Enlarge / It took loads of work for Ellie and Riley to play Mortal Kombat II in The Final of Us—and by some means simply as a lot work, if no more, to have the ability to movie it. (credit score: HBO)

The Final of Us‘ HBO sequence went to nice lengths to re-create a 2003 mall arcade for a latest episode. Two of the arcade lovers employed on for that scene have detailed the triumphs and technical limitations they encountered, at size, in an arcade historical past discussion board thread.

Within the HBO adaptation of The Final of Us, a cordyceps outbreak overtakes the world in 2003, leaving issues a lot as they had been within the 2023 world by which Joel and Ellie wrestle. In episode 7, a flashback reveals Ellie and a pal powering up and exploring an early-aughts mall, full with a fantastically neon-lit arcade, left simply because it was throughout the first George W. Bush administration.

Manufacturing designer John Paino advised Selection that “Raja’s Arcade” took its identify and frontal look from the sport’s Left Behind DLC, however in any other case the manufacturing workforce constructed it from scratch. All of the video games needed to really work as a result of creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann demanded it, in keeping with Paino. However the unique video games would have had cathode-ray tube (CRT) screens, which—as anyone utilizing a digicam again then would keep in mind—may be tough to seize. “We rebuilt them on LED screens,” Paino advised Selection.