Hello, all. I thought you might like to know that my book Dungeons and Desktops has been nominated for the prestigious Game Developer Front Line Award. It's up against some very steep competition, but I'm honored just to be nominated! Please keep your fingers (and pointy tails!) crossed for me.

The book has continued to sell reasonably well and was recently featured in a review by Matthew S. S. Johnson for the Journal of Gaming & Virtual Worlds. Dr. Johnson really liked the book and said some very nice things about it. If you get a chance, check out the journal and the review.

Someone requested scans of the manual for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Treasure of Tarmin Cartridge for the Mattel Aquarius computer for an article they were working on that would apparently compare and contrast that lesser known version of the game with the better known Mattel Intellivision version. As such, I did a semi-forensic scan of the box and box contents, including a full scan of the manual from my collection. You can click the preview widget below for access to the full high resolution Flickr set, or here. Enjoy!

UltimaGamasutra has just published an extract from my book, specifically the Silver Age chapter that covers the early home CRPGs (Ultima, Wizardry, etc.) If you don't have the book, by all means head over there, but even if you do, you might like seeing the screenshots in all their full-color glory. I'm very proud of this book and hope you are, too! Without the support of my fellow gaming nerds this project wouldn't be possible.

Link via Gamasutra Industry News.

Wow, sad day for gamers. Gargy Gygax passed away.

http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9885383-7.html

He was Dungeons and Dragons daddy and spawned such classics as Tomb of Horrors and Expedition to the Barrier Peaks and of course Temple of Elemental Evil...

Here is a link to GameSpy's 30th anniversary ad&d retrospective including interviews with Gygax and lots of history.