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.

We got some FPSDOC backers to review a (4.5-hour!) rough cut of our film recently and were blown away by the results.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fandamental/first-person-shooter-the-definitive-fps-documentary/posts/3818387

All along I've wanted it to be the first high-gloss gaming documentary that actually gets the balance of depth and nostalgia right, and to make a doco that doesn't fall into the stereotypical oversimplification and cringey 8-bit graphics/music crap that plagued most of the other projects with the pull to get big-name interviews. Looks like we did it.

Photo and description of injury, not for squeamish people
Sliding down a full flight of stairs may sound fun, but three days later I can safely say it most certainly wasn't fun for me. Still nursing serious bruising on my leg, butt, arm, and knee. Had some grazing, too, that's mostly healed, and I cracked an IKEA picture frame that we taped back together.

And all that's with instinctual knowledge about minimising fall damage honed by years as a dancer in my 20s. (I probably would have broken something otherwise.)
sensitive media
Black, purple, and yellow bruising on the outside of my right thigh from falling and sliding down a flight of stairs.

Opening sequence of our 1997 game The Last Express.
https://youtu.be/U7k3_CX6NII

In today's blog post, I explain this very special game's connection to my latest artwork (and my new graphic novel "Replay"): https://www.jordanmechner.com/en/latest-news/#a-new-departure

This new video by Luke Muscat about the creation of Fruit Ninja is a great watch if you're a designer or just a fan of the game!
https://youtu.be/St5v2uI-Nis

@lunarloony
@MichaelKlamerus @greg Indeed, like on all those adventure games that got a great FMTowns port, or how lots of PC games were actually best on Mac but are way easier to set up for most people and *nearly* as good on DOS with patch A plus the audio ripped from the Mac or Windows CD version.

@greg
@MichaelKlamerus Hence why I mentioned the UI change as a possible negative. And now we're getting into the troubling question of what defines "best"? It could very well become a flowchart/decision tree for many games.

@MichaelKlamerus @greg I'd say the Mac and Windows versions are the best ones I've tried, as they have better sound and higher-resolution graphics, but they're also lacking the original custom menubar font and textured background used on the DOS/Amiga/Atari ST versions — which might be a big deal to some folks.

@flargh
We've had a mandated "gamble responsibly" disclaimer at the end of every ad for years, but gambling addiction is still a huge problem here. They're introducing a on ban credit card payments for "in-play" matches now, though, so that's something at least. (We have a casino here that was somehow allowed to keep its licence despite flagrant illegal activity they themselves sanctioned, too. Yay for gambling tax revenue.)

@flargh Here in Australia you can't watch anything on TV or an ad-supported streaming service without coming across betting ads (usually involving a celebrity or famous current/former athlete). They're even on bus stops sometimes. The betting companies keep getting into trouble with regulatory bodies for going too far, though, so reform to the advertising rules for gambling is on the way.

Unique and interesting look at Iran's first ever video game, clearly inspired by Prince of Persia, courtesy of the efforts of Arash Hackimi. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/culture/the-history-of-iran-s-very-first-video-game

@parisba I've gotten to the point where I monitor my notifications and tweet key work announcements (eg new book releases), but nothing else. I'm happy with that compromise.

@Gmatom I hope you are indeed having a peaceful birthday.

8/16-bit sprite style indie games and boomer shooters are played out, someone bring back the vibes of old 90s Macintosh shareware games

Screenshot of the game Pizza Rush Screenshot of the game Factory: The Industrial Devolution Screenshot of the game Taskmaker Screenshot of the game Glider Pro

@vga256 I used to do that with Police Quest 1. Never got around to playing the third one, for some reason.

Back in 2020, I published Six Centuries of Type & Printing, a concise book – 64 pages – that actually starts centuries before Gutenberg, with Chinese and Korea printing, and then digs into 1450 to 2020, covering ~600 years of technological advances. Set in hot-metal type (Monotype Bembo) in North Yorkshire, printed in London, and bound in Germany with a foil-stamped cover & slipcase, I still have copies available for shipping worldwide! https://glog.glennf.com/tiny-type-museum-time-capsule-and-more/six-centuries-letterpress (ebook edition available)

Interior spread of book Six Centuries of Type & Printing showing it standing and slightly splayed open. The book traces the development of type design, type manufacture, presses, and printing through the present digital era with many stops along the way.
Endpapers of book Six Centuries of Type & Printing. The book traces the development of type design, type manufacture, presses, and printing through the present digital era with many stops along the way.
Cover of book Six Centuries of Type & Printing showing its green cloth cover with its title, including By Glenn Fleishman Interior spread of book Six Centuries of Type & Printing showing it standing and slightly splayed open. The book traces the development of type design, type manufacture, presses, and printing through the present digital era with many stops along the way.

@RobeeShepherd @danielcrocker What do you think of it so far? I didn't realise it was out yet; been curious about it since I saw a gameplay teaser last year.

@raygan Having switched to a ThinkPad after years of using Apple laptops (albeit with past TrackPoint-ish experience via my brother's old Satellite Pro), I think the only people who hate the TrackPoint don't understand the TrackPoint. It's a brilliant input device, more precise and convenient than a trackpad in so many use cases.

@wildweasel Glad to hear/read it! I'm writing two new books at the moment (one's a genre history, the other on the creation of Age of Empires, both to be manuscript-complete this year), but the indie games book is on a shortlist of several options for the next book after those.

Just found out that the delightful Hogs of War, one of the most underrated games of the late PS1 era, is getting a remaster, and you can follow the developers on here at @HogsofWarLardcore

If you're not familiar with the game, look it up. It's like Worms in 3D, with pigs, but redesigned to be a satire of the First World War. I once did an episode of my Life & Times of Video Games podcast on its design and development: https://lifeandtimes.games/episodes/files/18.html

Hello and friends, this one is literally for you!

Debug is a brand new high quality print magazine focused entirely on indie games, from solo devs right up to the so called triple-i studios.

Got something you’re working on and want to share? https://www.teamdebug.com and let us know!

Please share to help spread awareness amongst the developer community. We love you 💜

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