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As well you know, I am not above occasional self-promotion. I hope it doesn't become too annoying, and I hope that I'll always be able to couch it in something you'll find worthwhile otherwise.

I've mentioned three or so times by now that a few years ago, I wrote a game, Moments out of Time, which won some awards. You can find its specific webpage here, and there's a new thing on that page.

Interactive Fiction as it exists today owes a good 90 percent of its stylistic and technological trappings to the work of Infocom, the company that produced virtually all of the best works of IF to ever come from the commercial era. One of the absolute coolest things about Infocom's games was that they came in a box full of swag.

We call this stuff "feelies". These were little physical and printed objects which had some relevance to the game world. Typically, at least one of them would contain some hint (or, even more frequently, copy protection) to the game, and the rest would just be cute little game-enhancing toys. A Mind Forever Voyaging, this blog's namesake, shipped with a tourist map of the game's location and a pen, branded with the logo of one of the companies mentioned in the game, as well as a couple of other cool things. Infocom's The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy included a "Don't Panic" badge, pocket fluff, orders of destruction for your home and planet, a microscopic space fleet, and peril-sensitive (that is, opaque) sunglasses.

Feelies kinda went the same way that printed manuals did. But, just as you were amazed to find that people still write IF, you'll be amazed to find that a very few IF writers still commission feelies which you can order on-line.

Though technically, I didn't do that. What I did do was to slap the game's logo on some merchandise. And you can now buy said merchandise for a modest fee. I think it's a pretty cool looking logo, and I think that if you liked the game, it makes a nifty clock or coffee mug. Heck, even if you didn't play the game, I think it looks pretty neat on a clock or coffee mug.

So, buy a nifty Moments out of Time T-shirt, click, or mug. You can click on the cafepress badge below, or follow this link: http://www.cafepress.com/streamdive.

In the future, I hope to whip up some more cool swag, and I'll announce any cool new items here. Enjoy!