Get Lamp - The Text Adventure Documentary

If you don't have any fond memories of those classic text games, you missed out. I was lurking the internet for information regarding the implementors (infocom/text adventure designers) of times past. To my pleasant surprise, I found out about an upcoming documentary on the storytellers and history of the genre. 

Thanks to Jason Scott, the world will soon get a glimpse of a now seemingly small but very important slice of the gaming industry with his newest documentary "Get Lamp". In an email from Jason, he expressed huge progress and an update to his blog this month. For status on the project, to offer support, or if you have anything to contribute, you can contact Jason at jason@textfiles.com

Jason Scott is also the director of "BBS: The Documentary" which can be found at bbsdocumentary.com.

Steve Meretzky Does Nerdcore

Due to the  advent of "Get Lamp", I came across a music video with Steve Meretzky in it. Steve Meretzky is responsible for a few infocom games text in the 80's including, Planetfall, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and Zork Zero. You can see his site at Boffo.

Jason Scott's documentary seems to have breifly given new life to the interest of this whole genre, albeit a small following still. I've never even heard about Nerdcore until I saw this MC Frontalot video, in which Steve Meretzky makes an appearance towards the end. Regardless of your preference in music, I thought this was an interesting event in the history of this subject.

Goovie! 岐阜 × 動画

One of my favorite places in Japan is Gifu Prefecture (岐阜県). So, I was pleased to stumble across a website called Goovie (sounds like a combination of Gifu and movie). Primarily it is movies of things going on in Gifu. For someone like me this is the perfect way to see some of the things I miss.

Go over to Goovie.jp and check it out , they only have a handful of movies up right now, but please support them and subscribe to their Twitter and Youtube.

JAPADOG!

If you are in Vancouver and your hot dog tastes like sushi, you are in the right place.

I found out about Japadog on The Weather Channel of all places. Located in Vancouver, and with the advent of the Olympics, this is sure to catch on worldwide. From what I saw, there was a 20 minute wait in line at the hot dog stand. More info and history at the Japadog website.

Cream puffs from Osaka - ビアード パパ

These sounded to good not to post about them. In 1999 Yuji Hirota opened the Beard Papa store in Osaka selling the perfect cream puff.. 11 years later I am just finding out about this. I doubt I will know for sure how perfect they are anytime soon, as most of the locations that sell these in the U.S., are in California, Florida, and Hawaii. For now I will just have to drool on the website. Check out the Beard papa websites in ENGLISH and 日本語.