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What was life like in the 1980's?

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ASPartOfMe
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14 Feb 2018, 12:23 pm

LegoMaster2149 wrote:
What kind of music was being played on the radio during this time?


It very much depended on where you lived. I was extreamly lucky, we had WLIR. Its “Dare to Be Different” format played British and Euro New Wave, Synthpop, Post-Punk and wacky novelty records. A documentary about the station has been playing film festivals and will be shown on Showtime starting at the end of March


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14 Feb 2018, 12:25 pm

alcockell wrote:
goldfish21 wrote:
Trogluddite wrote:
And, of course, autism without signs of learning or language difficulties was not known at all. Aspies who were around in that era didn't have the slightest idea why we found life so difficult compared to our peers. There weren't even unofficial places to get advice and support like WrongPlanet, so we didn't even know that there were other people in the world having similar problems to us. If someone told us that we were weak, useless, insane, freakish etc. we just had to believe them, because there wasn't any other explanation available.


This is a good one. Dr. Hans Asperger first discovered Asperger's Syndrom in 1940's Austria. Thanks to an annoying world war getting in the way of global scientific research, his writings weren't even translated into English until 1991 - 50 years after his discovery & documentations of these traits in children.



Lorna Wing translated Hans Asperger's paperwork into English in 1985. She would then diagnose me in 1987.


Way cool


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14 Feb 2018, 2:38 pm

LegoMaster2149 wrote:
What kind of music was being played on the radio during this time?


The music in the Billboard lists I provided links to.



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14 Feb 2018, 2:39 pm

The early 1980s were when videos first HAD to accompany hit songs.

They were probably more important then, actually, than they are now.



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14 Feb 2018, 3:39 pm

alcockell wrote:
Gazelle wrote:
Fun since I was a teenager. Video games at home included Atari with space invaders, pac man, etc. MTV had just come out in the early 80’s and it was actually pretty good and included music videos and not just bad tv shows. Big hair was in and women in the Navy were allowed to serve on ships starting sometime in the 80’s.


This side of the pond, the main kit were 8-bit home computers - the Sinclair Spectrum, BBC Micro, and others.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ts96J7HhO28 - Hey Hey 16K.

And Micro Men - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXBxV6-zamM


Well, i know that it holds true on that island. In most parts of Europe Sinclair and the Beeb was a rare oddity, in most parts of Europe Commodore and Atari held big chunks of the marketplace by the throat. I only know of one guy who had a speccy, everyone else had C64, Atari 800, C128, Amiga 500, Atari ST as well as lesser know brands like the MSX compatible and Spectravideo. Some people had Atari 2600, Philips Videopac G7000 and some other consoles, followed by NES and Sega consoles much later on.

Consoles was - and IS weak in Europe. There is much more of a tradition to build your own PC (motherboard + soundcard + videocard etc) here that goes back to the 80's home computer revolution.


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14 Feb 2018, 9:26 pm

The graphics sucked in home video games in the early 80s. They were much better in the arcades.

I couldn't play the home version of PacMan; it was just too fuzzy.



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14 Feb 2018, 11:17 pm

The Atari 2600 version of Pac-Man was just terrible. The programmer of the game was given virtually no time to make it. The controls were really bad and the flickering was headache-inducing. The Atari 2600 versions Ms. Pac-Man and Jr. Pac-Man were much better.

I wish I could jump into a time machine and go back to when we actually had malls and arcades. :(



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15 Feb 2018, 2:39 am

kraftiekortie wrote:
The graphics sucked in home video games in the early 80s. They were much better in the arcades.


True, but in comparison to the 70 when there was - nothing - it was good at the time.

lostonearth35 wrote:
I wish I could jump into a time machine and go back to when we actually had malls and arcades. :(


There are some people who collect arcade machines and restore them to a working condition. Ask around retro gaming forums to find such a person near you and ask if you can visit and pay.

At retro computing/gaming fairs, they usually put machines on display and you can play till you die from exhaustion. Last exhibit i went to (Retrogathering VCE) there were one of each old computers set up on tables you you could just sit down and play. There were also old computers on display (DEC, ABC 80 home computer, ABC 1600 Unix etc) for non-gaming as well as vendors selling old games and hardware. Dangerous for my wallet.


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15 Feb 2018, 8:28 am

LegoMaster2149 wrote:
What kind of music was being played on the radio during this time?

I don't remember, we usually had cassettes or records playing.

But I do have two songs that I remember hearing over the PA, at two different stores. One was Back in the High Life Again by Steve Winwood, and the other was You've Lost that Loving Feeling, I'm not sure which artist it was, but I want to say it was the Righteous Brothers version.

My dad has a big stack of Top 30 USA records that he bought from some DJ, I used to listen to them a lot when I was younger. Most of them have sheets with the "scripts" on them, and the records have the commercials and everything =) I really should try to find them and put them online somewhere, though they're not in the best of shape anymore.

lostonearth35 wrote:
The Atari 2600 version of Pac-Man was just terrible. The programmer of the game was given virtually no time to make it.

They also only gave him a 4K chip to do it all in!


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15 Feb 2018, 12:12 pm

SabbraCadabra wrote:
LegoMaster2149 wrote:
What kind of music was being played on the radio during this time?

I don't remember, we usually had cassettes or records playing.

But I do have two songs that I remember hearing over the PA, at two different stores. One was Back in the High Life Again by Steve Winwood, and the other was You've Lost that Loving Feeling, I'm not sure which artist it was, but I want to say it was the Righteous Brothers version.

My dad has a big stack of Top 30 USA records that he bought from some DJ, I used to listen to them a lot when I was younger. Most of them have sheets with the "scripts" on them, and the records have the commercials and everything =) I really should try to find them and put them online somewhere, though they're not in the best of shape anymore.

lostonearth35 wrote:
The Atari 2600 version of Pac-Man was just terrible. The programmer of the game was given virtually no time to make it.

They also only gave him a 4K chip to do it all in!


Pretty much all the arcade ports to the 2600 were pretty bad. Its a very overrated system, and IMO was inferior to its primary G2 competition, namely the ColecoVision and IntelliVision.



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15 Feb 2018, 12:14 pm

The Chicago Bears won Super Bowl XX in '86! WE ARE THE BEARS SHUFFLING CREW!! !

Defeating the New England Pats 46 to 12. Yes, it was a whole different day in football.



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15 Feb 2018, 12:16 pm

drwho222 wrote:
SabbraCadabra wrote:
LegoMaster2149 wrote:
What kind of music was being played on the radio during this time?

I don't remember, we usually had cassettes or records playing.

But I do have two songs that I remember hearing over the PA, at two different stores. One was Back in the High Life Again by Steve Winwood, and the other was You've Lost that Loving Feeling, I'm not sure which artist it was, but I want to say it was the Righteous Brothers version.

My dad has a big stack of Top 30 USA records that he bought from some DJ, I used to listen to them a lot when I was younger. Most of them have sheets with the "scripts" on them, and the records have the commercials and everything =) I really should try to find them and put them online somewhere, though they're not in the best of shape anymore.

lostonearth35 wrote:
The Atari 2600 version of Pac-Man was just terrible. The programmer of the game was given virtually no time to make it.

They also only gave him a 4K chip to do it all in!


Pretty much all the arcade ports to the 2600 were pretty bad. Its a very overrated system, and IMO was inferior to its primary G2 competition, namely the ColecoVision and IntelliVision.


Too many consoles in the video game market was one of the factors which led to the North American video game crash of 1983. However, the video game crash only hurt the industry, not the consumer.



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15 Feb 2018, 1:17 pm

LegoMaster2149 wrote:
drwho222 wrote:
SabbraCadabra wrote:
LegoMaster2149 wrote:
What kind of music was being played on the radio during this time?

I don't remember, we usually had cassettes or records playing.

But I do have two songs that I remember hearing over the PA, at two different stores. One was Back in the High Life Again by Steve Winwood, and the other was You've Lost that Loving Feeling, I'm not sure which artist it was, but I want to say it was the Righteous Brothers version.

My dad has a big stack of Top 30 USA records that he bought from some DJ, I used to listen to them a lot when I was younger. Most of them have sheets with the "scripts" on them, and the records have the commercials and everything =) I really should try to find them and put them online somewhere, though they're not in the best of shape anymore.

lostonearth35 wrote:
The Atari 2600 version of Pac-Man was just terrible. The programmer of the game was given virtually no time to make it.

They also only gave him a 4K chip to do it all in!


Pretty much all the arcade ports to the 2600 were pretty bad. Its a very overrated system, and IMO was inferior to its primary G2 competition, namely the ColecoVision and IntelliVision.


Too many consoles in the video game market was one of the factors which led to the North American video game crash of 1983. However, the video game crash only hurt the industry, not the consumer.


The dominant system post crash was the NES. A system with a library that was 1% gold and 99% garbage. Possibly the most overrated system ever.



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15 Feb 2018, 2:15 pm

drwho222 wrote:
LegoMaster2149 wrote:
drwho222 wrote:
SabbraCadabra wrote:
LegoMaster2149 wrote:
What kind of music was being played on the radio during this time?

I don't remember, we usually had cassettes or records playing.

But I do have two songs that I remember hearing over the PA, at two different stores. One was Back in the High Life Again by Steve Winwood, and the other was You've Lost that Loving Feeling, I'm not sure which artist it was, but I want to say it was the Righteous Brothers version.

My dad has a big stack of Top 30 USA records that he bought from some DJ, I used to listen to them a lot when I was younger. Most of them have sheets with the "scripts" on them, and the records have the commercials and everything =) I really should try to find them and put them online somewhere, though they're not in the best of shape anymore.

lostonearth35 wrote:
The Atari 2600 version of Pac-Man was just terrible. The programmer of the game was given virtually no time to make it.

They also only gave him a 4K chip to do it all in!


Pretty much all the arcade ports to the 2600 were pretty bad. Its a very overrated system, and IMO was inferior to its primary G2 competition, namely the ColecoVision and IntelliVision.


Too many consoles in the video game market was one of the factors which led to the North American video game crash of 1983. However, the video game crash only hurt the industry, not the consumer.


The dominant system post crash was the NES. A system with a library that was 1% gold and 99% garbage. Possibly the most overrated system ever.


I agree with you 100% on the NES. Yes, it had its gems. Zelda (only the first, not the sequel), Mario et al, Contra, Castle Vanya, Final Fantasy--these were great. But by and large most of its library were garbage games that now clutter up the shelves of used bookstores that also sell old games and AV. It even gave the Zelda franchise its lone bad game!


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16 Feb 2018, 6:00 am

SabbraCadabra wrote:
LegoMaster2149 wrote:
What kind of music was being played on the radio during this time?

I don't remember, we usually had cassettes or records playing.

But I do have two songs that I remember hearing over the PA, at two different stores. One was Back in the High Life Again by Steve Winwood, and the other was You've Lost that Loving Feeling, I'm not sure which artist it was, but I want to say it was the Righteous Brothers version.

My dad has a big stack of Top 30 USA records that he bought from some DJ, I used to listen to them a lot when I was younger. Most of them have sheets with the "scripts" on them, and the records have the commercials and everything =) I really should try to find them and put them online somewhere, though they're not in the best of shape anymore.

lostonearth35 wrote:
The Atari 2600 version of Pac-Man was just terrible. The programmer of the game was given virtually no time to make it.

They also only gave him a 4K chip to do it all in!


YLTLF would have been the Righteous Bros version - as it was heavily featured in Top Gun.



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16 Feb 2018, 6:20 am

drwho222 wrote:
Pretty much all the arcade ports to the 2600 were pretty bad. Its a very overrated system...

Incorrect.

drwho222 wrote:
The dominant system post crash was the NES. A system with a library that was 1% gold and 99% garbage. Possibly the most overrated system ever.

According to Wikipedia, "A total of 714 known licensed game titles were released for the Nintendo Entertainment System video game console during its life span, 679 of these games released in North America..."

I doubt anyone could, with all honesty, pick only six great NES titles and then denounce the rest of them as trash. I don't think I could even pick twenty, and I'm not even counting unlicensed or import titles.

RainbowUnion wrote:
It even gave the Zelda franchise its lone bad game!

No, that was the Phillips CDi.

Unless you want to get controversial, then I would say it was the N64.

There was nothing "bad" about Zelda II, it was just really, frustratingly difficult.

alcockell wrote:
YLTLF would have been the Righteous Bros version - as it was heavily featured in Top Gun.

You could be right. I just looked up the Hall and Oates version, that one's from 1980, so it would've been a little out-of-fashion by then...Top Gun was 1986, so that puts it closer to the correct time period.

Steve Winwood's single came out December of '86, so it might fit together...though I honestly couldn't say what year these two memories even occured in. I was dead certain that I heard Back in the High Life the day my brother was born, but Wikipedia says that that is impossible =)


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