Jason Scott Talks His Way Out of It

Latest Episodes:

The Conspiracy Episode Jun 11, 2020

Show notes

The Conspiracy Episode: Conspiracy Love, 1985 and Annette Arky, Playboy, Comics, Underground, Deep Underground, Ninjas, Guns and G-Files, The Muffin File, The Comfort of Conspiracy, The Mechanism of the World, The Dark Byways, A Friend Forgotten. I mention Da Muffin Papers, you can browse them here: https://archive.org/details/DaMuffinPapers The event I'm speaking of at the end is Heroku's Waza year 2013. My talk, "Time Travel from 2100: A Kit" is viewable at https://vimeo.com/61059533.

A 2003 Loompanics Catalog: https://archive.org/details/Loompanics_Catalog_2003 Loompanics and Paladin Press were the classic go-to for "Underground Publishing" although I had a number of others I got in the mail. Both these organizations had FBI files, released in 2011: https://boingboing.net/2011/07/20/fbi-releases-files-o-1.html

The Lost Space Racing Game Demo Movie Episode May 20, 2020

Show notes

The Lost Space Racing Game Demo Movie Episode: Focus Studios, Two Major Projects, The Racing Game, Mark's Dream, Car Logos, Design, 3D Studio, 2 Months, Gone Forever, Starting a Race You Don't Know How To Finish, Lessons For The Next Impossible Project. Also: No Regrets. An episode about TUNNEL VISION, an unreleased (and un-made) game by Focus Studios that I did some art design for, including making a very large and ambitious demo movie for. I asked Mark if he has any copies of this stuff around - I give it a very low chance, but life is funny sometimes.

The 100th Episode May 18, 2020

Show notes

The 100th Episode: Start With Another Episode Please , A Little More About My Supporters, Unediting, Why This Was Started, Speech Therapy, Unintended Results, The Many Positives, Therapy In General, Where To Go Next, A Little More About My Other Supporters.

The 100th episode was recorded with no editing using the on-board microphone, which hopefully leaves only the real fans of this show and others scampering to the better, less meta episodes. Thank you so much for having me get to this milestone. I would have never thought I'd have done it, and I will double down to give you the best stories and wonders for April and beyond.

The Games of the Mechners Episode May 17, 2020

Show notes

The Games of the Mechners Episode: High School, David Mechner, Brother Jordan, Karateka, The Next Game, Assassin, The Rules, A Shining Moment, An Answered Doorbell, Reading Unlimited, Rotoscoping, The David in the Machine. While gathering links, I discovered the Mechners have a foundation and all the kids are on the advisory board! http://mechnerfoundation.org/

Jordan Mechner has an amazing archive of his own work here: https://www.jordanmechner.com/archive/

The Wikipedia entry for the Assassin Game: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassin_(game)

Horace Greeley High School has some lovely photos of the halls and campus at the site: https://www.ccsd.ws/horace-greeley-home

The Bear Mountain Episode Apr 21, 2020

Show notes

The Bear Mountain Episode: Hudson Valley, Rejecting Nature, Bear Mountain State Park, The Bridge, The Lodge, The Pool, The Trail, The Zoo, Daniel Carter Beard, Strange Places, Low-Slung Buildings, A Spectacular Spot, Telling The Story Beyond Yourself.

The Bear Mountain Lodge/Inn has a very snazzy page: https://visitbearmountain.com/

More about the bird watching at Bear Mountain: https://parks.ny.gov/parks/13/bird-conservation-areas.aspx

An overview of the museums and zoo at Bear Mountain: https://parks.ny.gov/environment/nature-centers/20/details.aspx

What I (and locals) call the Bear Mountain Bridge is officially called the Purple Heart Veterans Memorial Bridge, and here's some information about it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bear_Mountain_Bridge

The Nightmare Space Episode Apr 11, 2020

Show notes

The Nightmare Space Episode: A Nightmare Repeats, The Lost Great Space, The Museumsquartier, A Booth, Spaces I Have Known: L0pht CT Hackerspace, and Hack42, The Space of the Webpage, 1990s Net, Dreams From the Nightmares, Never Stop Dreaming.The Museumsquatier website is at https://www.mqw.at/en/

It is a constantly changing and flowing location, and I don't know if the actual corridor I'm speaking of has a name, but you'll find plenty of inspiring aspects to it - definitely visit if you're ever in Vienna/Wein.

The CT Hackerspace is at http://www.cthackerspace.com/

Hack42 is over at https://hack42.nl/blog/

The results of the scanning at Hack42 so far is at https://archive.org/details/manuals_hack42

I wish I had a photo of that pyramid building off Route 9! But I can't find a single record of it.

The Game Ideas Episode Mar 27, 2020

Show notes

The Game Ideas Episode: 25 Years Later, Two Game Ideas: Central Plumbing Unit, Ante Meridian: The Morning of The World. Focus Studios, Mark The Alien, The Real World, The Difficulty of Making Games Live, HK Project, Get In The Car Loser, Make Your Own Game. I mention a game called HK Project: https://hk-devblog.com/

Kowloon City is a rewarding research project in itself.

Get In The Car, Loser! has a Steam Page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/938860/Get_In_The_Car_Loser/

The Metal.Ball Episode Mar 25, 2020

Show notes

The Metal.Ball Episode: For the Love of a Ball, TinyMUD, MUD, Port 4201, CB Radio, Smokey and the Bandit, TinyTIM, Metal.Ball's Roll-Playing, Mystery of the World, The Metal Ball Inside My Heart The story of a special online character, who never stopped rolling into my life and represents one of the most positive experiences I've had in the realm of a world I don't belong to anymore.

TinyTIM is at tim.org port 5440.

The Cybersmith Episode Mar 24, 2020

Show notes

The Cybersmith Episode: The Shining Moment of the Cybersmith, Paperback Booksmith, Mall Chains, Harvard Square, The Last Mile, Rabbit Warrens, Cybersmith's Luxury, The Fade, The Memory of a Promise.

Here's everything I could find easily mentioning Cybersmith:

An article about visiting Cybersmith in 1995: http://www.ibiblio.org/cmc/mag/1995/mar/jason.html

CS Monitor on Same: https://www.csmonitor.com/1995/0217/17032.html

NY Times: https://www.nytimes.com/1995/07/03/business/waiter-oh-waiter-excuuuse-me-but-there-s-a-mouse-in-my-coffee.html The article from the Boston Globe announcing the end of Cybersmith: http://graphics.boston.com/globe/living/cyberlinks/cybersmith.shtml

Photos are a bit scant; a small amount from Getty Images: https://www.gettyimages.com/photos/cybersmith?phrase=cybersmith&sort=mostpopular#license

The Apple Cassette Episode Mar 23, 2020

Show notes

The Apple Cassette Episode: My Silly Reputation, A Witness To A Wonder, Two Cassettes and 3 Hours of Scrutiny, Ciderpress, A Car With No Gas, Apple Cassette Protection Schemes, 16k, Custom Cards, Vertical Monitor.

The author of Ciderpress gave a great overview of Apple Cassette schemes here: https://fadden.com/apple2/cassette-protect.html

Ciderpress' home page is at https://a2ciderpress.com/

I mention these awesome sites:

http://www.hackzapple.com/INDEX0.HTM

https://www.brutaldeluxe.fr/