Movie Gadget Friday: The W.O.P.R. from WarGames
We're sorry for MGF's delay; some editorial mixups have since led to numerous interns being flogged mercilessly. Last week Movie Gadget Friday took a look at the Memory Erasing Process from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. This week, following a genuine reader request (and not just because sarcasm comes so naturally), Josie Fraser takes a gander at the W.O.P.R. from 1983's WarGames.
Ah, 1983—to be honest I can barely remember it, but who could ever forget WarGames—the thrills, the tension, and the
fabulous touchtone telephones.
The film's star is the made-up and most likely made of cardboard military computer W.O.P.R. (War Operation Planned
Response, pronounced Whopper—apparently Burger King had far reaching connections in the 80s) and a programme called
Joshua—ably voiced by James Ackerman who easily wins second place for the all-time Creepiest-Computer-Voice-In-A-Movie
Award (you know who gets number #1). W.O.P.R. works for the non-fictional North American Aerospace Defence Command
(NORAD), and is programmed to play a limited selection of games, including chess and Global Thermonuclear War.
Unfortunately, Mathew Broderick - playing high-school hacker David Lightman, is unaware that Global Thermonuclear
War isnt fun for all the family at all, but actually America and Canadas MAD response to nuclear attacki.e. designed
to nuke the communists back. What starts out as a harmless bit of hacking fun rapidly turns into the countdown for
World War III.
Lightmans technical props were actual computer technologiesThe Fischer-Freitas Companys IMSAI 8080 microcomputer,
FDC2-2 Dual Floppy disks, and a Zenith 12-inch video monitor. He uses the IMSAI connected to an acoustic coupler and
his telephone handset to access W.O.P.R. This may seem a little unrealistic, but bear in mind that in the movie
W.O.P.R. was also designed launch both nations entire intercontinental ballistic missile supply in response to a power
cut.
NORAD is still defending the skies, although in recent years has become the friendly face of potential nuclear
meltdown with its official NORAD Tracks Santa web site. Either that or Father
Christmas is being earmarked as a potential recipient of Guant?mo hospitality.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Richard Smith @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM
The voice of Joshua was John Wood. They had him read the script backwards, one word at a time, and then cut it all up, placed it in the right order, and ran it through a synthesiser to get the voice.
James Ackerman was probably the young Joshua in the video David gets from the library.
My blog is www.joshuacalledme.com so you can tell I have a vested interest in all things WarGames. :)
Meezer @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM
So just who does the the #1 position of Creepiest-Computer-Voice-In-A-Movie Award?
MicahMicahMicah @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM
HAL from 2001
Or it might be "bit" from TRON, I'll stop before I start quoting Disney's "The Black Hole".
Alex @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM
I just wanted to say that although I read Engadget pretty much every day, this Friday movie tech feature is always my favorite thing every week. WOPR, awesome! I do hope that we manage to keep James Bond stuff out of this feature, though. That stuff is just silly.
And Meezer, to answer your question, just think of a movie that was supposedly set three years ago. The computer in it sings "Bicycle Built For Two." Awesome.
Jack @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM
Oh! & I thought you were talking about Majel Barrett-Roddenberry...
Trevor @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM
#1 goes to HAL 9000. Or the guy who played Marvin the Paranoid Android in the BBC adaptation of the Hitchhiker's Guide.
Gavin @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM
Heck yes, that was my request, SWEET!
Gavin
Shockdude @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM
haha I was only 13 at the time, loved Wargames, as well as Electric Dreams, actually the blonde girl in electric dreams did it for me =)
Phil @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM
I am a contractor for NORAD and everyone in the mountain still jokes about WOPR. When the tours go through, or someone is asking about what it's like to work there, someone always brings up "the WOPR." I've heard junior officers all the way up to Colonels joke about it. They also talk about the Stargate, but not as much.
Emanuel Zorg @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM
Although I am sure that HAL is #1 for creepiest voice, I remember that when 2001: a space odyssey first came out I quickly saw it three times in the theater. Each time, there was a collective gasp from the audience when we see HAL lipreading. That wordless moment was when he really creeped us out!
M Evans @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM
If you know or have worked on any of the old IBM equipment you'll see that there are at least some bits and pieces of an IBM Sorter, Collater or some other such machine.
David Sosna @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM
I designed the computer systems on the movie, unfortunately leaving for another film before I got to meet John Badham, the director. Later we worked together as Director and 1st Assistant Director, my day job, and became friends. As M Evans noted, there is a distinct similarity to what IBM called its "EAM Equipment" for electronic adding machine. The picture went to MGM after Universal refused to make it in more than 45 days. MGM had an incredibly antiquated computer system that had actual, running, EAM equipment for crew payroll. I took the Art Director into the computer room, raised floor, air conditioning, etc., and showed him a card sorter and an alphanumeric interpeter. This was a machine that read a punch card and printed human readable text across the top row. When the card deck was finished, it was taken to another machine for further processing. What seems like a joke today was the reality of the time. The art director took the rounded corners, grey crinkle finish and used it to create the fictional wopr. Allan Kay, one of the four Apple Fellows of Apple computer, commented that it was impressively accurate for the style of machine that the military would have had when the movie was released in the early 80's. As a sidebar, off wopr topic, we used an atari 800 in preproduction. It had four oscillators and we actually could create the DTMF tones required to dial every number in an area code/prefix and attempt to communicate with a modem. We took that detail out so that people wouldn't try to do that at home. Also, that IMSAI 8080 was mine. And the incredibly geeky looking acoustic coupler was my friend's, Steve Grumette. He and I designed the methodolgoy for the maps on the monitors in the crystal palace, using Solid State Music video boards running on 2 Godbout S-100 computers. Steve reprogrammed a character generating ROM with map sections instead of letter shapes to produce maps on the small screens. the large screens were rear screen projectors with images programmed on HP 3000 Color Basic. It took about 5 minutes to generate a single frame! The studio assured us it could not be done. Glad you liked the movie, but it's John's film. I just helped geek it up. One of the writer's, Walter Parkes, is now a Very Big Deal at Dreamworks and has been for some time.
Thomas "Todd" Fischer (Fischer-Freitas Company) @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM
Mr. Sosna certainly makes a broad stroke of claims that almost sound believable. However, he states "Also, that IMSAI 8080 was mine. And the incredibly geeky looking acoustic coupler was my friend's".
Not so, Mr. Sosna! That IMSAI 8080 with it's unique assemblage of boards, the IMSAI (faux)212A MODEM, IMSAI IKB keyboard, and all supporting provenance are still here with us at Fischer-Freitas. We have proudly exhibited the equipment several times at the Vintage Computing Festival and other venues over the years, and still receive several or more inquiries a week from around the world. I have been offered a very princely sum for it, but retain a proud attachment for its unique place in movie propdom. My current depth of the film's technical details and participation are found on our web site at http://www.imsai.net/movies/wargames.htm
My technical contact for the Wargames movie was Mike Fink, whose movie credits span several decades and an amazing number of special effects roles. His film contributions include films like "X-Men", "Mars Attacks", "Batman Returns", and many more. A Google search for his name and Wargames will bring up citation of an amazing career.
A more credible crew anectdote came several years ago in an e-mail sent, commenting on the "Wargames IMSAI" web site:
"I was the effects foreman on War Games. I worked for Mike Fink, overseeing the video distribution to all the monitors on the
crystal palace consoles driven by a number of STB video cards in 2 Compupro S100 computers. You will find me in the [film]credits after Mike and Linda [Fleisher]." --- Robert Wilcox"
Please, Mr. Sosna... limit your claims to reality.
-Thomas "Todd" Fischer
Fischer-Freitas Company
David Sosna @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM
Well,
What a pleasant surprise to be called a liar by a guy who wasn't on the movie. In fact, it's exactly so, Mr. Fischer.
I used my IMSAI, which I purchased from you. I believe I spoke with you but I can't recall. The facts as I outlined them were the facts. Mr. Fink was not the computer systems designer when I started the picture. But it was a very political situation, something I would have happily left out of my fond memories but now seem forced to describe.
Mike came in because the producer didn't like the fact that a studio executive had hired me and that I had gotten along so well with the director at the time. She, the producer, was extremely unknowledgeable about computers and was very open to be solicited, politically, but various crew people (one of whom later turned out to be a thief and was fired by the producer who took over when caught in a significant lie).
Basically, she resented my relationship with the director we started with, not John Badham who came in after I left and directed the film that everyone remembers to fine effect. She also hated the fact that I had a better financial deal than she had.
So she fired me, rehired me and I quit to get away from her after most of my work was done. Mike got in with her and ended up finishing the picture. Everything I said was true. It's possible that the IMSAI that I brought in to show the director didn't end up as the final machine. I was gone by then. But I no longer have that machine, so if it wasn't the one in the picture then someone, perhaps you have it or it disappeared. I don't really care. It isn't as important to me as it seems to be to you. Regarding the acoustic coupler, my recollection is that my friend Steve Grumette, owned it and ran the computers on the set. He also developed a great deal of the technology we used on the show, including syncing with a panavision camera, the process projectors and the floor screens.
All the other facts were exactly as I stated them. I have no interest in lying about something that happened 20 some years ago on a message board. I saw John's post and added one of my own. You did not provide the acoustic coupler. My recollection is that it was a silly old piece of hardware that Steve picked up for small money somewhere because he always liked a good deal.
And while Mike went on to make a formidable career in visual effects, I went in a different direction making an equally formidable career for myself elsewhere. You may look me up on IMDB, after you calm down and stop asserting that I lied about my contributions. I was there. You were not. You were one of many vendors. I was there from the beginning, broke down the show, worked with Grumette on developing much of the technology. We started with Atari, but their coin op division was getting hammered by parents of kids playing hooky to go to arcades. We didn't want to use an altair because it wasn't colorful enough. So I offered my IMSAI box. But for the IMSAI, for which I don't really care if it was mine or not, everything I said was true. And if that wasn't true, it's an error of memory, not mischief.
I'm sure that mike had many guys working for him, but Steve grumette pulled the cable under the floor of the stage at MGM and I made the arrangements with MGM labor relations because there was no union position for the job at the time. No one had ever done it before. So this person, who I'm sure got a credit, just like mike, oversaw the video distribution that we installed and that Steve ran while I was in Florida doing "Jaws 3D." It's so long ago that I can't remember if Godbout used the name compupro or not. But they were machines that Steve and I got from Godbout and got the boards for and modified the refresh rate to 24 FPS. Steve and I and another engineer worked with a panavision camera, in Steve's living room, and an oscilliscope to determine which of the accessory pins strobed on a new frame. We built a box to shift the phase of the video boards to match that strobe which was driven by the process projectors. Mike wasn't even on the picture at the time.
Frankly I find it rather pathetic that you choose to make such a big issue out of a simple rememberance of things past. Your assertions to the contrary seem overarching and hostile. I don't know what it is that you think you are protecting. Perhaps your connection with the picture is all you have left in your life that has any meaning. I feel sorry for you, but for the fact that you're calling me a liar.
After 30 some years in the picture business, you're the first person who's ever questioned my integrity. And you choose to do so from quite a distance.
Please, Mr. Fischer, limit your claims to what you know about, to situations where you were present and to the facts that exist, not just the tiny portion that you know about. And the next time you choose to call me a liar in a public forum, in writing, I'd be happy to introduce you to my lawyer.
David Sosna
Computer Systems Designer
"War Games"
Hal O'Brien @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM
No, actually... despite what you might think is a vested interest of mine in Arthur "Ego" Clarke's coincidental naming, the creepiest computer voice in movie history goes to The Voice of Colossus, voiced by Paul Frees.
IMDB ref: http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0064177/fullcredits
Chris Koenig @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM
I would do anything to have that ending sequence as a screen saver. You know the one, with the crazy flashing lights and maps and missiles all over the place? That was incredible. One of the best climax scenes of any film ever made.
There's a surprising number of people on here that seem to have worked on the film. You rock. I'd love to see some description of how that entire sequence was done. And twenty years ago! Verily, you rock.
Le Poulet Noir @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM
According to the Internet Movie Database trivia section on WarGames, there was a real computer at Norad strategic command in the 1970s called the B.U.R.G.R.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086567/trivia
Whether this is true or had any influence on the designers is a mystery. Can anyone confirm?
The other beautiful thing about WarGames is that the title uses the quintessentially 1980s style of merging two words but capitalising each one's first letter. The practice has fallen out of vogue now, but can still be seen in titles like EastEnders, the long-running British soap opera created in 1985.
Dave Evans @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM
I do have one question. Does any body know how they made the WOPR "Humm Thrump" sound or where i might get a sample of that sound?
Thanks
palmer eldritch @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM
As it might have said in the advert - "Global Thermonuclear War? You're the boss!"
Chess Sets @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM
Chess and Global Thermonuclear war are nearly identical.
Clark Kent @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM
Just stumbled on this site (and particular page) by accident. What a treat to see one of the movies that defined my childhood still being discussed by so many of the people who actually helped create it!
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't that Imsai computer a bit out of date for the setting of the film (1983) akin to using a Commie 64 today (well, maybe not quite THAT anachronistic)?
I'm not very techie, so I could be way off on this. However, if it is true, perhaps one or more of the people who worked on the film could explain why they decided to use the Imsai?
I think it was an excellent choice, btw. It still looks pretty formidable for a home computer, 5.25" floppy disks aside. Nice colors, too. Also shocked to see that the company is still around! Wonder how many calls they get from people using a vocoder to do Joshua pranks?
Richard Goodwin @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM
From what I remember of the commentary track on the WarGames DVD, all of the equipment was purposely out of date. The back story was that David's parent's didn't have the money to buy him expensive toys, so he essentially went dumpster diving for equipment.
James Shannon @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM
#19
The Humm Thrump sound always reminds me of the game "Burnin' Rubber" on the Amstrad 464+ (http://www.oldcomputers.freeserve.co.uk/amstrad-464plus.html)
when a car passes you. (http://cgi.ebay.ie/Burning-Rubber-Amstrad-GX-4000-Game-RARE-GX4000_W0QQitemZ8214604089QQcategoryZ50215QQcmdZViewItem#ebayphotohosting)
I love this film, I first saw it when I bought it on VHS from WHS in Blackburn for 4.99 (back in the late 80's (i'm 25 now)
This film got me interested in computers (I already loved the Speccy and the AMIGA 500)
James
Peter Cress @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM
The capitalization scheme so popular in the eighties (and nineties) comes from the high-level programming languages taht developed in the seventies. Variables and functions could not be given two-word names, because the compiler needs to interpret each word separately. So, programmers just removed any spaces in a phrase, and capitalized the beginnng of each word: "print my file" became PrintMyFile. This is why tech companies used names like InterSoft and MicroTech, and why the title of the movie is WarGames. It refers to the computerized war simulation.
Curt Vendel @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM
So, let me bump this thread back up to active again...
So, being an IMSAI 8080 owner myself, besides owning over 14,000 Atari products (www.atarimuseuml.com) My question is, what ever happened to the WOPR prop???
Curt
John Badham @ Dec 19th 2005 1:03AM
As the Director of the film, I have my pawprints all over the script. One of these prints is the name "WOPR". The original (and correct) name is SIOP for Single Integrated Operating Plan. This was truly boring and told you nothing. A good acronym should bear some mneumonic relation to what it stands for. For example in the Army Rifle Training Program they teach the acronym BRASS. This stands for Breathe, Relax, Aim, Squeeze,Shoot.
Since the purpose of the computer was to deliver a knockout blow if needed to the enemy, the word "whop" as in hit or strike popped into my head. And I then adapted the word to stand for War Operation Plan Response. Of course I saw the resemblance to the Burger King product, but they would have had nothing to do with some warmongering device and would not have wanted to have any connection with the film.
Wim @ Dec 23rd 2005 2:51PM
I am actually considering building a wopr case for home. and have it house a bunch of my servers inside. got plenty of space in my garage. will try to figure out as many of the dimensions as possible from the movie. if anyone has done this before or so let me know !
Ben Helder @ Feb 25th 2008 5:45PM
Hello Wim and all others,
Wim did you manage to build it? I am standing on the for-evening of building an onscale real size one.
Gr. Ben
please respond.