I just realised that the difference between the upper threshold of “compact” and the lower bounds of “big” in smartphone marketing these days is about half an inch in screen size.

@matt_diamond Thank you! The shoelaces were the publisher's idea — it's been a labour of love for them, too.

Between us we've put so many fun Easter eggs and loving touches in there, so I hope it finds a big audience but even if it doesn't I'll at least be able to say I had a blast making it.

Got my author copy of the special “Captain’s Edition” of my new book, A Tale of Two Halves: The History of Football Video Games. Available to buy in October from https://www.bitmapbooks.com/collections/all-books/products/a-tale-of-two-halves-captains-edition

(There's also a cheaper regular edition coming out in October: https://www.bitmapbooks.com/products/a-tale-of-two-halves)

@darkcisum Probably I could, but it gets complicated pretty quickly and most sales come from the US and UK (and Australia, since that’s where I live) regardless. I’m not sure it’s worth the trouble right now.

@darkcisum That’s all under the control of my publisher, Unbound – at least for now. I’m not aware of them having any plans or deals for wider distribution, so your options are import a physical copy, buy the ebook (Unbound offer direct purchase if it’s not listed in your preferred ebook store), or use a VPN to get the audiobook.

(Eventually I’ll get full ownership/publishing rights, as I did on Secret History of Mac Gaming, and then it’ll be my call, but that could potentially be years away, depending on sales.)

Let’s unpack why fans are angry this idea keeps coming up in interviews about how Tomb Raider is evolving:

1) 7 out of 11 mainline TR games had a female writer on staff, including the first four. It’s sexist to insinuate men can’t write soft characters, in any case.
2) The classic TR games were made at a time when female empowerment meant “girl power”: strength, resilience, tenacity, self-assurance, all while looking great (see Buffy, Xena, Spice Girls, Dana Scully, etc). Different era, different vibe, but that never gets acknowledged in these interviews.
3) Lara always showed compassion and empathy when she came across someone innocent/hurt (which wasn’t often), and she had a vulnerable side in TR4, so it’s not fair to just blanket statement her as “cold”.
4) Lara may cry and hug and show vulnerability and do other “feminine” things now, but she’s still a mass murderer. Why hasn’t that aspect of her character been revised, too?

That stuff notwithstanding, the full interview makes for an interesting read: https://www.ign.com/articles/tomb-raider-the-legend-of-lara-croft-showrunner-tasha-huo-says-fandom-has-led-the-way

@retrohistories @masukomi That's like the whole purpose of the final chapter of my book Shareware Heroes. It's complicated, but in essence shareware faded away as digital distribution and direct online sales got easier — a slow process that began in the late 1990s, accelerated in the early 2000s, and finished around the time of the iPhone's launch.

And it never really _died_; rather, the term just sort of stopped getting used. Where before we had "shareware software" and "shareware games" we instead had things sold in much the same form as "apps" (with in-app purchases and/or demo/lite versions) and "indie games".

Somewhere along the way the term became irrelevant because it became the default way to sell and distribute software and games.

The interview audio cleanup, mixing/mastering, and automated transcription parts of making TerrorBytes are rather taxing on my ASUS Vivobook laptop. (I actually managed to crash the whole system a few times early on — tried to process too many files simultaneously.)

It’s here! @Gmatom sent me this beautiful cross-stitch rendition she made of the Secret History of Mac Gaming cover. Best gift I’ve had in years.

Been wanting to try this one for years; it’s meant to be one of the funniest adventure games not made by LucasArts, and is based on a TV show called Space Goofs (which I’ve not seen).

I’m delighted to finally reveal that my next book is A Tale of Two Halves: The History of Football Video Games, a massive exploration and analysis of football games in all their many forms from 1980-2010.

Coming soon from ⁦‪Bitmap Books‬⁩. More info: https://www.bitmapbooks.com/collections/all-books/products/a-tale-of-two-halves

@vga256 I remember I saw you mention that one and thought "ooh, I should look at that when I get my Pocket 386 set up." It seems to have a lot of depth to it.

@vga256 Happy reading! Hope you enjoy it. I've been meaning to get a few blog posts together on the book's website going into complementary materials and highlighting themes that weren't much explored (like there being only a handful of women in shareware or the wide world of shareware gamedev tools).

@hipsterdoofus Milanote. It's a sort of digital whiteboard-ish thing that I find really good for visual and non-linear editing and planning. I use it for the first couple of drafts of all my documentary scripts.

It's a big milestone for my/CREATORVC's TerrorBytes documentary series this month as we transition into post-production, starting with a segment on the development and underrated brilliance of super-hammy FMV horror game Night Trap. Here's a quick snap of my WIP script.