cultshock

That's the ending I got too.

cultshock

I never thought of that, this episode would probably really test the abilities of some of the devices people use to stream Netflix, especially Blu-ray players and smart TVs (considering that most smart TVs aren't really that "smart" compared to most streaming devices).

Tom Banjo

I just went through it all again and it started to get really tedious. Trying to avoid the ending somehow put me into a loop where I kept getting stuck with Netflix or A/B tree as my only options. I couldn’t get it back to the PAX option.

Mr. Flix

Can anyone explain the meaning behind Stefan listening to modem sounds on his Walkman?

james2025a

Yeah the kid dies as well. This was one of the endings I saw.

james2025a

I believe Booker said its basically getting the user used to what's ahead in making choices and also it replicates some of the basic choices of the old fighting fantasy books that gave choices which really didn't affect the overall outcome. Same with the breakfast cereal.

TomOpus

Surprised someone hasn't mapped out the entire flow diagram. Yet.

Mr. Flix

It's all over Twitter this morning.

TomOpus

Not mine.

I'm sure it will eventually filter down to some of the people I follow.

Mr. Flix

DWilson

I tried to watch it last night, but because I'm an old man (and not because of the show) I kept nodding off, which screws things up because you can't "rewind". I tried three times from the beginning, but never got through it, though I hit certain "dead ends" where my choices would take me to essentially a "choose-over" screen with two televisions.

I tried again today and worked my way through to what I think is the most satisfactory ending, - involving - and then I decided to go back to credits. I know I've seen a few seen a few scenes or parts of scenes last night that I haven't seen today.

A little clever, a little frustrating.

Jay G.

It's an Easter Egg. He's not listening to a modem, he's listening to a ZX Spectrum program encoded onto tape (the tape says "Bandersnatch demo," so it's ostensibly the demo tape he's bringing to Tuckersoft). PC games were distributed on tape back in the day, especially in the UK where it stuck around a lot longer than in the US, where floppies took over faster.

Here's a Youtube video where someone decodes the audio to a ZX Specturm program and runs it:

It's a QR code that leads to this site:
https://tuckersoft.net/ealing20541/

There's a downloadable copy of the game Nohzdyve on that site. I was able to play it using this online emulator.
http://jsspeccy.zxdemo.org/

There actually is a history of musicians distributing PC games on their albums via this audio encoding method, most recently with Radiohead via a track on a boxset they released:
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/...r-anniversary/

DJariya

I'm not a regular viewer of Black Mirror, but I did try to watch the new interactive episode last night.

The concept is really cool, but it did get really tedious going around in circles a few times.

I laughed when I made the wrong decision in the doctors office:

cultshock

That's cool. And yep, I remember the days of PC games being on cassette tapes, in fact, in the film there is a scene at the software company where you clearly see someone packing up a box full of game cassettes.

Jay G.

If you laughed, was it really the "wrong" decision?

I went through several loops while watching it, seeing several endings and doubling back, and only stopping when I got to an ending that didn't offer any option to double back. Checking the flowchart, I saw most, but not all, of it, missing off mainly on some variations of endings I did see. And of course, I only made 1 decision of the cereal and music choices. One thing I noticed about the cereal choice I made (Sugar Puffs) is that later in the movie I saw a commercial for that exact cereal on a TV (right before Stefan plays the documentary). I'm wondering if I chose the other cereal, I would've seen a commercial for that cereal instead.

Also, after one of the loopbacks, the film showed me a recap that included a bit I hadn't actually seen, since I had chosen a different path. Looking at the flowchart, it seems to have altered my choice even though I never looped back far enough to change that choice.

dex14

The commercial you see is selected by the cereal you chose in the beginning.

andicus

I went to a club meeting, way back when, and we had a daisy chain of users with cassette recorders pirating software. This was for the Radio Shack Colour Computer. Very reliable, and comparatively fast, cassette system. Conversely, the Atari cassette system was incredibly slow and unreliable.

DWilson

I chose the flakes, and later there was a commercial for Flakes.

Giantrobo

Started it last night but knew I wasn't ready for the full commitment...but The wife made a big deal about watching it. Ok, shit... hit Play/shut her up. Of course, I was doing all the work and ultimately she wasn't even paying attention as she fucked around on the laptop. Fuck it! I'll finish this later when im committed. I only made it to the software company part at the beginning...

Jay G.

Does the movie save your place in it, or does each viewing start over at the beginning?

Giantrobo

I wondered about that. I just figure when i do watch it again I'll start it over since i wasn't very far in. So it may not be an issue. I have friends on FB did all endings over the weekend.

I will say what little I've seen is seamless after a choice is made. Not sure if they are "cheating" or if just the tech has come that far. i was expecting noticeable transitions a la "DRAGON'S LAIR".

Jay G.

A buffer helps a lot, and is pretty much built into the way Netflix steams video anyway.

cultshock

I had a Commodore 64, and it's cassette player was really slow as well. I ended up saving my money all summer so that I could buy a disc drive for it. Much better, and we had a dual disc drive in the computer lab at school, so every lunch and break it was non-stop game copying. Oh crap, maybe I shouldn't talk about that here, am I breaking a rule? Oh hell, that was nearly 35 years ago, so fuck it.

RichC2

Was that entire LSD sequence optional?

Jay G.

Yes, but only if...