The Laffer Utilities
1991 software program from Sierra On-Line
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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 a spin-off of the adult-themed Leisure Suit Larry franchise.[1][3] It parodies the Norton Utilities software suite.[1]
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 software is hosted by the Larry Laffer character,[2] and contains 18 utilities:[1][5][6]
- Jokes: A database with adjustable "Filthometer" (content level) and "Laffometer" (humor level) controls
- Whattodo: A random decision generator
- Excuses: A random excuse generator
- Headline: Outputs tabloid-style headlines
- Sayings: A random "wise saying" generator
- Horscope: A random horoscope generator
- WDYWTGFL: Short for "Where Do You Want to Go for Lunch?", a restaurant selector with "Qualometer" (quality) and "Buckometer" (price) controls
- Sounds: Plays sounds through the computer's internal speaker
- Pool: Create and maintain office betting pools for various sports
- Bracket: Outputs tournament brackets
- Windfall: Random lottery number generator
- Announce: Screensaver/lock screen that displays text
- Signs: Creates and prints signs with customizable text and graphics
- Signups: Outputs lined sign-up sheets
- Forms: Outputs various office forms
- Faxcover: Outputs fax cover sheets
- Phone: Contacts database, which fed names to the other utilities for use in jokes[7]
- 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
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]