The Cold War, The Cola Wars, and the Forgotten Format War
We are all familiar with the Cold War and its importance to the show. United States versus USSR, and the ‘forgotten’ Vietnam War. Forgotten in the sense that the Vietnam War was a proxy-war/by-product of the Cold War. AND in the sense that once the Soviets entered the picture in Season 3, there was less and less talk about the Vietnam War.
We all know about Coke and New Coke now. And we have a general idea about the Cola Wars primarily between Coke and Pepsi. But another player was also involved in the Cola Wars - the forgotten Keurig Dr Pepper!
With the release of Stranger Things: VHS Special Edition, we can talk about the analog videocassette/videotape format wars!
A few things to clarify before we move on. A VHS tape is a type of videocassette/video tape! The overall type of technology is we’re working with is not VHS, but that is one brand’s version of analog videocassettes. Just like how Coke is a brand of colas.
VHS tapes are part of the Video Home System produced by the Victor Company of Japan (JVC). So, in order to play a VHS tape, you need to have a VCR!
“A videocassette recorder (VCR) or video recorder is an electromechanical device that records analog audio and analog video from broadcast television or other AV sources and can play back the recording from the tape. The use of a VCR to record a television program to play back at a more convenient time is commonly referred to as time shifting.”
So, a video recorder can be used to both play back existing/recorded tapes, AND be used to record the from a broadcast.
But! JVC was not the *only* company producing these videocassette/videocassette recording devices (VCVCR)
Sony was also producing a VCVCR: Betamax.
For a while, Betamax was winning out over VHS! Both of these formats were what is called enclosed videocassettes, so they could only go one way. Again, it’s important to note that magnetism can erase the footage!
The turning point for the JVC was the introduction of the VHS-C, with the C standing for compact. Now, the VHS-C could be used in tandem with the JVC GR-C1 VideoMovie camcorder - the one that Bob Newby has. The one the Shadow Monster is on the tapes of!
Here is what a VHS-C to VHS converter looks like as well:
Overall, VHS won-out on the consumer-side. I’ve talked about Brenner possibly either using technology from the future, or at least technology that is a better version of consumer-technology (more expensive, etc); also Sony being controlling… sounds familiar.
So, there’s a VHS versus Betamax. Then VHS-C versus Video8.
Notice the… ‘split the camcorder market in 2’ and Max saying the world split in 2…
Hi8 - Wikipedia
*interestingly, VHS-C and Video8 are both introduced in 1984. And when do we meet the Lost Sister? When do they claim they came up with the idea for Henry/Vecna? Season 2… which is also when everything starts to fall apart…
This does extend into digital, which I’ll get into at a later date.
While VHS and Betamax were at war with each other, other companies were producing blank tapes that were compatible with both systems. Kodak is one of the American companies, but so is…
Maxell produced blank tapes for both VHS and Betamax. Literally how fucking perfect is this! Kodak is the American company that was producing blanks for both.
*cryptography & military history side tangent*
Maxell, JVC, and Sony are all Japanese brands, and a lot of their consumer technology comes from adapting *military* technology for consumer purposes - so yes, we can eventually tie this around to the Red Code Book (CODE RED!), the Enigma Machine, and the Bombe!
https://www.nsa.gov/history/national-cryptologic-museum/exhibits-artifacts/exhibit-view/article/2718925/the-magic-of-purple/
Going dark!! @lavenderlatte222 @misspracticallydelulu
The Magic of Purple. With El in the Upside Down, we could really use some magic up here. Purple Rain. 18-months to solve the cipher for the PURPLE CODE.
Anyways, Mike Wheeler is actually right now busy cracking the fucking purple code.
He is the key. 🔑 he is literally decrypting the PURPLE CODE
Please see this post about WSQK, paintings, Hell Fire Club!!
💬 7 🔁 2 ❤️ 20 · Hell Fire Club = Feld Hell Club = AV Club · To my Founding Fathers (codebreakersgate), if you’re seeing this… Hellschreib
Anyways, all of this to say. I think that Max and El are going to be another MAJOR key in this. Max went away for 18 months, they ‘won’. El went away for 18 months right at the end… before showing up at the waterfalls while Mike is looking at the painting El made. GOD DAMN.
*end cryptography & military history side tangent*
In Season 4 when Henry/001/Vecna is introduced, we have El fighting 001 in Hawkins National Laboratory via Project Nina. Henry, because he is the son of Victor (aka the Victor Company of Japan). She also is already associated with liking to watch TV, etc.
When Max is introduced in Season 2, she is always listening to music and is later famous for her Walkman- a Sony brand item. Her saving grace from Henry/001/ Vecna is music, she meets and faces off with Vecna. Both El and Max are fighting the same thing, they are also separated in Seasons 4&5… just like Mike and Will have been separated…
Now when I think of 80s tapes, I think of VHS for videotapes, but I do think of Sony for audiocassette tapes. So, when we’re talking AV Club, we’re talking audiovisual club. We’re talking audio(Max)visual(El). Another key for ending the fucked up signals, to ending the interference… is literally ELMAX, also known as MaxEl(L).
You know what Maxell stands for?
“Maximum capacity dry cell” they sell batteries too!! We need to charge El’s battery!?
I don’t know how these major FUCKING nerds did this shit holy hell!!
I am actually so curious now because… like could this actually turn into the Format Wars being represented by different types of videocassette systems and formats from the 70s & 80s?
I think the lab/military/government is operating using digital technology since Season 3, and then computers (with Henry -> Vecna) in Season 4, and then AI (with Vecna) in Season 5…
💬 20 🔁 5 ❤️ 24 · Cerebro, Weathertop Hill, Whatzit/Whatsit, X a lie? What do the references in Stranger Things even mean? 🤦♀️ · Or, a les
💬 25 🔁 3 ❤️ 22 · Henry as a Human Computer · Overall, I think the ultimate mechanism behind what is going on in the show goes back to the
💬 2 🔁 3 ❤️ 18 · Sigh… El Niño was discovered by fisherman in southern tip of South America because they noticed the water was warmer than
So in order for our characters to get the complete timeline, they have to understand what’s going on enough to be able to decode->code & encrypt->decrypt types of technology they don’t even understand. If the villain is using future technology, the villain is likely abandoning older forms of technology as well, so maybe it goes like understanding future technology -> formatting it to older technology -> adjusting it to technology of the time period in which all the fuckery took place!?
💬 8 🔁 10 ❤️ 34 · Oh okay so this is from the Season 3 ARG 🧐 (I think it’s part of a phone message when you called a phone number, so I do
But as they do this, the villain just finds better technology, and the codes get harder the ciphers get harder. So they have to do it again…
So they have to keep going… the coding the queer coding the radio signals coding…
💬 0 🔁 1 ❤️ 11 · Queering Technology · As I’ve previously outlined in the following post: 💬 8 🔁 9 ❤️ 34 · Oh okay so this is from the Se
💬 0 🔁 9 ❤️ 53 · Mike doesn’t clock it… · Mike doesn’t clock it = Mike doesn’t receive the signal The phrase of clock it, the villain is o
Apparently this is just my thesis right now, so why the Hell not!
💬 9 🔁 1 ❤️ 25 · The week is long · The silver cat feeds When blue meets Yellow in the west The MAIN events of Stranger Things Seasons 3
As for where trippygate could come in here… of course, to achieve some of this level of altering memories you need the combination of these things with also some sort of mind altering drug. One pattern I’ve noticed is that the characters that seem to take the least bullshit and seem like they know what’s going on…
Are often Max&Robin(&Vickie she at least questions it), AND Lucas&Erica. An interesting possibly related tangent is…
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/why-do-redheads-need-more-anesthesia
By Kate Raphael The response to drug epidemics cuts along lines of race and class. In my recent piece with Toni Monkovic in the New York Tim
Redheads might experience more pain than others, therefore, are not given adequate anaesthesia during treatments. Here, I’m equating this to the lab not giving them enough of whatever drugs they need to in order to induce the memory alterations the way they want to.
Additionally, medical biases against Black people & other nonwhite people can lead physicians to believe that they need less anaesthesia during treatment. I’m also equating this to the lab giving them less of the mind/memory altering drugs than they need to in order to induce memory alterations the way they want to!
^ @nightnut for trippygate tie in!
Okay, that’s all for this one folks! Elmax Maxell (and Maxwell’s disease from Boroughs) might juuuuuuuust be the key they all need to reorder and sort out their memories!