about a guy renting computer time at a college, and to save money he writes a program to do his work while he is not logged in, made the program able to go dormant so it isn't discovered... he forgets about the program and many years later he is surprised at work when his program finds him and wants to report its current status. he can't stop it, the program tries to kill him by crashing a plane he was supposed to be on.
War Games is not the source. It's about a high school kid who wants to play a game befoer it's released to the public. He accidently hacks into NORAD and almost starts WWIII.
Nope, not War Games. Not Colossus The Forbin Project. Finally found it.... it,s The Adolescence of P1 by Thomas Ryan. As a programmer from the 70's, this was a great story that seems even more plausible today. Great story, i'd recommend it.
I was finally able to remember the name of a movie from the 80's with a similar plot. It was called Electric Dreams, starring somebody you've never heard of, with a very young Virginia Madsen as the love interest, and Bud Cort as the voice of the computer.
