Gold Machine

Author: Drew Cook

April 29, 2026

Hollywood Hijinx is Perfectly Fine
March 27, 2026

Dead Girl; Moonmist Final
March 4, 2026

Read the Manual
January 29, 2026

Moon; Missed
October 19, 2025

Your Opinion Matters to Us
September 16, 2025

Elsewhere: Emily Short’s “Bee”
September 2, 2025

The Wolf that Cried Boy: The Game Formerly Known as Hidden Nazi Mode
June 9, 2025

Leather Goddesses of Phobos 3/3: Joy and Mischief
May 21, 2025

Leather Goddesses of Phobos: Is There Life on Mars?
April 21, 2025

Leather Goddesses of Phobos: We’re so Back
December 20, 2024

Trinity Final: Theaters of Absurdity and War
December 16, 2024

The Dearth of Tragedy (Trinity)
December 10, 2024

Suffer the Children (Trinity)
December 6, 2024

Now I Am Become Death (Trinity)
December 4, 2024

After the people have gone, all we have left is humanity (Trinity)
December 2, 2024

Is Historicity an Aesthetic Virtue? (Trinity)
August 30, 2024

“Tell the Truth, but Tell It Slant:” Modularity and Sacrifice (Trinity)
July 10, 2024

Gold Microphone: Challenge, Mimesis, And Parsercraft (Trinity)
June 12, 2024

The Dickensian Turn (Trinity)
May 18, 2024

New Episode: Graham Nelson’s The Craft of the Adventure
February 28, 2024

Narrative Surface Features in Trinity
February 22, 2024

Project Updates
December 4, 2023

“Fumbling Through to Survive:” Critical Receptions of Trinity 2/2
October 30, 2023

“Plenty of Synonyms:” Critical Receptions of Trinity (1/2)
October 28, 2023

Untested: Kaboom, Anonymity, and the Repressive State Apparatus
October 23, 2023

LAKE Adventure: These Textual Delights Have Textual Ends
September 25, 2023

Trinity: A Critical Introduction
September 11, 2023

The Big One: Trinity
August 23, 2023

Ballyhoo and the Epidemiology of Influence
August 14, 2023

Ballyhoo: Big Top Noir
July 24, 2023

A Critical Introduction to Ballyhoo
July 10, 2023

Ballyhoo and the Rest of It
June 26, 2023

And in the End: Spellbreaker
June 12, 2023

In the Light: The Enchanter Trilogy
May 29, 2023

Bottoming Out: Zork III
May 26, 2023

About the Time I Wrote an Inform 7 Game
May 15, 2023

Act Two: The Wizard of Frobozz
May 5, 2023

Spring Thing 2023: Just One Week (ish) Left!
May 1, 2023

Beyond Puzzles: Adding Narrative to Zork
April 10, 2023

What’s Zork Divided by Three?
March 27, 2023

The Main (Narrative) Frame: From Zork to Zork
March 13, 2023

It’s the End of Zork as We Know It
February 27, 2023

Spellbreaker: The Cube on the Box
February 6, 2023

Spellbreaker: Endgame
January 16, 2023

A Mind Forever Voyaging: The Good Ending
January 2, 2023

Problems in A Mind Forever Voyaging
December 19, 2022

A Real, Live Boy: The Fabulist Turn in AMFV
December 5, 2022

Spots of Time: Modular Design in A Mind Forever Voyaging
November 28, 2022

Project Update 11/28/22
November 14, 2022

The Future is Terse: The Constrained Rhetoric of A Mind Forever Voyaging
October 31, 2022

Present Gifts of Humbler Industry
October 24, 2022

A Mind Forever Voyaging: Game/Anti-Game
October 10, 2022

On Naive Readings of A Mind Forever Voyaging
October 3, 2022

Agency, Empathy, and the Call of the Other in AMFV
September 26, 2022

Initial Groundwork for a Reading of A Mind Forever Voyaging
September 13, 2022

If Wishes Were Horses: Wishbringer Final
September 5, 2022

After 37 Years, It Still Glows: Wishbringer [2/3]
August 29, 2022

Everybody Loves Wishbringer
August 22, 2022

A Seat at the Big Kids’ Table: Cornerstone
August 15, 2022

Grown-Ups Are not to Be Trusted: Cornerstone
August 8, 2022

ParserComp: Amanda Walker (Of Their Shadows Deep)
August 3, 2022

Parsercomp: Brian Rushton (The Impossible Stairs)
July 25, 2022

You’re My Type: ParserComp 2022
July 18, 2022

[3/3] There Goes The Neighborhood: Suspect
July 11, 2022

[2/3] But Is It Art? The Intermittently-Beloved Art of Suspect
June 27, 2022

[1/3] Ant Farm Simulator 1984: Suspect
June 22, 2022

Gold Microphone: A Mind Forever Voyaging
June 13, 2022

Aaron A. Reed on The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
June 6, 2022

[3/3] The Hitchhiker’s guide to Modular Design
May 30, 2022

[2/3] Get Fluff: The Contents of The HItchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
May 23, 2022

[1/3] Bookware Boom: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
May 18, 2022

Gold Microphone: Zork I
May 16, 2022

[3/3] This Ain’t Jumpman: Cutthroats
May 10, 2022

[2/3] What’s in the Box: Cutthroats
May 2, 2022

[1/3] Hell Is Other Divers: Cutthroats
April 28, 2022

Material Histories: Infocom’s Gray Box
April 25, 2022

Interlude: Spring Thing 2022, Part 3
April 18, 2022

Interlude: Spring Thing 2022, Part 2
April 11, 2022

Interlude: Spring Thing 2022
April 4, 2022

[3/3] Militaristic Fantasy, Narrative Drift, and the (Sea) Stalker
March 28, 2022

[2/3] >AIM BAZOOKA: Seastalker
March 27, 2022

Gold Microphone Episode 4: Journey
March 21, 2022

[1/3] Please, Think of the Children: Seastalker
March 14, 2022

[3/3] What is a Zork? What has it got? Last thoughts on Sorcerer
March 7, 2022

[2/3] Sorcerer: Evil Lurks Behind the Coal Mine
February 28, 2022

[1/3] Introducing Sorcerer: Now With 20% More Zork
February 21, 2022

Are You Not Entertained: Last Thoughts on Infidel
February 14, 2022

Metatext and Meaning in Infidel
February 13, 2022

Gold Microphone: Return to Plundered Hearts
February 7, 2022

Infidel: The Ugly American
February 2, 2022

Gold Machine: Project Update 2/2/22
January 28, 2022

Enchanter: A Ritual Murder in Search of a Game
January 26, 2022

Frobozz: Land of Enchantment
January 24, 2022

Zork IV: Enchanter
January 21, 2022

Gold Microphone: Enchanter
January 17, 2022

Video Game publishing, NFTs, And New Delusions of Value
January 12, 2022

Intentionality and the Gamification of Tedium: Planetfall
January 10, 2022

Planetfall: Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired
January 7, 2022

Gold Microphone: Plundered Hearts