Jason Scott's Weblog
This is big news, in the realm of game design studies. During the production of GET LAMP, I spent a lot of time digitizing or photographing all sorts of artifacts and documents related to Interactive Fiction and text adventures. This included books, advertisements, printouts, and various ephemera that various players or programmers had lying around […]
Close the air gap. Close the air gap. Close the air gap, the air gap, the air gap. Close the air gap. Close it. The air gap. Close it. Close the air gap. Close it right now. This weekend. This month. Close the air gap. There’s a layer of atmosphere, of air, in between us […]
The title has little context, which I think is appropriate. One of my friends in high school insisted, nay, demanded that I listen to an album called A BIG 10-8 PLACE, which was either about or by something called Negativland, which I didn’t have a clue as to what that could mean, and before I could really absorb that, I […]
I’ve been given permission to go ahead and schedule an Internet Archive Telethon to allow us to have a gosh-darn-it actual showcase at the amazing space that is the San Francisco headquarters. My goal, humble as always, is to try and raise a million dollars for the Archive in a weekend. To do this, there will be […]
I drove down to Baltimore yesterday, sorted manuals for the day, and then drove back. First, I stopped by the Manuals Plus warehouse to see the current status of the manuals that we left behind. Answer: Gone. Thrown out. Recycled. So there you go – that’s what would have happened if we’d not organized and […]
Way back in 2012, I posted something, talking about how worried I was that a documentary that looked and sounded great seemed to have disappeared. I’d looked far and wide to contact the filmmakers, and nothing. But I wanted to at least put my voice out there, in case they wanted to talk to me. […]
Of the barrage of advice the world was prepared to give me from the vantage point of the Internet, one unique bit of advice came from a long-time collector and rescuer of older computer documentation and equipment. It’s definitely the all-around best advice, and was, in fact, truly unique: nobody else brought it up. The […]
I know it’s been announcement city over here for the past week and a half. Here’s the last piece in the puzzle: trying to solve the biggest looming problem for online libraries and archives. So, people get it: When items are online, they become infinitely more useful. They can transfer instantly, they can be viewed […]
I’m just keeping the theme with the title. Future postings will be less obscure. This is a wrap up and list of conclusions after this grand experiment. And an announcement. But first things first. A LITTLE BIT ABOUT WARNING TIME. In my inbox, going back over a year (and going back years in my mail […]
As the story of the saved manuals gained steam, a greater audience of people began to be aware of it. Once you get past a few thousand, people start showing up who…. don’t forward the conversation. I just wanted to talk a little bit about that situation of the modern era, since I consider it one of […]