Lifetime Achievement Award: Al Lowe

Kirk: Okay, well, back to Larry. I know Sierra still owns the rights to Larry, as you said, and they probably own the rights to Freddy Pharkas too, I assume.

Al: Everything. All the characters I created were done as "work for hire."

Kirk: Do you have any intention of getting back into it and giving us a new character in case Sierra decides to never again make such a game?

Al: Not at this point. I've been retired for three years now and I'm comfortable with it.

Kirk: Well, I'm happy for you, sad for gamers.

Al: Although, there are some rumblings now that things may happen again. I don't know; we'll see. But with the market the way it is today, adventure games are pretty much dead in the water, and that's what I specialize in. So, I think if I were to do another game, it would have to be markedly different from the others. Now, I think if I did a game, it would have to have my personality. It would have to be funny and it would be a little bawdy, and it might use Larry and it might not. I think the things that made Larry successful were the humor and the double entendres, and that'll go with me.

Kirk: Well, if it does include Larry, I think a first person shooter from his point of view would certainly be something interesting to see.

Al: [Laughs]

Kirk: It would bring new meaning to "first person shooter," anyway.

Al: [Laughs] Yeah, yeah, well, you know, we had plans for Larry 8. It was going to be in 3-D.

Kirk: Did any development start on that or did everything end before it got started?

Al: There's actually an 8 megabyte movie that was a rough test for the Larry character design. We actually generated a 3-D Larry and had a little dialogue and music. I put it up on my website. People can download it if they like.

Kirk: Oh, the movie's up there?

Al: Uh huh.

Kirk: Okay, yeah, I've gotten many other things from there, especially the music, which brings me to my next question.

Al: Sure.

Kirk: Quite often, even these days, I still find myself at random times whistling the theme to Larry, which I believe you wrote. Is that correct?

Al: Yes, one afternoon before dinner. I drove home listening to National Public Radio and they mentioned that it was Irving Berlin's 98th birthday. That is the right guy, isn't it, that wrote Alexander's Ragtime Band?

Kirk: I think that's the right guy.

Al: Yeah, I think that's him. Jeez, I just lost a brain cell there. Anyway, the gist of it was that I started thinking about the old kind of music, that kind of ragtime, 1920s kind of style and stuff.

Kirk: Right.

Al: And I needed a theme song for Larry, a guy who's out of touch. The original idea was to do 70s disco themes. But the computers back then sucked! Most people listened over just the PC's tweaker and all they heard was a melody.

Kirk: Right.

Al: And it was kind of hard to do a disco tune or something that would carry the 70s idea. But I thought if I did a melody that was kind of "ragtime-y," kind of 20s stuff... Anyhow, I sat down at the piano when I got home that afternoon, and before dinner I had inked out the entire theme song. It's been a great kick ever since hearing all the different composers who have worked on Larry interpret it in their own style. Remember, I only did the music for the first two Larry games. After that, we had other composers. They've all taken that song and made it their own; you know, really done something with it. But, the most fun was in Larry 7 when we actually had a live band record it.

Kirk: Yeah, it really brightened up the game.

Al: We went down to Chick Corea's studio in Hollywood and hired four great jazz musicians, and we laid down the entire game--all the major themes--we recorded in one day.

Kirk: You were the Ramones of the computer gaming world. So, did you compose music outside of the games? Actually, I should ask what instruments you play. You mentioned piano and I believe you play sax as well, I've read.

Al: Right. I was a high school band director, so part of my training was to learn to play all the instruments.

Kirk: Okay.

Al: While I don't sound very good on many of them, I can tell you...I know A flat on a trombone is in third position.

Kirk: Yes, it is.

Al: I know all the fingerings and techniques and how to teach and so forth, so I have good familiarity with all of them. Now, as far as being professional, I play the woodwinds: sax, clarinet, flute. Piano. I've played some electric bass in my day. A little drum set. Some drum set to play along with a big band or a rock band. So, not much, but I know how to teach all of them.

Kirk: Well, the more you know, the more you want to teach.

Al: Yeah. And do I compose outside of games? No, I haven't lately. I did compose some when I was young and I had a band of my own and all that stuff but no, nothing much lately.

Kirk: I gleaned from the games that you're a jazz-man. Is that the case?

Al: Jazz and classical, yeah.

Continue to Part 8, in which Al takes the wrong way to Hollywood and the right way to Passionate Patti's birthday suit.