Discussion summary
A website similar to IMDb but focused on computers in films was discussed, highlighting various computer models and their appearances. Users noted the prominence of Apple computers and the lack of certain references.
What the discussion says
- Many users appreciated the detailed lists of computers in films.
- Some pointed out missing references, like IBM PC and Wargames.
- Discussion about the prominence of Apple computers in media.
- Users shared personal experiences with owning or recognizing computers.
- Comments on the portrayal of advanced civilizations with Apple technology.
“IMFDB but for computers. I like it.”
“No IBM PC references? Not one?”
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- Hacker News
- Poor lil Acorn Atom only made it into an actual microcomputer doumentary and if it were not for that, nothing.by hahahaa
- Edged out by the Oric Atmos, which is rightfully one of the most desirable of the bunch.by MomsAVoxell
- No Cray appearances? Surprising.by hamburglar
- Huh. I always thought that there was a Cray in Wargames.by baal80spam
- by andrehacker
- by pieterr
- Jurassic Park had a Thinking Machines CM-5.
https://www.starringthecomputer.com/computer.html?c=15
"The lights flash just like they do normally, although it's hard to understand why a theme park needs a supercomputer."
:D
by brianpan - What computers available today look interesting enough that they will show up in movies next year?
Clicking through random computers I think the 80’s had a lot of really beautiful hardware.
I think it might be fun to buy an IBM PS/2 case and try to put modern hardware inside. I’d love to have that on my desk. Come to think of it, there must be companies making retro-looking cases…. If you search for retro computer case you get a bunch of boring 90’s towers. Where’s the fun stuff?
by criddell - iPhones and MacBooks are likely to be in movies next year.by charcircuit
- My favorite contemporaneous example of "current real technology being pitched as the future" are the Thrustmaster HOTAS Warthog joystick and throttle controls, which are visible in so much modern stuff.
I've got them on the shelf next to my television (for DCS sessions) so whenever the stick or the throttle control appears in, say our current favorite show .. "Alien:Earth" .. one of us gets up and disengages the action on the screen as the watching session running gag. ;)
Great controllers, amusing movie props.
by MomsAVoxell - This is a really impressive amount of effort. Every entry has a fairly even quality to it...screen grabs and contextual descriptions of even one-off episodes of television shows, yet alone decades worth of movies.by jfultz
- I remember seeing the TRS-80's in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou but I didn't know that they were Model IV's.
According to this list, there was a TRS-80 Model III in the Star Wars TV series Andor:
Andor - Season 1, Episode 1, "Kassa" (2022)
by jim_lawless - I spotted at least one touch-screen PC. Is that still a computer? Just kidding.
Pocket Computers are computers, why are they not in there?
There is even a trope due to a legal practice about Apples subclass of pocket calculators: iPhones are only worn by good guys in movies, that is a rule by Apple that possibly spoils some twists.
by a3w - What timing. I was just preparing my Sony Vaio PCT-C1MHP only yesterday to try and sell. I remember seeing this in a movie around 2000 (probably Charlies Angels) and got one.by martin-adams
- "A machine of this make was Yelena's choice to confirm Xander's car payment and facilitate image uploads of Yorgi's safe!"by spankibalt
- While not a movie, a bunch of NeXT Cubes (at least the monitors) were used in a Madonna video --- apparently some production company got a good deal on machines intended for Japan (hence the katakana interface)by WillAdams
- Cool, what video?by emchammer
- Fun Fact: in king of queens, most of the pcs (for example airport episode with doug's parents) are just RCT tvs with paper printout of a screen taped over it.by ssenssei
- Reminds me of the fake computers (and TV's) in furniture stores that were made of cardboardby bluedino
- PCs (and screens in general, particularly old CRTs) are a b*tch and a half to film.
You typically film at E.G. 21 FPS, while your PC runs at 50 / 60 (which isn't an integer multiple of 21), so you get Vsyncs somewhere during each frame, making each filmed frame a superposition of two frames onscreen. You also have to be careful about how long the film is exposed for, as, on a CRT screen, the electron gun goes left-to-right, top-to-bottom, and the top-left corner of the frame is no longer visible when the gun reaches bottom-right. If your film isn't exposed for the entire duration of the frame, parts of it may never be visible.
This is why there was a cottage industry of PCs and PC monitors designed to run at Hollywood frame rates. Cathode Ray Dude has an excellent video on why this was a problem and how the problem was solved[1].
by miki123211 - Ha! A couple decades ago I saw the original Westworld, spotted some assembly, and thought it looked like 6502/Apple II code, so I assumed that was “probably” it and thought I was a clever nerd. Now I check this list and discovered it wasn’t 6502, and then realized the 6502 (1975) didn’t exist at the time the movie was shot (1973). Reviewed some scenes just now on YouTube and I can see it doesn’t look like 6502 code at all. It does look like the assembly might be the code behind some of the animated displays that look like old screen savers that you see on the other monitors in the film, perhaps, based on a few comments & variables in the code. (For example: https://youtu.be/Luo3uEVOahw?t=2645)by dahart
- This says PDP-7. https://www.reddit.com/r/westworld/comments/56tkt8/what_prog...
- Similar: https://www.imcdb.org/ IMCDB, the Internet Movie Car Databaseby roughly
- IBM's AN-FSQ-7 panels from 1950s SAGE have shown up in a huge number of movies. They are still showing up in new movies. Woody's Electrical Props in LA rents them out.[1]
Those slanted panels aren't the computer. Those are the modems.
by Animats - > You can also visit our site on your mobile phone!by nightfly