"Watching This Short Animation Is Like Taking a Trip to the Mall in the 80s"

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"Watching This Short Animation Is Like Taking a Trip to the Mall in the 80s"

"Malls were great in the 80's. Or so I hear. Big clothes. Even bigger hair. Comic book stores, record shops, arcades, and movie theaters. And a bunch of bored folks goofing around indoors because there was nothing else to do. Ah, what a carefree life those youths lived. This short animation, Mall 84 by Gervais Merryweather, gives us a glimpse of what life was like back then. I'd go back."

http://sploid.gizmodo.com/watching-...utm_source=io9_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow
 
Nice, but I agree that it feels more like 90's then
80's.

Here's a glimpse of a real 80's mall - circa 1989.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrRuWdd_7Ok

I think I posted this a few years ago.

The 49th Street Galleria in Franklin Mills Mall.

I knew the manager of the arcade. The place was monstrous - they
had full size bowling alleys, roller rink, batting cages, Photon, lots
of food courts and a huge arcade (Discs on Tron environmental).
There was probably more that I don't remember.

The arcade was a 2 story building inside the complex (it's still
there, sans arcade). The first floor housed all the video games,
the redemption games were all upstairs. There were a couple
of "pits" outside of the food court that housed the pins.

It was a really cool place, unfortunately the entire facility was very
poorly mismanaged and didn't last very long.

I was working at Spaceport in Langorne PA, 20 minutes north. There
were 2 Spaceports - one was in the Oxford Valley Mall and the other
was in a second, smaller mall quite literally across the parking lot !
The Spaceport manager of the second mall left to go work in the
Galleria.

Great memories.

JD
 
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The 80's were an awesome time. Seeing a time when everyone was walking around having fun and no cell phones, that was the life! :D
 
(I was writing but I guess I accidentally closed the window, oops, here I go again)

Very cool. My favorite part was the movie theater. No fashion today can compare to normal looking girls with their hair down in oversized sweatshirts. Swooooooon... Thankfully 80's movies have a ton of 'em and I even have my own :D It also reminded me of myself and said girlfriend when we went to the movies a few months back. (Long distance thing or we'd totally go more, also watched/made her watch the first 2 or 3 Friday the 13th movies at home before she went back... 80's horror movies are beautiful things)

Still living some of my youth that way like others have. Going to the movies and playing arcade machines... just mostly in my own house for the last part!

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I agree the video has a bit of a 90's vibe but it's still definitely cool regardless.
 
Nice, but I agree that it feels more like 90's then
80's.

Here's a glimpse of a real 80's mall - circa 1989.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrRuWdd_7Ok

JD

This video nails it and pretty much tells the story of me in high school. Kids have zero desire these days to just go to the mall and hang out. That's pretty much all we did back then, even when we had no money. Just go hang out and talk to random girls - or talk about going to talk to random girls, then never doing it...

This video makes it look staged and part of a commercial. The reality is that was what it was like every weekend.
 
As electronic and technically experienced I am, I still don't do Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, etc. I don't know how they work nor do I care.

Kids at work ask me - how do you communicate with your friends ? I say same way I've done since I was a kid:

Pick up phone, call friend.
How's it going ?
Cool !
Wanna hang out at so and so ?
What time do you want to meet ?
See you there !

JD

Kids have zero desire these days to just go to the mall and hang out.
 
The arcade shot in Mall '84 shows a Golden Axe (1989) that has a Xevious screen.
 
I was working at Spaceport in Langorne PA, 20 minutes north. There
were 2 Spaceports - one was in the Oxford Valley Mall and the other
was in a second, smaller mall quite literally across the parking lot !
The Spaceport manager of the second mall left to go work in the
Galleria.
JD

Was that Lincoln Plaza?
I nearly forgot that existed.
For a time, King of Prussia had 2 spaceports.

Also, up the road from you, Larry Robinson was
running Neshaminy at that time, I believe.
I was offered Oxford around 1989 but turned it down.
Maybe you had just left?

I remember Chris V at Mondial Distributing telling me how
that Galleria place wasn't paying their bills so they couldn't
get boards repaired or parts, and started an area of dead
games, just packing them in a corner.
 
As electronic and technically experienced I am, I still don't do Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, etc. I don't know how they work nor do I care.

Kids at work ask me - how do you communicate with your friends ? I say same way I've done since I was a kid:

Pick up phone, call friend.
How's it going ?
Cool !
Wanna hang out at so and so ?
What time do you want to meet ?
See you there !

JD

You arent the only one.. I was actually a networking guy at an early .com which was one of the first "social media" companies in the US and I cant be bothered.

amazing how disconnected from reality all these tech obsessed people are.

Humanity is like a bad sci fi film these days.. a bunch of drones staring at their phone all day keeping tabs on people they barely know in real life.
 
Yep, Lincoln Plaza. I couldn't remember the name. The
arcade was small but had a huge back room loaded with
old boards pulled from conversions and other arcade parts IIRC.

Unlike other Spaceports, this one didn't have the tunnels or
tubes or portals anything. Just a plain room with 2 colors of
neon running around the walls by the ceiling.

I worked with Larry when he was managing Oxford Valley.
I'll never forget that big bushy head of hair he had, great
guy. Someone (possibly me) drew a picture of the Lost in Space
robot waving his arms saying "DANGER LARRY ROBINSON" and
stuck it on the back door.

I got fired from corporate by a guy named Jerry Orden-something
or other. He was a nasty little SOB who never liked me.

The Galleria was doing stupid things. I don't remember the details
but I think they were giving 3 tokens for a dollar and that didn't
work so they went back to 4 and raised the games to .50 a play.

JD



Was that Lincoln Plaza?
I nearly forgot that existed.
For a time, King of Prussia had 2 spaceports.

Also, up the road from you, Larry Robinson was
running Neshaminy at that time, I believe.
I was offered Oxford around 1989 but turned it down.
Maybe you had just left?

I remember Chris V at Mondial Distributing telling me how
that Galleria place wasn't paying their bills so they couldn't
get boards repaired or parts, and started an area of dead
games, just packing them in a corner.
 
Yep, Lincoln Plaza. I couldn't remember the name. The
arcade was small but had a huge back room loaded with
old boards pulled from conversions and other arcade parts IIRC.

Unlike other Spaceports, this one didn't have the tunnels or
tubes or portals anything. Just a plain room with 2 colors of
neon running around the walls by the ceiling.

That was their "Spaceport II" design, green and red neon. Miami vice stuff.
Hamilton in pleasantville,nj was like that. Oxford changed to that too.

I worked with Larry when he was managing Oxford Valley.
I'll never forget that big bushy head of hair he had, great
guy. Someone (possibly me) drew a picture of the Lost in Space
robot waving his arms saying "DANGER LARRY ROBINSON" and
stuck it on the back door.

I got fired from corporate by a guy named Jerry Orden-something
or other. He was a nasty little SOB who never liked me.

Orendecker. Piece of shit. He got canned shortly after the Edison buyout. He brought nothing to the table. John Hayes from Time Out upper mgmt tookover his position as VP in the resulting company (EBME).

Larry kind of got me into the biz, he gave me stuff when I first started collecting like laserdisc parts, atari system 2 boards and panels (a full MM kit, once!)... i suppose this stuff was headed for the trash but i still appreciated it.

You need to take a lunch next time I'm down your way, had no idea we knew some of the same people and whatnot...!
 
I ran into the little prick in the Neshaminy food court a
week after I was fired. I was so startled by the complete
unexpectedness of it that I didn't say or do anything. He
definitely had a look of fear in his eyes though.

Indirectly the guy did me a favor. Someone (they believe former employee) was
robbing all the Spaceports at gunpoint.

Larry and my replacement got robbed, duct taped and locked in the
bathroom shortly after I left.

JD

Orendecker. Piece of shit. He got canned shortly after the Edison buyout. He brought nothing to the table. John Hayes from Time Out upper mgmt tookover his position as VP in the resulting company (EBME).
 
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The 80's were the best ! More fun then ever. Especially the jersey shore every summer. Hot girls, fun games and fun cars. Now just work and work and work...
 
Those of us who "came of age" in the 80s were very fortunate. As I approach 50, I realize just how lucky we were back then, despite living under the constant threat of nuclear war.

We were there at the birth of video games, music videos, we had pre-GMO pizza places, and before a device in your hand over-stimulated your growing brain.
 
The 80's were the best ! More fun then ever. Especially the jersey shore every summer. Hot girls, fun games and fun cars. Now just work and work and work...

I agree with all of that except the cars, 80's cars were mostly junk LOL! I agree that vid seems more of a 90's feel than the 80's, I know I might be biased because of my age but I can see people from the 50's, 60's, 70's and 80's saying their decade was the best but have a hard time from the younger crowd saying the 90's were, everything started getting dark and depressing in that era, the fun times were gone and hasn't seemed to ever come back.
 
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