The Laffer Utilities

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The Laffer Utilities
Leisure-Suit-Larry-Utilities.jpg
Box cover
Publisher Sierra On-Line
Designer Al Lowe
Platforms DOS, Microsoft Windows
Release
Genre Utility software

The Laffer Utilities is a "nonproductivity" [1] office software program published by Sierra On-Line in 1991. [2] It was designed by Al Lowe and is associated with the adult-themed Leisure Suit Larry franchise, although it is separate from the series' adventure games. [1] [3] It parodies the Norton Utilities software suite. [1]

Contents

The software was a commercial failure and part of Sierra's attempt to expand a successful adventure game franchise into other software categories, [4] which also included the Crazy Nick's Software Picks compilations. [4]

Description

The Jokes utility, showing the adjustable Filthometer and Laffometer controls Laffer Utilities - Jokes.jpg
The Jokes utility, showing the adjustable Filthometer and Laffometer controls

The software is hosted by the Larry Laffer character, [2] and contains 18 utilities: [1] [5] [6]

  1. Jokes: A database with adjustable "Filthometer" (content level) and "Laffometer" (humor level) controls
  2. Whattodo: A random decision generator
  3. Excuses: A random excuse generator
  4. Headline: Outputs tabloid-style headlines
  5. Sayings: A random "wise saying" generator
  6. Horscope: A random horoscope generator
  7. WDYWTGFL: Short for "Where Do You Want to Go for Lunch?", a restaurant selector with "Qualometer" (quality) and "Buckometer" (price) controls
  8. Sounds: Plays sounds through the computer's internal speaker
  9. Pool: Create and maintain office betting pools for various sports
  10. Bracket: Outputs tournament brackets
  11. Windfall: Random lottery number generator
  12. Announce: Screensaver/lock screen that displays text
  13. Signs: Creates and prints signs with customizable text and graphics
  14. Signups: Outputs lined sign-up sheets
  15. Forms: Outputs various office forms
  16. Faxcover: Outputs fax cover sheets
  17. Phone: Contacts database, which fed names to the other utilities for use in jokes [7]
  18. Birthday: Birthday notifier

The program also includes a boss key. [8]

It requires an IBM PC compatible system with 640K RAM, EGA or VGA graphics, and a hard disk with 6.1 MB of disk space. [1]

Background

Creator Al Lowe's inspiration for the program was a TSR that a Sierra colleague had created to display funny sayings from Leisure Suit Larry III programmer Carlos Escobar each time a computer was restarted. [9]

Release

The first version of the software was 4.01, released for DOS in the United States in 1991 during the early 1990s recession, [2] [10] and in the U.K. in 1992. [11] A Microsoft Windows version was released in spring 1992. [1]

Reception

Computer Gaming World called The Laffer Utilities a "well-planned leap backward for office productivity" and described the utilities as "highly entertaining 'time wasters.'" [5] Writing in Compute! , Ralph Roberts described the software as "the first of a new breed of nonproductivity software" and praised it for bringing "chuckles and stress relief" to offices. [1] Game Player's PC Entertainment characterized it as a "shameless set of time-wasters" with emphasis on having fun, while acknowledging it contained "several useful little programs" alongside the humorous utilities. [10]

The Netherlands' Software Gids praised the software's visuals and utility, giving it scores of 8/10 for both and 9/10 for documentation, [12] but criticized the Dutch pricing of ƒ149 as too high, [12] compared to the U.S. prices ($34.95 for DOS and $39.95 for Windows). [1] The reviewer also criticized a Dutch edition labeled as an "international version" for containing only slightly altered English. [12] PC Joker noted the software's limited graphics and lack of sound beyond internal speaker beeping. [13] PC Format gave the software a score of 38% and criticized it as "incredibly irritating to use" with "pretty lame" jokes and excessive disk accessing times, noting it was not suitable for home use but could be used in an office setting. [3]

The software's packaging promoted its "innocuous title" The Laffer Utilities as one that "easily slips through Purchasing" departments. [3] Creator Al Lowe later acknowledged that the title, although properly spoofing "Norton Utilities," was not recognized by customers as connected to the Leisure Suit Larry franchise because Larry's surname, "Laffer," was not well-known. [9]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Roberts, Ralph (September 1992). "Entertainment Choice". Compute!. pp. 86–87.
  2. 1 2 3 Magid, Lawrence J. (November 28, 1991). "Stocking Stuffers to Please PC Users". Los Angeles Times. p. OCD3. Archived from the original on January 3, 2026. Retrieved January 1, 2026.
  3. 1 2 3 "The Laffer Utilities". PC Format. No. 6. March 1992. p. 105.
  4. 1 2 "The Games We Don't Play". PC Gamer. UK. September 2002. p. 62.
  5. 1 2 "Taking a Peek". Computer Gaming World. No. 92. March 1992. p. 14.
  6. ↑ The Laffer Utilities: Version 4.01 Manual. Coarsegold, California: Sierra On-Line. 1991.
  7. ↑ Griffiths, Adam (October 1991). "The Laffer Utilities". Megazone. p. 16.
  8. ↑ "Laffer Utilities". ACE. No. 48. September 1991. p. 9.
  9. 1 2 "In the Chair with... Al Lowe". Retro Gamer. No. 87. 2011. p. 89.
  10. 1 2 Bateman, Selby (March 1992). "GameBytes: The Laffer Utilities". Game Player's PC Entertainment. Vol. 5, no. 2. p. 18.
  11. ↑ "Hi-Larious Sierra". PC Format. No. 4. January 1992. p. 20.
  12. 1 2 3 van Gessel, Martijn (March 1992). "Géén spel en toch lol! The Laffer Utilities, Version 4.01" [Not a game but still fun! The Laffer Utilities, Version 4.01]. Software Gids (in Dutch). No. 12. pp. 3–4.
  13. ↑ "Game Over". PC Joker (in German). March 1992. p. 20.
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