Get Lamp: The Text Adventure Documentary

Synopsis: The first games on home computers had limited sound, simple graphics, and tiny amounts of computing power. They were called "computer adventure games", and they used the most powerful graphics processor in the world: the human mind. Rising from side projects at universities and engineering companies, adventure games would describe a place, and then ask what to do next. They presented puzzles, tricks and traps to be overcome and players tried to discover how to negotiate the obstacles and think their way to victory. These players have carried their memories of these text adventures to the modern day, and a whole new generation of authors have taken up the torch to present a new set of places to explore. Through interviews with creators, players and academics, GET LAMP tells the story of the creation of these incredible games, in the words of the people who made them.

DVD extras include: featurettes on Infocom, Mammoth Cave, and other subjects; licensed under the Creative Commons; DVD-ROM section with photographs, recordings, images and games.
Language: English
Country: Great Britain
Year of release: 2010
Year of production: 2010
Subjects: Information technology
Keywords: computer games; history of computing

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British Universities Film & Video Council