h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

With the advent of all these new fangled DVDs and such (I still haven't got one) I mused on the magic of the early days of video. My 'local' video rental place, Sunshine Video, was about five miles away from where I lived. We didn't have a video player (as ever behind the times) but my friend Helen did. It's hard to know what to pick when there's only a choice of about four (I think there was a single five litre ice cream box of cards with pictures on they didn't trust the general public with the actual cases and kept them behind the counter).

My first experience of this new technology was.... Attack of the Killer Tomatoes!

What was the first video you watched?



Anna

Wow, I don't remember the first ever, but our first video player was a Betamax, long after they'd stopped making them and the tapes, so we only had two films and a spare junk tape! The first one I think was Flashdance! With a very young Jean Claude VanDamme!

Queegle

We got out video recorder in 1984. I don't remember what the first video I borrowed from the library was, but I remember borrowing Amadeus very early on. One of the first things I taped off the telly was Star Wars (a new hope) and I've still got that tape. The recorder is still working, although I gave it to somebody.

Our television which we got in 1983 refuses to break down, and we won't buy a new-fangled one with a remote control until the present one packs it in.

Apocalypse Now! When the phrase "Charlie Don't Surf!" meant something completely different.

Being that the previous post to this refers to the years when I was born, I feel. Um. Young.

I remember watching Disney films. And the Yellow Submarine film (f**king scarred me for life as well). And that's about it. Can't remember much from back then...

I remember my favourite film from the video library (betamax of course) was called the monsters first christmas, some sugary thing involving monsters (who looked like the monster munch omnsters) and a little girl in a white frilly dress...I've also got a feeling she had a wand.

I was also a huge annie addict

Probably Disney something or other... unless I caught something of my parent's movies (er, they are/were sci-fi geeks) before then.

Umm... 'I Spit on Your Grave'

Hey Gosho, was 'Driller Killer' out of stock?

Yeah, it was... how did you know?

I'm not kidding - it really was Now, what was the third of the three video nasties which caused all the stir during the early 80's? Texas Chainsaw Massacre?

Evil Dead caused a bit of a stir, but I think the third of the trio may have been a holocaust thing. Because I think I remember the NME saying porn was ok but 'I spit on your driller killer holocaust grave' was not.

We had betamax first - but I think we only recorded off TV, didn't get any pre-recorded.
When we swopped to VHS, we treated ourselves to the Star Wars trilogy to start our video collection.

It was probably Star Wars. It seemed everyone had seen them but me. I waited until 2 or more were out, watched them back-to-back. It was a joy not to be at the movies, full of noisey kids reciting the lines!

My first was "The Thing" - mindblowing!!!

Gosho - I think the 3rd film was possibly "Last house on the Left"? by Wes Craven.

Krull! Absolutely fantastic film, and yes, on Betamax. It was 1982, I was 7, and my dad was running an exciting new video section in his localle shoppe.

My second was the one I found he'd procured for himself - Ai No Corrida (In The Realm Of The Senses)... Crikey!

But yay for Krull!

evidently it was 1983/4 and I was 8.