20 Gadgets From The 1980s That Were AHEAD of Their Time!

[@3Storms]

I had a calculator watch, and am not ashamed to admit it. I loved that thing, and kept it until it simply broke. They're collectible today, especially the more-expensive Hewlett-Packard ones.

[@paulkocyla1343]

The Sony Mavica you showed is from 1997 ! The prototype was very different.

[@jediknight2350]

yes mp4 and stuff like that was 90,s not 80,s

[@patatewz]

hahaha mp4 in 1980 your out of your mind

[@gokuvegeta179]

Right? I had one but it was in the 90's, not 80's

[@Sonyforsony]

I unsubscribe because of this. Who knows how many errors like this.

[@rottmanthan]

i had one of those casio calculator watches.

[@RedneckSpaceman]

No Fooling? Too bad you don't still have it!! It would be awesome if you did and even moreso if it worked!!

[@ntmdisco]

Sinclair had the pocket tv 5 years before Sony had one

[@RedneckSpaceman]

Sinclair?? That was an Oil Company!! I remember Sinclair and Scot Gas Stations!! 😊😊 In 1983, I paid $80 for a little 5" B&W portable that could run on 8 C-cells, 12v in a car and, of course, 120 in the home. A Color version was available for $200!

[@TickellSchitts0080]

In 1987, I got a Nintendo NES. The games that you bought for it had an amazing technology called Spitblow. After about 10-12 months, this technology would kick in. Normally the simple task of inserting the cartridge into the game console and gently pushing down and pressing the power button would take seconds to do. When the Spitblow interaction tech kicked in, you and the game were one. You turned the game around and blew on the back of the game cartridge and then didn't insert the game all the way into the console. Just snapped it on the lip of the game entry point of the console. Then you would repeat this 150 times or when you eventually pass out from respiratory failure when you were blowing the Ricketts germs you had dehydration from the spit that flew from your cakehole for 2 hrs. A small price to pay to enter cheat codes to fight Mike Tyson without fighting 29 other fighters to get to him or get 30 lives and unlimited weapons on Contra. Oh the good ole days.

[@lapiswolf2780]

Unfortunately, Spit low technology had the side effect of not actually cleaning the pins, it did cause corrosion from moisture though.

[@user-wo1en4cm1k]

The Sony MAVICA released in 1981 was a PROTOTYPE back then. Using proprietary 2 inch disk storage, only for playback on TV's - not computers. Certainly not the ones in the early 80ies. It wasn't until the late 90ies until the model with 3.5inch disk appeared with the digital options showed in this video.

[@strugglingparodox5709]

I thought that was a bit off. Those types of discs didn’t exist until the late 80s,, 88, 89. Those compression codex sure didn’t exist either.

[@WesProphecy2032]

I still have the Commodore 64, Apple ii, Texas Instruments computers and the original ping pong game. 😄

[@rogertemple7193]

I remember all of these gadgets but I couldn't afford any of them and now most of them are no longer around and I'm 59 now but Thanks for the awesome Memories.🇺🇲🖥️💻🖥️🇺🇲

[@TrangleC]

I'm not sure whether it is because I just grew up poor (didn't think so at the time, because my parents both had decent middle class jobs) or whether stuff really was just crazy expensive back then, but what I remember most about "tech" and gadgets from the 80s is that everything always was prohibitively expensive. TV sets, VHS recorders and stuff like that were always huge investments you could only do on a family level, like buying a new car. Me getting a portable TV or something like that for myself would have been unthinkable. Buying stuff like that was always one of those: "OK, but if we buy this thing, we won't have a family vacation this year."-kind of deals. I spent a lot of time back then just longingly staring at mail order catalogs and stuff like that, dreaming of how I one day would perhaps become rich and be able to afford something like a car phone, or a fancy stereo tower, or my own computer.

[@laranaarana]

I remember selling quite a few of the Tandy 100 and TRS-80 COlor computer back in the mid-80s. And talking about the Polaroid, my father owned a SX-70 in the early '70s.

[@RedneckSpaceman]

I remember the 80s well!! My career during that time was in Computer Operations! Mainframe & Mini Computers, Batch Job Processing, 1600 and 6250 bpi Reel Tapes, Large Printers & Fan-Fold Forms. etc!! Having been born in 1958, I have witnessed Technological developments that were the stuff of Science fiction in the 60s & 70s!! In1979 (age 21) if you had told me that someday everyone would have tiny moble phones, I would have scoffed!! In 1976, I was part of the CB Radio craze!! Base Stations and Mobile Units seemed almost like Star Trek to those of us who lived in those times!!

[@munroborisenko7278]

Very nice summary of 80's tech ! I still have my Vectrex video game system and it works fine. And the arcade game Amour Attack as seen here was a very good copy of the one you could play in arcades of the day. I don't recall many of these computers in Canada, I don't think they were widely available. I have an old Atari Lynx I got my nephew; have to see if it still works. In the early 80's the Seiko TV watch was sold in Canada but it was $800 !!! Crazy. Looks cool but with weak TV signals who wants a fuzzy 1 inch TV screen ?

[@rottmanthan]

i have some computers, vic 20, coco 2, TI99+4, trs80 model 3, mc10, ibm 5150 and apple IIe enhanced.

[@RedneckSpaceman]

There are some Enthusiast Clubs for the ancient Computers!! I do know of a Club for enthusiasts of the HP 3000/ MPE Business Computers that began in the late 1960s and remained in service until around 2003. In 2001, I was assigned with removing and disposing of HP 3000 systems that had become obsolete. Several of the systems were the very large HP 3000 Series 70s that had been in service for close to 15 years!!

[@TrangleC]

I am a 80s kid (born 1978) and I never heard of the Sony Watchman. Guess they weren't sold where I grew up, in Germany. I'm not sure whether it is because I just grew up poor (didn't think so at the time, because my parents both had decent middle class jobs) or whether stuff really was just crazy expensive back then, but what I remember most about "tech" and gadgets from the 80s is that everything always was prohibitively expensive. TV sets, VHS recorders and stuff like that were always huge investments you could only do on a family level, like buying a new car. Me getting a portable TV or something like that for myself would have been unthinkable. Buying stuff like that was always one of those: "OK, but if we buy this thing, we won't have a family vacation this year."-kind of deals. I spend a lot of time back then just longingly staring at mail order catalogs and stuff like that, dreaming of how I one day would perhaps become rich and be able to afford something like a car telephone, or a fancy stereo tower, or my own computer.

[@ThadMiller1]

Doch, ein Freund hatte den Sony Mini TV. Sein Papa hatte ne Firma... 😅

[@TrangleC]

@@ThadMiller1 Sicher dass der Papa das Ding nicht im Ausland gekauft hat? Meine halbe Kindheit bestand damals daraus schmachtend Versandkataloge (vorallem die Elektronikabteilungen) anzustarren und davon zu träumen das teure Zeug zu besitzen. An tragbare Fernseher kann ich mich erinnern, aber nicht an dieses Modell. Kann natürlich sein dass mich meine Erinnerung täuscht.

[@almusci7373]

had an Odyssey 2 and alot of it's games ... still have it , sitting in garage...

[@PaulHayman-tq5kb]

They should have the speak and Spell On the Market in Australia and would sell well as most of the children can't spell and read

[@Argelius1]

Lots of cool memories here! (A suggestion: minimize (or eliminate) the repeated use of the phrase, “captured the imagination…”.

[@tidepoolclipper8657]

Before the Kaypro 2, Toshiba T1100, Commodore SX-64, and Atari Portfolio...there was the Osborne 1 laptop from 1981.

[@raymondjones4390]

The Sony Mavica was released in 1997, not 1981. That’s a big miss on your otherwise great video.

[@RedneckSpaceman]

Errors are a fact of life on YT! But then there are Folks like you & myself who catch these errors and point them out!!!

[@almusci7373]

The Tandy Grid was used in a scene (that was edit out in theater version) in movie 'Aliens'....

[@blindazabat9527]

Are you sure your informations on the Sony Mavica are correct? How could it use JPEG and MP4 formats when those appeared in the 1990's

[@Bart0815-k8r]

Looks to me the info is wrong The earliest mention I could find was MPEG-4 Part 1: Systems specification published in 1999 (ISO/IEC 14496-1:1999)

[@blindazabat9527]

@@Bart0815-k8r I thought so. Other gadgets presented here seem to ba also described incorrectly. Fun reminiscing anyway.

[@DonaldHolben]

Had a mc 10!!!

[@RuggedCross1]

My dad had a Vectrex. I think my brother and I played it more than he did

[@mexi72]

The lady in the GRID ad looks alot like Jamie Lee Curtis.

[@PaulHayman-tq5kb]

I would like to see soney Start Up making the pocket TV and have a SD card slot for the VCR, DVD

16:00 I didn't know Kyocera exist in 1983. I only know about this company because they tried to make a name for themselves manufacturing smartphones.

[@Mc007Queen]

I seen a Seiko TV watch .. at Sears but it had a liquid Crystal screen so every time you move your wrist the picture the video would get all jumbled up you'd have to keep your arm still lol still cool back then

[@danabelden4492]

My first game system was the 2600

[@squeezybob84]

9:39 Aliens special edition anyone?

[@nostalgicsoul76]

Need to fix the title in introduction...

[@CrosscutFilmsSask]

Can't "fix" it, it'll have to be re-edited and re-upload it to a different URL

[@nostalgicsoul76]

⁠@@CrosscutFilmsSaskGood idea. That would "fix" it.

[@cmoneto]

The dates are so wrong!!!

[@rottmanthan]

not sure why we only hear about the speak n spell while there were other that looked like it but did other things, i had one but cant remember what it did.

[@tidepoolclipper8657]

You should re-upload this video. You accidentally left in a previous video title in the intro.

[@PaulHayman-tq5kb]

Your Can get the casino calculator in the shops today

[@kylehazachode]

Cybiko

[@timelliott4117]

I disagree I really don't want any of those things back

[@Stroke.survivor]

I feel old☠️