When I was a kid, I played just about every computer text adventure game I could get my hands on. I did try to play one of those graphical D&D games, but it never seemed to run very well on my VTech Laser128 (an Apple II clone). However, the text adventure games seemed to have so much more wit to them. I think it was very much a result of the games’ authors being required to focus on story and find creative responses to all the crazy sorts of input that players would be sure to enter. I mean, didn’t we all instruct our brave adventurer to “pick nose” at some point?
So, I was really excited to see the trailer for Get Lamp, a documentary film about the text adventure game. Check it out. Of course, this is about as Indy as independent films get and the film maker isn’t too sure when he’s going to release it — you’ll just have to sign up for the e‑mail list.
And if you’ve never played a game like this, or just forgot how fun they were, then why don’t you go play Zork for a while? Don’t forget your trusty map:
…and if you’ve got a more recent version of OS X installed (like me), then you can no longer play the copy of Zork you downloaded from Infocom’s website. You can still install the Zork engine and play via the Terminal. However, if you’re too lazy to do that (also like me), you can still play a web-based version at iFiction.
