HAL9000-4

Being a lifelong Bill Nighy fan, I expected more from this film. I find the premise difficult to believe -- that in 1955 there was such a clamour for an "arts center" that it would overtake everything else. I believe that sort of idea didn't even arise until the 1970s.

While Jason's work to preserve the viewpoints and images of early creators before it's too late is commendable, I watched it with a set of friends who never saw the games in action. For them, it was just odd and a little intriguing, but as we watched the whole 90+ minutes in non- interactive mode there was boredom in the room. Not having experienced the thrill of the chase, it meant not that much to them.

However, myself having experienced many of the early games in my teens and early 20s, it was a great look back at what was an obsession. Granted, I never finished most interactive fiction games because I might be willing to put 5 or 6 hours into it but not 20 or 30 hours so I guess that makes me stupid.

I agree with the other reviewer who said there were opportunities missed to link it with games that evolved out, such as King's Quest, which were a hybrid of text and graphics. Why the bias against that? Also, to be fair, remember David Ahl's "BASIC Computer Games" which had the text of some 300 text games to type in. Many of them, such as Hunt The Wumpus, contained many Adventuresque elements.

Even so, I applaud Jason for having the tenacity of going after his early heroes and definitively linking Collosal Cave system to Adventure for all time.