Welcome to the world of Larry Laffer, a guy in a leisure suit who has just turned 40. He also wears 11 gold chains, and read books and listen to old records, and was shy when dealing with women. But all that has changed. A few nights at the local health spa has given Larry confidence when he’s around women. Now, he can pick up any women on any night he likes. On the downside, Larry needs to check on himself. He doesn’t look at himself when he finishes in the bathroom. He always carries around toilet paper in his shoe, and he sometimes has bad breath. Lucky that he carries around breath spray whenever he goes.

Those who have the latest Leisure Suit Larry collection, Leisure Suit Larry: Ultimate Pleasure Pack are probably aware that LSL is an updated version of Softporn Adventure! which was written for the Apple Macintosh by Chuck Benton. The game was the only one by On-Line Systems (aka: Sierra On-Line) to be text-based. Gary Thompson later used the game’s source code to re-write Chuck’s masterpiece for the IBM. LSL is basically the same as Softporn, but the only differences between the two is that LSL incorporated graphics and sound effects, it has more locations, and it was written by Al Lowe. Softporn is now shareware and included in the collection.

Before you start playing the game, you will be asked to enter your age, and to prove that age, you are also asked a series of five questions, which are random every time you play. If you answer a question incorrectly, the game warns you that you will be kicked out if you do it again. Once you’re actually kicked out, you start with the questions again and let’s hope that you don’t get the same question that you answered incorrectly before. If you don’t know a question, all you need to do is press ALT+X.

The main goal of LSL is the same as Softporn. To get through the game, you need to seduce three girls. There are three of them in LSL: one is an ugly hooker found on the top floor of the bar, one is in the disco, and the final one is in the penthouse. This girl upsets Larry when he immediately dumps him in Leisure Suit Larry Goes Looking for Love (In Several Wrong Places!). If you want to get on with the most women, you have to give them presents. If you want to get it on with the hooker, make sure to use protection. And make sure you take it off, unless you want to be arrested for indecent exposure.

Throughout the game, you will be reminded if you have bad breath when the game either gives you messages such as “Your breath tastes like a motorman’s glove” or “Your breath is enough to take your breath away” or the characters complain. It is important to use the breath spray every now and again. It’s no big deal whether you have bad breath or not, all the girls will still have sex with Larry.

You start outside a bar in the quiet suburb of Lost Wages (a spoof of Las Vegas, probably it was called that because anyone can work for nothing), with nearly no money, so you have to find a way to make more. As I said earlier, LSL has more locations, which include the disco, casino, wedding chapel, and convenience store. To get to one of these locations, all you need to do is to hail a cab and get the driver to get you there. Like in real life, you have to pay for the fare. If you don’t, the driver will hit the roof and you’ll be involved in a hit-and-run incident. The taxi driver doesn’t help you much with the money, as he demands more money for every time you want him to take you somewhere.

One thing I like about LSL is that no matter where you are, when you wait long enough, a black dog approaches you, piddles on your leg, then goes away. That dog belongs to someone you meet at the end of the game. Also you can walk off the screen and end up in an alley where a big thug threatens to bash you with a baseball bat. If you’re killed this way, you visit Sierra’s headquarters where they are fixing up characters ready to be put into their games. These include the dragon from KQ1, King Graham from the King’s Quest series, and the robot in SQ1. Going through this process is the same as restarting the game, only it takes longer.

The Bad

The further you progress in the game, the more money you have to spend, and the more likely you’ll go bankrupt. You have to travel to a lot of locations in the game by hailing a cab and ordering the driver where you want to go, and the more locations you have to go to, the higher the cabby's price. When you get it on with the girl in the disco, she ends up taking all your money and then nicks off. It’s situations like these that end up with you having to use the slot machines in the casino to get more money at least thrice. It’s rather annoying.

The Bottom Line

Some gamers will be put off with the game’s 16-color graphics and lack of SB support, as well as the parser interface. Typing a one-word sentence performs the action in which you want. For instance, to hail a cab, you type HAIL CAB. To have sex with a girl, you type HAVE SEX. To use the phone outside the store, you type USE PHONE. All I can say to these gamers is that since this game was made in 1987 where there were no VGA cards or sound cards, you have to put up with it. If you can’t, forget about playing this game and buy the 1991 remake of LSL. Only then will you experience 256-color VGA and SB support. ***½