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I remember getting the Grandstand Munchman game for Christmas one year, and spent most of that Christmas period playing it. The Nintendo Gameboy had yet to be invented, so portable games tended to be fairly large, requiring the massive C cell batteries to power them, and dedicated to playing a single game. That didn’t matter for Munchman, as the fact that I could take this game with me when doing the traditional family-visiting-the-relatives thing was a great advantage.
It was of course a version of Pacman, which despite being played out on probably the smallest possible maze still had all the features you expected including dots, power pills, ghosts and even the fruit bonus (admittedly only a cherry was ever available, but it was there). The display was not LCD but one of those weird segmented light displays, a bit like one of those pocket calculators or early digital watches with the green or red numbers. Each square of the maze contained lightable elements for the dot or power pill, Munchman himself, and a ghost. You died if Munchman ended up in the same grid square as a ghost. This looked a little odd because the ghost could appear next to you both to the left and the right, but only when it was to the left did it register as being a kill.
You and me, me and you, lots and lots, for us to do.
Darth Vader may be an evil villain from Englands West Country (Dave Prowse is from Bristol) but I bet most kids wanted to pretend to be the Sith Lord whenever they played Light Sabre battles in the school playground. Of course, it wasn’t the same without the rasping breathing and cool black costume, but it was still fun.
I’m always fascinated by the way crazes for certain items come and go. I often wonder who is responsible for starting the current fad in the first place. Obviously someone somewhere must have started the craze of in the first place, but how do you identify exactly who that person is? Whilst you ponder that, consider this as a fine example – the humble pair of Deelie Boppers.
Bazooka bubble gum consisted of fairly large pink wodges of really not that tasty gum. I don’t know what flavour it was supposed to be, it was just, well, odd. But you never really bought Bazooka for the sweet anyway. Most kids bought it because of the Bazooka Joe comic that was wrapped around each piece of gum.
This post is particularly relevant today as it marks the 25th anniversary of the first airing of Countdown on Channel 4. Countdown first aired on November 2nd 1982, and coincidentally since it was also the first programme aired on Channel 4 today must therefore also mark the 25th anniversary of Channel 4. Interestingly it appears to be Countdown that has been chosen to be celebrated by the UK’s media rather than Channel 4 itself, which I guess goes to show just how loved Countdown is by so many people young and old.
The Charley Says public information adverts were actually created during the 1970′s, but they were still regularly shown during the 1980′s at times when children would be watching, especially Saturday mornings. They were about a little boy (apparently called Dominic, though I had to look that up!) and his pet cat Charley (allegedly voiced by Kenny Everett). Charley usually kept a lookout for Dominic and would warn him about potentially dangerous situations, although sometimes it would be Charley himself who got into trouble.
