# New Black Mirror drops tomorrow! (12/28/18) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 27, 2018, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-black-mirror-drops-tomorrow-12-28-18/826782 "2018-12-27T13:18:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2018, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-black-mirror-drops-tomorrow-12-28-18/826782/41 "2018-12-31T21:49:12Z")
Overall very good. The one complaint I have is that when you reach at story ending, at least for me and maybe it was my setup, it did not make it clear the the story had ended. It just arced back to a previous place (usually with him waking up in his bed). Made me think that the playback messed up. I had to get on here to understand that the story had ended. I also don’t understand that why in some iterations the game is found to be great, in some average, and in some terrible. It was the same game in every choice. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2018, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-black-mirror-drops-tomorrow-12-28-18/826782/42 "2018-12-31T22:09:54Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > Overall very good. The one complaint I have is that when you reach at story ending, at least for me and maybe it was my setup, it did not make it clear the the story had ended. > > It just arced back to a previous place (usually with him waking up in his bed). Made me think that the playback messed up. I had to get on here to understand that the story had ended. > > I also don’t understand that why in some iterations the game is found to be great, in some average, and in some terrible. It was the same game in every choice. If you get automatically rewound then it’s not really an “ending”. The proper endings have a choice of watching the credits or rewinding. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2018, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-black-mirror-drops-tomorrow-12-28-18/826782/43 "2018-12-31T22:10:33Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > I also don’t understand that why in some iterations the game is found to be great, in some average, and in some terrible. It was the same game in every choice. No, it wasn’t. It was specifically called out as incomplete, rushed, or halfassed (all different forms of bad) in several of the bad reviews, some versions were created after either a complete psychotic break, or complete understanding of the universe (which would result in a very different game) and one version involved completely stripping the element of choice, just keeping the illusion (this is a standard technique in game design, and can be either good or bad). ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2018, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-black-mirror-drops-tomorrow-12-28-18/826782/44 "2018-12-31T22:29:03Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > My only irk was questioning why the hell they’re programming these commercial games in BASIC!? (I know, visually it works better, but I kept thinking, ‘what kind of amateur computer gaming outfit is this?’ Assembly!) > [@Wired interview](#): > > Much of this meant recreating the world of Brooker’s childhood – England in the 1980s. Brooker was raised in Oxfordshire, not London, but like Stefan he had a ZX Spectrum and was obsessed with games and trying to work out how to code. In a way, McLean says, “Bandersnatch” is a Charlie Brooker biopic. > > When I ask Brooker whether he agrees, he deflects the question to Jones. “This is your world, and your era,” she says to Brooker. “The number of conversations we’ve fucking had about Spectrum games and the sound a Spectrum makes and ‘It wouldn’t make a sound like that if you were pressing that button there’, and ‘It wouldn’t load anything like that’.” > > “The contempt is interesting isn’t it?”\*\* Brooker jokes, although he admits that he finds the episode’s inaccuracies slightly painful. Stefan programmes his game in BASIC, which would never really happen, he says, and the error codes that appear on screen are completely made up. \*\*“The level of detail that you have revealed to us about your knowledge of this world is shameful,” Jones says. > **[The inside story of Bandersnatch, the weirdest Black Mirror tale yet](https://www.wired.com/story/bandersnatch-black-mirror-episode-explained/)** > > To create the first choose-your-own-adventure episode of Black Mirror, Charlie Brooker and his team had to reinvent how television is made …Charlie Brooker hears, acknowledges and shares your pain 😃 ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2018, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-black-mirror-drops-tomorrow-12-28-18/826782/45 "2018-12-31T22:33:35Z")
> [@Richard\_Pearse](#): > > If you get automatically rewound then it’s not really an “ending”. The proper endings have a choice of watching the credits or rewinding. That doesn’t make much sense. For example: [Spoiler]In one scenario, he wakes up and believes he is being controlled. He asks “Who are you?” and (if you choose it) “Netflix” is controlling him. His father takes him to the doctor and then comes the fight scene (no matter what you pick) and his father then drags him out of the doctor’s office with him screaming at the viewer (or, if you have him try to jump out the window, he is an actor on set). At least on mine, it then loops back to him waking up in his bed and doing the same “Who are you?” routine. If you keep picking Netflix the movie will last for all eternity.[/spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2018, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-black-mirror-drops-tomorrow-12-28-18/826782/46 "2018-12-31T23:11:40Z")
> [@Banquet\_Bear](#): > > [The inside story of Bandersnatch, the weirdest Black Mirror episode yet | WIRED](https://www.wired.co.uk/article/bandersnatch-black-mirror-episode-explained) > > …Charlie Brooker hears, acknowledges and shares your pain 😃 Heh. Nice link. To be absolutely fair, occasionally you’d get a BASIC program on cassette in one of those bargain basement software bins. (I remember some crap collections of games, like five games on tape or something, for like $5. Mostly awful stuff, but occasionally some of the early text adventures would be written in BASIC. Like I’m pretty sure at least the early Scott Adams [not the Dilbert guy] Adventure series was written in BASIC. Wikipedia says it _Adventureland_ was written in 1978 for the TRS-80 in BASIC and was the first text adventure for the home computer market. Not sure if any of the follow-ups were or not.) ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2018, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-black-mirror-drops-tomorrow-12-28-18/826782/47 "2018-12-31T23:53:26Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > That doesn’t make much sense. For example: > > [Spoiler]In one scenario, he wakes up and believes he is being controlled. He asks “Who are you?” and (if you choose it) “Netflix” is controlling him. His father takes him to the doctor and then comes the fight scene (no matter what you pick) and his father then drags him out of the doctor’s office with him screaming at the viewer (or, if you have him try to jump out the window, he is an actor on set). > > At least on mine, it then loops back to him waking up in his bed and doing the same “Who are you?” routine. If you keep picking Netflix the movie will last for all eternity.[/spoiler] Pretty sure I got a credit ending from Netflix. Could be an issue with the device you are watching on. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2019, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-black-mirror-drops-tomorrow-12-28-18/826782/48 "2019-01-01T01:08:32Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I didn’t perceive that as “product placement” at all, but rather involving you more specifically in the story. After all, like you said, you’re watching it on Netflix, so I think it’s pretty cool that Netflix itself is mentioned. Makes it all the more meta all around. Hell, if it could read what computer and operating system I was using to watch it and incorporate it into the episode, that’d be even cooler. It makes me feel more like I am a part of the actual story, rather than an observer. Obviously, your mileage varies. I took it pulykamell’s way as well. It made me feel part of the story and Stefan had already resisted doing one of my commands earlier. I told him to pull his ear and he didn’t. I told my wife at that point, “Ah, he feels us choosing for him.” So when Netflix came up, we loved it and told him. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2019, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-black-mirror-drops-tomorrow-12-28-18/826782/49 "2019-01-01T01:34:33Z")
I remember getting a kids’ magazine in the very early '90s where a regular installment would be a body of BASIC code that you could put into your computer to make a rudimentary text game, FWIW. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2019, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-black-mirror-drops-tomorrow-12-28-18/826782/50 "2019-01-03T00:14:15Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > At least on mine, it then loops back to him waking up in his bed and doing the same “Who are you?” routine. If you keep picking Netflix the movie will last for all eternity. Are you just assuming that, or did you actually pick Netflix a bunch of times? Because the system is more complicated than that. It’s got state. If you loop back and choose the same path, you don’t get _exactly_ the same results. Stuff you did on previous loops matters. One tiny bit I really enjoyed: when he watches the documentary about the author who went insane, the first second and a half of the tape is a taped-over commercial for breakfast cereal. It’s the same cereal you picked at the first choice point. I loved it. I agree it’s a love song to choose your own adventure books. I love that it’s mass entertainment that we all have a slightly different experience of. I love the recursiveness of watching/playing a choose-your-own adventure movie about a guy going insane while writing a choose-your-own adventure video game because someone is controlling his actions, adapting a choose-your-own adventure book written by someone who went insane because he thought someone was controlling his actions. The attempt to describe Netflix to someone in the 1980s was hilarious. “Streaming entertainment platform” is a borderline nonsense phrase. It may have helped that the first time I had that choice, Netflix wasn’t one of the options, so the second time through I laughed out loud. It’s like Netflix is playing a game with you just as you are playing a game with Stephan. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2019, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-black-mirror-drops-tomorrow-12-28-18/826782/51 "2019-01-03T00:28:40Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > I remember getting a kids’ magazine in the very early '90s where a regular installment would be a body of BASIC code that you could put into your computer to make a rudimentary text game, FWIW. Me too, in the late 80’s. I think it was Connect 1234 or something? ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2019, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-black-mirror-drops-tomorrow-12-28-18/826782/52 "2019-01-03T00:37:23Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Me too, in the late 80’s. I think it was Connect 1234 or something? I think it was 321 Contact now that I think a bit more. ---
**Author:** ![Biffster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biffster/32/339_2.png) [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2019, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-black-mirror-drops-tomorrow-12-28-18/826782/53 "2019-01-03T03:01:18Z")
> [@sohvan](#): > > I don’t think the novel exists, but Bandersnatch was a real computer game being developed in the 1980s. The company went bankrupt before it could be completed, and it’s believed the game was later finished with a different name. [Brataccas - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandersnatch_(video_game)) “Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun The frumious Bandersnatch!" It was also a real reference to a creative poem by Lewis Carroll from long ago. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2019, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-black-mirror-drops-tomorrow-12-28-18/826782/54 "2019-01-03T03:03:56Z")
> [@Biffster](#): > > “Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun > The frumious Bandersnatch!" > > It was also a real reference to a creative poem by Lewis Carroll from long ago. I should hope most of the dopers caught that reference. ---
**Author:** ![Biffster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biffster/32/339_2.png) [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2019, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-black-mirror-drops-tomorrow-12-28-18/826782/55 "2019-01-03T03:10:33Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > Overall very good. The one complaint I have is that when you reach at story ending, at least for me and maybe it was my setup, it did not make it clear the the story had ended. > > It just arced back to a previous place (usually with him waking up in his bed). Made me think that the playback messed up. I had to get on here to understand that the story had ended. > > I also don’t understand that why in some iterations the game is found to be great, in some average, and in some terrible. It was the same game in every choice. I think the better ratings came as a result of the amount of madness the creator endured while making it. The crazier Stephan got, the better the game turned out. I don’t think it was the same end product in all iterations. ---
**Author:** ![Biffster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biffster/32/339_2.png) [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2019, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-black-mirror-drops-tomorrow-12-28-18/826782/56 "2019-01-03T06:58:13Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > I think it was 321 Contact now that I think a bit more. Did it look like this? [https://youtu.be/s2-LEBc2sO8](https://youtu.be/s2-LEBc2sO8) ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2019, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-black-mirror-drops-tomorrow-12-28-18/826782/57 "2019-01-03T07:10:07Z")
I don’t play games such as “Call of Duty,” “Red Dead Redemption,” and whatnot, but I have sat through trailers and advertisements for that kind of game, and I notice that a lot of them have a CGI person, kind of like an NPC, who interacts with and makes conversational-type remarks to the player. Am I the only one who has noticed this about these trailers? Also, am I the only one who thought Colin was reminiscent of this type of character? If that was an intentional choice, it was brilliantly executed. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2019, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-black-mirror-drops-tomorrow-12-28-18/826782/58 "2019-01-04T06:53:04Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > I guess I’d give it _two-and-a-half stars out of five._ ISWYDT We watched it last night. I really enjoyed it. We found 4 endings, but I know there are more. Unfortunately for Stefan, I don’t think he ever reaches an ending where the game is well reviewed AND stays on the market. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2019, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-black-mirror-drops-tomorrow-12-28-18/826782/59 "2019-01-04T20:45:22Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > I think it was 321 Contact now that I think a bit more. 321 Contact was a PBS children’s science show. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2019, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-black-mirror-drops-tomorrow-12-28-18/826782/60 "2019-01-04T20:57:03Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > I also don’t understand that why in some iterations the game is found to be great, in some average, and in some terrible. It was the same game in every choice. I thought they explained fairly well that it was not the same game. When he chooses to work at Tuckersoft, he’s given a staff and the game is rushed into production and released, resulting in a too-short game that gets zero stars. When he works at home, makes progress, but later agrees to take the pills, which stifle his creativity, resulting in a game that starts out strong but fades due to the drugs, 2.5 stars. When he buries his Dad’s body, gets caught before he can finish it, they release the game unfinished, 2.5 stars When he chops up the body, takes his time finishing the game, it gets 5 stars, but then the body is discovered, the game is pulled from shelves. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-black-mirror-drops-tomorrow-12-28-18/826782.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-black-mirror-drops-tomorrow-12-28-18/826782.md?page=4)