insane ramblings about plaything below the cut as well as me pointing out all the easter eggs to 90s gaming stuff + my bingo card
afaik this is all pretty much spoiler free (defo free of major spoilers anyway) because im just zeroing in on the details and references i liked
photos of the ep itself are horribly grotty because i couldnt take screenshots and had to resort to taking photos of the screen with my phone sorry 🫡
thats right gamers we got bingo. i cant believe the heres toby cameo actually happened i put that there as a joke because i was running out of ideas and then it HAPPENED!!
LOOK AT THISSSS . that’s the tottenham court road computer exchange baby… og logo and everything!! and yes thats right HERE’S TOBY POSTER IN THE BACKGROUND. he’s saying something about bargains… i will have to see if its an actual old heres toby poster or something new
PC ZONE. PC ZONE. PC ZONE CAN ANYONE HEAR ME PC ZONE ‼️ here i was hoping for at least a reference then it turns out cameron WRITES for pc zone (he really is so charliecoded). let me tell you the squee i squmpt every time it got mentioned… insane. also. this issue of pc zone is issue 20, the november 1994 issue. charlie brooker wrote a review in that issue & drew a cartoon for it as well. computer exchange. charlie designed the logo and ofc drew the here’s toby. one can pretend for a beautiful moment that this either takes place in such a world that cameron walker and charlie brooker are coworkers, or one that has a dollar store charlie brooker for those purposes. ALSO iirc this pc zone issue’s cover cd got the mag in trouble because of a certain spicy doom wad EDIT: nah it’s not. i forgot they put doom wads on tons of cover cds. HOWEVER it was the first issue to have john davison as editor!! and also charlie brooker did the cover review (system shock) and it was also afaik his first cover feature. awesome
DOOOOMMMMMM i knew id see doom. godbles 💗 he got fragged
various stickers… not sure yet what the one on the computer was, one of the ones on camerons wardrobe(?) said “no bad games”
looooots of callbacks in the tuckersoft office. which i liked (there were lots of these kinds of references in colins office also, but i couldnt be bothered getting a picture of every little reference)
colins office … much to think about. also had drawings by a child, presumably his daughter. awesome
honestly just thought this art was very cute.
took a pic here because i wanna check and see what pc this was & also see if its the one that pc sone was using as their benchmark pc for reviews at the time
ive mentioned this already but PENTIUM PROCESSOR MENTION. i enjoyed the attention to detail so much. that IS the best processor for a computer then YES!
didnt get pics but in camerons flat there was a poster for gremlin interactive and a poster saying “bullfrog” which i assume was for the games company. both pretty popular production teams at the time
cameron was lowkey so charlie in the 90s coded also. one bedroom flat (no roommate tho 😔), writing for pc zone, having an interesting experience doing lsd, being all cocky and angry in print but being shy and ashamed irl….. the similarities are there. also that goofy buzzcut
^ THAT SAID cameron is a complex character and not just a past cb self-insert. im only focusing on those connections because im like insane, not because theyre the only defining characteristics of him.
the bandersnatch parallels… they ate that up. dont wanna spoil too much but like. there were several parallels and they slayedddd
gawd that was so fun i had a blast. i dont know how remotely normal people will receive it but for me at least it was so so good.
ALSO.
SPECIAL THANKS TO RICHIE SHOEMAKER AND PAUL MALLINSON LETS ALL RUN AROUND AND DIE TOGETHER. perceptive followers may remember i listened to a podcast w richie shoemaker literally the night before last. and mallo!! omg… context: richie shoemaker was the deputy editor of and a writer for pc zone for a fair bit and paul mallinson was the news editor of and a writer for pc zone for a fair bit also. and his nickname at the mag is/was “mallo”. cathy king may have also been involved with the mag but unforchies i forget currently… i will have to check. looking up her name gave me a curler so (another edit to add: she’s credited in other episodes too lol, she’s not a pc zone alumni)
