It’s the early 90s, and as a child of that time, I’m wandering my sacred place, my temple — the local video store.
Long before the world of streaming and internet-delivered media content, the video store was the launchpad for a child’s imagination. Rows and rows of pure magic encased in chemically treated plastic boxes that collectively gave rise to a smell that was unique to your local video store.
The smell of action, adventure, and delight, at the low low price of $2 a night, or $3 a week (new releases $5 overnight!).
It was within that hallowed place that I first came across the 1983 classic movie ‘WarGames’. Starring Matthew Broderick as a tenacious tech-savvy 80s teenager who hacks into equally 80s computer systems only to stumble upon the WOPR (a.k.a ‘Joshua’) a computer that could think, reason, talk and — most importantly — play games like a person.