The 1980's
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| Not me |
Cable TV was limited to the basic channels, and paytv was an illusion. You had to buy a set-top box in order to get those channels. In the early 80's, you could go halfway between some channels and get those tv shows. But by the mid-80's those cheats were fixed.
The television set didn't have a remote, so you had to get up to change the channel. My first personal TV was was a 14 inch black and white. It was decent, but quite awful for computer graphics.
I later updated to a Commodore 64-C monitor (the white one). That was a massive increase in image quality.
Computer consoles and home video game units were very basic. Back then, you either had pong, Atari 2600, Intellivision, or Colecovision.
Games back then were expensive. As most games were stored on cartridges, the cost was significant compared to the cheap 99 cent games.
This idea of subscription for entertainment was very rare. Of course, HBO Pay Per View revolutionized the home entertainment business. But not many families could afford it where I grew up.
That Commodore 64c got some uses over 2 years, but then I upgraded to an Amiga 500 from a older man who didn't like the fancy operating system. I had traded my old C64c system, except the monitor, and $400 cash for a 1MB Amiga 500 and a few disks with games. I think his name was Al.
You had these computer clubs back then, and really the guise for it was trading pirated games and programs. We had some good times back then. The computer industry and home entertainment industry has changed vastly since the 1980's.
Actually going to the store to rent a movie is now so foreign and almost nobody remembers it. I do have vivid memories of returning late movies and being charged fees. I don't miss that. I even had a VHS tape stolen once, it cost me $114 to replace the item from the rental company (7-11).
Yes, that's right, it was over $100 for that stupid crap VHS movie.
I can't even remember what the title was.
Today we have more choices for entertainment, but the cost seems to be increasing, and not decreasing over time. This causes people to lunge back to old technology. I would never in a million years consider using a VCR in today's world. Even if I had the equipment and cable system, it wouldn't interest me.
The thought of using VCR tapes and waiting for television shows - who seriously has time for that? That's the problem with technology -once you get used to it, you kind of want the best quality and performance over vintage. Usually.
There are a subset of people who enjoy those items, I'm certainly not one of them. Go get that used VCR from Value Village. Sure, it'll look interesting on your desk. But you'll never use it.
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