Al Lowe
{{Short description|American video game designer (born 1946)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2015}}
{{Infobox person
|name = Al Lowe
|image = Al Lowe! 3 3 (9559468220).jpg
|caption=Lowe at Gamescom 2013
|birth_date={{Birth date and age|1946|07|24}}
|birth_name=Albert William Lowe
|birth_place=
|death_date=
|death_place=
|education=University of Missouri (MA)
|occupation=Video game designer, game programmer, musician
|known_for=Leisure Suit Larry
|website=[http://allowe.com/ allowe.com]
|spouse={{marriage|Margaret|1968}}
}}
Albert William Lowe (born July 24, 1946){{cite web |url=https://allowe.com/games/larry/tips-manuals/clues-cheats.html |title=Clues & Cheats! |last=Lowe |first=Al |website=Al Lowe's Humor Site |access-date=2023-01-01 |quote=When I was testing the game...I made my birthday a substitute for any or all of them: 0724.}}{{cite news |author= |date=1968-06-23 |title=Paul–Lowe |work=St. Joseph News-Press |page=9C}}{{cite news |author= |date=1965-03-25 |title=Missouri U. Band Here on April 24 |work=The St. Louis Post-Dispatch |page=7N}} is an American video game designer who developed several adventure games, mostly for Sierra On-Line. He created the Leisure Suit Larry series. He has also worked as a casting director, voice director, writer, director, producer, background photographer, actor and executive producer.
Career
=Teaching, early programming=
File:Al Lowe on programming the monorail in Leisure Suit Larry II (1989).mp3
Lowe began his working life teaching public school music for 15 years. He taught himself programming during a sick leave.{{cite web | url=https://www.superjumpmagazine.com/al-lowe-reflects-on-leisure-suit-larry/ | title=Al Lowe Reflects on Leisure Suit Larry | date=August 2019 | publisher=SuperJumpMagazine.com | accessdate=2024-11-07}} He quit teaching and pursued a career in programming. In 1982 he created three video games for the Apple II: Dragon's Keep,{{cite magazine | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rS8EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA39 | title=Dragon's Keep, learning game for first graders | magazine=InfoWorld | date=October 24, 1983 | volume=5 | issue=43|access-date=June 14, 2016 | author=Lucas, Jay | pages=39 |quote=Dragon's Keep is a graphic adventure originally designed by Al and Margaret Lowe and Micheal and Rae Lynn MacChesnet ... Originally they worked under the corporate name of Sunnyside Soft.}}{{cite magazine| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AjAEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA16 | title=Neighbors from game-software firm | magazine=InfoWorld | date=January 17, 1983 | volume=5|issue=3|access-date=June 14, 2016 | author=Mace, Scott | pages=16 |quote=The company is Sunnyside Soft, which last month released two educational games for the Apple, Dragon's Keep and Bop-A-Bet. ... Al Lowe is head programmer}} Bop-A-Bet, and Troll's Tale.{{cite magazine | url=http://www.digitpress.com/library/newsletters/arcadeexpress/arcade_express_v1n18.pdf | title=SIERRA GOES ON LINE WITH SUNNYSIDE SOFT | magazine=arcade express | date=April 10, 1983| volume=1 | issue=18 | pages=3 |quote=Sierra On-Line has acquired the product line originally developed by Sunnyside Soft. ...The three educational programs developed by...are 'Bop-A-Bet', 'Dragon's Keep' and 'Troll's Tale'}} He was on Name That Tune in the 1984–85 season and was a semifinalist in one of that season's Tournaments of Champions.
Sierra Entertainment bought these games in 1983 and Lowe worked for them as a programmer and game designer for 16 years. His first projects included Winnie the Pooh in the Hundred Acre Wood, Donald Duck's Playground, and The Black Cauldron, all based on Disney properties. Later, he was lead programmer on King's Quest III and Police Quest I and also created the music for other Sierra games. Lowe is best known for his Leisure Suit Larry series of games. After Larry's success, Lowe also designed other games such as Torin's Passage and Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist (with Josh Mandel). Throughout his career, Lowe was known for his distinctive bald head, full beard, and considerable beer belly, and liked to call himself "the world's oldest game designer". Next Generation listed Lowe in their "75 Most Important People in the Games Industry of 1995", chiefly for the Leisure Suit Larry series.{{cite journal|title=75 Power Players|journal=Next Generation|issue=11|publisher=Imagine Media|date=November 1995|page=51}}
=''Sam Suede: Undercover Exposure''=
Computer Gaming World reported a rumor in July 1994 that Lowe was working on a new series, Capitol Punishment, with the first game being "Bill and Hillary's Whitewater Adventure".{{Cite magazine
|last=Santos
|first=Ernie Ryne
|date=July 1994
|title=Cub Reporters?
|department=The Rumor Bag
|url=http://www.cgwmuseum.org/galleries/index.php?year=1994&pub=2&id=120
|magazine=Computer Gaming World
|pages=166
}} That year he moved with his family to Seattle and supposedly retired in 1998. In a 2006 interview,{{cite web|author=Adventure Classic Gaming|year=2006|url=http://www.adventureclassicgaming.com/index.php/site/interviews/199/|title=Al Lowe Interview|access-date=September 8, 2016| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20060610071605/http://www.adventureclassicgaming.com/index.php/site/interviews/199/| archive-date= June 10, 2006 | url-status= live}} Lowe revealed that he was not actually retired, but had spent well over a year secretly designing a new game Sam Suede: Undercover Exposure, an action comedy game developed by iBase Entertainment, which he co-founded with Ken Wegrzyn. Unable to locate a publisher to promote and distribute Sam Suede, iBase Entertainment shut down in December 2006. Following this setback, Lowe expressed serious doubts whether he'd ever reenter the gaming industry again.{{cite web|url=http://www.firingsquad.com/news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=13406|title=Interview with Al Lowe following the cancellation of Sam Suede|access-date=2006-12-03|author=John Callaham|date=December 1, 2006|publisher=FiringSquad.com| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20061206182231/http://firingsquad.com/news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=13406| archive-date= December 6, 2006 | url-status= live}} As of January 2007, the website for Sam Suede developer iBase Entertainment listed the project as postponed pending acquisition of additional development funding.
=Later developing=
In 2010, Lowe produced and directed Al Lowe's Comedy Club, developed by The Binary Mill for iOS devices.{{cite web|url=http://www.thebinarymill.com/comedy_club.php |title= Al Lowe's Comedy Club |publisher=The Binary Mill}} He has since been recruited by Replay Games to work on high-definition remakes of six of the first seven Leisure Suit Larry games (the fourth entry in the series was deliberately skipped as part of the "fifth" game's plot).{{cite web |url=http://www.egmnow.com/articles/exclusive-leisure-suit-larry-returns-in-hd/ |title=Exclusive-Leisure Suit Larry Returns in HD |publisher=egmnow.com |access-date=February 21, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120617192334/http://www.egmnow.com/articles/exclusive-leisure-suit-larry-returns-in-hd/ |archive-date=June 17, 2012 |url-status=dead }} On December 11, 2013, it was announced that Lowe had left Replay Games and returned to retirement. While Replay Games' official statement claimed that Lowe's departure was amicable, Lowe himself disputed this, stating that the parting did not happen on good terms.{{cite web|url=https://venturebeat.com/2013/12/11/leisure-suit-larry-creator-al-lowe-leaves-replay-games-exclusive/|title=Updated: Leisure Suit Larry creator Al Lowe retires from Replay Games (exclusive)|first=Dean|last=Takahashi|date=December 11, 2013|work=VentureBeat|access-date=December 12, 2013}}
= Al Lowe's Sierra Source Code =
In 2018, Lowe posted a listing at popular auction website eBay of an entire backup of his own works at Sierra because he noted that Sierra had no intention of ever backing up any source code. Lowe said, "I backed everything up because I knew Sierra didn't." These included original floppies, boxes, manuals and source code for various games including popular titles such as the original Leisure Suit Larry and Space Quest among others. Shortly after he posted the listing, he sat down for an in depth interview with MetalJesusRocks, a former colleague and ex-Sierra employee where the two had a detailed discussion regarding the entire collection and its ultimate value.{{cite news |last1=Machkovech |first1=Sam |title=Al Lowe reveals his Sierra source code collection—then puts all of it on eBay |url=https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/11/al-lowe-reveals-his-sierra-source-code-collection-then-puts-all-of-it-on-ebay/ |access-date=14 January 2022 |work=Ars Technica |agency=arsTECHNICA |date=30 November 2018 |language=en-us}}
Personal life
Lowe grew up in Chesterfield, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. Both Lowe and his wife Margaret, whom he married in 1968, are University of Missouri graduates.{{cite magazine |last=McKenna |first=Marti |date=Spring 1990 |title=Ladies and Lounge Lizards: Al Lowe |url=https://archive.org/details/Sierra_News_Magazine_Volume_3_Number_1_Spring_1990/page/n7/mode/2up/ |magazine=Sierra News Magazine |quote=I have a Masters in music from the University of Missouri.}}{{cite news |author= |date=1968-05-15 |title=Board Names Band Director |work=The Daily Capital News |location=Jefferson City, Missouri |page=2}} During college, Lowe played saxophone in university bands,{{cite news |author= |date=1966-05-04 |title='Marching Mizzou' to Give Concert at Kiel Auditorium on Mothers Day |work=Naborhood Links News |location=St. Louis County, Missouri |page=28}} and after graduation, worked in education as a band director.{{cite news |author= |date=1973-02-16 |title=Winter Concert Includes Combo |work=The Mexico Ledger |page=3}}
Lowe is an avid model railroader and a member of the board of directors of the 4th Division of the Pacific Northwest Region of the National Model Railroad Association.{{Cite web|url=https://www.seattlemet.com/news-and-city-life/2014/01/model-railroader-al-lowe-lives-on-little-rails-january-2014|title=Model Railroader Al Lowe Lives on Little Rails|website=Seattle Met}}{{cite web|url=http://www.4dpnr.org/Staff.htm |title=4th Division of the Pacific Northwest Region of the National Model Railroad Association – Contact Us |access-date=2010-01-16 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080516200000/http://www.4dpnr.org/Staff.htm |archive-date=May 16, 2008 }} In November 2007, he was the guest of honor at the Alternative Party 2007 in Helsinki, Finland and played saxophone live with David Hasselhoff Big Band.{{cite web|url=http://www.hugi.scene.org/online/hugi34/hugi%2034%20-%20demoscene%20interviews%20magic%20al%20lowe%20interview.htm |title=Al Lowe interview|access-date=2009-04-04 |first=Magic |last=Adok |work=Hugi Magazine | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090513043216/http://www.hugi.scene.org/online/hugi34/hugi%2034%20-%20demoscene%20interviews%20magic%20al%20lowe%20interview.htm| archive-date= May 13, 2009 | url-status= live}}{{cite web|url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/fiikus/1874188227/ |title=DHBB feat Al Lowe|access-date=2009-04-04 |last=fiikus |date=November 5, 2007 |work=Flickr.com }} He also runs a website, Al Lowe's Humor Site, and CyberJoke 3000, a daily joke mailing list.
Games
| class="wikitable sortable" border="1" | |||
| scope="col" | Name
! scope="col" | Year ! scope="col" | Credited with ! scope="col" | Publisher | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Bop-A-Bet | 1982 | programmer | Sunnyside Soft |
| Dragon's Keep | 1982 | programmer, writer, artist | Sunnyside Soft |
| Troll's Tale | 1983 | programmer, writer, artist | Sierra On-Line |
| Gelfling Adventure | 1984 | programmer | Sierra On-Line |
| Donald Duck's Playground | 1984 | designer, programmer, composer | Sierra On-Line |
| Mickey's Space Adventure | 1984 | composer | Sierra On-Line |
| Winnie the Pooh in the Hundred Acre Wood | 1984 | designer | Sierra On-Line |
| King's Quest II: Romancing the Throne | 1985 | composer | Sierra On-Line |
| The Black Cauldron | 1986 | designer, programmer | Sierra On-Line |
| King's Quest III: To Heir Is Human | 1986 | programmer | Sierra On-Line |
| Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards | 1987 | designer, programmer, writer, composer | Sierra On-Line |
| Police Quest: In Pursuit of the Death Angel | 1987 | programmer | Sierra On-Line |
| King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella | 1988 | programmer | Sierra On-Line |
| Leisure Suit Larry Goes Looking for Love (in Several Wrong Places) | 1988 | designer, programmer, writer, composer | Sierra On-Line |
| Leisure Suit Larry III: Passionate Patti in Pursuit of the Pulsating Pectorals | 1989 | producer, designer, programmer, writer | Sierra On-Line |
| Leisure Suit Larry 5: Passionate Patti Does a Little Undercover Work | 1991 | director, designer, programmer, composer | Sierra On-Line |
| Leisure Suit Larry 1: In the Land of the Lounge Lizards | 1991 | director, designer, programmer | Sierra On-Line |
| Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist | 1993 | designer, writer, voice direction | Sierra On-Line |
| Leisure Suit Larry 6: Shape Up or Slip Out! | 1993 | director, producer, designer, writer, composer | Sierra On-Line |
| Torin's Passage | 1995 | designer, writer, composer | Sierra On-Line |
| Leisure Suit Larry: Love for Sail! | 1996 | director, designer, writer, composer | Sierra On-Line |
| Leisure Suit Larry's Casino | 1998 | director, designer, writer | Sierra On-Line |
| Leisure Suit Larry: Reloaded | 2013 | designer, writer | Replay Games |
References
{{Reflist|30em}}
External links
- {{official website}}
- [http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,3320/ Al Lowe] profile at MobyGames
{{Leisure Suit Larry}}
{{Sierra Adventure Games}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lowe, Al}}
Category:American male video game actors
Category:American video game designers
Category:American video game directors
Category:American video game producers
Category:American video game programmers
Category:American casting directors
Category:Place of birth missing (living people)
Category:Sierra On-Line employees
Category:American video game composers