wargames2

I told McMullen on the phone to send me a copy of the script and I’d get back to him. To my surprise, two days later a package arrived from Mandy Films containing other informational items about Unique Product Placement and a pre-shooting script of “Wargames”, typed and printed onto a photocopy-resistant green paper by a script services company in the west Los Angeles area. This early version of the script had the story line placed in the future and seemed to depend more on fantasy and conjecture rather than technical reality.Our contact person for the film was Special Effects Supervisor Mike Fink. Bob Walker, and I would be in regular contact with for him the next three or four months. The production had the backing of MGM/ United Artists and promised to have a major budget to work with. Mike told me that the screenplay writer Lawrence Lasker stipulated that an IMSAI 8080 be used as the visual prop for the central character’s computer. Still skeptical, I read the script trying to envision the equipment requirements.A few items struck me as lacking credibility. First, the central character (Matthew Broderick) would access a military computer (the visually delightful W.O.P.R. in the movie) using his home computer connected to an acoustic coupler and his telephone handset. At that time, acoustic couplers had a maximum communications rate of 300 baud (ridiculously slow then, and now by today’s standards).The requirement of an acoustic coupler was mandated more for visual effect than for reality. I resolved the credibility issue by providing the only IMSAI 212A modem ever made (actually, a Cermetek 212A modem that I was evaluating as a possible addition to our product line). By repainting the front panel and carefully applying press-on lettering,