The Culture of 1979
Music

Games




At this time Matell’s intellivision games console, the first 16-bit console, was released, with it being the only console by the company until 2006 with the HyperScan. The Intellevision was also actually the first console to feature the ability to download games, but came with the obvious problem of storage and the need for a cable line. The first handheld console, the Microvision from the Milton Bradley Company, and Texas Instruments T1-99/4 home computer also came out this year, with the latter coming out for the low price of $1,150.
Not all releases were milestones in the games market, however, with Konami released Space King/ Space King 2, a Space Invaders clone that featured the exact same graphics and characters. Nintendo releases its own, Space Fever, in the same year.
It wasn’t all video games to come out in this year, either,
with the popular board games Trivial
Pursuit and Guess
Who? being released at this time too.
Some hugely influential films came out at this time too,
with Ridley Scott’s Alien
kicking off the franchise, and not only becoming one of the most popular and
influential films in the sci-fi genre, but also being credited as one of the
best blends of horror and science fiction in cinema history.
Mad Max also came out and propelled Mel Gibson’s career to become one of the biggest action stars in history, with him going on to the hugely popular Lethal Weapon franchise, which itself influenced National Lampoon’s Loaded Weapon.
Apocalypse Now was released in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, characterised in Roger Ebert’s review as “It is not about war so much as about how war reveals truths we would be happy never to discover”. The film received critical acclaim and to this day has a Rotten Tomatoes rank of 99% “certified fresh”.
In British cinema Scum, directed by Alan
Clarke and starring Ray Winstone was released, portraying the brutality of life
inside a British Borstal, and while the film has become one of the most
controversial British films at this time, the
borstal system was reformed in 1982 and the film was allowed to be shown on
British television by 1983.
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