Rob Flickenger, outfitted in pale blue Batman pajamas, is pretty stoked about getting his first computer. I also see a Stomper, a paintable Ewok figurine (similar to the Yoda seen here), and a Garfield plush under the tree.
Well done, sir.
Archive for the '’80s Decor/Design/Fashion' Category
Christmas Morning, 1982: Texas Instruments TI-99/4A
Published December 2, 2014 '80s Decor/Design/Fashion , Christmas , Christmas Morning , Personal Computers 5 CommentsPromotional Video for Atari Adventure Entertainment Centers, 1983
Published November 4, 2014 '80s Decor/Design/Fashion , Arcade Cabinets/Coin-Ops , Atari , Video Arcades , Video Games 1 CommentI talked about Atari Adventure, or Atari Video Adventure, here and here. According to Atari, the centers would be “the premiere showcase for the newest innovations in computer learning and video excitement.” There were less than ten locations across the U.S., at least one of them a straight up arcade at the Disneyland Hotel. It was a costly, ambitious enterprise that lost steam after Atari’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial debacle (Christmas, 1982) that partially launched the video game crash of 1983.
The footage includes quite a bit of concept art I haven’t seen, and I love the line: “Atari is dedicated to exploring the human frontiers of high technology.” Nolan Bushnell once referred to his business as “leisure applications of technology,” another nice phrase that’s become an overriding preoccupation of the first world.
Parts of the video were taken from another Atari promo from 1981 called “Inside Atari: The Next Decade” (below). I like the intro about the importance of games reflecting the “politics, the wars, the economic systems of the societies that create them”—narrated over some artsy footage of two white dudes in suits playing Go, an ancient Chinese strategy game.
1987 Collegeville Catalog: Photon, Bravestarr, The Transformers, and More
Published October 6, 2014 '80s Decor/Design/Fashion , Collegeville , Halloween , Halloween Costumes , Lazer Tag/Photon , Transformers Leave a Comment
Select pages only. See the whole catalog at Monster Masks.
Photon, believe it or not, was a short-lived live-action TV show based loosely on the game. It looks totally kooky and I wish I could get a hold of it. Lazer Tag spawned Lazer Tag Academy, an animated series that ran for one season, and also an animated movie.
There’s only one ‘l’ in Pogo Bal. Remember that. The fad was a big hit in the summer of 1987, but sales plummeted the following year, probably because it was so goddamn tiring and looked so stupid.
Both commercials highlight the obnoxious styles and faddism characteristic of late 1980s decadence, summed up in the first spot by a giant, corpse-like demon-hand reaching in through the art deco palace window to grab and presumably throttle the kids to death before dragging them to hell.
(Images via The Museum of Play and X-Entertainment)
The Empire Strikes Back: Yoda Latch Hook Rug Kit (1980)
Published September 8, 2014 '80s Decor/Design/Fashion , Arts and Crafts , Star Wars (Original Trilogy) 10 Comments
An eyesore I am.
Photos of the 7th West Coast Computer Faire, 1982
Published September 4, 2014 '80s Decor/Design/Fashion , Atari , Conventions (Cons)/Trade Shows , Personal Computers 1 Comment
The photos were taken by Jim Willing and are hosted at Jason Scott’s Flickr. The first West Coast Computer Faire was held on April 16 and 17, 1977 in San Francisco (Jobs and Wozniak introduced the Apple II there). The 7th Faire ran from March 19-21, 1982, also in San Francisco.
The last photo above shows the Adventure International booth and Scott Adams (powder blue suit). I also found a two-page spread from Computer Gaming World #4 (June, 1982) featuring more photos, including another shot of Adams and the AI booth, as well as Atari’s Chris Crawford, who’s playing Scram, a game he designed, on an Atari 800.
A Portrait of Young Geeks Playing D&D (1986)
Published September 2, 2014 '80s Decor/Design/Fashion , Board Games/Tabletop Games , Coke , D&D , D&D Portraits , What Our Rooms Looked Like 6 Comments
The photos are via heath_bar/Flickr. We’re in Houston, Texas. Summer of ’86. First shot: if all those maps are connected, I’m impressed. The kids on the bed are drinking Cherry Coke, which was introduced in 1985 after the New Coke disaster. Just seeing that can brings back the essence of summer when summers were free. How about one of the greatest ’80s commercials ever to jog your memory?
The kid on the left is drinking a Minute Maid Lemon-Lime Soda. I found a commercial for that too. Pay close attention to the giant can at the very end taking the water bucket challenge.
Second shot: The blue book on the right is the rulebook for the first D&D Basic Set, a.k.a. “Holmes Basic,” released in 1977. Just above that, mostly obscured by the green dresser, is a board game called All the King’s Men. Originally released as Smess: The Ninny’s Chess in 1970, Parker Brothers re-released the game with a Medieval theme in 1979. I doubt that the revision was a coincidence.
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial Quicklatch Rug Kit (Craft Master, 1982)
Published September 1, 2014 '80s Decor/Design/Fashion , Arts and Crafts , E.T. 11 Comments
Quick-latch rugs were a thing in the late ’70s and early ’80s, but I’m not sure why. There was a general crafts resurgence, and I remember going to various stores with my mom to buy the rug kits and figurines to paint—there were E.T., Return of the Jedi, and D&D paint-a-figurine sets, among others, and a company called Craft Master was the leading producer. Craft Master was also a leading producer of the Poster and Pen sets unique to our generation.
The rug kit came with a color coded template and a latch instrument, and you would take the appropriate strip of yarn with the latch, run it through the correct square, tie it off, and so on until you died from boredom. When finished, the rug was very unfortunately made into a pillow or hung on the wall. I may have completed one of the things before I realized that I was being duped and went back to my action figures and D&D Basic Set.
Lincoln High School Students, 1982
Published August 27, 2014 '70s Decor/Design/Fashion , '80s Decor/Design/Fashion , '80s Music , Hard Rock/Heavy Metal , High School , Photography 2 Comments
All of the photos were taken by Gary Fong as part of a 1982 fashion shoot for the San Francisco Chronicle. Peter Hartlaub resurrected them for a three-part “flashback project” at SFGate. Abraham Lincoln High School is a public school, obviously. “Local 69 Muff Dive” didn’t fly in prep land, where all the rich kids wore pink shirts with little alligators on them.
You want to know if I found all the t-shirts the kids are wearing, right? I did.
Buckner & Garcia Perform `Pac-Man Fever’ on American Bandstand, 1982
Published August 19, 2014 '80s Decor/Design/Fashion , '80s Movies/TV , '80s Music , Video Games Leave a CommentThe boys performed—I use the term loosely, as I don’t believe the cords on those instruments or that microphone are plugged into anything—on Solid Gold later that day: March 20, 1982.
2 Warps to Neptune 