The 1980s: What a time to be alive. The Berlin Wall fell, action movies were better —”Die Hard,” “Bloodsport,” and “Predator” all came out within one year — and Barrett Firearms found its roots. But seriously, all three of those movies with 399 days of each other.

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We at Ballistic, like many of you, are children of nostalgia. We dream of a simpler time when firearms were revered as marvels of technology. Queue Ronnie Barrett and his legendary M82A1. While most manufacturers were just trying to crack the market with tried and true designs, Barrett was out innovating something that would change the game forever.

Barrett M82A1 Origins

Barrett designed the first .50-caliber M82A1 in 1980. A shoulder-fired .50-cal was something simply never seen before. The military quickly took notice and the rest, as they say, is history. And holy nostalgia, Batman! We’ve found the original commercial filmed for the M82A1.

The commercial, in all its VHS glory, features live-fire and even an appearance by the legend himself: Ronnie Barrett.

The classic 80s narration makes us feel like we’re watching an instructional video in sophomore year history: “Barrett Firearms Manufacturing introduces the Model 82A1. This caliber-50 weapon gives to the infantry squad and individual soldier the firepower formerly delivered only by the heavy machine gun at the company level.”

So go back to the 1980s with us and watch the entire commercial above. For more on the M82A1, please visit Barrett.net.