Leather Goddesses of Phobos is an interactive fiction computer game written by Steve Meretzky and published by Infocom in 1986. Like many other Infocom titles, it was released for the DOS, Apple II, Apple Macintosh, Atari ST and Commodore 64 computers. This game was Infocom's first and only "sex farce" with selectable "naughtiness" levels ranging from tame to lewd.

Plot

The game begins in Upper Sandusky, Ohio in 1936 and is presented in the manner of a science fiction serial of that time. The Leather Goddesses of Phobos are just finishing up their plans for the invasion of Earth. The player's character been abducted by the Leather Goddesses for the final testing of the plan which will enslave all of humanity. Unless this nefarious plan is stopped, the Earth will be turned into these twisted vixens' pleasure dome. (It should be noted that, despite the player's possible motives, this outcome is considered unfavorable.)

Feelies

The game featured no copy prevention as such, but like many Infocom games, it included puzzles that were nearly impossible to solve without hints from the accompanying documentation (the so-called feelies). Leather Goddesses included the following feelies, one of which was quite unique among Infocom's games:

• A small scratch and sniff card which bore six numbered areas (At certain points in the game, the player would be instructed to scratch a certain number and then whiff the resulting odor. Given the possibilities for a game featuring a "lewd mode", the scents were relatively innocuous, such as pizza and chocolate.)
• The Adventures of Lane Mastodon, a 3-D comic book containing vital hints to the game
• 3D glasses for the Lane Mastodon comic book
• A double-sided map of the catacombs

Notes

In a particularly clever way, Leather Goddesses forces the player to "choose" a gender for his or her character: the game's first scene is in a bar, and the player's character has a sudden, powerful urge to urinate. The player has a few turns in which to enter either the men's room or the ladies' room, or else face an early, embarrassing end to the game. The game assumes that whichever restroom is entered is "appropriate", so entering the men's room means that the player's character will be male. Further, LGOP assumes that the player's character is heterosexual, in that a variety of sexually suggestive situations with the opposite sex are encountered.

An additional by-product of the player's chosen gender is the nature of the "sidekick" character. If the player's character is male, he will meet a burly but dim-witted man named Trent; if the player's character is female, she will find an attractive but somewhat ditzy woman named Tiffany.

Cover of the Lane Mastodon comic feely—the instruction manual for the game.

Leather Goddesses of Phobos bore a difficulty rating of "Standard".

The game was followed in 1992 by This was one of Infocom's few games that combined their hallmark text adventure parser with (somewhat risque) graphics. Although designed by Steve Meretzky, Infocom's most popular designer (and designer of the original game), Leather Goddesses 2 garnered little interest and poor reviews and sold very poorly.

See also

• 69,105

External links

• The MobyGames entry on Leather Goddesses of Phobos
• The MobyGames entry on Leather Goddesses of Phobos 2
• Invisiclues for the game
• Photos of entire game contents including feelies, maps and all pages of the Lane Mastodon comic