Pleroma

Pleroma

Richard Moss | @MossRC@social.mossrc.me

Author of *Shareware Heroes: The renegades who redefined gaming at the dawn of the Internet* and *The Secret History of Mac Gaming*, as well as two upcoming books — one on the creation of #AgeOfEmpires and the other about the history of football (soccer) games.

Writer/director on TerrorBytes: The Evolution of Horror Gaming, an upcoming five-part docuseries about horror games. Producer/co-writer on FPSDOC, a 4.5-hour documentary film celebrating the first-person shooter genre (with an emphasis on the 90s/early-2000s golden age) that's guided by the developers themselves.

Creates The Life & Times of Video Games and Ludiphilia podcasts.

He/him.

rich@mossrc.me
@MossRC on Twitter and @mossrc.bsky.social on Bluesky.

Posts mainly about #gamedev and #indiegames histories and stories, #retrogaming/#retrogames, #retrocomputing, #classicmac, #shareware, #tombraider, and #videogamehistory.

Richard Moss MossRC
As for Hugo's inspiration, Gray had just one game in mind: Sierra's Leisure Suit Larry. Here's what he told me when I interviewed him for Shareware Heroes. (He was also inspired by TV series Hammer House of Horror and a book of monochrome clip art.)

Richard Moss MossRC
People who paid the $20 registration fee for the shareware #dos adventure game Hugo's House of Horrors (1991) would receive an auto-playing version of the game intended for children and a hint booklet with floorplans and both "medium" and "obvious" hints.

When the third Hugo game came out, creator David P. Gray put together a trilogy pack and repackaged all the hint booklets into one — a few pages of which are pictured here.

#shareware #retrocomputing #retrogames #gamehistory

Core Design coredesign@nerdculture.de

📢 New mod by Xevengar!

* Play as CJ from GTA: San Andreas * 👍
(also includes a new torso boss - you can see him in the video)

- Download the mod: https://core-design.com/community_tr1laramoddings5.html 🔗
- Video: https://youtu.be/NuzJs5qLSZU 🎞️

Richard Moss MossRC
@dangolding
Congrats! Sounds like interesting and valuable research, too.

Richard Moss MossRC
i helped test the Windows and Android versions of Aerofoil. Great source port.

Life Sim Engine clayote@gamemaking.social

@MossRC Here's Glider PRO in your browser. https://galeforcegames.itch.io/aerofoil

Richard Moss MossRC
"Do we have any quotes to put on the back of the box?" "Eh, kind of, but they're all like, 'This game is not terrible.' Why don't you just make some up instead?" "Sure!" *scribbles down furiously*
Tracksuit Manager 2 box back; quote at the top, which is unattributed, says "probably the best football management game ever!" Several other unattributed quotes offer similar effusive praise.

Richard Moss MossRC
The original game had a lovely quaint charm to it (what Calhoun calls a "quiet domesticity"), but I love the creativity of the commercial sequels, which came with a Room Editor app that people used for all sorts of offbeat and original ideas. Just look at all these cool room designs.
Hands-Off House from Glider 4 Hands-Off House Pac-Man Glider Space Pods Glider

Richard Moss MossRC
The Glider games have been a huge part of my life, from shareware original on a b/w Mac through two commercial releases in the 90s and later an iOS/Mac game. Interviewing creator John Calhoun in depth and dedicating a whole chapter to his work was the biggest highlight of working on The Secret History of Mac Gaming (https://secrethistoryofmacgaming.com) for me.
Glider 2.02 screenshot; just a paper plane in a simple rundown house Glider 4 screenshot, with a toaster on the floor of the bathroom for some reason Glider PRO screenshot Glider Classic screenshot

Jason Scott textfiles@mastodon.archive.org

The MOOF A DAY collection just passed 50 items.

What's a MOOF? It's a copy-protected Macintosh program, imaged using a flux reader called APPLESAUCE and made bootable in an emulator at Internet Archive.

If you lived through the early black and white macs, this growing collection is going to bring back amazing memories, and make a familiar "BING!"

https://archive.org/details/moofaday?sort=-date

Richard Moss MossRC
@BrendanSinclair Yep, and for any studios and operating groups that are well managed, having that independence and agency within the ginormous Embracer family may let them thrive. But I'm not convinced that they're all well managed, and with minimal top-level personnel changes post-sale I suspect any dysfunction or incompetence has just been ported over and given a clean slate.

But back to the original point, I don't see any clear signs that they're even planning to implement a coherent business-wide strategic alignment. They seem to treat it more like an investment portfolio.

Richard Moss MossRC
@1Bit Yes, absolutely. She gave the Mac so much character and spunk, and her artistic and design sensibilities complemented beautifully the ideas of Bill Atkinson and Steve Capps.

Richard Moss MossRC
@BrendanSinclair I'm starting to wonder if the different units within the Embracer group even talk to each other or have any real strategic alignment at all. The sale to Embracer certainly doesn't seem to have changed anything in the business management practices of the former Eidos studios.

Brendan Sinclair BrendanSinclair@mastodon.social

Embracer Group set up an archival group saying it wants to preserve game history, then it pulls this nonsense.

https://www.eurogamer.net/deus-ex-go-becomes-unplayable-in-january-even-if-you-paid-for-it

Richard Moss MossRC
@1Bit I love her little dig at the idea that computers need to be used for serious work and business.

1Bit 1Bit@bitbang.social

Quick MacPaint Masterclass from Susan Kare
https://youtu.be/zOP1LNr70aU&t=1267

Richard Moss MossRC
@thevglibrary @lunarloony Thanks Dean! As for this Jeff Anderson fellow, I've not dug into his history before (and his games aren't mentioned in my book), but it looks like he went to Colorado State University — so matching up the dates, I'd guess this is him: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-anderson-655bb639/

To find out for sure, of course, you'll have to just send him a message (or put that profile URL into an email finder like RocketReach or Lusha).

Damiano Gerli damianogerli@mastodon.social

I published a small history on gaming/software piracy in Europe, looking at the major cracking groups and at the notorious Twilight CDs, one of the biggest ever pirate operations in the continent (if not the world). It was difficult to get information, but hopefully it can be used as an introduction on the topic. https://genesistemple.com/the-european-bucaneers-gaming-piracy-in-the-eu-between-the-80s-and-90s

Konstantinos Dimopoulos konstantinosd@mastodon.gamedev.place

Ray Feibush's 1974 cover art for "The Far-Out Worlds of A E Van Vogt"

[via https://www.reddit.com/r/RetroFuturism/comments/z0zqxq/ray_feibush_cover_art_for_the_farout_worlds_of_a/]

Michael MichaelKlamerus@dosgame.club

The next DOS Games Jam has been announced. It's a casual, unranked game jam where people can make new DOS games or tabletop and video games inspired by DOS games. The jam is over a month long but shorter projects that are low stress are encouraged. Previously started projects are allowed too

https://itch.io/jam/dos-games-end-of-the-year-jam-2022

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