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Hack the Gibson (lemmy.world)
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[-] Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz 68 points 6 days ago

Yall had color static? I only remember seeing black and white static.

[-] Rhaedas@fedia.io 45 points 6 days ago

You could get color if a weak signal drifted in (and had a color TV), but generally it was black and white. OP needs to take that pixelated mess back and fix it.

[-] prettybunnys@piefed.social 9 points 6 days ago

I had a tv that output static with the colors when signal was missing, it did NOT make the fuzz sound tho.

This was the early 90s

[-] Rhaedas@fedia.io 4 points 6 days ago

I think early digital may have done that, but not analog.

[-] JcbAzPx@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

Digital is either on or off. You need analog to get static.

[-] Rhaedas@fedia.io 4 points 6 days ago

Right, it was simulated static, instead of the blue screen.

[-] prettybunnys@piefed.social 1 points 6 days ago

For the tv we had my recollection was that it only happened when there was no input plugged into the UHF.

Or if the Nintendo inline was plugged in and the Nintendo was off, and no other input.

We had cable since that late 80s so I don’t recall ever dealing with signal loss beyond VH1 becoming scrambled at 9:30 for the playboy channel.

[-] Donebrach@lemmy.world 8 points 6 days ago

Gibson talks about this in his prologue, and other anachronisms in Neuromancer (specifically his lack of imagination regarding phones)—he was envisioning the dull grey of a dead tv signal of his childhood, not the crazy black and white static of the late 20th and early 21st century; but the sentiment tracks even though he probably wasn’t event thinking that about any of the implications, given his displeasure of even being lumped in with cyberpunk as a genre (which I think is really confoundedly stupid on his part).

We had a really old tv in my basement when I was young. If you messed with the hue knob while on a non existent channel you could get a lot more colorful static

[-] helpImTrappedOnline@lemmy.world 25 points 6 days ago

The scariest part about this is realizing there was less time between 1985 to 2005 then there is from 2005 to now (2026).

[-] fleem@piefed.zeromedia.vip 21 points 6 days ago

ONLY JUST BARELY GODDAMNIT

[-] dreadbeef@lemmy.dbzer0.com 25 points 6 days ago

Neuromancer reference, btw

[-] theinternetftw@lemmy.world 20 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Gibson has said that he was imagining a TV from when he was growing up. Quote:

"I actually composed that first image with black and white video static of my childhood in mind, sodium silvery and almost painful, [...] the texture and color of a signal free channel on a wooden cabinet motorola with fabric covered speakers.

So like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_7yUDne8fg&t=260s

[-] inb4_FoundTheVegan@lemmy.world 21 points 6 days ago

Well that is wildly upsetting.

[-] Hackworth@piefed.ca 19 points 6 days ago

They all fit pretty well as cyberpunk, particularly 2025. The quote's held up well, really.

[-] flandish@lemmy.world 10 points 6 days ago

there are two too many towers in the post 1985 skylines.

[-] mech@feddit.org 19 points 6 days ago
[-] Hazel@piefed.blahaj.zone 6 points 6 days ago

Bonus points for anyone who knows where Neuromancer does start, go!

[-] Hackworth@piefed.ca 8 points 6 days ago
[-] inari@piefed.zip 4 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

It is a bit funny because Chiba is fairly rural, definitely no cyberpunk metropolis

[-] DrBob@lemmy.ca 4 points 6 days ago

Night City.

[-] flandish@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

pfft. still two too many.

[-] aeronmelon@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago

Praytell, which city is that?

[-] mech@feddit.org 2 points 6 days ago

No idea, I don't know the skylines of all cities in the world and it could be fictional.

[-] silentjohn@lemmy.ml 8 points 6 days ago

Should have just been the Roku City haha

[-] Dan68@lemmy.world 4 points 6 days ago

The color was a very flat gray color.

[-] BigDiction@lemmy.world 5 points 6 days ago

Take me down to Roku City, where the remote is good, and the advertising pretty!! Awwww will you please take me hommmeeee!

[-] sem@piefed.blahaj.zone 5 points 6 days ago

Why was it blue and not another color

[-] Peppycito@sh.itjust.works 2 points 6 days ago

Same reason they use blue for maxipad commercials

[-] DataCrime@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 6 days ago

Fantastic 😂

[-] wifiron@mast.lat 1 points 6 days ago
this post was submitted on 18 May 2026
628 points (100.0% liked)

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