MovieChat Forums > General Discussion > I want a 1980s room

I want a 1980s room

posted 4 years ago by MaximRecoil (4049)
25 replies | jump to latest

It would have cheap, dark-colored woodgrain paneling on the walls, a thick tan carpet, a 27" RCA or Zenith console TV with RCA inputs from the mid 1980s, a mid-1980s JVC Hi-Fi stereo VCR, an Atari 2600 "Heavy Sixer," a late 1970s or early 1980s Pioneer or Onkyo component stereo system, a shelf full of VHS tapes, records, cassettes, and Atari cartridges, and a black Western Electric model 500 phone sitting on an end table next to the couch.

To make it perfect I'd need to set up a modern PC in a different room connected to a low-powered VHF transmitter. Then edit together a night's worth of programming. For example, for a Thursday night, a Star Trek episode at 7; Magnum, P.I. at 8; Simon & Simon at 9, etc., complete with 1980s commercials. Then I could tune the TV into the broadcast.

What I really want is a time machine, but a 1980s room is as close as I could get.

[–] Kowalski (57386) 4 years ago

HIT THE GOODWILL AND START BUILDING.

[–] 102000 (6128) 4 years ago

Actually paneling was a 70's thing, by the 80's people were getting away from it. LOL.

[–] MaximRecoil (4049) 4 years ago

People who installed paneling in the 1970s didn't automatically tear it off the walls when the 1980s rolled around. I grew up in the 1980s and it was still very common, including in my house, where it had been put on the living room and kitchen walls in the early 1970s.

[–] Kowalski (57386) 4 years ago

THATS TRUE...IT WASNT HIP BUT IT WAS COMMON.

[–] moviechatterer (13226) 4 years ago

same with the Atari 2600 , thats a bit 70's
I'd want a C64 in my 80s room

[–] MaximRecoil (4049) 4 years ago

The Atari 2600 was released in 1977 but it didn't sell very well and it was almost discontinued in 1978 because they lost so much money on it (they manufactured a few hundred thousand more of them than they sold that year). It wasn't a huge success until its first "killer app" was released: Space Invaders in 1980, with ~double the sales of 1979. Also, it wasn't known as the Atari 2600 until 1982 (to make its model name go along with the newly released 5200). Before that it was just known as the Atari VCS (Video Computer System). It was manufactured until 1992 (it had a smaller, redesigned housing by that time).

When I was a kid in the early 1980s, the 2600 was by far the most popular video game console, and it remained that way until the U.S. "video game crash of 1983". Then for a while, nothing was being made for the US market, and then the NES came along and revitalized the market.

[–] moviechatterer (13226) 4 years ago

in the UK at least that gap was filled with 8bit computers,
I never owned a console , just c64 .. amiga ... pc
...until a got a PS3 recently to use for Blu rays

[–] MaximRecoil (4049) 4 years ago

Yeah, from what I've read and heard, things were completely different in the UK. Home computers were far more popular over there, and consoles were far less popular, and the NES wasn't nearly the phenomenon that it was in the US. And the "video game crash of 1983" didn't affect the UK much (since it mainly applied to consoles).

In the '80s I had an Atari 2600, then an Atari 7800, then an NES, but what I really liked was coin-operated arcade games. From my perspective, home consoles were just a backup option if I didn't have any quarters (US 25-cent coins) for the arcade. At the time, arcade hardware was drastically more powerful in terms of graphics and sound capabilities than any home computer or console. For example:

https://i.imgur.com/vHCqtmz.jpg

That's arcade Punch-Out hardware beside an NES console. Both hardware platforms were designed in 1983 by Nintendo. The main CPU in the NES (N2A03) is used in the Punch-Out hardware as just a sound chip, and it has two other CPUs to go along with it (a Z80A and a VLM5030). The basic NES with controllers and a Super Mario Bros. game cartridge cost about $100 in the US, while the Punch-Out hardware cost about $1,500. A NES cartridge has one ROM chip, while Punch-Out has 33 ROM chips.

[–] moviechatterer (13226) 4 years ago

oh yeah , we had arcade jealousy too!
I remember hearing Outrun had 8mb of RAM! wow!
They always made conversions for consoles and home computers, which were obviously no where near as good - it took me a while to realise they never would be. The Spectrum48k version of "Kung fu master" was a particularly jarring failure.

The PC version of Mortal Kombat was bang on though - must have been about the time PCs were starting to overtake the arcade hardware

[–] 102000 (6128) 4 years ago

You are so very right about people not tearing it down - big LOL. My husband went paneling crazy back in the late 60's and it wasn't until after 2000 that I finally got rid of 99.9999% of it. He and his ex wife,(who had NO taste at all), thought it was great.
They were into flocked wallpaper also - holy crap - it was everywhere. We have a game room with a pool table where one area still has paneling. He thinks it's beautiful, so it stays. Gotta pick your battles.

[–] CoreyHaimFan (1031) 4 years ago

This isn't an unattainable goal! You can get all of that online and Ataris are easy to find.

[–] Mrmojo4700 (20413) 4 years ago

Very true. I have several VCR’s, cassette players and turntables. Resale shops and online are the starting places.

[–] CoreyHaimFan (1031) 4 years ago

If they can do this, you can do it.

https://www.throwbacks.com/family-lived-like-1986/

[–] ShogunofYonkers (71451) 4 years ago

That's pretty funny and a bit crazy😃

[–] MaximRecoil (4049) 4 years ago

That's funny. I wouldn't want to take it that far. It's strange that he chose '86 if he was born in '86. That means he was a '90s kid.

I see some '90s movies in his stack of VHS tapes, Toy Story (1995) and Beethoven (1992) for example.

[–] CoreyHaimFan (1031) 4 years ago

Sleepless in Seattle as well.

[–] MaximRecoil (4049) 4 years ago

Yeah, and AC/DC Clipped (1991), AC/DC Live at Donnington (1992), Father of the Bride (1991), Quiz Show (1994), Ghost (1990), The Green Mile (1999)...

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

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[–] MaximRecoil (4049) 4 years ago

Star Trek reruns have always been playing somewhere in the world since the show was canceled. That's why it would be in the 7:00 slot. That was an hour before prime time so syndicated reruns usually ran in that slot. In the mid 1980s, the ABC affiliate in my area ran Star Trek reruns every weeknight at 7. The CBS affiliate ran Little House on the Prairie reruns in that same time slot in the early '80s, then they switched to The Waltons reruns in the mid '80s, and then Magnum, P.I. reruns in the late '80s. I don't remember what the NBC affiliate did; that channel didn't come in very clear at my house anyway.

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Iffy762 (1331) 4 years ago

You mean you want to live with my in-laws? They have a spare bedroom but they don't know you....

[–] andreaahr (2332) 4 years ago

Watch shows from the 1980s to see how they decorated their rooms.

[–] moviechatterer (13226) 4 years ago

Theres a channel on Youtube called "LGR" , about old computers , he also does a series of episodes called "thrifting" where goes around goodwills and such looking cool old stuff , its strangely hypnotic

If the stores near you are anything like the ones near him , it wouldnt take long.
Have you got the space for your 80s room?

[–] MaximRecoil (4049) 4 years ago

I have some old computers, including a Texas Instruments TI-99/4A, but I wouldn't have them in my theoretical '80s room, because they weren't part of the '80s for me, at least not at home. I occasionally used computers back then at school and the public library (TI-99/4A, TRS-80, Apple IIe, Commodore PET, and IBM 5150) but I didn't know what I was doing.

I have some of the stuff I mentioned in my OP, such as the phone, Atari, VCR, and one old component of a stereo system (Onkyo T-4055 AM/FM stereo tuner). I have some CRT TVs too, but not any console TVs. I have a spare room but over the years it kind of turned into a storage room, so all those boxes of junk would have to be cleared out of there before I could do anything with it.