Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 (Tek) 9/28/84 based on 9/17/84; site orca.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!ihnp4!zehntel!hplabs!tektronix!orca!davidl
From: davidl@orca.UUCP (David Levine)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: movie request
Message-ID: <1318@orca.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 21-Jan-85 16:42:15 EST
Article-I.D.: orca.1318
Posted: Mon Jan 21 16:42:15 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 23-Jan-85 07:26:39 EST
References: <299@topaz.ARPA> <416@grendel.UUCP>
Reply-To: davidl@orca.UUCP (David Levine)
Organization: Tektronix, Wilsonville OR
Lines: 42
Summary: 

In article <416@grendel.UUCP> avolio@grendel.UUCP (Frederick M. Avolio) writes:
>> From: redford%doctor.DEC@decwrl.ARPA  (John Redford)
>> I heard from a friend about a movie or TV version of "The Adolescence of P1".
>> Does anyone know anything about it?  The book was about a system cracking
>> program which gets loose in the net and eventually attains consciousness.
>> It was unusually accurate for this kind of thing, unlike, say, "Wargames".
>
>Yes, I saw it last week on a local PBS station.  It was 60 minutes long.
>It was a fun, low budget affair but by no means was it much more "accurate"
>than "Wargames" was.

The PBS children's anthology series "WonderWorks" has a program called "Hide
and Seek" which was based on "The Adolescence of P-1."  At least, that's what
it said in the credits.  Actually, the only thing the two have in common is 
P-1's first line, which is

	CALL GREGORY.  P-1

They've changed the locale from Silicon Valley to Canada (required by Canadian
content legislation, I guess).  They've changed the hero from a wiseass
computer professional to a socially immature high school student.  They've
changed P-1's origin from a deliberate system cracking program to an
accidental outgrowth of a version of Life on a Commodore Pet.  The entire plot
has been changed out of all recognition.

In the TV show, the hero first discovers that his creation has gotten out of 
hand while he's cracking the school computer to change his girlfriend's 
grades (sound familiar?).  There are supposed system professionals who do
nothing but spout nonsense peppered with phrases from the Hacker's Dicitonary.
The ending is incomprehensible.  Yet, it entertains.  Viewed as a juvenile, I
think it succeeds.

I can mildly recommend the book "The Adolescence of P-1", although it's dated.
I can also mildly recommend "Hide and Seek" to those under, say, 16.  However,
"Hide and Seek" is just another "War Games" cash-in that bears little if any 
resemblance to the book upon which it is supposedly based.  I suspect that the 
author of the book had no say whatsoever in the story of the TV show.

David D. Levine  (...decvax!tektronix!orca!davidl)          [UUCP]
                 (orca!davidl.tektronix@csnet-relay.csnet)  [ARPA]

(Gets nasty on Mondays, doesn't he?)