Software:Leather Goddesses of Phobos 2

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Short description: 1992 video game
Leather Goddesses of Phobos 2
Developer(s)Infocom
Publisher(s)Activision
Producer(s)Tom Sloper
Designer(s)Steve Meretzky
Programmer(s)William David Volk
Artist(s)Mimi Doggett
Clifford Lau
Kristin J. Mallory
Writer(s)Steve Meretzky
Composer(s)Russell Lieblich
EngineMultimedia Applications Development Environment
Platform(s)MS-DOS
Release1992
Genre(s)Adventure
Mode(s)Single-player

Leather Goddesses of Phobos 2: Gas Pump Girls Meet the Pulsating Inconvenience from Planet X! (also known as Leather Goddesses 2 or LGOP2) is a graphic adventure game written by Steve Meretzky for MS-DOS. It was published by Activision in 1992 under the Infocom label. LGOP2 is the sequel to the 1986 interactive fiction game Leather Goddesses of Phobos, also written by Meretzky. LGOP2 featured full-screen graphics and a point-and-click interface instead of Infocom's text parser.

Gameplay

Whereas the original Leather Goddesses title was a text adventure, Leather Goddesses 2 adds detailed though somewhat cartoonish visuals. The game is played through a first-person window and features zero text input, instead using a point-and-click interface to interact with everything on screen. The player has the choice of playing through three different perspectives; Zeke the gas station owner, Barth the alien, or Lydia, the daughter of the plot-important astronomer who discovers the namesake planet of the game's title, "Planet X". Also featured are branching dialogues and optional interactions.

Whereas the original Leather Goddesses game offered three "naughtiness levels", the sequel has no such settings. The box did, however, feature "warnings" such as "Mature Attitudes Expressed".

Plot

In the original Leather Goddesses of Phobos, the titular female aliens suffered a humiliating defeat in 1936 at the hands of an Earthling from Ohio. Now it is 1958, and astronomers have recently discovered "Planet X", the tenth planet in the Solar System. The desert town of Atom City, Nevada does not contain much besides a military base, nuclear power plant and gas station. But one night the sleepy town witnesses a spaceship that crash-lands with a single survivor: Barth, the "Pulsating Inconvenience" from the world known as Planet X.

The Leather Goddesses have invaded Planet X and forced its inhabitants to become sex slaves. Barth has fled to Earth in a desperate effort to find humans who can help free his planet. The player can play as any of three characters: Barth (the alien), Zeke (the gas station owner), or Lydia (daughter of the astronomer who "discovered" Planet X). In an effort to further link this game to the original, Zeke was the son of the male protagonist from LGOP.

Reception

Computer Gaming World gave the game an unfavorable review, stating that it "seems to lose the entire spirit of the original text game in the 'translation' to graphic adventure". The magazine criticized the interface and puzzles as oversimplified, the poor quality of the voice dialogue, and the "insipid" treatment of sex compared to the "silly [but] mature" approach in the predecessor. It advised readers to purchase the older game while "waiting for someone to produce an interesting 'adult' adventure".[1]

References

  1. Lombardi, Chris (July 1992). "Son of "Flesh Gordon?" / Infocom's Leather Goddesses of Phobos 2". Computer Gaming World (96): 68–69. http://www.cgwmuseum.org/galleries/index.php?year=1992&pub=2&id=96. Retrieved 3 July 2014. 
  • MobyGames is a commercial database website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes over 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms.[1] Founded in 1999, ownership of the site has changed hands several times. It has been owned by Atari SA since 2022.

Features

Edits and submissions to the site (including screenshots, box art, developer information, game summaries, and more) go through a verification process of fact-checking by volunteer "approvers".[2] This approval process after submission can range from minutes to days or months.[3] The most commonly used sources are the video game's website, packaging, and credit screens. There is a published standard for game information and copy-editing.[4] A ranking system allows users to earn points for contributing accurate information.[5]

Registered users can rate and review games. Users can create private or public "have" and "want" lists, which can generate a list of games available for trade with other registered users. The site contains an integrated forum. Each listed game can have its own sub-forum.

History

Logo used until March 2014

MobyGames was founded on March 1, 1999, by Jim Leonard and Brian Hirt, and joined by David Berk 18 months later, the three of which had been friends since high school.[6][7] Leonard had the idea of sharing information about computer games with a larger audience. The database began with information about games for IBM PC compatibles, relying on the founders' personal collections. Eventually, the site was opened up to allow general users to contribute information.[5] In a 2003 interview, Berk emphasized MobyGames' dedication to taking video games more seriously than broader society and to preserving games for their important cultural influence.[5]

In mid-2010, MobyGames was purchased by GameFly for an undisclosed amount.[8] This was announced to the community post factum , and the site's interface was given an unpopular redesign.[7] A few major contributors left, refusing to do volunteer work for a commercial website.{{Citation needed|date=June 2025} On December 18, 2013, MobyGames was acquired by Jeremiah Freyholtz, owner of Blue Flame Labs (a San Francisco-based game and web development company) and VGBoxArt (a site for fan-made video game box art).[9] Blue Flame Labs reverted MobyGames' interface to its pre-overhaul look and feel,[10] and for the next eight years, the site was run by Freyholtz and Independent Games Festival organizer Simon Carless.[7]

On November 24, 2021, Atari SA announced a potential deal with Blue Flame Labs to purchase MobyGames for $1.5 million.[11] The purchase was completed on 8 March 2022, with Freyholtz remaining as general manager.[12][13][14] Over the next year, the financial boost given by Atari led to a rework of the site being built from scratch with a new backend codebase, as well as updates improving the mobile and desktop user interface.[1] This was accomplished by investing in full-time development of the site instead of its previously part-time development.[15]

In 2024, MobyGames began offering a paid "Pro" membership option for the site to generate additional revenue.[16] Previously, the site had generated income exclusively through banner ads and (from March 2014 onward) a small number of patrons via the Patreon website.[17]

On February 13, 2025, Freyholtz stepped down as the site lead to move onto new projects, leaving operations to Tracy Poff, a veteran coder on the site, and Atari staff.[18]

See also

  • IGDB – game database used by Twitch for its search and discovery functions

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Sheehan, Gavin (2023-02-22). "Atari Relaunches The Fully Rebuilt & Optimized MobyGames Website". https://bleedingcool.com/games/atari-relaunches-the-fully-rebuilt-optimized-mobygames-website/. 
  2. Litchfield, Ted (2021-11-26). "Zombie company Atari to devour MobyGames". https://www.pcgamer.com/zombie-company-atari-to-devour-mobygames/. 
  3. "MobyGames FAQ: Emails Answered § When will my submission be approved?". Blue Flame Labs. 30 March 2014. http://www.mobygames.com/info/faq7#g1. 
  4. "The MobyGames Standards and Practices". Blue Flame Labs. 6 January 2016. http://www.mobygames.com/info/standards. 
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 Miller, Stanley A. (2003-04-22). "People's choice awards honor favorite Web sites". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 
  6. "20 Years of MobyGames" (in en). 2019-02-28. https://trixter.oldskool.org/2019/02/28/20-years-of-mobygames/. 
  7. 7.0 7.1 7.2 Plunkett, Luke (2022-03-10). "Atari Buys MobyGames For $1.5 Million". https://kotaku.com/mobygames-retro-credits-database-imdb-atari-freyholtz-b-1848638521. 
  8. "Report: MobyGames Acquired By GameFly Media". Gamasutra. 2011-02-07. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/game-platforms/report-mobygames-acquired-by-gamefly-media. 
  9. Corriea, Alexa Ray (December 31, 2013). "MobyGames purchased from GameFly, improvements planned". http://www.polygon.com/2013/12/31/5261414/mobygames-purchased-from-gamefly-improvements-planned. 
  10. Wawro, Alex (31 December 2013). "Game dev database MobyGames getting some TLC under new owner". Gamasutra. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/game-dev-database-mobygames-getting-some-tlc-under-new-owner. 
  11. "Atari invests in Anstream, may buy MobyGames". November 24, 2021. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2021-11-24-atari-invests-in-anstream-may-buy-mobygames. 
  12. Rousseau, Jeffrey (2022-03-09). "Atari purchases Moby Games". https://www.gamesindustry.biz/atari-purchases-moby-games. 
  13. "Atari Completes MobyGames Acquisition, Details Plans for the Site's Continued Support". March 8, 2022. https://www.atari.com/atari-completes-mobygames-acquisition-details-plans-for-the-sites-continued-support/. 
  14. "Atari has acquired game database MobyGames for $1.5 million" (in en-GB). 2022-03-09. https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/atari-has-acquired-game-database-mobygames-for-1-5-million/. 
  15. Stanton, Rich (2022-03-10). "Atari buys videogame database MobyGames for $1.5 million". https://www.pcgamer.com/atari-buys-videogame-database-mobygames-for-dollar15-million/. 
  16. Harris, John (2024-03-09). "MobyGames Offering “Pro” Membership". https://setsideb.com/mobygames-offering-pro-membership/. 
  17. "MobyGames on Patreon". http://www.patreon.com/mobygames. 
  18. "An update on MobyGames leadership". 2025-02-13. https://www.mobygames.com/forum/3/thread/269628/an-update-on-mobygames-leadership/#post-269628. 
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