Awesome 1980s

A handheld edition of the classic Atari 2600 game console with a 3.2″ color display. It comes pre-loaded with 60 games, and can also play game ROMs loaded onto an SD card too. Has a built-in rechargeable battery, and can connect to a TV with RCA composite inputs.

A wonderfully weird 1983 episode of Family Feud in which the reunited cast members of Gilligan’s Island took on the reunited cast of Batman for charity. Is it just us, or did all the actors on Gilligan’s Island just play themselves?

Paweł Zadrożniak’s incredible orchestra of floppy drives, hard drives, and stepper motors is accompanied by a rare human appearance in this computer-controlled cover of The Buggles’ MTV-launcher, Video Killed the Radio Star.

Petrolicious scored a ride in this awesome 1981 Range Rover in Sandglow yellow. We’re introduced to its owner, John Holland, and learn about his love for the boxy British off-roader. Unlike some classic cars that sit in a garage, it’s great to see this one used as it was intended.

An awesome bit of classic footage from the 1985 Grammy Awards ceremony in which Herbie Hancock, Thomas Dolby, Howard Jones and Stevie Wonder do battle on a stage packed with their favorite electronic keyboards. Oh, and on the same night, this happened. Damn.

The Super Bowl had lots of exciting moments from halftime on, but none that gave us such childlike giddiness as the first teaser spot for the second season of Stranger Things, which hits Netflix on 10/31/17. Bonus points to Eggo for their Facebook post.

This reel of vintage ads produced for ComputerLand’s Bay Area stores is a perfect time capsule of early desktop computing tech, from “economy-sized computers” with giant floppy drives, to daisy-wheel printers, to Apple and Atari systems that could even run Visicalc!

Bring out the hairspray and leather jackets. We’re hitting the club with the latest mix from aural time traveler Tronicbox. It’s Gotye’s Somebody That I Used to Know, a ’90s song that came out in 2011, remixed to sound like it’s from 1984.

Retro video game fans will love this clock which displays animated pixel art from the classic arcade game. Its 512 individual LEDs show the time along with pixel-perfect art of Pac-Man and his ghostly nemeses. Officially licensed by Bandai Namco. Measures 7.8″w x 4.2″h x 2″d.

This video from the Crown Point High School machine shop works on multiple levels. It’s not only a cool demonstration of how to create a complicated metal sculpture, but we’re also convinced the school has developed the ability to time travel back to the 1980s.

We can’t imagine how many hours it took the guys from juggling troupe Synchronicity to create this stop-motion Super Mario Bros. tribute video, created entirely by rotating the faces of hundreds of Rubik’s Cubes. Though this isn’t exactly the first time they’ve done this.

YouTuber MessyPandas imagines what the title sequence of HBO’s Westworld would be like if it came out in the decade after the original movie. He even made synthwave versions of the title theme as well as a couple of tracks from the show’s score.

Member the ’80s? Yeah I member! Wisecrack looks our fascination with going back to the well of our youth and endlessly rebooting, reissuing, and remixing the content of the past, and explores how nostalgia often peaks during times of uncertainty and change.

Go back to the ’80s with this catchy remix of memorable scenes and sound bites from Weird Science, the movie that made millions of horny boys think they could conjure up the girl of their dreams by hacking into a government computer and wearing bras on their heads.

Happy Cat Disco put together this awesome mashup track which combines some of the 1980’s most memorable tunes with Justin Timberlake’s Can’t Stop the Feeling. The result is truly the ultimate ’80s dance track.

Time warp back to 1987 with this corny ABC Afterschool Special. Like all of these, the story has a simple moral: you can’t judge a book by its cover. Stars Doc from The Love Boat, Bug from Uncle Buck, the Governor from Benson, and Mrs. Willis from The Jeffersons.

YouTuber Tronicbox puts his ’80s touch on Ariana Grande’s Into You. It’s not as densely retro as his viral Justin Bieber remix, but we’re not recommending this because it’s edgy. It’s just a plain good remix.

Auralnauts reinvents the story of Star Wars in this mock trailer which stars C-3PO (or is it Creepio?) as the main protagonist, chopped up from bits of the original trilogy, prequels, and a commercial for breakfast cereal (which we still have a box of in the Awesomer office).

The 8-Bit Guy wanted to know if VHS tapes actually made for horrible videos. He compared three versions of Back to the Future: a 1080p digital copy, the same 1080p copy recorded on a high quality VHS tape, and a VHS release from 1985. TL;DW: Noise. So much noise.

Between Stranger Things, the rise of synthwave music, and new 8-bit console releases, the ’80s are back and bigger than ever. In this VHS-quality compilation, we’re reminded of some of the decade’s best movies (and Teen Wolf) courtesy of editor Joe Primmer.

A product demo reel for a crazy 1980’s musical instrument which combined a guitar with a MIDI synthesizer controller, which was basically the exact opposite of the Keytar. Why this thing never took off, we’ll never know.

We’re not exactly sure what we just watched, but this epic music video from Soda_Jerk and The Avalanches crams in countless references to pop culture icons from the ’60s through the ’90s, from Saturday Night Fever to Seinfeld, from The Warriors to Will Smith.

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. We’re not sure we’d trust Jack Torrance to make a board game though, as YouTuber Chainsaw Estates shows in this amusing ’80s style parody commercial based on Stanley Kubrick’s classic.