Lockdown ‘83

[MontyVeda]

Yeah - I was 15 and lived on a council estate in Preston. Mountains weren't something I had discovered back then

Absolute unshifting boredom was a big part of adolescence for me... I think there must be a boredom chemical that peaks in the brain on certain days, when everything is met with apathy. Anyone who didn't get absolutely bored from time to time as a kid must be a bit odd.

Chuckie Egg! You forget the standard of graphics back then. Did love that game though along with Donkey Kong, Scramble etc.

Chuckie Egg was the game that made me realise just how terrible i was (am) at playing video games. I thought i was really good at that one, having reached level 8 and proudly boasted this to a classmate, who snorted and told me he was on level 40 or something. Great game though.

Lockdown in '83 would have involved a lot of Spectrum games, but for me it was frustrating if my brother was playing too... we'd take turns, I'd loose my lives in a matter of minutes and his turn would last a lot lot longer

Some of my favourites were:
3D Deathchase... crappy graphics but the gameplay was great. I jumped out of my skin every time that unavoidable tree trunk appeared
Time Gate... the way the stars moved when steering the spacecraft was wonderfully animated
Ant Attack... really bloody scary when stuck and there's no way of escaping the ants
Alchemist... far too easy but the graphics were excellent
The Train Game... really addictive, easy to begin with but really hard once the number of carriages got beyond five or six
Wheelie... worth crashing because the rotoscoped sprite looked great.

 

[ColinJ]

I didn't really suggest it was a good idea but just what happened at the time.

Yes... It actually amazes me how things used to be. I used to hate being upstairs on buses with people smoking. Thankfully, by the time I first flew smoking had been banned on planes!

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Yes... It actually amazes me how things used to be. I used to hate being upstairs on buses with people smoking. Thankfully, by the time I first flew smoking had been banned on planes!

You flew out of the top deck of the bus?😳

 

[ColinJ]

You flew out of the top deck of the bus?😳

Ha ha.

I did try 'flying' (stepping) out of a moving car once; I was very drunk at the time... It is amazing how quickly the adrenaline rush of hanging onto the door of a car moving at 30 mph can sober one up!

 

[Ming the Merciless]

We’ve got Tron , Galaxian, Space Invaders. We’ve got Star Wars in just over a month but the arcade will probably be closed.

Table tennis table is 2.74m long so you could play that whilst socially distancing.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Almost forgot pole position. Loved playing that.

 

[lazybloke]

Absolute unshifting boredom was a big part of adolescence for me... I think there must be a boredom chemical that peaks in the brain on certain days, when everything is met with apathy. Anyone who didn't get absolutely bored from time to time as a kid must be a bit odd.



Chuckie Egg was the game that made me realise just how terrible i was (am) at playing video games. I thought i was really good at that one, having reached level 8 and proudly boasted this to a classmate, who snorted and told me he was on level 40 or something. Great game though.

Lockdown in '83 would have involved a lot of Spectrum games, but for me it was frustrating if my brother was playing too... we'd take turns, I'd loose my lives in a matter of minutes and his turn would last a lot lot longer

Some of my favourites were:
3D Deathchase... crappy graphics but the gameplay was great. I jumped out of my skin every time that unavoidable tree trunk appeared
Time Gate... the way the stars moved when steering the spacecraft was wonderfully animated
Ant Attack... really bloody scary when stuck and there's no way of escaping the ants
Alchemist... far too easy but the graphics were excellent
The Train Game... really addictive, easy to begin with but really hard once the number of carriages got beyond five or six
Wheelie... worth crashing because the rotoscoped sprite looked great.

Timegate! Yes, i remember those stars. Wow, 3D!

Which reminds me of 'Knot in 3D', which was rubbish.

 

[MontyVeda]

So what you are saying is it's acceptable to get drunk to the point of stupidity but not to have a smoke.
Seems a bit hypocritical to this smoker who has never been that drunk.

I think you're missing something about 'the spirit' of this thread

 

[Mike_P]

In 1983 in many cases they would have better information by radio on their local situation than today given the quasi national commercial radio we have today on many former local stations.

 

[ColinJ]

So what you are saying is it's acceptable to get drunk to the point of stupidity but not to have a smoke.
Seems a bit hypocritical to this smoker who has never been that drunk.

I'm saying that as a young man I was stupid enough to get stupidly drunk. (I was also stupid enough to be a smoker at that age!)

These days I don't drink alcohol at all and I haven't smoked for 40 years.

My reference to smoking was about other people inflicting their disgusting and dangerous habit on me in an enclosed public space rather than doing it to themselves in private. The drinking equivalent would be me forcing booze down someone's throat, or maybe throwing up on them. (Or picking a drunken fight, something that I never did.)

 

[keithmac]

There wouldn't have been a lock down in '83, people would have just got on with life.

Will be interesting to see how Sweden fairs given they're going down the same path..

 

[Julia9054]

There wouldn't have been a lock down in '83, people would have just got on with life

Why do you think that?
Is it because it would have been harder to communicate and get the message across without social media and 24hr rolling news?
Do you think the authorities then would have seen it as less important?
Another reason?

 

[keithmac]

Why do you think that?
Is it because it would have been harder to communicate and get the message across without social media and 24hr rolling news?
Do you think the authorities then would have seen it as less important?
Another reason?

Just how it was back then, as someone said above there would have been a lot of deaths but not reported in the same way it is now.

Media is absolutely appalling at the moment, I try and explain to my two kids that 100's of 1000's have had it already and recovered but none of that gets reported on the news..

I understand they need us to stay in but they have gone far too far with the fear factor imho.

 

[Julia9054]

Just how it was back then, as someone said above there would have been a lot of deaths but not reported in the same way it is now.

Media is absolutely appalling at the moment, I try and explain to my two kids that 100's of 1000's have had it already and recovered but none of that gets reported on the news..

I understand they need us to stay in but they have gone far too far with the fear factor imho.

I agree that media and modern connectivity is a game changer which is why I started the thread in the first place.
I don’t agree that there would have been no restrictions on people’s movements. Social distancing was practiced and enforced in the 1916 polio epidemic, 1918 Spanish flu and the flu epidemic in the mid 1950s. I see no reason why it would not have happened in the 1980s

 

[keithmac]

I agree that media and modern connectivity is a game changer which is why I started the thread in the first place.
I don’t agree that there would have been no restrictions on people’s movements. Social distancing was practiced and enforced in the 1916 polio epidemic, 1918 Spanish flu and the flu epidemic in the mid 1950s. I see no reason why it would not have happened in the 1980s

Did they have people on full lockdown like today?, genuinely interested.