@NewYearAustralia2009 That would be forgoing the entire point! The purpose of this video was to show a nostalgic look at what you'd have to go through back in the day with a PCjr
@@andreserra5004 I had a boot menu with entries for my favourite games. One needed 610KB of conventional memory, but fortunately no CDROM, the other one had problems with HIMEM.SYS so I could use load high and because of that there wasn't enough memory for the mouse driver, which meant that I had to use keyboard ... .. since all those configurations were quite unique and useless for general work, I made them autostart the game, too.
@JurisL85 I use an old VHS-C camcorder I got for a few bucks, a JVC GR-AXM225, and an EasyCap USB video capture device to capture from the camcorder's composite output. It gives that vintage look for sure, but it's a pain to capture from!
@sweetpeahiker Well that's actually what this entire video was about, because the only way the PCjr works at all is through a boot disk since there is no hard drive. Even then this turned out to be a special case because of the Jr's unique hardware config with the memory upgrade and its associated program, so I would say this was anything but straightforward, even back in the day.
This is a fantastic video. I had to close the door to my office because I was laughing so hard at some of your comments. I had a genuine moment of nostalgia upon hearing the drives running and seeing the unboxing of larry, I seem to remember many Sierra games had that beige inside box with the Sierra mountain photograph. I remember fondly the utter joy at getting a game to work after hours of (admittedly my father's) work. Boot discs for specific games were always a favorite.
@MN12BIRD It was a cheaper, home-oriented PC. It's just a bizarre creature - wireless IR keyboard (originally rubber-keyed), no HD, single floppy, enhanced graphics and sound, 2 cartridge slots, almost all proprietary inputs and outputs, not a ton of stuff made for it. Should be a fun review once I get to it.
@Disthron I know their original name was On-Line Systems but I don't remember why the name "on-line" was used. And I actually have a 5.25" floppy drive in my Windows 7 machine and several old machine networked to it as well, haha.
@rherbert57 You're quite welcome! Glad to bring up some memories to a previous owner. It's a pretty nice little machine, considering its limitations. 384k! That's living the high life for a Jr back in the day.
Leisuire Suit Larry 1 ,2 and 3 played them all on Floppy Disc when they 1st came out! Great fun Great Games. and remember "if you keep picking it..it will never Heal" Larry
I'm trying to set up a Windows 95 VirtualBox and all these happy memories of the joys of spending several hours just to get the thing running came flooding back.
I had no idea what my parents were shielding my from until today (I am 46) , wow Larry died from peeing a blocked 🚽 toilet! My life is now complete thankyou @LGR
@hitachi088 I usually say in each review of the system, as it varies quite a lot. I got this PCjr from a fellow collector on the Vintage Computer Forums, but I also get them from eBay, Craigslist and sometimes local thrift stores. I'm in the USA, in North Carolina.
Remember when I was 12 a kid snuck this game into the computer lap in middle school. We had a substitute teacher that day so wasn't doing anything. None of us could answer the questions at the beginning so the teacher gave us the answers not knowing what type of game it was lol. I don't remember what type of IBM those computers were but I remember they had two 3.5 drives and no HD.
@Dant2142 Yes, I do. Badly. I haven't yet been able to find one, but that would make this a much more usable machine. Well, as usable as it can get... it's still a hassle finding PCjr-mode games that actually work, since so many were made for Tandy machines.
Thank you for this! The Jr was my first computer back in '86. I actually got mine up to 384 KB of RAM, and please don't ask what it cost. I bought it to run a baseball simulation game that came on two diskettes, and it got to where I could tell how the play would turn out by listening to the disk activity. Gotta admit that I never tried anything as advanced as LSL. I'm jealous that you seem to still have access to a Jr. I traded mine in for a 286 a LONG time ago. ;-)
And this, ladies and germs, is why I referred to IBM as Internal Bowel Movement at the time. I had a Tandy 1000 SX back then that wasn't half as persnickety. It was slow as hell, but it worked.
@Dant2142 I do, which is why I'm not giving the addon a priority. Still, it would be nice to have. And yeah, I read about the issues with the interrupt. Crazy stuff
@UKRetroGames It was painful... so goes life with MS-DOS variations and strange PCjr memory issues and custom game loaders. Larry is very much worth it
@sweetpeahiker I vaguely remember trying it out, yes. I still have the install floppies for TSN. Have you seen the revival project for INN? It's pretty interesting stuff, hoping it takes off a bit more as I'd love to give it a try again.
@sweetpeahiker Hehe, well I can't argue with that. Can't tell you how many times I was on the phone or a BBS searching for solutions to these games, and making dozens of boot disks... which is why this situation got so annoying (and fun!) because it was a very different process than the ol' routine.
@MrMinecrafterEXTreme You'd likely have to use an addon sidecar to plug in a third-party serial or parallel mouse. Mice weren't really used in PCs at this time.
Wow watching you trying to get Larry 1 running on that PCjr and having a issue with the game's memory manager gives me flashbacks of trying to get Ultima 7: The Black Gate running on my computer back in the day and fighting with Origin's Voodoo memory manager.
Can't belive I missed this video! Awesome game, love the music and it's relly funny seeing other gamers getting frustrated.. I can relate, oh god how I can relate xD
LOL Love the quest achievement of the brilliant PCjr's excellent sound once you got it working after all that. Good stuff love this video. Had many feelings like this myself on other types of systems.
I heard Al taking about this game having a really bad setup/install interface because it made you swap floppies for each single file. I didn't really know what he was talking about until I saw your video... man what a pain in the ass!
I did use an IBM PC jr, didn't look that this one actually. And I do own this game too, at least I know I still have the collection package copy still intact.
Wow. My parents bought one of these. I only had 128k of RAM...I'm so jealous! Some other games I played on mine: Jumpman, Crossfire, Shamus, King's Quest, King's Quest II, Adventures in Math.
Cool video, I've never really looked into the PCjr and in a way I'm glad :) I look forward to your video on this system, seems like it could be an interesting little machine.
@vwestlife Hehe, I'll be laughing at myself soon as I've got a 1000 RL/HD on the way! And I added that tag after the fact, to see if it made any difference. It didn't. It just bothers me that the top and bottom of the screen is cropped off! I tried with a 16:9 tag and it puts black bars at the top and bottom, effectively shrinking the vid about 20%. Oh well.
Takes me back. Good old slow times. Oh man how cool was playing old dos games. Poppin in the disc. See what the game actually was and stuff :) delightfull vid
Tandy 1000 owners laugh at your pain. :-P p.s. Maybe the yt:quality=high tag has something to do with the widescreen video display? The aspect ratio is correct, though, so it's still fine to watch.
My friend had this game on a 1.2MB 5.25" floppy but my Tandy 1000SX only had two 360KB drives. So I just copied the files to a couple disks and went home. Spent about an hour using trial and error copying files one by one to build a Game Disk and second disk, but got it working! Anyway, I recently chatted with Al Lowe, sent some $, and made things right after more than 30 years. Wild to think about
Haha reading instruction manuals FTW! Ahh the good old days of PC gaming ;D I think my toaster has more RAM than this pc does haha But man, Ive had some fun with old PCs. Nothing like bleeps and bloops and pixels to get the nostalgia flowing :D
@phreakindee Can you please do a review talking about your Tandy 1000 machines? I haven't seen one on your channel, maybe I just haven't looked, so if there isn't a review on your channel I'd love to see one, thanks. I've never used a Tandy 1000 before, but I'm very interested indeed in those machines.
I bought Leisure Suit Larry 7 from a discount bin in a Radio Shack. When installed the game and played it with the Cybersniff 2000 scratch card, I thought it was the most hilarious thing! The sunscreen one smelled great!
@npk6898 Being that this is Larry we're talking about, I assume you mean "beaten" as in beaten the game, not... something else ;) Yes, I have, not too long ago actually. It's fantastic.
Was it possible to upgrade your regular PC of the day (first or third party) to have the same enhancements as the PC Jr? I.e. So that games with built in enhancements for PC Jr users would also work the same on the PC?
On the Superman game for NES, when you're getting the continue code from Perry White at the Daily Planet, it plays "Stand Up for Jesus" in the background.
This was the first game I remember to play seriously (as in try to complete it). I was 7 when I played it and the only english I knew (as I'm Dutch) was from watching my uncle playing this game. The best hint my uncle gave me; "just type LOOK at everything..." lol. Never beat the game btw... maybe I'm going to now twenty years later ;-)
I beat the first three Leisure Suit Larry games on my Commodore Amiga 500 back in the day. You could install the games onto a hdd, but I didn’t own one for a very long time. Luckily, you could play the games directly from the provided 3.5” floppies without having to make a ‘backup’ disk the way Clint did. The only thing you needed (if I remember correctly) was a formatted floppy to save your game progress to.
I think you're expecting a little much from a computer of this vintage. What you're seeing is the norm. Also, the music for the drunk guy is "How Dry I Am."
Yes Iove this game, but I wouldn't have the patience for waiting for it to load on real hardware these days. Thanks for the video, it looks like it was quite an ordeal to get the game running on the PC Junior.
@NewYearAustralia2009 That would be forgoing the entire point! The purpose of this video was to show a nostalgic look at what you'd have to go through back in the day with a PCjr
Reminder: Most people think DOSBOX is too much work.
Those people would have never made it in the 80s and 90s.
I'm watching this in 1987.
Me too
This is exactly what PC gaming looked like in the 80s. 80% figuring out how to get a game working, and 20% playing.
+Scott Ster LOL! Definitely! I remember myself editing autoexec.bat and config.sys so many times to make games work!
Thats why boot instructions exist
You're generalizing way too much
In a weird sense, getting a game to run was sort of like a game in itself.
Here’s fun: trying to solve issues caused by your pc being too modern! 😡
@@andreserra5004 I had a boot menu with entries for my favourite games. One needed 610KB of conventional memory, but fortunately no CDROM, the other one had problems with HIMEM.SYS so I could use load high and because of that there wasn't enough memory for the mouse driver, which meant that I had to use keyboard ...
.. since all those configurations were quite unique and useless for general work, I made them autostart the game, too.
@JurisL85 I use an old VHS-C camcorder I got for a few bucks, a JVC GR-AXM225, and an EasyCap USB video capture device to capture from the camcorder's composite output. It gives that vintage look for sure, but it's a pain to capture from!
Oh god, nostalgia overload. I have no idea how I convinced my parents to buy this for a nine year old me in 1989.
@sweetpeahiker Well that's actually what this entire video was about, because the only way the PCjr works at all is through a boot disk since there is no hard drive. Even then this turned out to be a special case because of the Jr's unique hardware config with the memory upgrade and its associated program, so I would say this was anything but straightforward, even back in the day.
The PCjr lacks a DMA controller, so when the floppy drive is accessed, all other CPU activity _STOPS_. ;)
Love the sound of that 5.25" drive, those things always sounded like they were eating your floppies alive.
The camera auto-focusing right before it loaded made it hella epic!
This is a fantastic video. I had to close the door to my office because I was laughing so hard at some of your comments.
I had a genuine moment of nostalgia upon hearing the drives running and seeing the unboxing of larry, I seem to remember many Sierra games had that beige inside box with the Sierra mountain photograph.
I remember fondly the utter joy at getting a game to work after hours of (admittedly my father's) work. Boot discs for specific games were always a favorite.
@MN12BIRD It was a cheaper, home-oriented PC. It's just a bizarre creature - wireless IR keyboard (originally rubber-keyed), no HD, single floppy, enhanced graphics and sound, 2 cartridge slots, almost all proprietary inputs and outputs, not a ton of stuff made for it. Should be a fun review once I get to it.
Thanks Clint, I'm gonna be whistling that Al Lowe tune for days.
@Disthron I know their original name was On-Line Systems but I don't remember why the name "on-line" was used.
And I actually have a 5.25" floppy drive in my Windows 7 machine and several old machine networked to it as well, haha.
@rherbert57 You're quite welcome! Glad to bring up some memories to a previous owner. It's a pretty nice little machine, considering its limitations. 384k! That's living the high life for a Jr back in the day.
A nice trip down extended memory lane, you mean... ;-)
A nice trip down mammary lane.
"OH YOU SON OF A" LOL :-)
Leisuire Suit Larry 1 ,2 and 3 played them all on Floppy Disc when they 1st came out! Great fun Great Games. and remember "if you keep picking it..it will never Heal" Larry
Me too, my heroe ,.286 10Mhz PS/1 :-)
"music stops when disk loads" ...yeah, that's what happens when your computer has no DMA controller. ;)
tschak909 c
Modern computers playing the game also don’t have the music
"I just don't think this was meant to work"
*3 mins later*
*euphoric that it loaded*
That really does sum up the classic pc gaming experience
I'm trying to set up a Windows 95 VirtualBox and all these happy memories of the joys of spending several hours just to get the thing running came flooding back.
I had no idea what my parents were shielding my from until today (I am 46) , wow Larry died from peeing a blocked 🚽 toilet! My life is now complete thankyou @LGR
Back in the day, rumors were that Sierra Online was a place where they smoked pot at work all day.
@hitachi088 I usually say in each review of the system, as it varies quite a lot. I got this PCjr from a fellow collector on the Vintage Computer Forums, but I also get them from eBay, Craigslist and sometimes local thrift stores. I'm in the USA, in North Carolina.
I love going back to your older videos and see how much (or not,) you have matured. You did not disappoint
Hehe, yeah, I saw in that "fireside chat" where he talked about that. I was like "YES, he remembers the agony!"
this brings back so many memories from back in the day! would love to play this game again for the nostalgia :)
Remember when I was 12 a kid snuck this game into the computer lap in middle school. We had a substitute teacher that day so wasn't doing anything. None of us could answer the questions at the beginning so the teacher gave us the answers not knowing what type of game it was lol. I don't remember what type of IBM those computers were but I remember they had two 3.5 drives and no HD.
LOL wow man that was a process! That's cool you got it working. I haven't played this game in YEARS!
ken sent me
Congratulations, you have now dumbfounded this game.
@Dant2142 Yes, I do. Badly. I haven't yet been able to find one, but that would make this a much more usable machine. Well, as usable as it can get... it's still a hassle finding PCjr-mode games that actually work, since so many were made for Tandy machines.
I can't believe the diskette still worked
@Lachlant1984 Yes, there will be a Tandy 1000 series review in the next coming month or so - check back!
@MrMinecrafterEXTreme Yes, that's the PCjr Booster sidecar. It came with a bus mouse.
I know the PC Jr. is/was seen as a flop, but I think it's a beautiful looking machine. I want one just because of it's aesthetics.
Thank you for this! The Jr was my first computer back in '86. I actually got mine up to 384 KB of RAM, and please don't ask what it cost. I bought it to run a baseball simulation game that came on two diskettes, and it got to where I could tell how the play would turn out by listening to the disk activity. Gotta admit that I never tried anything as advanced as LSL. I'm jealous that you seem to still have access to a Jr. I traded mine in for a 286 a LONG time ago. ;-)
Maaaaaaaaan the floppy disk reading sound! I didn't hear that over 15 years! This.... is.... awsome!
@cyde79 I used the original at the end, where I mention the problem was due to the PCjr memory management program.
wow, you got it WITH the monitor. AWESOME.
And this, ladies and germs, is why I referred to IBM as Internal Bowel Movement at the time. I had a Tandy 1000 SX back then that wasn't half as persnickety. It was slow as hell, but it worked.
Absolutely love the pile of old electronics and the NES sitting on top of it all!
@Dant2142 I do, which is why I'm not giving the addon a priority. Still, it would be nice to have.
And yeah, I read about the issues with the interrupt. Crazy stuff
This video gives me the modern LGR Blerbs vibes. I love it!
@UKRetroGames It was painful... so goes life with MS-DOS variations and strange PCjr memory issues and custom game loaders. Larry is very much worth it
@hoques1432 Hehe, yeah boxer shorts. Found it somewhat appropriate considering the game (perhaps briefs would be more appropriate, Larry Laffer-style)
@malignantpoodle Glad to bring the nostalgia through audible bliss!
Dark memories of doing that sort of thing with my Sanyo MBC, and various software.
@sweetpeahiker I vaguely remember trying it out, yes. I still have the install floppies for TSN. Have you seen the revival project for INN? It's pretty interesting stuff, hoping it takes off a bit more as I'd love to give it a try again.
oh good times! had so much fun in the scorching summer of 1988, A/C ON....cold lemonade and Larry on a monochrome XT
The disk swapping days I'll never miss. Once I got my first hard drive, there's no going back!
@sweetpeahiker Hehe, well I can't argue with that. Can't tell you how many times I was on the phone or a BBS searching for solutions to these games, and making dozens of boot disks... which is why this situation got so annoying (and fun!) because it was a very different process than the ol' routine.
Wow I remember playing this game back n college in 1989. Wow being back memories
@MrMinecrafterEXTreme You'd likely have to use an addon sidecar to plug in a third-party serial or parallel mouse. Mice weren't really used in PCs at this time.
It was straight forward for back then.
P.S. If you ever have a problem trying to run a Sierra game...create a 'boot disk' ;-)
Thanks for doing what ever you did to clear the screen in the update!
i had to laugh out loud at 4:48
xD
awesome episode dude, as ever!
2 thumbs up =D
One of the best games I played back in the day. I liked most of the games that Sierra put out. Space Quest was a fun series as well.
Wow watching you trying to get Larry 1 running on that PCjr and having a issue with the game's memory manager gives me flashbacks of trying to get Ultima 7: The Black Gate running on my computer back in the day and fighting with Origin's Voodoo memory manager.
Can't belive I missed this video! Awesome game, love the music and it's relly funny seeing other gamers getting frustrated.. I can relate, oh god how I can relate xD
Well done for persevering on that thing. I wouldn’t have bothered!
I go thru this with my modern Linux computer when playing games..
LOL Love the quest achievement of the brilliant PCjr's excellent sound once you got it working after all that.
Good stuff love this video. Had many feelings like this myself on other types of systems.
I heard Al taking about this game having a really bad setup/install interface because it made you swap floppies for each single file. I didn't really know what he was talking about until I saw your video... man what a pain in the ass!
This game brings back memories...
I did use an IBM PC jr, didn't look that this one actually. And I do own this game too, at least I know I still have the collection package copy still intact.
@Grillledfox I got mine on eBay, also have had good luck with Amazon too.
Wow. My parents bought one of these. I only had 128k of RAM...I'm so jealous! Some other games I played on mine: Jumpman, Crossfire, Shamus, King's Quest, King's Quest II, Adventures in Math.
This finally shows man's dominance over hideously uncooperative machine. It's sort of a climactic moment to get the game to boot, finally!
Cool video, I've never really looked into the PCjr and in a way I'm glad :)
I look forward to your video on this system, seems like it could be an interesting little machine.
@vwestlife Hehe, I'll be laughing at myself soon as I've got a 1000 RL/HD on the way!
And I added that tag after the fact, to see if it made any difference. It didn't. It just bothers me that the top and bottom of the screen is cropped off! I tried with a 16:9 tag and it puts black bars at the top and bottom, effectively shrinking the vid about 20%. Oh well.
Takes me back. Good old slow times. Oh man how cool was playing old dos games. Poppin in the disc. See what the game actually was and stuff :) delightfull vid
Tandy 1000 owners laugh at your pain. :-P
p.s. Maybe the yt:quality=high tag has something to do with the widescreen video display? The aspect ratio is correct, though, so it's still fine to watch.
My friend had this game on a 1.2MB 5.25" floppy but my Tandy 1000SX only had two 360KB drives. So I just copied the files to a couple disks and went home. Spent about an hour using trial and error copying files one by one to build a Game Disk and second disk, but got it working! Anyway, I recently chatted with Al Lowe, sent some $, and made things right after more than 30 years. Wild to think about
that loading would drive me insane!
It actually looks better on that than modern Monitors. Those were good days. The first time I played LSL1 was on cga.
" I hope it loads" I ran out of drinks lol
And here we see the original LGR blerb xd
wow my very first pc in 1986 great times!
We are soooooo spoiled nowadays.
Wow. Clint lacked patience back then! Lol
This reminds me why I quit messing with vintage computer equipment...so frustrating...so time consuming...
Haha reading instruction manuals FTW!
Ahh the good old days of PC gaming ;D I think my toaster has more RAM than this pc does haha
But man, Ive had some fun with old PCs. Nothing like bleeps and bloops and pixels to get the nostalgia flowing :D
@phreakindee Can you please do a review talking about your Tandy 1000 machines? I haven't seen one on your channel, maybe I just haven't looked, so if there isn't a review on your channel I'd love to see one, thanks. I've never used a Tandy 1000 before, but I'm very interested indeed in those machines.
totally need an updated LSL video
Hey Clint, 2020 here. Have you ever done any video abou Leisure Suit Larry 7 and the scratch'n'sniff "Cyber Sniff 2000" that came in the game box?
I bought Leisure Suit Larry 7 from a discount bin in a Radio Shack. When installed the game and played it with the Cybersniff 2000 scratch card, I thought it was the most hilarious thing! The sunscreen one smelled great!
By the way, I was 11 years old when I bought the game.
I just finished this game for the second time. Man, that game is a real hoot! No shame what so ever.
@npk6898 Being that this is Larry we're talking about, I assume you mean "beaten" as in beaten the game, not... something else ;) Yes, I have, not too long ago actually. It's fantastic.
Was it possible to upgrade your regular PC of the day (first or third party) to have the same enhancements as the PC Jr? I.e. So that games with built in enhancements for PC Jr users would also work the same on the PC?
On the Superman game for NES, when you're getting the continue code from Perry White at the Daily Planet, it plays "Stand Up for Jesus" in the background.
This was the first game I remember to play seriously (as in try to complete it). I was 7 when I played it and the only english I knew (as I'm Dutch) was from watching my uncle playing this game. The best hint my uncle gave me; "just type LOOK at everything..." lol. Never beat the game btw... maybe I'm going to now twenty years later ;-)
I beat the first three Leisure Suit Larry games on my Commodore Amiga 500 back in the day. You could install the games onto a hdd, but I didn’t own one for a very long time. Luckily, you could play the games directly from the provided 3.5” floppies without having to make a ‘backup’ disk the way Clint did. The only thing you needed (if I remember correctly) was a formatted floppy to save your game progress to.
In 2010 , you did the history my friend !
@hotchalupa Haha, glad you enjoyed my agony.
Come on, it's Leisure Suit Larry! You always gotta play LSL without pants... right??
This game on a pc jr, why does that amuse me so much?:)
I think you're expecting a little much from a computer of this vintage. What you're seeing is the norm.
Also, the music for the drunk guy is "How Dry I Am."
Those loading times must be a pain.
Is there a website to download ibm PC jr specific games or will DOS versions work on a emulated PC Jr?
Love leisure suit larry played it loads as a kid had to get my dad to help me answer the questions most time but even as kid i knew most answers 😂
Just noticed how long ago this video was posted lol
Yes Iove this game, but I wouldn't have the patience for waiting for it to load on real hardware these days.
Thanks for the video, it looks like it was quite an ordeal to get the game running on the PC Junior.
Around 7:20, why did the game start slowing down?
hahahaha...reminds me of the good old DOS-days: first comes the pain, then he game. But you were soo happy at the end, when the game loaded...