194 ’80s Life: A Free-Range Playtime and The Birth of Video Games

Officers Jon Baker and Frank Poncherello

This is the third episode in a series on daily life as we remember it during a brighter, more hot pink time in America’s history.

If you were a kid in The ‘80s, what did you do for fun?

We Gen Xers (roughly those born between 1965 and 1980) were probably the last American generation to experience a “free-range” childhood. That’s not what it was called back then of course. It was just called childhood. Let the kids loose on the streets to figure out for themselves how to stay entertained. Ride your bikes without helmets until the street lights came on. Or until your mom called your friend’s house, asked if you were there, and told you to come home. Somehow we survived.

Here are some things we mention in this episode.

The Games Of An ‘80s Childhood

Physical Games & Playing Pretend

  • Tag: in the street or in the yard

  • Tag Football: in the street or in the yard, if it was big enough

  • Airplane: using folding chairs placed into rows

  • Store: using slips of paper on which you used a pen to write the denominations and draw dollar signs, or if you were fancy, Monopoly money

  • CHiPs: based on the TV show; ride your bikes on the street as either Officer Poncherello (played by Erik Estrada) or Officer Jon Baker (played by Larry Wilcox)

  • Charlie’s Angels: where you hoped to be Kelly (played by Jaclyn Smith) but not so much Sabrina (played by Kate Jackson)

Analog Games (some batteries required)

  • Connect Four

  • Monopoly

  • Rubik’s Cube

  • Other games we didn’t mention in this ep: Battleship, Boggle, Twister, Operation, Lincoln Logs, Tinker Toys, Legos, and of course, action figures (Star Wars and G.I. Joe were the most popular ones)

  • Go-Cart: on the street

  • Remote control cars

Video Games & The Arcade

First, arrive at the arcade with a roll of quarters or paper bills that you can feed into the quarter-making machine. Then, take your quarters and roam the arcade to play your favorite games.

  • Space Invaders, Galaxia, or Galaga

  • Pac Man, overtaken in popularity by it’s spinoff: Ms. Pac Man

  • Donkey Kong, overtaken in popularity by it’s spinoff: Super Mario Brothers

  • Centipede

  • Frogger

  • Asteroid

  • Dig Dug

Siena & Toast