Al Lowe

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Al Lowe
Al Lowe

Al Lowe, born July 24, 1942, is a musician and game designer of Sierra On-Line mostly known for the creation of the Leisure Suit Larry series.

Lowe began his career teaching public school music for 15 years. After that time, he decided to teach himself programming and in 1982 he created three games for the Apple II: Dragon's Keep, Bop-A-Bet, and Troll's Tale. Sierra Entertainment bought these games in 1983 and Al worked for them as a programmer and game designer for 16 years, which he thinks may be an industry record for longevity.

His first projects include Winnie the Pooh in the 100-Acre Woods, Donald Duck's Playground, and The Black Cauldron, all based on Disney properties.

In 1986, he was lead programmer on King's Quest III and Police Quest I and also created the music for other Sierra games.

He is best known for his Leisure Suit Larry series of games and its infectious theme song, which he composed. After Larry's success, Al also designed other games like Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist and Torin's Passage. Throughout his career, Al was known for his distinctive bald head, full beard, and considerable belly. He liked to call himself "the world's oldest game designer."

In 1994, he moved with his family to Seattle and has supposedly enjoyed retirement since 1998. Al has played saxophone professionally since age 13 and still performs with local jazz bands [1]. He maintains Al Lowe's Humor Site and CyberJoke 3000™, a daily joke mailing list where co-Sierra composer Mark Seibert is also a member.

In a 2006 interview,[2] Al 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. In December 2006, Lowe's company iBase Entertainment has been declared closed down and Sam Suede cancelled. Following this setback, Lowe expressed serious doubts whether he'd ever reenter the gaming industry again.[3]

Currently, as of January 2007, the website for Sam Suede developer iBase Entertainment currently lists the project as postponed pending acquisition of additional development funding. This game may be produced at a later date.

[edit] Trivia

  • In several of the Larry games, Larry ends up on a game show. Al Lowe himself also appeared on a game show, having been a contestant on the Jim Lange version of Name That Tune.

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.rebell.at/ Al Lowe „Wir sprachen mit dem Großmeister ...“ (Interview, 2003)
  2. ^ Adventure Classic Gaming (2006). Al Lowe Interview.
  3. ^ John Callaham (2006-12-01). Interview with Al Lowe following the cancellation of Sam Suede. FiringSquad.com. Retrieved on December 3, 2006.

[edit] External links

Persondata
NAME Lowe, Al
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION musician and game designer
DATE OF BIRTH July 24, 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH St. Louis, MO
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH
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