This excellent piece from @superchartisland.com is the most complete chronicle I've seen of the travesty that was World Cup Carnival and its bizarre journey to the top of the UK sales charts. superchartisland.com/world-cup-ca...

Help me make a dream project: a documentary film (on Blu-ray) about the SCUMM engine and the incredibly-imaginative, brilliant LucasArts games that redefined the adventure genre. It'll feature designers Ron Gilbert and David Fox, artist Mark Ferrari, and many many more, but only with your help.

But I still do need your help to get this thing made. Help me show there's a commercially viable audience for a fan-funded SCUMM documentary by signing up at scummdoc.com.

I'll be asking him lots of behind-the-scenes questions as well as getting him to really dig into and reflect upon the evolution of his design philosophies during/since the SCUMM years, and weaving all of it into the story of the SCUMM engine and games.

Besides creating the initial SCUMM engine and scripting tool, Ron also led development on Maniac Mansion and the first two Monkey Islands, as well as the first few Humongous junior adventures, and he helped set the irreverent, satirical, lighthearted tone pervasive through all SCUMM adventures.

Continuing our spotlights on recent cast announcements for the documentary, this one needs no introduction but I'll give it anyway: he's the man who made SCUMM, the designer most responsible for killing death in adventure games, and the pun-master of Monkey Island, Ron Gilbert.

SCUMM! SCUMM! SCUMM! SCUMM! (I'm getting enthused here, not calling anyone scum)

Harder pounding may shorten your labor, but watch out for a witch's curse. LOOM isn't remembered for its comedy, but it's blissfully bursting with innuendo.

I had the biggest grin when I opened my email and saw the latest newsletter from @gamingretro.bsky.social with subject line "SCUMM is getting a movie!"

I learnt when I was researching my forthcoming Age of Empires book that the game was huge in Germany. One of the bestsellers for a couple of years. Besides German-only strategy guides, there were also a bunch of CD-ROM map and scenario packs sold by German companies.

I've been playing the Humongous junior adventures with my four year old. They're so good. Funny, charming, beautifully animated, and with great lead characters that are excellent role models for kids. Tami and co did an incredible job on them, and I hope to shine a light on that in the documentary.

Some of you will have already heard, but I'm delighted to share that @davidbfox.com will be in our cast of interviewees for the SCUMM documentary. He was there right at the beginning of SCUMM and helped out on all the early LucasArts adventures, as well as leading the design of Zak McKracken.

A spin thru Paper Chrono Trigger Deconstruction of Time

A short message from me about the documentary, why I want to make it, and how you can help it get made.

"Passport to Adventure: The Scumm Story" is an upcoming documentary charting the history of LucasArt's SCUMM engine in classic adventure games like Monkey Island. I spoke to filmmaker @mossrc.bsky.social to find out who's involved & what it'll look like! youtu.be/eJYQpimkVxY @scummdoc.bsky.social

My book *Shareware Heroes: The renegades who redefined gaming at the dawn of the internet* is available to buy again. Read about the rise of indie game publishing and digital distribution alongside stories of indie devs big and small making their way years before Steam existed. payhip.com/b/hbTL5

⚽️ Special offer ⚽️ We are offering £5.00 off the Collector’s Edition of our book - A Tale of Two Halves: The History Of Football Video Games (Captain’s Edition): www.bitmapbooks.com/collections/... #bitmapbooks #bookstagram #gaming #football #soccer @mossrc.bsky.social

just grabbed it, did a ctrl+f and saw 'jill of the jungle' multiple times. hell yeah. reading later, and i gotta play that game again

My book *Shareware Heroes: The renegades who redefined gaming at the dawn of the internet* is available to buy again. Read about the rise of indie game publishing and digital distribution alongside stories of indie devs big and small making their way years before Steam existed. payhip.com/b/hbTL5

I still get the giggles every time I see or play the Mad Marty dialogue from Secret of Monkey Island.

Had a great chat with @mossrc.bsky.social about his documentary which will chart the history of LucasArts' game engine SCUMM, behind games like Monkey Island. The interview will be out next week but in the meantime he needs people to show they want it! Sign up www.scummdoc.com @scummdoc.bsky.social

They've got 10 other figurines currently listed as well, all based on LucasArts adventure characters. The tentacles from Maniac Mansion/DOTT look great too.

Years before they Hit the Road, Sam & Max made their on-screen debut as wooden totems in Dr Jones's office in the first Indy adventure game. Their creator Steve Purcell worked as a background artist and animator (and also the cover artist) on the game.

Rock your DOTT fandom with a custom WinAmp skin, like all the cool kids are doing.

We'll be doing a press/media push starting mid-next week to raise awareness and bolster interest in the project, and announcing a few names (including a big one) who've agreed to be in the documentary as part of that. Ping me if you want to be on our press list.

Back when Apple had an apparel catalog (1986)

The team is back to bring the experience to Macintosh, PC and Linux users once again with a remastering of "Return to Dark Castle"! Bring a dark castle back into the light! youtu.be/WCZNzVtsJy0 store.steampowered.com/app/4054940/... (Please consider sharing this post? Thanks!)

a cornerstone of my personal library; recommended reading from @mossrc.bsky.social 👍

And what better way to remember the computer that changed everything than by buying my book about the often-neglected, surprisingly-influential world of Mac games in the 1980s and 90s: www.bitmapbooks.com/products/the...

Interesting to see how this one turns out - a documentary film "about the SCUMM engine, all the SCUMM games (including the Humongous titles, but obviously focusing more on LucasArts), and SCUMM's cultural influence/legacy". Sign up here to get more info! www.scummdoc.com @scummdoc.bsky.social

I did most of the interviewing for this piece over IRC, if memory serves.

"Don’t be surprised if years from now you stumble upon an ancient press release that reads, 'My name is Bobby Kotick, King of Kings: Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!' And you find yourself asking, 'Who the hell was Bobby Kotick?'"

Before I built worlds in 3D, I painted them. And I've been spending time back at the canvas lately. It feels vital. No polygons, no prompts, just texture and raw color. I've put a collection of these new (and some older) pieces on my site.:-) www.robynmiller.net

There's an account I kove on Mastodon called LucasArts Places that just posts background art from LucasArts adventure games. Seeing the scenes without characters or UI really underscores the immense talent of the artists who worked on the games. A few examples:

I was interviewed (although only one or two quotes were used) for this article in Spanish newspaper El Pais about the enduring popularity of Age of Empires and particularly Age of Empires II. elpais.com/icon/2026-01...

FUCK IT, MISSING DOS WEDNESDAY Trying to locate an Australian DOS game from ≈ 1988, 𝐋𝐞𝐱, 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐅𝐮𝐧 𝟏. The game was part of a series of four Edutainment games by Reckon Software/John Grimley. Here's the box cover art, a text ad, and screenshots of 2 other games in the series! Help a gal out!?

Back in 1986 you could already find an example of a man telling a woman to kill herself over a game review, confidently using his full name. And the magazine would print it with a cute little comment suggesting it was all a good laugh. spectrumcomputing.co.uk/page.php?iss...

Peter Cartwright, the creator of beloved classic Mac game Escape Velocity: Override, has died. He'd been working for years on a remaster called Cosmic Frontier with help from a fellow called Tom Hancocks, who vows to push through and finish the game in his memory. www.kickstarter.com/projects/cos...

Jon Ritman was amazed by Knight Lore, and set out to make his own isometric adventure. Ocean got him the Batman licence to use. With Bernie Drummond's art and some forward-thinking gameplay ideas, he would do much more than just make The Dark Knight Lore. New post on Batman (and Head Over Heels):

Victor wanted us to change in-game Lara to appeal more to a Japanese audience. Huge eyes/head etc. They faxed through examples really late in dev. Toby Gard really didn't want to alter Lara. As a compromise all that was changed was the manuals & guide. Not sure who did that render or illustrations.

More pages. The tone and humour throughout the design doc is a perfect match for the game.

Our writer/director @mossrc.bsky.social's copy of On Stranger Tides, the novel that inspired The Secret of Monkey Island. Reading this as a fan of the game is a constant barrage of "oh, I see what you did there" flashbacks to Monkey Island plot moments.

“Why can’t you just use the original MacPaint in Mini vMac Michael?” Look I need a bigger canvas. I just need a couple extra things. Let me have my couple of extra things bsky.app/profile/mier...

On the eve of their television debut in 1997, Sam and Max adorned the cover of Animation World Magazine. Inside, the magazine likened the TV adaptation's humor to Pinky and the Brain, and they quoted Steve Purcell saying "My ideal licensing moment would be a Pez dispenser."

I love that the fourth astronaut wasn't just removed from the painting; they got turned into a rock.

I'm hoping to get some good insights and stories about the long evolution and many iterations of The Dig for the documentary. It'll be fascinating to hear about the different interpretations each version had of / each designer brought to the main concept.

*LMA Manager 2006* for PS2/Xbox expected you to call a pay-per-minute hotline to get "bonus codes" that were tied to your "unique ID." The hotline is gone, so are the cheats? No - I derived the RSA key that was used to generate them from the game data! 32bits.substack.com/p/under-the-...

I am so proud to help announce a new video game website! In the year 2026! @midimyers.com and @zoehhannah.com join Post Games to talk about mothership.blog. Plus, they share a history of women in games media! You'll love this one! And so will your friends!

“The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” “And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed-if all records told the same tale-then the lie passed into history and became truth” -1984

Evaporative cooling is such a dumb technology for a place like Melbourne. I can't understand how it ever became standard. Extreme heat? It blows hot, wet air through your house. Bushfires around the state? Now the air's smokey too. And it's like this *days* out of every year.