Well, she didn't know, really, what I did. She was never very interested in computers or in games, so she really had no idea what was going on. I showed her the original design for Leisure Suit Larry, which was Chuck Benton's game SoftPorn - that was the design. That was the "document." We didn't have a design document. We kinda looked at that old game and we said, well, here's a bunch of puzzles, let's use those puzzles and locations and see if we can make it a better game. So, when we were working on it, I showed her. I said, "This is so bad, I have to make fun of it." SoftPorn was a totally serious game about a guy trying to get laid. There was no central character, there was no anything. No text. No persona. No graphics, of course. So my wife added, "Don't embarrass us too much." I don't think I did. I think the box always promised more excitement that I actually had nerve enough to put in it. I always felt if I crossed the line and it becomes pornography then that's not funny anymore…I was gonna say I've never seen funny pornography, but Bimbo Cheerleaders in Outer Space was actually pretty damn funny.

I'd say that the future looks very dim. Let me start at the beginning. The work that I did for Sierra was work for hire, which is three funny words that when put together become this legal harassment that means, essentially, that the company kept all the rights and I kept none. I got a royalty on sales and I continued to get a royalty on sales and as long as they continue to put out a new collection out every few years, I may continue to get a few bucks here and then, but for the most part my money came from the sales of the product and they retained the rights. The characters in essence are treated the same was as Superman or Batman or any of those other kind of characters that have been created by writers and end up being own by the publisher. That's the way it is with Sierra. Sierra owns the rights to all the characters I created. And at this point they seem to have no desire to do anything with them. Although, I have heard rumors they have started a King's Quest game and they have started at least talking about a Space Quest. I don't know how accurate those stories are because I don't have any good connections there anymore.

Well, I would if the conditions were correct - to be correct would mean that I would have control over the product. At least as much control as I used to have. And have a budget that was befitting a class A title. And a reasonable time schedule. And a certain royalty rate and so forth, so there's a lot of little things. So if they said, "Do you want to do another game?" My immediate answer would be hell yes! Let's go for it! Let's start tomorrow. In fact, I already have a design waiting! So, my response would be immediately yes and let's talk about the details later. I have no desire to do a game for little or no money or a game where they screw up the characters or do stupid things with them. They've already done a couple of those. The pinball game was kinda lame, but then I screwed things up myself with the Laffer Utilities package. That was my own fault. That was about three years too early. If I had brought that out about the time that After Dark was popular I think it would have been completely different. So my answer is absolutely maybe.

Don't! Nobody goes into game design as a game designer. I don't know anyone who said, "I want to be a game designer when I grow up." Everybody I know who is in the business was a band director or a housewife or a writer or a programmer or an artist. Nobody that I know was trained as a game designer. I would say it's a bad field to break into with no experience in any other aspect of game design. With that said, if you're a good programmer and have the creativity that it also takes to be a game designer, get a job as a programmer and work your way up. I just don't know anybody who actually studied game design. I know there are schools. I'm not trying to be too flippant here. There are schools that say they'll teach you to be a game designer. I'd like to see a list of their graduates who have gained a job in game design.

Well, that’s a broad question and I can only answer it in broad strokes, but let me put it in a positive spin: I think one of the reasons that the games that feature a designer above the title are successful is because they reflect the peculiarity, the sensibility and the personality of that person. I think the games that are designed by committees are almost always disappointing because they don’t have a unified point of view, they don’t have a consistent approach, they don’t have this and that and the other thing, but primarily they’ve just been filtered and filtered and filtered so much that they all end up being a Ford Taurus, right? That’s the kind of game you get when you design by committee and I think that the reason that Sid Meier is a famous name and that Lord British is a famous name and, you know, Roberta Williams is because like it or not, their personality is in that box. If you like Larry, you’re gonna like Al Lowe! I’m not saying that I am Larry because God knows I’m not, at least I hope I’m not, but my personality is in there.

Actually, you know the character that I imitate the most? The narrator – yeah, you know, I’m the guy who always has the last laugh, I have some smart-ass response, I am the all-knowing, omnipotent, all-seeing – yeah, that’s me! But yeah, I think that the games that have a personality have it because there’s one person in charge, who has the vision for the project, who has the responsibility and is given the ability and the means to make the product reflect his personal vision of what the game should be, and frankly, I didn’t realize until I got a website how many people were affected by my games. You know, it’s one thing to get a royalty statement and a spreadsheet that says this game sold this many copies this month and you look at that and go, “Well, that’s good – 20,000 copies – that’s good.”

When I got a website, I started getting thousands of letters that said, “You know, I’ve spent so many hours that I enjoyed, or that I played with my brother and the two of us, well, we were too young, but we sure liked getting into the game!” and suddenly it all became so much more human and I guess I know that the game sold millions of copies and I know that for every copy we sold, at least another one or two were pirated, so I know millions of people have played these games, but somehow it was all just kind of numbers and academic until I actually started hearing from people and I’ll tell you, I so appreciate it when people stop by my website and send me e-mail. It’s just been a real pleasure.

Actually, hang on to that question for a second, but let me go back and finish; I had another thought that I was going to put on, but I couldn’t fit it in right. On the games with the designer’s name above the title, I think the analogy there is that the movie where the director and the screen writer are the main persons who have that vision of the film - they have one strong vision that carries through it and I think that’s why you see Woody Allen movies or Steven Spielberg movies – his films have a certain reminisce or personality to them because of who he is and I think that’s the key.

Now, what should the games do nowadays?

Well, I’ll tell you, I’m amazed that with comedies being so big on television and in movies, that there is no humor, to speak of, in computer games. That just amazes me that in the world, there wasn’t a lot – Scott (Murphy) and I, and Monkey Island, and a few others, Steve Morenski, but nowadays everything is so dry and so serious…

I play golf, badly! Let’s see, well I spend more time with my family – with my kids and with my wife. I read a lot, which I never used to have time for. I watch a lot of films; I’m a big convert to NetFlix – I don’t know if you know about NetFlix.com, but they’re a wonderful source for DVDs and you never have to worry about when to return them, so I spend a lot of time with that.

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