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Starring the Computer

starringthecomputer.com

276 pointsgitowiec56 comments

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.

[1] https://woodysprops.com/item.php?uid=122&page=4

> You can also visit our site on your mobile phone!

Similar: https://www.imcdb.org/ IMCDB, the Internet Movie Car Database

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)

This says PDP-7. https://www.reddit.com/r/westworld/comments/56tkt8/what_prog...

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.

Reminds me of the fake computers (and TV's) in furniture stores that were made of cardboard

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].

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qicQUvSUbPM

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)

Cool, what video?

It's "Rain" (1993)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15kWlTrpt5k

With Ryûichi Sakamoto as The Director.

He’s the reason Mogwai have a track called “Ritchie Sacramento”

Thanks for this tidbit!

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.

https://www.starringthecomputer.com/computer.html?c=64

"A machine of this make was Yelena's choice to confirm Xander's car payment and facilitate image uploads of Yorgi's safe!"

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.

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)

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.

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?

iPhones and MacBooks are likely to be in movies next year.

Bold prediction. ;)

The more interesting question would be, what non-mainstream tech makes it to any popular movie? My guess would be Meta glasses.

You're right and they are so boring to look at.

I love the look of so many 70's-90's home computers. I'd love to be able to buy something like a Commodore PET or ICON for my kitchen. The ICON with it's trackball would be great but nobody makes a case like that.

I also happen to think they would look great on set...

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.

No Cray appearances? Surprising.

Sneakers.

https://www.reddit.com/r/MovieDetails/comments/95izj7/sneake...

On the 'help' page, the Cray-like machine from the film Sneakers is listed under "Honourable mentions":

https://www.starringthecomputer.com/help.html

From the site:

> The following films do not appear on the site because I believe the computers they feature are mock ups and therefore do not qualify.

That seems like an odd distinction if it's clearly portraying a Cray. It's not like we have any proof that e.g. the Commodore 64 used in Mr. Robot was the real deal.

Tron https://digibarn.com/collections///systems/crays/cray1/Cray-...

Huh. I always thought that there was a Cray in Wargames.

It looks spiritually similar to a CM-1 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connection_Machine), but I think WOPR predates the Connection Machine. Still, watching Wargames and seeing WOPR always reminds me of a story my college hardware prof told about one of the early Connection Machines - that the LEDs were a busy signal, one for each processor. Supposedly there wasn’t enough power to have them all on at the same time, and they discovered it debugging someone’s parallel algorithm that appeared to crash the machine when, as they finally figured out, the algorithm at one point used all the processors simultaneously.

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."

Poor lil Acorn Atom only made it into an actual microcomputer doumentary and if it were not for that, nothing.

Edged out by the Oric Atmos, which is rightfully one of the most desirable of the bunch.

This site is amazing!

I was in Pendleton, Oregon the other day and checked out a vintage shop that had an Apple IIe with original disk drive and monitor for sale... along with lots of Macs from the 90s. I couldn't believe I was looking at "antiques".

My fav. so far is the IMSAI 8080 in "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" (2007).

My 90s Macintosh was in How to make a killing (2026). I should put it up there.

Pairs nicely with https://accessmaincomputerfile.net/ (although that site might not be working any longer).

Ones in the List I have used :)

* CDC 6600

* DEC VAX 11/780 (IIRC)

* Honeywell H200, did not expect to see this on the list

* IBM S/370 (IIRC)

* IBM/Lenovo Thinkpads - 760, T43, T420, T61, W500

* Wang Professional Computer - these were bomb proof. I had a 16 bit Unix running on this.

* Wang WLTC

For me, the Atari ST, the Commodore +/4, the Commodore 64 etc. I am saddened that the Dragon 32 never made it onto the silver screen.

Wang WPC: - Oh, what a wonderful thing WIIS was.

(Still got my Oric Atmos though, still using it..)

I really want more info on the computers from Fallout and Cowboy Bebop. Some look original, but some of the background pieces I reckon might be 3d printed nostalgia pieces.

“sort by year” is buried on the site, but definitely a fun way to sort

there should also be a “you can spot the villain early since they’re the only one not using Apple” sub-list

The sort by year option, since it took me a while to find it: https://www.starringthecomputer.com/featuresyear.html

I found ZX Spectrum! And it was not popular in movies

Wasn’t there a PowerBook in Blade (I)?

Amazing how long the Apple II list is (with its variants), and how short the Dell list is!

Funny to consider how many Apples are showcased on Apple TV shows. I think the most ridiculous one was "For All Mankind" where civilization was so advanced it featured colonies on the Moon and Mars... yet used current Apple phones and devices. How unimaginative.

I feel like the movie Hackers should have more entries.

Its kinda sad that I've owned 26 of them. :-)

Commodore 64 film list is really impressive.. .

Atari ST, Jason Bourne in the hacker space

No listing for Wargames?

Of course: [https://www.starringthecomputer.com/feature.html?f=10]

No IBM PC references? Not one?

I mean the 5150 pc not the 5160 XT they mention.

Huh. IMFDB but for computers. I like it.

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