I have a confession to make. I had never heard of scratchware when I started work on the Zone, though I do my best to pretend that I did. For those of you who are lost to this concept, let me help you out.

Scratchware are games and applications that are independently produced by small teams and sold for a small fee. Scratchware is to software what independent movies are to Hollywood. It all started with a manifesto that I found on one of my favorite web sites, Home of the Underdogs, which is a large site with information on forgotten games. The manifesto itself is a call to arms versus the gaming industry, which has become too centralized and too obsessed with bestsellers to do any good.

After reading the manifesto, I realized that I was one of the developers making what they called scratchware. And I felt sort relieved, knowing that I am not fighting the battle against conformity alone.

Read the manifesto