» EverQuest The Digital Antiquarian

» The Last Adventures of Legend The Digital Antiquarian

The early days were the best. We had successes, we had fun, and we had a good business model. As the industry changed, everything became more complicated and harder.

» Railroad Tycoon II The Digital Antiquarian

Like a lot of boys, I grew up loving trains. And like a lot of men, I retain my fascination for them today.

The Man from the Future: Why Johnny Can't Stop Abstracting

I have come to suspect that to most people thinking is painful. Some of us are addicted to thinking. Some of us find it a necessity. Johnny ...

The Man from the Future: Why Johnny Can't Stop Abstracting

I have come to suspect that to most people thinking is painful. Some of us are addicted to thinking. Some of us find it a necessity. Johnny ...

» Starcraft (A History in Two Acts) The Digital Antiquarian

Great success brings with it great expectations. And sometimes it brings an identity crisis as well.

» Riven The Digital Antiquarian

Sometimes success smacks you right in the face. More often, it sneaks up on you from behind.

» Choose Your Own Adventure The Digital Antiquarian

The first and most iconic of all the Choose Your Own Adventure books involved spelunking, just as did the first and most iconic of all computer-based adventure games.

» The Life and Times of Maxis, Part 1: SimEverything The Digital Antiquarian

I’m still to this day just blown away by continental drift and things like that, stuff that most people think sounds pretty boring.

The Anti-Populism of “Digger”

You don’t have to like Iñárritu’s new film to appreciate its refusal to confuse the punishment of villains with the repair of the world.

WE ALL WE GOT

Welcome to We All We Got: A Digital Green Book for the Culture—a guide for navigating the ever-growing wave of digital manipulation aimed at dividing, deceiving, and discouraging Black communities.

» The Journeyman Project The Digital Antiquarian

I find that it’s oddly difficult for me to tell the story of Presto Studios, the maker of the Journeyman Project series of cult-classic adventure games, without drawing a lot of parallels and comparisons to Cyan, Inc., the maker of the multi-million-selling mega-hit Myst. This is not only because Presto won the lottery after making their last Journeyman Project game, when Cyan awarded them a contract to make a single-player Myst III while they themselves pursued an online multi-player adventure game that was to be called Uru. It’s also down to other similarities, the same ones that must have made that choice of Presto as a Myst custodian seem like such an obvious one to Cyan.

East Don Trail

I decided to check out the East Don Trail today. Rob Zaichkowski has already written about it extensively, so I wanted to check it out for myself. Starting at the entrance to the new trail which is…

» The Game of Everything, Part 2: Playing Civilization The Digital Antiquarian

As a game designer, you have ultimate power. And with this ultimate power comes very little responsibility.

Kyle Booten

Noöhacking1 is the title of my current research program. I use this term for ways that artists and everyday digital media users build and repurpose algorithmic tools in order to take care of their own minds/spirits, an especially challenging and important task amidst a digital milieu that seems designed to make us alienated, unintelligent, and miserable.

» The Last Express The Digital Antiquarian

A moving train at night is an incredible place to hear stories. Like a campfire.