The Secret History of Mac Gaming

[ClockWise]

Hey, my copy of Richard Moss's "The Secret History of Mac Gaming" just arrived in the mail!

The book is a loving ode to all those wonderful but little-known games from the launch of the Macintosh 'till the late 1990s. Makes me want to dive back into all of my System 6 favorites, or at least add a few more to the collection on this site.

I'll try to write a bit more once I've read the whole thing. Meanwhile, copies of the trade edition are available on Amazon and more information is on the official site:

https://secrethistoryofmacgaming.com/

[adespoton]

Makes me happy to have known Mossy when he was still just a spore :D This book really is a great snapshot of a special history, and worth the read.

[mossy_11]

Makes me happy to have known Mossy when he was still just a spore :D This book really is a great snapshot of a special history, and worth the read.

Heh, I have fond memories of the late-90s/early-2000s heyday of emulation on the Mac, and of excitedly discovering emulation.net and Mac.EmuScene/MacScene. (Shame I couldn't squeeze in more than a couple of paragraphs in reference to the emulation scene.)

It all helped get me here. I'm not sure if I would have even thought to write a history of Mac gaming if not for the 2010 MacScene reboot leading to me taking over the blog there.

[adespoton]

By the way, I'm still working on my video history of the Mac OS -- if you want any games demoed in a specific version of the OS (period appropriate) let me know

[ClockWise]

Excerpt from the first chapter over here:

https://tankmagazine.com/tank/2018/05/mac-gaming/

(Note: Odd website design choices)

[ClockWise]

A large excerpt (a whole chapter, I think) focusing on Dark Castle is available on Gamasutra:

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/315 ... Gaming.php

[adespoton]

Dark Castle was my introduction to what could be done with audio and video integration on a Mac. I bought Beyond Dark Castle as soon as it came out -- the first computer game I bought with my own money. It was worth it -- it was also the first computer game I ever completed. Because of this, all the visual and sound effects of DC and BDC are forever etched in my brain. The only game that came as close drawing me in was Apache Strike.

[mossy_11]

I think I'll be doing a livestream sometime soon with Charlie Jackson and Eric Zocher in which we talk about Dark Castle and the Silicon Beach days. It was going to be last month, but I got sidetracked with other stuff.

There are also excerpts on Ars Technica (the Pippin chapter): https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/03/ ... as-forgot/

And on GamesBeat/VentureBeat (on SimCity, SimTower, and the original Mac demo of Seaman): https://venturebeat.com/2018/06/03/the- ... to-seaman/

[adespoton]

Have you ever had a chance to talk with Bill Appleton? He was the other Silicon Beach guy who got my attention in the 80's.