It was part of a larger group of films about the then fast growing PC craze and how ‘computers can do anything man!’(Tron, Superman 3, Electric Dreams). The screenwirters later created ‘Project X’, another Matthew Broderick film about a goverment/military project gone wrong.
It’s also part of director John Badham’s ‘When Technology Attacks’ Trilogy (the others being Blue Thunder and Short Circuit).
There were the “government gone evil” plots, but there was also a trend to inject video games into all kinds of SF movies. Whether they be Tron or A View To A Kill (Bond).