GET LAMP: The Text Adventure Documentary

Google TechTalks
8 HN recommenders · recommended in 9 months, 2011–2026
YouTube
244K views · 15 years ago · documentary · historical

Jason Scott's documentary about the history of text adventure games and interactive fiction, including interviews with people who made them, among them former Infocom developers. This upload is hosted on the Google TechTalks channel.

HN people link it as the obligatory documentary for fans of text adventures, MUDs and Infocom, and as a good history for anyone who came after that era.

“If you like text adventure games, check out Jason Scott's documentary GET LAMP”
Game design
#textadventures#interactivefiction#infocom#jasonscott#gamehistory#zork

12 comments from Hacker News

a
@anonymousiam2026 · in “Adventure 751 (1980)”
Jason Scott (of textfiles.com) made a great documentary video about the Adeventure game. I picked up a copy at DEFCON about 15 years ago. link ▶ this video
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p
@petercooper2022 · in “Enjoyed Jason Scott’s BBS documentary”
He also did a documentary about text adventure games called "GET LAMP" which I enjoyed a lot: ▶ this video
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E
@Eremotherium2020 · in “textfiles.com”
He also gave us the brilliant BBS: The Documentary link GET LAMP: The Text Adventure Documentary (shot in 1080p) ▶ this video and (apart from his many talks) his podcast "Jason Scott talks his way out of it" which is just gem after gem of documented tech ephemera. link It's baffingly hard to quantify how many people he (and all the other great people at the Internet Archive) has affected with his bullheaded conservation efforts.
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f
@freediver2019 · in “Iconoclast: a Gothic/Cyberpunk MUD RPG, Online Since 1996”
Oh the MUDs! Props to Forest’s edge and TempusMUD. Text is the ultimate medium because it directly connects with our imagination. I remember jumping out of my chair after reading a line of text on my screen. Recommend watching “Get lamp” documentary to fans of MUDs, text adventures and those born after: ▶ this video
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c
@cpeterso2018 · in “Great Adventure-Game Puzzles”
If you like text adventure games, check out Jason Scott's documentary GET LAMP about the history of text adventure games, including interviews with some Infocom developers: ▶ this video link
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m
@mgkimsal2017 · in “The Enduring Legacy of Zork”
Obligatory links to a great documentary on text adventures and infocom: link ▶ this video link
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m
@mgkimsal2017 · in “A History of Interactive Fiction (2006)”
Related: there's a few versions of "get lamp" documentary online (▶ this video) or you can get the movie directly from getlamp.com. These histories (the maher link above, the getlamp doc, etc) bring back a lot of great memories. EDIT: the youtube link above looks like it's actually the getlamp movie being shown at a google event, with an audience (audience sounds in there now and then).
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g
@grimgrin2014 · in “First Infocom Z-machine implemented in hardware”
Many Infocom employees are present in the documentary Get Lamp: ▶ this video Recommended if text games are of interest to you.
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p
@pmoriarty2014 · in “GET LAMP: The Text Adventure Documentary [video]”
Submitted the video to Hacker News.
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p
@pmoriarty2015 · in “An update on the Infocom Cabinet, with a side order of ethical debate”
Some context: link link link link ▶ this video link
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j
@jamesk_au2015 · in “Get Lamp”
You can watch the non-interactive version of the documentary with some commentary by its maker in this Google Tech Talk: ▶ this video
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n
@nprincigalli2011 · in “Revisiting 'Zork': What We Lost in the Transition to Visual Games”
On youtube, from a google tech talk: ▶ this video
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