Buy the WarGames IMSAI 8080 and Possibly Impress Ally Sheedy 103
ilikenwf writes "Todd Fischer, the man behind this iconic prop from WarGames, the movie that spawned countless hackers, has come forward recently to announce its sale in the near future. Interestingly enough, the IMSAI 8080 still works, although the disk drive was damaged in shipping after the movie's conclusion, and was trashed."
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You do realize that you are hurling invective about gays in a story centered around a young man trying to impress a pretty young lady, and which contained some innocent but sexually charged moments between them? That isn't really a gay theme. When you went to post you could have made a useful comment. Instead you blew past useful, past useless, to stupid and ironic. That isn't a good practice in life.
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Anything to PROVE it's the one? (Score:4, Insightful)
Honestly if it does not have the full paperwork and possibly all the actors signing the lid back then, it could be ANY Altair8080
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Matthew Broderick's used load of tissues is included, he left them after looking at monochromatic porn of your mom.
Is monochromatic as far back as you can remember? It was probably ASCII porn downloaded at 300 or 1200 baud, so it could be time to reach for the tissues before the picture even finished downloading.
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Honestly if it does not have the full paperwork and possibly all the actors signing the lid back then, it could be ANY Altair8080
I don't think that will stop anyone. I'm not familiar with movie prop collecting, but it seems it would be hard to probably prove most the stuff was actually a prop that was used.
Plus it's not like this guy just suddenly appeared and is claiming it's the computer. This guy was there from the beginning. Try reading this link:
http://www.imsai.net/movies/wargames.htm [imsai.net]
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Depends on the prop. Special props made just for the show have distinguishing features that often show it's made for TV (usually poor quality, lo
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Did you, you know, try reading the link?
I did. Years and years ago. It's a lovely story about a prop computer that actually was a real computer, from the horse's mouth.
Paperwork? The dude who built it is the dude who's selling it. WTF else do you want?
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Besides, it would seem he does have plenty of paperwork. Linked from TFA:
http://www.imsai.net/movies/provenance.htm [imsai.net]
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but it seems it would be hard to probably prove most the stuff was actually a prop that was used
Not really. The prop people usually get credits in the movie. And if the guy selling it has some sort of paper trail to the prop people or prop company credited in the movie (or better yet, he worked for them), it's pretty straightforward to demonstrate a highly likely case for authenticity. And reading the article, it looks like the person selling it had well-established ties to Mike Fink, the FX supervisor for the film.
The fact that this is being auctioned off by Christie's indicates that they have made a
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It's an IMSAI not an Altair. Different critters entirely.
Re:Anything to PROVE it's the one? (Score:5, Funny)
Insightful? The guy doesn't even know the difference between an Altair and an IMSAI!
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I suppose you could say that when it comes to CP/M, he isn't really a CompuPro, thank Godbout.
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it could be ANY Altair8080
Ummm... no.
.
An Altair 8080 is a different computer entirely.
Forget that shit, I want... (Score:1)
...the WOPR!!!!
But it's not the WOPR! (Score:1)
Now THAT would be the bit of movie gear to have! :-)
Re:But it's not the WOPR! (Score:5, Interesting)
But it's not the WOPR! Now THAT would be the bit of movie gear to have! :-)
It would be, but if I recall correctly it was only a prop wired for lights. Still, it would fun to have that in a data center, especially if its one that people tour.
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I'd *LOVE* to move it in to my datacenter. It might be a hard sell for the boss though..
"So I have this really cool piece of IT history, we just need to move that row a few feet over. It shouldn't involve too much downtime." :)
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My recollection was correct. There is quite a bit about the prop WOPR design and construction down a bit on this web page [imsai.net].
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But it's not the WOPR! Now THAT would be the bit of movie gear to have! :-)
It would be, but if I recall correctly it was only a prop wired for lights. Still, it would fun to have that in a data center, especially if its one that people tour.
As I recall, that although the WOPR (like other movie computers of that era) was basically a prop with dancing stereo equalizer lights for cinematic effect, I think there was actually an Apple ][ inside controlling an experimental flat panel display on the side.
To heck with the WOPR! (Score:4, Funny)
To heck with the WOPR!
I want that acoustic coupled modem that was capable of autodialing! That's technology indistinguishable from magic, baby!
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Even as a 4 year old watching the movie I was confused about that...
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Apparently, it was scrapped [imsai.net]. Keep in mind, that was back in the days when movie props weren't considered particularly valuable assets. Today, they would probably do some sort of auction or at least warehouse it.
Déjà Vu (Score:5, Funny)
The only way to win the auction is to not place any bid.
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She's also kind of nuts these days. Not completely Sean-Young-level-batshit-crazy, but definitely not the kind of person you would probably want to have to live with. Pretty common with aging actresses, unfortunately. There is nothing more unstable than a narcissistic actress going through fame withdrawls and hearing the word "No" for the first time in years.
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You obviously know nothing about the woman. I happen to be good friends with her sister, and this description is not even close. She's far from narcissistic, and she basically quit the whole industry years ago because she didn't want the fame and simply wished to quietly live in peace.
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And you obviously haven't seen just about any interview she's done in the last 15 years, or her appearance on just about any award show.
Disk drives (Score:2)
Re:Disk drives (Score:4, Informative)
Hi, Todd! Good luck on the auction.
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On the IMSAI [imsai.net] web site they have a "garage sale" listing at the bottom of the page. They list both 8" and 5 1/4" drives. You might even be able to get 3.5" drives working with it. I seem to recall reading about some CP/M system mods for other systems that would allow that.
Re:Disk drives (Score:5, Informative)
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Sounds like that would make for a fairly powerful CP/M system even if not up the SB-180 levels. I think that would probably fun to play with, and useful to boot.
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Well, face it, it won't be very useful if you don't boot it...
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pesronally i think that old computers are stupid. and anyone who wants to have an old computer that works and to use it as a computers is stupid. if you use it as a fishbowel or a toilet that i would understand. but otherwise just stupid.
Personally, I think anyone who thinks what the parent thinks is stupid. An old computer that works can still be used as a basic tool. We still have an old 386 that takes inventory for a lab. Why update it? It's not on a network...no malware concern...no software updates necessary. Should we go blow a few hundred bucks on a new PC that will require additional hundreds in IT support? I don't think so.
I personally own some old working TI calculators (see http://www.vintagecalculators.com/html/texas_instr [vintagecalculators.com]
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A strange game (Score:1)
ask the gold and silver pawn shop to make an offer (Score:1)
ask the gold and silver pawn shop to make an offer.
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1980s Ally Sheedy, or "now" Ally Sheedy?
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b2/Ally_Sheedy.jpg/220px-Ally_Sheedy.jpg [wikimedia.org]
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1980s Ally Sheedy, or "now" Ally Sheedy?
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b2/Ally_Sheedy.jpg/220px-Ally_Sheedy.jpg [wikimedia.org]
Stephanie ... change color!
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You still would though. You know you would.
How about Jodie Foster? (Score:2)
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No thanks. (Score:2)
Have you seen Ally Sheedy recently? I'm not saying she's had a lot of work, but when she smiles, her face squeaks.
I'd rather have... (Score:2)
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Ebay... (Score:2)
The only way to win is not to play.
Re:Ebay... (Score:5, Funny)
Ug. Not even second with that. Mod me to obscurity, please...
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I can't mod but I did give a chuckle.
Who's Ally Sheedy? (Score:2)
keep your marbles (Score:2)
I want the computer from Eagle Eye. Aria, I think her name was.
"Operation Guillotine is in effect."
Ooh, that sounds like a new sig happening right there.
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Who cares? You'll get to hang out with a guy who flies RC pterodactyl gliders.
Somebody is out of touch with reality. (Score:5, Informative)
From the linked article: "It is currently appraised at over $25,000, potentially making it the most expensive "personal computer" ever!"
There's an Apple I up for auction that is expected to haul in half a million.
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And that Apple One was in WHAT movie?
couple of documents.
besides, you can spec up a brand new apple at 25k$..
but more than that.. 1987 you could buy a 386dx for 10 grand of 1987 cash as starting price(and double it with addons).
that's not to say anything about next, sgi etc computers.
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The $44,000 Star Trek! Game [archive.org] ( [sic] - the article's title does have the exclamation point, and the program is not really a game)
Program listing included. Some conversion will probably be needed for your new IMSAI, but I can't say for sure.
Re:Somebody is out of touch with reality. (Score:5, Funny)
There's an Apple I up for auction that is expected to haul in half a million.
That's nothing. You should see what they want for the latest Mac Pro.
Just checked with Justin Long and John Hodgman (Score:1)
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And was informed that a Mac is not a PC.
and apple 1 is not a mac and neither that or imsai 8080 are ibm pc's.
personal computers anyways.
you could spec a more expensive ibm pc quite easily though.
Might not be the original (Score:1)
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I think you'll find that there is no such thing as a second Wargames movie. It's a myth like the sequels to the Matrix and the Star Wars prequels.
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LOL. Yeh.
I mean, it was neat to see them fire up the old WOPR again towards the end. And Claudia Black's voice was cool for the new computer.
But beyond that, it was hardly a worthy sequel to such a classic.
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I've got one of those (Score:2)
I never did have any disk drives for it; I had to reenter the code every time I turned it on.
I've always credited it (we call it Blinky, BTW... since that's all it does) with my career in IT. - My dad was the first guy in the neighborhood with an actual computer and I was writing assembler code in 1978. I learned two things:1) digital processing was the wave of the future, and 2) I didn't want to be a programmer (I'm a net
I'd want the WOPR or nothing. (Score:1)