Jimmy Maher writes long histories of computing and video games, covering the IBM PC, Windows, SimCity and text adventures.
HN commenters recommend it as a top blog for game history, and note it is a frequently upvoted domain.
There's an old video game called Seven Cities of Gold wherein you play a european explorer poking about the new world. It has procedurally generated game worlds, and claims to use some plate techtonics. I don't remember if you could actually circumnavigate the world, but it gave a great experience of gradually uncovering an absolutely massive map, packed with things to see. Designed for platforms with SERIOUS technology constraints, the author packed a LOT of game play. Given the historical subject, it also offers up some serious topics for thought / conversation.
As always, the Digital Antiquarian has a great article about this game:
https://www.filfre.net/2013/08/seven-cities-of-gold/
It still sees active development, they keep adding new engines regularly. One of the engine I'm excited about is Macromedia Director [1] which they added initial support for in 2.5.0. That's a big endeavour though so will take time until they add everything needed for full compatibilities with a lot of games.
They've also just added support for some of the Dynamix games like Willy Beamish and Heart of China[2] which I absolutely loved as a kid (despite their rather rough edges)
[1] https://obscuritory.com/essay/macromedia-director-in-scummvm/ [2] https://www.filfre.net/2018/05/the-dynamic-interactive-narratives-of-dynamix/
>I found it very noticeable how similar the text of actions was between MUDs and EverQuest
This was discussed in the recently posted Everquest article: https://www.filfre.net/2025/07/everquest/
From Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EverQuest#History):
>The design and concept of EverQuest is heavily indebted to text-based MUDs, in particular DikuMUD ... John Smedley, Brad McQuaid, Steve Clover and Bill Trost, who jointly are credited with creating the world of EverQuest, have repeatedly pointed to their shared experiences playing MUDs such as Sojourn and TorilMUD as the inspiration for the game
Jimmy Maher is really a great history writer. The way he writes is very compelling. He made a whole history of windows which I somehow read through completely[0].
I can also recommend his other site, Analog Antiquarian[1] where he writes more about the larger history. His Magellan series that's going on now is really amazing, makes you feel like you're really experiencing the epic voyage through South America and South East Asia.
[0] https://www.filfre.net/2018/06/doing-windows-part-1-ms-dos-and-its-discontents/
[1] https://analog-antiquarian.net/
I highly recommend Jimmy Maher's Digital Antiquarian blog at http://www.filfre.net/
The focus is mainly on computer games from the late 70s (and currently up to the late 80s), but that includes general posts about personal computers like the Apple ][, TRS-80, Commodore 64 and Amiga and the personalities behind them, on programming languages like Forth and the various tricks and inventions required to get complex games to run on very restrained hardware. It's all very readable, meticulously researched and quite in-depth.
This is a great article, except for the parts where it intimates that Sierra games were good. While their games _were_ beautiful technological marvels, the design of most of the games (especially Roberta's) was just so incredibly bad. The games are some of the worst I've ever played in terms of actual gameplay.
Jimmy Maher at The Digital Antiquarian (https://www.filfre.net/) has written a fair bit about their games and the design issues with them, as well as their place in gaming history.