Get Lamp

Jason Scott is presenting a long gone era of computer games: text adventure games. I was specifically fascinated by the documentary's peek into the culture of Infocom. Here was a company that was founded on an uncertain premise -- to make some sort of business software -- yet it somehow stumbled upon interactive fiction. As the company grew, it became a Mecca for smart, literate, inquisitive people who would start out as testers and end up designing and writing their own games. This made it all the more sad when Infocom, like all other text adventure game companies, suddenly went away in the late 1980s. I'm glad the story of Infocom isn't lost!

"They were called 'computer adventure games', and they used the most powerful graphics processor in the world: the human mind." A documentary that tells the story of text adventures through the words of the people who made them, it's taken digital historian Jason Scott five years of researching, interviewing, filming, editing and polishing. And it was worth waiting.

This is oral history at its best.

This is an excellent documentary for those interested in Interactive Fiction, or old-school text adventure games like Infocom created in the '80s. It is the only documentary on the subject and the director manages to interview many of the luminaries who created this genre. The disk also includes mini-documentaries on Colossal Cave and Infocom as well as a series of shorter interviews that didn't make it into the film. If you ever geeked out to Zork, Deadline or Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy, you will enjoy this film. That said, I am not sure it works for a mainstream audience who are not familiar with this genre.

The opening 20 minutes of Get Lamp that features a bunch of geezers talking about walking around caves. I had to be woken up three times before getting to the middle of the film which surprised me as I thought we'd been watching for three or four days. This documentary has all the engagement of a heroin nod. I guess that's why Jason Scott listed Get Lamp for $200 on Amazon. $200 dollars for a poorly-edited, terribly mixed, rambling documentary that can be watched for free on YouTube.

As someone who grew up playing interactive fiction from the original Adventure game all through Infocom's text games, I could make sense of all the interview clips. But the flow from one clip to the next often stray off into the obscure, often intellectual discussions. Be warned, this film is only suitable for gamers who've played these games.

If you were born too late to play these text games when they were viral, you will be bored out of your mind. The editing of these clips... it's heartbreaking to see how disjointed they are.

I'm just thankful that this documentary exists. But just like the text games themselves, this film will only appeal to the small crowd who played these games.

Viewers be warned. You will be bored. I personally loved it, but I wish someone good at editing could re-do this whole thing and make it more engaging.

It is what it is. This is the only documentary covering this part of gaming history. So if you're desperate to know about Adventure and Infocom, have at it. My advice, watch it when you have a lot of energy - probably upon waking up in the morning, on the weekend. Make a strong cup of coffee, sit down and get ready to FOCUS. Because if your mind wanders off, you will be lost as to what's going on.

For what it's worth. The people that were interviewed. All treasured icons of the industry that I've never seen in any other gaming documentaries. They are all stellar, and convey a lot of important history.

The editing is what really ruins this experience. But it's worth gritting your teeth and getting through this if you really love learning about the history of the game industry.