1980s Archives

Home » 1980s » Page 2

GE Widescreen 1000

Dave Farquhar 1980s September 19, 2022March 9, 2024

The GE Widescreen 1000 was a big time TV for big time budgets in an era of excess, with the tagline “This is GE Performance Television.” Introduced in June 1978, it cost about 3/4 as much as a family sedan at the time. But middle class families weren’t the target audience for this set.

The General Electric Widescreen 1000 (WS1000) cost $2,800. For the money you got a 45-inch screen, hardwood veneer paneling, two speakers, and a spot to plant a matching VCR.

Dave Farquhar

David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He started his career as a part-time computer technician in 1994, worked his way up to system administrator by 1997, and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He invests in real estate on the side and his hobbies include O gauge trains, baseball cards, and retro computers and video games. A University of Missouri graduate, he holds CISSP and Security+ certifications. He lives in St. Louis with his family.

dfarq.homeip.net

Transfer cassette to digital

Dave Farquhar 1980s March 21, 2022August 19, 2023

Sometimes you want or need to transfer your old media to digital. This includes cassette tapes. Let’s talk about the reasons why you might want to transfer cassette tapes to digital or convert cassettes to digital as well as how you go about casssette to digital conversion on your computer.

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net

How much did VHS tapes cost in the 80s?

Dave Farquhar 1980s March 8, 2022September 10, 2023

How much did VHS tapes cost in the 1980s? How much did VHS movies cost? A lot more than they should, at least in the case of pre-recorded movies. The concept of VHS tapes can be hard to wrap your mind around if you didn’t grow up in that era. And companies had a hard time for a while figuring out how to price them. So the first VHS tapes were surprisingly expensive in the 1970s and into the 1980s.

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net

How old is retro?

Dave Farquhar 1980s March 25, 2020September 17, 2023

Retro seems to be one of those words whose meaning has changed as I’ve gotten older. It’s a vague term that means it’s not old enough to be an antique, and not even old enough to be vintage. But how old is retro?

Retro refers to the recent past. That’s a little vague but generally means it’s old and probably obsolete, but probably less than 20 years old.

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net

Charter Hospital / Charter Behavioral Health scandal

Dave Farquhar 1980s April 19, 2018September 10, 2023

A discussion with a couple of people who went to the same high school I did brought up a few dark topics from that era. One of them mentioned a place called “Charter.” I asked him if he meant Charter Hospital and/or Charter Behavioral Health.

He said yes. He didn’t know much else about it. It turns out the company still exists, though not under the same name and not under the same line of business. The Charter name and business model disappeared in 2000, even though the company who owned it still survives today.

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net

Happy birthday, Rubik’s Cube!

Dave Farquhar 1980s May 20, 2014August 24, 20231980s, atari, christmas, knockoffs, lionel, New Wave, nintendo, reflection, Star Wars

Rubik’s Cube turned 40 this week. In a reflection of how much faster the world moves today than it used to, I remember Rubik’s Cube from the early 1980s, when it was a big, national craze. I had no idea at the time that it was invented in 1974 and took six years to reach the U.S. market. I asked for one for Christmas in 1981, and so did everyone else I knew. We all got one. And none of us could solve it. Granted, some of that may have been because we were in grade school, and the early years at that. My best friend’s older sister, who was in sixth grade or so, had a book, and she could solve it with the book’s help.

It was even the subject of a short-lived Saturday morning cartoon. I only watched it once or twice. It turns out it’s not easy to make engaging stories about a six-sided puzzle. There were tons of cheap knockoffs out there too, but unlike the knockoffs of today which are generally regarded as better, the 1980s knockoffs were generally worse. After a year or three, the craze died down. We moved in 1983, and I don’t remember anyone in our new town talking about Rubik’s Cube. Mine ended up in a drawer. I’ve looked for it a few times over the years, but never found it. Read more

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net

Go-Bots vs Transformers: My small-town perspective

Dave Farquhar 1980s February 2, 2013August 24, 20231980s, antique mall, christmas, Hot Wheels, matchbox, Star Wars

Internet pal Rob O’Hara posted a photo of a whatzit antique mall find earlier this week. I knew I’d seen it before, and I knew some of my friends had it, but its identity escaped me. The answer got me thinking about Go-Bots vs Transformers.

A commenter identified it as a Go-Bots command center. I seem to recall it doubled as a carrying case as well. Go-Bots, if you missed that particular month of the 1980s, were transforming toys, like Transformers, that transformed from robots to vehicles. I was in third or fourth grade when they arrived in the small town where I was living, an hour south of St. Louis. They were made by Tonka, a mighty toy company, but they were a flash in the pan.

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net