See also my resources on interactive fiction (text adventure games), programming in Inform 7, making games in Scratch, and coding hypertext stories in Twine.
We didn’t start the flame war. Scandalous satirical pamphlets were once cranked out by writers and sold at train stations, like so many primordial blog posts. Political cartoons have a long and vicious history. Incivility is our legacy, not our invention. It is part, but only part, of who we are. And have always been.…
Interesting news for historians of digital culture. I had no direct knowledge of this game. I want to learn more about it. Wander was probably the first computer game that is recognisable as what came to be known as a “text adventure” (or “interactive fiction“) – pre-dating even ADVENT (a.k.a. Colossal Cave) by Crowther and Woods! But Wander was more than…
Great story of nerdiness and discovery and friendship, focusing on the author’s adult memories of his love for a particular text adventure game at a crucial phase of his youth. I’ve collected several such stories in “Interactive Fiction Reflection and Nostalgia.” He knew the game, practically had it memorized. He would be the computer. I…
However, running parallel to the evolution of these [graphic] games was a family of explicitly, un- ashamedly narrative titles. Colossal Cave Adventure (Crowther & Woods, 1977), Zork I (1980), and Adventureland (Andventure International, 1978) have equal importance in the evolution of video games, but rarely receive the same kind of general, mainstream popular cultural appreciation…
Are screenshorts slowly killing blogging as we know it? For some things, I think so, because it’s an easier and more authentic way to reach your fans, friends or followers directly on social media than it is to spend time setting up a blog and then sharing out the link. Sharing text as an image…
This author did a great job articulating the unease I felt when I learned about Apple’s racially diverse emoji. I don’t like it when interfaces translate my textual emoticons ;-) into graphic symbols. Now I feel like I’ll have to think deliberately about whatever color the autocorrect chooses for those graphics. Because I’m black, should I…
A hypertext choose-your-own adventure narrative set at a board meeting at a game development company. You are the lead writer on a game that is going straight to hell. And guess who has to fix it? I clicked through out of curiosity and kept clicking. Very enjoyable.The Writer Will Do Something by Matthew S. Burns.…
This is nice, but what I really want to see is an Elizabethan-style revenge play featuring Clippy. December 9, 1968… in an underground convention center in the heart of San Francisco, Doug Engelbart gave The Mother Of All Demos, introducing the world to an astonishing slew of technologies including word processing, video conferencing, windows, links,…
But, in addition to symbolizing despair, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ can be wielded as a Zen-like tool to accept the chaos of universe. Meditate on its wide eyes and upturned mouth; that’s not the expression of a quitter, it’s the carefree face of #blessed, radical openness. —The Awl. Similar:In January 2000, I was blogging about dancing paperclips, the…
The Daily Dot proceeded to shrug the GIF off, chalking it up as an unconventional “no comment.” But the YouTube rep then got back in touch a day later, demanding they include it in their story. No it’s not a joke, he said — “the GIF really is our official response, it technically wasn’t a decline…
Scott Adams (creator of “Adventureland,” the first commercial home computer game) just posted this on his Facebook page: Hey Scott, Something you may not be aware of is the seminal role you played in the genesis of Max Headroom. There was a TRS80 at my place of work. When folks went home a few of…
Similar:The Mystery of Charles Dickens by Joyce Carol OatesDickens is so brilliant a stylist, his v…AestheticsContext for Hayles, My Mother was a Computer (Ch 3 & 4)My undergraduates are working their way …AcademiaMother 3: My Mom, and MeThoughtful, powerful, personal analysis …AestheticsHow iPhone Apps Steal Your Contact Data and Why You Can't Stop ItNothing…
Today’s viewers don’t differentiate between "traditional" and "digital." Today’s viewers watch what they want, when they want. The average consumer is not thinking about whether it’s scripted or unscripted, user-generated or premium. They care that it’s funny, interesting, gripping or cool. Brands need to recognize the power of those four adjectives, and take risks alongside…
The study summarized in Time Magazine looked at adults in a fast-food restaurant, who are using their smartphones while in a group with two or more children. One child reached over in an attempt to lift his mother’s face while she looked down at a tablet, but to no avail. Another mother kicked her child…
I would give this King’s Quest reboot a try, but not until summer, when grades are submitted and conference papers are given and such. King’s Quest has me excited for the future of adventure games. Until I sat down for a demo of The Odd Gentlemen’s modern take on the 30-year-old series, I didn’t know I…
Jonathon Shariat. Similar:MoonBot is back. This time he fights a new adversary. #Blender3D physics practice.I submitted midterm grades at about 11 l…AestheticsRare find discovered amid town's Old West kitschInstead of dispensing a card like Zoltar…AestheticsMy second greenscreen test.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9d-LPwKQ…CybercultureCaptain Gearheart inspects progress on his #neovictorian #steampunk æther cruiser. Now fea…https://youtu.be/VXz7kspFimM AestheticsPaper too short? Here are actual…
I was watching classic Star Trek with my son a few days ago when I came across this scene, from Assignment Earth, which is set on Earth during the 1960s (when the original show aired). This episode featured the adventures of a human raised by apparently benevolent aliens who want to stop Earth from destroying…
I wish there were a secret day between Friday and Sunday, which you could tap into at will, whether to lengthen the work week and get one more project out of the way, or to lengthen the weekend and give you more time to recover. Anyway, Boing Boing’s review of “80 Days” is one of…
Three weeks ago, New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet informed staff that the paper would no longer take enterprise pitches for Page 1 of the print edition. Instead, editors from the various news desks would pitch their best enterprise pieces for digital slots on what will be called “Dean’s List.” Those stories’ publication in…
I’m building a new site for a non-profit and will probably be moving the student newspaper to a new template, so this is the time to think of such things. Similar:Overheard at Quora: "Why after all these years is Moodle still so ugly?"Moodle is a free course-management tool …AcademiaScrape, Scrape, Spam Blog, Have You Scraped…