Browsing: 1980s

Video games and retro music go together like peanut butter and jelly. When you combine the pixelated protagonists in the game with songs from the past—it’s a match made in heaven. It’s chef’s kiss.

After a number of years when Batman was seen as more of a kitsch hero thanks to the 1960s TV series, the 1980s went a long way toward making him a more serious comic book character again. This decade sent Batman comics into a darker, more grounded storytelling territory, and some of the villains played…

Arcades were the birthplace of video games, and today gamers are still chasing the thrill of plugging quarters into cabinets and wasting away afternoons with friends. The gaming industry has changed in so many ways over the decades, but arcades still hold power over games. 

Ennio Flaiano wrote in his *Diario notturno*: ‘He has such a lack of faith in the future that he makes his plans for the past’. It was 1956, and with the foresight of a witty and polemical intellectual, the writer had, well in advance, picked up on that sense of alienation and unease which, in…

Whether it was The Terminatortelling a police officer, “I’ll be back” or Gordon Gekko reminding us that “Greed, for lack of a better word, is good” in Wall Street, the decade provided its fair share of catchphrases.

These days, when people think of handheld games, they probably look at their smartphone or Steam Deck. Those modern examples are impressive, but if you grew up in the 1980s, you already know that handheld gaming exploded in popularity long ago. While the Nintendo Game Boy was released during the decade, it didn’t come out…

The 1980s were a golden age for toys. Store shelves were packed with action figures, transforming robots, colorful dolls, electronic games, and strange little collectibles that children begged their parents to bring home. Most were played with hard, lost under beds, or eventually handed down without anyone imagining they might someday become valuable.

The ’80s ushered in some beloved sitcom hits, along with some serious stars, but not every new show can reach the heights of Seinfeld and Roseanne. Plenty of series don’t find the fame studio executives hoped for, but some shows had their time cut short for a particularly bizarre set of reasons. Read on to see which…

As a child of the 1980s who watched a lot of television, I feel a sentimental pleasure when I catch a rerun of Cheers or stream an episode of Who’s The Boss? that I always loved. Sometimes, though, when I watch some of the best 1980s shows now, I see them in a completely different…

First published 40 years ago in 1986, Frank Miller’s graphic novel transformed the Caped Crusader from a camp, comical figure into a brutal new kind of superhero. He tells the BBC how it became a sensation.