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Leisure Suit Larry Goes Looking for Love (in Several Wrong Places)
Encyclopedia
Leisure Suit Larry Goes Looking for Love (in Several Wrong Places) is the second game in the Leisure Suit Larry
series of graphical adventure game
s by Sierra On Line. Like its predecessor, it was developed for multiple platforms, including DOS
, Atari ST
and Amiga
. It utilizes Sierra's Creative Interpreter
(SCI0) engine, featuring 16-color EGA
graphics and a mouse
-based interface for movement. The engine also supports FM
and General MIDI
music.
The story continues the exploits of Larry Laffer, who becomes stranded on a tropical island during an ill-fated vacation. Due to earlier criticisms of Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards
, Sierra intentionally toned down the titular character's sexual escapades for the sequel. According to series creator Al Lowe
, this lack of Leisure Suit Larrys trademark humor is an oft-cited criticism of the game.
series. The player character
's movements are controlled via the mouse, although a text parser
is still used for all other actions. Rather than navigating through a single city, the player character
is guided through a variety of puzzles and mazes. Players must take care in acquiring certain items over the course of the journey, lest they be stymied by an inescapable trap. Though there is no visible time limit, a number of pre-scripted events
require players to act quickly in order to reach the next sequence.
As is standard in most Leisure Suit Larry games, Larry's interactions with female NPC
s are accompanied by an on-screen portrait, though the images are much smaller than seen previously. The game actively punishes Larry for flirting with any woman he meets, a marked departure from the rest of the series. Such acts invariably leads to Larry's violent death and a game over
.
, as Eve pulls into the driveway with only the vaguest recollection of who Larry is. Realizing that his affair with Eve was merely a one-night stand
, a distraught Larry wanders off, only to win a free vacation after stumbling into a rigged game show
. During his preparations for the cruise
, a microfilm
falls into Larry's hands by mistake; this attracts the attention of the KGB
as well as the mad scientist
Dr. Nonookee (a pun on "no nookie
"), who both want to recover the film.
(SCI), with 16 colors and MIDI sound. In addition to sharing the SCI0 engine, the game parallels the King's Quest series in its realistic art style — particularly in regard to Larry's character portrait — and grand-adventure elements, including a number of diverse settings (a cruise ship, tropical islands, etc.). It is also notable for being the sole instance where Larry is forbidden to cavort with women for the entire game (excluding the ending). For this reason, the game did not include an age-verification test, although brief instances of pixel
lated nudity still occur at certain points. Also included is a "Trite Phrase" option, which allows players to input a catchphrase which is repeated over the course of the game.
Among the many women Larry meets over the course of the game is Rosella of Daventry — the protagonist of King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella
— an example of Sierra's many cross-promotions. One of the game's final scenes includes a piano-playing "Polyester Patty", who features prominently in Leisure Suit Larry 3
and Leisure Suit Larry 5
under the name "Passionate Patti". Patti is blond in this incarnation, whereas future games depict her as dark-haired.
Leisure Suit Larry (series)
Leisure Suit Larry is a series of adventure games written by Al Lowe and published by Sierra from 1987 to 2009. The main character, whose full name is Larry Laffer, is a balding, dorky, double entendre-speaking, leisure suit-wearing "loser" in his 40s...
series of graphical adventure game
Adventure game
An adventure game is a video game in which the player assumes the role of protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and puzzle-solving instead of physical challenge. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media such as literature and film,...
s by Sierra On Line. Like its predecessor, it was developed for multiple platforms, including DOS
DOS
DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...
, Atari ST
Atari ST
The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
and Amiga
Amiga
The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
. It utilizes Sierra's Creative Interpreter
Sierra's Creative Interpreter
Sierra's Creative Interpreter is the scripting language created by Jeff Stephenson of Sierra On-Line for its adventure games after the older AGI, and the runtime environment for such adventure games....
(SCI0) engine, featuring 16-color EGA
EGA
EGA may stand for*EGA: estimated gestational age, medical*Eagle, Globe, and Anchor, the emblem of the United States Marine Corps*Egyptian German Automotive Company, the Mercedes-Benz manufacturer in Egypt*Elegant Gothic Aristocrat, a fashion line...
graphics and a mouse
Mouse (computing)
In computing, a mouse is a pointing device that functions by detecting two-dimensional motion relative to its supporting surface. Physically, a mouse consists of an object held under one of the user's hands, with one or more buttons...
-based interface for movement. The engine also supports FM
Frequency modulation synthesis
A 220 Hz carrier tone modulated by a 440 Hz modulating tone with various choices of modulation index, β. The time domain signals are illustrated above, and the corresponding spectra are shown below ....
and General MIDI
General MIDI
General MIDI or GM is a standardized specification for music synthesizers that respond to MIDI messages. GM was developed by the MIDI Manufacturers Association and the Japan MIDI Standards Committee and first published in 1991...
music.
The story continues the exploits of Larry Laffer, who becomes stranded on a tropical island during an ill-fated vacation. Due to earlier criticisms of Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards
Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards
Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards is the alliterative title to an adventure computer game first released in 1987, the first part of the Leisure Suit Larry series. It was a completely graphical adventure game with 16 color EGA graphics. It utilizes the Adventure Game Interpreter ...
, Sierra intentionally toned down the titular character's sexual escapades for the sequel. According to series creator Al Lowe
Al Lowe
Al Lowe is an American musician and game designer/programmer who developed several adventure games, mostly for Sierra On-Line. He is best known for his creation of Leisure Suit Larry and the long-running series it spawned....
, this lack of Leisure Suit Larrys trademark humor is an oft-cited criticism of the game.
Gameplay
Unlike the original Leisure Suit Larry, the game follows a linear story progression similar to Sierra's other adventure games, particularly later entries in the King's QuestKing's Quest
King's Quest is an adventure game series created by the American software company Sierra Entertainment. It is widely considered a classic series from the golden era of adventure games. Following the success of its first installment, the series was primarily responsible for building the reputation...
series. The player character
Player character
A player character or playable character is a character in a video game or role playing game who is controlled or controllable by a player, and is typically a protagonist of the story told in the course of the game. A player character is a persona of the player who controls it. Player characters...
's movements are controlled via the mouse, although a text parser
Text parser
In an adventure game, a text parser takes typed input from the player and simplifies it to something the game can understand. Usually, words with the same meaning are turned into the same word and certain filler words are dropped .The parser makes it easier for the game's author to react on input...
is still used for all other actions. Rather than navigating through a single city, the player character
Player character
A player character or playable character is a character in a video game or role playing game who is controlled or controllable by a player, and is typically a protagonist of the story told in the course of the game. A player character is a persona of the player who controls it. Player characters...
is guided through a variety of puzzles and mazes. Players must take care in acquiring certain items over the course of the journey, lest they be stymied by an inescapable trap. Though there is no visible time limit, a number of pre-scripted events
Scripted sequence
In video games, a scripted sequence is a pre-defined series of events that occurs when triggered by player location or actions.Some scripted sequences are merely used to play short cut scenes that the player has little control of...
require players to act quickly in order to reach the next sequence.
As is standard in most Leisure Suit Larry games, Larry's interactions with female NPC
Non-player character
A non-player character , sometimes known as a non-person character or non-playable character, in a game is any fictional character not controlled by a player. In electronic games, this usually means a character controlled by the computer through artificial intelligence...
s are accompanied by an on-screen portrait, though the images are much smaller than seen previously. The game actively punishes Larry for flirting with any woman he meets, a marked departure from the rest of the series. Such acts invariably leads to Larry's violent death and a game over
Game over
Game Over is a message in video games which signals that the game has ended, often due to a negative outcome - although the phrase sometimes follows the end credits after successful completion of a game...
.
Plot
The opening sequence of the game finds Larry mowing the lawn of Eve, his sexual encounter from the previous game, implying the pair have remained together. However, this is quickly revealed to be an instance of an unreliable narratorUnreliable narrator
An unreliable narrator is a narrator, whether in literature, film, or theatre, whose credibility has been seriously compromised. The term was coined in 1961 by Wayne C. Booth in The Rhetoric of Fiction. This narrative mode is one that can be developed by an author for a number of reasons, usually...
, as Eve pulls into the driveway with only the vaguest recollection of who Larry is. Realizing that his affair with Eve was merely a one-night stand
One-night stand
Originally, a one-night stand was a single theatre performance, usually by a guest performer on tour, as opposed to an ongoing engagement. Today, however, the term is more commonly defined as a single sexual encounter, in which neither participant has any intention or expectation of a relationship...
, a distraught Larry wanders off, only to win a free vacation after stumbling into a rigged game show
Game show
A game show is a type of radio or television program in which members of the public, television personalities or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, play a game which involves answering questions or solving puzzles usually for money and/or prizes...
. During his preparations for the cruise
Cruise ship
A cruise ship or cruise liner is a passenger ship used for pleasure voyages, where the voyage itself and the ship's amenities are part of the experience, as well as the different destinations along the way...
, a microfilm
Microform
Microforms are any forms, either films or paper, containing microreproductions of documents for transmission, storage, reading, and printing. Microform images are commonly reduced to about one twenty-fifth of the original document size...
falls into Larry's hands by mistake; this attracts the attention of the KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
as well as the mad scientist
Mad scientist
A mad scientist is a stock character of popular fiction, specifically science fiction. The mad scientist may be villainous or antagonistic, benign or neutral, and whether insane, eccentric, or simply bumbling, mad scientists often work with fictional technology in order to forward their schemes, if...
Dr. Nonookee (a pun on "no nookie
Nookie
Nookie may refer to:*Nookie, a drum and bass musician* a slang term for sexual intercourse derived from the Cockney Rhyming Slang expression 'nook and cranny', meaning 'fanny', or British army slang from Arabic niki, "I fuck" - a slang term referring specifically to the vagina...
"), who both want to recover the film.
Development
The first sequel of the series used the new engine by Sierra called Sierra's Creative InterpreterSierra's Creative Interpreter
Sierra's Creative Interpreter is the scripting language created by Jeff Stephenson of Sierra On-Line for its adventure games after the older AGI, and the runtime environment for such adventure games....
(SCI), with 16 colors and MIDI sound. In addition to sharing the SCI0 engine, the game parallels the King's Quest series in its realistic art style — particularly in regard to Larry's character portrait — and grand-adventure elements, including a number of diverse settings (a cruise ship, tropical islands, etc.). It is also notable for being the sole instance where Larry is forbidden to cavort with women for the entire game (excluding the ending). For this reason, the game did not include an age-verification test, although brief instances of pixel
Pixel
In digital imaging, a pixel, or pel, is a single point in a raster image, or the smallest addressable screen element in a display device; it is the smallest unit of picture that can be represented or controlled....
lated nudity still occur at certain points. Also included is a "Trite Phrase" option, which allows players to input a catchphrase which is repeated over the course of the game.
Among the many women Larry meets over the course of the game is Rosella of Daventry — the protagonist of King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella
King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella
King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella, released in 1988, was the first major graphical computer adventure game with a female protagonist. The player takes on the role of Princess Rosella, daughter of King Graham of Daventry and the twin sister of Gwydion/Alexander...
— an example of Sierra's many cross-promotions. One of the game's final scenes includes a piano-playing "Polyester Patty", who features prominently in Leisure Suit Larry 3
Leisure Suit Larry 3: Passionate Patti in Pursuit of the Pulsating Pectorals
Leisure Suit Larry III: Passionate Patti in Pursuit of the Pulsating Pectorals is the third entry in the Leisure Suit Larry series of graphical adventure games published by Sierra Entertainment. It was developed for multiple platforms including DOS, Atari ST and Amiga...
and Leisure Suit Larry 5
Leisure Suit Larry 5: Passionate Patti Does a Little Undercover Work
Leisure Suit Larry 5: Passionate Patti Does a Little Undercover Work is the fourth entry in the Leisure Suit Larry series of graphical adventure games published by Sierra Entertainment. It is the first title in the series available for play on Macintosh, as well as to have 256-color graphics and a...
under the name "Passionate Patti". Patti is blond in this incarnation, whereas future games depict her as dark-haired.
External links
- Leisure Suit Larry Goes Looking for Love at Universal Gaming Database
- Leisure Suit Larry Goes Looking for Love (In Several Wrong Places) - Adventure Classic Gaming Game Information & Screenshots