Al Lowe reveals his Sierra source code collection—then puts all of it on eBay

[MusicallyInspired]

He said "none of my kids want this junk" and it took a fan to convince him that the community would find it invaluable.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/al_lowe/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from=

Here's an interview video by Metal Jesus Rocks.

[OmerMor]

Wow!
I can't believe he's actually selling this stuff...

I guess since he's publicly selling the source code now, I can reveal that some of the Sierra source code I managed to obtain was kindly shared with me by Al. However I think I saw some floppies in this video (e.g. Winnie the Poo) which he forgot to send me. I hope the happy buyer will archive and publish everything.

[lskovlun]

However I think I saw some floppies in this video (e.g. Winnie the Poo) which he forgot to send me.

I suppose this is because they are Apple II floppies which he can't read directly.

[OmerMor]

I guess you're right!

[lance.ewing]

I can't believe he's actually selling this stuff...

It does seem strange, especially given this:

Realize that, while you’ll have my data as of the day of Larry 1’s creation, you will not own the intellectual property rights to the game, the code, the art, or anything else. Nor do I. The I. P. rights were sold over and over again, until they are now owned by a German game company.

It is crazy how much the bidding is up to already.

[Kawa]

It's not that strange. Back when SCI Studio was still relevant, I contacted Mr. Lowe via email about permission to develop a Larry 4. Shared a concept and everything, and he gave me basically the same spiel -- I had his blessing to make Larry 4 - The Missing Floppies, but I was to absolutely not name it Leisure Suit Larry 4 - The Missing Floppies. He could only permit me to use the Larry Laffer character, not the LSL name. Which was about what Kon-Tiki and I'd expected.

[lskovlun]

So you called it The Dating Pool instead? How's it coming along?

[Kawa]

The Dating Pool is not Larry 4, lol. Though there is some Larry influence in there.

I still have an old AGS project that was supposed to become Larry 4 after we gave up on the new SCI Studio ever coming out. Who knows, it might become the second SCI11+ game... probably not, though. I'd like to make it at least pass for SCI1

[lance.ewing]

It's not that strange. Back when SCI Studio was still relevant, I contacted Mr. Lowe via email about permission to develop a Larry 4. Shared a concept and everything, and he gave me basically the same spiel -- I had his blessing to make Larry 4 - The Missing Floppies, but I was to absolutely not name it Leisure Suit Larry 4 - The Missing Floppies. He could only permit me to use the Larry Laffer character, not the LSL name. Which was about what Kon-Tiki and I'd expected.

Yeah, I guess I'm not so surprised that Al is doing this, since he has always supported the fans. I'm surprised that he is allowed to do this though. Obviously we've had access to the AGI "source" for Larry 1 since the first fan made AGI tools came out, so its not like its selling a secret part of the intellectual property, but I'd be surprised if the current owners of the IP weren't frowning a bit at these auctions. Still, wish I could afford a bid on them. I wonder who is bidding so high and if they have an interest in the technical side.

[Kawa]

Plot twist: the top bidder is the current owner of the IP.

[Collector]

Obviously we've had access to the AGI "source" for Larry 1 since the first fan made AGI tools came out

Except I would love to see the real source, especially the comments, etc.

[MusicallyInspired]

I wonder if the source to the SCI interpreter itself is included somehow somewhere with what he has. Doubtful, I guess...

[Kawa]

I wonder if the source to the SCI interpreter itself is included somehow somewhere with what he has. Doubtful, I guess...

I figure someone on the systems team would be more likely to have those.

☐ SCI0
☐ SCI1
☑ SCI11
☑ Some version of SCI3?

[lance.ewing]

Except I would love to see the real source, especially the comments, etc.

The disk slack space would be interesting as well. I hope that whoever wins it thinks to look at that. Still 8 days to run and its already over $8000. Why are they pushing it up so quickly?

[OmerMor]

I wonder if the source to the SCI interpreter itself is included somehow somewhere with what he has. Doubtful, I guess...

I figure someone on the systems team would be more likely to have those.

Kawa is right.
There's no interpreter source in Al's archive.
And indeed some system programmers kept source code to a few interpreter versions.