#media glitch video games

[hasellia]

Jax didn't change. At all. He is still the same arsehole from the first time we saw him.

From what I remember; he was dismissive of Ragatha, manipulated an emotionally vulnerable Kinger, pushed Gangle to her potential death and didn't give two fucks that Kaufmo died of dismay. All in episode 1

What changed, is that the audience saw what happens we Jax doesn't get his way.

Jax doesn't just seem "disappointed" here. He seems seething, like a child, and we get a good wide close up of his face just to make it's clear he's absolutely not happy in any way.

Episode 2 seems to be setting up how different people react to being in a seemingly inescapable scenario, a la time loop nihilism.

You have Pomni and Ragatha who try to reach out to others, trying to build a supportive collective. There's Kinger and Gangle, who are stuck in survival mode and need that support assistance. Not everyone is in the mental position to help out as they want to be. With enough time and reassurance, Gangle may be able to break out of her insecurities. Kinger... I'm saying this as someone who relates to Kinger the most out of the cast: I think my king is stuck with his chronic anxiety and neurodivergencies. Someone give him a Lexam and Intuitive. So with Jax...

Jax is playing a video game. To him, this is just Undertale with multiplayer and he wants to see what happens on the genocide route. He's so under stimulated for meaning that he wants to fuck around and find out. If you want to find out what happens in a boring co-op game, what's funnier? Jumping into the enemy pit yourself, or getting your buddy to jump in instead. He may not even see the main cast as other players. What separates Gumigoo from Ragatha? The princess? The goop monsters? ... Kaufmo? Jax just might have lost his sense of humanity in everything but himself. Cogito ergo sum. I think Jax is meant to be a criticism of people who unironically think everyone is varying degrees of those NPC roleplay videos.

So yeah, I never saw Jax as Bugs Bunny. He was always a toxic League of Legends player stuck in VR coop game to me. We're just thankfully spared of his gamer words. Maybe when we see more of Zooble, we'll see someone stand up to him. No promises.

[glitchphotography]

Learning to Samba ~~ ~ B a r b i e ~ W o r l d ~ R e v i s i t e d ~ 2023 ** Glitches from Corrupted Super Nintendo ROMs of “Barbie: Super Model” (1992) **

[dvnzook]

Intermediate Value

2024 - net art (new media art)

[evered-moth]

creatives when they have an idea but don't have the skill to execute it

[not-a-bit-good]

Look, just because you didn’t pick up on all the foreshadowing a story threw your way, doesn’t mean a plot twist “came out of nowhere” or “clearly was rushed”.

AND it doesn’t mean that I’m calling you stupid, either.

It just means that when you first engaged with the story, you didn’t have the tools and/or experience and/or maturity and/or media literacy needed pick up on the hints.

And that’s fine, it happens to everyone. But please, ask yourself if you may have missed something before you dismiss what you don’t get as “bad writing” ?

[sollyraptor]

Honestly, despite a vast amount rambling about it, I think Herobrine shouldn't be in the Minecraft movie.

Herobrine shouldn't be present or even acknowledged in any official media whatsoever except little tiny snippets and easter eggs. Let him be a ghost of a presence.

I feel confirming his existence and establishing him as a character robs him of being the myth, the legend he is. There really is no bigger picture and most things people agree on still are just popular fan interpretations that stuck around or stem from popular videos or something.

Herobrine is vague. He can be shaped into any interpretation you have for him and it still makes sense. A ghost. A dead brother. A glitch. A griefer. A tragic figure. An error in the game. A ruler of mobs. A hacker. A demon. A prototype. A virus. A player stuck. A king of the nether. A trickster. A god.

If he ends up in any bigger role in official media instead of being a figure in the fog, suddenly all the mystery is shattered. Suddenly there is a canon.

And I don't want that.

[the-blaze-empress]

so genloss is all about breaking the 4th wall right? right. when ranboo wakes up he realises that there is no 4th wall. every time the stream ‘glitches’ we’re seeing through to whats actually happening, we’re seeing beyond the 4th wall and potentially so are the characters (im looking at u sneeg). the mask is what keeps the 4th wall in place for ranboo, but thats not where it ends. the breaking of the 4th wall doesnt just stop with the characters.

what im loving about genloss is the psychological horror and how well and uniquely its handled. its fairly clear at this point that ranboo is not in control of their actions, but has been able to break free/has tried to break free at multiple points. showfall media is the one in control, not ranboo.

but thats not where it ends. genloss is a live show for a reason, and that reason is chat. without chat, genloss would not be able to be what it is. throughout the stream there’s things to do; buttons to press, decisions to make, pipes to rearrange. they exist for a reason.

the first episode was relatively tame compared to what we’ve seen since. options were things like ‘where should i look’ and ‘what wacky device should i use against the guy made of slime’ (i could probably write a whole other post about the connotations of blood and slime but that is For Later). those choices dont seem in spirit with something advertised as psychological horror. the entire first episode was kinda... tame honestly.

theres a reason for that. think back to the inauguration video chain. the first question was harmless, cats or dogs? it got you used to the mechanics of the ‘game’, made you familiar with the concept of ‘pressing buttons’. the first episode serves the same purpose; desensitise chat to pressing buttons, so when the decisions switch from ‘where should i look’ to ‘who do i leave to die’ all they really see is a button, without any real consequences. it’s just a button, we should press it.

showfall media isnt just manipulating the characters, its manipulating us.

what i found really interesting is jerma also being able to manipulate the controls, as such, when he solved the pipe puzzle. it established that chat arent the only ones able to use these controls, and i fear what it’s going to bring. i think that showfall is going to start rigging things in their favour, but we won’t be able to tell. one person alone cannot tell what thousands of others voted in this scenario, so there isnt a way to tell that the vote was rigged from the start. and it gives showfall such an easy way out. chat voted, thats what they wanted. we are going to be tricked into ‘wanting’ what showfall wants, ‘doing’ what they want us to do, even if we’re not the ones with the masks that connect to our fucking brains.

there was never any 4th wall. we’re just as deep into this as ranboo is

[russellsppttemplates]

Hi, this is my first request but I just had this random idea about Charles dating a singer!reader and they decided to hard launch their relationship by releasing a song together and everyone's just going crazy because they didn't think that Charles could pull someone like her

The first people thought it was a glitch on Spotify because there had never been something relating you to Formula One. But when Charles posted a snippet of the video you recorded in the studio, people went crazy.

"Look at this! I don't know if people are more excited over the song or over that fact we are together", Charles said as he scrolled through his social media, "wait, this girl still thinks it's a prank because according to her, I'd never have enough game to pull you", he got offended.

"For me it's this one, "what do you mean Y/N fell for a vroom vroom guy?",", you read out loud, "people are really not buying into our HARD launch", you giggled, cuddling up to Charles.

You had posted a song about your relationship, had hard launched in both of your social media and people still thought it was a lie, "next weekend, you're coming to the race, right? We are going to kiss in front of everyone so they know this isn't a drill!", your boyfriend stated.

(Thank you for submitting an ask ✨️)

[blueberry-bubbles130]

Behold, the Turbo Twins!

I like them very much. Haven’t got names for them yet, but I differentiate them by having one being more grumpy and not smoking. And the other one isn’t as grumpy but does smoke. They’re definitely more lean and taller than Turbo in my headcanon.

In my headcanon/au they did actually get out of TurboTime before it was unplugged through sheer luck. Like Turbo they did go to Sugar Rush to hide out in. However unlike Turbo who went the usurpation route because he’s a shitty little gremlin who needs to feed his rapidly growing ego. They went to an out of bounds, unused level area of the game. Somewhere that’s unfinished and quite glitchy. You know the stuff you’d see in your average game spooky lost media/cut content/glitches video. They both do hold a lot of resentment and anger towards Turbo, one just shows it a little more.

I’m going to finish my other piece of art of them first though before I go fully explaining my au/fanfic.

[lafayette-paw-arts]

Have you got any more poly Vees headcanons? :>

Why yes I do! Because these fuckers live rent free in my brain!

Vox glitches when he's experiencing strong emotions, Val and Vel will often compete to see who can make him glitch out more and they keep a running tally.

Valentino is a petty man who often uses Angel Dust to help him win bets with the other Vees. One time Vox and Velvette tried to convince Valentino that there are some names that you just can't make sound sexy. Val enlisted Angel Dust's help to prove that yes you can, and then proceeded to set the recording of Angel moaning these names as his ringtone for over a month. Vox and Velvette were caught between annoyed at that ringtone, or impressed that he was right (they'd never admit it)

Velvette likes collecting enamel pins, she has several beautifully coloured pin banners hanging from the walls of her floor in the tower completely filled with pins.

Valentino is the stuffed animal guy, the softer the better, and he adores oversized stuffed animals, he has a whole room dedicated to this little dragon hoard of his.

Vox despite being all about media actually loves books, and while he likes novels they're actually not his favourite, he loves video game guide books or the 'ology books that have little pockets and inserts in them.

All three of them love video games and will play together, they take turns on who gets to pick the games they play on that specific game night.

Velvette likes action and adventure games.

Vox loves more casual games or exploration.

Valentino likes games where theres lots of story and lore.

They all like movies but have such differing tastes that on movie night they have to rotate who picks the movie. Like at the beginning of the night. Vox picks the first movie, then Velvette, then Valentino

Vox has a really hard time sleeping because it's hard for him to get his brain to shut down. The easiest way the others have found to get him to sleep is to weigh him down with snuggles and turn on the news. Despite there being stuff to listen to and the news literally falling under his department it's easier for him to fall asleep with the news on.

(that's round 2, please let me know if anyone wants more!)

[mothmanssweetsucculentass]

BEN Drowned headcanons

Finally I’m getting around to posting my current standing BEN Drowned HCs! The ask I got a couple weeks ago definitely motivated me to finish this finally lmao.

Trigger warnings for: Mentions of death, manipulation, suicide, drowning, violence, and the general mature stuff you should expect from the adult side of the Creepypasta fandom. There are NO CENSORS BEYOND THIS POINT. Read at your own risk.

____________________________________________

ageless/has kinda always existed since the internet has been publicly accessible

It/it’s pronouns, occasionally caught using they/them and even rarer he/him

Manipulative as fuck

Malewhore mansplain manipulate

Literally makes up a huge chunk of its personality idk what to tell you

Will doxx you

No seriously if you catch its attention you’re getting stalked

Stalks potential victims through the internet

Finds potential victims on forums and the “dark web”

Often goes after people who are heavily depressed and/or suicidal

Thinks it’s funny telling people to off themselves

Like fr its favorite hobby is basically being an average redditor

Probably the WORST mf to date out of all of my interpretations of Creepypasta characters

Gives zero shits about anyone besides itself

Seriously it does not care about you Y/N RUN!!!!!

Lies lies lies omg loves lying so much

Lies to get what it wants

Master “hacker”

If it’s stalking you say goodbye to any and all digital important things you have

Say goodbye to your laptop too

And switch

And iPhone

It’s all getting bricked by BEN if it finds it funny to do so

And it probably will

You like sleep? Too bad

Woe, nightmares be upon ye

Gaslighting KING. Deletes messages between you and people in your life on purpose

Has extensive knowledge of internet culture and video games

Knows every meme ever

Has created most of the “video game” Creepypastas as their own personal “proxies”

Sonic.exe, Smile.jpeg, The Princess, etc, anything inhabiting digital media that torments people, BEN is the one behind it all

Finds friendships useless but respects Slenderman enough to continue being a proxy for it

Got bored of tormenting the other pastas pretty fast, generally avoids them unless slender tasks it with giving specific info pulled from the web to the other pastas (news articles, police reports, locations, etc)

Out of all my HC characters BEN is probably the most serious/grimdark/gritty, I prommy not all my blorbos are as mature and serious as BEN

Takes on the form of a late teenage boy’s body, waterlogged pale skin, constantly glitching and dripping water. Speaks in at least five different voices/tones at once, including robotic AI voices

Only physically manifests to scare the fuck out of people

Stans Hatsune Miku

SURPRISE MOTHERFUCKER!

All these HCs are for BEN! Not Ben!!!!

Because after much deliberation I have decided that yeah I kinda do want some of the old BEN middle school me liked to fuck around with. So without further ado, here’s my Ben headcanons:

Created BEN as an AI program for when he can’t be at his computer

BEN is kinda like their “avatar” for the internet

He/they pronouns

Roughly about 20 years old, give or take a few years

Died in the mid 2000s

Sort of??? A ghost?? Like a fusion between a ghost and zombie

Like is obviously a corpse and can kinda go in and out of corporeal and non corporeal form

Has the skin tone of a freshly drowned corpse, but isn’t constantly dripping water

Eyes constantly leak and drip with blood tho. Tissues are scattered all around his room with his futile attempts to keep the blood tears at bay. Face has a “pinker” color compared to the rest of his body thanks to how many times they’ve wiped and smeared the blood around

Similar in behavior/personality as BEN but toned way the fuck down

Like. Still enjoys tormenting people but can (sort of) empathize

Still an asshole tho

And a pervert

And a stoner

And a gamer

He’s a discord Reddit mod irl. Scummy guy tbh

Not afraid of water, just afraid of water damage on their equipment

Lives in the mansion basement

Hasn’t seen sunlight since 2004

Introverted as fuck

Prefers to be physically manifested, leaves all the digital movement to the BEN AI but can enter technology if need be

Cheats in any and all video games you play against him in. Hacker aficionado

Y’all know those fits people used to wear in the 2010s of like, cargo shorts and legend of Zelda t shirts? Almost exclusively his fashion sense

Like yeah he does have the link getup but finds it pretty tedious to get into

Does enjoy scene fashion quite a bit tho

And EDM

electronic stuff in general is his favorite shit ever

Him and the BEN AI never physically kill people, just manipulates them into offing themselves

He’s a weak motherfucker he physically cannot kill somebody

Emotionally tho he would mass murder if he could

The one thing him and Jeff can agree on

Bi, and aro. Kinda too horny and despondent to society to care for someone emotionally for more than twelve seconds

Could definitely stand to make a few friends though, and isn’t opposed to conversation if he ever leaves his gamer basement

Currently friends with EJ, Jane, Liu, Nina, and Helen

Has a tolerable relationship/mutual respect for Masky, Hoody, Jason, Puppeteer, and Slenderman

Doesn’t get along with/hates Jeff, LJ, and Clockwork

Sally sees him as an older brother figure. Unfortunately he’s a bad influence on the kid and also has no idea how to look after a child, he just kinda goes “fuck it we ball” anytime someone puts them in charge of Sally. Has taught her every swear and slur known to man. Thinks it’s hilarious to put her on the mic in gamer lobbies

“Hey dude check this out” proceeds to show you the nastiest shock video ever

Semi-fluent in Japanese despite being whiter than paper. Unsurprisingly a weeb

If he owns a body pillow he keeps it hidden with his life. They won’t be caught dead cuddling up to something like that at night

The mansion’s go to IT guy. Against his will but unfortunately if he wants to continue living in the mansion (or living in general) he has to take this role lest slenderman eviscerates him for defiance

Both him and the BEN AI have a major superiority complex, he thinks he’s way better than everyone else and is the cockiest bastard mf on the planet

Stans Hatsune Miku

[roseaesynstylae]

I have a list of clones we need to see before a certain cut-off date (May 4th, 2026; I am being generous and giving the dictator Disney an extra year). I'm not fussy about the media type; book, video game, show, as long as it's good.

Cody: Of course! The man deserted and...? We can't not know.

Howzer: I need to know what happened to him between TBB and Rebels, even though I know it's going to break my heart. (I wouldn't mind a prequel novel about him on Ryloth, incidentally.)

Sev: Delta Squad is canon. His fate has been ambiguous for almost twenty years. RESOLVE IT. YOU HAVE THE POWER, DISNEY. USE IT FOR GOOD IN STAR WARS FOR ONCE IN YOUR LIFE.

Fordo: Reintroduce this badass. He deserves it.

Alpha-17: Can you imagine Rex's face when his instructor shows up to save him? Can you imagine the fans'?

Glitch: You think he'll take the Jedi Purge lying down (once the chip is out, anyway)?

[glitchphotography]

Two drawings made on a corrupted Mario Paint SNES ROM

[pinkheart22]

Why I think Taylor Swift will sing So It Goes... the night she announces Reputation Taylors Version

As far as I know on this European Leg of The Eras Tour Taylor hasnt sang So it goes...

She sang I did something bad tonight, knowing she hasnt sang it the entirety of the tour and that all the swifties are clowning that she would sing that and then announce reputation taylors version.

i did something bad was a red herring, and the precursor to her vanishing from the tour ( there is no tour date August 18 ) just like she vanished August 18 2017 with a full social media black out, before she resurfaced with a reputation announcement August 21. (But it's been two thousand one hundred and 90 days of our love blackout - glitch) she did something "bad", because she didnt announce anything and she let us think that, that would be the song she announced with

she will sing So it goes... because of the lyrics:

All Eyes on me I'm your illusionist - an illusionist is someone who performs tricks that deceive the eye; a magician.

All our eyes are on Taylor but she has been deceiving us - eg. the i did something bad performance

You make everyone disappear - Taylor is going to disappear August 18th

Who's counting? 1,2,3 - Taylor has been doing countdowns, holding up 3, 2, and 1 fingers during the reputation era at the eras tour, and using exclamation points in her instagram posts.

Cause baby, I know what you know, we can feel it - Taylor and the swifties know that reputation taylors version is coming

Gold Cage, hostage to my feelings - There is a gold cage in the look what you made me do music video. Reputation is hostage. And possibly a lost album is hostage.

And all the pieces fall, right into place - when she announces reputation taylors version all the pieces will be in place.

I'm yours to keep and I'm yours to lose - We can keep reputation taylors version, but we will also lose reputation

You know, I'm not a bad girl, but i do bad things with you - She's not bad, but she did something bad, hence why she sang it at Wembley night 6. She wants to experience reputation taylors version with us

Come here dressed in black now - I'm assuming Taylor will be dressed in black, and also come here to her new reputation taylor's version album, which is the black heart emoji album

ALSO, she sang my boy only breaks his favorite toys x coney island on Wembley night 6

in my boy only breaks his favorite toys she sings:

Puzzle pieces in the dead of night compare that to....

And all the pieces fall, right into place - So it goes..

New mastermind stars body suit the night before (wembley night 5)

wearing a full stars and crescent moon (all the stars aligned)

Checkmate, I couldn't lose - mastermind

All of this is like pieces of a board game, puzzles, and dominoes.

It's all going to cascade in a line when she announces reputation taylors version

@taylorswift @taylornation

[its-rat-time-babey]

Figuring out when the fuck Glitch Techs takes place.

Spoiler Alert: Not when you’d think.

Also probably spoilers for Glitch Techs idk.

Alright. Glitch Techs. I watched it, I liked it, I mourned that it was shelved by Netflix and will never get a season 3 or a conclusion to the story it was in the process of setting up, and I thought to myself:

“Hey, when does this show actually take place?”

Because we see technology from the past, present and future all in one timeframe being presented like it’s perfectly normal.

For the present (or at least 2019-2020, when the show was made), we see modern smartphones and VR gaming is a regular thing.

(Although do keep in mind that Smartphones seem to look more like the older models of Smartphone compared to our modern 2020 ones. This will be important later)

But that’s where the first flaws start showing up.

Starting with the evidence for the past: There’s fast, modern internet and social media exists, which is a point for modern day, but social media doesn’t seem to be a completely universal thing, with only a few characters we see actually using it.

Streaming and Streamers exist, with Mitch being a former streamer and member of a streaming group, but given how little social media is relevant in the show it’s actually arguable how popular or widespread streaming is.

People definitely know about Mitch Williams and the Furious Four, but I’d argue that those people are limited to more hardcore gamers and Hinobi game enthusiasts and not many (or even any) people outside that niche really know or care.

Mitch’s career as a streamer and any fame he has in general is only really noticed by other hardcore gamers like Five, other Glitch Techs and that one kid in the Hinobi tournament (the fact that they’re in the tournament to begin with means that they’re one of the best gamers Hinobi could find) after all. Miko, a hardcore gamer, doesn’t even know Mitch had a streaming career at all until someone else tells her (although she does kinda get a pass because it’s implied that Miko is homeschooled and just doesn’t know much about social media or streaming in general).

So it appears that in the setting of Glitch Techs, social media and streaming exists, but is a rather niche concept, with only a few demographics of people being interested in that sort of thing. High schoolers and older teens for social media, and hardcore gamers and game enthusiasts for streaming. So in that regard it’s a lot like the early 2000s when that kind of thing was just taking off and wasn’t as popular.

There’s also the far more obvious fact that arcades are common and very popular. Not something that you would expect if this show happens in the modern day.

Even TVs don’t line up with the present day. If you see a TV in glitch techs, it looks more like a TV from the 2010s than the modern day.

Note the stand and the fact that they’re not wall mounted and too thick to be proper modern TVs.

But on the topic of TVs and video games, this is where our one piece of big future evidence exists, so I’m going to disprove it real quick to make things easier for us.

There is holographic technology easily available and commonplace in gaming equipment.

And this isn’t just a regular case of Hinobi having advanced, futuristic technology that it only gives to its Glitch Techs (which I’m fully willing to overlook) because these holographic screens aren’t limited to just Glitch Techs. It’s an ordinary part of Hinobi’s commercial technology.

However, It can just be counted as Hinobi being really shady and advanced in terms of technology, especially since it’s only Hinobi technology that has this stuff. Phones, TVs and etc don’t have holographic screens, and there’s a canonical reason for that in the form of plixels, the Hinobi technology that creates all those glitches in the first place.

Plixels are canonically a thing that Hinobi invented to store massive amounts of data in very small spaces, which they use to make their products as advanced and high quality as possible. They’re also somewhat unstable which is what creates glitches, but that’s a whole different topic.

Point is. Plixels are extremely advanced Hinobi technology used in all of their products, and as seen in the show, can be used to create solid objects if used correctly. The holographic screens are just Hinobi Plixels being used for their intended purpose and it makes perfect sense why Hinobi has this technology, and as such doesn’t really provide any evidence of Glitch Techs happening in the future. Hinobi is strange, shady and has very advanced technology for it’s time, so we’re going to ignore most of the super advanced technology they have.

We will not however, ignore their older technology, especially the tech that parallels our own. That stuff is very useful.

Part 2: Actually solving this thing:

Here’s what we have so far for Glitch Tech’s setting:

VR gaming is a perfectly normal thing that matches or even somewhat surpasses modern VR (2020)

Smartphones exist, but visually resemble older smartphones from the early to mid 2010s

TVs resemble early 2010s TVs

The state of Social Media and Streaming seems similar to how it was in the 2000s

Arcades exist and are very popular, which dates things to anywhere from the 1970s to 1990s

Hinobi’s advanced technology fuckery can complicate things, and provides no evidence for any one time

For actually solving this, we need concrete data and that needs some assumptions regarding our world and how it relates to the world of Glitch Techs.

Because we have about three and a half pieces of hard evidence for the time period that Glitch Tech takes place in, and they don’t give completely conclusive dates, just a time frame of a few years that Glitch Techs can happen in and some explanations and rationalizations are needed to explain things that don’t line up.

It also uses the ages of some characters that I got from the wiki (which may not be completely reliable) and some educated guessing.

Those pieces of evidence are:

Ping’s creation and Emilio Nieves

Spec Ops

Phil’s files, Bitt and Bolybius

One crucial part of figuring out the Glitch Techs timeline is the fact that Video Games as a concept were created rather recently compared to our world. Five’s dad, Emilio Nieves was a former employee of Hinobi and was the creator of the first three video games, including this world’s equivalent of Pong, is still alive and according to the wiki is somewhere in his 40s.

Now we just need to figure out how old he was when he made Ping, and we have some pictures that might help.

In the episode “Ping”, we see Emilio Nieves at three different points in his life.

A young man who appears to be either in or fresh out of college judging by the other people around him that resemble college students.

An older man (that looks the same as before) raising Five that i estimate to be around his 30s considering his current age, Five’s age in the photo and Five’s current age.

Emilio Nieves in his 40s in prison, how he currently is.

Emilio Nieves is somewhere in his 40s, and judging by the pictures and how he was responsible for the first three games, probably made ping fresh out of college, and then made the other two a few years later.

Ping’s real life equivalent, Pong, was made in the year 1972, and if we assume that Ping and Pong share a birth year and Ping really was created when Emilio Nieves was in or fresh out of college, that would put the current year of Glitch Techs in anywhere from 1992 to around 1998, depending on exactly when Ping was made in relation to Emilio Nieves’ time in college (the average college student spends about 4-5 years in college, plus 1 year for time after leaving college).

That’s a pretty big timeframe, but it can be reduced by quite a bit with the help of another equivalent game.

Spec Ops.

Spec Ops is a game made by Hinobi that was freshly released when Five bought it in “Karate Trainer”. It’s also a very obvious parody of Metal Gear, so if we can figure out exactly what game in the Metal Gear franchise it’s closest to, we can compare its release date to the show.

And I narrowed it down to two games in the franchise. The original Metal Gear from 1998 and Metal Gear 2: Sons Of Liberty from 2001.

I apologize for the terrible pictures of the Metal Gear Games, I just couldn’t find any good ones.

I can’t figure out exactly which of the two games are closest to what we see in the show and I don’t really believe it’s possible, but this narrows our timeframe to 1998-2001.

Next up: Phil and his secret files.

According to Bitt, Phil has been working as the manager of Hinobi’s Bailley division for 20 years, and it’s implied that he worked as a Glitch Tech for several years before becoming a manager and being given Bitt. According to the wiki, Phil is somewhere in his 40s.

Now, we see Phil in his 20s in “BITT Prime” courtesy of Bitt’s photo album and we see a much younger version of him in Phil’s hidden files at the end of the episode.

However, you’ll probably notice that these two Phils are not the same. Notice the small beard on File Phil that’s absent on 20-Years-Ago Phil.

But we do still know roughly when this Phil existed because we have a photo close to that.

I’m not joking here. This is 100% serious. Notice the beard. This is the first appearance of said beard in all of Phil’s photos. Hippie Phil does have the beginnings of a moustache that File Phil lacks, but that still helps figure out when File Phil happens because it dates him to just before the photo was taken, in between Hippie Phil and the photo before it.

Hippie Phil is the 3rd picture in that photo album and assuming that each photo was taken one year apart, that means Hippie Phil happened 17 years ago, and File Phil Happened somewhere between 17 and 18 years ago, which I will simply round down to 17.

Hippies were a thing mostly in the 60s and early 70s, so if we assume that the photo was taken in the early 70s, that would place us around 1987-ish. But there’s a massive problem here: Ping puts us around 1992-1998 and Spec Ops somewhat narrows it down to 1998-2001, but now we have evidence pointing to way earlier than even the oldest possible date of 1992.

Luckily, although HIPPIES were a thing in the 60s and 70s, TIE-DYE specifically was a thing that went in and out of fashion during the 70s, 80s, 90s and even the 2000s. Phil isn’t being a Hippie in that photo, he’s just wearing tie dye, which happened to be in-style when the photo was taken, and I can’t explain the peace signs and stoned expression. Maybe some things are best left unanswered.

But this gives us another problem. Now the timeframe is too wide, spanning nearly 40 years of time. But this too can be solved using a completely different theory involving a certain arcade game that I have a love-hate relationship with:

Polybius. More specifically it’s in-universe equivalent Bolypius.

Almost nothing is known about Bolypius other than a few hints we’re given sparsely throughout the show, including:

Bolypius is a glitch of some kind that’s incredibly dangerous and important, possibly being intelligent and able to act human

Hinobi has no idea where Bolypius currently is

Miko may be important in locating Bolypius’s current location, for reasons that are unknown but probably linked to her reset immunity

If the show hadn’t been canned by Netflix, we would have had an episode dedicated to Bolypius, named “Bolypius”

An animatic from an unreleased episode exists bringing up “Bolypius Chess” as a very old game in the Glitch Techs universe

Bolypius presumably takes many details from its real urban legend equivalent

Now taking that last fact into consideration, here’s some important, basic details about Polybius:

Polybius was made by the government and caused all sorts of physiological effects on the people that played it

Mysterious men in black would often be seen messing with the machine and taking strange data from it

One day, Polybius just vanished. Taken away by the government never to be seen again.

Taking that into consideration and assuming that Polybius and Bolypius share similarities with each other (which they most likely do), you can assume some things about Bolypius, mainly that it was most likely purposefully created by Hinobi (who take up the role of the government here because it’s Hinobi, of course they do) for whatever reason and like Polybius, just vanished one day, with the difference that Polybius was taken away BY the government and Bolypius escaped FROM the government (or Hinobi in this case).

How does this apply to Phil’s messages to his future self? Well we’ll never know what those messages involve because Netflix is a bitch but judging by Past Phil’s comments about Hinobi wiping the minds of employees, the warning he delivers about “things getting glitchy” in the future and the slow reveal of Bolypius that was supposed to happen if the show didn’t get canned, it’s pretty safe to assume that these messages involve Bolypius in some way.

We also know that this information isn’t a clue to Bolypius’s location because for one, Phil’s mind was wiped at some point after making these videos, and if Hinobi is trying to FIND Bolypius they probably wouldn’t erase the mind of someone who has a clue to their location.

No, the video is definitely talking about Bolypius, but I don’t think it’s about its location or where it went. Past Phil mentions that he took a bunch of files from Hinobi’s development lab, aka the part of Hinobi responsible for making new technology and games, so I think these files aren’t about Bolypius’ location, but rather Bolypius’ CREATION.

Like it’s real equivalent, Bolypius was made by the government (or in this case, the equally shady Hinobi), and Past Phil somehow stole files detailing that process or was possibly even directly involved in the project, but had his mind wiped afterwards. It explains not only why Hinobi would wipe Phil’s mind several times in the past, but also his Phil’s warnings and why he bothered to send his future self a message in the first place.

But more importantly than that big theory that honestly deserves its own post, Polybius has a release date: 1981.

If Bolypius was made in the same year as its real world counterpart and Phil’s message involves Bolypius’ creation like I theorized, the year 1981 lines up with everything else.

It’s 9 years after the invention of Pong/Ping, so Hinobi could be a proper game company with designated Glitch Techs by that time.

That 9 years gives us more than enough time for Phil to have gotten those pictures taken over the course of 3 years.

The 80s were a time where Tie-Dye was in style, lining up with the Tie-Dye Phil picture.

And finally, taking the year 1981 and adding 17 years (the rough amount of time since that last photo was taken) gives us the year 1998, a year that fits with the other bits of evidence perfectly.

Part 3: 1998 Evidence:

1998 specifically lines up with almost all other pieces of evidence I’ve given.

Bolypius’s presumed birthday plus the age of Phil’s messages and photos gets us 1998.

If Emilio Nieves built Ping at the end of his college years or when he was fresh out of college, it’s fully possible for him to make at least 3 other games, have Five, be arrested for hacking and end up in prison by his 40s in 1998. In fact, this is even more likely given that the Ping machine has Hinobi’s logo on it, meaning that Emilio Nieves was a Hinobi employee when he made it. He probably got hired fresh out of college and invented Ping very early in his career, something that is entirely possible because Emilio Nieves is a master programmer.

The year 1998 is the exact year that Metal Gear (1998) came out, perfectly lining it up with the in-universe Spec Ops that came out in the current Glitch Techs year.

Arcades like we see in the show were popular in the 90s, albeit losing popularity at the time, and as even more evidence, the 80s and early 90s were the time when animatronic restaurants were at their most popular, lining up with in-universe things like Joystick Jr’s using animatronics when Five was a kid.

However, there’s still the existence of high speed internet, streaming and social media (in an early 2000s-like state), VR games, smartphones and TVs (which both resemble the 2010s versions of themselves).

Luckily for that, we have an explanation in the form of Hinobi’s high tech tomfuckery. More specifically the impact it would logically have on the rest of the world’s technology and technological advancement.

High speed internet can be explained by the invention of plixels, which are supposed to be an extremely compact and fast form of data storage. The invention of that technology would 100% kickstart the internet into a version that’s a lot closer to the modern version in terms of availability and speed. Even without directly using plixels, their invention would kickstart the invention of other high speed data storage technologies that would also bring the internet up to our modern speeds.

The extremely fast upgrading of the internet courtesy of plixel technology would also probably kickstart things like social media and streaming into becoming a thing way earlier than normal, but we see that it’s still not completely known by everyone.

Hinobi’s advanced technology (at least the stuff it actually sells) could also end up influencing things like smartphones into existing early and speed up the development of TVs from bulky CRTs to the significantly less bulky plasma screens (presumably they’re plasma screens based on their looks) we see in the show. The extremely fast advancement of the internet may also affect the invention of smartphones. They’re not as advanced as the modern stuff we have as they resemble smartphones and TVs from the 2010s, but they’re still more advanced than what you’d normally see in 1998.

VR being common and actually more advanced than 2020 VR is just Hinobi being Hinobi.

So TLDR: Glitch Techs takes place in the year 1998, in a universe where certain technologies were heavily influenced and advanced by roughly a decade or two due to Hinobi’s high tech tomfuckery.

[endlessmazin]

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Hello, Tumblr!

I'm a multimedia artist deeply passionate about glitch art, working with a wide range of techniques—from ROM corruption to databending, and classic glitch methods to innovative approaches. I'm also writer, ex dungeon master/role player, endlessly experimenter and i love working on world building.

In my second year here, I've made some updates:

I manage two different sub-blogs:

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