wargames2

I provided a plausible, if unstated high-speed data link (at a blazing 1200 baud!) for the movie’s plot. An acoustic coupler was still used to satisfy the visual effect in the movie.Another thing was apparently missing from the initial script. How was this young lad going to load software into his computer? I called Mike Fink to discuss this and he admitted that the issue never even came up. I suggested an IMSAI FDC-2 (the dual Calcomp 142 8″ floppies in an enclosure similar to the 8080), and he readily accepted the offer. The loading of one of those 8″ disks (about 1 meg of storage in double density format) is one of the few equipment close-ups that made the final cut of the film.Once we received the script, Bob Walker sent a full line catalogue down to Mike for review. Mike had a chance to see what other items might be of use for the film’s shooting, and selected one of our IKB-1 Intelligent keyboards as the on-screen input device. Mike acquired an Electrohome 17″ monitor because of it’s readability at distance, a camera requirement. We decided to go ahead and provide the requested equipment for nothing more than the promotional value and screen credits. The 8080 supplied has the Fischer-Freitas-era front panel featuring a layered screen-printed Mylar front mask rather than the early acrylic/photo-film sandwich style with its highly reflective and humidity-related cosmetics problems.Our engineer Glen Hoag came up with an idea to hard-wire a RESTART 7 instruction onto an old MPU-A 8080 processor board to provide a somewhat random light activity to the front panel lights, which worked out nicely. The chassis was then loaded with an assortment of junk boards to give the impression that the box was loaded with processing power! Actually, the bus fingers of all those boards were cut off to prevent the possibility of conflicts with the CP-A front panel or MPU-A processor. With flat cables attached to several of the dummy boards, it made for an impressive prop. The visual effect was so convincing that the director decided to leave the cover off during filming.I considered it a cheap shot to find that most of the “IMSAI 8080” labeling was obscured by a prop instruction label during the movie.But the IMSAI 212A modem gets a great mug shot with the talented Ally Sheedy during some critical scenes.