And Now, Every Single User Interface InStar Wars: A New Hope
Star Wars: A New Hope hit theaters in 1977—the same year that Apple moved from a garage to a real office building and Microsoft hired its first official employees. And the fact that it came out as consumer computers were truly hitting the mainstream shows.
Dino Ignacio—who, as readers point out, is a legendary gaming UI designer—took it upon himself to watch the classic and cut out every single instance in which a character interacts with an interface, whether soft- or hardware-based. That's right, every time anyone used "machines, doors, screens, levers, knobs and buttons," in Ignacio's words, is included in this ridiculous supercut.
Beyond being a fun way to relive the movie, it's a revealing exercise. This was a moment when GUIs, or graphical user interfaces, were still on the verge of becoming available to consumers. Apple's Lisa—the first PC to integrate a GUI into the operating system—was still two years away. But thanks to companies like Xerox, which pioneered early graphics-based UIs, the public was familiar with the concept.
Lucas, clearly, was imagining what could be done with the UIs of the future. Check out the full video, it's well-worth a close watch. [Vimeo]
They were using machines, doors, screens, levers, knobs and buttons that were all inspired by WW2 planes and equipment because Lucas loved him some dog-fights.
It's really odd to me that filmmakers in the 1970s and 80s seemed to think that computer graphics would always be relatively crappy-looking. Star Wars is far from alone in that. Pretty much every sci-fi movie of the era featuring computers seemed to think computer graphics would stay just like they were then.
But that's what makes this so interesting. To our eyes, it's amazing these filmmakers couldn't imagine a more nuanced and "prettier" UI. But how could they have imagined it? They were going off of technology that, at the time, was on the razor's edge of newness. I'm shocked they look as advanced as they do.
agreed, like all of the world i re-watched all the episodes and i was surprised at how well done the gfx were. i was also surprised that episode 1 "The Phantom Menace" was much better then episode 2, maybe even 3!
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