The 1980s were a simpler time when it comes to the entertainment that was available in leisure time. With fewer choices, it was more common for people to become deeply immersed in their hobbies at a level not seen since the launch of the internet. Sharing of interests and socialising was almost exclusively face-to-face and trips to the cinema, arcades, music venues and casinos a regular date in many people’s diaries.
Casinos
In the 1980s in the US, it was not just Las Vegas where you could chance your luck at the casinos as laws enabled the opening of brick-and-mortar casinos in other states at a time when the internet was not yet developed for online casinos and where gambling was not fully legal across the country. Casinos were popular, though dealing with craps odds and other details to get the best out of the visit was not as easy as it is today. Although knowing how to play keno online for real money is gaining more and more popularity nowadays. Online casinos can give you all the help you need for safe, fair play.
CDs
Compact Discs made their debut in the first years of the 80s and led to the demise of vinyl records since the digital recordings were considered to be so much clearer. CDs fell out of favour when the iPod was launched by Apple in 2001 and whilst vinyl was considered more “scratchy” than CDS, the waveforms from a vinyl recording can be much more accurate, and that can be heard in the richness of the sound, which is one of the reasons there is a renaissance in vinyl music.
Television and video
Television was the major form of home entertainment for the family in the 80s. With no internet, people watched shows on television together and spoke about them at work or school the next day. In 1985, the first Blockbuster store opened to the public, offering a library of movies that would change the history of home entertainment. Now, it was possible to rent a movie or video game to watch at a time of your choosing, appreciated as much as Netflix is today.
Movies
There was huge investment in the film industry in the ’80s thanks to the development of the home video market. This was a decade of cult or blockbuster movies by Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and James Cameron, among others. The development of special effects also raised the profile of movies along with popular romantic comedies and coming-of-age films.
The Arcade
Every ’80s kid would hang out at the Arcade where they could buy tokens to play games and if you were lucky could stay the entire day playing classics such as Pac-Man or Donkey Kong. The video game industry crashed in 1983 for several reasons including inflation and too many low-quality games. By 1985, Nintendo had risen as a new market leader and saved the format.
