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[[File:Micros.jpg|link=Star Wars|frame|Well, it was a long time ago. <ref>In a galaxy far, far away.</ref>]]
{{quote|''We've got screens figured out '''now'''. What happens in the future that makes them worse?''|'''Graham Stark''', ''[[
{{quote|''Ugh, you'd think in the future they'd have better graphics than ''[[Pong]]''.''|'''Joel Robinson''', ''[[
To the right is what a computer display in ''[[Star Wars]]'' looks like. Now look anywhere at your screen, and compare to what your computer can do.
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* ''[[Bubblegum Crisis]]'' was made in the late 80s and mostly used command line terminals.
* ''[[Legend of Galactic Heroes]]'', apparently set in the late 3590s, also has bulky computers showing simplistic vector graphics.
* ''[[
** Not just any Unix installation, either-- it's very clearly the desktop environment from Silicon Graphics' Irix, whose UI has remained largely unchanged since '''1991'''.
* At least they did better than ''[[Gundam Wing]]'', which doesn't even have GUIs who knows how many centuries in the future.
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** Even so, the holograms are black and white and flickery, not half as good an image as any video technology that would've existed when the first [[Star Wars]] movie was ''filmed.'' However, it does add [[Used Future]] appeal.
** The ''[[X Wing]]'' video game actually used the Episode IV visuals for its targeting computers. Apparently deciding that they could do better, in ''[[TIE Fighter]]'' Lucasarts gave the TIEs a targeting computer that showed the target from the perspective of the pilot's ship, including orientation, though the viewpoint of the "camera" was always from the same distance. It might have been a decision to give the TIEs more advanced equipment, except that all future iterations gave player-controlled craft an identical targeting computer.
* Compare the drab all-text computer graphics from ''[[Alien (
** Also, check out the digital photo that briefly appears in the director's cut of ''Aliens''. It looks to be about .001 megapixel resolution.
** In fact, ''Alien'' did have wireframe 3D animation on some of the CRT monitors in the shuttle craft's bridge (see [http://www.filmsite.org/visualeffects9.html here]). The code for these was written in FORTRAN by British programmers on a Prime 400 microcomputer with 192 kB RAM (see [http://www.asfq51.dsl.pipex.com/bitsinmotion2.pdf here]).
* Averted (a bit) in ''[[
* In ''[[Star Trek: The Motion Picture
** Some of the displays in ''[[Star Trek II:
* The text we see when [[
** Likewise, the [[Terminator]]'s POV shots have 6502 assembly language code in the first two movies, and Macintosh ones (including "QuickTime Player"!) in the third.
* In ''[[Gattaca]]'', they can make DNA tests in seconds, but they have neither touchscreens, or high resolution.
* ''[[Escape
** The glider computer's green wireframe graphic was too expensive to do back then so the model of Manhattan made for different scenes in the movie was painted black, outlined with green reflective tape and filmed. Truly, the past is another country.
* Inexplicably done in ''[[Real Steel]]'', with a Generation 2 controller that Bailey dug up for Max to use with Atom. Seeing that 2007 was a date mentioned where Charlie was still boxing, the monochrome low-res screen on the G2 controller should be more advanced than that.
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== Live Action TV ==
* Many a Trekkie has suffered brain damage trying to explain the dichotomy between the [[Viewer-Friendly Interface]] on computers in ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise
** ''[[Star Trek:
** While DS9 has considerably more animated displays than TNG, it makes it look like the Cardassians [[Salt the Earth|trashing the station on their way out]] replaced [http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/File:Bajoran_Intelligence_net.jpg certain displays] with (377-odd year old) Macintoshes, if the Chicago font is any indication. At least some of us wouldn't put it past those [[Affably Evil]] Cardassians....
** Voyager retconned this by stating a time traveler introduced computer displays to the 20th century. The result was an alternate timeline similar to our own.
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* In ''[[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]'' we learn that at least part of SkyNet is written in Visual Basic and that Terminator CPUs plug into small subsection of PCI bus. No wonder they want to kill humanity.
* ''[[Look Around You]]'', keeping with its [[Retraux]] theme, makes use of BBC Micros, using one in the first series opening titles to run a laughably simple BASIC program. The second series features a BBC Micro with glitchy voice software welcoming viewers to the future of "Look Around Yog", while a toaster with a BBC Micro attached is a "futuristic toasting system".
* ''[[The
* Played with in ''[[Bones]]'' where Angela has a holographic display, with amber graphics resembling some types of 80s crt monitors. The resolution was way better, though.
* ''[[Max Headroom]]''. Everything is in wire frames. Then again, it ''was'' the [[Trope Namer]] for [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future]]....
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== Tabletop Games ==
* Monitors of any sort are rarely seen in ''[[Warhammer
== Video Games ==
* The famous song from ''[[Portal (
** As is the interface on its [[Viral Marketing|companion website]], [http://www.aperturescience.com/ aperturescience.com]. Justified by the text of the secret employee entry: "And while we're all working on twenty year old equipment, somehow they can afford to build an 'Enrichment Center'." Suggesting that all funds were being diverted into developing GLaDOS and/or Portal technology while keeping everything else on a one-thread-of-a-shoestring budget.
** Not to mention that the monitors "don't need to print text one character at a time", so either [[G La DOS]] is sucking up all operating power as well, or she is just messing with people working at the enrichment center.
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