‘Black Mirror: Bandersnatch’: Netflix Created a Tuckersoft Website Where You Can Play One of the Video Games
The “Black Mirror” fully immersive experience doesn’t end with just watching every iteration of “Bandersnatch” possible. Netflix has also released an official website for Tuckersoft, the development company behind all of the cutting-edge video games from the ‘80s.
In the episode, Tuckersoft hired Stefan Butler (Fionn Whitehead) to develop a game based on the choose-your-own-adventure tome by Jerome F. Davies, author and wife murderer. Periodically, viewers select between two options for Stefan’s actions, which creates its own meta-gameplay of the episode itself.
Now there’s an opportunity for diehard fans to play a more traditional type of video game. Tuckersoft.net is set up with state-of-the-art ‘80s graphics and allows navigation to the history of the company’s most popular releases, such as “Bandersnatch,” “Metl Hedd,” and “Pig in a Poke.” There’s even a link to a retro ad for budding designers to work at Tuckersoft. The true gem on the site is the page for “Nohzdyve” – a nod to the Season 3 episode titled “Nosedive” and the game that Colin Ritman (Will Poulter) demonstrates to Stefan Butler (Fionn Whitehead) on his first day at Tuckersoft.
“You’re falling fast through the sky!” reads the website. “Collect eyeballs and avoid the buildings and other hazards. Perfection is key. This was truly a five star game by none other than Colin Ritman.”
There’s just one hitch to playing the game, which the site explains explicitly: “Play Nohzdyve on your ZX Spectrum emulator. Warning: You may become addicted to increasing your score.”
The ZX Spectrum was an 8-bit personal home computer released in the UK in 1982. Therefore, downloading the video game doesn’t allow for immediate play since the TAP file can only be opened on Windows computers using a C64 or ZX Spectrum emulator. Fortunately, the internet provides emulators such as Fuse to download, so you can start jumping off of buildings and avoiding eyeballs to your heart’s content.
“Black Mirror: Bandersnatch” is currently streaming on Netflix.
