I'm surprised no one's mentioned the scene in Jedi when the Gammorrean Guard was looking up baseball scores on his Macbook.
― Hellmann's All-Beef Bolognnaise (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 28 October 2015 17:04 (eight years ago) link
They're all purpose-built machines though - all hardware, no real idea of software - the astromech slot is there so that when you want to upgrade your X-Wing, you get a smarter droid for the slot.
Hah, just went to check and Wikipedia sez: "The history of the personal computer as mass-market consumer electronic devices effectively began in 1977"
― Andrew Farrell, Wednesday, 28 October 2015 17:09 (eight years ago) link
what proportion of under-30 fans of SW and Indiana Jones (not hardcore geeks, just y'know regular people) know that in '77 and '81, the selling line for both was "pastiches of old movie serials"?
― skateboards are the new combover (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 28 October 2015 17:10 (eight years ago) link
Just the ones that dress like hip grandparents
― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Wednesday, 28 October 2015 17:13 (eight years ago) link
I'm not sure who would know what movie serials are, and why.
― Andrew Farrell, Wednesday, 28 October 2015 17:20 (eight years ago) link
https://images.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.refinedguy.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F09%2FE.T.-Cereal-general-mills.jpeg&f=1
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 28 October 2015 17:22 (eight years ago) link
Those were better than
http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100323121721/starwars/images/2/22/Cereal_Box_C3P0s.jpg
― how's life, Wednesday, 28 October 2015 17:28 (eight years ago) link
there is a great ilx post about C-3P0's lodged in my brain, no idea where/when it was though
― Gorefest Frump (Doctor Casino), Wednesday, 28 October 2015 17:29 (eight years ago) link
ETs cerial looks like a bowl of tiny turds.
― One bad call from barely losing to (Alex in SF), Wednesday, 28 October 2015 17:32 (eight years ago) link
et's basically cocoa puffs, c3po's basically alpha-bits iirc. mr t's smoked both of them.
― balls, Wednesday, 28 October 2015 17:34 (eight years ago) link
ET cereal presaged Reese's Puffs and is therefore the best.
― Hellmann's All-Beef Bolognnaise (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 28 October 2015 17:38 (eight years ago) link
And, yes, it was meant to look like you were eating a bowlful of ET's tiny turds.
― Hellmann's All-Beef Bolognnaise (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 28 October 2015 17:39 (eight years ago) link
Speaking of, I'm glad Lucas eventually started addressing this, but when did the SW gang ever take a shit? The logistics wrt like Chewbacca and Darth Vader are mindbending.
― Hellmann's All-Beef Bolognnaise (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 28 October 2015 17:40 (eight years ago) link
mr t's smoked both of them.
geez I hope he was okay afterwards
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 28 October 2015 17:42 (eight years ago) link
I'm glad Old Lunch is finally bringing this thread on-topic
― I Am Curious (Dolezal) (DJP), Wednesday, 28 October 2015 17:44 (eight years ago) link
Star Wars shit talk thread moving in an interesting direction.
― One bad call from barely losing to (Alex in SF), Wednesday, 28 October 2015 17:45 (eight years ago) link
So Mr. ETs were a combo option?
― jmm, Wednesday, 28 October 2015 17:46 (eight years ago) link
feel like the Endor moon trip probably settled a lot of questions about rebels in the woods
― μpright mammal (mh), Wednesday, 28 October 2015 17:47 (eight years ago) link
Think they are going to eventually do a 'ironic' mas special reboot?
― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Wednesday, 28 October 2015 17:48 (eight years ago) link
they should remaster and rerelease the original xmas special just to fuck with lucas
― the illicit unit slid tantalizingly across the waxed tile (bizarro gazzara), Wednesday, 28 October 2015 22:41 (eight years ago) link
Despecialized!
― schwantz, Wednesday, 28 October 2015 22:46 (eight years ago) link
― Hellmann's All-Beef Bolognnaise (Old Lunch), Wednesday, October 28, 2015 5:40 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
figuring with Darth's organs all fucked up they rerouted all the sewage to the back of his head
― Hammer Smashed Bagels, Thursday, 29 October 2015 01:56 (eight years ago) link
also how high ranking was Vader as a manager? could he hire and fire or did he merely 'make recommendations'
― Hammer Smashed Bagels, Thursday, 29 October 2015 01:58 (eight years ago) link
I think many fans of all ages know this factoid, but only as that - there's barely any frame of reference for "old movie serials" though! Not like those things are getting re-issued as criterion sets
― El Tomboto, Thursday, 29 October 2015 02:04 (eight years ago) link
It's a straight shot from Vader's meditation chamber to the trash compactor
Xposts
― too young for seapunk (Moodles), Thursday, 29 October 2015 02:06 (eight years ago) link
Also the main thing about computers in Star Wars is that almost nothing is networked! As mentioned, everything is either sort of a purpose-built mainframe or what we'd call a PLC / SCADA system, every node is airgapped and the only way to interface with things is to physically plug a thing into another thing. The prequels break this model occasionally, maybe because they're happening "before the dark times" but still, when all the battle droids turn out to be connected to one giant satellite brain via wireless, it rings false.
― El Tomboto, Thursday, 29 October 2015 02:09 (eight years ago) link
Probably some good excuses in there like Dune's prohibition on thinking computers, where once, some clever humanoids DID invent fly-by-wire technology and develop advanced drones that could communicate via an open, intergalactic "web" of some sort, and then it all ended in terrible devastation and forever after anybody who tried to get two droids to talk to each other without audibly beeping was immediately Sarlacc'd
― El Tomboto, Thursday, 29 October 2015 02:16 (eight years ago) link
vader basically alec Baldwin in glengarry glen ross afaict. Ed harris = that sneering admiral he choked in SW, spacey = tarkin, mitch and murray = the emperor
― nomar, Thursday, 29 October 2015 02:22 (eight years ago) link
Note how R2-D2 is able to shut down all the trash compactors but the tractor beam and the weapons systems are completely off-limits. You have to basically be standing in the beam path of the superlaser to operate it, and well you all know about the tractor beam nonsense.
― El Tomboto, Thursday, 29 October 2015 02:23 (eight years ago) link
"luke, you've turned off your targeting computer!""huh, how did you know that?"http://i.imgur.com/taoM0yp.png
― Philip Nunez, Thursday, 29 October 2015 02:25 (eight years ago) link
Actually it was because R2 tweeted it
― El Tomboto, Thursday, 29 October 2015 02:27 (eight years ago) link
via audible beeps, into his radio
(is there a little feed into the helmet earpiece that lets pilots hear their astromech's beeping? I assume this is how it works)
― El Tomboto, Thursday, 29 October 2015 02:28 (eight years ago) link
Artoo-Retwoot
― Gorefest Frump (Doctor Casino), Thursday, 29 October 2015 02:31 (eight years ago) link
Kind of rude that Luke refuses to talk to R2 in his native astromech bleep bloop language
― too young for seapunk (Moodles), Thursday, 29 October 2015 02:44 (eight years ago) link
R2 usually just tells old Henny YOungman jokes
― Hammer Smashed Bagels, Thursday, 29 October 2015 02:50 (eight years ago) link
I wanna know how those Threepio cornflakes taste.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 29 October 2015 02:53 (eight years ago) link
solder and cinnamon
― Hammer Smashed Bagels, Thursday, 29 October 2015 02:54 (eight years ago) link
there's a suggestion that computers and robots gossip with each other as well - "R2! how did you know the hyperdrive had been disabled??" "tweet twiddle beep" "the city's COMPUTER told you???" "twooooot"
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 29 October 2015 09:31 (eight years ago) link
Just realised the lame battle droids and destroyer droids might've come off a bit better if all their dialogue to each other had been subtitled bleeps and buzzes rather than that awful high-pitched Dr. Nerdlinger accent.
― nashwan, Thursday, 29 October 2015 10:06 (eight years ago) link
Out of grim interest I just looked for a video of the droids and came across the battle at the end of TPM, my god the CGI looks so basic it reminds me of something on an N64.
― Chewshabadoo, Thursday, 29 October 2015 10:29 (eight years ago) link
well i know what Tombot is getting for Christmas
http://www.dvd-covers.org/d/82005-3/3123Flash_Gordon_Conquers_the_Universe_vol_1.jpg
― skateboards are the new combover (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 29 October 2015 11:56 (eight years ago) link
flash gordon shamelessly copping a feel there
― the illicit unit slid tantalizingly across the waxed tile (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 29 October 2015 12:48 (eight years ago) link
That Flash Gordon set is in my Amazon cart as we speak. I've heard good things.
― Trimming The Hegyes: The Life & Times Of A Sweathog's Barber (Old Lunch), Thursday, 29 October 2015 12:53 (eight years ago) link
Is kylo ren Luke's son?
― calstars, Thursday, 29 October 2015 13:03 (eight years ago) link
It would be kind of cool if one of the standalone star wars movies would feature an all-droid cast and all the dialogue was subtitled bleep-bloops
― silverfish, Thursday, 29 October 2015 13:12 (eight years ago) link
it would be even cooler if they didn't subtitle it - just a bunch of trundling trashcans burbling incomprehensibly to each other in the desert for two hours
― the illicit unit slid tantalizingly across the waxed tile (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 29 October 2015 13:32 (eight years ago) link
I always liked how the movies let us know what R2 and Chewie are saying without resorting to subtitles. I dunno if that's at all original to Star Wars.
― jmm, Thursday, 29 October 2015 13:38 (eight years ago) link
xpost A la Chewie's family in the first half hour of the Christmas special.
― Trimming The Hegyes: The Life & Times Of A Sweathog's Barber (Old Lunch), Thursday, 29 October 2015 13:39 (eight years ago) link
(Which I started playing for my girlfriend last year because she didn't believe that such a thing even existed. I don't think she was any more convinced of its existence after actually seeing it.)
― Trimming The Hegyes: The Life & Times Of A Sweathog's Barber (Old Lunch), Thursday, 29 October 2015 13:40 (eight years ago) link
the selling line for both was "pastiches of old movie serials"
The Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon movie serials had a nostalgic revival in the 60s, as did the newspaper strips ... when young George wasn't cruising around American Graffiti style, maybe he was making notes in the margins of this:
https://d1466nnw0ex81e.cloudfront.net/n_iv/600/575547.jpg
― Brad C., Thursday, 29 October 2015 13:44 (eight years ago) link