Question: Where can I find this software? Maybe this is not a full-finished software; if it is then do you know any references?

![assimilation](https://i.stack.imgur.com/cPAkX.jpg)

Answer: 
Unfortunately, the software program doesn't exist. It is a special effect added in post production. The producer of the film, Stuart Cohen, has a blog, and one of the [entries](http://theoriginalfan.blogspot.com/2012/03/computers.html) is devoted to the computer programs in the movie.

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> THE COMPUTERS
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> THE THING, having been produced on the cusp of a digital universe, is a resolutely all-analog film, without a frame electronically processed. It is somehow fitting that the computers appearing in the movie are both mock ups, non-functioning props made out of bits and pieces, with the video display portion in both cases shot well after principal photography.
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> Originally a much shorter moment containing less specific information, with Blair at the computer John essentially created a new scene in post-production built out of inserts. The only two pieces done during filming were those of Blair intently watching. John saw this as an opportunity to hammer home to the audience, in the simplest possible way, the idea of assimilation and it's consequences ( this became a primary concern as editing on the film An analog endeavour, the program simulation was written by John and animated on film by fellow USC alumnus John Wash.
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> None of us had any idea what this ought to look like, so JC instructed John to make it as simple and familiar as possible by using video game graphics. It was then transferred ( at a special 24 frame rate in order to avoid scanning lines) to U Matic 3/4 inch tape, fed back to a monitor, and photographed.
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Cohen also says that MacReady's chess game is a real program for the old Apple Computer line.
The program has just came into being:

[The Thing Simulator](https://elendir.itch.io/the-thing-simulator)