Review of Get Lamp (2010) by Anatoly S — 27 Feb 2011

A documentary about the rise and fall (and a current state) of Interactive Fiction (aka the Text Adventure). Many people interviewed and it's well put together, BUT if you're already familiar with IF history I doubt that you will discover anything new.

Despite a lot of legends being interviewed little is being said about the games itself. A larger part of the feature is spent discussing the current state of IF (pretty much the same group of people patting each other on the backs) instead of the "glory days" and the days of innovation.

It's particularly upsetting because of the amount of people interviewed (just about every person from Infocom is present here) and the Infocom featurette is also just a brief look at the company's initial financial success and it's subsequent failure.

This is the kind of documentary you'd see on history channel and keep watching if you're unfamiliar with the topic. To me, it offered nothing new. Overall it looks and sound good, very professional, just wasn't for me, and I expected a lot from it which led to a disappointment.

The second viewing annoyed me even more. BUT if you want to see what Infocom people look/sound like or if you don't know how the Adventure Game genre was born then I'd say CHECK IT OUT.