So here I am, writing a blog. I was inspired to try this again by a friend
writing her blog. The subject matter came to me on a wave of nostalgia I've been
recently surfing. Here's what I want to do... 30 blog entries, one for each year
from 1980 through 2010. In each one, I want to share some nostalgia and write
about the things that have shaped me into the geek I am today.
When I began to think about this, I decided I want to focus on four areas within
each year. Gaming, music, movies and television. These are not the only things
that influenced me, not by a longshot. I really wanted to include books, for
example. And I probably should have included comic books. But in the interest of
keeping these posts down to a manageable size, I'm going to limit it to the four
areas listed above.
Gaming was a no-brainer. It was fondly recalling PC games of yesteryear that
spurred me into action and got me writing this.
Music... I debated about this one. That it shaped my life there is absolutely no
doubt. But my geeky side? I think it did. I'm going to try to limit my musical
musings to it's geekier offerings, but music is a great love of mine and I'm
sure I'll fly off on a tangent or two (or three). Seriously, I could do a blog
like this on music alone. Perhaps I will someday.
Movies- Again, this was a given. One of the single greatest geeky influences of
my life came from this medium. I am of course speaking of the movie Tron.
Television- Actually, there was a large portion of my life where I didn't watch
much TV. I never before really thought to determine what that time period was,
but it may come out over the course of this blog. I had to include TV though,
because of two words: Star Trek.
So enough about what this blog IS. On to the actual blog. The year is 1980, and
on the gaming front we have...
Zork. There really wasn't much to computer games at the time. To be honest, Zork
never really captured my attention all that much. But Zork deserves a mention as
the granddaddy of so many fantasy RPG games. Before Ultima, before Baldur's
Gate, before the Elder Scrolls, before Dragon Age... there was Zork.
And it started like this:
West of House
You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front
door.
There is a small mailbox here.
The World of Greyhawk setting for Dungeons & Dragons- far and away my favorite
D&D setting. To me, Greyhawk was synonymous with D&D. I think I probably know
the geography of the Flanaess better than I do the real world. I've tried to
recreate the world of Greyhawk in various computer games, most notably Heroes of
Might & Magic 3. Most D&D characters I've played have originated in the World of
Greyhawk, and I'm sure I have dozens of maps tucked away in forgotten notebooks,
detailing various castles and keeps my character's had built across the lands.
One of my favorite D&D modules was Fate of Istus, mainly because it led the
character to so many locales in this world. I'd love to see Pathfinder revisit
the world of Greyhawk.
1980 also gave us Car Wars. When I found this picture of the Car Wars plastic
pocket box, my first thought was "that's EXACTLY how I remember mine looking,
right down to the dirt stains!". I remember being so excited when I first got
this game, carefully cutting apart the cardboard pieces and marveling at the
art. Then devouring the rules and being convinced that this was indeed The.
Coolest. Game. Ever.
I played Car Wars for a good many years, and probably bought every single thing
that ever came out for the game (Autoduel Champions, anyone?). I remember really
liking the setting, a gritty future that found most of America splintered into
city-states. One of my favorite factions was Los Disneys in Florida... A
megacorporation that arose from the underground labyrinth of Disney World in
Orlando, Florida.
A local game shop, which was called Enterprise 1701 back in those days, had a
killer Car Wars diorama set up. It depicted a multivehicle raid on a huge Los
Disneys semi truck. Someone put a lot of effort into making it, and it was
awesome. Puffs of smoke and explosions crafted from cotton, laser beams from
colored string, miniture road signs... The detail was amazing. I wish camera
phones were around then, I'd love to have pictures of it to share here.
I was surprised and delighted to find that Car Wars was still alive on the web,
you can check it out here: http://www.sjgames.com/carwars/
1980-movies
Mad Max. Ok, ok... This movie was actually 1979. But when I first looked up
"movies of 1980", this was listed. So here it is. This was in the good ol' days
of Mel Gibson's career, before he went... y'know... crazy. When I was looking
this movie up, I learned there is a fourth Mad Max movie in the works! It was
supposed to start filming this month, but filming has been delayed and is now
scheduled to start next year in 2012. The second Mad Max movie was actually my
favorite, but this one was quite good too. And it fit in nicely with my love of
the game Car Wars!
Max: I'm scared, Fif. It's that rat circus out there, I'm beginning to enjoy it.
Look, any longer out on that road and I'm one of them, a terminal psychotic,
except that I've got this bronze badge that says that I'm one of the good guys.
Another 1980 movie... Flash Gordon! I had totally forgotten that Timothy Dalton
was in this. Probably the best thing about this movie was the soundtrack by
Queen. Totally campy. Then again, the screenplay was written by the same guy who
had written several episodes of the 60's batman TV show.
Dale Arden: Flash, Flash, I love you, but we only have fourteen hours to save
the Earth!
On to the top grossing movie of 1980, and the 12th highest grossing movie of all
time (after adjusting for inflation)... The Empire strikes Back! Personally, my
favorite of the trilogy. The battle scenes on Hoth were extremely well done. And
the first scene of the probe droid rising from that crater... that will always
be with me.
I remember waiting in line to see this. Gary and I got bored and starting
looking up at the sky, talking together in hushed tones. It was kind of amazing,
and a little scary, how many people we had looking up trying to figure out what
was going on. I think it was at least 100 people. Good times.
Princess Leia: Why, you stuck up, half-witted, scruffy-looking Nerf herder.
Han Solo: Who's scruffy-looking?
1980 was a k-I-l-l-e-r year in music. AC/DC released Back in Black, their first
album with Brian Johnson as lead singer. These "facts" come from wikipedia, so I
can't guarantee their accuracy, but according to the website Back in Black has
sold an estimated 49 million copies worldwide to date, making it the second
highest selling album of all time, and the best selling hard rock or heavy metal
album.
1980 also saw the release of the Judas Priest album British Steel. One of my
favorite albums of theirs, it contained the song Metal Gods which is pretty much
the musical version of the Terminator movies. When I was younger, I SO wanted to
make an animated video for this song.
Manfred Mann also released what I thought was their best album in 1980- Chance.
Containing songs like "Lies (through the 80's)" and "Stranded", I've spent some
serious time listening to this... first on cassette tape and then later on CD.
Cultösaurus Erectus is a Blue Öyster Cult album released in 1980. Now this album
definitely has geek cred. My favorite song on the album is "Black Blade", a song
about Stormbringer- Elric's sword in the Michael Moorcock novels. Moorcock even
co-wrote the song.
The Black Sabbath album Heaven & Hell came out in 1980. This is the first album
with Ronnie James Dio (may he rest in peace) on vocals. And yes, this is my
favorite Sabbath album. I never saw them together in concert, but Black Sabbath
and Blue Öyster Cult toured together in the 80's and it was called the Black &
Blue tour. That would have been amazing to see.
Finally, Iron Maiden released their debut album in 1980, titled Iron Maiden.
Gotta love a band whose mascot is a zombie (mostly). And this was waaaaay before
zombies were cool! I did not know this, but Eddie has a full name... Edward the
Head.
On to television. Probably the biggest event of 1980 was the debut of MTV. I
remember tuning in for the very first video- "Video killed the radio star" by
the Buggles. What's going on with MTV these days? Do they ever even play music
anymore? Oh wait... I think MTV plays that show with the orange people who hang
out in bars constantly.
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century was on TV in 1980. I liked this show a lot,
even if it did reuse props, shots and effects from Battlestar Galactica. But
this show did feature my first celebrity crush, Erin Grey playing the part of
Wilma Deering.
Speaking of Battlestar Galactica, Galactica 1980. A whole 10 episodes it ran
for. Really not much to say about this abysmal failure of a show.
Finally, the Incredible Hulk was on the air in 1980. I loved this show!
