When Was the Best Time to Grow Up Geeky?

E.T. and Elliott (Universal Pictures)

I guess there's never been a good time to grow up a geek - those of us who prefer to be challenged mentally rather than physically have never had it easy, especially as kids – but in terms of cultural richness, I reckon I can make a good case for the period of my childhood as a golden age for the genre.

I guess if we're dads, many of us will have grown up in the late seventies and early eighties. In movies, we had Star Wars and Superman, Close Encounters and Ghostbusters, Indy and Marty McFly. Elliott was us, we were Elliott, living in the suburbs, playing with Greedo and Walrusman, rolling our d20s and finding freedom through our bicycles. The period ended, perhaps, with the ultimate kids' film, The Goonies.

On TV, in Britain, we joined Blake and his band on board the Liberator, boldly going into territory which Firefly would later visit. Tom Baker, a great Doctor, gave way to a fantastic new one that was ours to own: the young, breathless, dynamic Peter Davison (current showrunner Steven Moffat's favourite). The historical became hysterical through Rowan Atkinson's Black Adder (I tried to convince my parents to let me watch it on the thin argument it would help with my school History essays).

In books, (and then TV, radio, records, towels…) I discovered the genius of Douglas Adams through a moth-eaten copy of the Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy bought in a school féte. To an adolescent the world seems crazy, but Adams knew that was the case for everyone, and parodied it to perfection through the medium of sci-fi. Asterix and Tintin books from the continent were breaking through in Britain, while our home-grown comics were hugely popular, a golden age for the Beano and its ilk, and the groundbreaking 2000AD featuring Judge Dredd.

In toys and games, Lego entered a creative period that laid the foundations for its current world-beating success, with the introduction of themed ranges populated by minifigures and the first Lego Technic sets. In the UK, computers such as the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 were the first games consoles; but titles like Knight Lore and Manic Miner inspired a generation to program themselves, kickstarting the UK games industry that has become so prevalent. And pen and paper gaming also encouraged eighties kids to get creative – we not only crawled through amazing purchased dungeons, we wrote our own. Dungeons & Dragons defined the generation, taught us math and teamwork in a fun, exciting way, and introduced a new generation to the works of JRR Tolkien.

So that's the case for c.1977-1985 – a period of intense creativity in imaginative media. I count myself lucky to have been the right age to experience it. Or perhaps, with geek culture hitting the mainstream, today's generation has it better? Or was there an even greater era to be a geek-kid?

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Tags: 2000AD, 64, 7, Adams, Adder, Asterix, Back, Beano, Black, Blake's, More…Close, Commodore, D&D, Doctor, Douglas, Dredd, ET, Encounters, Future, Galaxy, Ghostbusters, Goonies, Guide, Hitch-Hikers, Indiana, Jones, Judge, Kind, Lego, Lord, Rings, Spectrum, Star, Superman, The, Third, Tintin, Tolkien, Wars, Who, ZX, of, the, to

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Comment by Rich Murray on September 14, 2012 at 8:21am

I would argue for the early 90's.  First exposure to home computers, NES hayday.  1986-1993  I don't remember the movies, from that era much, but at 6 getting my NES in 1986 was love at first play.  Many family events revolved around playing together, keeping notes, figuring out riddles, and if I was lucky my dad let me actually use the controller.  FIrst home computer in 1992.  P33(with a turbo button) 4 meg of ram and a 20 or 30 meg hard drive.  DOS tutorials and all that jazz.  That's the period of time that shaped me, so obviously biased that it is the best time.

Comment by Rob Keisacker on September 8, 2012 at 12:45am

Ahhh, so true, so awesome of a time to grow up....

I spend many hours scrolling throught www.retrojunk.com looking at old tv shows, cartoons, toys, and especially the commercials. 

Comment by Martin Williams on September 6, 2012 at 3:36pm

Thanks Nathan. Yup, 42, the answer to life the universe and everything! '88 to '89 was a strange time, with hair rock giving way to indie and Madchester in the UK almost overnight.

Comment by Nathan Barry on September 6, 2012 at 6:26am

Lovely post Martin, we must be about the same age (40ish?) makes me feel all nostalgic. Most of the history I know comes from Blackadder in some way.

I wouldn't have minded being a little bit older though, purely so I would have been old enough to join in the fun of the M25 rave scene around '88, although I did get to experience the indie music revolution instead I suppose

Comment by Glenn Gass on September 6, 2012 at 6:24am

The best era was 1983-1990.  

Apple 2 computers were entering the used computer market, Commador Vic 64 was on the market allowing families with lower incomes to snap up Vic 20's cheap.  TSR 80's are all over the flea markets.  More computing power was available for young people then had ever been available for children to get there hands on.  The Atari market crash was about to hit causing huge numbers of games to be sold cheaply.  Nintendo was  about to take over our life.  

TV had some great Sci-fi AirWolf, Greatest American Hero, Star Trek the Next Gen. Cable TV hit our local market. 

Best Sci-fi Movies ever.  Final Countdown, Aliens, Dune, Predator.  Great Movies Like Space Balls. (I Kid)

Fall of the Berlin Wall 

It was an error that changed the world.

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