My high school programming class got to go on a field trip to the studio that made LSL for a studio tour. Since, well, high schoolers, they did everything they could not to mention the series until one of my classmates raised his hand in the middle of the tour and (knowingly) asked, "Hey uh, what's this 'Leisure Suit Larry' game?'". Can't remember his exact response, but it was something like "Oh that's just an.. adventure of a guy who's trying to find himself a partner." and quickly changed the subject with a[n equally knowing] laugh. Good times.
The US is a big country. So the answer is it depends. There are probably more progressive people in the US than any single European country. Where I live in Seattle, I think the majority talk openly with their kids about any sexual topic. In fact, last night I 10 year old asked me what an orgasim is. I told her, no big deal. All the parents I know handle questions in the same way, even with young kids. There are other areas/communities of the country where I suspect that’s not the case.
Unfortunately nuance and the complexity of any society isn’t conveyed via news, television or movies, which is the main way people are exposed to other cultures.
It's not a yes nor is it a no because man, I'm really not sure what amounts to, "is it okay for teachers to show high schoolers a video game centered around trying to fuck anything that moves" is the right topic to even approach that question.
Everyone in the room thought the situation was funny. There's not really anything deeper to probe there, nor is it a reflection on "TheHE UNiTeteDS TtaTeS HAatTs SEx".
The US does have a pretty weird relationship with sexual topics though.
Being one of the most prolific porn (and especially family porn) producers, really sexualised advertising and media, yet going batshit crazy when a nipple is shown on TV. The hyper aversion to LGBT topics in some areas. The Don't ask, don't tell, the bans on education on LGBT topics.. I find it really strange how these extremes can be reconciled.
PS: I am not the person you replied to though, but it does all surprise me a lot. Where I'm from there is less moral upheaval about these topics, more of "as long as you're having consensual adult fun it's great".
However I do see part of this mindset blowing over. Especially in terms of hate against transsexual people (like what's also seen very strongly in Floriday). I have many trans friends so it bothers and worries me.
You're really preaching to the choir there. But again and kindly, I'm not sure my childhood memory from 20 years ago is the right place as a launchpad for this discussion..
Too true. A LSL thread isnt probably a good place for it.
But one thing I've noticed in all my years here, is that there's national philosophical disputes. And these disputes are defined by hardliners on all sides of an issue, and they are basically irreconcilable. Sex is one such topic. Discussion of sex with minors in a school setting is another (distinct with just general sex). Abortion (again, variant of sex) is another. Transgenerism is another one, recently added. LGTBQ discussion in schools is another.
Because of the start schism on all those topics, they tend to invade around any of those issues being discussed.. And in this, is all about sex. The helium-filled blowup doll floating around the Lounge Lizards' screen sure puts a point on it! And it's all about sex.
But even the creators added in a "kid trap", with now what is really dated questions. Even they knew that was a line you don't cross. (But that puberty-18 age meant you probably knew these and played anyway. But that was the fun of cheating the system.)
As are a LOT of DOS games in convenient DOS BOX for your playing pleasure.
There are several of these sites to play DOS games on, and I suspect some are just cribbing archive.org since most have the exact same library with exact same issues in their copies.
For example I was looking for Operation Neptune and found it on archive.org, but it doesn't have any sound. And neither does every other copy I could find to play online in browser.
Thanks for this, I remember playing the first on my dad's compaq 286 green screen laptop when I was 9 or 10, tried to get the directory listing properly formatted on screen - sure you can guess what came next...
Exactly what popped into my head first. Which then suggests an "Archer" phrasing moment ... after which interlude, vague seedy memories of other sorts ... arise.*
First, I absolutely loved the "age check" at the beginning. It was an absolute ROAST of the concept. Questions likely MOST answerable by people still in "secondary schools". By nerdier ... members of that set, in fact. And yet, exactly the veneer that, say, a "Niedermeyer" might 'take at face value', so-to-speak. Lampooning the (effectively 'Confucianist', whether Asian or not) 'adults' that way was such a highlight.
Second - ha, I can barely remember much in the way of details, such as they were, from the actual games! If anything, I remember that there were some enjoyable puzzles, including in the realm of dialogue and 'moves' towards goals and sub-goals. Those games were really like the ice-cream sundaes all games were at the time, with a ... slightly different 'cherry on top' than the type found in other games.
(I still preferred King's Quest, Space Quest, 7th Guest ... Under A Killing Moon ... so many games more or less similar in fundamentals, but, different fleshy drupes on top. And that, is the kind of apparently warped thinking [as judged against the majority, it seems] that leads to browsing this site right now.)
*And yet, somehow, I seem to have been misled by Mr Brooks as to what sorts of tests would be involved when it came to 'UNIX'*
I played Larry as a Dutch kid with only a bit of English, and the questions seemed utterly impossible. I needed to brute force them and write down the answers I tried for each.
I learned a lot of things in that game, but not what the mysterious terms "leisure suit" or "lounge lizard" meant...
A leisure suit is just a suit that's only used for discos/night clubbing, they were often white with big lapels - a style that only miami vice agents could really pull off as 'work' attire.
A lounge lizard was someone that frequented the type of pick-up orientated disco/lounge/night clubs that were the rage at the time.
'lounge' as a type of bar with easy listening or jazz 'soft music' in the background often used as pick-up grounds seem to have been mostly an american thing, although I wouldn't be surprised if they were common in Germany too for some reason.
edit: I suppose 'wine bars' are the modernish (european) equivalent to american 'lounge' bars, but I have no idea if they were similar in their 80s incantation since I never had any interest in wine bars at that time.
I knew a reasonable amount of English when I came across it, but yeah, there was still an element of brute-forcing involved, which was also a part of how ludicrous it was, which fit in with the game, I guess:
Of course kids our age wanting access to a game like that would have no issue brute forcing the limited number of questions - we were used to waiting often many minutes for games to load, or spending hours typing game listings in from magazines - repeatedly retrying an "age" protection like that was no harder or more annoying than any number of the other things we endured in the quest for access to games.
In comparison the age check of Leisure Suit Larry was part of the fun - increasing the feeling we were about to get access to something forbidden.
I remember my uncle showing a PC game during this era. Larry was one he showed. Another was a game more set in a fantasy world. In it, there was a wizard or something that asked the player a riddle. My relative had to look at some printout, as I understood a cheat he had got from someone where he worked.
The answer was just gibberish random letters. I never understood how an honest player could have guessed that answer.
Does this ring a bell? This was in the 80s and I was probably 11 or something. Not all details are clear.
This sounds like King's Quest 1, where you have to enter Rumplestiltskin's name as "Ifnkovhgroghprm", a reverse alphabet cipher. The game hints: "Backwards is the key!" Mercifully this wasn't required to complete the game!
No idea what game you might be talking about. But the process would seem to be some sort of copy protection (sheet of codes) which was quite common back then.
Not really my style to respond / talk to myself on the internet. I mostly selfishly keep that ... perk ... of my 'carnival hall of mirrors'-esque mind to myself (unless I'm muttering more audibly to keep 'the crazies' away at the bus stop ... you know, the real ones, not like me ...).
But...
Realized I need to temper what I wrote about the 'roast' aspect of the "age check". Specifically, I think there IS a (deeper) wisdom to the setup, and a more nuanced satire of "age restrictions". What I will offer here is more the conclusion I drew years ago - drowned out temporarily by not having thought about the game in years and by the strength of the relived 'glee' at the seeming "hurling of the hammer into the 'Big Brother'" face* that I quickly realized the system could be taken to represent.
While labeled something like "age check" - the simple-minded approach, the question-based system IS more what you'd ~rationally want: a maturity check (perhaps not quite the best word, but, will do for now). I.e., what's the point in restricting access to the content in that game if someone is already at a point where they know and/or can dig up the kinds of information queried for in those questions?
I always love the example of Benjamin Franklin, the dude became an apprentice printer at 12, began writing letters that were published under a pseudonym in the guise of a middle-aged widow around the age of 15 or 16, began influencing the politics of the era in significant ways around that same age, fled his apprenticeship and lived as a fugitive for a bit when 17 ... founded a successful newspaper at 23, etc. The world was different, and some of that was more the usual than it would be today. But, at the same time, Franklin himself WAS unusual - particularly 'fast', intelligent, clever ... and, that is the point. People both on average AND as individuals do not conform to such 'simple boxes'.
Age is a practical, reasonable, and simple system - in some sense, exactly the right system. About the only reasonable system (as a parameter for sale / no sale, basically). And yet, it's also obviously rubbish. The 'question system' IS almost certainly better - more reasonable / accurate in certain ways (aside from the additional limitation / potential jest in multiple choice ... so someone who is 5 is getting in at least some of the time, which also doesn't seem unreasonable to some degree) - and also great parody of perhaps the entire concept and us more generally (e.g., the literally MOST COUNTERPRODUCTIVE thing you can do - try to hide information about a BASIC BIOLOGICAL DRIVE that has an extremely serious side).
* If unfamiliar, look up Apple 1984 commercial or similar (terms)
I remember trying to play the game as a kid and being too young to understand the answers to any of the questions. I'd just relaunch the game and try again until I got the questions correct through random guessing.
This was the game that taught me the name "Spiro Agnew" (being one of the choices to the question "Who was not Vice-President of the United States in 1973-74?")
Yes. He was replaced by Nixon in '73 because of a number of scandals involved investigations into a range of crimes, and eventually pleading no contest to one of them.
Just to be clear, the establishment had to get rid of Agnew before getting rid of Nixon, so they dug up an old scandal to do so. They then installed one of their own, Ford. It's possible that Agnew never would have gotten the VP job in the first place had he not been fully compromised. (You see this mechanism time and again with politicians like Dennis Hastert and Joe Biden.)
Agnew, an unreliable source perhaps, claimed to have been threatened.
I remember calling my dad over to help me with the over 18 check at the start of the game every time I wanted to play (I was about 6 at the time). Eventually he printed out a sheet with all the questions and answers for me
The first three are surprisingly good, especially the 2nd and 3rd, and especially if you like those old style Sierra. Oddly charming, and Larry really is just looking for love (and often finding it), he's just a bit of a hapless loser.
Regardless my point is it is a good series and surprisingly tame. Sierra adventures have a ... style but I love them. The main thing is: save a lot. More than you think.
I played through the first three about a year ago, but I had to resort to walkthroughs for hints for a few things that I just don't get how you would figure out... except just trying everything. Great games for sure, but man were games hard back in the day.
The 2nd (or 3rd?) one was outright sadistic-- whichever one teased you with the "save early, save often" mantra. Every two steps there was some instant death trap. It just felt like the devs got lazy, since so much of the total playtime was just replaying shit you failed to save after completion.
It was more aggravating than Dark Souls. No amount of possible VGA-rendered porn was worth putting up with it.
An endorsement for DOSBox. Also, I got booted back out to the command line for entering an age < 10. I remember as a kid flipping through video game catalogues that were included in DOS games bought from the store and marveling at an ECG graphic rendition of a model in a hot tub.
