The '80s Push into Modern Pop Culture

The past few years have seen a huge resurgence for the 80’s theme in popular culture once again – one of the biggest movers in this area has been through TV shows such as Stranger Things which had been able to recapture much of the charm for an audience that may have been a similar age at the time and possibly even romanticize the period of time for an audience that hadn’t even been born yet – many are also suggesting that the Netflix show may also be responsible for the sudden rise in popularity for the tabletop game Dungeons & Dragons, whilst it had been previously represented in popular TV shows the 80s theme brought about in Stranger Things certainly allowed many to relive some nostalgia feelings.

The same has also been true in gaming as themes have been adjusting – whilst some are trying to stylize to recapture some of the charm with early gaming entries – one of the ways this has been done is through emulation as many emulators have recently become popular again. Whether through the speed running community which have made waves in keeping old games alive to the current drought of newer titles and increasing numbers of people stuck at home looking for entertainment, many arcade classics have found a foothold again. The other approach has been through the growth of mobile devices much for the same reasoning, porting a classic arcade game directly to mobile had been pretty straight forward and has allowed a lot of accessibility where specific software or hardware may have bee required beforehand.

The increasing popularity has allowed these themes to work their way in to other genres too, one of the more prominent ones has been within online casinos again for similar reasons as others – a key figurehead character is often used to push these titles forward and have been used to great effective in this market. There had been recent adjustments to initiatives such as Gamestop aimed at reducing participation options, but many players using non-Gamestop sites still find some here with many offering these popular titles and themes to grow.

It’s likely this approach will continue too – as we move forward into the digital age with further improvements to many of our devices there is a bit of a longing for a more simple time – whether this just be an effort to disconnect or even to relive some of their younger years, and as the older audience continue to interact more with newer technology and get involved in markets which typically they had not been represented in before, this need for nostalgia will continue to grow. It is certainly exciting though to see, the blending of two periods in time as a time before modern computing merges with what’s available now, and games such as dungeons and dragons has found a way to also be reinvented in a digital way and continues to bridge the gap between two different audiences, and two different periods in time.