Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards is a graphic adventure game originally released in 1987 as the first part of the Leisure Suit Larry series. Originally developed for the PC DOS and the Apple II, it was later ported to other platforms such as the Amiga, Atari ST, Apple IIGS, Apple Macintosh and the TRS-80 Color Computer. It utilizes the Adventure Game Interpreter (AGI) engine made famous by King's Quest: Quest for the Crown.
The game's story follows a middle-aged male virgin named Larry Laffer as he desperately tries to 'get lucky' in the fictional American city of Lost Wages. Land of the Lounge Lizards establishes several elements which recur in the later Larry games, including Larry's campy attire, perpetual bad luck with women, and penchant for double-entendres. The story and basic structure of the game are lifted from Softporn Adventure, a 1981 Apple II text adventure.
Despite a lack of advertising, the game was a sleeper hit and a commercial and critical success. Sierra developed and published a remake that used the Sierra's Creative Interpreter (SCI) engine with 256 colors and a point-and-click, icon-driven (as opposed to text-based) user interface, released for the PC DOS, Apple Macintosh and Amiga in 1991. A second, high-definition remake/reboot, titled Leisure Suit Larry: Reloaded, was developed by N-Fusion Interactive working with series' creator Al Lowe and published by Replay Games in 2013.
Larry Laffer is a 38-year-old (40-year-old in the 1991 remake) 'loser' who lives in his mother's basement and has not yet lost his virginity. Having grown weary of his lonely existence, he decides to visit the resort city of Lost Wages (a parody of 'Las Vegas') hoping to experience what he has not lived before, and to finally find the woman of his dreams. Larry starts with nothing but an out-of-style 1970s disco-era leisure suit and $94 in his pocket. His quest involves four possible women: a nameless, seedy-looking sex worker; Fawn, a club-goer of low moral fiber; Faith, a receptionist who (true to her name) is faithful to her boyfriend; and Eve, a bathing beauty and Larry's ultimate goal.
The game begins outside a bar in Lost Wages. Players are given seven real-time hours (eight in the 1991 remake) to complete the game, at which point a despairing Larry commits suicide, resulting in game over. Players control Larry's movements with the directional keys and by inputing commands into a text parser (e.g. 'talk to man', 'open window', etc.). If Larry is too far away from a person or object to comply, or if the command is invalid, a caution message appears with hints on what to do.
The city consists of five areas: Lefty's Bar, a hotel casino, a 24-hour wedding chapel, a discothèque, and a convenience store. The player can walk between areas that are next to each other, but other areas can only be accessed by hailing a taxi, which costs the player money; failure to do so results in Larry being mugged or hit by oncoming traffic. During the early stages of the game, Larry can survive most premature deaths. In the original release, a compartment opens beneath Larry's body and takes him to a laboratory where heroes from Sierra's computer games—such as King's Quest—are re-assembled; in the remake, Larry's remains are instead thrown inside a blender and reformed.
A prostitute is available as soon as the game starts. Should Larry have intercourse with her, he will contract a sexually-transmitted disease and die shortly thereafter. This fate may be avoided by buying a condom at the convenience store. Larry questions the validity of losing his virginity to a prostitute, but the game resumes without a time limit.
Larry's interactions with key women are accompanied by a detailed image of whomever he is speaking with, unlike other non-player characters. With the exception of the prostitute, each of the women shun Larry at first, but respond favorably to gifts of varying sorts. Although it is not possible to woo all of the women, giving gifts is needed to advance to the game's final area, the hotel penthouse. To this end, money is essential to advance through the game. The only available method of augmenting Larry's funds is to gamble in the casino, playing blackjack and slots.
