Anyone who’s into gadgets and gaming will know Jason Bradbury’s name, especially if you were born in the 90s like us. We spent our teenage years watching Jason presenting ‘The Gadget Show’, travelling around and uncovering epic inventions and technical marvels that blew our minds and now we follow his weekly Way Of The Exploding Show across his socials. More importantly, we’re lucky enough to call Jason a friend of Retro Dodo, with the man himself leading his talents via entries to A Handheld History and now the Retrospect Podcast!
Jason’s no stranger to the Dodo Team, and he was very excited to join us on the podcast to talk about his new movie ‘Ctrl AI Delete’, a project that you’ll read about in detail below! The following interview is taken from segments of our podcast recording with Jason, the full episode of which can be found at the bottom of this article. So, without further ado, let’s crack on talk to a bona fide TV legend – take it away. Jason (Or listen to our Podcast episode with Jason instead!).
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Interviewing Jason Bradbury, TV Legend, Author, & Film Maker
Jason, thank you for joining us. We’ve met in person a few times, you’ve written for our book, we are always talking about retro gaming stuff, and I was a big viewer of the Gadget Show back in the day. Give us a little introduction into your retro gaming history, what you’ve been up to, and what you’re currently working on.
Let’s go into my history, which is unfortunately at the age of 55, long and vintage. And yeah, I guess in terms of what I’m working on, I might as well just say upfront, I’ve written and I’m producing a retro gaming movie. It’s a proper full-length feature film, a comedy set in Skegness, obviously. And it’s about a bunch of retro gamers who are safely ensconced in my kind of version of Play Expo, but it’s set in Skeggie and it’s a retro gaming expo.
You might have to describe Skegness (Skeggie) for our American readers and those tuning in from Mainland Europe who haven’t visited before.
Skegg Vegas we call it. For the Americans, it’s a bit like off-stripped Vegas, except instead of all of the casinos, replace them with chip shops, and then you are there.
So what’s the name of the film and what is it about?
It’s called ‘Ctrl AI Delete‘ and it coincides with the global rollout of an AI that is apparently going to solve all of our problems and offer all kinds of amazing services. And wouldn’t you know it, just like so much of the tech that we early adopters are used to getting, it instantly doesn’t work. There’s a global blackout run on the banks, chaos on the stock markets. Transportation doesn’t work, anything automated breaks down, trains are crashing, airplanes are falling out of the sky. Our retro gamers, armed with their generator, realise that they might just have what’s required to hack the AI and win the day.
Jason’s Kickstarter description: When a global AI program goes haywire, throwing the world into chaos, a group of unlikely heroes, a motley crew of retro gamers attending a gaming expo, must harness the power of their beloved vintage computers and consoles to outsmart the rogue AI. As financial markets collapse, the digital word crashes and society descends into darkness, they embark on a hilarious and nostalgic journey to save the world from technological meltdown. Armed with their outdated technology, they become the last hope for humanity in a world gone retrograde.
We love it, Jason! Just like you, independent creators are getting absolutely smashed by algorithms and AI, so anything we can do to generate a bit of backing and do the stuff you love, I’m all for it. So when does the crowdfunding or the Kickstarter go live, when can people start supporting you?
The start date for the Kickstarter reel is the 27th of September. Now it’s live, you can visit the Kickstarter campaign or even just write Jason Bradbury into Kickstarter and find us that way. You’ll see the four-minute promo or teaser trailer. Obviously we haven’t shot the film yet because we haven’t got the budget – everything you see so far we’ve done at great expense. Honestly, the minus figure in my bank account can attest to that!
Coming Up With The Idea For The Movie
What movies did you take inspiration from? When we had our chat in in in Newquay, I said it felt very much like Shaun Of The Dead.
I studied at Bristol University between 1989 and 1992 with Simon Pegg by the way and David Walliams, and we actually had our own comedy club as students called ‘David Icke and the Orphans of Jesus’ with Dominic Diamond as the compare. But back to your question… I came up with ‘Shaun of the Dead meets Hackers’ vibe. I like hackers. Hackers has aged well, meaning that the naffness of hackers is now part of what makes it a classic movie. You could also say ‘Escape from New York meets The Inbetweeners’. That was one of them. And another one was ‘War Games meets Phoenix Nights’, so you can get an idea of what Ctrl AI Delete is going to be like.
Let’s Talk Retro Props
What kind of consoles and nostalgic accessories are we gonna see? Because I know you did some filming in arcades. Are you gonna do any like old school bikes?
It takes place in an expo. That gives us free rein to feature, you know, even the most kind of obscure hardware. We can do anything we want. I have to be so careful I don’t give too much away… There’s a section in the expo that is dedicated to vintage tech. You’ve got to get from the expo center on the edge of Skeggy across town, which is like the purge with roadblocks and stuff and road men ya’ know with their bandanas over their face and things. All of the cars have been nicked or set on fire and all that sort of stuff. We will obviously take retro tech from the Expo and make some wierd kind of weaponry from it too.
Did you struggle to plan places to film this? You know, to find these physical arcades and physical consoles?
We have, as you know from the promo which is on the Kickstarter, shot in four locations, but three pertinent to your question. One is a retro gaming arcade here in Newquay. It’s called Retro Blast and they do great coffee, and if you have a cappuccino they’ve got a little template where they put the chocolate on and it looks like a space invader!
We shot in this arcade in Newquay and then we shot the other sequences with the Sinclair C5, which you’ll also see in the promo down the bus lane.
I was about three when I left Birmingham and went to live near London in Bedfordshire. And then in 1980 I arrived in Lincolnshire in a little town called Woodall Spa, where we are also filming at. This place is bonkers. It’s literally like, the main town where all the kids live in Stranger Things. It’s identical. It’s got really wide roads because it was like a really rich Edwardian holiday place because it had spa waters, hence the Woodall Spa in the title. And it’s got like an open-air swimming pool, a Lido, and it’s surrounded by forests. And on the edge of the forest, Pine Forests, is a semi-secret front-line military base.
Jason’s Retro Gaming History
Let’s talk about your retro gaming history. What’s your first gaming memory as a kid?
It would have been arcades. It would have been like GORF and Galaga. First gen arcade machines. In 1980, I would have been 11. So I’d have been popping down the pub with my dad b(ecause you were allowed to go in pubs then). They’d probably let you smoke in the 70s actually. And I used to go to the pub and then while he was like, you know, propping up the bar with his cricket mates, I’d be on Space Invaders tabletop or something like that.
What are you playing these days?
I like the Analogue Pocket, but I didn’t have any money when that came out. I’m a big VR gamer too. I play Arcade Paradise on the Steam Deck. That’s a great game. I also tinker with my retro collection every week, alongside playing Fortnite with my son!
Let’s round it off there, Jason. I look forward to seeing your movie (hopefully )next year!
