anonymousiamJan 2026Recommends
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
in “Adventure 751 (1980)” · View on HN
GET LAMP: The Text Adventure Documentary
GET LAMP: The Text Adventure Documentary on HackerTube: recommended by 5 Hacker News commenters across 5 separate months, 2014–2026.
Google TechTalks
Open on YouTubedocumentary · evergreen
Jason Scott discusses making his documentary GET LAMP at a Google Tech Talk and screens part of the film. It covers the history of text adventures and interactive fiction, with interviews of Infocom developers and others.
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN recommends it to anyone interested in text adventures, Infocom, MUDs and early computer gaming history.
- people recommended it
- 5
- separate months
- 5
- strong recommendations
- 0
- discussed on HN
- 2014–2026
“Recommend watching “Get lamp” documentary to fans of MUDs, text adventures”
What HN commenters said
8 Hacker News comments link this video. Each one links back to its thread.
petercooperJun 2022Recommends
He also did a documentary about text adventure games called "GET LAMP" which I enjoyed a lot: ▶ this video
in “Enjoyed Jason Scott’s BBS documentary” · View on HN
freediverMar 2019Recommends
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
in “Iconoclast: a Gothic/Cyberpunk MUD RPG, Online Since 1996” · View on HN
cpetersoDec 2018Recommends
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]
in “Great Adventure-Game Puzzles” · View on HN
grimgrinDec 2014Recommends
Many Infocom employees are present in the documentary Get Lamp: ▶ this video Recommended if text games are of interest to you.
in “First Infocom Z-machine implemented in hardware” · View on HN
EremotheriumApr 2020Cites it
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.
in “textfiles.com” · View on HN
Show 2 more comments
mgkimsalApr 2017Cites it
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).
in “A History of Interactive Fiction (2006)” · View on HN
jamesk_auNov 2015Cites it
You can watch the non-interactive version of the documentary with some commentary by its maker in this Google Tech Talk: ▶ this video
in “Get Lamp” · View on HN
Topics & tags
Game history & retro gamingHistory of computingget lampjason scottinfocominteractive fictionzorkretro games