue the gropee could also give lum a shot co the stern~m that kills him deader than disco. In adventure gam r es, you Remake, 5, and 6 • . At the top of the screen is an• ' 1 ;··: ~on bar containing several icons ' at can be selected to e.'<ecute th command choices available to yo:.

Keyboard, Mice, and Joysticks
Keyboard. •To positio~y~oard s, Mice and J sor or move e on-screen cur- move throu h t. oystick ter using a keyour game charac- menu selectf onshe different d. S ._____. direction ke yboard, press a [Enter] to ch •then press es1red sere koypod y onho ••mo,;, oo~ M•. dkk <ho m •o lorn""" •od • To st Using M •To execut ouse button. op your char • Ti a ouse h e a com the same dire . acter, press o activate the . t e left mouse b mand, click press 5 (the k~t•on key again or the cursor to t~con bar, move • Try the right and Utton. • To execut y flt the midd/ ) screen. e top of the too. They help you center buttons a d e a comma d e · • To . chan " prn•qfo, ] " • o/P• ;, '""""" "' W go ru"""· •Access the er. sor, move th on-screen cur • Ti mg a Joystick ing [Esc]. Us:u bar by press- ~esired posi~o~ouse to the - o position the e arrow keys to • .o move your. sor using a ·o on-screen curtion the WALK character, posi- stick in the ~ ymck, move the icon at the • To execute es1red direction the FIRE bu:t~ommand, pres~ n.

Leisure Suit Larry: In the Land of the Lounge Lizards
This is the original chat scarred it all. In a cime when "humorous computer game" was an oxymoron and risque material was a lo-res low-cur neckline, LSLJTWTLL (or"Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards" as it's called around here) created quite a stir antong computer users. Released with no publicity or advertising, ic was deemed unacceptable by many of the large computer chain scores chat were Sierra's principal retailers back then. first month sales were the lowest of any Sierra game in years. Bue, as word-of -mouth spread, sales picked-up month after month until it eventually earned Software Publishers' Association coveted Placinum Award for sales of250,000. Ac the SPA's very first awards night, it was named "Best fantasy, Role Playing or Adventure Game of 1987 ," All chis for a game entirely created by two people (Mark Crowe, see The Space Quest Collection, and me) in a period of a few months. Mark did all the background art plus all the animation in a period of four weeks, while continuing to work 40 hours/week on Space Quest II, his real job ac the time! I feel safe in bragging for Mark: chis is a record chat will never be broken! This Is what Larry Laffer used lhe receding halrllne and expan~l~oo! 'lke (pa1hetlc. Isn't ii?). No11ce Pocket prorec1or give you a prelry I. The cardigan swaaier and and lazy guy l;f""VU idea 01 wha1 is • 8 totally rrtild The "old" Larry Laffer was a confirm s11U.hved with his mother. and rhe. 8d bache!or. Al 38 years Old, he basically, terrrty1ng He feft more ·~a of asking a woman out was pOOd book {his favorire ··Kno:~ enable at nfgh1 curhng up w11h ~ istening ro his record ~olleclio o~r AS.232 Serial Port"} and Supply and Barry Manilow record"~ which absolutely reeked of Air Then one day 11 hit him Lar re, ~assing by faster than Sn u~y w~l~ed lhar his opponunuy to hve was e decided lo change "No an on !he way to her Wedding So time to party!" · more Mr Nice Guy!" he shouted. " /l's The game's parser (the code that recognii.es what you type) sometimes surprises e'"'n me: during a demo of the produce before a conference room filled with Hollywood big-wigs crying ro understand what was all this fuss about computer games, I showed d1em around d1e firsr few scenes in che game, then foolishly asked for suggestions of commands to type into the game. One was shouted, "Masturbate!" co a roomful of groans. Noc knowing what would happen, I typed as instructed, to which the game replied, "The whole idea was ro stop doing that, Larry!" The room cracked up! One afternoon, on my way home &om che ol' digital foundry, I realized our new game had no tide song. So I sat down at my crusty synchesii.er and knocked out a catchy little dicey before dinner. We were always going to go back and replace it with something good, but the damn thing caught on and by then it was coo late! (It took five years before someone pointed ouc to me I srole the bridge from Fiddler on the Roof Sorry, Mr. Herman!) Regardless, ic is fun co hear people whistling ic whenever a new Larry game comes ouc. -A.L

He's changed a lot over the years!

Leisure Suit Larry I VGA: ~ In the Land of the Lounge Lizards
In 1991 we had a brilliant idea: people continue to buy classic books, movies and videos year after year; surely they would also buy classic computer games as long as the graphics didn't look dated. So we had Bil Skirvin and crew create all new backgrounds and animation in the thennew VGA 256-color 320x200 format. We had Oliver Brelsford et al reprogram the game, substituting Sierra's new point-and-click interface for our old "type-'til-you-bleed" parser. I created hundreds of new lines everywhere possible. New graphics, new interface, new laughs? Surely, this would breathe life into the old boy! That's how we learned: games aren't books, movies or videos! -A.L.

Leisure Suit Larry 2: Leisure Suit Larry Goes Looking for Love (.In Several Wrong Places)
Realizing we had a winning character in Leisure Suit Larry, but being so sensitive to "prevailing community standards" (i.e., some stores wouldn't sell Larry 1 because it was too nasty!), I decided to clean up Larry 2 by having Larry search for his One True Love instead of just cheap sex. Our loyal customers complained, "Where's the smut?!" Plus, those same stores didn't sell this game because it must be dirty like that first game! So I learned another important lesson: sex sells! Actually, I think Larry 2 is a really good adventure game, better puzzlesi more logical than Larry 1, with some wonderful running gags. Our development system finally allowed us to store and re-use strings (oops, I· mean "typed phrases"). So I included an item on the pull-down menu bar called "Trite Phrase," then had as many of the game's characters use the phrase you typed in as much as possible. Be sure to enter your favorite immediately. We even ran a contest on CompuServe, offering a free T-shirt to the person submitting the best trite phrase. The winner? "Do ya want some fries with that?" submitted by Josh Mandel, who parlayed that one-liner into a steady gig at Sierra and eventually became my co-writer on Freddy Pharkas, frontier Pharmacist. Larry 2 was designed to be playable from six 360K floppies (raise your hand if you remember those!), so it consisted of six areas, all distinct and playable by themselves, with no way to go back to a previous area, or forward to an area not yet seen. (Be sure to pick up everything you need before you leave L.A.!) This game began the running jokes about Larry's de-evolving hairline. There must be a half-dozen barbers in the game, each of which humiliates Larry in some fashion. (See Page 1, Humorous Themes and Developments in Late 20th-Century Digital Literature.) Larry 2 was also the beginning of my long collaboration with Bil "Missing I.:' Skirvin, the perfect art director. Bil loved to hide strange and often obscene things in background drawings. Be sure not to look too closely at any of these pictures or you might lose your L too! . I had great plans for a big finale to this • game, but by the time we got around to pro- gramming the end of the game we were ou1'.._ • of disk space (rtot to mention time), so muc!I of the ending scene is on "auto-pilot." At least I got to introduce Passionate Patti, who would return to play a major role in the next two games. Warning: Be especially careful of the parser when you reach the top of the volcano near the end of the game. A subtle bug was introduced the night before we shipped that requires the word "The" be used in your typing. So where you could normally get by with typing a phrase like, "Put bottle in bag," here you must type, "Put the bottle in the bag" instead. I didn't catch the bug because my goal was to make those games recognize complete proper English sentences instead of "adventure game-ese" shorthand. The bug was fixed shortly after the game shipped, but to the best of my knowledge, Sierra never got around to updating the shipping version. -Oh, well. -A.L.

Bug alert!

Leisure Suit Larry 3: Passionate Patti in Pursuit of the Pulsating Pectorals
The end of"The Larry Trilogy," I fully intended the series to stop with this game. ln fuct, during the last month of development, I remember someone asking me, "What are you going to do for Larry 4?" to which I replied, "Nothing! There's never going to be a Larry 4!!" Pretty damn prophetic, eh? By this time, no one was playing from floppies any more, so we demanded a hard disk. Still, the entire game fits in under 4 megabytes. This game saw the addition to the Larry gang of Carlos Escobar and Roger Hardy, both of whom were dumb enough to work with me again in the future. Carlos had an honorary cameo role in Larry 2 as the brother of the ship's maid. You only saw him if you typed something nasty when the maid was in the room, so I'm sure most of you never saw him. -A.L. '

Leisure Suit Larry 4: The Missing Floppies
What is the truth about why I skipped Larry 4? Was I trying to catch up with the Space Quest guys? Nah. Did I write a game too dirty to ship? No. Were the floppies really stolen by Broderbund and released as "Where in the hell is Leisure Suit Larry?" NO!
 * --A.L.

Leisure Suit Larry S: Passionate Patti Does a Little Undercover Work
Dating from my "Hey! I've goc it! People really wane games that are like little movies!" period, Larry 5 was generally considered funny with a good plot, buc resoundingly disliked by computer game magazine reviewers and professional game J"ayers as too easy. On the other hand, mosc normal" people I've talked with said it was the only one of the games chey could finish. Go figure. Larry 5 was my first game (bur not the last) to make use of che Bodily Function Keys. For a demonstration, just press the unused function keys on your keyboard (cry FIO to start). We added these about three days before we shipped because it was late at njghc, we were tired, we were high on ca1Teine and pizza, we were all Letterman fans, ic seemed like a good idea at the cime, and we could. Noc even the game reviewers noticed. This game introduced the "new look" of Larry: more modern, angular, artistic. We call ic, "whacked out!" It gives che game a fun feeling, even when nothing funny is happening. If you forgec your password, or never even encered one, and yet the game insiscs you need one, do this: Find the sub-directory where the game is installed (probably C:ISIERRAILSL5) and delete che file "MEMORY.DRY." Thac's where we hid che password. (Pretry sneaky, eh?) -A.L "

Leisure Suit Larry 6: Shape Up or Slip Out!
In some ways, a return to the origi- Just more babes, more silly situations nal. With Larry 6, I wanted to provide to humiliate Larry, and more babes. an area where the player could roam (Did I mention the babes?) around and see almost anything within Be sure to check out the coUection of the first few minutes of play, and yet audio files. Feel free to un-Zip them provide enough depth of play that the and use them where you wish: game would challenge most players. Wmdows sounds, in important docuNo long auto-pilot cartoons. No ments, etc. Just don't sell them or make Passionate Patti to provide political- up your own weekly radio show. correctness. No involved heavy plot. -A.L.

The Laffer Utilities
Cleverly titled to be a play on "The Norton Utilities," a famous disk utility program known to nearly every computer user on Planet Earth at the time, we outsmarted ourselves by failing to realize that nobody except us knew Leisure Suit Larry's last name was Laffer! Thus nobody caught the pun! Ha, ha, huh? The joke was on us. Actually released about a year ahead of its time, TLU was passe before most people were even able to use it. It was the first software that lets you "waste time when you should be working." Its slogan was: "Automates everything you do at the office that has nothing to do with work!" It includes clip art, a betting pool printer, a joke database (pre-loaded with 700 of my favorites!), an automatic sign maker that actually works well, and more. It even solves the most often asked question around the office: "Where do you want to go for lunch?" -A.L.

Miscellaneous Larry: Larry's Big Score
We published Take a Break: Pinball for Windows in 1993 and included several machines featuring characters from popular Sierra games. This is one of them.

Of special interest to you collectors: we misspelled Patti. But it's still fun to play when you should be working. - A.L.

Leisure Suit Larry's Casino
Crazy Nick was looking for software bargains to foist off, er, that is, "offer to" the public. Following hot on the heels of the successful "Ms. Astro Chicken Collection" from Space Quest, Nick convinced some unsuspecting programmer to slap together all the gambling games I had written for the Larry series and cram them into one disk for less than ten bucks retail. It was a perfect Mother's Day gift. -A.L.

Softporn Adventure
Softpom was written in 19_81 (the Paleolithic period of computmg!) for rhe Apple II computer and is, ro this d_are, the only game Sierra has ever published char has absolutely NO graphics. When Time Magazine published its first col~ on computers, the photo ir ran was rhe cover of Softpom. When there :-'ere nl 100 000 Apple II computers m the 0 y '. f world, Sierra had sold 25,000 copies o Softpom! Ir was, ro say the lease, a phe nomenon in the early days of microcomputers. Bur, the srate of the arr then was much different from the scare of the art roday. It was a "simpler" time (i.e., you have ro work lots harder because the computer doesn't!). So, don't expect much in the way of forgiveness or user friendliness here. -A.L.

Freddy Pharkas, Frontier Pharmacist
We've included a demo game of Freddy Phnrkas, Frontier Pharmacist for you to play and enjoy. It's now available on CD. If you like it, I hope you'll buy the game. I think it's one of the funniest games ever but unless it sells lots and lots of copies, Sierra won't let me do the sequel (which is even funnier!). Seriously, load this up and see just how great games can be when you hear the voices of professional actors! -A.L.

Credits
From the desk of Larry Laffer Credits: Producers & CD Programmers •..•..•... Scott Murphy ......•......•.......... · ........ Greg Tomko-Pavia System Programmers .•.............. Peter Sarrett ...............•.................... Willie Eide .....•............•....•.......•........ Ken Koch Freddy Pharkas, Demo Programmer .• William Shockley AVI Conversions •.....................•. Bill Crow .......•...•..........•.•........... Rob Koeppel Al Lowe Video .........•.... Tri-Film Productions Freddy Pharkas Video ...•.... Tri-Film Productions Quality Assurance Team Leader ....•. John Trauger Quality Assurance ...•.•.•.......... Cindy Vanous. •. ........•..........•.•......... Beth Quintana .................................. Sharon Simmons Game Icons ........................ Richard Powell Documentation ........ Full Circle Communications ... •... ................•.............. Lori Lucia ..........•.................. •.. .... Brad Bethune ...........•...........•.............. Dan Rogers .............•.......................... Al Lowe

From the desk of Larry Laffer
Al Lowe is widely acclaimed for singlehandedly corrupting the computer industry. With his "Leisure Suit Larry" games, Al created the 'adults only' category of computer games. In the process, he also created a lot of controversy. The State of California introduced a "Leisure Suit Larry" bill, which would have prohibited adult themes in any computer game. Fortunately, legislation died in committee, thanks to the diligence of the software. industry (and possibly the legislature's strong demand for a sequel!) Ask Al to comment on the furor he's created and he'll give you a quick smile and a hearty "Thank you!" before conveniently forgetting the question. It's not the response you'd expect from a former school teacher. So what was Al's motivation to design "Leisure Suit Larry?" Simple. "I just want to make people laugh." In truth, Al Lowe can't understand what all the fuss is about. He doesn't think Larry is all that risque. "Larry is just a ladies-man-wannabe." He's equal parts Don Juan and Don Knotts. The result? Larry is every girl's blind date nightmare! Al stresses that he "just wants to be funny." What if the humor does occasionally come across as "a bit off-color" or "just a little dirty"? Al shrugs, explaining "the world can be a dirty place." Evidently, the world can also appreciate a little dirt, as the Larry games are sold on several continents in several languages and have been featured in such widespread media as Entertainment Tonight, Rolling Stone, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Playboy, Penthouse, The London Financial Times, and more. All this from a man with a Master's Degree in Education who taught music for fifteen years. He still plays music professionally, although he finds Larry consumes more and more of his attention. Larry is currently in its fifth installment, which with his typical zany humor, Al has named Leisure Suit Larry 6: Shape Up or Slip Out! The Larry games are one of the best selling computer game series of all time. Sierra is proud of its contribution to improving the morals of America's youth, not by hiring Al to design computer games, but by keeping him out of public schools.