What happened in the 1980s
The Iran-Iraq War begins
One of the late 20th century’s most destructive conflicts begins, shaping Middle East politics for years to come.
First Space Shuttle Columbia mission
NASA opens a new era of reusable spaceflight with the launch of Columbia.
The compact disc reaches consumers
Music starts moving into the digital era as CDs begin transforming home listening.
The Internet adopts its modern foundation
ARPANET’s switch to TCP/IP becomes a foundational step toward the modern Internet.
November, year by year
- Voyager 1 sweeps past Saturn and sends back its rings up close
- Columbia flies again, the first spacecraft ever to make a second trip
- Michael Jackson releases Thriller
- The Day After airs to 100 million viewers as Able Archer raises tensions
- Band Aid records Do They Know It's Christmas? in a single day
- Windows 1.0 ships, Calvin and Hobbes debuts, and Reagan meets Gorbachev in Geneva
- The Iran-Contra affair becomes public
- The King's Cross fire kills 31 and ends smoking on the London Underground
- The Morris Worm spreads across the Internet in a single night
- The Velvet Revolution begins in Prague
The 1980s catalogue
Games, films, animation and hardware, drawn from Wikidata.
Games
Films
Animation
Handle it in 3D
Objects from this decade, hand-built in Three.js.
Rubik's Cube
Ernő Rubik's Magic Cube from Budapest, a worldwide obsession by the early 80s. This is a 1980 cube as Ideal Toy sold it, made in Hungary and still wearing the gold seal from its pack, rebuilt from photos of real ones down to its original colour scheme - the mirror image of today's (turn your sound on). Drag any row or column to turn it, the middle ones included; drag beside the cube to look round it. On a computer, U, D, L, R, F and B turn the faces as cubers write them, M, E and S turn the middle slices, and Shift turns them the other way. Like a real cube, it stays as you leave it.
Game Boy
Nintendo's 1989 handheld that started it all, rebuilt from photos of a real one down to its ghosting screen and start-up chime (turn your sound on). The switch on top turns it off and on. The cartridge is the museum's own platformer, Deci's Dash: START begins, the D-pad moves, A jumps and holding B runs. On a computer, use the arrow keys, X for A, Z for B and Enter for START. The wheels on the sides set the contrast and the volume.
Simon
The memory game that lit up every 80s playroom, rebuilt from a 1978 original down to its lamps and tones (turn your sound on). Press START and repeat the flashing sequence, taking no more than five seconds per signal. The switches choose one of three games and a skill level of 8, 14, 20 or 31 signals; LAST and LONGEST replay your runs.
Audio Cassette
The format that made the mixtape possible, and made ninety minutes the unit of a friendship. This TDK D-C90 from the early 80s is rebuilt from the cassette standard's drawings and photos of a real one, with a summer 1986 mixtape on it (turn your sound on). Click the cassette to play the side facing you, and again to stop; the clear leader runs for a few seconds before the first song. Your left hub rewinds and your right one fast-forwards, and dragging a hub round winds it by hand, the pencil trick. Turn it over for side B. The songs are the museum's own, and the tape stays where you left it. On a computer, Space plays and stops and the arrow keys wind.
Nu, Pogodi!
The Soviet answer to Game & Watch and the handheld every child in the USSR wanted: the Wolf from the cartoon catching eggs from four hens. This 1984 Elektronika IM-02 is rebuilt from photos of real ones (turn your sound on). Hold ИГРА А to see the record and let go to play; the four buttons move the Wolf's basket to each chute. ИГРА Б rolls eggs down all four chutes instead of three. When the Hare looks out of his window, a dropped egg costs only half a miss. Three misses end the game, and reaching 200 and 500 wipes them. ВРЕМЯ shows the clock, set to your own time. Press the hole by the clock icon to set the time, or the one by the bell to set the alarm: the left buttons change the hours and the right ones the minutes, and pressing the bell's hole again switches the alarm off and on. Click the wire stand on the back to fold it out; the ACL hole resets everything. On a computer, Q, A, P and L are the four buttons, and 1, 2 and 3 are ИГРА А, ИГРА Б and ВРЕМЯ.
Polaroid Sun 600
The instant camera of the 80s, rebuilt from photos of a 1983 Sun 600 LMS down to the rainbow by its name (turn your sound on). Press the red button: the flash goes off, the motor whirrs and a print slides out and develops in front of you, from blue-black to a picture - in about a minute here, about three on the real film. Every shot is one of the photos from the decades reel on our home page, framed a little differently each time. Tap the print to hold it up for a closer look, and tap it again to put it back. No need to shake it: the picture develops behind clear plastic, and in 2004 Polaroid itself asked people to stop. A pack takes ten shots; when the counter on the back reaches 0, tap the film door under the lens to open it, then again to load a fresh pack. On a computer, Space or Enter takes a picture and Escape puts the print back. Drag beside the camera to turn it round.
Newton's Cradle
The executive toy that clicked away on office desks through the 80s, rebuilt from photos of a classic chrome cradle on a black base (turn your sound on). Pull a ball out and let it go: it strikes the row, and the ball at the far end flies out as if the blow had passed straight through. Pull out the second or third ball and the ones beyond it come too - and the same number leave the other side. Tap a ball to lift it and let it fall, or grab a swinging one to stop it. On a computer, Space drops one ball, 2, 3 and 4 drop that many, and Escape stops them all. The click is a pressure wave crossing the steel in a fraction of a millisecond.
Electric Samovar
The electric samovar on Soviet tables through the 80s, rebuilt from photos of a Tula one: three litres and a kilowatt in nickel-plated brass, with a cobalt net teapot warming on its crown (turn your sound on). Tap the samovar to plug it in and listen as it heats: it ticks and fizzes, then sings, loudest a few degrees short of the boil, and settles into a rolling boil as steam rises round the teapot. Tap the teapot to pour strong brew into the cup, then hold the tap to top it up from the samovar. Tap the cup to drink it, and the lid to refill the samovar. On a computer, Space plugs it in or out, B pours brew, hold T to run the tap, D drinks and R refills. It sings loudest before it boils because bubbles of steam collapse in the cooler water above the element; once all the water reaches 100 °C, they rise to the top instead.
Rotary Phone
The VEF TA-68, the desk phone in almost every Soviet flat through the 70s and 80s, rebuilt in ivory from photos of real ones taken from every side (turn your sound on). Tap the handset to lift it, and the dial tone comes on. Put a finger in a hole, draw the wheel round to the metal stop and let go: it runs home by itself, clicking out the number - or just tap a hole. Dial 100 for the speaking clock, which reads the time in Russian (or gives the six pips, if your device has no Russian voice); other six-digit numbers ring out unanswered or are engaged. Tap the handset again to hang up. Keys: Space or Enter lifts and hangs up, number keys dial. The wheel runs home at ten clicks a second, one click for each unit - two for 2, ten for 0 - and those clicks are all the exchange ever heard.
Spinning Top
The pump spinning top that hummed on floors on both sides of the Iron Curtain in the 80s - the юла, in Russian. There are two here, rebuilt from photos of real ones: the Soviet top in striped anodised aluminium, and a West German one by LBZ in printed tin (turn your sound on). Pump the knob: drag it up, then push it down fast - or tap it, a stroke for each tap. It takes a few: each quick push spins the top faster, and a slow one adds nothing. Let go and the Soviet top spins on its point, humming, and slowly stands itself up straight - then it wobbles wider and wider, falls, and rolls round on its rim. It stays up only while it spins fast enough: below eight or nine turns a second its lean wins, and over it goes. The West German one spins in the red stand it came with until it runs down, its reeds sounding a chord that thins as it slows. Tap a spinning top to catch it, and tap one at rest to swap it for the other. On a computer, Space or Enter pumps, Escape catches and C swaps. The sound is the air the spinning top throws out of its slots: through the Soviet top's three it sounds the hollow body, as blowing across a bottle does; in the West German one it passes little metal tongues, like a harmonica's.
This week
Release anniversaries from this decade, in the next seven days.
No anniversaries from this decade this week.
