80s memories

[dbuck]

My first VHS. Only had two hour and four hour recording modes. My first blank tape cost me twelve dollars, it was an Ampex..

An awesome video game system, the channel F. I found it stored in the attic of my parents house ten years ago and my brother and I spent hours playing it. Later we got the Atari 2600. First we had Pong. My dad loved technology and bought us all the cool stuff so he could play with them.

The first computer I ever touched, the Apple 2e. Learned to write basic during computer class but got an A by creating moving graphics after class. Later on my first laptop had a 20 meg hard drive. That's Meg's, not gigs. I have pictures that are larger than 20 Meg's now.

 

[Daniel Nelms]

Our first VCR was the RCA VJP900. It would come apart so you could lug around part of the VCR and record from the camera on to that while on the go. You would also have to lug around 40 pounds of battery bags and a battery "belt".

See video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UycFmF2BaUE

My first game console was a TV Games pong machine, it was black and white and you could select between several games that all looked pretty much the same.

For computers we had the lovable Commodore 64 and a Magnavox Video Writer

 

[Wes R]

Man that Fairchild made me jealous, it's on my to get list eventually for the collection. I just got a starfox store display in the mail today i need to find space for.

 

[Clutch]

You must be my twin. Lol! I got a IIe and aced my high school computer class because I had a graphics tablet. I created a trivia game that had animated images if you got the answers correct.

I got a nice cassette player for Christmas one year but my parents didn't notice that you needed a receiver to plug it into. Dad took it back and I guess the salesman talked him into buying an Atari 2600. Things have never been the same since.

My first VHS. Only had two hour and four hour recording modes. My first blank tape cost me twelve dollars, it was an Ampex..
View attachment 540962
An awesome video game system, the channel F. I found it stored in the attic of my parents house ten years ago and my brother and I spent hours playing it. Later we got the Atari 2600. First we had Pong. My dad loved technology and bought us all the cool stuff so he could play with them.
View attachment 540963
The first computer I ever touched, the Apple 2e. Learned to write basic during computer class but got an A by creating moving graphics after class. Later on my first laptop had a 20 meg hard drive. That's Meg's, not gigs. I have pictures that are larger than 20 Meg's now.
View attachment 540964

 

[dbuck]

Man that Fairchild made me jealous, it's on my to get list eventually for the collection. I just got a starfox store display in the mail today i need to find space for.

The only downside was that the wire for the controllers came out of the bottom. Most people sitting in front of the tv had a tendency to set it on the floor to use it, pinching the wires. Had some great games, cat and mouse, some sort of aerial combat, and the best game ....blackjack. I couldn't believe it still worked when we plugged it in, we were supposed to be moving their stuff and we spent three hours revisiting our childhood.

 

[Fenris]

So much memories...

This was our first Betamax. Eventually, VHS won out so we had to get one eventually. I remember recording Raiders, Star Wars and Die Hard on this when they were shown on TV.

 

[Wes R]

The only downside was that the wire for the controllers came out of the bottom. Most people sitting in front of the tv had a tendency to set it on the floor to use it, pinching the wires. Had some great games, cat and mouse, some sort of aerial combat, and the best game ....blackjack. I couldn't believe it still worked when we plugged it in, we were supposed to be moving their stuff and we spent three hours revisiting our childhood.

I bet you could fix it, there's very little in those old consoles to go wrong as long as the wires are repairable. Our sears pong is the same way with 2 of the paddles wired and so is my Odyssey 2. I actually have some pong machine i never heard of on the way, my buddy found it in a box he got at an estate sale lol.

 

[Daniel Nelms]

I grew up in so-cal as a kid before me moved to GA and I remember my dad would come up with stuff from a production on these huge reel to reel video things, that and later BETACAM.

They looked something like this, still have some in storage somewhere.


It kind of looks like a film reel but its not, it's video.

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I bet you could fix it, there's very little in those old consoles to go wrong as long as the wires are repairable. Our sears pong is the same way with 2 of the paddles wired and so is my Odyssey 2. I actually have some pong machine i never heard of on the way, my buddy found it in a box he got at an estate sale lol.

I still have a pong console that came with a light rifle. I need to dig that out of storage so my kids can see what it was like. They have an xbox and PS4 but seem to love playing with my old NES.

 

[EmmaInCandyland]

I was born in 1990 but I've always been around 80's things. France was a bit delayed for everything, and we had a lot of music and tv shows/cartoons from the 80's, which is quite funny!
I remember all of the cartoon's themes back in the day, they were so memorable! One I particularly love:

 

[Wes R]

I grew up in so-cal as a kid before me moved to GA and I remember my dad would come up with stuff from a production on these huge reel to reel video things, that and later BETACAM.

They looked something like this, still have some in storage somewhere.
View attachment 541635

It kind of looks like a film reel but its not, it's video.

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I still have a pong console that came with a light rifle. I need to dig that out of storage so my kids can see what it was like. They have an xbox and PS4 but seem to love playing with my old NES.

The worst part of collecting gaming stuff is light guns no longer working with new tvs and oddly nobody's found a way around it yet. It's all about it not reflecting back to the gun since screens are flat now, i could see a kickstarter or something for a fix.

 

[Daniel Nelms]

The worst part of collecting gaming stuff is light guns no longer working with new tvs and oddly nobody's found a way around it yet. It's all about it not reflecting back to the gun since screens are flat now, i could see a kickstarter or something for a fix.

The old ones are pretty simple. There's a little photodiode in there. When the trigger is pressed it blanks the screen and paints the target area white for less than a second. If it detects light it registers a hit, if not it registers as a miss.

I don't know if this is why they don't work on modern sets but my guess is that it might be something to do with the refresh rate and the digital vs analog singnal on the LCD? Maybe someone can chime in.

 

[Wes R]

Remember when you used to be able to get small lego sets with a guy and a tiny vehicle for like 3.00? Now it'd be 10.00.

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

I've been looking for pics of a few toys I had when I was around 4 years old. There was a flying saucer, a bulldozer/backhoe which I think was scifi, and a third vehicle. In my head they came together, but I'm not sure. I finally found a pic, though not great, of two of them on Sunday at my parents' house. The pic was from 1980, the back says October, but I'm betting it was from May at my birthday. Does the saucer and little bulldozer (the blue vehicle I'm playing with) look familiar? I also thought it was weird that this is 1980, but I still got a R5D4 figure on a Star Wars card.

The pic is big so I'm just linking to it: http://i.imgur.com/hbOtwZs.jpg

 

[Wes R]

Those weren't what i was thinking of when i read the UFO part as I was thinking of this outer space playset that was playmobile or something. I don't recognize that UFO. Then again things are kinda vague going back that far at times.

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

I did have that Playmobil UFO ship you're talking about. I gave all of the Playmobil stuff to my niece and nephew.

 

[Daniel Nelms]

That doesn't look familiar to me.

 

[Nitz146]

I still have the My Buddy song stuck in my head almost 30 years later!

 

[Fenris]

[video]https://youtu.be/AhNus5u1zCs[/video]

They never released the big action figures here in the Philippines, I believe.

 

[Wes R]

I did have that Playmobil UFO ship you're talking about. I gave all of the Playmobil stuff to my niece and nephew.

I'm amazed that i didn't destroy that ufo and the space base that went with it. I'm not sure if i got mine new or if it was a hand me down. we gave it to my cousin in the early 90s when he was a kid. Here's something kids these days take for granted: games with memory in them and passwords for levels. I remember when Zelda and Final fantasy came out with battery packs it blew our minds as we had note books full of passwords for games. The worst ones were for the Castlevania games since they used images and not letters.

 

[Daniel Nelms]

i'm amazed that i didn't destroy that ufo and the space base that went with it. I'm not sure if i got mine new or if it was a hand me down. We gave it to my cousin in the early 90s when he was a kid. Here's something kids these days take for granted: Games with memory in them and passwords for levels. I remember when zelda and final fantasy came out with battery packs it blew our minds as we had note books full of passwords for games. The worst ones were for the castlevania games since they used images and not letters.

justin bailey
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