NBA Jam

NBA Jam is a basketball arcade game developed by Midway in 1993. It is the first entry in the NBA Jam series. The main designer and programmer for this game was Mark Turmell. Midway had previously released such sports games as Arch Rivals in 1989, High Impact in 1990, and Super High Impact in 1991. The gameplay of NBA Jam is based on Arch Rivals, another 2-on-2 basketball video game. However, it was the release of NBA Jam that brought mainstream success to the genre.
The game became exceptionally popular, and generated a significant amount of money for arcades after its release, creating revenue of $1 billion in quarters.
The release of NBA Jam gave rise to a new genre of sports games which were based around fast, action-packed gameplay and exaggerated realism, a formula which Midway would also later apply to the sports of football (NFL Blitz), and hockey (2 on 2 Open Ice Challenge).

Discman

Discman was the product name given to Sony's first portable CD player, the D-50, which was the first on the market in 1984, and adopted for Sony's entire portable CD player line. In Japan, all Discman products are referred to as "CD Walkman" and the name was adopted worldwide in 2000 along with a redesigned "Walkman" logo.
Prior to the development of the CD, cassette tapes were the dominant form of audio storage in regards to the then-fledgling portable audio industry. In 1979, Sony had revolutionized the way in which music could be enjoyed with the introduction of the first portable music player, the Walkman. With this portable unit, music was able to accompany a person anywhere they went. Gone were the restrictions of a stationary player. The Walkman became part of culture and even part of fashion. As Sony began to realize the potential of the CD, executives pushed for a means to give the CD player market momentum, moving it from audio enthusiasts to the mainstream.

Timex Sinclair 1000

The Timex Sinclair 1000 (TS1000) was the first computer produced by Timex Sinclair, a joint-venture between Timex Corporation and Sinclair Research. It was launched in July 1982.
The TS1000 was a slightly modified Sinclair ZX81 with an NTSC RF modulator instead of a UK PAL (Units sold in Portugal have a PAL RF modulator) device and the onboard RAM doubled to 2 kB. The TS1000's casing had slightly more internal shielding but remained the same as Sinclair's, including the membrane keyboard. It had black and white graphics, and no sound. It was followed by an improved version, the Timex Sinclair 1500.
Like the Sinclair ZX81, the TS1000 used a form of BASIC as its primary interface and programming language. To make the membrane keyboard less cumbersome for program entry, the TS1000 used a shortcut system of one-letter "keywords" for most commands (i.e. pressing "P" while the cursor was in "keyword mode" would generate the keyword "PRINT"). Some keywords required a short sequence of keystrokes (e.g. SHIFT-ENTER S would generate the keyword "LPRINT"). The TS1000 clued the user in on what to expect by changing the cursor to reflect the current input mode.
The TS1000 sold for $99.95 in the US when it debuted, making it the cheapest home computer to date at the time of its launch (its advertising angle was "the first computer under $100".) This pricing initiated a price war with Commodore International, who quickly reduced the price of its VIC-20 to match and later announced a trade-in program offering $100 for any competing computer toward the purchase of a Commodore 64. Since the TS1000 was selling for $49 by this time, many customers bought them for the sole purpose of trading it in to Commodore.

Simon

Simon is an electronic game of memory skill invented by Ralph H. Baer and Howard J. Morrison,[1] with the software programming being done by Lenny Cope and manufactured and distributed by Milton Bradley. Simon was launched in 1978 at Studio 54 in New York City and became an immediate success. It became a pop culture symbol of the 1980s.

Polaroid SX-70

The SX-70 is a folding single lens reflex Land Camera which was produced by the Polaroid Corporation from 1972-1981.
Though Polaroid had considered a Henry Dreyfus-designed SLR for its Colorpack film, the SX-70 was the first instant SLR and the first camera to use Polaroid's new SX-70 integral print film, which developed automatically in broad daylight without the need for intervention from the photographer. The SX-70 was also notable for its elegant folding design, which allowed the camera to be compact enough to fit a man's suit-jacket pocket when collapsed.[1]
There were a variety of models beginning in 1972 with the original SX-70, though all shared the same basic design. The first model, sold in Florida in late 1972, had a plain focusing screen (the user was expected to be able to see the difference between in- and out-of focus) because Dr. Land wanted to encourage photographers to think they were looking at the subject, rather than through a viewfinder. When many users complained that focusing was difficult, especially in dim light, a split-image rangefinder prism was added. This feature is standard on all later manual focus models.
The later Sonar OneStep and SLR 680 models were equipped with a sonar autofocus system, which permitted returning to the plain focusing screen. The Sonar Onestep models were the first autofocus SLRs available to consumers. Polaroid Corporation marketed this relatively inexpensive, novel sonar technology as a set of components to hobbyists in order for them to incorporate distance sensing into other systems. The later SLR 680/690 models updated the basic design of the Sonar Onestep to more modern standards by incorporating support for newer 600 cartridges instead of SX-70 cartridges, and a built-in flash instead of the disposable Flashbar. Today they are the most evolved forms of the SX-70, and are highly sought after by Polaroid enthusiasts[citation needed].
Though expensive, the SX-70 was popular in the 1970s and retains a cult following today

Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 100

The TRS-80 Model 100 was an early portable computer introduced in 1983. It was one of the first notebook-style computers, featuring a keyboard and LCD display, battery powered, in a package roughly the size and shape of notepad or large book.
It was made by Kyocera, and originally sold in Japan as the Kyotronic 85. Although a slow seller for Kyocera, the rights to the machine were purchased by Tandy Corporation, and the computer was sold through Radio Shack stores in the United States and Canada as well as affiliated dealers in other countries, becoming one of the company's most popular models, with over 6,000,000 units sold worldwide. The Olivetti M-10 and the NEC PC-8201 and PC-8300 were also built on the same Kyocera platform, with some design and hardware differences. It was originally marketed as a Micro Executive Work Station (MEWS), although the term did not catch on and was eventually dropped.

• Processor: 8-bit Intel 80C85, CMOS, 2.4 MHz
• Memory: 32 kB ROM, 8, 16, 24, or 32kB static RAM. Machines with less than 32 kB could be expanded in 8 kB increments of plug-in static RAM modules.
• Display: 8 lines, 40 characters LCD with 240 by 64 pixel addressable graphics. The screen was not backlit.
• Keyboard: 56 keys, 8 programmable function keys, and 4 dedicated command keys.
• Peripherals: The basic package included: Built-in 300 baud modem (North American versions), parallel printer port, serial communication port (shared by internal modem), bar-code reader input, cassette audio tape, real-time clock.
• Dimensions: 300 by 215 x 50 mm, weight about 1.4 kilograms (3.1 lb) with batteries

Macintosh Portable

The Macintosh Portable was Apple Inc.'s first attempt at making a battery-powered portable Macintosh personal computer that held the power of a desktop Macintosh. It was also the first commercial off-the-shelf portable computer used in space and the first to send an email from space, in 1991 aboard Space Shuttle mission STS-43.
Released on September 20, 1989, it was received with excitement from most critics but with very poor sales to consumers. Seemingly no expense was spared in the construction of the machine. It featured a black and white active-matrix LCD screen in a hinged cover that covered the keyboard when the machine was not in use. The mouse function was handled by a built-in trackball that could be removed and located on either side of the keyboard. It used expensive SRAM in an effort to maximize battery life and to provide an "instant on" low power sleep mode.
The machine was architecturally similar to the Macintosh SE, despite using the 68HC000, a low-power version of the Motorola 68000, running at 16 megahertz (MHz) on a 16 MHz bus. The Portable came with 1 megabyte (MB) of RAM soldered on the motherboard and was expandable to 5 MB using the single RAM expansion slot, or 9 MB using the single PDS expansion slot which, due to strict FCC regulations, was not developed for use with any other expansion cards such as the popular Ethernet card for the SE. It also had a single ROM expansion slot which would accommodate up to 4 MB, though the Portable itself used a 256 K ROM based on the SE's. Weighing in at 15.8 lb (7.2 kg), due in large part to the sealed lead-acid batteries used, the machine was widely considered more of a "luggable" than a portable. Compared to the PowerBook series introduced a few years later, the Portable lacked the ergonomic layout that set the trend for all future laptops.
Introductory price: $6,500

Scientific calculator (Casio FX-77)

A scientific calculator is a type of electronic calculator, usually but not always handheld, designed to calculate problems in science (especially physics), engineering, and mathematics. They have almost completely replaced slide rules in almost all traditional applications, and are widely used in both education and professional settings.
In certain contexts such as higher education, scientific calculators have been superseded by graphing calculators, which offer a superset of scientific calculator functionality along with the ability to graph input data and write and store programs for the device. There is also some overlap with the financial calculator market.
(Casio FX-77, a solar-powered scientific calculator from the 1980s using a single-line display)

PalmPilot

The PalmPilot Personal and PalmPilot Professional are the second generation of Palm PDA devices produced by Palm Inc (then a subsidiary of U.S. Robotics). These devices were launched on March 10, 1997.
This generation of devices uses the Motorola 68328 processor at 16 MHz, and has 512 KB (Personal) or 1024 KB (Professional) built in memory.
This PDA has a plastic casing which is 4.7 x 3.1 x .7 inches and weighs 5.6 ounces (160 g). On the front of the device there is a 160x160 pixel monochrome touchscreen LCD, with a Graffiti input zone below it. Under this there is a green button for power and backlight control, four application buttons (Date Book, Address Book, To Do List, and Memo Pad) and two scroll buttons. On the left side of the device there is a contrast control, and on the top right side of the device, there is a stylus slot. On the back, there is a memory slot door, reset button, battery door (two Alkaline AAA batteries needed) and serial port (for use with the PalmPilot Cradle).
The memory is located in a memory slot under a plastic cover on the back of the PDA near the top. A 512 KB ROM chip contains the Palm OS 2.0 operating system and resident applications. The RAM is available in 512 KB, 1 MB or 2 MB sizes. The hardware limit is 12 MB of RAM and 4 MB of ROM.

CASIO G-Shock

G-Shock is a brand of watches manufactured by Casio, known for its resistance to shocks (e.g. hard knocks and strong vibrations). They were, and continue to be, designed primarily for sports, military, and outdoor adventure oriented activity; for example, practically all G-Shocks have some kind of stopwatch feature, countdown timer, light and water resistance. Recent models have become more luxury and design oriented as well as becoming very popular among youth.
The first G-Shock was the DW-5000C designed by an engineer working for Casio named Kikuo Ibe. It was released in April 1983. For the next few years Casio released a handful of new models each year. The Baby-G models were released in 1991. The popularity of G-Shocks increased rapidly throughout the 1990s. By 1998, 19 million G-Shocks had been sold worldwide, and there seemed to be a peak in demand as over 220 new models were released in that year alone. Casio has collaborated with many designers including Dee and Ricky, musicians and other pop culture luminaries to release hundreds of limited edition G-Shocks with custom designs. This long tradition of unique watches has helped build an avid following among collectors world-wide over the years.

Timex Ironman

In 1984 Timex worked together with the officials of the Ironman Triathlon sporting event to develop a new digital watch to help sagging sales within the company. The result was the Timex Triathlon. In 1986, Timex got the rights to the Ironman name and developed the Ironman Triathlon watch based on the 1984 watch. The basic functions and design were the same as its Triathlon cousin except the Ironman was water resistant to 100 meters instead of 50, given an updated look with a black, orange and grey color scheme on the watch face and the 19mm ribbed wrist strap was adorned with the Ironman name and 3 stylized "M" logos. Sales for the new watch soared in the first year of its production, dwarfing that of the earlier Triathlon watch, though the two watches would coexist in production for many years to come. Sales were strong enough to warrant a dressy silver/stainless steel version a couple of years later. The watch's rugged design made it very popular with sporting enthusiasts and people who needed a "workhorse" watch. The Ironman Watch includes time, stopwatch (chrono), timer, occasion alarm, and three alarms. The first generation Ironman watches were commonly seen to be worn by military and law enforcement personnel as the watch could take quite a bit of punishment. The watch was also extremely popular with American youth. A mid-sized, ladies/youth version of the watch was released the same year as the original. The original 1984 Triathlon and 1986 Ironman (full size/mid size) watches would remain in production until 1991 when the first of many cosmetic and design refreshes came along. This era of Timex Ironman is now known amongst watch collectors as the "Pre Indiglo" Ironman.

Out Run (S/W)

Out Run (アウトラン Auto Ran?) (also spelled OutRun and Outrun) is a 1986 arcade game designed by Yu Suzuki and Sega-AM2. The game was a major hit with arcade-goers and is notable for its innovative hardware (including a moving cabinet), pioneering graphics and music, a choice in both soundtrack and route, and its strong theme of luxury and relaxation. In retrospective interviews, Yu Suzuki has classified Out Run not as a racing game, but as a "driving" game.
The player controls a man driving a car with his girlfriend in the passenger seat. The car is an unlicenced Ferrari Testarossa (In the later PlayStation 2 version the car is similar to a Ferrari Mythos); however, this game did not have an official Ferrari license (unlike its sequel Out Run 2, released in 2003, 17 years later) and (Outrun Online Arcade, released in 2009, 23 years later, and the same name released in arcades in the same year). Starting at a coastal area, the player-controlled car must pass through four checkpoints within a set time limit.

IBM PC 5150

The IBM Personal Computer, commonly known as the IBM PC, is the original version and progenitor of the IBM PC compatible hardware platform. It is IBM model number 5150, and was introduced on August 12, 1981. It was created by a team of engineers and designers under the direction of Don Estridge of the IBM Entry Systems Division in Boca Raton, Florida.
Alongside "microcomputer" and "home computer", the term "personal computer" was already in use before 1981. It was used as early as 1972 to characterize Xerox PARC's Alto. However, because of the success of the IBM Personal Computer, the term PC came to mean more specifically a microcomputer compatible with IBM's PC products.

Commodore 64

The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982. Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US $ 595. Preceded by the Commodore VIC-20 and Commodore PET machines, the C64 features 64 kilobytes (65,536 bytes) of RAM, hence the name, and had favourable sound and graphical specifications when compared to well known contemporary systems such as the Apple II, particularly as the price was well below that demanded by Apple. It is commonly known as the C64 or C=64 (after the graphic logo on the case) and occasionally as the CBM 64 (for Commodore Business Machines), or VIC-64. It has also been nicknamed the "breadbox" and "bullnose" due to the shape and color of its initial casing.[citation needed]
During the C64's lifetime, sales totalled between 12.5 and 17 million units, making it the best-selling single personal computer model of all time. For a substantial period of time (1983–1986), the C64 dominated the market with between 30% and 40% share and 2 million units sold per year, outselling the IBM PC clones, Apple Inc. computers, and Atari 8-bit family computers. Sam Tramiel, a later Atari president and the son of Commodore's founder, said in a 1989 interview "When I was at Commodore we were building 400,000 C64s a month for a couple of years."
Part of its success was because it was sold in retail stores instead of electronics stores. Commodore produced many of its parts in-house to control supplies and cost. It is sometimes compared to the Ford Model-T automobile for its role in bringing a new technology to middle-class households via creative mass-production.
Approximately 10,000 commercial software titles were made for the Commodore 64 including development tools, office productivity applications, and games. C64 emulators allow anyone with a modern computer, or a compatible game console, to run these programs today. The C64 is also credited with popularizing the computer demo scene and is still used today by some computer hobbyists

ZX Spectrum

The ZX Spectrum (the "Z" is pronounced "Zed" from its original British English branding) is an 8-bit personal home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd. Referred to during development as the ZX81 Colour and ZX82, the machine was launched as the ZX Spectrum by Sinclair to highlight the machine's colour display, compared with the black-and-white of its predecessor, the Sinclair ZX81. The Spectrum was ultimately released as eight different models, ranging from the entry level model with 16 kB RAM released in 1982 to the ZX Spectrum +3 with 128 kB RAM and built in floppy disk drive in 1987; together they sold in excess of 5 million units worldwide (not counting clones, which were numerous).
The Spectrum was among the first mainstream audience home computers in the UK, similar in significance to the Commodore 64 in the USA. The introduction of the ZX Spectrum led to a boom in companies producing software and hardware for the machine,[6] the effects of which are still seen; some credit it as the machine which launched the UK IT industry. Licensing deals and clones followed, and earned Clive Sinclair a knighthood for "services to British industry".
The Commodore 64, BBC Microcomputer and later the Amstrad CPC range were major rivals to the Spectrum in the UK market during the early 1980s. Over 20,000 software titles have been released since the Spectrum's launch and new titles continue to be released, with over 90 new ones in 2010.

Amstrad CPC6128

The Amstrad CPC 6128 was the successor to the Amstrad CPC 664 which had a very short life. It had almost all the same features as the 664, except the memory. Like the 664, only 42 Kb could be accessed, the upper 64 Kb were used as a RAM disk or to store data. It was sold with quite a good quality monitor (monochrome green or color) and a built-in 3" floppy disk drive (2 x 180 KB).
It ran under Amsdos (the Amstrad Operating System) or under CP/M 2.2 or CP/M 3.0 (CP/M +). The CP/M 2.2 OS was bundled with DR Logo and CP/M+ with GSX (the graphic extension of CP/M). Like the CPC 664, the Amstrad CPC 6128 was almost fully compatible with the CPC 464.
The German version of the Amstrad (Schneider CPC 6128) had different "real" connectors instead of mainboard edge connectors. Norbert Unterberg reports that the main reason for this was that the original Amstrad did not pass the German "FCC" test because it was polluting its surroundings with electromagnetic waves, and the rules for that were much stricter in Germany. That's why the Schneider got real connectors and a metal housing inside.
However, after "Schneider Rundfunkwerke" stopped selling the Amstrad CPC series of home computers and the PCW series of word-processors, Amstrad continued to sell the CPC under the Amstrad brand name in Germany.
The ROM was identical for all brands of Amstrad: Schneider, Orion, Awa,...
Note that there is a way to find out all the brand names under which Amstrad distributed their CPC range.

Compact Disc

The Compact Disc is a spin-off of Laserdisc technology. Sony first publicly demonstrated an optical digital audio disc in September 1976. In September 1978 they demonstrated an optical digital audio disc with a 150 minute playing time, and with specifications of 44,056 Hz sampling rate, 16-bit linear resolution, cross-interleaved error correction code, that were similar to those of the Compact Disc introduced in 1982. Technical details of Sony's digital audio disc were presented during the 62nd AES Convention, held on March 13–16, 1979, in Brussels. On March 8, 1979 Philips publicly demonstrated a prototype of an optical digital audio disc at a press conference called "Philips Introduce Compact Disc" in Eindhoven, Netherlands. On March 6, 2009, Philips received an IEEE Milestone with the following citation: "On 8 March 1979, N.V. Philips' Gloeilampenfabrieken demonstrated for the international press a Compact Disc Audio Player. The demonstration showed that it is possible by using digital optical recording and playback to reproduce audio signals with superb stereo quality. This research at Philips established the technical standard for digital optical recording systems."
Sony executive Norio Ohga, who later became the CEO and chairman of Sony, was convinced of the format's commercial potential, and pushed further development despite widespread skepticism. Later in 1979, Sony and Philips Consumer Electronics (Philips) set up a joint task force of engineers to design a new digital audio disc. Led by Kees Schouhamer Immink and Toshitada Doi, the research pushed forward laser and optical disc technology that began independently by Philips and Sony in 1977 and 1975, respectively. After a year of experimentation and discussion, the taskforce produced the Red Book, the Compact Disc standard. Philips contributed the general manufacturing process, based on video Laserdisc technology. Philips also contributed eight-to-fourteen modulation (EFM), which offers both a long playing time and a high resilience against disc defects such as scratches and fingerprints, while Sony contributed the error-correction method, CIRC. The Compact Disc Story, told by a former member of the taskforce, gives background information on the many technical decisions made, including the choice of the sampling frequency, playing time, and disc diameter. The taskforce consisted of around four to eight persons, though according to Philips, the Compact Disc was thus "invented collectively by a large group of people working as a team

Macintosh 128K (Apple)

The Macintosh 128K machine was the original Apple Macintosh personal computer. Its beige case contained a 9 in (23 cm) monitor and came with a keyboard and mouse. An indentation in the top of the case made it easier for the computer to be lifted and carried. It had a selling price of US$2,495. The Macintosh was introduced by the now famous US$1.5 million television commercial by Ridley Scott, "1984", that most notably aired on CBS during the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII on January 22, 1984. The sales of the Macintosh were strong from its initial release and reached 70,000 on May 3, 1984;[6] afterwards, sales plummeted. After its successor, the Macintosh 512K, was introduced, it was rebadged as the Macintosh 128K.
The Macintosh was designed to achieve adequate graphics performance, which had previously required hardware costing over $10,000 US, at a price accessible to the middle class. This narrow goal resulted in an efficient design which traded off expandability but met or exceeded the baseline performance of its competitors.
The centerpiece of the machine was an 8 MHz Motorola 68000 microprocessor connected to a 128 KB DRAM by a 16-bit data bus. Lack of RAM proved to be a fatal constraint to much multimedia software, and although this baseline was similar to its competitors, it could not be upgraded. A 64 KB ROM chip boosted the effective memory to 192 KB, but this is offset by the display's 22 KB framebuffer, which is shared with the DMA video controller.

VHS (Video Home System)

The Video Home System (better known by its abbreviation VHS) is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan (JVC).
The 1970s was a period when video recording became a major contributor to the television industry. Like many other technological innovations, each of several companies made an attempt to produce a television recording standard that the majority of the world would embrace. At the peak of it all, the home video industry was caught up in a series of videotape format wars. Two of the formats, VHS and Betamax, received the most media exposure. VHS would eventually win the war, and therefore succeed as the dominant home video format, lasting throughout the tape format period. Many industry experts did not predict VHS' dominance because it was technically inferior to Betamax. One expert compared VHS beating out Betamax to QWERTY beating Dvorak in the keyboard layout war.
In later years, optical disc formats began to offer better quality than video tape. The earliest of these formats, Laserdisc, was not widely adopted, but the subsequent DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) format eventually did achieve mass acceptance and replaced VHS as the preferred method of distribution after 2000. By 2006, film studios in the United States had stopped releasing new movie titles in VHS format. On December 31, 2008, the last major United States supplier of pre-recorded VHS tapes, Distribution Video Audio Inc. of Palm Harbor, Florida, shipped its final truckload

Tomy Caveman

Caveman by Tomy
1980s Tabletop game, in which you play a caveman stealing dinosaur eggs trying not to get caught. This game features a large multi-coloured display, and two skill levels.
LED Electronic games dominated the toy industry between 1977 and 1983. They use light emitting diodes to create displays made of lights. Later LED games use vacuum formed displays, which allow detailed coloured sprites to be animated on-screen. Today handheld and tabletop games rank amongst the most valuable and collectible retro game formats.