He's Speaking in Code
December 18, 2018 4:45 PM   Subscribe

The source code of Leisure Suit Larry livestreamed. At noon Friday, MetaFilter's own jscott began reading the full source code of the original Leisure Suit Larry from 1987 live on Twitch. In a leisure suit. He's seven hours and forty five minutes in and still going. This public performance follows a DMCA copyright takedown from Activision that halted the sale of Leisure Suit Larry source code by programmer Al Lowe even though Activision doesn't own the rights to the game. This spoken codeathon is raising money for the EFF, Internet Archive or the Video Game History Foundation.
posted by rcade (23 comments total) 30 users marked this as a favorite
 
Make that noon Tuesday, not Friday. I've been listening to somebody read source code out loud for five hours and my faculties are slipping.
posted by rcade at 4:47 PM on December 18, 2018 [4 favorites]


jscott has specifically requested that we not refer to him as "metafilter's own."

I approve of the stream, otherwise!
posted by jsnlxndrlv at 4:49 PM on December 18, 2018 [8 favorites]


jscott has specifically requested that we not refer to him as "metafilter's own."

That was a plot twist I did not see coming. His bio was empty six minutes ago when I posted.
posted by rcade at 4:51 PM on December 18, 2018 [7 favorites]


Hey is anyone writing this down?
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 4:52 PM on December 18, 2018 [3 favorites]


It's like living Fahrenheit 451.
posted by sammyo at 4:53 PM on December 18, 2018 [1 favorite]


Hey! He's not reading out the line numbers! Start again.
posted by Artful Codger at 5:05 PM on December 18, 2018 [5 favorites]


The source code he's performing appears to be a scripting language executed by the Adventure Game Interpreter (AGI) created by Sierra On-Line. Here's an article with some source code that looks like what he's reading.

I wish you could have been there when the prefix decrement operator was used on the hooker.
posted by rcade at 5:06 PM on December 18, 2018 [3 favorites]


Dressing in a white suit with a blue shirt is a nice touch of cosplay.
posted by egypturnash at 5:19 PM on December 18, 2018


I did not expect to ever like something related to Leisure Suit Larry.

I also did not expect to side with Juggalos.

This has been an year filled with surprises.
posted by eotvos at 5:26 PM on December 18, 2018 [9 favorites]


jscott has specifically requested that we not refer to him as "metafilter's own."


This is curious. Any idea why?
posted by Damienmce at 5:47 PM on December 18, 2018 [2 favorites]


In an attempt to defuse the derail, let me say I have been acquainted with jscott for a long time and he is his own man. His account here is almost certainly voluntarily disabled so let us respect that, please.
posted by glonous keming at 5:55 PM on December 18, 2018 [10 favorites]


This was an excellent time to turn in.

Message 60: slap
Message 61: slap slap
posted by zachlipton at 5:56 PM on December 18, 2018 [1 favorite]


Jason's reading just encountered authentic 1980s-era programmer misogyny in the wild.

In a script where Larry interacts with the dancer Fawn, there was this code comment:
// he's done everything for her. what more could that bitch want?
posted by rcade at 5:56 PM on December 18, 2018 [7 favorites]


Damienmce: A 2016 archive of his bio page on the Internet Archive explains his reasoning, which isn't as exciting as you think it's going to be before you take the time to dig it up.
posted by rcade at 6:00 PM on December 18, 2018 [2 favorites]


Category: ASMR

I emailed him once and asked him a question about an old Infocom event. He was helpful. Seems like a solid dude and he's doing good work.

I wanted nothing more than to have a computer that could actually play LSL in EGA graphics and when I finally acquired the game I was... disappointed.
posted by bondcliff at 6:14 PM on December 18, 2018


In a script where Larry interacts with the dancer Fawn, there was this code comment:
// he's done everything for her. what more could that bitch want?


Was this script written by Jordan Peterswhatshisname?
posted by NoMich at 6:31 PM on December 18, 2018 [4 favorites]


"I'm starting to have trouble feeling my face." -- Jason just now at the 10 hour and 43 minute mark.
posted by rcade at 7:43 PM on December 18, 2018 [2 favorites]


I wanted nothing more than to have a computer that could actually play LSL in EGA graphics and when I finally acquired the game I was... disappointed.

It was no Leather Goddesses of Phobos
posted by roger ackroyd at 7:53 PM on December 18, 2018 [4 favorites]


The last line of code has been read after eleven hours and 48 minutes. Now I have regrets about everything I could have done today that would have taken less than or equal to eleven hours and 48 minutes.
posted by rcade at 8:56 PM on December 18, 2018 [4 favorites]


Jason's reading just encountered authentic 1980s-era programmer misogyny in the wild.

This is my surprised pikachu face. The original Leisure Suit Larry was a remake of an earlier Sierra OnLine game, from back when they were only making Zork-style pure text adventures instead of the Graphical Adventures they became famous for. Also from back when the company was called simply OnLine Systems, instead of Sierra.

The game in question, titled SoftPorn Adventure, was infamous in its own right. When they needed an image for the cover of the game packaging and to use in magazine ads, the company decided that rather than hiring an ad agency to make something for them, they would instead do it all in-house. Specifically, the house of Sierra founders Ken and Roberta Williams, or rather, the hot tub on the back deck of their house.

They rounded up all the women on staff with the tiny company at the time, and had them all strip down topless and get into the hot tub while a newspaper photographer friend of Ken's took the photo. So Sierra's production manager, bookkeeper, and the co-founder of the company (who would also later invent the graphical adventure genre itself) all had to use their own bodies to sell this sleazy piece of all-text interactive fiction. Even weirder, was the inclusion of a young waiter from a fancy local restaurant, in full uniform, standing waist deep in the hot tub between the three women.
posted by radwolf76 at 9:48 PM on December 18, 2018 [12 favorites]


radwolf76, interesting. I tried to find more information on the hot tub photo and how much agency the women had in its creation. The Atlantic article says that the photo "was all Ken's idea" but there are accounts that say that their wives volunteered to do it because they didn't want them to hire models.

Apparently, Ken entered the office one morning and asked "Who wants to come over to my house and take pictures in the hot tub naked?" (Hackers by Steven Levy, via Google Books). That's not how consent works in a workplace, Ken.
posted by yaymukund at 4:55 AM on December 19, 2018 [5 favorites]


Jason Scott is part of Archive Team, which started a project to archive Tumblr before new owners Verizon began enforcing a ban on "adult" content. Verizon blocked the IP ranges that Archive Team was known to use so they would not be able to archive the content. Scott's team figured out a way around the IP blocks and "turned everything up to 11" in response.

No one has to be "Metafilter's own" to be awesome.
posted by infinitewindow at 10:16 AM on December 19, 2018 [5 favorites]


Hey! He's not reading out the line numbers! Start again.

GOTO 10?
posted by panama joe at 3:00 PM on December 19, 2018 [2 favorites]


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