To read this post please scroll down.

 

Readers! A November fund-raising drive!

 

It is unfortunately time for another November fund-raising campaign to support my work here at Behind the Black. I really dislike doing these, but 2025 is so far turning out to be a very poor year for donations and subscriptions, the worst since 2020. I very much need your support for this webpage to survive.

 

And I think I provide real value. Fifteen years ago I said SLS was garbage and should be cancelled. Almost a decade ago I said Orion was a lie and a bad idea. As early as 1998, long before almost anyone else, I predicted in my first book, Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8, that private enterprise and freedom would conquer the solar system, not government. Very early in the COVID panic and continuing throughout I noted that every policy put forth by the government (masks, social distancing, lockdowns, jab mandates) was wrong, misguided, and did more harm than good. In planetary science, while everyone else in the media still thinks Mars has no water, I have been reporting the real results from the orbiters now for more than five years, that Mars is in fact a planet largely covered with ice.

 

I could continue with numerous other examples. If you want to know what others will discover a decade hence, read what I write here at Behind the Black. And if you read my most recent book, Conscious Choice, you will find out what is going to happen in space in the next century.

 

 

This last claim might sound like hubris on my part, but I base it on my overall track record.

 

So please consider donating or subscribing to Behind the Black, either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. I could really use the support at this time. There are five ways of doing so:

 

1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.

 

2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation. Takes about a 10% cut.
 

3. A Paypal Donation or subscription, which takes about a 15% cut:

 

4. Donate by check. I get whatever you donate. Make the check payable to Robert Zimmerman and mail it to
 
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652

 

You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.


Pioneer game update: Full demo of game released

Though no launch date for the Kickstarter campaign for funding the creation of a videogame based on my science fiction book Pioneer has been announced, the producer, Aaron Jenkin, early this week released the full demo of the game. You can download a version for either Windows, Mac, or Linux here.

I’ve played the Linux version and had a great time. While this is only a demo, Aaron has captured the feel of my book, while adapting it to the needs of a video game. I really hope when the Kickstarter campaign starts, it quickly raises enough to produce the game. It will be a blast for players.

For those who want to get the game’s newsletter updates, published about once per week, you can subscribe at PioneerSpaceGame.com. If you are definitely interested in donating to the game, you should also subscribe as it gives Aaron a sense of the amount of interest (the numbers have been rising quickly in the past month, a very good sign!).

For those who want to get a sense of of what the game itself will be like now, below the fold is the game’s trailer.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

13 comments

  • Cotour

    Cool, looks great! I wish you the best with this project.

  • t-dub

    I’m playing the demo and am enjoying it very much!

  • Captain Emeritus

    Left, right, up, down, squat, shoot.
    Graphics like an arcade game from the 80’s.

  • t-dub

    @ the “captain” emeritus . . . since this is a novel based experience, a story with choices, I fail to see what you mean by “left, right, up, down, squat, shoot. Maybe I’m just not into the game far enough yet but . . . whatever. Also, the art work is excellent. Nothing 1980’s about it at all.

  • Andi

    I downloaded the Windows version – it’s a zip file of some 77 megs. However, when I try and open the zip, I get a message that “the compressed folder is invalid”. Has anyone else had this problem?

  • Andi,

    I have emailed Aaron, letting him know about your problem. Stay tuned.

  • Thanks for playing the game everyone!

    Andy – the download file should be around 478MB rather than 77, so I’m guessing your download was incomplete. Please try downloading again and let me know if you have any problems.

  • Andi

    Thanks for responding. Aaron, that certainly explains the error! I’ll try again.

    BTW, it’s Andi, not Andy :)

  • Andi – Thanks for the note on your name, and sorry about that. I find myself having to correct people on my last name a lot (there’s no “s” on the end), so I should have paid that better attention!

  • Andi

    Thanks for the tip, Aaron! It took about five tries, but I finally was able to download what I think is the full file (at least Windows now has no problem opening the zip). Will look forward to trying it tonight.

    No problem re my name; it’s not a common spelling.

  • Captain Emeritus

    Mr. Zimmerman,
    The “comments are turned off” for the trailer on YouTube. ?

  • Andi – great to hear, and have fun!

    Captain Emeritus – thanks for pointing that out. Comments should work now. Some context – we set the game trailer as appropriate for kids and that triggered YouTube to disable comments.

    Thanks again for the feedback everyone!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *