Richard Moss
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mossrc.bsky.social
Richard Moss
@mossrc.bsky.social
1K followers 130 following 340 posts
Writer/Director: *TerrorBytes: The Evolution of Horror Gaming*

Author: *A Tale of Two Halves*, *Shareware Heroes*, *The Secret History of Mac Gaming*, a book on Age of Empires 1 dev (TBA)

Co-Writer/producer: FPSDOC

Australian

rich@mossrc.me
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mossrc.bsky.social
Richard Moss @mossrc.bsky.social · Jul 15
The feature-length first episode of @terrorbytesdoc.bsky.social is now free to watch on YouTube. Dozens of interviews digging into the history and evolution of horror in games, written and directed by me. And if you like it, you can buy the whole series from terrorbytesdoc.com. youtu.be/TA2aZVn9FvE
TerrorBytes Ep. 1 – Enter the Survival Horror | Full Documentary Episode (FREE)
YouTube video by CREATORVC LIVE
youtu.be
mossrc.bsky.social
Interesting assertion in this essay on postjournalism that the switch from an advertiser- to reader-funded model locked the New York Times and other traditional news outlets in ideological filter bubbles that suppress balanced views and amplify extremist ones. andrey4mir.substack.com/p/postjourna...
Postjournalism and news sourcing: supplying opinions instead of news
Postjournalism insulated the media in their ideological filter bubbles, including their bubbles of experts
andrey4mir.substack.com
November 9, 2025 at 9:47 PM
Reposted by Richard Moss
engineersneedart.com
Dialing back to the 1990's and the first commercial Glider (4.0) game…

Ward Hartenstein blew my mind when I downloaded his "Hands-Off House" from AOL. You don't touch the controls to play—the house itself takes care of moving the glider along.

B&W version playthrough:

youtu.be/nIzy_Fmjexs
Glider 4.0 || Hands-Off House
YouTube video by James Howell
youtu.be
November 9, 2025 at 2:22 AM
mossrc.bsky.social
Ron asked some excellent questions and got me sharing a few stories I rarely tell from across my 15 years writing about videogames and technology.
November 8, 2025 at 10:34 AM
Reposted by Richard Moss
ronscompvids.bsky.social
Join us for an entertaining discussion of gaming, writing and what it takes to get a passion project over the finish line.

Let's Chat w/ Richard Moss - author and Macintosh gaming historian!

youtu.be/3q4Lgoreb74
Let's Chat with Richard Moss - author and Macintosh gaming expert!
YouTube video by Ron's Computer Videos
youtu.be
November 6, 2025 at 6:15 PM
mossrc.bsky.social
Found in a box of Playmobil, of all things, which my almost-four year old is now enraptured by.
roadtotheball.bsky.social Retro Football Video Games @roadtotheball.bsky.social · 14d
Didn't know I had this. (It's the mascot for USA '94, the first World Cup after the back pass was outlawed.)
A toy of the World Cup 1994 mascot.
November 1, 2025 at 8:36 AM
mossrc.bsky.social
The Retro Gamers Podcast interviewed me about some of the processes behind — and stuff covered in — TerrorBytes. www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYhV...
The Retro Gamers Podcast - Episode #421: Talking Terrorbytes
YouTube video by The Retro Gamers Podcast
www.youtube.com
October 24, 2025 at 11:45 PM
Reposted by Richard Moss
opinionhaver.bsky.social
The responses this post is getting, combined with the animating grievances of large swathes of politics, has convinced me we need a kind of society wide PSA about how Buying Things Is Optional.

You don’t think video games should cost $100? Don’t buy the videogame. Buying Things Is Optional.
beijingpalmer.bsky.social BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 23d
AAA video games should cost $100 on launch. this would still be extremely cheap for the amount of time and enjoyment you get out of them! But an audience of whiny babies has kept them literally at the same price for *two decades* despite both general inflation *and* sector-specific costs rising
October 23, 2025 at 4:47 PM
Reposted by Richard Moss
anildash.com
Imagine a browser where you type in “Taylor Swift” and it doesn’t even admit that her website exists. I write about Atlas, ChatGPT’s new anti-web browser that should come with a warning label. www.anildash.com/2025/10/22/a...
ChatGPT's Atlas: The Browser That's Anti-Web - Anil Dash
A blog about making culture. Since 1999.
www.anildash.com
October 22, 2025 at 9:13 PM
mossrc.bsky.social
The Broken Sword: Reforged Collector's Edition is huge! About 1.5 times taller and double the thickness of a traditional big box game. My OG copy for scale.
The original and new Broken Sword boxes side by side. Another angle
October 23, 2025 at 12:01 AM
mossrc.bsky.social
I spent so much time playing New Star Soccer 2010 back when it came out. The life sim stuff at the series' core was augmented by a deeper football simulation wherein your player attributes would go up and down in real time during matches, based on your performance — like it's simulating confidence.
roadtotheball.bsky.social Retro Football Video Games @roadtotheball.bsky.social · 25d
Millions of people are familiar with the hit mobile game New Star Soccer, but few know of its roots as a series of excellent indie PC/Mac games.
New Star Soccer iPhone screenshot The original New Star Soccer, for Windows XP New Star Soccer 2 New Star Soccer 2010. I skipped NSS3, which had a 2D match engine. After this one, they went back to 2D again.
October 21, 2025 at 12:29 PM
Reposted by Richard Moss
ovcollyer.com
Always nice to find a stash of old CM2 source code and data disks. These would’ve been backups I sent to Mum for safekeeping back in 1994!
October 16, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Reposted by Richard Moss
designroom.bsky.social
🚨🚨🚨

We are live! Welcome to Design Room, a new independent games media site.

• We specialize in oral histories like the Final Fantasy 7 and Street Fighter 2 ones I (@mattleone.bsky.social) did at Polygon
• Our first big story is on Shadow of the Colossus: bit.ly/4hjwz8n
• See more: designroom.site
Design Room
Video game oral histories
designroom.site
October 14, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Reposted by Richard Moss
roadtotheball.bsky.social
An ad for Commodore International Soccer, one of the best (and most popular) football games of the 1980s.
An ad for International Soccer, with two small graphics and a lot of text. My phone's OCR gives this transcript: Or play safe and choose somewhere in between. At each level you're able to play either a friend or the computer. (But be warned, it plays a pretty mean game does the Commodore 64). You can also choose your team's colours, and those of the opposing team. • Which is great. It means you can play for Chelsea one day, and GPR the next. Or Celtic, then Rangers. THEIR FEET EE IN YOUR HANDS. you can play football like Pele. cheers madly. own front room. Well, now's your chance & How often you score The game is a real test of to prove it. depends on how good you are. skill, dexterity and speed, and With the best football It also depends on the level at guaranteed to very quickly drive game that's ever been seen which you choose to play. you football crazy. outside of commodore. Altogether Like all of our software, Wembley. COMPUTER SOFTWARE there are seven International Football has been Not only is International levels. From good amateur to... designed to make the very most Football startlingly life-like, but well, good professional. of our hardware. it gives you near perfect control You can choose the Commodore software. It over the players. easiest level of play, so long as costs no more, even though The ball's at their feet, and you don't expect a walk-over. there's more to it. their feet are in your hands. Or, if you fancy seeing You can kick the ball and what it's like to play in OCCE you can dribble it. You can pass a Cup Final, then you can it or even head it. always choose the most And every time you belt difficult level. INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALL CARTRIDGE E14.38.
October 12, 2025 at 9:42 AM
mossrc.bsky.social
I played this when it came out and bounced off it in confusion, then tried again 25 years later and loved it. It's like old-school hip-hop as a computer game, effortlessly blending references and samples from all over the place into a unique, mostly-cohesive whole.
roadtotheball.bsky.social Retro Football Video Games @roadtotheball.bsky.social · Oct 9
Philips SV Eindhoven Manager was a late 90s Amiga freeware game by a couple of Polish guys who called themselves Frey United. It is like nothing else, with constant, creative sampling of pop culture to add sparkle to the dryness of a football management simulation.
The title screen A loading screen promising it'll be a game you never forget A photo of John Cleese at a desk, sourced from a Monty Python sketch, serves as your welcome to the club The match engine provides a mix of text commentary and images from either pop culture or real football matches
October 9, 2025 at 9:18 AM
Reposted by Richard Moss
konstantinosd.bsky.social
'Night and the City' by Chris Donlan remains one of the finest online articles on game urbanism ever. Somehow simultaneously personal, historical, and objective it is an excellent read, and a reminder that L.A. Noir remains truly unique.

Find it here: www.eurogamer.net/night-and-th...
October 9, 2025 at 6:22 AM
Reposted by Richard Moss
michaelklamerus.bsky.social
Found the collection of 160 games made in world builder on the ScummVM website and this is all I will be talking about this month
www.scummvm.org/games/#games...

That 2nd game, Pirate Attack, has a really nice story from the designer from two years ago
www.macintoshrepository.org/19772-pirate...
image from Mountain of Mayhem of a smiling bartender and text describing him and the bar image of a pirate in the game Pirate Attack and text describing him attacking you a game called The Thompson Kids Meet the Swamp Witch of the faces of two kids and a haunted house at night screenshot from a game called Fortune Teller of a black and white illustration of a fortune teller
October 8, 2025 at 10:50 PM
mossrc.bsky.social
The Continuum web/JS port now has a bunch of fan-made "galaxies" (level sets) in addition to the original one, and apparently one of the galaxies was just a 17-level sampler pack for the full 75-level set advertised in this incredible flyer.
A flyer for a Continuum level set, promising "75 of the hardest levels anywhere" if you send a disk and 50 cents (or $3 and no disk) to an address in Oklahoma. The flyer has several different fonts and a few custom graphics.
October 8, 2025 at 3:29 AM
mossrc.bsky.social
This thread is the most even-handed take I've seen on the Bitmap mess, and I share his "second-hand anxiety" about the book content being ravaged. As an author with two books they've published, I'm especially sad to see the poor judgement and worried about implications from the ongoing fallout.
insrtcoins.bsky.social Ryan Zhao @insrtcoins.bsky.social · Oct 7
Quick thoughts on the Bitmap Books controversy: the whole "going back on your apology" thing seems like a massive mistake. The original apology felt reasonable -- the author still benefits from having the work published, but Dyer publicly acknowledges the problem respectfully.
🧵
October 7, 2025 at 9:45 PM
Reposted by Richard Moss
retrohistories.bsky.social
Some of the authors of *excellent* books from Bitmap who don't deserve to be caught in the fallout. Please follow and support them!

@felipepepe.bsky.social
@hg101.bsky.social
@gamesthatwerent.com
@stuartmaine.bsky.social
@mossrc.bsky.social
@davecook.bsky.social
@aaronpotter.bsky.social
October 7, 2025 at 6:37 AM
mossrc.bsky.social
Apparently this is called AI SEO, or LLMO (Large Language Model Optimisation), but I really think they've missed a great chance to call it AIEO or genAIEO. And then they could have made a song set to the tune of B-I-N-G-O to promote their services.
Create content that gets your brand into AI search. Create award-winning content in hours instead of weeks, crafted by our network of expert managing editors and optimized to appear in ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, and other AI search tools.
October 7, 2025 at 5:11 AM
Reposted by Richard Moss
roadtotheball.bsky.social
ISS Deluxe has a cheat code that turns the match officials into dogs. It's adorable.
A dog linesman. The referee is a dog.
October 6, 2025 at 11:31 PM
mossrc.bsky.social
I was reading a big internal EA document tracking this game's AI module development, and most of the bugfixes are like "fixed player not passing the ball" or "improved CPU logic", but then every so often there'd be something like this round of fixes and I'd burst into laughter imagining it.
roadtotheball.bsky.social Retro Football Video Games @roadtotheball.bsky.social · Oct 3
Some funny bugfix logs for the AI in EA's F.A. Premier League STARS from March 30, 1998, a bit over a year before the game was finished.
Bugs Fixed 1. Fixed bug causing players to spin uncontrollably after a canned animation completes its playback. 2. Fixed bug allowing the ball to penetrate the net. 3. Fixed bug in switching logic on volley shots. 4. Fixed invisible wall in front of net bug. 5. Fixed bug where the ball is attached to a celebratng player’s hand. 6. Revised tackle model to minimize ball blipping. 7. Fixed bug causing the goalie to get stuck outside the 18 yard box.
October 3, 2025 at 9:40 AM
Reposted by Richard Moss
roadtotheball.bsky.social
My favourite aesthetic: mid-90s football management game skeuomorphism.
Premier Manager II On The Ball (or Anstoss in the original German release) Ultimate Soccer Manager European Superleague
October 2, 2025 at 12:33 PM
mossrc.bsky.social
I've started @roadtotheball.bsky.social to talk more about old football/soccer videogames and share cool research materials, trivia, screenshots, and other fun or nostalgic stuff that I gathered while putting together A Tale of Two Halves: The History of Football Video Games for @bitmapbooks.com.
September 30, 2025 at 11:11 AM
Reposted by Richard Moss
roadtotheball.bsky.social
When Paul and Oliver Collyer were looking for a publisher for Championship Manager (originally called European Champions), they sent demo builds out to all the major companies, including EA, which declined due to the lack of 'live action' graphics. This is their rejection letter.
10 Jun 91 Dear Oliver and Paul, In response to your demonstration disk of the game European Champions, and after further discussions within our development group we do not think that it is the right piece of software for us to take on as a release. The main reason that we do not think it is suitable is that your game is based on statistics and without any 'live action' the game would not appeal to the audience that we generally sell to. Football games of this type are generally advertised in the back of magazines, such as the ones you include copies off; and not normally given a high profile, full colour A4 page of advertising. The sort of product we would have to compete with is the 'Kick Off/Player Manager' range of products and to be honest, European Champions does not compare with either because there is no live action. I hope I haven't put you off altogether, but would recommend you follow another route and contactthe companies that already publish that genre of games and I wish you every success in finding a suitable publisher, if you haven't already of course. I would be happy to look at any future products of yours that you feel we may be interested in. Yours sincerely, Scott Probin Assistant producer PS. Your discs were infected with the Lamer II Exterminator virus. Please check your collection!
September 30, 2025 at 11:05 AM