This week I’m hacking through some more (mostly) useless trivia – this time about WarGames. My favorite nugget… I’ll tell you how they recorded the computer voice for Joshua. So, shall we play a game?
16.08.2021
520 Comments
One additional thing about the phone number they used on the robo dialer besides 311 not being a valid area code is the prefix 767 is also not valid. That was the first three digits of the old POPCORN that we used to call to get the exact time in the old days.
One thing that I doubt many knew that Matthew Brockerick earned some more money when he helped program the computer (can't remember which ones) so no matter what he punched up on the keyboard it would always come out what needed to be on the computer screen.
When the movie first came out i was 14 and the screen on the war board it showed you every single scenario on a first nuclear strike on every country ..i didn't know it at the time that fortunately only a handful of countrys are in the nuclear club ..so for example iran nuke Israel wouldn't happen ..Joshua has been playing ww3 as a game but only those countrys that possess that unholly weapon when it went through tick tac toe or nought and crosses as we say in the uk it most he most have became desperate and tying to find a winning solution to the game coming up with countrys that don't or cant defend them self's with such a weapon ..in the end the winning move is not to play …unless of course joshua is upgraded to skynet cyberdine systems😎
This is the first real "Hollywood" movie role in Michael Madsen's career, he was the minute man that pulled the gun in the missile silo. He actually had a lead role in a little known film the year before called Against All Hope that is just awful, some unknown indie movie, was not in theaters as I recall, don't even bother watching it.
0:30 not only was it possible it was plausible, plus it could also happen. plus the movie wargames. lol riiiight. like there was nothing going on before this.
You touched on this fact but kinda skipped over it. NORAD changed its internal design after the movie came out. Namely, the large interactive monitors and tiered work stations were added. There were several movies from the 80s that inspired the military, like Predator.
Maybe a movie in a rigth moment. And with no brigth side: trivilizate the real problems of fails tecnical and human in many ocations REAL, we should to know and dont forget…Bye
That last statement about DefCon was misleading. When I enlisted in the USAF in 1975, I was taught the five Defense Conditions and their code names including: DEFCON 1 — COCKED PISTOL — Maximum readiness. Immediate response. (Nuclear war is about to occur or has already begun.) That was not made up for this movie. It was a military reality that was first revealed to the public in WarGames. As a side note: I also learned in 1975 that the code name for a nuclear weapons accident was "Broken Arrow" which was revealed to the public in, and became the title of a movie in 1996.
I used “Strange game. The only winning move is not to play” to explain to my daughters why I stopped engaging with their grandmother (my mother-in-law) and later as a general description of my attitude towards people who live to pull you into their drama. 🤪
Nicely done… You left out a few things that I can think of. Professor Falken "was into games as well as computers". After years of research he built Joshua (the W.O.P.R.) and "taught it" to play games that use basic strategy. Just Google "machine learning" and fill in the blanks. Cheers.
Wargames was actually a good example of the kind of WW3, Russian/US nuclear annihilation paranoia, fear and anxiety that was prevalent in the early 80's. Reagan and the GOP fueled it. (As usual) The 80's weren't always Flock of Seagulls hair and Commodore 64's. Oh, and I was shocked by how terribly uncomfortable it was watching Ready Player One. It was like watching and listening to misinformed archaeologists commenting about some forgotten civilization. Spielberg should have picked up on that awkwardness. I mean, the guy practically invented 80's cinema.
Minute 10:57 June 2nd 2020 Thank you for posting this. Ah! Now I understand the whistleblower talk in Washington D.C AND The current Robocalls millions of people are exposed to. Darn. I should have saved that can piece opener from the 1980's to make a free phone call at a random phone booth. Who am I working with? Nobody. But they won't believe me. 😪 👽
On the DVD commentary track they mention they guessed at the ordering of the DEFCON signs. But they guessed wrong – they had 5 at the top, but in fact, the actual scale has 1 to 5 going down.
I don't know where you get your "facts" from but the term firewall in computing was initially used by the same research team that invented TCP/IP the basis of the internet. In inventing the protocol they acknowledged an exploitable flaw in it and so created the worlds first computer firewall to go along with it.
It had literally nothing to do with the movie war games which took existing terminology and put them on screen for a mainstream audience. It didn't invent any.
I think I read somewhere that they used projectors for the screens in the war room and you can see some of the screens move a little bit like somebody bumped into the projector while filming.
There's actually a guy who spend about 30 years looking for the actual magazine (name, year and issue number) that appears on the diner scene, were David Lightman finds the Protovision (fictional company) number to start the war dialing. The magazine is Creative Computing Vol. 8 No. 9 (September 1982). All the process and reasoning he took to re-discover the exact issue is related on his website which i stumbled upon also making some research on the fonts used for the Protovision Ad. This is his website: http://mw.rat.bz/wgmag/
One additional thing about the phone number they used on the robo dialer besides 311 not being a valid area code is the prefix 767 is also not valid. That was the first three digits of the old POPCORN that we used to call to get the exact time in the old days.
One thing that I doubt many knew that Matthew Brockerick earned some more money when he helped program the computer (can't remember which ones) so no matter what he punched up on the keyboard it would always come out what needed to be on the computer screen.
Cool Thanks
When the movie first came out i was 14 and the screen on the war board it showed you every single scenario on a first nuclear strike on every country ..i didn't know it at the time that fortunately only a handful of countrys are in the nuclear club ..so for example iran nuke Israel wouldn't happen ..Joshua has been playing ww3 as a game but only those countrys that possess that unholly weapon when it went through tick tac toe or nought and crosses as we say in the uk it most he most have became desperate and tying to find a winning solution to the game coming up with countrys that don't or cant defend them self's with such a weapon ..in the end the winning move is not to play …unless of course joshua is upgraded to skynet cyberdine systems😎
This is the first real "Hollywood" movie role in Michael Madsen's career, he was the minute man that pulled the gun in the missile silo.
He actually had a lead role in a little known film the year before called Against All Hope that is just awful, some unknown indie movie, was not in theaters as I recall, don't even bother watching it.
They could have saved half of that million dollar most expensive set build if they had it setup like the real one lol
0:30 not only was it possible it was plausible, plus it could also happen. plus the movie wargames. lol riiiight. like there was nothing going on before this.
0:34 beep boop boop beep
0:58 thanks for saying the same exact thing as the movie. except you didnt have to say it….because the guy said it. wow.
1:15 bro you repeat yourself wayyyy too much. redundancy does not an interesting thing make.
this would be a great trivia vid except for the slow dialogue and…well, the slow maker of the video. you need some pointers.
Shall We Play A Game? WWG1WGA.
the defcon numbers are used the wrong way
they go 5 to 1 instead of 1 to 5
The only winning move is not to play: MGTOW!
I always wondered about the Jeep wreck. It looked too real.
One of the most influential movies ever
Broderick costarred with the actor playing Falcan in Ladyhawk inthat movie he played the Bishop
awesome facts!
You touched on this fact but kinda skipped over it. NORAD changed its internal design after the movie came out. Namely, the large interactive monitors and tiered work stations were added. There were several movies from the 80s that inspired the military, like Predator.
The NORAD set is worth every penny of it’s budget: amazing then, amazing now.
Maybe a movie in a rigth moment. And with no brigth side: trivilizate the real problems of fails tecnical and human in many ocations REAL, we should to know and dont forget…Bye
This was really good! So glad I have the dvd because I have to watch it again now! : )
That last statement about DefCon was misleading. When I enlisted in the USAF in 1975, I was taught the five Defense Conditions and their code names including: DEFCON 1 — COCKED PISTOL — Maximum readiness. Immediate response. (Nuclear war is about to occur or has already begun.) That was not made up for this movie. It was a military reality that was first revealed to the public in WarGames. As a side note: I also learned in 1975 that the code name for a nuclear weapons accident was "Broken Arrow" which was revealed to the public in, and became the title of a movie in 1996.
There is an episode of American Dad where Roger has Stan read the lines from the swimming from the island scene to help him learn how to act.
I used “Strange game. The only winning move is not to play” to explain to my daughters why I stopped engaging with their grandmother (my mother-in-law) and later as a general description of my attitude towards people who live to pull you into their drama. 🤪
Trivia: Matthew Broderick learned how to type to make his performance of David Lightman believable.
Trivia: – This move (WarGames) woke america up to the insanity of Mutually Assured Destruction. "The only winning move is not to play!"
There is a fundimental flaw in the human condition; "Crazy people do not know they are crazy." (You know; "Military Intelligence"!)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DEFCON
You need more subscribers! Your videos are very well made
Nothing about that great scene with Spencer and Madsen? Somebody get me NORAD on the phone!!
Very good!
16 things I don't need to know? Then why am I watching this?
This video was actually really interesting – thank you. Absolutely love this movie, always have, and there were a few things here I didn't know!
Nicely done… You left out a few things that I can think of. Professor Falken "was into games as well as computers". After years of research he built Joshua (the W.O.P.R.) and "taught it" to play games that use basic strategy. Just Google "machine learning" and fill in the blanks. Cheers.
remember how his dad used bread to butter the corn on the cob? i never seen that before.
Wargames was actually a good example of the kind of WW3, Russian/US
nuclear annihilation paranoia, fear and anxiety that was prevalent in
the early 80's. Reagan and the GOP fueled it. (As usual) The 80's
weren't always Flock of Seagulls hair and Commodore 64's. Oh, and I was
shocked by how terribly uncomfortable it was watching Ready Player One.
It was like watching and listening to misinformed archaeologists
commenting about some forgotten civilization. Spielberg should have
picked up on that awkwardness. I mean, the guy practically invented 80's
cinema.
Minute 10:57
June 2nd 2020
Thank you for posting this.
Ah! Now I understand the whistleblower talk in Washington D.C
AND
The current Robocalls millions of people are exposed to.
Darn. I should have saved that can piece opener from the 1980's to make a free phone call at a random phone booth.
Who am I working with? Nobody.
But they won't believe me. 😪 👽
anybody else try to get a free phone call with a tab from a soda can?
On the DVD commentary track they mention they guessed at the ordering of the DEFCON signs. But they guessed wrong – they had 5 at the top, but in fact, the actual scale has 1 to 5 going down.
You were wrong on the Jeep accident. It happened in Newhalem Washington. Up in the North Cascade National Park.
Damn I miss the 80s
I don't know where you get your "facts" from but the term firewall in computing was initially used by the same research team that invented TCP/IP the basis of the internet. In inventing the protocol they acknowledged an exploitable flaw in it and so created the worlds first computer firewall to go along with it.
It had literally nothing to do with the movie war games which took existing terminology and put them on screen for a mainstream audience. It didn't invent any.
A brilliant film.It seems to realise that a nuclear war could happen by accident. That could still happen today.
I’m so fascinated with everybody’s computer experiences!
I think I read somewhere that they used projectors for the screens in the war room and you can see some of the screens move a little bit like somebody bumped into the projector while filming.
i will not miss those 5.25 floppies
There's actually a guy who spend about 30 years looking for the actual magazine (name, year and issue number) that appears on the diner scene, were David Lightman finds the Protovision (fictional company) number to start the war dialing. The magazine is Creative Computing Vol. 8 No. 9 (September 1982). All the process and reasoning he took to re-discover the exact issue is related on his website which i stumbled upon also making some research on the fonts used for the Protovision Ad. This is his website: http://mw.rat.bz/wgmag/
:47 Is that Mrs. Doubtfire? In red and on the left of the screen?
The computer sounds like my little sister's speak & spell!
This is the only time the term "hacker" has been used correctly.