Softporn Adventure

Specifics

FIRST RELEASE:	1981-01-01
DEVELOPERS:	Blue Sky Software
PUBLISHERS:	Blue Sky Software, Sierra On-Line
GROUPS:	Leisure Suit Larry Series
GENRES:	Adventure: Text adventure, Adventure
PLATFORMS:	IBM PC, Apple II, Atari 400/800
ENGINES:	Machine Language

Game menu

General

The year is 2020 A.D. Alas, the skies are green with plutonium, interest rates are doubling annually, the world has become weird and bizarre. the demands of life have become too much to bear. At the suggestion of a friend, you've decided to vacation in the notorious gambling town of "Lost Vagueness" where women and games provide maximum diversion for the downtrodden work-a-day man. You set about to fulfill your erotic fantasy to seduce three women before you return. As the game begins, you find yourself in a sleazy, rundown bar. Check your wallet and you'll find $1,000. The three women await you - but first you must find them! Seducing these ladies will prove to be quite a challenge - so be resourceful and don't leave an area unexplored!

Softporn Adventure was originally not intended to be published - Chuck Benton, who had bought his own Apple computer, wrote it in early 1981 to familiarize himself with programming and to have some fun in the process. However, as he showed his progress to his friends and as they were eager to see more of it, it occurred to Chuck that he could very well make it commercially available. He rewrote the program, produced 1,000 copies, named it Softporn Adventure, and published it under his own company name, Blue Sky Software. Only a few dozen copies were sold, including a few to Ken Williams whom he met at Applefest in June 1981. The following week, Chuck received a phone call, asking him to license the game in order to be re-released under the On-Line Systems name, which he granted.

That's when the infamous photo shoot took place. The story goes that Ken Williams, Bob Davis (creator of Ulysses and the Golden Fleece) and Larry Bain, who frequently met at Ken And Roberta's house during the weekends, decided to hire some models from Fresno for the nude picture in the Williams' own hot tub. Reportedly their women called their bluff and said they would do the hot tub shot themselves. From left to right, the first woman is Diane Siegel, On-Line's production manager (who lived with Larry at the time). The second is Susan Davis, On-Line's bookkeeper and wife of Bob Davis, and the woman on the far right is Roberta Williams. The waiter was Rick Chipman, an actual waiter from a local restaurant, The Broken Bit.

The re-release of Softporn Adventure, released for both the Apple II and Atari 400/800, sold incredibly well, reportedly in excess of 50,000 copies, which was enormous for its time. It was also featured in Time Magazine's first ever article on computer games (incidentally on page 69).

After its release in 1981, a sequel of Softporn Adventure was planned with a female protagonist, a parody of a young female's college life. Chuck wanted to lure a woman to co-author it, but it never came to be. However, with Softporn Adventure being the only text adventure game ever published by Sierra, they decided to remake the game with graphics. This led to the birth of Leisure Suit Larry in 1987, who's first adventure, Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards, is an almost direct graphical adaption, adding the protagonist, Larry Laffer. Leisure Suit Larry, designed by Al Lowe, would become one of the most popular series of Sierra On-Line and the first installment was remade in 1991 and again in 2013 through Kickstarter funding.

In 1991 Softporn Adventure was ported to MS-DOS by designer Gary Thompson, who obtained permission from Ken Williams and Al Lowe to release it as shareware. This DOS conversion of Softporn Adventure is also included in various Leisure Suit Larry collections.

Collections and compilations

This title is also included in:

Leisure Suit Larry's Greatest Hits and Misses

Leisure Suit Larry Collection Series

Leisure Suit Larry: Ultimate Pleasure Pack

External links

- Softporn Adventure at SierraHelp
- Softporn Adventure at MobyGames
- Softporn Adventure at Wikipedia