Classic 80s RPG Flavor Elements

Right now I'm trying to come up with retro-fantasy campaign optional rules for my game design project, with flavor elements that evoke some of the quirky and arbitrary rules of the 80s era (basically, 1e and 2e TSR stuff). The actual combat mechanics would wash out, since I'm not trying to implement things at the level of man-to-man combat, but I'm still trying to think about the system-independent concepts and ideas that stand out as unique to the era. Basically, anything that seemed to exist for no clear reason other than "Gygax said so", but somehow propagated through several generations of rule revisions by virtue of inertia and nostalgia.

Examples that leap to mind:

• Melnibonean ethics by genetic destiny (orcs are born chaotic!)
• Clerics can't use edged weapons (in any conceivable universe)
• Humans get more specialty classes, but demihumans get to multiclass
• Clerics get prayers automatically, mages need to find/research their spells first
• Goofball one-trick-pony monsters based on cheap Asian toys (I <3 rust monsters!)
• Linear warriors, quadratic wizards
• A zillion polearms
• Element-breathing dragons, color-coded for your convenience
• Big, worthless treasures (You won... ten thousand coppers that you can't carry!)
• Bumpy character progression tables
• Vancian magic based on preparation (and baroque spell names)