First post, by KT7AGuy
- Rank
- Oldbie
OK, so if you were born in the late 60s or early 70s like me, you had the dubious privilege of growing up during the cold war and all of its associated nuclear war hysteria. In the USA where I'm from, we had The Day After to scare the crap out of us and remind us that we could all die in a hellfire of nuclear armageddon AT ANY MOMENT.
Over in the UK, they were gifted with a lovely little family film called Threads. It took a long time, but my local library finally found an uncensored copy of it on DVD for me. It was OK. I thought it was just as good as The Day After. I think if I had seen it in 1984/1985 as originally intended, it would have had a bigger impact on me. But really, I'm not here to discuss the pros or cons of a BBC special effects budget. Rather, I'm curious about the handheld game that Jimmy's little brother, Michael, was playing before the fireworks started. The game is also shown again later in the film; Michael's father plays the game while remembering his dead son before barfing up whiskey and blood and dying unceremoniously.
i remember handheld games like those from the late 70s and early 80s. Generally speaking, they were awful. It would be at least another five years before Nintendo would save us all with the invention of the Game Boy. Despite the fact that an EMP should have fried it, I'm curious what game was being played in that movie. The gameplay screen is shown several times, so I wonder if it was supposed to be some sort of foreshadowing or symbolism. However, it doesn't look like any sort of nuclear war game. Do we have any handheld game collectors/experts here who can shed some light on it?
Thanks