In 1987, the first game in the series, Liesure Suit Larry In the Land of the Lounge Lizards was released and shortly thereafter found itself receiving the Software Publisher’s Association best adventure game award for that year. Larry is based upon all the weird people Al Lowe, Larry’s creator at Sierra, has observed while playing professional jazz saxophone in night clubs for many years. The upcoming Larry is Larry lucky seven., and up until this time 1.5 million Larry adventures have been sold.

The low brow humor continues with Larry, still in his trusty leisure suit, on a cruise ship. As with most Benny Hill type humor, the women are everything that the most exploitive male would want them to be, and perhaps some of the anatomical equipment defies certain natural laws, including gravity. The slapstick and off color humor combine with just barely decently clad females of ample proportions. Now if Larry could only keep it together long enough to, oh well, if he really scored, he wouldn’t be our old lovable Larry.

The plot of this installment is that our polyester hero has found a ticket on a cruise ship. When Larry arrives he finds that it is a cruise entirely for women of ample proportions and beauty all the way down to crew of the ship. There ensues a number of typically tawdry Larry adventures and exploration of the sites on the cruise ship. Locations include the nude swimming pool, the onboard casino, the nude sun bathing deck where Larry has to assist women to put on their clothes, and one particularly funny robotic comedy show which will feature a special performance, " an evening with Bill Clinton."

Just when you thought the controversy over parsers was dead, Larry, living in the 70’s, has to bring up the old laundry to air once again. Yes Larry 7 has a new text parser called Cyber Type 2000 in what Sierra calls a "revolutionary new interface." Only Sierra could bring back an old out-moded technology, redefine and refine it and then call it revolutionary. We will have to see if the best aspects of point and click and text parsers is combine in this one when released.

Many computer editors and writers have expressed concern over the years that multimedia as defined by the current computer generation should not be called multi since it only encompasses two of the senses, that is sight and hearing. Well, Al Low has a solution for that the new CyberSniff 2000. That’s right Larry has a scratch ‘n sniff card packaged with the game that promises to be just as offensive, if not more offensive than, the Baltimore native, John Waters’ Polyester scratch ‘n sniff card. Bound to be a collectors item that Al could sell to insure, or was that assure, his retirement.

After six Larrys, finally in Larry 7 Al Lowe has implemented an instant travel system. Bring up the big Cruise ship map, click on the location you wish to go to and through the magic of computers, you are there in an instant. No more wandering around, unless you really like bumping into bulkheads and beauties.

You can actually star in Larry 7, and share the immense embarrassment and humiliation. Simply take your own picture with a digital camera or scan a photo, load the image into the computer, and the computer automatically will put you into the game.

Not to be outdone, Al claims since Bill Gates has garnered so much money messing with Windows operating systems, he certainly does not want to be left out. Each time you successfully complete a part of the game and progress the plot, your windows wallpaper will be replaced with a new image of the buxom girls from Larry 7. This continual alteration of your Windows interface goes beyond the typical operating system alterations everyone experiences while loading programs into their Windows operating system. Way to go Al.

A special program is on the Sierra website for free called the Larry Pops Up! Joke window. Sierra promises a new expansion pack each month so that you can add to the totally tasteless jokes and severely un-punny humor.

Review references:
Next Generation, volume 2, number 18, June, 1996, pg. 89.
Johnnie Magpie, InterAction, summer, 1996, pg. 68-69.
www.polytech.ivanovo.su/~loe/solutions/adventure/empire/Dream.web.html
www.sierra.com/games/lsl7/shots/ www.sierra.com/games/lsl7/goodies/preview.html