Taking advantage of the open architecture of the IBM PC, the characters reverse engineer its BIOS and set out to build a clone called the "Giant", but obstacles both internal and external threaten to derail the project.

[89] After a few unproductive meetings, Cantwell and Rogers turned their attention to writing film scripts;[90] one of them called The Knoll, about the assassination of John F. Kennedy, appeared on the Black List of popular unproduced screenplays.

[83][89] At the end of that summer, Cantwell and Rogers asked their agent again to shop the Halt and Catch Fire pilot to television networks,[90] leading to meetings with HBO and Showtime that were mostly introductory in nature.

"[101] For research, the production staff and cast watched Robert X. Cringely's documentary Triumph of the Nerds and read the books Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder,[110][111] The Nudist on the Late Shift by Po Bronson, and The Silicon Boys by David A.

[86] Industry veteran Carl Ledbetter, who worked at IBM, AT&T Consumer Products, and Sun Microsystems,[113] collaborated both with the writers to ensure the dialogue in early scripts was technologically accurate and with the actors to refine their line deliveries.

[73] He also wrote sample computer code that appeared on screen[112] and helped operate props on set, which consisted of controlling lights on a breadboard from underneath a table and hand feeding printouts through a dot matrix printer.

[120] Since Cantwell and Rogers originally intended to use the pilot to secure writing jobs on existing series they liked, they wrote it to emulate "difficult men" dramas such as The Sopranos, The Wire, and Breaking Bad that inspired them to get into television.

[120] In the final season, Cantwell and Rogers wanted the characters to grapple with the existential question of whether their continued pursuits of the next big idea could ever make them feel whole and whether they could break free from the constant cycle of reinvention.

As a result, they partnered with Mark Henderson, Daniel Minchew, and Glenn Murer, who built the Atlanta Filmworks sound stage in a converted facility that previously served as a DuPont plant and a dog treat factory.

[129] Other first season shooting locations included the Cobb Galleria Centre, Chops Lobster Bar,[138] Northside Tavern, the Plaza Theatre, the Georgia State Capitol,[139] an office building near The Weather Channel's headquarters, and a brick ranch-style house in Conyers.

To identify period-accurate lighting fixtures, televisions, telephones, kitchenware, and curtains, he consulted: back issues of Texas Homes and D Magazine; old Sears and J. C. Penney catalogues; the Interiors books by English designer Terence Conran; and the Malls Across America collection of photographs by Michael Galinsky.

Other heavily sought after items included: lamp shades with pleats and tapered or bell shapes; furniture with clean, linear lines and upholstery on the arms, legs, and feet; and metal constructed props instead of plastic.

Modeled after a single-story American Craftsman–style home that was popular in the 1920s, the set's design featured hardwood floors, ample trim moldings, built-in shelving painted white, and curved kitchen woodwork.

[48] The Cardiff Giant portable PC depicted on screen was specially built for the series from molded plastic and was partially functional, as the production staff wanted to ensure the design was "consistent with the visionary thinking of the time and was not sci-fi", according to Freilich.

[129] Totten said that in order to build 40 Commodore 64 PC workstations for the Mutiny set in season two, "hundreds of different eBay purchases" were required, since the PCs, monitors, and peripherals all had to be obtained separately.

[119] Golubić said that his team sought to license lesser-known tracks, believing the use of obvious 1980s hits would be "kitschy" and not within the series's budget; explaining their approach, he said, "We want to immerse people in that time period, not distract them".

The scene in which she enters the Cardiff Electric offices for her first day of work is soundtracked by the Clash's "The Magnificent Seven", whose lyrics about the "futility of the capitalist grind underscor[e] her ambivalence about the job", according to Pitchfork's Judy Berman.

Cameron wants to delay the IPO to continue developing Mutiny but is outvoted by Donna, Diane, Bosworth, and Gordon; feeling betrayed, she leaves the company and decides to move to Japan with Tom after they reconcile and marry.

"[132] Reviewing several episodes, Chris Cabin of Slant Magazine said "the show's creators choose to tailor the series to focus on the enigmatic MacMillan, which might explain why Halt and Catch Fire comes off as overtly coy and more than a little aimless".

[219] According to Rotten Tomatoes, the second season holds a 91% approval rating with an average score of 8.3/10, based on 23 reviews; the site's critical consensus said, "Halt and Catch Fire version 2.0 has received some upgrades and improvements, including a welcome focus on its female leads.

Sims praised the series for creating emotional investment in the characters' ideas, for its depiction of teamwork and the act of creation, and for using "[Joe] MacMillan to satirize the Jobsian cult of personality that defines so much of the tech world".

[227] Jen Chaney of Vulture said the third season "covers familiar thematic ground while remaining a very good period piece that traces the rise of digital technology and simultaneously uses it as a metaphor to explore its characters' frailties".

[228] Poniewozik, writing for The New York Times, said the season "makes its past future feel dewy and new" and that despite some initial slow pacing, "The character dynamics are solid... and the '80s details continue to be spot on.

[230] According to Rotten Tomatoes, the fourth season holds a 100% approval rating with an average score of 9.5/10, based on 27 reviews; the site's critical consensus said, "Halt and Catch Fire's character-driven drama culminates in an optimistic ode to the early internet age that's bound to stand the test of time.

"[232] Jeff Jensen of Entertainment Weekly said the show had overcome "a sputtering start to become a luminous drama", praising Cantwell and Rogers for progressing "from aping the antihero playbook to refining it" and for making "incredibly compelling and unique" characters.

[276] When accounting for time shifting via digital video recorders (DVRs), the season averaged 1.3 million viewers per episode in live plus 7-day viewings; 606,000 of them were ages 18–49,[277][278] making Halt and Catch Fire among the "most upscale dramas on ad-supported television" behind Mad Men and The Good Wife, according to AMC.

"[302] Emily St. James of Vox ranked it 5th on her list of the shows that best explained the 2010s, saying the series "had the power to transport viewers back to a world where computers could unite people rather than divide them, where the internet held promise and not destruction.

"[303] Time named it one of their top 10 TV series of the 2010s, saying, "In the past decade, as we've suffered the consequences of a tech sector that can seem devoid of human insight and empathy, Halt dared to imagine an alternate history of the industry in which those qualities mattered most.

"[304] The Hollywood Reporter ranked it the 7th-best TV series of the decade, with Daniel Fienberg saying of it: "Driven by a commitment to character, Halt and Catch Fire gained more and more emotional heft with each passing season and every tear I shed in the final three or four episodes felt completely earned.

[319] For The New York Times' list of "The 20 Best Dramas Since The Sopranos", the series was included in a section of "The Toughest Omissions"; James Poniewozik called it "one of TV's best stories about work, the medium through which its characters communicate, fall apart and come together again".