For those of us who started their hacker careers in the 1980s, documentaries like Jason Scott’s Get Lamp and BBS are a pure sentimental pleasure. They cover technologies we grew up with, participated in, which gave us our impetus in the field. Their authenticity separates them from a routine TV show: the interviews are given by the real people who built and championed all that great early home computer stuff. However, Jason is a talented enough to weave them into stories that are interesting to non-specialists too. My dear lady wife has enjoyed whole chunks of the BBS documentary.

The documentaries are CC-licensed, so you can watch/try them for free. If you like them, toss some bucks Jason’s way and get the disks.