@keen456 It's a bit academic-y at times, but the writing is solid and it's really interesting. I loved learning about system dynamics and cellular automata and the idea of analogues — and lots of other things that relate to the creation of SimCity — while reading and editing the book.
Happy publication day to Chaim Gingold, whose excellent first book, Building SimCity: How to Put the World in a Machine, builds on his past work at Maxis and his PhD research into the original SimCity.
https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262547482/building-simcity
I had a hand in getting the book done as an editor for Chaim, my role being to help to turn a promising — but meandering and unfocused — manuscript (with something like 40k words of footnotes!) into a well-polished and highly-thought-out probe into the many underlying facets of culture and practice that Will Wright drew upon, both knowingly and unknowingly, in the creation of SimCity.
https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262547482/building-simcity
I had a hand in getting the book done as an editor for Chaim, my role being to help to turn a promising — but meandering and unfocused — manuscript (with something like 40k words of footnotes!) into a well-polished and highly-thought-out probe into the many underlying facets of culture and practice that Will Wright drew upon, both knowingly and unknowingly, in the creation of SimCity.
I've been laid off and need a new job. Maybe game journalism, maybe something else in games, maybe not games at all. Entertaining all possibilities at this point, so please reach out if you think I might be a good fit for you.
So, my #embroidery project about The Sentinel video game is finally completed!
If you wanna know more about it and discover the 14 artworks, follow the link:
https://www.marine.st/en/pages/sentinel
"McKinsey is to the middle class what flesh-eating bacteria is to healthy tissue." - Ed Zitron
Only an introduction left to write now before I can compile a complete manuscript for my Age of Empires book. Image shows the current chapter listing; a couple of these may get split in two, but I had fun making sure every chapter title is in some way a reference to the game.
After four and a half months and almost 34,000 stitches, I’ve finished my cross-stitch 1-bit version of Hokusai’s Great Wave. It’s big, 25”x 17” (pen in the first photo for scale). Thanks to @hypertalking for letting me use his wonderful original 1-bit art. #NerdStitch
I'm working on the bit in my Age of Empires making of book where they were in deep crunch mode. It's incredible that they all survived and the game turned out so well, given quotes like this from my interviews.
![Screenshot of a portion of an interview transcript. Full text: [01:49:26] Mark Terrano I had some health damage to the point where my doctor said 'No game's worth dying over, Mark.' We were eating Boston Market and pizza and kind of not a great diet every night, working really long hours. We didn't know it at the time, but when we moved into the top suite of the building, the fans had actually been wired backwards. So the office was a lot of times 100 degrees. And I went out and bought a thermometer and said, if it goes over 101 I'm going home, I don't care.](https://social.mossrc.me/media/d6b884c3e810088b8c7d9bf59b6a4289c4abc6ccadf816557b9aa7eb57d9976e.blob "Screenshot of a portion of an interview transcript. Full text: [01:49:26] Mark Terrano I had some health damage to the point where my doctor said 'No game's worth dying over, Mark.' We were eating Boston Market and pizza and kind of not a great diet every night, working really long hours. We didn't know it at the time, but when we moved into the top suite of the building, the fans had actually been wired backwards. So the office was a lot of times 100 degrees. And I went out and bought a thermometer and said, if it goes over 101 I'm going home, I don't care.")
At the beginning of Age of Empires development, long before anybody had thought to give it that name, and long before they had any functioning prototype builds, they were considering a rather...comprehensive technology tree.
It got bigger before it got smaller, too. (The turning points that would focus their attention on a leaner experience were first getting a prototype working and then discovering Warcraft II multiplayer in late 1995.)
It got bigger before it got smaller, too. (The turning points that would focus their attention on a leaner experience were first getting a prototype working and then discovering Warcraft II multiplayer in late 1995.)
Heads up to anyone who's a motion graphics wiz or a skilled video editor *and* who likes horror games — we're hiring for those roles on TerrorBytes: The Evolution of Horror Gaming, the five-part documentary series I'm writing and directing for CREATORVC.
More info at https://bit.ly/3TuNGZf
More info at https://bit.ly/3TuNGZf
Pulled up this seminal piece of new games journalism for my TerrorBytes producer, as we were talking about the beauty and meaning of the human side of games and he'd never read *Bow, Nigger* before. Still holds up. https://web.archive.org/web/20140318091904/http://www.alwaysblack.com/blackbox/bownigger.html
@damianogerli Indeed! I was thinking, "If I didn't write it, I'd totally buy it." So they're actually doing pretty well at identifying my interests.
I'm loving the look of this 4K remastered version (with physical collector's edition!) of Broken Sword, one of my all-time favourite games. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/revolution-software/broken-sword-reforged-collectors-edition
This sounds like a cool opportunity for autistic people in Australia who are interested in getting into journalism. https://mailchi.mp/a14e6bee755b/learn-about-journalism?e=0979a1edf5
Random bit of trivia: I interviewed one of the guys who was there from the Team SOHO days through to around 2005 or 2006 last year. He told me that the This Is Football series was such a reliable money maker it helped fund all their other super ambitious stuff. Their EyeToy and Singstar titles probably did the same after he left.
In light of the news Sony's shutting down London Studio, I went to their site to remind myself of its history, then immediately went, well, this is kinda tragic and poignant.
Got a few more interviews confirmed for my *TerrorBytes: The Evolution of Horror Gaming* docuseries in the past week — Adam Sessler, Alien Isolation's lead AI programmer Andy Bray, and industry veteran Pete Wanat (who was
a publisher-side producer on loads of licensed horror games).
If you'd like to support the project or learn more about our plans for the series, you can do so at https://terrorbytesdoc.com
a publisher-side producer on loads of licensed horror games).
If you'd like to support the project or learn more about our plans for the series, you can do so at https://terrorbytesdoc.com
New book arrival - The Flame Wars, an in-depth look at the 16-bit computer platform wars (Amiga vs Atari ST) in the UK and Europe, published by Microzeit.
Two year old watching a non-violent Tomb Raider fan level playthrough I found on YouTube:
"Lara should not stand on the table. We need to wash Lara's hands cuz Lara's hands are brown."
A few seconds later, "Lara is looking for the bathroom to wash her hands. There's the bathroom, Lara! Go! Dad, why is Lara not going to the bathroom to wash her hands."
"Lara should not stand on the table. We need to wash Lara's hands cuz Lara's hands are brown."
A few seconds later, "Lara is looking for the bathroom to wash her hands. There's the bathroom, Lara! Go! Dad, why is Lara not going to the bathroom to wash her hands."