Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Meet your predecessors!

Pictures of you in 30 years or less will have the same effect.

Great stuff.

Soem of those looks are still around at conventions and game stores...

Awesome pics. I love the pic of Ripley with the Xenomorph!

Sadly the only reference I get besides the star wars ones. Very cool. What an age of mystery.

#36 Was a man right...................right?!

KingCracker wrote:#36 Was a man right...................right?!

Some things are better not known.....

13 and 17 are pretty sweet.

I remember attending cons in the late 80s and thinking how hard costuming was; that you pretty much had to make your own stuff. This looks several years earlier, and you can see a very homespun aesthetic.

Why is everyone so fething old? Has the median age of nerdery decreased over the years? Are we just their kids?

They seem to be mostly showcasing costumed people, which at that time would not usually have included kids. Wait, I take that back. Actually on second look quite a few of them are young. Don't let the bad hairstyles and facial hair fool you.

so many bikinis

Ahtman wrote:Pictures of you in 30 years or less will have the same effect.

Unlikely. Looks like there were a lot more women that attended these things in the '80s.

Also, someone get Supergirl a bikini wax, STAT!

Cannerus_The_Unbearable wrote:Why is everyone so fething old? Has the median age of nerdery decreased over the years? Are we just their kids?

6 of one, half-dozen of the other.

Average age of SF nerds has decreased over the years, certainly. You have more and easier access to copies of stuff (we used to have to get copies of tv shows via multi-generational dubs off vhs tapes - with the corresponding loss of picture and audio quality. Nowadays you can get digital rips off tivo torrented to your computer.). It was all shared via the postal service and mutually beneficial (you send me stuff, I send you stuff).

The cons I went to in the 80s were out of the price range of kids - unless they were working a good job. It took me a month to save for one of the big ones (that was con entry as well as the hotel stay and airfares. Airfares have gone down and the advent of wotif and other last-minute hotel room finder sites have also lowered those prices).

Incidentally, I recognised several of those nerds in the pictures.
(you did tend to see the same faces at these things, year in and year out.)

It looks like they couldn't afford to pay hot chicks to come wear skimpy costumes back then. Really digging Supergirl's happy trail. /gags

CuddlySquig wrote:so many bikinis

Not enough paper bags.

The same is true of so many conventions these days, Korny.

Too true.

The unspoken rule is still not followed.
(Lycra is only to be worn by certain body shapes, lest the subject be the target of much scorn, mirth and japery).

We also had no such thing as the "slave girl Leia pillow fight".

I don't miss those days at all.

This old man is amazing.

I suspect he may be organizing a Diplomacy tournament.

Cannerus_The_Unbearable wrote:Why is everyone so fething old? Has the median age of nerdery decreased over the years? Are we just their kids?

Besides the reasons listed above, it has to do with cultural changes as well. If you look at a High School Yearbook from that time it will look like a bunch of 30 year olds. Part of it may also have to do with picture quality as well, but I still think that even with HD that a kid born today looking at a picture of you in your HS yearbook 25 years from now will think roughly the same thing.

Mannahnin wrote:I suspect he may be organizing a Diplomacy tournament.

I laughed more than I should have.

Either that or micro-armor. Those are my bets.

#12 Looks like her top is about to come off or something.

#22 That is a dude on the left, right?

I laughed just because I remembered how old you both are.

chromedog wrote:The same is true of so many conventions these days, Korny.

Too true.

The unspoken rule is still not followed.
(Lycra is only to be worn by certain body shapes, lest the subject be the target of much scorn, mirth and japery).

We also had no such thing as the "slave girl Leia pillow fight".

I don't miss those days at all.

Speaking of the unspoken rule, was I the only one who was dreading going to a nerd convention of any sort where there was a strong possibility of overweight nerds would take it upon themselves to dress up as Spartans from 300 back in the summer of 2007?

Those are some impressive photos!

Anyone else notice that the average age is MUCH higher than what we typically see today?

Is the guy to the right of c-3po Frazzled?

alarmingrick wrote:

KingCracker wrote:#36 Was a man right...................right?!

Some things are better not known.....

Some things are better not seen.....but I cursed myself seeing it. One of those once seen, you cant unseen thing

I dont know whats worse, some of those (frankly horrendous) costumes or that carpeting/wallpaper combo. Yikes that nasty.

Hey you cant bash on the costumes man! Think about when those pics were taken? You couldnt just go onto ebay or Craigslist and BUY a super suit. You had to make it from what little sewing skill you would have, and the carpet from the closets!




But yea, 80s carpet/room decor is just.....vomit inducing

I think #1's son taught me Geology in yr10/11, they look really quite alike, 'cept his son has a beard instead.

#2 is wearing too much /4irony

#5 is gunna need new drapes for the house.

#6 needs a bath

#7 looks like (s)he's about to sneeze and is trying (alas, all in vain) to stop it.

#8 looks a tad young to be wearing something that skimpy at a convention where the old geezer from #4 is stalking about.

#12 is hoping that people are too busy looking at her assets to notice her fart face.

Unlike #5, #18 was on a tighter budget, and is going to need some new wallpaper.

#20 Haven't realised that you rub sticks to make a fire, not steel.

#21 Just noticed that the old guy from #4 has suspicious white stains in various places.

The bespectacled guy in #22 is thinking back to when his new wife didn't have such a man-face.

The bespectacled guy in #23 is oddly turned on by the man-face of the woman next to him.

In #25 we get to see Yoda; no strings attached... Oh, wait...

#29 is trying to calculate the size of his penis.

Woman in the far left of #31 is listening intently to a conversation she isn't part of.

#34 is gunna need a new tablecloth.

#36 got her hair stuck in one of those salon hairdryer chairs and decided to incorporate it.

I'm going to try and sleep off the headache induced by the carpet and wallpaper.

So #36 IS a woman then? Is that what we are going with here?

I honestly don't know, but given the amount of man-face going on there, i'm leaning towards it being a woman.