My brother had about 10,000 cards collecting since they started. He sold like 10 of them for a substantial amount of money to invest in bitcoin in 2012. The rest of the cards were worthless.
I'm 45 today in 2024 so I remember most of this stuff. My mom worked for Sears throughout the 1970s 80s and into the 90s so so everything I had was branded Sears, LXI, SR 2000, Kenmore, In Craftsman. I was still pretty young for a lot of this stuff but that didn't stop my mom from bringing it hwhen she knew that's what the other kids wanted. I still have my Sears Tella game console which was the same as the 26th
Glad you included laser tag, but the Lazer tag brand wasn't the first, and there really weren't many if any actual arenas for that toy format. It all started with photon in Dallas in 1984, and the toy/home version of photon was actually a few months earlier than the world's of wonder lazertag both from 1986. My first lasertag experience was with friends owning either photon or lazertag in 1986, and I got a chance to play arena photon (way bigger and better equipment than the toys, and worked on an advanced reverse IR radio real time system) on my 12th birthday in Jan 1987. Sadly it closed and the whole photon company folded in 1989, leaving me only with my toy photon sets, until the mid 90s when relatively small (compared to photon) lasertags popped up in my area, which led to me searching the internet on AOL in late 1995 to find out what was out there, leading me to 60-90 mile drives to play the bigger and better (but still not as big as photon, and lacking reverse IR radio real-time, as the systems had to upload the game data at the end of the game and during the game if recharging was needed for the format). My favorite late 90s laser tag out of what was in range was ultrazone, followed by laser trek, which had radio real-time, along with laser tron, but trek had tiny arenas , and tron arenas were similar to Qzar arenas which paled in comparison to ultrazone. Another thing from this video that tied in with this was usenet, which was pretty active in the late 90s and I was very active on alt.sport.lasertag and alt.sport.photon, and there were classic system rivalries, mainly Qzar vs everyone, and ultrazone vs laserquest. As far as the 80s are concerned, other than photon, lasertron also started in the late 80s in the USA but didn't really expand past its Buffalo NY area headquarters until the 90s when they started selling systems, whereas photon was franchised. The genesis of most other surviving lasertag systems was in Australia, where early versions of zone such as phaser strike which evolved into zone3 (which was franchised as ultrazone in the US), and Quasar, which became Qzar in the US and later the rest of the world adopted the Qzar name. Also noted from Australia is laser force, which is also reverse IR like photon, which got its start using Vultrek equipment, which was almost a slightly inferior copy of photon. Laserforce based its equipment off vultrek and gradually upgraded over the years, and is super high tech, and the only system still using reverse IR which has the benefit of a lock on tone (photon had a target light on the gun performing a similar tone) and different hit, miss, and hit own team sounds. Most of the surviving systems are very high tech, with touch screens and multi color RGB leds (and an even more advanced type of light on laser force gen8), and lots of alternative game formats. Unfortunately there is not a big competition scene like photon had from the late 80s till the last surviving photon closed in 1995, or the big ultrazone and laserquest t League and tournament scene of the mid 90s, early 2000s (and Qzar had a similar scene, and tron had a smaller buy decent one as well). (Photon had a resurgence under new ownership, but only one location near Baltimore, from late 96 till 98, and under a different name up until finally being killed by covid. And a very brief opening of another one in Oklahoma in the late 2000s that lasted only 2 months) Now they are mostly kept alive by birthday parties and casual players, and the days of the ultrazone role player memberships and large base of avid members seems long gone. but lasertag as whole is still doing well, despite some major losses during the pandemic, such as all north American laserquests, the aforementioned former photon site in Maryland, my favorite ultrazone in San Diego and several others who could not pay the rent while being unable to operate during the pandemic. I gotta say that while photon made a huge smash in the 80s, it was cut off too soon, and I was too young to take advantage of it fully, the mid 90s was probably the biggest time for lasertag, since there were so many avid teen to young adult regulars, with memberships and aliases, and a smacktalk and flame war filled usenet forum scene as well as the leagues and tournament scene. Rip photon and rip san Diego late night the zone
As a metalhead from the 80's not only nerds remember these growing up. I had almost everything in this as a kid but had a mullet and listened to Judas priest, Motorhead and Twisted Sister...u called me a nerd back then i would have probably come after you and your family lol but nowadays i embrace my nerdism while still listening to metal
Microsoft Windows 1.0 was released on November 20, 1985. However, Windows didn't take off until Windows 3.0 was released in 1991. WIndows was a graphic shell on top of DOS
And anyone from that day will recall, we all flaunted our knowledge of DOS to new users by going to the command prompt and just using it instead of Windows. I kind of miss those days.
@@b.thomas8926 And even today, there are many tasks where doing things in the command line ends up being faster than doing it in the GUI -- especially when dealing with a lage number of files. Although the GUI is easier, you either end up needing to deal with files individually (such as when renaming them), while at the command line you can use wildcarding to match multiple files with a single command. Even if you can group-select files (click on first file, then shift-click on the last file -- which highlights all the files in between) -- if you're doing this with thousands of files, you'll be spending several minutes waiting for the system to update the screen (showing the files as being selected), and performing the task (to show the progress bar for the operation, it first needs to compute an estimate -- which requires enumerating the files as well as sizes of those files -- with a large enough quantity of files, this could take several minutes -- *before* it starts doing the actual task)
@@OGSomeOne That may be true if you're referring to 16-bit Windows in real mode (1.0 - 2.x), and with the introduction of protected mode operation, DOS played a less significant role (i.e. Windows environment largely bypassed DOS). By the time Win9x and WinMe came out, DOS really only acted as a bootloader -- once Windows environment had been started, DOS wasn't really involved. With NT-based Windows (which includes 2000, XP, Vista and later versions of Windows), DOS doesn't really exist (i.e. the command line *isn't* DOS).
@nuk1964 nope. Win11 has command window that opens a dos window for you to use. Dos is still base for windows and is the os that allows windows to load.
Only super-nerds remember this computer system: the TRS-80 from Radio Shack (another 80s icon). It was nicknamed the "Trash-80" because it crashed so much. D&D didn't start in the 80s. It got its start in the late 70s. I was introduced to it at the Great Lakes Naval Base. The center of the D&D universe was located about 40 miles from the base. I had some of the original books. Then it evolved into AD&D in the 80s. Another nerd thing that started in the late 70s... arcades. They just died in the 80s. Watchmen didn't usher in a new era of more mature stories in comic books. That came about with the exploration of such things like drug addiction, racism, and other social issues in both the Green Arrow-Green Lantern and Spider-man titles back in the late 60s and 70s.
I was amused to see several "PC example" shots in this vid showing the TRS-80 while talking about other machines. That was my "first computer" that I ever used. And yes; I think I encountered my first video cabinet game (an original PONG machine in the molded metallic-flecked fiberglass pedestal cabinet - probably worth a fortune if you can find one today) in the late 70s, but had been going to arcades for the previous several years. They featured various electro-mechanical cabinet games, from pinball to shooters of various sorts. My friends and I would often play "laser-tag" in our early/mid 20s, at various locations around town. I became known for zapping their reflections in building windows, which would accurately reflect the IR beam back to the target, "tagging" them while being outside visual range. We had a lot of fun (and drank a lot of beer) doing that...
I cut my programming teeth on the TRS-80. Much of the crashing problem had to do with the short ribbon cable connecting the main unit (i.e. the keyboard, where the computer itself was housed) and the expansion interface -- that cable was a bit too short and too stiff -- so if you moved the keyboard a bit, the cable would pop loose and causing the system to crash. The "quick fix" would be to immobilize the keyboard (by bolting it to the desk). The later Model III and Model 4 put all the components into a single chassis and eliminated the problem of the cable coming loose because you moved the keyboard. The Sinclair ZX-81 was notable for being the first microcomputer to be sold at or below $100 price point when new (granted to do so there were numerous cost-cutting measures in its design and construction). It too exhibited propensity to crash for similar reason -- the 16K memory expansion that plugged into the back had a tendency to work loose, resulting in a system crash. The "quick fix" was to use blue-tack to affix the RAM module to the computer -- or for greater reliability, you screw/bolt both to a wooden board. One weakness of the ZX-81 was the membrane keyboard. At many Radio Shack stores you could pick up a surplus TI-99/4A keyboard -- which could be modified (by cutting some traces and soldering some bodge wires to reconfigure the keyboard matrix) so that it could be attached to the ZX-81.
The TRS-80 was one of the "1977 Trinity" -- notable microcomputers that were introduced in 1977: Commodore PET, Apple ][ and Tandy/Radio Shack TRS-80. The Apple ][ and Commodore PET were based on the MOS 6502 CPU, while the TRS-80 was based on the Zilog Z-80 CPU. As for myself, having got a start on the TRS-80 did prepare me somewhat for migrating to the IBM-PC -- not only was there similarity between the TRS-DOS and PC/MS-DOS (both being modeled on CP/M), as well as similarity in the BASIC interpreters.
My brother had a Trash 80 and he was jealous because my Commadore 64 could edit a line of code by backspacing. He had to delete the whole line than rewrite it correctly. But he went on to be a Software engineer so I'm kind of jealous of that.
@@gamesman0118 In TRS-80 Level II BASIC there was a line edit mode (which operated in manner similar to the EDLIN program in PC/MS-DOS). Perhaps not as easy to use as the edit mode found on the Apple ][ and C64 BASIC (which was closer to screen edit).
some of these thing were enjoyed by more than just nerds, like the walkman was enjoyed by almost everyone. arcades was also a place where bullies liked to hang out, to steal from the nerds so that they could play the arcades. beta/vhs was the 80's way to "netflix and chill"
Beta had higher resolution for better picture quality than VHS. The crippling flaw is their tapes were shorter. Also laserdisc was the third competing format.
I think the biggest problem with betamax was that Sony refused to license it to any competitors. Rather than the longer recording time of VHS tapes, I think the primary advantage VHS had is that it was licensed to whomever wanted it, with dozens of manufacturers making players. Nerd alert: I still have a working VHS player...
@@gregshonle2072 that is the main reason! Sony wanted to be the only company. JVC was smart and licensed out the tech allowing other companies to make cameras and players, but they still owned the patents so they got a piece of the pie. I still have one too. My niece has my 2600 and her kids still play it.
Nerds unite! I can actually solve a Rubik's cube. My wife didn't believe me, so we bought one and I proved it to her. Got me a steak dinner out of that. It was date night but, we'll just say it was a reward. And, for some reason, this popped into my head, you cant be an 80's nerd and missed playing 'Oregon Trail.'
You memorize the pattern of each face that results in the various sequence of moves to reach completion as explained in the answer booklet people seem to forget came with it? Or did you actively solve it as a puzzle? (Really talk I moved the stickers on one, and literally dissembled another. I have no room to talk)
You say that before the Walkman, people had to either leave their music home or carry bulky boom boxes. Seriously? What about transistor radios? What about Toodle-oo? What about Take-N-Tape? All of those were around in the early seventies or even earlier.
@@philip07304 have you not herd of geek rock or nerd punk before there were some 80s new wave that was actually nerdy like say maybe thomas dolby and also the buggles
Commodore outsold them all. Their sales forced the price drops in the industry. The Apple Lisa with the Motorola 64 bit processor was set to set the standard for computers, but IBMs monopolistic activity made them nearly impossible to get your hands on one.
It's so old hat now but every one one of these innovations was something unique and exciting. My first brush with hi- technology was in the seventies with the almost now forgotten video game pong that was a form of electronic ping pong that featured an electronic line as the net and two cursors as electronic paddles that batted a electronic ball back and fourth. All these early forays into the absolutely new microprocessor driven technology seems quaint only as a rear view mirror image of someplace we used to be.
I often hear this quote when people talk about MS-DOS "Entering command to perform a task sound archaic". In my daily job as a Linux DevOps engineer, typing commands is still the norm and often way quicker than having a GUI, going through menus, starting a graphical application, clicking some more to get the same thing done. Don't get me wrong. I like where, for example Windows, evolved into. A good graphical interface is very helpful but don't exclude the power of the shell with the command power, no matter if its ssh client to manage a Linux server or using cmd or powershell on a windows OS.
Walkman was not a nerd thing. They started with the musically inclined and branched out to the mainstream. If anything, nerds were the last to adopt them
Recently I got into a conversation about how complicated electronic devices had been to the point of overcomplexity ,that we really didn't want to study anymore to understand them .The conversation rocked back and fourth until it changed when my friend starting to talk about his new drone hobby and the fabulous arieal pictures he had taken.Once a techie always a techie.
Walkman, and VCRs (aka Betamax VS VHS) were mainstream, NOT nerd culture. Not everything that is iconic to the era, is "nerdy. I am 1/2 way through, and I am done with your take.
20:28 Still have my Commodore C64 I bought in 1989 West Germany while stationed there in the US ARMY. Haven't used it in about 8 years but have a gagilan games even one from 1986 that my 3 brothers and me would play. Still have some of the games saved on the disks. Had a 2600 but sold it 12 years ago and regretted that since then. Oh to be a kid then. Who here remembers BUMP N JUMP, SPY CHASER. I have the original Wasteland role playing game for my Commadore but have never been able to complete it. Had the chance to buy a guide to it but passed on it biggest mistake for this game. Had it since 1991. Crazy.
Ahhh, patience was a 1541 disk drive. And I have no idea how many hours I spent wiping things out playing River Raid on my Atari. The only thing I sank more time into than those items was D&D. I miss the 80s.
"Computer geek" is a more accurate term for much of this. Though the Apple 2 series is notably absent from the list. Those were at least as influential and the Commodore and Atari home computers. The Walkman though? Seriously? Or nerds will remember those?
I had an Atari 5200 when I was a kid. In my college days, I had an Amiga 1200 (the OG "home edition" of the Amiga 1000 Video Toasters) The original Babylon 5 Sci Fi tv show back in the day used Video Toasters.... It was the shiznit back then.... Nerd Challenge Accepted 🥰👍
I can tell that you weren't there. The Radio Shack TRS-80, Commodore Pet, and the Apple II computers actually started the home computer revolution in the late seventies. It was the Atari 400/800 Home Computers that really set the standard for the home computer and game programming market. The Atari VCS came out just before the home computers did, and Dungeons and Dragons was a big thing well before THAT!
And in the continuing saga of "You Got Your Dates Wrong"--Magic: The Gathering was a 1993 release. Seriously, guys, if you look at all the comments here you'll see that your timeline is off so often that this video is not worth the viewing. If this is a representative example of your quality control, you're not going to do much when it comes to gaining new subscribers.
I love being an early female nerd. Apple IIe and the Osborne were my first real computer experiences. I loved the arcade. I'm still an active gamer at 59.
I'm the biggest nerd and the Atari was before the Commodore...that's where I cut my teeth in message boards and programming. The games our computer had were filled tonnes of floppies my guy. I shun you with DOS. END of Line.
Nice video. B.t.w., the DEC VT100 you showed was a terminal for Digital's PDP and VAX mini systems. They weren't PC's. The VAX VMS OS had some similarities with MS-DOS however.
Kind of an odd list. A bit strange to mention the Atari 2600, but not mention how the NES saved the home console market in the US the Video Game Crash of 1983. Also, mentioning Tron for its use of CG...then going to talk about CG again separately....kind of a stretch.
I still have my Commodore 64 along with the printer. I even have a box of floppies in case i go nostalgic. I also have a Walkman and a large stack of VHS tapes.
Lol….80’s LOUD AND PROUD!! If it weren’t for us nerds, we would never have had Atari, Tron, Mtv, computers, SIRI, NETFLIX, HULU, etc….and the computer world that we all exist in to this very day. I think that this world owes us nerds a little something…… 😏🤓😎
I really don't think this video understands what it meant to be a nerd in the 1980s. While the term has been reclaimed; in the 80s, it was a pretty serious slur. While the comodore64 and d&d certainly were; things like Walkmans and video arcades were definitely not part of nerd culture.
Not even D&D was nerdy. My friends used to play it and we would come over and party with them. It was a lot of different people. Stoners/metalheads mostly.
The video title is clickbait, and the repetition of "nerds" in the video is annoying. Most Americans who were between 6 and 30 years old in 1980 (and are still alive) would remember most of the items on the list, either from their own interests at the time, or the interests of their kids.
There were also a lot of sword and sorcery films in the 80's, starting with Conan the Barbarian in 1982. For a couple of years in there, it seemed like just about any gym rat who could look good in a loincloth, could star in a sword and sorcery film. Reb Brown, Miles O'Keefe, the Barbarian Brothers, Schwarzenegger, Marc Singer, those were just some of the headliners. There was much that could be said about a genre that tended to focus on overloaded testosterone, mediocre budgets, and barely-there costumes. But I will say, that it beats the pants off the dreck at the multiplex these days, which looks to focus on overloaded budgets, mediocre costumes, and barely-there testosterone.
It's not about Nerd, it's about who was born in the 1980s or born in the modern day, watching a lot of gaming console history, they will know about old 80s gaming consoles.
0:15 "Do you remember the Commodore 64?" - I still have mine (with monitor and large disk drive) 😁I started doing basic programming on it maybe around 1987 12:18 I still have an unopened copy of MSDOS somewhere and MSDOS 3.3 and GW BASIC user guides
i am one box set from having a complete set of 2nd ed and forgotten realms. A while back i found my first character sheets from 1986. :) still play when i can get ppl to sit long enough and get off their phones lol
The Commodore 64 only cost $400. I say "only" because its main competitor, the Apple //e cost about $1,000 and that was just for the CPU. The monitor, disk drives, printer, etc. all cost extra. Speaking of which, the Apple //e (as well as its predecessor, the Apple ][+) should have been included in this video.
Love the Commodore Pet, which I used at college... shown when he is talking about the IBM PC and first Mac.. C64 was great to but I had a VIC20. Shame he didn't mention the TRS80 or BBC micro
i remember watching the Challenger explosion, in the class room of the teacher we nominated, but didn't get to go for a while, it was like we tried to execute our favorite teacher
ok, i must confess, i still have my apple monitor, from the 80's, i even bought a tuner card to see how modern computers would appear on those old screens
I'm 59 in a couple of months. And I could pick up a rubiks cube even now and solve it in a few minutes. I actually spent THAT much time in those few years after it's release speed solving it for everyone's amusement. I liked to consider 90 seconds to be my goto solve time. My record was probably under a minute. I was happy with that until I met a Thai lad in an arcade in about 1982 who could solve the cube in under a minute every time without even looking at it pretty much. Still.. It impressed the ladies with my hand dexterity in my college years. And I got more than a geeks fair share of puss thanks to that. So.....
"American" nerds ... meanwhile in the rest of the world we had all that plus ... MSX PCs, BBC micro (faster than Atari/Commodore and more expandable, 8bit 6502c with optional 16bit coprocessor), Sinclair (Timex in the US) computers, Amstrad, Dragon (cheap 16bit computer in a largely 8bit world), Teletext (Sort of TV internet before HTML), RDS (highways that messaged your car), Oric, Blake's 7 (the federation is evil), Dr Who, Phillips v2000 (long play like VHS, quality like Betamax, and flip the tape for double the fun!), Tomorrow's world (clip included in this video without a mention!), Horizon (repackaged as Nova in the US).
Lots of good memories from this, especially the Commodore 64. However, like perhaps others may have mentioned (not going to scroll through it all), Magic The Gathering is not a product of the 80s. I was a sophomore in high school in 1992, and I remember when MTG first came out, because I'd often spend my lunch hour down at the comic book shop, and the owner (later my boss), pulled out several cases of Magic. When I asked him what game that was, he merely said to me that he didn't know, but it was new and seemed to be growing in popularity. So I bought as many boosters and cards as I could and played during my lunch break. I would collect AND play with them, and eventually I had nearly complete sets of the first sets/releases of the cards. When I graduated in 1995, I sold them off for a mere $325. If I held on to those cards, and knowing the condition they were in, I could probably be a millionaire if not pretty damn close. Long story short, Magic The Gathering was released in 1992/1993, not the 80s. Great video other than that!
I had a Tomy Tutor first, then the C64. I also had a Fairchild Channel F video game console a year or 2 before getting an Atari 2600. The Fairchild was much better because of the controllers. Never did D&D. Had walkmans. Had VHS. It was inferior to the Betamax because of video quality and reliability, but cost way less and was actually able to record much longer video. Arcades! Actually the first arcade games were in bowling alleys. I remember getting somewhat addicted to Space. This was in 1973. Before Rubik's cube there was Instant Insanity! Vastly easier than the cube, but did drive folks a bit crazy. Ah, yes, good times. I guess I was a nerd before nerds were cool. Just wish I had the money then to invest in Apple, Microsoft, Lotus, and Cable companies stocks.
No Commodore Amiga, the computer that brought a full-colored windowing interface, the first multitasking commercial computer, a massive upgrade in sound and graphics which IBM and Apple were still struggling to catch up with into the mid-90's, and graphics capabilities that, by the Amiga 4000, gave us the Video Toaster with affordable video production capabilities that were used in television production, even giving us the groundbreaking effects and sequences seen in the first season of "Babylon 5"? And this video makes it seem like the Atari 2600 wasn't prior to the Commodore 64, which it certainly was - the C64 caused Atari to have to compete by coming out with the Atari 5200, but it still couldn't compete. They'd try again, countering the Amiga 500 with the Atari ST, but again failed.
I suppose I am a nerd in that I remember most of this and while I did partake in a lot of this, some of it I did not have much interest in. I definitely played at arcades. I actually started with my first computer being the Texas Instrument 99/4a that came out in June of 1981 and switched to the Commodore 64 a couple of years later when it came out. Was was not big into DOS as a personal interest but found myself having to learn it due to requiring it on some of my jobs. I took some interest in Windows 3.1 but was blown away by windows 95. While I did like gaming to some degree, I don't think I was at nerd level. The same with comic books. I am not sure if there is a name for someone who is nerd like but not quite full nerd. I did have some full nerd friends but could only meet them part way with nerdiness.
Nerd here ❤
No one remembers Magic the Gathering in the 80's. It was not released until 1993 by Wizards of the Coast. Do your research.
I'm glad someone said it. If you didn't I was gonna.
Pepperidge Farm remembers.
@@morticia981 Did Pepperridge Farms use a "Silvers" deck? Lol
Could have saved it for a 90's video
My brother had about 10,000 cards collecting since they started. He sold like 10 of them for a substantial amount of money to invest in bitcoin in 2012. The rest of the cards were worthless.
I'm 45 today in 2024 so I remember most of this stuff. My mom worked for Sears throughout the 1970s 80s and into the 90s so so everything I had was branded Sears, LXI, SR 2000, Kenmore, In Craftsman. I was still pretty young for a lot of this stuff but that didn't stop my mom from bringing it hwhen she knew that's what the other kids wanted. I still have my Sears Tella game console which was the same as the 26th
one of my main 'blessings' in life has been to witness all this tech evolve from the mid-70's. it has both disappointed and surpassed expectations!
Diddo bro 😮I feel so old ROCK ON!!!
I think 90% of people who were alive in the 80s who are still surviving remember the Atari 2600, not just nerds.
Not to mention the Walkman.
And Back to the Future
The 2600 was more 70s tech than 80s; should've been the NES instead.
Not true, they remember the crash
The Coleco was better, which is what I had.
Damn, I'm a nerd. I hate it when my kids are right. 😂 let your nerd flag fly people ❤
You cant say only nerds will remember when they were almost all mainstream things
I do remember all 20 things featured here....I'm such a nerd.....and PROUD OF IT!!!
Dungeons & Dragons came out in 1974. Atari 2600 came out in 1977, not the ‘80s
It became very popular in the 1980's, more so than when it came out
Yes, the 80s is where these things took off
Grade school when the Rubiks cube came out that was in the 70s
Glad you included laser tag, but the Lazer tag brand wasn't the first, and there really weren't many if any actual arenas for that toy format. It all started with photon in Dallas in 1984, and the toy/home version of photon was actually a few months earlier than the world's of wonder lazertag both from 1986. My first lasertag experience was with friends owning either photon or lazertag in 1986, and I got a chance to play arena photon (way bigger and better equipment than the toys, and worked on an advanced reverse IR radio real time system) on my 12th birthday in Jan 1987. Sadly it closed and the whole photon company folded in 1989, leaving me only with my toy photon sets, until the mid 90s when relatively small (compared to photon) lasertags popped up in my area, which led to me searching the internet on AOL in late 1995 to find out what was out there, leading me to 60-90 mile drives to play the bigger and better (but still not as big as photon, and lacking reverse IR radio real-time, as the systems had to upload the game data at the end of the game and during the game if recharging was needed for the format).
My favorite late 90s laser tag out of what was in range was ultrazone, followed by laser trek, which had radio real-time, along with laser tron, but trek had tiny arenas , and tron arenas were similar to Qzar arenas which paled in comparison to ultrazone.
Another thing from this video that tied in with this was usenet, which was pretty active in the late 90s and I was very active on alt.sport.lasertag and alt.sport.photon, and there were classic system rivalries, mainly Qzar vs everyone, and ultrazone vs laserquest.
As far as the 80s are concerned, other than photon, lasertron also started in the late 80s in the USA but didn't really expand past its Buffalo NY area headquarters until the 90s when they started selling systems, whereas photon was franchised.
The genesis of most other surviving lasertag systems was in Australia, where early versions of zone such as phaser strike which evolved into zone3 (which was franchised as ultrazone in the US), and Quasar, which became Qzar in the US and later the rest of the world adopted the Qzar name.
Also noted from Australia is laser force, which is also reverse IR like photon, which got its start using Vultrek equipment, which was almost a slightly inferior copy of photon. Laserforce based its equipment off vultrek and gradually upgraded over the years, and is super high tech, and the only system still using reverse IR which has the benefit of a lock on tone (photon had a target light on the gun performing a similar tone) and different hit, miss, and hit own team sounds.
Most of the surviving systems are very high tech, with touch screens and multi color RGB leds (and an even more advanced type of light on laser force gen8), and lots of alternative game formats.
Unfortunately there is not a big competition scene like photon had from the late 80s till the last surviving photon closed in 1995, or the big ultrazone and laserquest t
League and tournament scene of the mid 90s, early 2000s (and Qzar had a similar scene, and tron had a smaller buy decent one as well).
(Photon had a resurgence under new ownership, but only one location near Baltimore, from late 96 till 98, and under a different name up until finally being killed by covid. And a very brief opening of another one in Oklahoma in the late 2000s that lasted only 2 months)
Now they are mostly kept alive by birthday parties and casual players, and the days of the ultrazone role player memberships and large base of avid members seems long gone.
but lasertag as whole is still doing well, despite some major losses during the pandemic, such as all north American laserquests, the aforementioned former photon site in Maryland, my favorite ultrazone in San Diego and several others who could not pay the rent while being unable to operate during the pandemic.
I gotta say that while photon made a huge smash in the 80s, it was cut off too soon, and I was too young to take advantage of it fully, the mid 90s was probably the biggest time for lasertag, since there were so many avid teen to young adult regulars, with memberships and aliases, and a smacktalk and flame war filled usenet forum scene as well as the leagues and tournament scene.
Rip photon and rip san Diego late night the zone
Rubik 9:00 was a "Hungatarian architect"? Who'd have thought...
That made me laugh too.
As a metalhead from the 80's not only nerds remember these growing up. I had almost everything in this as a kid but had a mullet and listened to Judas priest, Motorhead and Twisted Sister...u called me a nerd back then i would have probably come after you and your family lol but nowadays i embrace my nerdism while still listening to metal
Me too!😂
Um, Magic the Gathering didn't release until 1993, I'm not a math professor, but that's a bit past the 80s.
Microsoft Windows 1.0 was released on November 20, 1985. However, Windows didn't take off until Windows 3.0 was released in 1991. WIndows was a graphic shell on top of DOS
And anyone from that day will recall, we all flaunted our knowledge of DOS to new users by going to the command prompt and just using it instead of Windows. I kind of miss those days.
@@b.thomas8926 And even today, there are many tasks where doing things in the command line ends up being faster than doing it in the GUI -- especially when dealing with a lage number of files. Although the GUI is easier, you either end up needing to deal with files individually (such as when renaming them), while at the command line you can use wildcarding to match multiple files with a single command. Even if you can group-select files (click on first file, then shift-click on the last file -- which highlights all the files in between) -- if you're doing this with thousands of files, you'll be spending several minutes waiting for the system to update the screen (showing the files as being selected), and performing the task (to show the progress bar for the operation, it first needs to compute an estimate -- which requires enumerating the files as well as sizes of those files -- with a large enough quantity of files, this could take several minutes -- *before* it starts doing the actual task)
Microshaft Windoze is still a dos gui. Most people just don't use dos.
@@OGSomeOne That may be true if you're referring to 16-bit Windows in real mode (1.0 - 2.x), and with the introduction of protected mode operation, DOS played a less significant role (i.e. Windows environment largely bypassed DOS). By the time Win9x and WinMe came out, DOS really only acted as a bootloader -- once Windows environment had been started, DOS wasn't really involved.
With NT-based Windows (which includes 2000, XP, Vista and later versions of Windows), DOS doesn't really exist (i.e. the command line *isn't* DOS).
@nuk1964 nope. Win11 has command window that opens a dos window for you to use. Dos is still base for windows and is the os that allows windows to load.
Only super-nerds remember this computer system: the TRS-80 from Radio Shack (another 80s icon). It was nicknamed the "Trash-80" because it crashed so much.
D&D didn't start in the 80s. It got its start in the late 70s. I was introduced to it at the Great Lakes Naval Base. The center of the D&D universe was located about 40 miles from the base. I had some of the original books. Then it evolved into AD&D in the 80s.
Another nerd thing that started in the late 70s... arcades. They just died in the 80s.
Watchmen didn't usher in a new era of more mature stories in comic books. That came about with the exploration of such things like drug addiction, racism, and other social issues in both the Green Arrow-Green Lantern and Spider-man titles back in the late 60s and 70s.
I was amused to see several "PC example" shots in this vid showing the TRS-80 while talking about other machines. That was my "first computer" that I ever used. And yes; I think I encountered my first video cabinet game (an original PONG machine in the molded metallic-flecked fiberglass pedestal cabinet - probably worth a fortune if you can find one today) in the late 70s, but had been going to arcades for the previous several years. They featured various electro-mechanical cabinet games, from pinball to shooters of various sorts.
My friends and I would often play "laser-tag" in our early/mid 20s, at various locations around town. I became known for zapping their reflections in building windows, which would accurately reflect the IR beam back to the target, "tagging" them while being outside visual range. We had a lot of fun (and drank a lot of beer) doing that...
I cut my programming teeth on the TRS-80. Much of the crashing problem had to do with the short ribbon cable connecting the main unit (i.e. the keyboard, where the computer itself was housed) and the expansion interface -- that cable was a bit too short and too stiff -- so if you moved the keyboard a bit, the cable would pop loose and causing the system to crash. The "quick fix" would be to immobilize the keyboard (by bolting it to the desk). The later Model III and Model 4 put all the components into a single chassis and eliminated the problem of the cable coming loose because you moved the keyboard.
The Sinclair ZX-81 was notable for being the first microcomputer to be sold at or below $100 price point when new (granted to do so there were numerous cost-cutting measures in its design and construction). It too exhibited propensity to crash for similar reason -- the 16K memory expansion that plugged into the back had a tendency to work loose, resulting in a system crash. The "quick fix" was to use blue-tack to affix the RAM module to the computer -- or for greater reliability, you screw/bolt both to a wooden board. One weakness of the ZX-81 was the membrane keyboard. At many Radio Shack stores you could pick up a surplus TI-99/4A keyboard -- which could be modified (by cutting some traces and soldering some bodge wires to reconfigure the keyboard matrix) so that it could be attached to the ZX-81.
The TRS-80 was one of the "1977 Trinity" -- notable microcomputers that were introduced in 1977: Commodore PET, Apple ][ and Tandy/Radio Shack TRS-80. The Apple ][ and Commodore PET were based on the MOS 6502 CPU, while the TRS-80 was based on the Zilog Z-80 CPU.
As for myself, having got a start on the TRS-80 did prepare me somewhat for migrating to the IBM-PC -- not only was there similarity between the TRS-DOS and PC/MS-DOS (both being modeled on CP/M), as well as similarity in the BASIC interpreters.
My brother had a Trash 80 and he was jealous because my Commadore 64 could edit a line of code by backspacing. He had to delete the whole line than rewrite it correctly. But he went on to be a Software engineer so I'm kind of jealous of that.
@@gamesman0118 In TRS-80 Level II BASIC there was a line edit mode (which operated in manner similar to the EDLIN program in PC/MS-DOS). Perhaps not as easy to use as the edit mode found on the Apple ][ and C64 BASIC (which was closer to screen edit).
some of these thing were enjoyed by more than just nerds, like the walkman was enjoyed by almost everyone. arcades was also a place where bullies liked to hang out, to steal from the nerds so that they could play the arcades. beta/vhs was the 80's way to "netflix and chill"
I'm a nerd and proud of it.
Still have my CBM, brick, and McFly life preserver. What a nerd.
Oh my gosh I still have my Mini Disc Sony Walkman including the cassette big box player! It was very popular in the early days of the 90’s!
I grew up in the 70s and 80s and I remember ALL of these and had all of them. Oh God, those were good times. Man, I'm getting old.
Beta had higher resolution for better picture quality than VHS. The crippling flaw is their tapes were shorter. Also laserdisc was the third competing format.
I still have my Commodore 64, VH.S, and a Walkman. Floppy disks for the Commodore , however, are difficult to find.
Not sure if it's true but I've heard that VHS won out because porn wasn't available in BetaMax
@@nelsonbergman7706 Not true. I had Behind the Green Door, The Devil in Miss Jones and several others on Beta.
I think the biggest problem with betamax was that Sony refused to license it to any competitors. Rather than the longer recording time of VHS tapes, I think the primary advantage VHS had is that it was licensed to whomever wanted it, with dozens of manufacturers making players. Nerd alert: I still have a working VHS player...
@@gregshonle2072 that is the main reason! Sony wanted to be the only company. JVC was smart and licensed out the tech allowing other companies to make cameras and players, but they still owned the patents so they got a piece of the pie. I still have one too. My niece has my 2600 and her kids still play it.
Nerds unite! I can actually solve a Rubik's cube. My wife didn't believe me, so we bought one and I proved it to her. Got me a steak dinner out of that. It was date night but, we'll just say it was a reward.
And, for some reason, this popped into my head, you cant be an 80's nerd and missed playing 'Oregon Trail.'
You memorize the pattern of each face that results in the various sequence of moves to reach completion as explained in the answer booklet people seem to forget came with it? Or did you actively solve it as a puzzle?
(Really talk I moved the stickers on one, and literally dissembled another. I have no room to talk)
You died of dysentery...
You say that before the Walkman, people had to either leave their music home or carry bulky boom boxes. Seriously? What about transistor radios? What about Toodle-oo? What about Take-N-Tape? All of those were around in the early seventies or even earlier.
He said, "Mostly confined to home stereo's or bulky boom boxes".
What? No MTV, no Max Headroom? No Martha Quinn? No punk rock?
This was an episode about nerds. MTV and punk rock aren't nerdy. :)
Not all that but Punk Rock started way before the 80’s so do your research.
@@wiwatowski correction both 80s MTV and punk rock laid the groundwork for geek rock and nerd punk that`s the reason why he asked that question
@@philip07304 have you not herd of geek rock or nerd punk before there were some 80s new wave that was actually nerdy like say maybe thomas dolby and also the buggles
I think it's funny that while talking about IBM PC's and Mac's, that part of the video shows Commodore PET computers dominantly.
Commodore outsold them all. Their sales forced the price drops in the industry. The Apple Lisa with the Motorola 64 bit processor was set to set the standard for computers, but IBMs monopolistic activity made them nearly impossible to get your hands on one.
Magic the Gathering came out in 1993. I remember being collage when it was first released.
I didnt think it came out in the 80s....
It's so old hat now but every one one of these innovations was something unique and exciting. My first brush with hi- technology was in the seventies with the almost now forgotten video game pong that was a form of electronic ping pong that featured an electronic line as the net and two cursors as electronic paddles that batted a electronic ball back and fourth. All these early forays into the absolutely new microprocessor driven technology seems quaint only as a rear view mirror image of someplace we used to be.
my uncle got a pong for christmas and i recall being amazed, then when the 2600 showed up we were hooked!
I often hear this quote when people talk about MS-DOS "Entering command to perform a task sound archaic".
In my daily job as a Linux DevOps engineer, typing commands is still the norm and often way quicker than having a GUI, going through menus, starting a graphical application, clicking some more to get the same thing done.
Don't get me wrong. I like where, for example Windows, evolved into.
A good graphical interface is very helpful but don't exclude the power of the shell with the command power, no matter if its ssh client to manage a Linux server or using cmd or powershell on a windows OS.
Walkman was not a nerd thing. They started with the musically inclined and branched out to the mainstream. If anything, nerds were the last to adopt them
Arcades were the hang out for nerds and gamers alike. Oh, and the drug dealers. Don't forget the drug dealers.
How about a very early computer game - Pong. Blocky graphics but it brought hours of fun to many of us.
Yeah, but that was sooooo 70s! 🙂
Pong was a big hit in 76.
1986 was a rough year 😢especially when the challenger blew up 😮that was a sad day as well 😢
Recently I got into a conversation about how complicated electronic devices had been to the point of overcomplexity ,that we really didn't want to study anymore to understand them .The conversation rocked back and fourth until it changed when my friend starting to talk about his new drone hobby and the fabulous arieal pictures he had taken.Once a techie always a techie.
I still have my dad's Mac SE from the 80's. It still works. I graduated high school in 1990, so these were my teen years.
But the arcades were the fun days of your teen generation! 😮
MS DOS commands, some still work in modern day Windows command prompt
Walkman, and VCRs (aka Betamax VS VHS) were mainstream, NOT nerd culture. Not everything that is iconic to the era, is "nerdy. I am 1/2 way through, and I am done with your take.
20:28 Still have my Commodore C64 I bought in 1989 West Germany while stationed there in the US ARMY. Haven't used it in about 8 years but have a gagilan games even one from 1986 that my 3 brothers and me would play. Still have some of the games saved on the disks. Had a 2600 but sold it 12 years ago and regretted that since then. Oh to be a kid then. Who here remembers BUMP N JUMP, SPY CHASER. I have the original Wasteland role playing game for my Commadore but have never been able to complete it. Had the chance to buy a guide to it but passed on it biggest mistake for this game. Had it since 1991. Crazy.
Ahhh, patience was a 1541 disk drive. And I have no idea how many hours I spent wiping things out playing River Raid on my Atari. The only thing I sank more time into than those items was D&D. I miss the 80s.
Patience was the cassette loader. 10 minutes to load Jumpman.
"Computer geek" is a more accurate term for much of this. Though the Apple 2 series is notably absent from the list. Those were at least as influential and the Commodore and Atari home computers.
The Walkman though? Seriously? Or nerds will remember those?
I miss the 80s/i had a C64
So I guess I’m also a Nerd but I don’t care 🤷🏻♂️ because this is what I grew with especially since I was a kid of the 1970’s 😮
I had an Atari 5200 when I was a kid. In my college days, I had an Amiga 1200 (the OG "home edition" of the Amiga 1000 Video Toasters)
The original Babylon 5 Sci Fi tv show back in the day used Video Toasters.... It was the shiznit back then....
Nerd Challenge Accepted 🥰👍
I remember reading about the room full of Amigas they used to make the graphics for the show. They would crunch for days to make one space scene.
Love Zork!!!!
You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
My favorite was Suspended.
I can tell that you weren't there.
The Radio Shack TRS-80, Commodore Pet, and the Apple II computers actually started the home computer revolution in the late seventies. It was the Atari 400/800 Home Computers that really set the standard for the home computer and game programming market.
The Atari VCS came out just before the home computers did, and Dungeons and Dragons was a big thing well before THAT!
And in the continuing saga of "You Got Your Dates Wrong"--Magic: The Gathering was a 1993 release. Seriously, guys, if you look at all the comments here you'll see that your timeline is off so often that this video is not worth the viewing. If this is a representative example of your quality control, you're not going to do much when it comes to gaining new subscribers.
I love being an early female nerd. Apple IIe and the Osborne were my first real computer experiences. I loved the arcade. I'm still an active gamer at 59.
But did you ever play Polybius?
I'm the biggest nerd and the Atari was before the Commodore...that's where I cut my teeth in message boards and programming. The games our computer had were filled tonnes of floppies my guy. I shun you with DOS. END of Line.
GR. 8
Usenet: “…And exchange files on a wide range of topics”!!! 😂😂 Love it! Absolutely ROFLMAO! 😂
To be fair, that will have gone over pretty much everyone's heads who didn't know about Usenet and what it was primarily used for.
@@frankbrodie5168 well yes, that’s why I found it hilarious and brilliant! 😉
you werent kidding, I cut my teeth programming on vic 20s and 64s figuring out basic. Awesome take back :)
Lots of weird disconnects between what is being described and what is being shown…
Nice video.
B.t.w., the DEC VT100 you showed was a terminal for Digital's PDP and VAX mini systems. They weren't PC's. The VAX VMS OS had some similarities with MS-DOS however.
Kind of an odd list. A bit strange to mention the Atari 2600, but not mention how the NES saved the home console market in the US the Video Game Crash of 1983.
Also, mentioning Tron for its use of CG...then going to talk about CG again separately....kind of a stretch.
Ahh I remember going to see every Terminator movie that came out.😅😅😅😅😅😊
@ the 5:00 mark that guy was really impressed with her walkman. You can tell by how quick he whipped his neck around.
I still have my Commodore 64 along with the printer. I even have a box of floppies in case i go nostalgic. I also have a Walkman and a large stack of VHS tapes.
Lol….80’s LOUD AND PROUD!! If it weren’t for us nerds, we would never have had Atari, Tron, Mtv, computers, SIRI, NETFLIX, HULU, etc….and the computer world that we all exist in to this very day. I think that this world owes us nerds a little something…… 😏🤓😎
Tron still a Classic 1982, 😮
I grew up with Intellavision from Mattel. I always thought it was better than Atari. Also in the 80’s we had big dish satellite tv.
Of course… it came after Atari, so yeah. I liked my Atari better than my cousin’s Intellivision, though.
The Walkman came out in 1979.
I really don't think this video understands what it meant to be a nerd in the 1980s. While the term has been reclaimed; in the 80s, it was a pretty serious slur. While the comodore64 and d&d certainly were; things like Walkmans and video arcades were definitely not part of nerd culture.
Not even D&D was nerdy. My friends used to play it and we would come over and party with them. It was a lot of different people. Stoners/metalheads mostly.
The video title is clickbait, and the repetition of "nerds" in the video is annoying. Most Americans who were between 6 and 30 years old in 1980 (and are still alive) would remember most of the items on the list, either from their own interests at the time, or the interests of their kids.
There were also a lot of sword and sorcery films in the 80's, starting with Conan the Barbarian in 1982. For a couple of years in there, it seemed like just about any gym rat who could look good in a loincloth, could star in a sword and sorcery film.
Reb Brown, Miles O'Keefe, the Barbarian Brothers, Schwarzenegger, Marc Singer, those were just some of the headliners.
There was much that could be said about a genre that tended to focus on overloaded testosterone, mediocre budgets, and barely-there costumes. But I will say, that it beats the pants off the dreck at the multiplex these days, which looks to focus on overloaded budgets, mediocre costumes, and barely-there testosterone.
Frank Frazetta > CalArts 👍
Why Ready Player One is one of my favorite nostalgia-bait movie
Check out the book. Very different but still great. Like 2 stories
It's not about Nerd, it's about who was born in the 1980s or born in the modern day, watching a lot of gaming console history, they will know about old 80s gaming consoles.
0:15 "Do you remember the Commodore 64?" - I still have mine (with monitor and large disk drive) 😁I started doing basic programming on it maybe around 1987 12:18 I still have an unopened copy of MSDOS somewhere and MSDOS 3.3 and GW BASIC user guides
A Quick Question,, Who still has their D & D Dice & Books ???
And I still play from time to time :D
Not me because my mom's religious cult told her it was Satanic and she made me throw all of them away. 😠
i am one box set from having a complete set of 2nd ed and forgotten realms. A while back i found my first character sheets from 1986. :) still play when i can get ppl to sit long enough and get off their phones lol
I have many AD&D hard cover books, including the DM's guide with the red demon on the cover.
I do but no one to play with unfortunately.
I started with a Vic-20 and then upgraded to a zx sinclair spectrum 48k. Then moved to 16bit Amiga 500.
I went full Nerd when I got an NES & played games like Final Fantasy & Legend Of Zelda.
But I did get an Atari 2600 for Christmas back in 1979. 🤓
I had a Vic-20 back then. Couldn't afford a Comm. 64.
The Commodore 64 only cost $400. I say "only" because its main competitor, the Apple //e cost about $1,000 and that was just for the CPU. The monitor, disk drives, printer, etc. all cost extra. Speaking of which, the Apple //e (as well as its predecessor, the Apple ][+) should have been included in this video.
I upgraded from Vic-20 when K-Mart dropped the price to under $200.
@@TheGuyThatEveryoneIgnores I remember playing around with an Apple II in my BASIC programming class in '79.
I had a Commodore 64 and the Atari 2600. Lol.
Me too. Remember loading games from a cassette...sometimes they worked.
Love the Commodore Pet, which I used at college... shown when he is talking about the IBM PC and first Mac..
C64 was great to but I had a VIC20. Shame he didn't mention the TRS80 or BBC micro
Shame he didn't mention the Apple ][+, Apple //e, Apple c, or Apple IIgs, all widely popular home computers and where I got my start in programming.
i remember watching the Challenger explosion, in the class room of the teacher we nominated, but didn't get to go
for a while, it was like we tried to execute our favorite teacher
We had an apple II plus 48 k. Does that count?
ok, i must confess, i still have my apple monitor, from the 80's, i even bought a tuner card to see how modern computers would appear on those old screens
If I make a video countering this video, can I call it Revenge of the Nerds?
I don't think non-nerds would have ANY trouble remembering any of these.
I'm 59 in a couple of months. And I could pick up a rubiks cube even now and solve it in a few minutes. I actually spent THAT much time in those few years after it's release speed solving it for everyone's amusement. I liked to consider 90 seconds to be my goto solve time. My record was probably under a minute. I was happy with that until I met a Thai lad in an arcade in about 1982 who could solve the cube in under a minute every time without even looking at it pretty much.
Still.. It impressed the ladies with my hand dexterity in my college years. And I got more than a geeks fair share of puss thanks to that. So.....
Microsoft 1.0 was in the 70’s, the 2600 was also in the 70’s I believe. I would have included Quattro Pro, Lugable computers, Prince of Persia!
2 words C64 users will recognize = " Hey Taxi"
No Leisure Suit Larry? :-P
"American" nerds ... meanwhile in the rest of the world we had all that plus ... MSX PCs, BBC micro (faster than Atari/Commodore and more expandable, 8bit 6502c with optional 16bit coprocessor), Sinclair (Timex in the US) computers, Amstrad, Dragon (cheap 16bit computer in a largely 8bit world), Teletext (Sort of TV internet before HTML), RDS (highways that messaged your car), Oric, Blake's 7 (the federation is evil), Dr Who, Phillips v2000 (long play like VHS, quality like Betamax, and flip the tape for double the fun!), Tomorrow's world (clip included in this video without a mention!), Horizon (repackaged as Nova in the US).
A lot of TH-cam videos are made by Americans for American audiences and this is one of them.
I was the god of Galaga. One quarter, three hours.
Lots of good memories from this, especially the Commodore 64. However, like perhaps others may have mentioned (not going to scroll through it all), Magic The Gathering is not a product of the 80s. I was a sophomore in high school in 1992, and I remember when MTG first came out, because I'd often spend my lunch hour down at the comic book shop, and the owner (later my boss), pulled out several cases of Magic. When I asked him what game that was, he merely said to me that he didn't know, but it was new and seemed to be growing in popularity. So I bought as many boosters and cards as I could and played during my lunch break. I would collect AND play with them, and eventually I had nearly complete sets of the first sets/releases of the cards. When I graduated in 1995, I sold them off for a mere $325. If I held on to those cards, and knowing the condition they were in, I could probably be a millionaire if not pretty damn close.
Long story short, Magic The Gathering was released in 1992/1993, not the 80s. Great video other than that!
I had a Tomy Tutor first, then the C64. I also had a Fairchild Channel F video game console a year or 2 before getting an Atari 2600. The Fairchild was much better because of the controllers. Never did D&D. Had walkmans. Had VHS. It was inferior to the Betamax because of video quality and reliability, but cost way less and was actually able to record much longer video. Arcades! Actually the first arcade games were in bowling alleys. I remember getting somewhat addicted to Space. This was in 1973. Before Rubik's cube there was Instant Insanity! Vastly easier than the cube, but did drive folks a bit crazy. Ah, yes, good times. I guess I was a nerd before nerds were cool. Just wish I had the money then to invest in Apple, Microsoft, Lotus, and Cable companies stocks.
Zork...You've been eaten by a Gru.
I remember my Atari 800XL. Still have it!
Last Starfighter watch forward and backward all
Lot. Lol
No Commodore Amiga, the computer that brought a full-colored windowing interface, the first multitasking commercial computer, a massive upgrade in sound and graphics which IBM and Apple were still struggling to catch up with into the mid-90's, and graphics capabilities that, by the Amiga 4000, gave us the Video Toaster with affordable video production capabilities that were used in television production, even giving us the groundbreaking effects and sequences seen in the first season of "Babylon 5"?
And this video makes it seem like the Atari 2600 wasn't prior to the Commodore 64, which it certainly was - the C64 caused Atari to have to compete by coming out with the Atari 5200, but it still couldn't compete. They'd try again, countering the Amiga 500 with the Atari ST, but again failed.
"every keystroke felt like a journey into the digital frontier."
The color screens of the mid 80’s especially when I was in 7th grade it’ was the IMac computers! 😮
I never heard of Magic! But pretty much everything else!
D&D had/has actual spells that are read out during the game. Words are very powerful.
I suppose I am a nerd in that I remember most of this and while I did partake in a lot of this, some of it I did not have much interest in. I definitely played at arcades. I actually started with my first computer being the Texas Instrument 99/4a that came out in June of 1981 and switched to the Commodore 64 a couple of years later when it came out. Was was not big into DOS as a personal interest but found myself having to learn it due to requiring it on some of my jobs. I took some interest in Windows 3.1 but was blown away by windows 95. While I did like gaming to some degree, I don't think I was at nerd level. The same with comic books. I am not sure if there is a name for someone who is nerd like but not quite full nerd. I did have some full nerd friends but could only meet them part way with nerdiness.
You really REALLY need to post chapter markers/titles on this one!!!
I guess waiting 10 minutes for Jumpman to load from a cassette onto my C-64 would make me a nerd.
My first computer had a huge 64 kilobytes of memory :)
VHS vs Betamax came down to one thing, porn. Sony refused to allow porn to be distributed on Betamax and people didn't want two machines.
D&D was very popular with my friends the early 90’s 😮
Same here! Spent many nights killing demons.
MTG came out after that, it was 1993. I played a bit with the alpha and beta cards and I'm very sad that I don't still have any of them.