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Richard Moss

@mossrc.bsky.social
1.3K followers 159 following 468 posts

Games + tech journalist/historian/documentarian Films: @terrorbytesdoc.bsky.social | FPSDOC Books: @scummdoc.bsky.social | A Tale of Two Halves | Shareware Heroes | The Secret History of Mac Gaming | Age of Empires Australian rich@mossrc.me

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Richard Moss @mossrc.bsky.social · 17h
In case you missed it; my new documentary project is now going to be a book instead.
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Design Room @designroom.site · 05/10/2026
Big new story! The best 8,000 words you'll read on Vib-Ribbon today.
designroom.site
Vib-Ribbon: An oral history
Almost 27 years later, we round up the team behind NanaOn-Sha's procedurally generated playground to look at the legacy of PlayStation's wireframe rabbit.
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Dexter Thomas @dexdigi.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
read through this a bit ago. TONS of stuff i didn't know. and more info on the stuff i thought i knew. worth the read!
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Passport to Adventure: The SCUMM Story @scummdoc.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Let's make it official: The SCUMM documentary is on pause (indefinitely), but I'm working on a book version of our concept. It'll be based on dozens of new interviews with the people behind the LucasArts and Humongous adventures you loved, plus in-depth research. New site: scummbook.com
SCUMM Book Announcement

A message from writer/director Richard Moss:

It was a point of pride in the SCUMM adventures--both by LucasArts and Humongous Entertainment--that there were no dead ends and your character could never die, and this adventure won't be any different. The Passport to Adventure documentary has entered an indefinite hiatus, but the SCUMM story will still be told.

I'm now working on a book based on our concept.I'll be taking over the @scummdoc social media feeds from here on out, and I've created a new website/mailing list at scummbook.com--where you can follow my progress and help shape my vision for the book.

Thank you from all of us at CREATORVC for your interest and support of this project: we hope to pick back up on a SCUMM documentary at some point in the future, but for now the best path forward is through this book--which I'll be publishing independently of CREATORVC.I hope you'll join me in celebrating these wonderful games, and the people who made them, as I work through this new adventure at scummbook.com.

I'll have more to share about my plans soon, but for now I'll note only that I'm excited about the potential for a book about SCUMM's history and I'm determined to put the changed circumstances to good use by attempting to interview as close to *everyone* who worked on the games as is possible.

- Richard Moss, author: Passport to Adventure: The SCUMM Story
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Richard Moss @mossrc.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
"The prisoner rebellion is already underway. A refusenik indie culture is returning, although it may look different from the bohemian micro-cultures of the past... And once this process starts, there’s no telling where it might end." www.honest-broker.com/p/the-most-d...
honest-broker.com
The Most Dangerous Thing in Culture Right Now is Beauty
A provocative article from the archive (updated and expanded)
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Richard Moss @mossrc.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
(My own inner standard on good enough remains as high as – if not rising even higher than – it ever was.)
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Richard Moss @mossrc.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
One of the biggest, most-depressing things I've learnt from the rise of genAI has been that the bar for "good enough" is apparently a lot lower than I thought.
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Richard Moss @mossrc.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
"We're not even the product anymore, which is why all these companies no longer give a solitary shit about whether their stuff is good or fun to use. We're the raw material that they mine." matduggan.com/you-know-gdpr-is-good…
matduggan.com
You Know GDPR Is Good Based on Who Hates It
FDR has always been one of my favorite presidents, second maybe to Lincoln. Both were men the establishment assumed were one of them until, to their horror, they governed like they weren't. Both could trash the opposition in one breath and take the moral high ground in the next.
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Richard Moss @mossrc.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
We had a mailing list specifically for the project, on scummdoc.com, which I can't take with me for legal reasons, so I've built a new site and we'll send an email out to said list in a few days to direct people to the new site to follow my progress on the book.
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Richard Moss @mossrc.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Nope. It was a new documentary in development at CREATORVC that I was leading, but we didn't get enough traction to be greenlit for production/crowdfunding, so I asked for (and got) the IP rights to do it as a book instead (or possibly first).
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Mark Boszko @swizzlevixen.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
scummbook.com Exciting! A book about the LucasArts SCUMM based games, forthcoming from @scummdoc.bsky.social and @mossrc.bsky.social
scummbook.com
Passport to Adventure: The SCUMM Story
A book about LucasArts and Humongous Entertainment adventure games, by Richard Moss
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Passport to Adventure: The SCUMM Story @scummdoc.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
I built a new website for the book project: scummbook.com Official announcement about the documentary going on hiatus will come next week, now that the paperwork's been signed. For GDPR reasons, I need a new mailing list (the new site), but we'll send a final update out on the SCUMMdoc list.
scummbook.com
Passport to Adventure: The SCUMM Story
A book about LucasArts and Humongous Entertainment adventure games, by Richard Moss
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Richard Moss @mossrc.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Fascinating essay about Brazilian footballing culture and how the nation found, then lost, its footballing identity — both times under the spectre of European influence. medium.com/the-polis/wh...
medium.com
What Killed Brazilian Football Is Killing Us
An autopsy that will affect us all
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Glenda Adams @gmatom.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
OMG. 29 years ago I put an Easter egg in Duke Nukem 3D Mac, that replaced two of the in-game posters with pictures of a couple plush animals I had. I never told anyone other than my wife about the code (DNGLENDA) and completely forgot I did this. 1/2
Two screen shots from Duke Nukem 3D showing a pixelated bunny and cow in the game.A brown plush rabbit and a black and white plush cow
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Boss Fight Books @bossfightbooks.com · 14/09/2026
The deluxe hardcover edition of AGE OF EMPIRES by @mossrc.bsky.social is now up for preorders from our own site. And the ebook edition is available RIGHT NOW. bossfightbooks.com/products/age...
bossfightbooks.com
Age of Empires (Deluxe Hardcover Edition) by Richard Moss (Preorder No
Based on interviews with 29 former Ensemble and Microsoft executives and staff, documentarian Richard Moss tells the story of how a scrappy team of first-time developers partnered with the biggest tech company in the world on a game that would test the brothers’ relationship like nothing before.
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Richard Moss @mossrc.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
I keep forgetting to mention that the remaining Shareware Heroes paperback copies are now being sold by Wilton Square Books, via all the usual sales channels, in a profit-share deal. There will be no reprint, although I may do an expanded edition in a couple years. The ebook is still on Payhip.
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Damiano Gerli @damiano.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
It is often forgotten, but the origins of Bethesda Softworks were rooted in the European homecomputer demoscene, as Julian LeFay, director of Terminator and Daggerfall, grew up with the Amiga in Denmark trying to copy what his demoscene "rival" Sodan was doing.
Julian LeFay in 1993
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Sensible Soccer @sensibleswos.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
30 years ago, I created my own football club on Sensible Soccer Luke United FC, with players such as my mum, dad, childhood teddy & David Beckham. I created match day programmes, mock interviews & organised transfers with friends. Childhood imagination is fascinating medium.com/@lukasroar/s...
medium.com
Sensible Soccer : For the Love of a Game
Growing up I always loved editing characters in video games, whether it be adding the cast of Friends to the warzone that was Worms 2, or…
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Design Room @designroom.site · 09/09/2026
We're open for freelance pitches! Have any ideas for oral histories, roundtables, Q&As, or other stories that feel in line with what we've published so far? Feel free to DM. Rates typically range from $250-$750.
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Boss Fight Books @bossfightbooks.com · 03/09/2026
The printers sent us our sample copy of the deluxe edition of AGE OF EMPIRES by @mossrc.bsky.social. I’m so happy with it.
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Richard Moss @mossrc.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
I once heard a great argument about how AI is made of people. This gets at a similar idea, but with a firm anti-AI stance. "I've come to believe that quality software is not about [the number of] features or how quickly it is built but rather how cared for it is by [the people] who work on it."
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Iain Mew @superchartisland.com · 31/08/2026
World Class Leader Board expanded on Access's impressive golf sim. I looked at it and their early examples of post-release expansion rollouts www.superchartisland.com/world-class-leader-board
AN edited screenshot of World Class Leader Board on Commodore 64.

World Class Leader Board
Access/US Gold
1987
Commodore 64
Gallup combined no 1
W E 25 July 1987  Title screen of World Class Leader Board for Commodore 64. A golf club behind a golf ball coloured to look like the Earth
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Bitmap Books @bitmapbooks.com · 30/08/2026
A Tale of Two Halves: The History Of Football Video Games ⚽️ Explores the evolution of football games across four decades, featuring 400 titles spanning 2D classics and cutting-edge 3D simulations. Score a copy: www.bitmapbooks.com/collections/... #bitmapbooks #booksky #football #soccer #gaming
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David L. Craddock - Author/Filmmaker @davidlcraddock.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
I’m thrilled to announce Knee-Deep in the’90s: The First Person Shooters 🔫 That Defined a Decade! 🎙️Based on new & archival interviews 💾Deep dives into 20+ games 📚Available in all formats 📆 Releases 12.10 (Doom’s anniversary!) 🧵1/4
Back (left) and front covers for Knee-Deep in the '90s. The back depicts the Icon of Sin from Doom 2. The front shows iconic characters from '90s FPS games such as Doomguy, Gordon Freeman, Duke Nukem, and others.
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Richard Moss @mossrc.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
This is such a bad faith and fallacious argument from Sony. It's perfectly intuitive to think that you are buying a (digital) copy of the binary data and that that copy should work for as long as you have the compatible hardware. (Text clipped from @stephentotilo.bsky.social's Game File newsletter.)
The gamers said in their June suit that Sony's disclosures have failed to meet California's standards.

In its August 21 filing, Sony says they are. It notes that the linked documents state that "you can use a product in the ways described in the license, but do not own the product" and "[t]he Software is licensed to you, not sold." (For context, which you can see for yourself by clicking the above links: Both lines appear hundreds of words into digital documents that are thousands of words long).

Beyond that, Sony argues that anyone who pays for a digital game inherently understands that they can't own it because, if they did, no one else could have a copy. This concept appears to draw a distinction between a digital copy of a game and a physical object that only one person can have at a time.
Here's how Sony's lawyers make that case:...
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Richard Moss @mossrc.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
My contribution to the design brief for the artist was that it needs to feature the priest in some way. They nailed it.
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Richard Moss @mossrc.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
My new book, almost here! I can't wait to see that cover in person.
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Richard Moss @mossrc.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
A couple of chaps in Sydney (one of whom worked on Good Game and Spawn Point) are trying to get a documentary series off the ground about Aussie games history, told by the people who were there, and they need your support. You can back the project on Kickstarter: www.kickstarter.com/projects/reg...
kickstarter.com
Region Locked: A Documentary Series on Aussie Video Games
Far from Silicon Valley, the Australian video game industry was forged by risk-takers, innovators and visionaries. This is their story.
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Design Room @designroom.site · 31/07/2026
Hi, we're a new video game oral histories site. Want to read the story of Shadow of the Colossus, as told by 11 people who worked on it? Or hear what Will Wright has to say about Spore in retrospect? Or see previously unreleased footage of Nintendo's Sound Fantasy? Check us out at designroom.site
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Richard Moss @mossrc.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
Brilliant game. We dedicated a thousand words and a two-page spread just to talking about its excellent Scenario mode, which dropped you into in-progress matches and had you trying to recreate (or change the outcome of) some of the greatest moments in international football history.
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Boss Fight Books @bossfightbooks.com · 25/06/2026
The goodreads page for AGE OF EMPIRES by @mossrc.bsky.social is up. To read?? www.goodreads.com/book/show/25...
goodreads.com
Age of Empires (Boss Fight Books, #41)
"Tony came in one day, out of the blue, and said to eve…
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Richard Moss @mossrc.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Final cover (front and back) for the paperback version of my latest book, coming out as soon as it's printed. The hardcover edition will have photos and dev materials. Both can be preordered via Kickstarter at www.kickstarter.com/projects/gab...
kickstarter.com
Age of Empires: How Ensemble Studios Made History
The creation & legacy of the 1997 real-time strategy game, based on interviews w/ 29 former Ensemble & Microsoft staff.
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Richard Moss @mossrc.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
I got more than halfway through reading that before I realised/remembered that the article's publication date and the Switch 2 launch were both a year ago.
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RetroDan @retrodan75.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
With the #WorldCup just started, what better time to dive back into this beauty from @bitmapbooks.com 😀⚽️
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Bitmap Books @bitmapbooks.com · 12/06/2026
World Cup fever has gripped Bitmap HQ 🏆⚽️ Check out our book - Tale of Two Halves: The History Of Football Video Games Featuring over 400 games! Who do you think will win the tournament? Score a copy: www.bitmapbooks.com/collections/... #bitmapbooks #worldcup #football #soccer #gaming #booksky
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re4mat @re4mat.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
A book so good I bought it twice!
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Alexander Had @alexanderhad1.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Sold-out for nearly a year, From Ants to Zombies: Six Decades of Video Game Horror is back in stock on June 17, along with several other excellent titles, including The Games that Weren't, I'm Too Young To Die & 50 Indie Games that Changed the World.
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PixelCrib @pixelcrib.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
Written by the award winning @mossrc.bsky.social & published by @bitmapbooks.com we are delighted to have several more copies of the Secret History of Mac Gaming available now! Check it out: buff.ly/zr4PWqi
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Richard Moss @mossrc.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
It would have made capturing footage a lot easier, for sure, but I'm happy I got to play the original version for that extra bit of authenticity.
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Richard Moss @mossrc.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
Yeah, I'm not sure who/how they've handled the port this time, but off the top of my head I'd have to go back to Close Combat for an in-house Mac port of a Microsoft game.
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Richard Moss @mossrc.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
Your memory on Halo is half right. MS acquired Bungie well before they could ship to Mac, and it was Xbox exclusive on release in 2001, but Mac and PC ports followed two years later. The Mac version was decent but the PC release got derided for poor optimisation/performance.
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Richard Moss @mossrc.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
Yes it did. Age of Empires II came out for Mac in 2001. The expansion was bundled in with the main game, too. (And Halo 1 finally landed on Mac in 2003.)
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Retro Tech Dreams @retrotechdreams.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
Mac OS 9 had themes too
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Richard Moss @mossrc.bsky.social · 30/05/2026
Likewise. I can't stand how bland and poorly thought-out modern OSs are. I miss the personality and intentionality of the 90s and early 2000s. I'm pretty happy with the KDE IRIX-style theme Irixium, but it's not a complete solution for me.
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Kimimi🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @kimimithegameeatingshemonster.com · 28/05/2026
~The writing is the point.~ It's a *process*, not a *product*. These are my words and they are precious and I will not have any machine speak for me.
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Richard Moss @mossrc.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
Someone was inspired by my Shareware Heroes book to archive their collection of mail-order 5.25" shareware floppies, circa 1990-94, most of which came from a catalogue called Reasonable Solutions. There's a great mix of stuff in here. archive.org/details/525d...
archive.org
1990-1994 Mail Order 5.25" shareware disk collection : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
Hello, welcome to my collection of 5.25” mail order floppy disks circa 1990-1994.  When we were using 386/486 PCs in the first half of the 90s, prior to the...
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G. Willow Wilson @gwillow.me · 26/05/2026
People don't long for "inconvenience." They long for permanence. And though streaming services may be convenient, people are waking up to the fact that we are paying rent-seeking middle men month after month for things we will never actually own.
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Brian Crecente @crecente.bsky.social · 24/05/2026
Cuba is out of oil. One of many ongoing, humanitarian crises. I’ve been keeping in touch with a Cuban game developer and it’s very grim. www.nbcnews.com/world/cuba/c...
nbcnews.com
From solar to charcoal, Cubans look for alternatives amid outages and fuel shortages
Some Cubans who’ve been able to buy solar panels say it’s a game changer, but most rely on other alternatives including charcoal, despite health concerns and the steep cost.
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Richard Moss @mossrc.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
The best feeling is when they bring it up again years later and say they shared it with their kids, who were touched to read about mum or dad in their element.
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Felipe Pepe @felipepepe.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
I've recently read Zen & the Art of the Macintosh, a 1986 book that mixes new age stuff with the sheer sense of wonder the author felt doing graphical design on a Macintosh... It's weird, but gorgeous! And also nostalgic... a tribute to computers, from a time before we yearned for a Butlerian Jihad
Cover of the book Zen & the Art of the Macintosh : Discoveries on the Path to Computer Enlightenment, by Michael Green.
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