The Atari 2600 wasn’t the only major Tech invention that took my interest in 1980. For me, this little beauty was another hot topic.
The Sony Walkman. My parents wouldn’t let me have one because I would go deaf from the headphones (not to mention satan penetrating my brain with his evil hip gyrating sin induced melodies such as Don’t stop til you get enough by Michael Jackson) . It wasn’t long before everybody at school had one. They were all the fashion, and they were all “The Craze”, but they were also “Really good”. This is one of those devices that is fun to reflect back on. We still carry music in our pockets today, but this battery powered audio cassette player really was the first portable music player of note……until the batteries went flat. Eventually I did get one, but it was long after 1980, and I bought it with my own money once I started working, in 1988. Today, some 23 years later, yes my hearing is damaged, but I can confidently say it is not from the Walkman. Perhaps fixing/tuning chainsaws and being the drummer in a fairly active hard rock/metal band for the majority of that time contributed.
Another welcome change in 1980 was the end of the HMV record player (My folks loved HMV and Rank Arena….in case you hadn’t already noticed) like the one pictured below:
It was replaced with (Surprise Surprise) a Rank Arena component stereo system similar to this Akai set.
We also saw the introduction of the Video Cassette Recorder. Ours was a “Top Loader”. This machine appeared way before infra-red, so the remote control had a looooong wire that you plugged in. It was pretty cool! The first movie we watched on this thing as a family was Benji – I cried, and cried, and cried.
I cant even begin to tell you the amount of times I got smacked down by my father for tripping over that remote cord.
There is one more device I really liked.
The Galaxy Invader 1000.
This was probably the first handheld gaming device I laid eyes on. My brother owned it, and I wanted it so bad – I did get to play with it from time to time, but would have much rathered it belonged to me instead of him
httpv://youtu.be/urINYCB-w0g