AMC - ‘Halt And Catch Fire’

[dfergie]

AMC‘s new 10-episode drama series Halt And Catch Fire will debut on Sunday June 1 at 10 PM. Halt And Catch Fire captures the rise of the PC era in the early 1980s, during which an unlikely trio – a visionary, an engineer and a prodigy – take personal and professional risks in the race to build a computer that will change the world as they know it.


deadline.com

 

[Anole]

Ha ha ha !
I haven't heard that phrase SINCE the 80's!
It was supposedly an undocumented (and inadvertent) instruction of one of the many microprocessors vying for success.
(but mostly just a great in-joke)
Every semiconductors company had one or more they were promoting.
A list of those company names wouldn't mean much unless you were there... Such nostalgia.

 

[dfergie]

 

[dfergie]

AMC’s ‘Halt And Catch Fire’ Season Premiere On Tumblr

AMC is officially jumping on the social media bandwagon. Starting today, the premiere episode of its new drama Halt And Catch Fire will be available for two weeks on Tumblr, running through May 31, ahead of its June 1 debut on the AMC network.

deadline.com

 

[Zookster]

Anybody watching this? I'm not a computer geek so I don't understand or get into all the techy stuff, but so far it's decent but not great. Good enough for a spring-summer season bridge show to keep me watching for now.

 

[mike123abc]

I have it on the DVR, but have not watched it yet.

 

[Hall]

I've watched both episodes so far. I like it, but I'm a geek and understand the "inspiration". Cardiff Electric is supposed to be Compaq, so it was ironic when the boss at Cardiff mentioned other computer companies of the time, like DEC, Columbia Data, Compaq, etc, etc.

I don't expect the show to last, to be honest, because of it's geek factor...

 

[oldengineer]

I'm a geek too and watch the show with too critical an eye on details and not enough attention or appreciation for the overall plot. My gripe about episode 2 was the way the IBM BIOS and reverse engineering of it was handled, and that was the main plot of the show. Gordon reverse engineered the IBM BIOS and the folder it was in was handled eventually by everyone. Cameron started on the Cardiff version somehow and eventually finished it after being given the IBM folder. In reality Gordon should have done the reversing, written a specification describing the functions of the BIOS, and given the spec to Cameron (over the Chinese Wall). Cameron would have written the Cardiff version from the spec. The original IBM BIOS copy should have been destroyed or archived in a location inaccessible to anyone. If a company reverse engineered any copyright protected software the way Cardiff did they would have been in deep doo doo.

 

[Bruuce]

I managed to set the DVR when this premiered and have been watching it. I'm a total nerd for things tech so I find a drama wrapped around that subject to be pretty interesting. Anyone else still watching?

 

[Hall]

Yeap, still watching it here

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

 

[oldengineer]

I'm still there. I thought the latest episode was OK. Ratings aren't great and it looks like renewal status is up in the air.

 

[whitewolf8214]

This has been ok imo and will watch a few more episodes before deciding!!

 

[Hall]

Even though I like the show, I fully expect it to be canceled. It's a geek show, about building computers in the early 80s! I can see it's limited appeal easily.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

 

[dfergie]

Retitled, have them all, but have been very busy so far this summer...

 

[mike123abc]

I finally got around to watching it and like it. Yes it is geeky but the interaction of the main characters has been interesting. I did not expect the hacker attack on the bank for financing. I want to see what happens at Comdex.

I was thinking it was inspired by Compaq at first, but then they did the whole personality thing and mentioned Compaq as a different company.

It is almost a cross between Apple and Compaq. Like what if Jobs/Woz worked at Compaq.

 

[Hall]

I was thinking it was inspired by Compaq at first, but then they did the whole personality thing and mentioned Compaq as a different company.

They used the Compaq story as "inspiration" (being based in TX, cloning IBM, their first machine being a 'portable' one vs a desktop, even down to an outside investor funding development of their first machine, having former IBM employees, etc -- check out Compaq's history) and then made their own tangent (I think).

The hack on the bank was a complete surprise.... I didn't pay enough attention to it though. They didn't steal/borrow someone else's money, right ? Cameron said something like "it was Cardiff's own money" like they just transferred $ from one division's account to another.

 

[mike123abc]

I believe the story line was that the PC division was out of money and Cardiff's owner said shut it down when it went out, but instead they broke into the bank and transferred money from other divisions into the PC division's checking account. Essentially potentially bankrupting the entire company.

 

[Hall]

Yeah, I remember the owner telling Bosworth that once the 'cash' was used up, to shut down the PC group. After that, I wasn't clear....

 

[oldengineer]

Surprise! It's been renewed for a second season despite miserably low ratings of the season finale.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/halt-catch-fire-renewed-at-726525

 

[mike123abc]

I do not know if I will watch another season. I really liked the first half of the season, then it went off the rails and seemed to turn into a soap opera.