You Can Now Play One Of The Games From ‘Black Mirror: Bandersnatch’

Black Mirror‘s choose-your-own-adventure movie Bandersnatch premiered on Netflix this week, and viewers have been eagerly working their way through its alternate endings. But what if you’ve already seen them all? Well, first go outside for 10 minutes and enjoy some fresh air and sunshine. Then hop online and download defictionalised Tuckersoft game Nohzdyve.

Set in 1984, Black Mirror: Bandersnatch follows programmer Stefan Butler (Fionn Whitehead), who works for developer Tuckersoft on a game called Bandersnatch. Though Tuckersoft is a fictional developer, Netflix has created a retro website documenting its catalogue of games, including fully functional game Nohzdyve. Viewers first located the site by converting audio in one of the film‘s endings into a QR code.

Interestingly, Nohzdyve won’t show up on the website in certain internet browsers. When you view the site in Chrome the game does not appear, though there is a paragraph at the bottom hinting that “an early version of [Nohzdyve] is somewhere out there”. Trying to go directly to the Nohzdyve download page will simply redirect you to the site’s main page.

In contrast, when you view the site in Internet Explorer, a link to Nohzdyve replaces Bandersnatch in the sidebar. Tuckersoft’s catalogue also includes the game when this browser is used.

But even if you use the right browser, there’s one more hurdle to playing Nohzdyve. The ’80s-style game only runs on the ZX Spectrum, a personal computer released in the UK in 1982. In order to play it, you’ll also have to download an emulator such as Fuse.

It all sounds like a lot of work, so thankfully you can already check out Nohzdyve gameplay videos online from people who have it up and running. Nohzdyve appears to be a fairly simple game, requiring you to manoeuvre a falling man to collect eyes and avoid teeth.

Nohzdyve‘s name refers to series three Black Mirror episode ‘Nosedive’, in which a woman trying to improve her social media score has a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Though Nohzdyve is the only game available for download, other fictional games listed on the website also reference previous Black Mirror episodes.

Valdack’s Revenge is described as placing you at the helm of the USS Callister as Captain Robert Daly, a reference to series four episode ‘USS Callister’. White Bear is named for the series two episode of the same name, though the concept is very different. And both Roachbusters and Terror on Rannoch B task the player with killing “Roaches”, as in series three episode ‘Men Against Fire’.

These aren’t the only references that can be found on the website, which stacks Easter eggs within Easter eggs like an Easter matryoshka doll. Because when it comes to Black Mirror, nothing is straightforward or simple.