Spectrum Computing

I did enjoy it, though I wasn't particularly grabbed by the 'choose your own path' novelty, it was more about the Speccy-laden nostalgia..

...If I'd known how fast BASIC seemed to be back then, I might have persevered with it a bit longer..

At the end of the film Stefan puts Bandersnatch Demo datasette into his player and we hear data playback without interference of any other sounds. I'm pretty sure this is meant to be fed as datasette playback into a Spectrum. The data stream in the film is about 42 seconds long, so most likely not a large program but perhaps an easter egg message.

Now, I don't own a Spectrum, I came here to ask you guys to see for yourself and share what you discover in the data stream. I actually captured the audio data stream off the video into a .wav file and tried feeding it into Fuse emulator, but I didn't see any meaningful result. It's just cycling the datasette. Then again, I've never used it before, so maybe I'm doing something wrong. Or was I suppose to slice it into several files?

[EDIT]

Someone already did it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBJNXzfZ4pw

r00tb33r wrote: ↑Sun Dec 30, 2018 7:39 am At the end of the film Stefan puts Bandersnatch Demo datasette into his player and we hear data playback without interference of any other sounds.

Damn. How did I miss that?!

Would you be willing to make the .wav available?

[mention]Einar Saukas[/mention], can you see how Bandersnatch or this bonus material could fit in ZXDB?

R-Tape wrote: ↑Sun Dec 30, 2018 10:43 am Would you be willing to make the .wav available?

I would: Bandersnatch Extra. This is both the audio and the TZX generated from it. (The audio in the film repeats, so this is just the first part.)

Love how many cool Spectrum 'easter eggs' there are in the episode, like the Spectrum keyboard or the guy reading Crash, posted above. Or lots of Chuckie Egg tapes on the shelves:

Downloaded and watched this a couple of days ago, obviously being the downloaded "movie" it didn't give me any choices.

Besides the speccy references I found it pretty dull to be honest.

beanz wrote: ↑Wed Jan 02, 2019 4:52 pm Downloaded and watched this a couple of days ago, obviously being the downloaded "movie" it didn't give me any choices.

How did it work if there were no choices? There are numerous endings for example.

For me, most of the interest came from it being interactive.

R-Tape wrote: ↑Wed Jan 02, 2019 5:02 pm

beanz wrote: ↑Wed Jan 02, 2019 4:52 pm Downloaded and watched this a couple of days ago, obviously being the downloaded "movie" it didn't give me any choices.

How did it work if there were no choices? There are numerous endings for example.

For me, most of the interest came from it being interactive.

I wasn't 100% aware of the choices thing till after I'd seen it and read a few reviews etc of it. It just paused briefly and then continued..I know many scenes replayed when he made a bad decision...(ETA: the cereal choice didn't replay..I guess that wasn't a big deal and just got you used to the choices thing). I don't know if that was in the "movie" or a way to show the different choices but it basically rewound and then fast forwarded to the decision point so it did show several endings. I'd lost interest by then though...it was on but I wasn't really paying attention to it anymore.

If you take out the gimmick it's pretty dull (imo)

beanz wrote: ↑Wed Jan 02, 2019 5:06 pm

R-Tape wrote: ↑Wed Jan 02, 2019 5:02 pm How did it work if there were no choices? There are numerous endings for example.

For me, most of the interest came from it being interactive.

I wasn't 100% aware of the choices thing till after I'd seen it and read a few reviews etc of it. It just paused briefly and then continued..I know many scenes replayed when he made a bad decision...(ETA: the cereal choice didn't replay..I guess that wasn't a big deal and just got you used to the choices thing). I don't know if that was in the "movie" or a way to show the different choices but it basically rewound and then fast forwarded to the decision point so it did show several endings. I'd lost interest by then though...it was on but I wasn't really paying attention to it anymore.

If you take out the gimmick it's pretty dull (imo)

Whole thing was about 1hr 45 mins or so long...so I guess you can tell from that if it included all/some of the decisions.

Ast A. Moore wrote: ↑Sun Dec 30, 2018 11:41 am
I would: Bandersnatch Extra. This is both the audio and the TZX generated from it. (The audio in the film repeats, so this is just the first part.)

Thanks a lot! Can anyone suggest a good name for the ZXDB entry for this? Bandersnatch Extra? Bandersnatch Easter Egg? Tuckersoft QR?

It's got this at the end of the code btw...

R-Tape wrote: ↑Sat Jan 05, 2019 10:56 am [It's got this at the end of the code btw...

Yes, Matt talks about it in this tweet:
https://twitter.com/gasmanic/status/1079863697558908928

The BBC have an interview with some of the cast this morning at 08:50. I'm sure it will be available on BBC iPlayer afterwards.

And Charlie Brooker is on Radio 4's Front Row tonight.

(in 20 minutes from posting this, after the Archers)

PeterJ wrote: ↑Mon Jan 07, 2019 6:36 am The BBC have an interview with some of the cast this morning at 08:50. I'm sure it will be available on BBC iPlayer afterwards.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b ... t-07012019

Starts around 2 hours, 56 minutes

Only available until 09:15 GMT tomorrow.

R-Tape wrote: ↑Mon Jan 07, 2019 7:00 pm And Charlie Brooker is on Radio 4's Front Row tonight.

(in 20 minutes from posting this, after the Archers)

Hehe. If push came to shove, I'd say that's the best text adventure based on a long running rural farming soap opera I've ever played.

Actually—they could have taken the black mirror format and transplanted it to the Archers. Choose between Nigel Pargetter falling off the roof and not...

I know the Imagine Software inspiration is very obvious, but there are some subtle things in there.

I'm fairly certain the ugly brutalist tower in Croydon was the real-life home of Probe Software for a while. My grandfather used to live in a nearby town and we'd pop through Croydon and see that.

Do you remember if they were there in the 90s? I interviewed at Probe in 95-96 (when they were working on Die Hard Trilogy and a Fantastic Four game for the PlayStation), and your description sounds familiar.

I was very impressed that the setup Colin Ritman had looked identical to Matthew Smith's setup for Manic Miner - a TRS80 and a Speccy connected with a home made cable.

Forbes on Nohzdyve:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkai ... ersnatch/

PeteProdge wrote: ↑Mon Jan 07, 2019 10:32 pm I know the Imagine Software inspiration is very obvious, but there are some subtle things in there.

I'm fairly certain the ugly brutalist tower in Croydon was the real-life home of Probe Software for a while. My grandfather used to live in a nearby town and we'd pop through Croydon and see that.

There was a bit at the beginning when Stefan goes to the offices and Mohan Thakur says 'Imagiiiiine'.

Did anybody catch this little gem?

Spoiler

https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2018/1 ... de#slide-1

PeteProdge wrote: ↑Mon Jan 07, 2019 10:32 pm I know the Imagine Software inspiration is very obvious, but there are some subtle things in there.

I'm fairly certain the ugly brutalist tower in Croydon was the real-life home of Probe Software for a while. My grandfather used to live in a nearby town and we'd pop through Croydon and see that.

Disagree. The NLA Tower is not ugly.

Spud wrote: ↑Fri Jan 11, 2019 5:34 pm Disagree. The NLA Tower is not ugly.

It's quite nice, but Preston bus station spunks all over it.