South Park's parody of War Games is epic

Date:
Thu, 17 Mar 2022 03:48:55 GMT

Description:
Here's a detailed analysis of the Linux and DOS references.

FULL STORY ======================================================================

South Park is not exactly the type of thing we talk about here on The Lunduke Journal.

Not that theres anything wrong with South Park its just not exactly Family Friendly. And, heck, we have a firm No Cursin and No Swearin policy here on The Journal.

But, even more than that, South Park just doesnt tend to make much news in
the Linux, Alternative Operating System, and Retro Computing space.

That all changed with the most recent episode (Season 25, Episode 4), where South Park does a rather awesome parody of WarGames and includes some crazy detailed renderings of Linux systems.

And were going to go over all of it. Because it was kinda awesome.

Note: This episode, like darn near every South Park episode, is super inappropriate for kids. Luckily you can watch just the WarGames-esque
portion on their YouTube channel. I kinda feel like they posted that
specific clip just for all of us.

First off, lets look at the childhood bedroom of Mr Mackey (who is our stand-in for Matthew Brodericks character in WarGames).

Im going to be honest as a middle aged man I kinda want that bedroom.

Right now.

Everything in there is spectacular. From the posters to the 2600 to the ET
by the door. Mr Mackey is a nerdy 80s kid. And, apparently, hes awesome.

Now lets focus in on his computer desk.

That thing with the red and blue switches?

Thats an IMSAI 8080 computer, complete with the floppy drive expansion below it (thats what those grey handles are for opening the floppy drives. Just like from the movie. More or less. Its not a perfect replica, but obviously close.

That printer back there, however, doesnt match the one from WarGames. If I had to guess what this printer is supposed to be, Id guess its modeled (loosely) after the Okidata Microline 184 Turbo Parallel Dot Matrix Impact Printer. Though there were a few dot matrix printers with that general look, so its probably just a combination of a few 1980s Dot Matrix Printers.

Acoustic coupler modem sitting next to the rotary telephone. Though Mr
Mackey uses it like a push button so its probably one of those weird shaped like a rotary phone but with push buttons for some reason phones.

The monitor is unknown. It looks somewhat like the WarGames monitor (which was an Electrohome) but not quite.

And, of course, a few 5 1/4 floppy disks laying around. Mackey should really have those in sleeves. Just sayin.

For reference heres the bedroom from WarGames:

Ok. Now lets get into the real nitty gritty. Here is the first output on Mr Mackeys computer screen.

First and foremost: That USRobotics line is accurate!

Well. For the most part. You wouldnt have all that text on the same line
but that is a legitimate modem initialization command for a USRobotics 56k Sportster modem!

AT&F initializes the modem with factory defaults.

Now, lets go over a few of the other interesting lines

Console: 16 point font,
480 scans Console: colour VGA+ 80x30, 1 virtual console (max 63)

Legit. A spot-on display console configuration for the time. Well. That 80x30 is a little weird. But not impossible.

pcibios_init : BIOS32 Service Directory structure at
pcibios_init : BIOS32 Service Directory entry at
pcibios_init : PCI BIOS revision 2.00 entry at

Likewise. Totally legit pcibios lines for a late 1996 through 1999 Linux system. Exactly right.

Ok. Lets skip forward a tiny bit. Everything up there is legit. Seriously.
If you booted up a Linux system in the late 1990s those are exact (more or less) lines you would see.

Intel Pentium with F0 0F bug - workaround enabled.

I got a good chuckle out of that one. The F00F bug ! Id kinda forgotten about it! This was a very real hardware bug that hit all of the early
Pentium chips.

Officially known as the invalid operand with locked CMPXCHG8B instruction
bug, it could cause the computer to hard lock requiring a complete power down and back on to get working properly again. Nicknamed F00F as that was the first part of the instruction in question (in hex).

Linux version 2.0.35 (root@rabbit) (gcc version egcs-2.90.29\
980515 (egcs-1.0.3 release)) #3 Fri Nov 13 15:07:45 CET 1998

Want to blow your mind? Thats legit. Heres a similar line from the boot sequence of that exact same Linux kernel version that I found over on the archive of the Linux Kernel Mailing List .

Linux version 2.0.35 (root@se1) (gcc version 2.7.2) #4 Thu Jul 16 02:06:21
MET DST 1998

Yep. Someone working on South Park knows their Linux. Or asked someone who did. Because they got it right! In a TV show!

Heres the next lines of the boot sequence for completeness.

Again. Everything is spot on. Even the SANYO SCSI CD-ROM drive is real. And, heck, the IRQs used on some of these devices even kinda sorta make
sense!

eth0: 3Com 3c905B Cyclone 100baseTx at

Oh, man. Those 3Com Ethernet cards (like the 3Com 3c905B) were absolutely everywhere back then. If you used a Linux system connected via Ethernet you probably had one of those 3Com cards.

Ok, ok, ok.

Now the scene changes and we flash over to NORAD command. Where that exact same output is being mirrored to three big displays. Meaning everyone at NORAD is watching Mr Mackey boot their Linux system.

which is running a 1998 kernel. (If it aint broke why upgrade, am I right?)

Then we cut over to a shot of one of the NORAD guys sitting at his terminal.

First off: What the heck is that keyboard?

Its crazy looking. Is that a 10-key on the left side? Then what in tarnations? And whats up with that telephone? Is it backwards? His whole workstation messes with my head.

Moving on to that screen. Thats where the goodies are.

Ok. Thats a bit too small to really see it all. Lets zoom in ENHANCE!

Starting SP-DOS . . .

lol. South Park DOS. Dig it.

A 486 CPU they call it the Main Proicessor. With an extra i in it. Typo? Probably. Woops!

3.5 floppy drive. AMIBIOS from 1992 (man, I miss those AMIBIOS machines!)

The second column of system stats is cut off. So who knows how much RAM this system has. I feel like we need to know this info!

Also is the DOS machine the one at NORAD? Or is that supposed to be Mr Mackeys machine? If its Mackeys that would be odd. An IMSAI 8080 definitely doesnt have a 486 CPU. (Though now I kinda want an IMSAI 8080 with a 486 in it!)

And wait just a cotton pickin second whats happening at the bottom of the screen there? Lets let the screen scroll a bit and check this out

Ok. Again. Too small. ENHANCE!!

WAIT! Hold the phones. Stop the presses. I detect shenanigans!

It goes from booting DOS right back into the Linux boot sequence we were seeing before!

What is this black magic!?!

Well. Hmm

Technically, that functionality didnt exactly exist back in the 1990s but in the interests of making everything we see in this South Park episode seem possible

That could be the DOS Subsystem for Linux . A very real thing that loads a Linux environment on a DOS system. Its crazy. But it actually works. Check it out.

Ok. Back to South Park.

At this point, Mr. Mackey moves away from booting Linux (and DOS) and starts coding in BASIC. Because of course he does.

10 X=THE RUSSIANS ARE NUKING US
20 PRINT X
30 GOTO 10
RUN

Classic.

Just absolutely classic.

Its not often that you get to see a legitimate Linux boot sequence in animation on a TV show. And even less often do you get to see an extremely goofy BASIC joke used as a core plot device.

For that, South Park creators, I salute you.

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Link to news story: https://lunduke.substack.com/p/south-parks-parody-of-war-games-is


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