Softporn Adventure
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| Softporn Adventure | |
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| Publisher(s) | On-Line Systems |
| Designer(s) | Chuck Benton |
| Engine | Proprietary |
| Platform(s) | Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Browser, DOS |
| Release date(s) |
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| Genre(s) | Adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
| Media/distribution | Floppy disk |
| System requirements
MS-DOS version 2.0 or later; 286 processor or faster |
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Softporn Adventure was a comedic, adult-oriented text adventure game produced for the Apple II in 1981. The game was created by Charles Benton and released by On-Line Systems.
In the game, the player (playing a down-on-his-luck party animal) is required to obtain certain items that will allow him to win the affections of a series of beautiful (and sometimes not-so-beautiful) women.
Years later, Softporn Adventure inspired the Leisure Suit Larry series of adult-oriented videogames, and the first entry in that series, 1987's Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards, was a nearly direct graphical adaptation of Softporn Adventure.
The game's cover features three nude women and a male waiter in a hot tub. The hot tub is actually that of Sierra's owners, Ken and Roberta Williams. From left to right, the first woman was the company's bookkeeper at On-Line Systems. The second is the wife of Bob Davis, the creator of another Sierra title, Ulysses and the Golden Fleece. The waiter was an actual waiter from a local restaurant, The Broken Bit. The woman on the far right was Roberta Williams. The women were all nude, although only visible upward from just above their nipples.[1][2]
The photo accompanying TIME’s first-ever story on computer games was of the Softporn Adventure game box.[3]
[edit] Ports
Softporn Adventure was ported by designer Gary Thompson to MS-DOS for the PC in 1991.
Softporn Adventure was originally written for the Apple II in Applesoft BASIC. Thompson loved the game, so he printed it out, re-designed, and re-wrote it for the PC in the late 80's and released it on Compuserve. After going to the store and purchasing a copy of Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards, he realized it was the same game. After contacting Al Lowe (designer of Leisure Suit Larry) and getting a first-hand account history of the game, he obtained permission from Ken Williams (CEO of Sierra) and Al Lowe to release his re-designed PC version as shareware on the Internet. Williams said he would allow Gary to release his Softporn on the internet because, as he wrote, "Quite frankly, I seriously doubt it will affect the sales of Larry."
In 1994 Thompson got an e-mail from Lowe, graciously requesting his permission (since the rights were already owned by Sierra anyway) to release Gary's PC version on a collector's edition of LSL called Leisure Suit Larry's Greatest Hits & Misses. They requested his version because Thompson's Softporn was the only version available for the PC that completely held true to the original game. Gary updated and re-wrote the game again. This bug-fixed version was then released on Sierra's collector's edition CD-ROM.
[edit] References
- ^ Levy, Stephen (2010/1985). Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution. Sebastopol: O'Reilly Media. p. 350.
- ^ Trivia for Softporn Adventure at MobyGames
- ^ "Software for the Masses" from TIME
[edit] External links
- Softporn Adventure at MobyGames
- Download of Softporn Adventure at Al Lowe's website
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