The Life & Times of Video Games

• PAX Panel: Shareware Downunder

  I was on a panel about shareware games at PAX Australia in October, with Halloween Harry / Alien Carnage co-creator John Passfield, indie developer and bookshop owner Terry Burdak, and ACMI games curator Arieh Offman. This is the full audio from that panel.You can find a PDF of my slides from the panel at this Dropbox link. I've also got John's slides in PowerPoint format (so you can play the videos yourself) and Terry's in another PDF.As for where to find us and the things we talked about:My new book, Shareware Heroes: The renegades who redefined gaming at the dawn of the Internet, has a website hereYou can find out more about John's past work at the Play It Again website and his personal site. Terry's games studio and shop are located in Melbourne's inner north. You can check out their games and buy some things at https://www.paperhousegames.com/If you live in or are ever visiting Melbourne, be sure to visit ACMI and stop by the free Story of the Moving Image exhibition. And you can find us all on social media. I'm @MossRC on Twitter and @[email protected] on the Fediverse (Mastodon et al); John is @JohnPassfield on Twitter and @[email protected] on the Fediverse; Terry is @PaperHouseGames on Twitter and Instagram; and Arieh is @OffmanArieh.Special thanks to Helen Stuckey for conceiving and organising the panelAnd here's the original panel description:Remembering a time when the shareware demo ruled PC gaming, this panel discusses the impact and legacy of shareware on the local gaming landscape. Featuring author of "Shareware Heroes: The renegades who redefined gaming at the dawn of the Internet" Richard Moss, game designer John Passfield, whose Apogee-published game Halloween Harry / Alien Carnage (1993) topped the charts just before shareware legends id Software made it irrelevant with Doom, and shareware devotee in their youth, indie developer Terry Burdak (Paper House). Panel chaired by Arieh Offman, ACMI's Curator of Videogames for Play it Again: Preserving Australian videogame history of the 1990s project.

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• Soundbite: Home of the Underdogs founder Sarinee Achavanuntakul on abandonware vs piracy

  I'm still a ways off of finishing the next full episode, but here's something to fill the void in the meantime.When I spoke to Home of the Underdogs founder Sarinee Achavanuntakul, we had a long segue into the broken world of copyright and its connections to the abandonware scene in games. I'm not sure how much of it will make it into the main story, but I thought a solid chunk of what she said could stand well on its own — especially in light of recent industry discussions around preservation and digital sales (or re-sales) of games.So here it is, with a fairly substantial intro from me that felt almost like a dress rehearsal for the abandonware discussion I'll have to include in the full episode.If you'd like to contribute your thoughts/memories/insights on the Home of the Underdogs, please record a voice clip (in any audio format) and send it to me at [email protected], DM me @MossRC on Twitter, or upload directly to this drop folder.You can support The Life & Times of Video Games in any of the following ways:subscribe to my Patreonmake a one-time or recurring donation via paypal.me/mossrcbuy my book The Secret History of Mac Gamingpreorder my second book Shareware Heroes: The renegades who redefined gaming at the dawn of the internetor just by sharing your favourite episodes and telling other people about the show

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• If Monks Had Macs (Ludiphilia re-release)

  To wrap up the year I wanted to revisit one of my old favourites: a story I made for my other (currently-inactive) podcast about one of the strangest and most thought-provoking programs ever created. This is the story of If Monks Had Macs.Original descriptionIt all started with a Macintosh ad: 'You too can be a knowledge worker.' This is the story of Brian Thomas' 15-year odyssey at the helm of one of the strangest pieces of multimedia software ever created — If Monks Had Macs.LinksYou can learn more about Brian, and about Monks, at his website: http://www.rivertext.com/monks.htmlThe original HyperCard stack is downloadable from http://www.rivertext.com/classic.html and also playable at the Internet Archive Ludiphilia Episode 10, Life After If Monks Had Macs All music and sound effects from If Monks Had Macs (with some touch-up by me), except:I Am a Man Who Will Fight for Your Honor by Chris ZabriskieOneiri by Kai EngelComatose by Kai EngelAnd some bits I composed myself

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• The Tomb Raider grid (remastered)

  To celebrate the 25th birthday of my favourite game franchise, I thought I'd pull out the old Tomb Raider grid episodes from Season 1 and merge them into one. I also put some time into cleaning up the audio, though it'll still sound rough compared to newer episodes — given the lower-fidelity recordings I was using then. Here's the original episode description:Every aspect of the original Core Design Tomb Raider series (and by extension the franchise's success post-Core) comes back to the grid that lies beneath it — the majority of the puzzles; the platforming; the cavernous chambers and ruins and outdoor areas that provide a sense of isolation, of solitude and discovery; and Lara Croft's iconic acrobatic movement style. And yet it never would have happened if not for one pragmatic choice made by a programmer early in the game's development.This is the story of how that came to be, and how it made Tomb Raider…well, Tomb Raider, based on interviews with Heather Stevens (née Gibson) and Gavin Rummery as well as my past work covering Tomb Raider's history as a freelancer. The second part, which was originally a separate release, also includes discussion of the place that such a grid system has — or might have — in game design today. Thank you to my Patreon supporters for making this episode possible — especially my producer-level backers Carey Clanton, Wade Tregaskis, Seth Robinson, Rob Eberhardt, Simon Moss, Scott Grant, Vivek Mohan, and Joel Webber.To support my work, so that I can uncover more untold stories from video game history, you can make a donation via paypal.me/mossrc or subscribe to my Patreon. My first book, The Secret History of Mac Gaming, is getting republished in October 2021 (this month!) by Bitmap Books in an "Expanded Edition", featuring a revised layout and design, more images, additional written content, and new sections including a timeline and icon gallery. Head to Bitmap's product page for more details. My second book, meanwhile, Shareware Heroes: The renegades who redefined gaming at the dawn of the internet, has just been copyedited and will soon be going through design and typesetting phases. It'll be out around Q2 2022, but you can preorder from Unbound.

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• 33 - MobyGames, the IMDB of Video Games

  There was no encyclopaedia nor fleshed-out database of video games in 1999. There were barely even any reliable or comprehensive lists of video games. Not until Jim Leonard decided he needed to build one.He called it MobyGames, and 22 years later it's the de facto source for credits, screenshots, and other general information about video games. It is the "IMDB of video games". This is its story.My thanks to the people who contributed to this story:Jim Leonard blogs at Oldskooler Ramblings and tweets @MobyGamer.John Szczepaniak's Untold History of Japanese Game Developers trilogy is on Amazon. There's also re-edited, prettified version called Japansoft available from Read-Only Memory.Clint Basinger runs the excellent Lazy Game Reviews YouTube channel, where he explores and discusses retro games and technology.Matej Jan blogs about pixel art and retro games at Retronator. He's also developing Pixel Art Academy, an adventure game for learning how to draw.These days John Romero is COO at Romero Games, a triple-A game studio he co-founded with his wife (and company CEO) Brenda. Their most recent title is Empire of Sin.Tomer Gabel is now a software architect and consultant. You can find out more about him and his work via his LinkedIn and Twitter profiles.Thank you to my Patreon supporters for making this episode possible — especially my producer-level backers Carey Clanton, Wade Tregaskis, Seth Robinson, Rob Eberhardt, Simon Moss, Scott Grant, Vivek Mohan, and Joel Webber.To support my work, so that I can uncover more untold stories from video game history, you can make a donation via paypal.me/mossrc or subscribe to my Patreon. (I also accept commissions and the like over email, if you're after something specific or just don't want to deal through those platforms.)My first book, The Secret History of Mac Gaming, is getting republished in October 2021 (this month!) by Bitmap Books in an "Expanded Edition", featuring a revised layout and design, more images, additional written content, and new sections including a timeline and icon gallery. Head to Bitmap's product page for more details. My second book, meanwhile, Shareware Heroes: The renegades who redefined gaming at the dawn of the internet, has just been copyedited and will soon be going through design and typesetting phases. It'll be out around Q2 2022, but you can...

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