First review of my new book comes from no other than the vaunted Edge magazine, which calls it a “breezy yet encyclopaedic history of football games”.

If you are a journo, podcaster, YouTuber, blogger, or streamer who would like to talk to me about my new Bitmap-published book A Tale of Two Halves: The History of Football Video Games, out later this month, hit me up. Email is rich@mossrc.me

@gentarkin That’s a very visual and graphic explanation. I don’t know if I can be bothered to open it up to find out, given that I’d been thinking of replacing it anyway.

My decade-old secondary desktop computer monitor faded to black and then after a power cycle made an ear-shattering white noise scream. After another power cycle it crackled for a while and then was back to normal.

Presumably I’m meant to conclude it’s possessed…or dying. I’m pretty amazed that it lasted this long, given I bought around 2012 as some cheap crappy thing with a dodgy power adapter from Kogan (Aussie Amazon-alike online retailer known for selling unreliable Chinese rebrands).

Good to see some research looking at attitudes to and preferences for COVID mitigation among people with existing health conditions, which is nearly half the population in Australia. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/hex.70025

Having said that, though, I wonder if either the study is non-representative or a large percentage of people with comorbidities avoid leaving the house. Why? Because I’m often the only person wearing a mask when I’m out in public, no matter the venue. (And for me the risk of COVID exposure is less a concern than asthma and allergy triggers.)

@rk @vga256 It does, yes, although the Fish Disks get more attention in the book than Aminet.

Here’s an infographic I found at the time, to help with my presentation.

This news that Flappy Bird is coming back reminds me of a bit of personal trivia: I did a four-week intensive data journalism course in early 2014 during my Masters and for one of the assignments I examined the numbers behind the Flappy Bird phenomenon around the world. It was immensely popular, very very suddenly.
https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/12/24242791/flappy-bird-relaunch-2025-new-game-modes

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.