When I was young, I wanted computers just like the ones in Batman’s bat cave. Or like the computers on Lost In Space. Turns out, they were the same computers.

Face it, computers in 20th Century fiction were mostly blinky lights. Those consoles in the bat cave, on Lost in Space, and in the Time Tunnel (all the same props) were just impressive blinking lights. Honestly, look at the console: There is no keyboard! How do you work or program the computer?

Still, I wanted the computers. They were cool. They had buttons that would do specific things. For example, I’m certain on the console of the Navigational Aid Computer there is a button labeled “Find the Joker.”

Star Trek had great computers, but they also suffered from a dearth of buttons. That was probably because you could speak to the computers. A computer that listens means you don’t need a keyboard, yet there were still a few random buttons. Never mind that they looked like marbles glued over a hole in the console:

The first computer that looked like a computer was the real-life IMSAI used in War Games. In fact, it was about as real as any fictional computer can be, aside from the minor quibbles of various nerds.

Well, as long as I mentioned it, the only glaring error in the film was when the Global Thermal Nuclear War countdown timer kept ticking after Matthew Broderick’s character unplugged the modem.

The computers used in Jurassic Park were an actual Unix system, just like the annoying girl in the movie claimed them to be. It’s even possible that the fat bad guy nerd’s computer was all real software.

The only thing unrealistic about the computers were the blinking lights in the background. I believe Spielberg added them to make the room feel more computery — like the bat cave. Whatever.

Since the early 2000s, however, computers have been portrayed very realistically in fiction. That’s probably because we’re very used to and comfortable with computers now. There’s no need to embellish them or entertain us with flashing lights and weird displays.

For example, the computers in the Matrix are realistic. The computer Justin Long used in Die Hard 4 was very realistic.

The only time you see exaggerated computing devices is when fiction talks about computers in the future. Then they get all crazy with transparent monitors. What. The. Heck? My prediction: You’ll never use a monitor that you can see through. It’s just not going to happen.