4 ms·

'Bandersnatch': The Works That Inspired the 'Black Mirror' Interactive Feature (2019)

83 points by rafaepta 9mo ago

Retz4o4 9mo ago
Fantastically fun when it was released.
- pants2 9mo ago
  [flagged]
  - devilsdata 9mo ago
    [flagged]
  - quinndexter 9mo ago
    Or maybe the AI could puke up some bland, middle-of-the-road trite pap while putting actual human talent out of work!
    - spacecadet 9mo ago
      Both require human talent, actually fairly similar talents, just in a different form. My AI dungeon master is just what you seek- but it will kill you... so you tell me if its "tripe" Lisa Simpson. https://github.com/derekburgess/dungen https://github.com/derekburgess/dungen
  - teekert 9mo ago
    I think you're being down-voted because the down-voters can't imagine AI video ever being really good. I can though, and I think indeed a "made for you" adventure may be quite nice. It could also suck, but I'm not so religious about AI that I would down-vote you because of any negative feeling I may have about AI.
    - devilsdata 9mo ago
      I down-voted because I can't imagine AI video ever being moral, not good. It's copyright theft.
nbevans 9mo ago
I wanted to re-watch this on Netflix but it seems they removed it some time ago and have no plans to bring it back. It seems the interactivity features were obsoleted from their app platform as they were hard to support?
- silisili 9mo ago
  > as they were hard to support? X to doubt. The tech worked fine. The real issue is that nobody wants choose-your-own-adventure TV, which has been proven again and again.
  - teekert 9mo ago
    My kid loved that interactive Bear Grylls stuff, still talks about it sometimes (what his wrong choices were etc.) Sometimes I think they kill this stuff before it get mainstream. Also, some way to control via the TV, or Chromecast may have made this more popular.
    - knallfrosch 9mo ago
      I remember Bear Grills "You vs. Wild" as one of the most well-known interactive shows. It's strange it's never mentioned in articles about interactive Netflix features.
  - nbevans 9mo ago
    I see. But surely Netflix could have setup 1 to 3 of the "best" variants of the Bandersnatch and let people watch those? Even a "directors cut" based on how the director chose the path, would suffice. The content is entirely gone right now. Which is pretty tragic as it was excellent.
    - jsheard 9mo ago
      > The content is entirely gone right now. It's officially gone, but you can acquire the raw video through other means and plug it into this open source reimplementation of the frontend: https://mehotkhan.github.io/BandersnatchInteractive/ https://mehotkhan.github.io/BandersnatchInteractive/
mattbee 9mo ago
This is such a fascinating & personally inspiring time for me as a programmer. The real game Bandersnatch (as a business folly) was something else - the "coming soon" advert from just before Imagine's bankruptcy would probably ring an alarm bell now - https://nosher.net/archives/computers/imagine_eugeneevans_yourcomp_feb84 https://nosher.net/archives/computers/imagine_eugeneevans_yo... Some of the programmers of Bandersnatch did release Gift From The Gods from the ashes of Bandersnatch - which I definitely had on my Spectrum! But it was very confusing - https://www.crashonline.org.uk/13/giftgod.htm https://www.crashonline.org.uk/13/giftgod.htm This 1984 documentary from the BBC archive covers Imagine's growth & demise, must have been a great visual reference for Brooker making the show, and the top comment has some more detail on Imagine's hiring spree - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buuUZFh_pyk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buuUZFh_pyk also also check out 4:30 or so, where they show the game and the device that will "eventually be reduced to a small cartridge and sold with the game"!! Also also the name Ritman is probably a reference to Jon Ritman, programmer of the brilliant Head Over Heels. But he was nothing to do with Imagine. He still gives interviews and seems lovely.
sgt101 9mo ago
Colin Ritman is so Demis Hassabis.
casey2 9mo ago
This has the same vibe I get from tech-sphere articles. The number of people who've read The Jabberwocky dwarfs this "interactive feature". Reading this article outside of the context it was written makes it sound tone-deaf
nickdothutton 9mo ago
I visited Psygnosis in the early days, we sold them an Internet connection. Hard to describe the kind of creative energy emanating from their building. Such talent.
- curiousObject 9mo ago
  >Hard to describe But why not try? It is history, and you are a unique witness of it
  - kstenerud 9mo ago
    I'd love to hear stories about Psygnosis or DMA Design. To this day my favorite game of theirs is Walker, followed closely by Infestation.
  - nickdothutton 9mo ago
    An overwhelming positivity (we're going to be successful), creativity (we are making something genuinely new), quality (this is some kind of art form), and technical excellence (we're doing things head and shoulders above current levels of advancement). As a customer... "we want the best".
gabriel666smith 9mo ago
If you're a Philip K. Dick-head, you might enjoy the episodes of the podcast Weird Studies which cover his life and work. The hosts often focus on his Exegesis, mentioned in the article. It feels like a privilege to hear two very smart academics engage in longform discussion - in which they're unconstrained, and clearly having genuine fun - about Dick's work. More broadly, the non-Dick episodes are also wonderful, and often cover the kind of art I typically see discussed here. You can dip in for times they cover work you love already, to hear their interesting (and academically, often quite new) perspectives on your favourites, or listen from the start, chronologically, as a kind of curriculum in the weird. Which I found to be an incredibly useful thing. I'm not associated in any way, just a fan, and think a lot of users here would enjoy it: https://www.weirdstudies.com/10 https://www.weirdstudies.com/10
arexxbifs 9mo ago
A shame it can't be viewed anymore, it has all the makings of a cult classic. The guy who coded the actual Nohzdyve game (that runs on real ZX Spectrum hardware) is Matt Westcott aka Gasman. He's a demoscener and has made some brilliant speccie demos. https://demozoo.org/sceners/5879/ https://demozoo.org/sceners/5879/
- dana321 9mo ago
  There is a way, if you manage to procure the video file from some shady site https://mehotkhan.github.io/BandersnatchInteractive/ https://mehotkhan.github.io/BandersnatchInteractive/
  - scotty79 9mo ago
    Copyright in service of commercial interest is such a cancer, rotting away human culture. God bless anyone who disregards it.
fhdkweig 9mo ago
How did they miss Night Trap https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_Trap https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_Trap from the list? It was "so terrifying" that Congress had a hearing to ban it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJVnL484jbk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJVnL484jbk Years later that game was turned into a DVD film by choosing specific story paths. You can find it online at ok.ru, but don't click that link without a really, really strong adblocker. The Russian site tries to install malware. https://ok.ru/video/3334939150907 https://ok.ru/video/3334939150907
a-dub 9mo ago
the classic was dragon's lair: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon%27s_Lair_(1983_video_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon%27s_Lair_(1983_video_ga... laserdiscs were a weird 70s/80s analog optical video disc technology where many players had a db-9 (edit: just looked these up, apparently they had a db-25 connector) serial port for a serial control protocol. dragon's lair was a classic stand up video game cabinet with a laserdisc player and a simple control system that created a "choose your own adventure" interface for the video content. some of the first computer programs i ever wrote were atari st programs for controlling a laserdisc player. (we had one in elementary school)

83 points by rafaepta 9mo ago

Retz4o4 9mo ago

Fantastically fun when it was released.

pants2 9mo ago
[flagged]
- devilsdata 9mo ago
  [flagged]
- quinndexter 9mo ago
  Or maybe the AI could puke up some bland, middle-of-the-road trite pap while putting actual human talent out of work!
  - spacecadet 9mo ago
    Both require human talent, actually fairly similar talents, just in a different form. My AI dungeon master is just what you seek- but it will kill you... so you tell me if its "tripe" Lisa Simpson. https://github.com/derekburgess/dungen https://github.com/derekburgess/dungen
- teekert 9mo ago
  I think you're being down-voted because the down-voters can't imagine AI video ever being really good. I can though, and I think indeed a "made for you" adventure may be quite nice. It could also suck, but I'm not so religious about AI that I would down-vote you because of any negative feeling I may have about AI.
  - devilsdata 9mo ago
    I down-voted because I can't imagine AI video ever being moral, not good. It's copyright theft.

nbevans 9mo ago

I wanted to re-watch this on Netflix but it seems they removed it some time ago and have no plans to bring it back. It seems the interactivity features were obsoleted from their app platform as they were hard to support?

silisili 9mo ago
> as they were hard to support? X to doubt. The tech worked fine. The real issue is that nobody wants choose-your-own-adventure TV, which has been proven again and again.
- teekert 9mo ago
  My kid loved that interactive Bear Grylls stuff, still talks about it sometimes (what his wrong choices were etc.) Sometimes I think they kill this stuff before it get mainstream. Also, some way to control via the TV, or Chromecast may have made this more popular.
  - knallfrosch 9mo ago
    I remember Bear Grills "You vs. Wild" as one of the most well-known interactive shows. It's strange it's never mentioned in articles about interactive Netflix features.
- nbevans 9mo ago
  I see. But surely Netflix could have setup 1 to 3 of the "best" variants of the Bandersnatch and let people watch those? Even a "directors cut" based on how the director chose the path, would suffice. The content is entirely gone right now. Which is pretty tragic as it was excellent.
  - jsheard 9mo ago
    > The content is entirely gone right now. It's officially gone, but you can acquire the raw video through other means and plug it into this open source reimplementation of the frontend: https://mehotkhan.github.io/BandersnatchInteractive/ https://mehotkhan.github.io/BandersnatchInteractive/

mattbee 9mo ago

This is such a fascinating & personally inspiring time for me as a programmer. The real game Bandersnatch (as a business folly) was something else - the "coming soon" advert from just before Imagine's bankruptcy would probably ring an alarm bell now - https://nosher.net/archives/computers/imagine_eugeneevans_yourcomp_feb84 https://nosher.net/archives/computers/imagine_eugeneevans_yo... Some of the programmers of Bandersnatch did release Gift From The Gods from the ashes of Bandersnatch - which I definitely had on my Spectrum! But it was very confusing - https://www.crashonline.org.uk/13/giftgod.htm https://www.crashonline.org.uk/13/giftgod.htm This 1984 documentary from the BBC archive covers Imagine's growth & demise, must have been a great visual reference for Brooker making the show, and the top comment has some more detail on Imagine's hiring spree - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buuUZFh_pyk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buuUZFh_pyk also also check out 4:30 or so, where they show the game and the device that will "eventually be reduced to a small cartridge and sold with the game"!! Also also the name Ritman is probably a reference to Jon Ritman, programmer of the brilliant Head Over Heels. But he was nothing to do with Imagine. He still gives interviews and seems lovely.

sgt101 9mo ago

Colin Ritman is so Demis Hassabis.

casey2 9mo ago

This has the same vibe I get from tech-sphere articles. The number of people who've read The Jabberwocky dwarfs this "interactive feature". Reading this article outside of the context it was written makes it sound tone-deaf

nickdothutton 9mo ago

I visited Psygnosis in the early days, we sold them an Internet connection. Hard to describe the kind of creative energy emanating from their building. Such talent.

curiousObject 9mo ago
>Hard to describe But why not try? It is history, and you are a unique witness of it
- kstenerud 9mo ago
  I'd love to hear stories about Psygnosis or DMA Design. To this day my favorite game of theirs is Walker, followed closely by Infestation.
- nickdothutton 9mo ago
  An overwhelming positivity (we're going to be successful), creativity (we are making something genuinely new), quality (this is some kind of art form), and technical excellence (we're doing things head and shoulders above current levels of advancement). As a customer... "we want the best".

gabriel666smith 9mo ago

If you're a Philip K. Dick-head, you might enjoy the episodes of the podcast Weird Studies which cover his life and work. The hosts often focus on his Exegesis, mentioned in the article. It feels like a privilege to hear two very smart academics engage in longform discussion - in which they're unconstrained, and clearly having genuine fun - about Dick's work. More broadly, the non-Dick episodes are also wonderful, and often cover the kind of art I typically see discussed here. You can dip in for times they cover work you love already, to hear their interesting (and academically, often quite new) perspectives on your favourites, or listen from the start, chronologically, as a kind of curriculum in the weird. Which I found to be an incredibly useful thing. I'm not associated in any way, just a fan, and think a lot of users here would enjoy it: https://www.weirdstudies.com/10 https://www.weirdstudies.com/10

arexxbifs 9mo ago

A shame it can't be viewed anymore, it has all the makings of a cult classic. The guy who coded the actual Nohzdyve game (that runs on real ZX Spectrum hardware) is Matt Westcott aka Gasman. He's a demoscener and has made some brilliant speccie demos. https://demozoo.org/sceners/5879/ https://demozoo.org/sceners/5879/

dana321 9mo ago
There is a way, if you manage to procure the video file from some shady site https://mehotkhan.github.io/BandersnatchInteractive/ https://mehotkhan.github.io/BandersnatchInteractive/
- scotty79 9mo ago
  Copyright in service of commercial interest is such a cancer, rotting away human culture. God bless anyone who disregards it.

fhdkweig 9mo ago

How did they miss Night Trap https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_Trap https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_Trap from the list? It was "so terrifying" that Congress had a hearing to ban it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJVnL484jbk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJVnL484jbk Years later that game was turned into a DVD film by choosing specific story paths. You can find it online at ok.ru, but don't click that link without a really, really strong adblocker. The Russian site tries to install malware. https://ok.ru/video/3334939150907 https://ok.ru/video/3334939150907

a-dub 9mo ago

the classic was dragon's lair: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon%27s_Lair_(1983_video_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon%27s_Lair_(1983_video_ga... laserdiscs were a weird 70s/80s analog optical video disc technology where many players had a db-9 (edit: just looked these up, apparently they had a db-25 connector) serial port for a serial control protocol. dragon's lair was a classic stand up video game cabinet with a laserdisc player and a simple control system that created a "choose your own adventure" interface for the video content. some of the first computer programs i ever wrote were atari st programs for controlling a laserdisc player. (we had one in elementary school)