Get Lamp

[Chris]

I know this isn't exactly about a book, but it is about interactive fiction. Has anyone seen this documentary, titled "Get Lamp" about computer text adventures? I'd like to see it, but haven't heard too much about it yet. Just wondering what other like-minded folks thought...

Get Lamp
http://www.getlamp.com/

[Jlawrence, S&L Moderator]

I own it. If you're at all interested in the use of narrative in gaming, the early era of personal computer gaming and/or grew up playing any text adventures, you'll find it worthwhile. It's a bit pricey, but it's well put together and there's lots of fascinating info and opinions in the main film and in the extras.

The biggest criticism that it's received from some members of the current interactive fiction community is that it focuses on IF as this lost golden age that had its peak artistically and commercially with the 80's company Infocom. I think that criticism's a little harsh, as the film does cover aspects of the hobbyist community that carried on IF after IF disappeared from the mass market, but it's true that the film's heart belongs to Infocom.

The modern IF community is pretty vibrant, though - for example, in just one day (today) IF author Andrew Plotkin has already surpassed his goal of getting $8000 in Kickstarter donations to fund fulltime work on a new, large IF game for the iPhone.

But anyway, yes, I recommend it. :)

[Martin]

I used to read the Fighting Fantasy books when I was younger, but hadn't thought about it in ten some years, until I heard earlier this year that they had created an iPhone app. If you're interested check out their website.

[Paul]

Man I used to love text based adventures and was a big Infocom fan. I even worked at a place once that had a multiplayer adventure on an old VAX system. Can't remember what it was called but I was the only one on it - not sure my boss even knew it existed and I wasnt going to tell him :)

[Tim]

For those of you with fond memories of Zork and other IT adventures (my own entry was Planetfall), you should really check out the "Action Castle" series by Jared Sorensen.

http://memento-mori.com/online-store/...

My introduction to this was a 150-person conference room at PAX Prime 2 years ago where Jared let each person in queue be the "player" and verbally ran us through a game. Each person got to say one game command and then it cycled to the next person. Utterly brilliant.

[Paul]

If you like Discworld AND text adventures with a bit of MMO thrown in - check out
http://discworld.atuin.net/lpc/