The Adventure Begins
Well, here we are. I’ve been wanting to write a book about adventure games since I wrote an article about the genre’s history back in 2010 (and that was actually my first professional piece!), and now, at last, I’m doing it.
A Quick Catch-Up PrimerFor those of you just joining us, Passport to Adventure: The SCUMM Story began as a proposed documentary with CREATORVC, the fan-funded studio behind the popular and very, very long In Search Darkness and Alien Expanded documentaries. I’ve worked with them as writer/producer on FPS: First Person Shooter, writer/director on TerrorBytes: The Evolution of Horror Gaming, and post-production audio guru on a few projects. We spent several months “validating” the concept and came to the conclusion that, while there probably is a viable audience for the project, we couldn’t be confident it was at the scale that CREATORVC needs right now — and so it got shelved in favour of other projects that are showing clearer commercial signals.
With my team’s blessing, I’ve negotiated rights with CREATORVC to give me the name, logo, social media channels, and other marketing assets for publishing a book version of the concept. The only thing I don’t get to keep is the email list, for GDPR reasons (hence the need to resubscribe here).
A High-Level VisionThe best thing about writing a book instead of a documentary about all things SCUMM is that the printed medium affords a much greater level of depth and detail than you’d get on the screen.
Some things are much easier to do in film, but this switch in target medium means that I now have room (and budget, since book interviews don’t require paying for a pro camera operator or filming location) to talk to way more people. Like everyone, if I can reach them. So that’s what I’ll do. I want to tell the as close to the complete history of the SCUMM games and tech as you can get in a single book, and consequently I have a rather ambitious goal:
For this book, I am going to attempt to make contact with every person who ever worked on a commercial SCUMM game, released or cancelled, regardless of their role (ie in addition to creative talent, I’m also interested in talking to localisation partners, production support folks, office managers, and so on). Some will have no doubt disappeared or died, and I know at least a few would rather leave it all in the past, but I’ll look up everyone and try to make contact to see if they’d be willing to talk or at least answer a few questions. (If you’re part of that group, please don’t be shy; I’d love to hear from you! If you email richard@scummbook.com, your message will be forwarded to me.)
To be clear, when I talk about SCUMM games, that’s the 12 LucasArts adventures created with various generations of that tech, in their various guises, plus another few dozen Humongous Entertainment SCUMM games — Freddi Fish, Pajama Sam, Putt-Putt, Backyard Sports, and more. I probably won’t be going in depth on every individual Humongous game, but they’ll all be in there taking their rightful place alongside the LucasArts games — and we’ll look at the outsized impact they all had on a generation of kids who’d been just a bit too young to enjoy the likes of Monkey Island and Full Throttle.
Besides trying to interview everyone myself, I’ll also trawl through archives online, watch/read/listen to all extant interviews I can find that other people conducted, ask about any materials each person still has from their work at LucasArts/Humongous, and do whatever other research things that seem like they’ll help me with the book.
I’m then going to pull all this material together into some kind of coherent, engaging story that covers the creation of all the games and tech and their cultural and creative impact/legacy, with behind-the-scenes materials like photos, concept art, and design docs included in the book wherever appropriate (and at a readable resolution), provided I have permission to do so.
Next StepsI have another big book project (with Lost in Cult) taking up most of my time at the moment, but I’m going to start doing interviews for this right away — one every two or three weeks to start, then accelerating as my schedule begins to clear in the new year.
In the meantime, I’m updating the synopsis I wrote for the documentary to better fit a book format. It’ll just be a few pages long, but it’ll cover the broad strokes and a few specific examples of moments/things I want to dig into. And next month I plan to share it with you alongside a survey that’ll ask for your input on more of the specific things you’d like me to cover (no matter how nerdy, I’ll look into it, although I can’t promise everything will make it into the book).
All of this will inform how my vision for the project evolves, what I wind up including in the book, how the book’s design shapes up, and what questions I ask in interviews. I want there to be a collaborative, community-driven element to creating this book. I’m making it for me, but also all of you, and I hope to end up with something we can all celebrate.
a history of kid pix, as told by its designer craig hickman
From: @PCMag
https://flipboard.com/@pcmag/software-news-and-reviews-k20iqh0lz/-/a-a1w8hOBuQ8ajqK8LHLgQoQ%3Aa%3A1861800451-%2F0
RT: https://flipboard.com/users/PCMag/statuses/a1w8hOBuQ8ajqK8LHLgQoQ:a:1861800451
6 years ago i found a single line in a Maxis Software catalog from the mid 90s, selling a multimedia cd-rom title called Coral Reef! The Vanishing Undersea World.
web and usenet searches had no information on it, and it appeared to be another piece of 90s vaporware. i added it to my ebay search list, on the off-chance it might pop up some day
a month ago, it suddenly did, and finally arrived today. i spent the afternoon documenting it and ripping the hybrid mac/win cd-rom to disc images.
it's a weird situation. maxis wasn't known for publishing very many titles developed by other studios. arnowitz studios was well known for their high quality multimedia cd-roms like San Diego Zoo Presents: The Animals! so i suppose they were willing to take a risk with it.
the disc is now imaged and uploaded here with my blessings:
https://archive.org/details/coral_reef_vanishing_undersea_world
there are several ISO formats included in the archive, because it's a very weird hybrid disc which doesn't seem to be compatible with dosbox or mini vmac. i split it apart into mac and win discs, to make things a little easier.
People will still find it, embrace it, love it."
https://www.honest-broker.com/p/the-most-dangerous-thing-in-culture-c0d
(My own inner standard on good enough remains as high as – if not rising even higher than – it ever was.)
https://matduggan.com/you-know-gdpr-is-good-based-on-who-hates-it/
Official announcement about the documentary going on hiatus will come next week, now that the paperwork's been signed. For GDPR reasons, I need a new mailing list (the new site), but we'll send a final update out on the SCUMMdoc list.
I keep forgetting to mention that the remaining Shareware Heroes paperback copies are now being sold by Wilton Square Books, via all the usual sales channels. They acquired the leftover stock and set up a profit-share deal with me. There will be no reprint, although I may do an expanded edition in a couple years.
As noted previously, I'm selling digital copies directly through Payhip (and I'll get the "shareware edition" ebook out as soon as I have time to design a book version of the old registration info screens).
A Tale of Two Halves: The History Of Football Video Games ⚽️
Explores the evolution of football games across four decades, featuring 400 titles spanning 2D classics and cutting-edge 3D simulations.
Score a copy: https://www.bitmapbooks.com/collections/all-books/products/a-tale-of-two-halves
#bitmapbooks #bookstagram #football #soccer #gaming #bookstodon @MossRC
A couple of chaps in Sydney (one of whom worked on Good Game and Spawn Point, both now full-time post-production staff for The Wiggles) are trying to get a documentary series off the ground about Aussie games history, told by the people who were there, and they need your support. You can back the project on Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/regionlocked-doco/region-locked
Are you enjoying the World Cup?🏆⚽️
Pro Evolution Soccer 6 - Featured in our book - A Tale of Two Halves: The History Of Football Video Games ⚽️
Featuring over 400 games!
Score a copy: https://www.bitmapbooks.com/collections/all-books/products/a-tale-of-two-halves
#bitmapbooks #worldcup #football #soccer #gaming #bookstodon
Not "commissioning editor" but rather "referenced in recent publishing industry coverage as a commissioning editor". As thought they're not sure of their own job.
World Cup fever has gripped Bitmap HQ 🏆⚽️
Check out our book - Tale of Two Halves: The History Of Football Video Games ⚽️
Featuring over 400 games!
Who do you think will win the tournament?
Score a copy: https://www.bitmapbooks.com/collections/all-books/products/a-tale-of-two-halves
#bitmapbooks #worldcup #football #soccer #gaming #bookstodon
Someone was inspired by my Shareware Heroes book to archive their collection of mail-order 5.25" shareware floppies, circa 1990-94, most of which came from a catalogue called Reasonable Solutions. There's a great mix of stuff in here. https://archive.org/details/525disk
Read this. "Google didn’t talk about ads in the I/O keynote. Everything they announced is the new ad system. One that, in the eyes of Google, no longer needs the open web as an intermediary … Google is betting its entire future on a world where people eagerly hand over their emails, their files, their habits, and their trust – to an AI system that will quietly auction off their attention, word by word, to the highest bidder." by @matthiasott https://matthiasott.com/notes/ad-infinitum