Feb 27, 2014 6:30 AM

Gallery: Amazing '80s Ads From Omni, the Mag That Defined Geekdom

Photos by Ariel Zambelich/WIRED
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From 1978-1995, no magazine looked to the future as excitedly as *Omni*. (Expand the gallery to fullscreen for the best experience.)
Photos by Ariel Zambelich/WIRED
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Your parents were on to the Columbia House scam, but if you were lucky, they'd let you join the Science Fiction Book Club.

Photos by Ariel Zambelich/WIRED
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VIC-20: The Commodore 64's cheaper cousin, and the author's first ever gaming device. (*Radar Rat Race* 4eva!)
Photos by Ariel Zambelich/WIRED
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Before *Red Sonja*, before we even knew Wilt Chamberlain could act, there was the original *Conan*.

Photos by Ariel Zambelich/WIRED
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"Astrocade Gives You More!" Because next-gen experiences like *Checkmate* and *Scribbling* would never become obsolete. LOL *Scribbling*.
Photos by Ariel Zambelich/WIRED
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*Cosmos* fans: bet you didn't know Big Oil was behind the greatest science miniseries of all time!

Photos by Ariel Zambelich/WIRED
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Fun fact: the Walkman was created for webisodes about Rick Moranis' character from *Ghostbusters*. No, seriously, it's true.
Photos by Ariel Zambelich/WIRED
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"And with so much personal information being stored in computers...it's been of continuing concern to us at IBM."

Photos by Ariel Zambelich/WIRED
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Atari 2600 and its murderer's row of gaming titles. Shame you treated these like crap, you non-investment-minded ingrates.
Photos by Ariel Zambelich/WIRED
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One man, five douchey getups. Though we'll give him credit for skiing with a cassette machine around his neck.

Photos by Ariel Zambelich/WIRED
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The French translates to "don't worry, in a few years you and your D&D buddies will run the tech world."
Photos by Ariel Zambelich/WIRED
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Believe it or not, there was a time when film marketers knew what the word "restraint" meant.

Photos by Ariel Zambelich/WIRED
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Between this and football, Mattel's handheld electronics game was on point. (Sorry, Nintendo Game & Watch.)
Photos by Ariel Zambelich/WIRED
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Oh, tiny keyboards. We all had you, yet none of us became musicians. What's that about?

Photos by Ariel Zambelich/WIRED
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"All that computer for $599? Who'd expect that in 20 years something the size of a credit card would run laps around this thing?"
Photos by Ariel Zambelich/WIRED
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"Apple, the computer *not* worth waiting for. Until we build a bunch of huge crowded stores, anyway."

Photos by Ariel Zambelich/WIRED
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The next time your friends tease you for not dubbing Human League songs onto TDK, you tell them if Ampex is good enough for the Bee Gees, it's good enough for you.
Photos by Ariel Zambelich/WIRED
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Okay, we're just now realizing that One Guy, Multiple Douchey Looks is a personal-electronics ad trope. We're just not sure *why*.

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