# 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:** 10\ **Page:** 4
**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:** [January 4, 2019, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-black-mirror-drops-tomorrow-12-28-18/826782/61 "2019-01-04T20:59:51Z")
> [@Hypno-Toad](#): > > 321 Contact was a PBS children’s science show. [Which had a magazine associated with it, which, in the later years, did have BASIC programs (imported from another magazine that went out of print).](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3-2-1_Contact#Magazine) ---
**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 4, 2019, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-black-mirror-drops-tomorrow-12-28-18/826782/62 "2019-01-04T22:10:06Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#): > > [Which had a magazine associated with it, which, in the later years, did have BASIC programs (imported from another magazine that went out of print).](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3-2-1_Contact#Magazine) Yeah, the section was called “Enter” and [you can find it online](http://www.petesqbsite.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=1110). [Archive.org](http://Archive.org) also has the original (separate) magazine Enter online in its archives to peruse. I don’t remember there being a lot of text games, though. Most of the BASIC programs were really short bits of code and not something as extensive as even a rudimentary text adventure. But I haven’t seen all the issues. I do remember, though, that the whole of Scott Adams’ _Adventureland_ was printed as a type-in BASIC program in some magazine, but I can’t remember which. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2019, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-black-mirror-drops-tomorrow-12-28-18/826782/63 "2019-01-07T16:18:18Z")
> [@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. Same here. I was pleasantly surprised overall, but after a while it felt endless and kind of frustrating. I guess the concept is not new to gamers but I have never been exposed to the whole interactive / choose your own ending thing so on that score I thought it was fascinating. Has any other show used this format? ---
**Author:** ![Dorjan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dorjan/32/12440_2.png) [@Dorjan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dorjan)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2019, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-black-mirror-drops-tomorrow-12-28-18/826782/64 "2019-01-07T16:33:28Z")
“Enter” Magazine. Some (if not all) the issues are on [archive.org](http://archive.org): [Enter Magazine : Free Texts : Free Download, Borrow and Streaming : Internet Archive](https://archive.org/details/enter-magazine) ---
**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:** [January 7, 2019, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-black-mirror-drops-tomorrow-12-28-18/826782/65 "2019-01-07T19:13:51Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > Has any other show used this format? Netflix has done interactive episodes of a couple of their kids shows - The Adventures of Puss in Boots and Buddy Thunderstruck - although the interactive elements were incorporated differently - the story pauses during the countdown, and the characters discuss the choices. (Also, of course, the major unique aspect of these is not the interactive element, but calling them ‘interactive movies/episodes’, rather than games or visual novels.) ---
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2019, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-black-mirror-drops-tomorrow-12-28-18/826782/66 "2019-01-07T19:20:15Z")
I’m not really a fan of this kind of fiction. I prefer to be more passive and get lost in the story. One problem I had was that the segments were long enough that I would be lost in the story and then have to snap back to reality to make a choice. And then everyone in the room is giving their input on which choice to pick. I almost think it would have been better to have more frequent choices so we all stay in the ‘choose’ mode rather than ‘watch’ mode. ---
**Author:** ![Driver8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5a626/32.png) [@Driver8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Driver8)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2019, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-black-mirror-drops-tomorrow-12-28-18/826782/67 "2019-01-07T23:37:52Z")
> [@filmore](#): > > I’m not really a fan of this kind of fiction. I prefer to be more passive and get lost in the story. One problem I had was that the segments were long enough that I would be lost in the story and then have to snap back to reality to make a choice. And then everyone in the room is giving their input on which choice to pick. I almost think it would have been better to have more frequent choices so we all stay in the ‘choose’ mode rather than ‘watch’ mode. This mirrors (ha!) my impression. I found reaching for the remote and having to make a choice jarring after watching the lengthy segments of more traditional narrative. I did think it was neat that my control was reflected in the protagonist’s freak-outs. But I’ve enjoyed equally cerebral thought experiments in the “standard” Black Mirror episodes too. The cost didn’t cover the benefits in my opinion. ---
**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 8, 2019, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-black-mirror-drops-tomorrow-12-28-18/826782/68 "2019-01-08T01:57:26Z")
Another interesting Easter egg I read about today - in the ending where Stefan listens to his Bandersnatch demo on the bus, the sound that plays is actual ZX Spectrum code which, if you isolate it and plug it into an emulator, launches as a playable version of “Nohzdyve”. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2019, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-black-mirror-drops-tomorrow-12-28-18/826782/69 "2019-01-10T09:25:25Z")
I thought it was brilliant. I was shocked to see this had a rating of 7.6 on IMDB. Because it was ambitious, smart, interesting, and engaging. They could’ve simply done a normalish black mirror episode with a few choose your own story elements, and it would’ve been fine, but they really made it mentally engaging by examining concepts of an unreliable narrator (mentally ill), making the perception of reality complex, dealing with multiple levels of recursiveness (the book, the game, the meta-aspect of questioning free will and determination). In particular, the LSD scene was one of the most well-shot, compelling scenes I’ve ever seen. It’s hard to say this without sounding like an asshole, but I have to guess a decent fraction of the audience weren’t really willing to invest the mental effort into being engrossed in it and thought it to be a confusing mess. Which isn’t to say that a savvy person couldn’t find it flawed, but the average reaction to it seems (unfairly) underwhelmed to me. It doesn’t feel like a pioneering test run into a new way of storytelling, it seems like a deep dive would after we’ve already examined less complex versions of the choose your own adventure movie. But that’s exactly what it was. And so it may stifle the potential of the choose your own adventure genre simply by already being so ambitious and executing so well. Less ambitious attempts at this method of storytelling wouldn’t compare favorably to it. ---
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2019, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-black-mirror-drops-tomorrow-12-28-18/826782/70 "2019-01-10T16:39:30Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > It’s hard to say this without sounding like an asshole, but I have to guess a decent fraction of the audience weren’t really willing to invest the mental effort into being engrossed in it and thought it to be a confusing mess. Which isn’t to say that a savvy person couldn’t find it flawed, but the average reaction to it seems (unfairly) underwhelmed to me. I would agree with this. It’s a storytelling genre which I don’t generally enjoy, so I’m not surprised I didn’t find it all that great. It might be like taking someone to the opera who doesn’t like opera. For the people who like this kind of genre, I can see why you would like it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-black-mirror-drops-tomorrow-12-28-18/826782.md?page=3)