Post a pic of the TV that you gamed on in the 80's

[retrorussell]

I had like a 12 inch or so B&W in my room, probably a Sanyo or something (this is a Goldstar in the pic). It was very similar to this one: the switches and knobs I think were in the same position. The back wasn't wooden, just dark colored plastic. I played Atari 2600 on this after I moved it out of my bedroom into the upstairs hallway. Before that I had my TI-99 hooked up to it in my room. Got the tv probably in 1982 or 1983.

[atarilovesyou]

It was a Curtis Mathes console television, and I'm pretty sure it was a 1973 model. First, it was in the living room of my Dad's apartment, then it got moved into the game room when he bought a house.

 

This isn't the exact model, but this is very close:

 

 

The control panel on this model looks identical to the one we had, but the model shown in the photo is a higher-end model an 8-track player, record player, and side speakers (not shown). Ours was just the television.

Didn't everyone own a monster like this back in the day???...awesome!

 

Ours was a Panasonic. Played my Coleco on it, but only until the prevailing 'folk legend' of the time that scared my parents into thinking that 'video games are bad for tv sets'...so it went to the shitty older one (can't remember the brand), but it always had vertical scrolling issues. So much so you had to sometimes get someone to sit next to the tv, adjusting the knob every few minutes!

 

Now those were the days...PUKE

 

Loved the wooden Panasonic monster though. Imagine what the treehuggers musta though back then!...on second thought, no I don't

[Serious]

but only until the prevailing 'folk legend' of the time that scared my parents into thinking that 'video games are bad for tv sets'..

 

 

My mom was under the impression that sitting too close to the TV for too long would make you sterile. It didn't really interfere with my gaming, but it is something I heard alot about while I was trying to beat my high scores.

[Atariboy]

This black & white 13" Zenith is what I started with. I still have it today and it still works.

 

[MrMaddog]

This was my TV from when I was in grade school till after college when I replaced it with a Commodore video monitor. I had ana Atari 2600, Radio Shack CoCo, Atari 130XE and NES on it. The woodgrain was nice lookimg, and no I did not have a creepy looking statue next to it.

Edited November 12, 2013 by MrMaddog

[JadeETC]

This black & white 13" Zenith is what I started with. I still have it today and it still works.

 

Any idea what year it's from?

[R.Cade]

I believe it's a small GE color TV...

 

EDIT: Oh man, that is it! Two posts up.

Edited November 12, 2013 by R.Cade

[Robot2600]

The TV wasn't broken but this was the living Room Model until I was 12 or so:

 

actually the color was broken but only half the time.

 

[Atariboy]

Any idea what year it's from?

I'm a bit younger than many of you so it's fairly modern. 1984 or so is what I want to say the manufacturing date is on a sticker on the rear.

[atarilovesyou]

Holy shit, can anybody come up with a good reason for sticking televisions in solid, heavy ass boxes of WOOD?!?!....lol, it's really quite remarkable. Were people into wood that much?...shit, I guess so...the VCS had faux wood, station wagons (like the Griswalds!) had wood panels....but for the love of Mork, WHY?

[Atariboy]

It looks good, turns it into a piece of furniture in an era where many living room television sets were free standing rather than sitting on something like an entertainment center, and tv's weren't disposable items a few years ago and that screams quality.

 

Then came China, Taiwan, South Korea, and Mexico.

Edited November 13, 2013 by Atariboy

[The Usotsuki]

I have a small 1980s-vintage, dial-tune GE color TV. xD

[JadeETC]

Holy shit, can anybody come up with a good reason for sticking televisions in solid, heavy ass boxes of WOOD?!?!....lol, it's really quite remarkable. Were people into wood that much?...shit, I guess so...the VCS had faux wood, station wagons (like the Griswalds!) had wood panels....but for the love of Mork, WHY?

I used to have a Chevy Blazer with woodgrain. It just looked cool.

[CatPix]

It looks good, turns it into a piece of furniture in an era where many living room television sets were free standing rather than sitting on something like an entertainment center, and tv's weren't disposable items a few years ago and that screams quality.

 

Then came China, Taiwan, South Korea, and Mexico.

Also, different mind about television maybe?

 

In Europe were color arrived only in 1967, wood-made TV were associated with black and white. Also, discrete electronics (as opposed to vaccuum tube technology) was, as early as the 60's, popularized with small, plastic made transistor radios.

 

So I dunno about the US mindset of the time, but in the mid-70 in Europe, you wouldn't want wood in your electronics. Or maybe just a plastic panel (looking totally fake much like the Atari VCS wood). And some high end electronics would be encased in wood to mach your classical pricey furniture and because, much like vaccum tubes sounds warmer than transistors, wood sounds better than plastic isn't it?

 

I mean, just check out the 1292 APVS from 1976 :

 

One of the Fairchild Channel F Euro variants :

 

And you would connect it to this TV :

(feet is optionnal)

 

BTW, even if you wind back to the 50's and 60's, you will not spot "huge" TV that much. Note that I use huge as a loose term. The common 50's TV sets such as the ones I'm gonna post pics had a 43cm (17") display, so it's far from "small". But the design was like, made to make the screen the only thing you'll see.

 

 

Even by the mid-50's, TV cases could be made of bakelite :

 

Early colour TV are the closest to "big monstruous furniture" I can think of. But heh. Color. It was a big showoff at the time.

 

 

 

 

As gaming goes, I can only recall that m parents had a Telefunken TV, something like this :

Edited November 13, 2013 by CatPix

[atarilovesyou]

All these old TVs from the 50s and up make me wanna fire up some old Twilight Zone, or The Outer Limits...I'd almost wanna track one down just for that reason! "...there is nothing wrong with your television, WE are in control of the transmission...next stop, the twilight zone" ...or something like that

[CatPix]

Make me want to watc hsome Shadocks again.

Back from an era where state owned TV could be 10 times more boring than any cultural channel today, but sometime 100 times more crazy than a teenager music channel

 

(how many TV series from the 60's have been revived 35 years after the last episode of the original series? Not a lot)