Remembering the 1980's...

[Philrad71]

^ Hmmm..I don't really remember the eighties being quite so bleak. I look at it as a very fun, virginal time in my life filled with great memories. It wasn't until the nineties when I started the drinking and drug experimentation that were a time I would just as soon forget. That was my choice though - and I still live to regret some things that I did in my late teens and early twenties.

 

But that wasn't the case with the eighties! I still remember going to Midway amusement park and roller skating every Friday night with school friends. I still remember how 'Stairway To Heaven' would always be the most requested song, thus they would play it towards the end of the night.

 

I remember the smell of cotton candy and fresh popcorn and how we would occasionally sneak up to the amusement park area at night and get on the tubs-o-fun and spin ourselves silly until the owner caught us and kicked us off!

 

I also remember the arcade in which they still had the old Skee-Ball with the wooden balls! They had the classic arcade games like Asteroids, Pac-Man, Defender, Galaxian, Mappy, Crossbow and my personal favorites, Galaga and Ms. Pac-Man! (Gee, could that have been a sign about my own sexuality...Ms. frickin' Pac-Man?)

 

I really miss those innocent days of the eighties, though. I grew up in the country, so I was not really exposed to any crime and poverty. I would ride my BMX bike down dirt roads with friends, travel across the country every summer with my family, catch crabs in a small creek, fish, go to school, and listen to Top 40 endlessly. Simple, fun times.

 

Of course, the eighties marked the first time that I ever went to Cedar Point as well! I still remember keeping the brochures and looking at them almost every day - fantasizing on when I would get to go back. I was a chicken-sh%t to ride Gemini, but after I did, I was hooked for life!

 

Man, I feel like listening to some of Duran Duran's 'Rio', getting me a glass of Grape Crush and watching me some Family Ties re-runs!!!! Love the eighties - woot!

[Wood Dragon 1988]

Think I would have probably liked it better than today.....maybe. I like the pop music and movies of the 80s much better than today.

 

But it would suck living in a world without laptops, cell phones, Ipods, etc.

[Ryan King]

Im Sure Some of you had to have been waiting for me to post this...but...

 

DeLoreans!

 

Really though, what John DeLorean did in the 1980's was absolutely incredible. He designed, Manufactured, and Built his very own, distinct automobile. Not only did he do this, but He built a state of the art car facility and started pumping out cars in less then 3 years! That's better then any other automotive company out there! From Design, To Build, and to the Scandal, the DeLorean is definitely an icon of the 80's.

 

Quoting Wikipedia.org

 

The DeLorean Motor Company (DMC) was a short-lived automobile manufacturer formed by automobile industry executive John DeLorean in 1975. It is remembered for the one model it produced – the distinctive stainless steel DeLorean DMC-12 sports car featuring gull-wing doors – and for its brief and turbulent history, ending in receivership and bankruptcy in 1982. Near the end, in a desperate attempt to raise the funds his company needed to survive, John DeLorean was filmed appearing to accept money to take part in drug trafficking, but was subsequently acquitted of charges brought against him on the basis of entrapment.

 

The DeLorean DMC-12 shot to worldwide fame in the Back to the Future movie trilogy as the car transformed into a time machine by eccentric scientist Doctor Emmett L. Brown, although the company had ceased to exist before the first movie was made.

 

Texas entrepreneur Stephen Wynn started a separate company using the "Delorean Motor Company" name after acquiring the remaining parts inventory of DeLorean Motor Company.[1]

 

The current Delorean Motor Company located near Houston is not and has never been associated with the original company but supports owners of Delorean cars.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delorean_motor_company

And just for the hell of it...

[BeemerBoy]

But it would suck living in a world without laptops, cell phones, Ipods, etc.

But it didn't. In the 80's no one could ever have predicted, or even imagined the availability or commonplace of laptops, cellphones, or iPods.....so it didn't suck that we didn't have them. In other words, that's like saying it sucks living right now because the technology that will present itself ten and twenty years from now will be so much better.

 

I had an Atari 2600, a Walkman with a Thriller cassette that I wore down, and no reason to randomly call people while I was away from my house...therefore, I was content living in the 80's.

[spacemtfan]

^^ What I'm wondering is why haven't you posted something about Deloreans a few pages ago? I was expecting that to be the first post of the thread.

[dandaman]

^^^Good posts come to those who wait.

 

Except for breaking industry news, I guess.

[Philrad71]

I had an Atari 2600, a Walkman with a Thriller cassette that I wore down, and no reason to randomly call people while I was away from my house...therefore, I was content living in the 80's.

 

And I never forgot when I first got a Colecovision for Christmas with Donkey Kong and Zaxxon! I was like the kid in the car commercial playing Centipede on the Atari 2600 - "best Christmas gift evar!" But didn't the screen shot look like the 5200 version?? Hmmm...

 

I also had the Sony cassette walkman with Def Leppard's 'Pyromania' and Motley Crue's "Shout at the Devil."

Mick Mars is still pretty creepy looking today!

Sony walkman - although mine was a bit different. Perhaps mine might have been a Sanyo?

Yay for Colecovision - even though the quality of the actual game overshadowed the kick ass graphics. Remember the front port where you could hook up to Atari?

[slither37]

I still have my Shout at the Devil LP. All black cover with a pentagram on it.

IMO the best Motley Crue album. Please insert umlaut over the u in Crue. Just looks tougher.

 

I have held on to some of the cooler LP covers. Mostly the old Iron Maiden, Powerslave, Live After Death and Somewhere in Time all had pretty cool covers.

 

I had the walkman too, now my iPod is full of 80s hard hard and metal. At least I do have to keep turning the tape over now.

 

".....Why, back when I was a kid, we did not have these fancy iPods, we had it ROUGH, we had to flip the LP over or turn the cassette over and we could not create the wussy "playlists" you have now" <---speech to my 10 year old daughter.

[LilMommyBug]

I loved my black high top Reeboks, slouch socks, tight rolled stonewashed jeans, and my I.O.U sweatshirt (anyone remember those?)

[supertrooper]

I had an I.O.U. sweatshirt...I got it at The Merry-Go-Round of course, because it was so much better than The Chess King.

[gerd.muller]

....hey, does anybody remember one of the best movies ever?

"ferris day off". it was my most favourite movie i the 80´s, i think i must have seen it about 25 times!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1Q4njFYbjc&feature=related

[Cameron]

^ First time I saw it was actually while home from school. I was genuinely sick though, and I'm no where near as cool as Ferris!

 

Cameron.

[mcjaco]

I think I've mentioned it before, but I'm in that movie. I'm one of the little rugrats running around when Ferris pulls up to the school in the Ferrari to pick up his hot girlfriend.

 

That was also my high school, my buddy's house they ran through, and my neighborhood they were running through at the end.

[TheBannedKid]

You must be famous then Matt. Can I get something signed by you?

 

[Guest]

In the 80s

 

Large Arrow looping coasters were actually popular.

 

 

...and of course, Dave Mustaine was in Metallica.

 

[spacemtfan]

In the 80s, large Arrow looping coasters were actually popular.

 

...You might be on to something there...

 

I hate to say that me being born in the 90's, the only thing I knew from the 80's was that short-lived piece of crap show "That 80's Show".

 

But I am learning a lot about the 1980's from this thread.

[Philrad71]

^^LOL! God, I remember that! I was sooo into the Bay area thrash metal scene back in the eighties/nineties. I remember when very few people in my high school even liked Metallica and the group promised that they would never sell out and do a music video!

 

Once they started getting popular, I moved on to Slayer, Exodus, Megadeth, Venom and Nuclear Assault. Gotta say that 'Kill 'Em All' and 'Master of Puppets' was about as good as it got for metal in those days! Remember 'Cliff 'Em All' the VHS video tribute to Cliff Burton? I also still have the 'Creeping Death' gold album single release.

 

Also, speaking of old Arrow loopers, I have an on-ride picture of me and my father on GASM at SFGA. I was wearing an Exodus t-shirt and my Iron Maiden jean jacket!!! I will have to see if I can find it, scan it and post...

[Philrad71]

I had an I.O.U. sweatshirt...I got it at The Merry-Go-Round of course, because it was so much better than The Chess King.

 

OMG...too funny! I had a friend that worked at Chess King in the mall. Our town was not cool enough to have a Merry-Go-Round unless you counted the small used clothing store that carried the same name.

 

 

Love this thread!!!

[terrancew_hod]

But it would suck living in a world without laptops, cell phones, Ipods, etc.

 

Like Beemer said, it really didn't. I feel for you guys because there's a lot we could do that I don't see happening now. A lot of what we did was done outside: playing in creeks (and the occasional sewer pipe), Six Flags had dance parties on Fridays and everyone dressed up, and we used our imagination when playing games, such as playing the Hoth battle with our Star Wars figures in the snow. I think everyone now relies on electronics now; so when the power goes out, everyone goes crazy!

 

But anyway the real reason for reviving this thread:

Action packed karate! Those were the days!

Anyone remember this game? We would play this while the teacher wasn't looking!

My first home video game system. The controller/game system looked like a big beige brick!

[gerd.muller]

^ don´t know that game, but i remember, when "karate kid" was played at the cinemas, everyone at school started to take karate-lessons, so, if you wanted to be one of the cool kids at school, you had to show you yellow belt.

 

the other phenomenom was tennis in the 80´s. here in germany, with boris becker and steffi graf winning wimbledon for the first time, i think every kid wanted a tennis-racket and tennis-lessons for christmas,

and all of my buddies, and even i, had posters of steffi graf, boris becker, ivan lendl, martina navratilova or björn bork hanging on the walls.

[Cameron]

I loved Karateka! I also played Ultima I, II, III and IV on an Apple //e with my brother. Other great games were Lode Runner and Taipan, the latter I would love to write for the iPhone - would probably only take a few days, if I had the time.

 

Cameron.