Watching the birth of the general public internet that everyone has access to.
I remember the early 90s hearing people talk about it, then seeing signs of it in the mid 90s. We all thought it was going to make the world so much better for everything and everyone.
Then starting in the late 90s everyone was getting online and it just went crazy.
It was exciting to be around for the start of it all.
We got to live life without an internet and then all of sudden it was here and we couldn’t live without it.
It was like being the generation that saw the first airplanes and commercial aviation becoming part of the world.
The internet … I’ve mentioned this before and whenever I suggest the internet started in the 90s, I get corrected that technically it was started in the 80s or even the 70s. I’m talking about the general internet that the public interacted with, the internet in the 90s that we all know and understand, the internet with cat memes and porn.
Not having to work. I was 12 or 13 at the turn of the millennium. So not working was nice.
I probably miss my Gameboy Pocket (and Pokemon). Yeah the screen was tiny, not in color, and it wasn’t backlit, and I have a Switch and Steam Deck and of course an smartphone, but…Idk, the Pocket was just so quaint and cute. I could just play that play Pokemon for hours on end, anywhere I wanted, without disturbing anyone. Which I did, sometimes even at school, which eventually got it confiscated by a teacher; I got it back at the end of the day.
It was such a paradigm change in gaming (Yes, I know the original GB or even Sega GameGear existed, but I knew few people who had one and they were bulky as all hell).
there’s a whole market for these pocket sized (and non pocket) emulators. My MM+ w onion os is great for gba games. been grinding out the battle network series and this just lets pick up and go.
I recommend Retro Game Corps the most for recommending these types of systems.
Fresh episodes of X-Files and Star Trek: TNG every week.
Just that whole experience of something on television being a cultural zeitgeist because everyone had to watch it at the exact same time because that was the only time it existed. Sure, you could record it on VHS and watch later, but it wasn’t the same. Even being at home watching alone felt like participating in a social event.
My wife and I are increasingly convinced that we, humanity, peaked in the 90s. We had conquered acid rain. We were removing CFCs. The internet was coming in, so were mobile phones (but only to call and text, so you could stay in touch but escaped the trap of a million cameras around us), the music was so incredibly broad (Brit pop, grunge, spice girls, dance … it was like the world’s biggest buffet), the high street was still doing fine, TV had great shows (Seinfeld, X-files etc) and everyone just seemed a damn sight happier than today since misery-communities hadn’t formed on the internet to celebrate and refine their misery.
It was a simpler time. And all powered by a healthy western economy and the declaration of a (naive) victory in the Cold War.
Peak delusion as well. We basically believe everything on TV. I think the 90s in western countries were just more mild, but not objectively better. Now everything is extreme, both much worse and much better.
That’s what they said in The Matrix, isn’t it? 1999: the peak of human civilization. At the time, the future looked bright, but in the grand scheme of things, it hasn’t played out as we hoped.
It’s awesome that you did that. Would be cool if medicine could fix that for you one day. Did you know there’s loads of walking videos online? Also for vr. And there’s games.
For me it’s holding a VHS in the store and looking at the cover.
Yeah - that’s a good one. Our local store had a Friday night deal: 5 weekly rentals for 10 bucks, or something. We’d go order fish and chips, then go argue over which 5 movies to rent, while our dinner was cooking.
Although I shouldn’t, I miss my shitty old Datsun sometimes. Easy to diagnose problems, simple to get into and fix, with minimal tools required. No tech - just mechanical and electrical.
Nostalgia’s a funny thing. Lots of things I get wistful for, but they’ve been replaced by (arguably) more convenient things:
Having to call your mate’s house at a specific time, because you know he has footy training and won’t be home to answer before that time
Waiting until specific times of night to watch your favourite TV shows or listen to your favourite radio DJs
The massive zip-up carry case for all my cassette tapes, to play in the car
6-way link-up Daytona arcade racing
Loading my computer games from multiple floppy discs (X-Tree Gold macros for the win!)
Then there’s things that I miss, because now I have to adult:
Sleeping in on weekends
Work I don’t have to take home with me
Being able to stay out stupidly late on Friday and Saturday nights
Getting absolutely shitfaced on those nights, without worrying about the hangover
Eating a bag of chips and calling it dinner, because there’s no one else you need to feed
My brother collected these. I think he still has some of them somewhere. Like the original boxes for Diablo and Starcraft.
I collected some too, but I think I eventually got rid of mine. I was into the various Maxis Sim games, so I had tons of the boxes. SimCity, SimTower, SimPark, SimIsle…
The best manual was probably Ultima Online, an MMO. I read and studied the shit out of that thing. Used to bring it to school to learn all the spells and stuff. Also came with a good sized, folded-up map of the world on special paper.
I miss not having social media and news that, at least generally, tried to be actual news and not 'JusT ASkinG QUeStioNs' and disingenuous bullshit. It was a wild ride being on social media almost since its birth, but I think it generally was a huge mistake. Things should have stopped at IRC and UseNet.
Anyway, this one really cute guy at college had an epic cassette collection and he was also artistically talented so he made custom covers/inserts for each one. The original tape is long gone, but somewhere I still have my favorite cassette cover that also includes the hand-printed play list.
He had other excellent skills, so I eventually married him.
Born in the early 80s, the 90s been my youth. Reading through the comments here I realize there's nothing I miss from the 90s. Every single thing mentioned here has either been replaced by something better, or isn't gone in the first place.
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