Written by Joe Pranevich
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| Or roughly 404,686 m2. |
It seems a bit strange now, but there was a time thirty years ago when Al Lowe was famous not for his adult humor, but rather for his excellent children’s games. His first efforts as an independent programmer brought us Dragon’s Keep and Troll’s Tale,
both in 1982. Sierra was very impressed by these games and not only
bought the publication rights, but also hired Mr. Lowe to develop
games for them. Over the following years, Lowe would come to create
several more adventure games for children including Mickey’s
Space Adventure (1984), Winnie the Pooh (1985), and The
Black
Cauldron
(1986). One further game, Donald Duck’s Playground (1984),
was primarily a collection of minigames implemented in an adventure
game engine. Mr. Lowe’s successful career as a children’s game
developer would come to an end in 1987 with the launch of his Leisure
Suit Larry series. He would return to this genre roots only once
more, Torin’s Passage in 1995. In a world with infinite
time, I would love to play through Mr. Lowe’s back catalog as a
series of Missed Classics, but perhaps that will come another day.
