10 Times Games Predicted The Future

[@MrBeardsley]

I could be wrong but I believe Smash TV was directly inspired by the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger movie The Running Man (itself based on a Stephen King novel from 1982). And even then the concept of fights to the death for public entertainment was already a somewhat common trope in sci-fi, it just became more popular during the ‘80s as a commentary on the increasing violence in mainstream entertainment.

[@davidcurry332]

I’m not sure if smash TV was based on the running Man with Arnold I’m not sure but it has it has stuff on it. I’ve never played it my brother used to play it a lot. I don’t know if he’s computer or not or emulators or not but yeah there’s there’s there’s differences well they must’ve got the idea from that movie yeah

[@jetcitykitty]

The original Stephen King story was so different from the movie adaptation, it's bonkers. And a damn interesting read.

[@septarap3901]

You guys mentioned Deus Ex, but not one of the biggest (accidental) predictions they made in their first game! In the game, due to memory limitations, the World Trade Center towers were excluded from the New York Skyline. Eerily enough, the in-game story explanation was the Twin Towers were destroyed in a terrorist attack, a full year before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States.

[@TheRezro]

Yup!

[@crimsonnewtype3241]

Justin Trudeau's father was the Canadian PM for a long time in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. I really don't think having the Canadian PM's name be Trudeau is really all that crazy. lol

[@fivebrosstopmos]

Alleged father...

[@ToeBlake316]

Wow, that game postdicted the past!

[@somejerkbag]

Yup. U beat me to it. The limited Canadian aristocracy getting back in power wasn't really a surprise

[@sisterseverus]

Came here to say this.

[@LevelUpLeo]

Yeah, I came here to say the same thing; its more referencing the past rather than predicting the future. Like if you had a game where "Bush" was USA president in the mid 90's, people would see that as referencing the old leader, not the future one.

[@capthavic]

Technically the movie The Running Man starring Arnie should get the credit, as its the inspiration for Smash TV more than anything else. That said its hardly unprecedented anyway, considering that blood sports for public entertainment is one of humanities oldest pastimes.

[@rbdriftin]

That cut at 0:15 makes it look like Simpsons Lady Gaga just bombed everyone.

[@jetcitykitty]

I don't think smash TV really predicted much, we've had game shows for almost as long as we've had tv in our homes. When the show, Survivor, debuted, it represented The logical next step from game shows to what would become reality TV, and that was only one step. That's why people on reality TV shows are often called "contestants".

[@CBlade0]

This is actually really really good. Nice work!

[@chrisjfinlay]

The Tom Clancy one is hardly surprising; the amount of times during his writing career that he'd be visited by the CIA, FBI etc asking him how he knew about various things in his books that happened to mirror real - but supposedly secret - things and events is insane. The man really had his finger on the pulse of the geopolitical stage for most of his life and while it's very freaky that GR even got the year right, he was probably making a very educated guess that the Russo-Georgian war would be a thing.

[@12thMandalorian]

a genuine legend

[@TheRezro]

Until he lost his touch in modern times. But is old stuff was on spot.

[@orinanime]

Here's another: Urban Strike, made in 1994. The original Sega Genesis version is set in 2001, and the main plot features a terrorist attack on America, primarily an attack on New York.

[@evolancer211]

Justin Trudeau's dad was PM before he was, obviously. So it's not necessarily him that email was talking about

[@PAINNN666]

It's future so it's not that Trudeau even

[@davidcollinsjr4288]

Papers Please has a pandemic break out that, from a border entry perspective, gets awfully interesting. I mean, at least as much as a numbers station in Fallout thaf never actually existed

[@nichooooo2748]

Even if it wasn't Running Man, American Gladiators was average-joe-vs-pro reality entertainment and came out in 1989.

[@jetcitykitty]

For many decades Japanese television has actually featured a reality television angle where viewers are oftentimes pictured in the corner watching what you're watching and reacting to it.

[@CrystalTikal]

Um...the Fallout 3 numbers station is just an urban legend/CreepyPasta.

[@fivebrosstopmos]

You're partially correct. If you kill Three Dog he is replaced by The Technician, not a numbers station. However, there are many numbers stations scattered around the map, most having secret messages in Morse code.

[@101Phase]

Yeah i'm kind of shocked the writers for this video took that at face value.

[@CalTheHogNosedBat]

I thought Smash TV was based on that Schwarzenegger movie Running Man. I figured they weren't "predicting the future" as much as they were making a game based on a property they weren't able to license so they made their own thing.

[@alejorag]

What about the fact that in the original Deus Ex (2000) the twin towers were absent due to a memory limitation but the in-game explanation was that they were taken out in a terrorist attack? Or am I misremembering that?

[@procrastigamr]

Hmm. Thinking that SmashTV predicted reality TV is incorrect considering American Gladiator(1989) was popular at the time.

[@gaminggoof1542]

That Fallout stuff is just scary as hell, both facts.

[@EverythingNerdySNES]

If I had a penny, I would have three cents.

[@Uniscorn123]

I was 18 in 1999 and I blame you for making me feel old today. 😡

[@DarrenNoFun]

That Trudeau one really predicted the future! Or retold the past... As Justin's dad was PM decades before. It'd be like saying the Simpsons predicted George Bush winning the election in 2000 because they have an episode about George W Bush. Or keeping with the Simpsons theme, when they said simpsons predicted Trumps win, when the joke was written after Trump already tried to run decades before.

[@terrorbyte2642]

I’m just sitting here thinking if I would have known Homefront would be on this list in 2023 with no context to it back in 2011 when it released lol

[@SamButler22]

Everyone predicted Trudeau as PM; who doesn't love a nepo-baby?

[@SamButler22]

Deus Ex's twin towers

[@tayloroleary8880]

Isnt SmashTV basically a Running Man rip off?

[@poil8351]

so smash tv was basically squid games a few decades early.

[@mscottjohnson3424]

1:50 you mean the 1940s?

[@Googaliemoogalie]

Pierre Trudeau (Justin Trudeau's dad) was the PM in the 80's so they're referencing him.

[@doormatt72]

at least fallout hasn't correctly predicted the nuclear apocalypse (yet).

[@Se7en2107]

🎵 Secret tunnel Secret tunnel🎵

[@arenasviscatanius]

Look up at space...all..day?

[@PokyBallinBabo]

Adam Yansen? 😂

[@Ikcatcher]

Maybe some day a KZbin list channel will stop spreading the fake Fallout 3 numbers station story

[@PeterDahu]

You can't say Madden is the best American football game and no other can compare when EA exclusive rights to make NFL games.

[@samandted33]

theres a game called dues ex that predicted 9/11

[@poil8351]

well canada already had a trudeau as pm so not so suprising.

[@guillepankeke2844]

Retaking natural resources for the good of the people of a country is no mad politics. More so when you need investing in the countrys industry. The characterization that the video game makes of Chavez policies is nothing short of a defamation. Hence the relationship between fiction and reality. There was propaganda in the video game as there has been over the years in movies.

[@arenasviscatanius]

Daytime soap opera started it all

[@aaronworthing1023]

Here is an alternative theory. Various people are looking at the games and thinking “let’s do that.” Like maybe Putin thought let’s invade Georgia in 2008 because that video game said it would happen. Have you ever thought of that? 😜

[@aliensweathands]

👽

[@iamaspleen]

Comments sections is really up itself this video

[@kates5183]

Someone can correct me, but I thought the original deus ex predicted 9/11

[@jessinomicon]

Correct - The story goes they couldn't fit the whole New York skyline into the memory of the game, so they cut out the twin towers and wrote in a terrorist attack as an excuse

[@Dustemikkel_Rev]

You lads and lassies forgot The Last Of Us II. More precisely Seth "The Bigot Sandwich Man". Based on his charactermodel I'd say Seth is in his 60s, let's say 64. It's set in 2038, so that would make Seth being born in 1974. The same year as me. And trust me, Zombie apocalypse or not, my generation will desperately cling to our bigotry. ESPECIALLY in the post apocalypse. It's all we'll have to remind ourselves of "the good old days". It's probably the most precise prediction about human nature ever done. 🙄