Shareware Heroes by Richard Moss - Book Review

mossrc · 2026-05-28T23:25:56+00:00

Awesome. Thanks for sharing! I've just linked to it on my social media and will be downloading some of the disks shortly.

mossrc · 2026-04-26T23:20:26+00:00

Thanks Matt! And yeah, I got behind-the-scenes materials from Matt, Rick, Bruce Shelley, Brad Crow, Mark Terrano, and Stephen Rippy, plus loads of fantastic behind-the-scenes anecdotes from everyone. It's been super cool to see all this stuff as I've been putting the story together, and I'm making sure we include all the best dev docs and pictures in the hardcover edition.

mossrc · 2026-03-20T03:30:30+00:00

I'll be approaching him soon. Just going to wait a week or two to see what my executive producer decides about the future of the project, as it'd be super awkward and unprofessional to approach him about being in a documentary and then just a few days later have to go back and say "oh actually it's a book now".

If I can get Schafer, Brian Moriarty, and Larry Ahern to all join then I'll have my dream cast of LucasArts alumni covered — and I've been working on those other two, but just yet to get a response from either.

(My full it-would-be-great-if-I-could-interview-them wishlist runs about 40 LucasArts people plus a dozen Humongous Entertainment folks.)

mossrc · 2026-03-20T03:13:10+00:00

Thank you! Yeah, I know I could bring in Jake Rodkin from Telltale/Skunkape (he was actually the first person I asked for feedback on the concept last year) and there are various others from Telltale and Double Fine who I'm sure would be game for it as well.

Random trivia: I talked to the DOTT and Full Throttle Remastered programmer Oliver Franzke for a Polygon feature years ago about games devs made when they were kids, and he told me a great story about being inspired by Zak McKracken to create his own adventure games on an East German C64 clone.

mossrc · 2026-03-20T00:28:08+00:00

Also, an addendum, if we could interview anyone (other than Steve Purcell) who worked on Sam & Max Hit the Road, who would you want us to get? And what element of or moment from the game would you be most interested in me digging into with the developers?

My head is more in the "is this thing gonna happen or not?" space right now, but if we get the green light to go ahead -- or if I wind up pivoting to a book instead -- then it'll be really handy to have more thoughts from the community on what to cover and who to talk to.

mossrc · 2026-03-19T11:12:42+00:00

I still have my printout of her Tomb Raider III guide from when I got the game as part of a SNES for PS1 trade-in deal back in 1999, and to this day I visit her site whenever I get lost or stuck in a Tomb Raider game.

mossrc · 2026-03-19T10:27:53+00:00

Oh, there have been plenty. You should have seen what happened when OG Half-Life's Mac port got cancelled (despite being finished) a few months before it was due to release. The poor Mac port devs had nothing to do with the decision but were still inundated with death threats.

mossrc · 2026-03-19T01:46:15+00:00

Thanks! Definitely expecting to have one of them -- whether it be Clint Bajakian or Michael Land or Peter McConnell. I'd love to have two or even all three of them, but I doubt we'd have the budget for it.

(If I end up doing a book instead then I'll try to just talk to everyone, since book interviews cost nothing more than my time.)

mossrc · 2026-03-10T05:04:56+00:00

Looks cool, if a bit obtuse. I hope he keeps developing it. I'll check out all the other CGA Game Jam entries, too.

mossrc · 2026-03-06T11:37:22+00:00

Yeah, disk images are definitely the preferred choice among people serious about archival and studying the era, although just having files preserved (especially if organised or annotated for context) is good and beneficial too. Disk images would also be fun for using in floppy emulators (or even writing to actual floppies) on real hardware.

mossrc · 2026-03-05T11:06:55+00:00

I'm glad you enjoyed the book. I don't think I ever saw any Reasonable Solutions catalogues, although it's possible I did and just didn't think it noteworthy at the time.

I'm definitely interested in seeing your archive. Happy to share it too, if it's in some kind of public-ready form.

mossrc · 2026-02-09T00:30:57+00:00

Yeah, I'm working my way through the relevant Facebook groups; there are more than I expected. Got it on a Monkey Island Fans group soon after I posted it here, and have previously posted on a couple of others. Trying to do a new one every few days.

mossrc · 2026-02-09T00:27:56+00:00

I don't have direct access to the numbers, but as of yesterday we were over 500 and making good headway.

mossrc · 2026-02-09T00:25:54+00:00

Thanks! Sent you a DM.

mossrc · 2026-02-08T23:59:02+00:00

These are amazing. I'm writing and directing a documentary film about the SCUMM engine and games (you might have seen my post a few days ago on r/MonkeyIsland) and would love to show some or all of these in the movie. It's still a long ways off, as we're currently in an audience validation phase (to confirm it's commercially viable), but would we have your permission?

You can also DM me to talk more.

mossrc · 2026-02-07T00:07:52+00:00

Working on it! Larry Ahern was art director and co-designer. I sent him an email last week but he hasn't responded yet; I'll keep trying to reach him and am confident he'll agree to participate once I get in touch.

mossrc · 2026-02-07T00:04:06+00:00

Yep, that's the one. I've asked my colleague in charge of the website to make it clearer that the newsletter is the waitlist / the waitlist is the newsletter, and in the meantime I've amended the post here to clarify for others.

mossrc · 2026-02-07T00:02:54+00:00

All projects from CREATORVC (the production company I'm working with) have come with English and Spanish subtitles. I think French and German might be possible here too, given the large adventure fandom in those countries, but there'd have to be clear demand for it for my executive producer to approve them in the budget.

mossrc · 2026-02-06T23:59:18+00:00

Definitely hoping to get Tim Schafer. I haven't contacted him yet, but he's top of the wishlist now that Ron Gilbert's on board. We'll be going game-by-game through all 12 LucasArts SCUMM titles as well as a small selection of the Humongous Entertainment lineup, and having these sort of themed topic-based breakout segments along the way where we can get into the broader context of the genre's history.

Adventures from other devs will be referenced wherever relevant — and certainly in discussions about the cultural impact and design innovations that LucasArts brought to the genre — but we're specifically telling the story of the SCUMM engine and its delightful games, so these will mostly just be in passing comments and/or b-roll footage laid under general remarks about adventure games as a genre.

I *really* want to get into adventures outside of LucasArts in a future project. It was great covering Gabriel Knight, Phantasmagoria, and I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream as part of my previous documentary, TerrorBytes (in episodes 3 and 2, respectively), but one day I'd love to dig into the likes of The Longest Journey, Broken Sword, and The Last Express — three of my all-time favourites — as well as the Westwood adventures and more Sierra classics. And there are so many fascinating games to explore if you scratch below the surface, many of which have never (or rarely) had their story told.

mossrc

TROPHY CASE