Al Lowe has been in the game industry for longer than most developers. The creator of Leisure Suit Larry knows a thing or two about digital rights management (DRM), and he doesn't have a kind word to say about them.
Speaking to Dave Oshry, Al Lowe shared is thoughts on DRM, which has been around for about as long as videogame development has been a commercial enterprise.
The earliest games were susceptible to being copied over floppy disks, leading game developers to protect their software with the introduction of secret passwords in manuals and combination code wheels.
"I refuse to buy products that have DRM," said Lowe. "Ya know I'd rather pay for a CD and rip it than download protected music."
"To me it's just misguided and it has been misguided since my first involvement with it in 1982. It never was protected from those people who wanted to break it. It was always breakable."
With Xerox machines to print the manuals, and blank floppies with which to copy the products, there was little developers could do to stop piracy.
"All it did was hassle people who paid for the product," he continued. "And those are the people that you want to be nice to! Be nice to the people who pay and ignore the pirates, because they do what they're gonna do anyway."
Al Lowe is currently working on a remake of the first Leisure Suit Larry for the PC.
