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I vividly remember the plot of a show which I think I might have watched long ago but have completely forgotten its name or where and when I watched it.

It involves a nerdy character who is a failure in real life. But he is able to clone his colleagues and make them into video game characters, in a game which he himself controls and rules and hence dominates the people he is jealous of in real life. Can anyone identify this show?

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  • Hi, welcome to SF&F. Do you have any idea how long ago this was? 2 years, 5 years, 20 years? Was this a live-action TV show, a movie, an anime...?
    – DavidW
    Commented Jul 20, 2022 at 20:04

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This is USS Callister (Black Mirror: Season 4, Episode 1).

The episode follows Robert Daly (Jesse Plemons), a reclusive but gifted programmer and co-founder of a popular massively multiplayer online game who is bitter over the lack of recognition of his position from his coworkers. He takes out his frustrations by simulating a Star Trek–like space adventure within the game, using his co-workers' DNA to create sentient digital clones of them.

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    So was this before or after Reg Barclay did the same thing, I wonder.
    – Xavon_Wrentaile
    Commented Jul 21, 2022 at 6:12
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    @Xavon_Wrentaile In fact, Barclay was doing it 27 years earlier.
    – Cadence
    Commented Jul 21, 2022 at 16:55
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    @Cadence - Technically he was doing it in 2365, over 300 years later.
    – Valorum
    Commented Jul 22, 2022 at 17:02
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I think this is "Deadly Games" from 1995 (which would definitely qualify as "long ago". A nerdy guy writes a video game with each level's boss based on somebody he's had conflict with IRL so he can feel good about defeating them.

An accident with some lab equipment results in the characters breaking out of the simulation into reality. Each episode features him "playing" another level to save the world from another bad guy.

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  • The OP has already marked Valorum's answer as accepted -- as denoted by the green tick to the left of the answer -- which indicates that they believe that answer is correct.
    – LogicDictates
    Commented Jul 21, 2022 at 16:10
  • Still a great answer!
    – IronEagle
    Commented Jul 22, 2022 at 2:34
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    "The OP has already marked Valorum's answer as accepted" -- Yeah, I noticed that right after I hit Submit. But the OP's description is a good match for Deadly Games too, so maybe it could help someone else in the future.
    – Crash Gordon
    Commented Jul 22, 2022 at 18:51

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