If by chance you were on Twitter today you probably heard about the relaunch of the Sam Suede project because, honestly, I hardly saw the news anywhere else. Those of you with good memory will surely recall this game that was previously announced back in 2006 and would have meant Al Lowe’s big comeback to the game industry. By the way, if you don’t who Al Lowe is or never heard about Leisure Suit Larry you should probably stop reading this blog. Like right now.

So, Al was a co-founder of iBase, the former company in charge of Sam Suede which went bankruptcy shortly after its announcement. The game was billed at the time as an “action comedy” title and, while it wasn’t the flaming return to the adventure genre we were all expecting, it was simply good enough to hear that Al was back in game development. Unfortunately, he doesn’t seem to be involved with this new incarnation of Sam Suede, which is kind of disheartening to say the least. Four years ago the sole mention of Al’s involvement with this project was huge publicity – in fact, it was the biggest selling point of the game. However, Icarus Studios, the new developer behind Sam Suede, is not even crediting him as one of its original creators. You’re not supposed to do that kind of thing.

But don’t fret! You can still get your share of good ol’ Al Lowe — sort of. He’s been running for years the Cyberjoke 3000 mailing list which is more or less the ultimate collection of jokes ever. I swear, he’s shared more than 5,000 jokes over a decade without a single repetition. Even better, his iPhone app is a must if you happen to own the ubiquitous device. It’s basically the funniest Cyberjokes condensed into this handy app with a slick interface and told by a professional comedian. I often have some business to attend and find myself stuck in long waiting lines. Since I can’t play games in those situations and the mood isn’t proper to listen music (yes, I’m weird) I fire up Cyberjoke 3000 and listen to a few ones. There’s well over a hundred and I still have a long way to go. It’s like having this tiny secret friend in your pocket that you can ask to whisper funny jokes in your ear whenever you need to. In the end, this app has become as useful as the maps or the calculator.

Anyway, this bitter news was a huge letdown. What seemed like a great morning turned into a really lousy day. I sometimes hate this industry.