THX-1138 film hidden tribute found in Cave DDP-DOJ PCB-WTF?

[PC Engine Fan X!]

If you watch George Lucas' original theatrical release of THX-1138 (and not the re-edited version with extra CGI effects added to the "Director's Cut Version that was released in the USA back in 2005) during the scene of the electronic countdown timer, one sees a series of numbers being countdowned. That very same stylized electronic numeric display is also featured in Cave's Dodonpachi-DOJ arcade PCB. The old-school stylized numerical countdown of the Continue screen shown in DDP-DOJ PCB does, indeed, pay a tribute to the THX-1138 film.

I suppose that Cave employees are big fans of George Lucas' sci-fi films for them to include this hidden THX-1138 "countdown timer" tribute on their 3rd DDP arcade Jamma PCB shmup game. And does George Lucas know about this? Hmmm..... ^_~

Also notice how all the letters (that spell out the word "Continue") are in place in each individual letter slot that spells out the word "Countinue" as it scrolls across the screen from right to left continously (until expiration of "Countdown" timer). This reminds me of the old style "vacuum florescent display" (or aka "VFD" in short) technology found in today's TDDs (or TTYs for that matter) for the hard-of-hearing & deaf or even the old-school alpha-numeric displays on the late 1970's-early 1980's electro-mechanical pinball tables (before making the big jump to "dot matrix display" technology currently in use). ^_~

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[FRO]

That's sweet! Kinda like in Star Wars Episode IV when Luke says Chewy is a prisoner transfer from "cell block 1138".

[Neo Rasa]

Yeah Lucas actually has a TON of THX-1138 references in his movies, I doubt he'd mind other people doing it.

Edit: Maybe you can add the reference to the Wikipedia entry ~

* George Lucas apparently named the film after his San Francisco telephone number, 849 1138 - the letters THX correspond to letters found on the buttons 8, 4 and 9.

* The cinematic sound systems company THX Ltd. was founded by Lucasfilm and has been thought to be named after this film. THX officially stands for "Tomlinson Holman's eXperiment". Tomlinson Holman developed the THX sound system, having been commissioned to do so by Lucas in 1982. According to Lucas' thoughts, the "X" in the sound system name THX stands for "crossover," a piece of audio processing equipment. In either case, it is not named for THX 1138 and Lucas says that the similar names are just a coincidence.

* In the audio commentary track on the DVD release of the film, co-writer and editor Walter Murch explains it was his belief that the names of the two main characters "THX" (pronounced "thex") and "LUH" (pronounced "luh") refer to their being representations of "sex" and "love", respectively.

* The number 1138 is a recurrent Easter egg in subsequent George Lucas films and products of the Lucas-founded LucasArts (computer games) and Industrial Light & Magic (special effects). For example, 1138 is the number of a cell block on the Death Star in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope; the number-plate of Paul Le Mat's deuce coupe in American Graffiti is THX 138; in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, Rogue 11 is ordered to sector 38; in Raiders of the Lost Ark the Nazi harbor loudspeaker announces "eins, eins, drei, acht" (German for one, one, three, eight); the number 1138 is printed on a battle droid's back in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace; and in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Clone Trooper Commander Bacara of the Galactic Marines has the numbers "1138" as his clone registration number.

* A tribute to THX 1138 can be heard in the queue area of the Disneyland Star Tours attraction; a public address announcement asks the owner of a land speeder with license "THX 1138" to return to their vehicle.

* Many industrial music and synthpop artists, among them Laibach, Chemlab, Floater, Moev and Clock DVA, have utilized samples of sound effects and dialogue from the film. The beginning of the first track from Nine Inch Nails' 1994 album The Downward Spiral features an excerpt from the "beating channel" watched by the title character.

* The free tekno sound system Spiral Tribe sampled dialogue from the film extensively in several releases, including the track "23 Minute Warning" (from the "Breach The Peace" EP) .

* The punk band The Misfits based their song "We Are 138" on this movie. The number 138 has also become commonly associated with the band, appearing on their merchandise as well as on tattoos on their fans' (aka fiends) bodies.

* In the opening title sequence for Pinky and The Brain, The Brain is seen writing THX=1138 on a blackboard.

* In episode "The Train Job" of the short-lived Fox television series Firefly, a train car can be briefly seen with the digits 1138 on the top.

* In an interview, Don Pedro Colley indicated that the cars were modified Chaparral racing cars. Colley is incorrect—they are cosmetically modified Lola T70 Mk.IIIs. This was verified by an article in Car & Driver magazine from the early 1980s discussing John Ward, who modified and prepared the cars for the film. This can also be verified by close inspection of the finished film.

* During the chase sequence, a voice actor improvising background radio dialogue said, "I think I ran over something... I think I ran over a wookie on the expressway." The ad-lib became the name of a prominent alien race in the Star Wars films.

As an aside, I gotta say I actually do like the newer version of THX more than the original. Also still my favorite movie from George Lucas. It's really grown on me over the years. All the changes add more scope to the setting. It really helps the "crowd" shots that had like five people in them in the original version. The extra people are added in in a cool way too, filmed through a grating in some shots, it both covers up the effect a bit as well as helps to create more of a feeling of oppression. Even if some of the cg "creatures" towards the end were kind of lame. The re-cut robot-making/accident scene at the beginning is great stuff.

http://www.maverick-media.co.uk/movies/ ... es_001.htm

Interesting to look at for anyone who didn't catch the special edition yet.




Edit: An apology, I have this bad habit of not posting on a forum too often, and then posting massively offtopic stuff whenever I do.

[Dylan1CC]

That is really neat. I assume it's the same continue screen on the PS2 port then, right?

[PC Engine Fan X!]

That is really neat. I assume it's the same continue screen on the PS2 port then, right?

For Dylan1CC,

You got that right... ^_~

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Dylan1CC]

^^^^

lol OK, now I feel like I am being MSTied somehow. Thanks.

[Neo Rasa]

[FRO]

Classic.