- IBM's AN-FSQ-7 panels from 1950s SAGE have shown up in a huge number of movies. They are still showing up in new movies. Woody's Electrical Props in LA rents them out.[1]
Those slanted panels aren't the computer. Those are the modems.
[1] https://woodysprops.com/item.php?uid=122&page=4
- Similar: https://www.imcdb.org/ IMCDB, the Internet Movie Car Database
- Ha! A couple decades ago I saw the original Westworld, spotted some assembly, and thought it looked like 6502/Apple II code, so I assumed that was “probably” it and thought I was a clever nerd. Now I check this list and discovered it wasn’t 6502, and then realized the 6502 (1975) didn’t exist at the time the movie was shot (1973). Reviewed some scenes just now on YouTube and I can see it doesn’t look like 6502 code at all. It does look like the assembly might be the code behind some of the animated displays that look like old screen savers that you see on the other monitors in the film, perhaps, based on a few comments & variables in the code. (For example: https://youtu.be/Luo3uEVOahw?t=2645)
- Fun Fact: in king of queens, most of the pcs (for example airport episode with doug's parents) are just RCT tvs with paper printout of a screen taped over it.
by WillAdams
1 subcomments
- While not a movie, a bunch of NeXT Cubes (at least the monitors) were used in a Madonna video --- apparently some production company got a good deal on machines intended for Japan (hence the katakana interface)
- I spotted at least one touch-screen PC. Is that still a computer? Just kidding.
Pocket Computers are computers, why are they not in there?
There is even a trope due to a legal practice about Apples subclass of pocket calculators:
iPhones are only worn by good guys in movies, that is a rule by Apple that possibly spoils some twists.
by martin-adams
1 subcomments
- What timing. I was just preparing my Sony Vaio PCT-C1MHP only yesterday to try and sell. I remember seeing this in a movie around 2000 (probably Charlies Angels) and got one.
https://www.starringthecomputer.com/computer.html?c=64
by jim_lawless
0 subcomment
- I remember seeing the TRS-80's in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou but I didn't know that they were Model IV's.
According to this list, there was a TRS-80 Model III in the Star Wars TV series Andor:
Andor - Season 1, Episode 1, "Kassa" (2022)
- This is a really impressive amount of effort. Every entry has a fairly even quality to it...screen grabs and contextual descriptions of even one-off episodes of television shows, yet alone decades worth of movies.
- What computers available today look interesting enough that they will show up in movies next year?
Clicking through random computers I think the 80’s had a lot of really beautiful hardware.
I think it might be fun to buy an IBM PS/2 case and try to put modern hardware inside. I’d love to have that on my desk. Come to think of it, there must be companies making retro-looking cases…. If you search for retro computer case you get a bunch of boring 90’s towers. Where’s the fun stuff?
by hamburglar
4 subcomments
- No Cray appearances? Surprising.
- Poor lil Acorn Atom only made it into an actual microcomputer doumentary and if it were not for that, nothing.
- This site is amazing!
I was in Pendleton, Oregon the other day and checked out a vintage shop that had an Apple IIe with original disk drive and monitor for sale... along with lots of Macs from the 90s. I couldn't believe I was looking at "antiques".
by purplezooey
0 subcomment
- My fav. so far is the IMSAI 8080 in "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" (2007).
- My 90s Macintosh was in How to make a killing (2026). I should put it up there.
- Pairs nicely with https://accessmaincomputerfile.net/ (although that site might not be working any longer).
by protocolture
0 subcomment
- I really want more info on the computers from Fallout and Cowboy Bebop. Some look original, but some of the background pieces I reckon might be 3d printed nostalgia pieces.
- Ones in the List I have used :)
* CDC 6600
* DEC VAX 11/780 (IIRC)
* Honeywell H200, did not expect to see this on the list
* IBM S/370 (IIRC)
* IBM/Lenovo Thinkpads - 760, T43, T420, T61, W500
* Wang Professional Computer - these were bomb proof. I had a 16 bit Unix running on this.
* Wang WLTC
by timdellinger
1 subcomments
- “sort by year” is buried on the site, but definitely a fun way to sort
there should also be a “you can spot the villain early since they’re the only one not using Apple” sub-list
- I found ZX Spectrum! And it was not popular in movies
- Wasn’t there a PowerBook in Blade (I)?
- Amazing how long the Apple II list is (with its variants), and how short the Dell list is!
- Funny to consider how many Apples are showcased on Apple TV shows. I think the most ridiculous one was "For All Mankind" where civilization was so advanced it featured colonies on the Moon and Mars... yet used current Apple phones and devices. How unimaginative.
- I feel like the movie Hackers should have more entries.
- Its kinda sad that I've owned 26 of them. :-)
- Commodore 64 film list is really impressive..
.
by alexhornby
0 subcomment
- Atari ST, Jason Bourne in the hacker space
by afterburner
1 subcomments
- No listing for Wargames?
by ____tom____
0 subcomment
- No IBM PC references? Not one?
I mean the 5150 pc not the 5160 XT they mention.
by rsamtravis
0 subcomment
- Huh. IMFDB but for computers. I like it.
by MoneyBurning
0 subcomment
- [dead]
by belabartok39
0 subcomment
- [dead]
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