Things that you miss from the 90s?

[Skykid]

My first girlfriend.

[ED-057]

correct aspect ratios

running a server on a residential broadband connection

cheap food and gasoline

[null1024]

cheap food and gasoline

This. I'm thinking about the days when my family would go on a road trip, we'd stop at a Waffle House or something every once in a while, and not pay out the ass. Siiiigh. Can't do stuff like that now.

Mind you, it's probably for the best, eating at Waffle House more than once in a year is probably the worst possible thing for your body.
a delicious plate of fried everything

[MadSteelDarkness]

Cheap dope.

And The X-Files.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

The almighty five dollar bill was good for about fifty to sixty game tokens at the local Regency Game Palace arcade joint. Even though the signage would say it'd dispense 40 tokens, the ol' token dispenser would give you more than that alloted amount easily. So if I played the right arcade games, I could stretch that fiver into three hours or so of playing those classic arcade games. In retrospect, that was better entertainment than going to watch a first-run movie on the big screen back in the day. Not to mention, the U.S. minimum wage was tagged at $4.25 per hour back in the summer of 1993 ever since it's inception back in July of 1988. Prior to that significant 90 cent wage increase, it was clocked in at a mere $3.35 per hour working for minimum wage, stateside. So yes, it'd take a while to save up for such a "big ticket item" in those days (or else, put it on "lay-away" at the ol' K-Mart).

Of course, there were plently of video game bargins to score on the cheap...only if you knew where and when to find them. You might recall back in early January of 1994, when TTI decided that they weren't going to distribute the newfangled NEC produced 32-bit powered PC-FX gaming console in the USA (which made retailers decide to dump all their remaining TurboGrafx-16 and Turbo Duo hardware/software at rock-bottom prices to make more room for the incoming newer SNES and Genesis software titles that would overtake the existing/remaining valuable retail shelving). So it was possible to buy a brand new Turbo Duo console or even a new Turbo Express for a mere $99.99 in late 1994 into early 1995 indeed. (Even the TE's optional TV turner adapter by the name of Turbo Vision was selling at a scant $39.99 brand new at TRU in early 1994 when it originally had a MSRP of $99.99 back in early 1991.) Or even pay a mere $29.99 USD for a brand new TG-16 console from the local Toys-R-Us in December of 1993 (quite a cheap-ass bargain when it originally came with a MSRP of $189.99 USD back in the summer of 1989).

Heck, it was cheaper to buy a new copy of TTI's Magical Chase for $19.99 from the local TRU stores in early 1994 than it was from the mail-order business, Turbo Zone Direct, later on in late-1994 and into 1995 at the more expensive asking $39.95 pricepoint for the very same exact TTI title of MC. Some folks were never the wiser for paying double of TRU's asking price for a new copy of TTI's MC from TZD at that particular point in time.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Skykid]

And The X-Files.

Amen.

I miss Gamesmaster, Super Play magazine, and King of Fighters being amazing year after year.

And arcades. All those arcades.

[broken harbour]

Oh god, I miss Gamefan magazine, easily the best gaming publication there ever was. I also miss 2D Street Fighter Games.

[Skykid]

Oh god, I miss Gamefan magazine, easily the best gaming publication there ever was.

It wasn't. It had an edge when it started but the overly enthusiastic scoring and distinctly underwritten reviews were a bit lacklustre. Super Play bombed it, and most of everything else.

[Jonst]

Oh god, I miss Gamefan magazine, easily the best gaming publication there ever was. I also miss 2D Street Fighter Games.

Yeah,2D street fighter games...awesome!

[UnscathedFlyingObject]

I miss the 90's style FPS! Doom, Hexen, Blood, Rise of the Triad! I went to catholic school and I used to play Doom and Hexen all the time during computer class . The fear of getting caught by the sisters just made it even MORE fun. Moar ultra violence, plssssss!

I just recently picked up some Old Navy shirts for use at home. That shit just feels CHEAP. I have one of their shirts from 10 years ago that I'm still wearing and that feels better. You gotta pay premium nowadays for decent stuff.

[mission65]

HAIR

[Ed Oscuro]

Hmm, I had something earthshattering to add to this list, but all I can think of are No Fear shirts

Oh, there's a few food items that were pretty awesome for the time, although my list looks decidedly unlike what other peoples' might:
- I remember the Nutri-Grain cereal was pretty good actually
- And this!
- OK, how about something that wouldn't be strange for a kid in the '90s to like: Ecto Cooler. However, it may have never disappeared to begin with.

Also: Being able to walk into a junk/antiques shop and not have the person in charge looking up prices on their phone / counter PC from eBay. At least I think that's what goes on these days.

[NTSC-J]

Oh god, I miss Gamefan magazine, easily the best gaming publication there ever was.

It wasn't. It had an edge when it started but the overly enthusiastic scoring and distinctly underwritten reviews were a bit lacklustre. Super Play bombed it, and most of everything else.

I've never read Super Play, but Gamefan was the only American publication to champion STGs and they did so every month. While EGM was giving us gems like "consider yourself a god if you can clear this [Giga Wing] without 100 continues" and "[Gunbird 2] is a paint-by-number shooter stenciled in from shooters past", with Game Informer saying "these kinds of games need to die", Gamefan was doing full-feature treatment like this:





There was seriously nothing like this before or since and while it ultimately sent them to the grave, I'll always love them for it.

[dcharlieJP]

all the festivals in the early/mid 90s were insane - the Phoenix Festival in 94 was particularly mad, pretty much every band i cared about played. Utterly amazing, plus Frank Sidebottom on the comedy stage the day before the music part of the festival kicked off. Wonderstuffs "last" concert, Pop Will Eat Itself circa "Everythings Cool?" etc etc...

London Club scene in the later 90s Turnmills etc - such a great vibe, everyone friendly, tons of great music

Ipswich Town not sucking we were actually a good team in the late 90s - funny fans too. At the away game at Liverpool where i was studying at the time during the Evans era... Kop : "Going down going down going down!" response : "so are we! so are we! so are we!"

[Mero]

The music. Back in the 90's I had what is now "old skool" hardcore, jungle, happy hardcore and drum and bass. Even gabba (something I'm not a major fan of) was OK in the mid 90's. Nowadays everything I used to like has either died off, evolved into something else or gone shit.

Can't really think of anything else I miss, I'm still playing the same game genres that I was playing back in the 90s so I don't really miss them, I don't play current gen titles (except 360 shooter ports).

[Skykid]

Gamefan

I assure you, we also championed Gamefan as the best US publication, and it was available widely in UK newsagents for a premium we used to gladly pay. They were the first publication to really go all out on the import scene and I loved the style.

But they didn't hold their form. Retrospectively, they scored almost every thing too highly, even real shovelware, and the critical ability didn't seem on par with the enthusiasm. It was also a magazine that fizzled out painfully, it was kind of a husk by the end.

So yeah, I enjoyed it and respected what it did, but Super Play, Sega Saturn magazine, Jonathan Edwards era CVG and the ill fated Maximum were all superior IMO.

[Edmond Dantes]

Does anyone but me remember a cartoon called Fox's Peter Pan and the Pirates? It was a show I didn't think highly of when it was on, but when I caught it in reruns later on, I realized it was awesome.

And, of course, it's not coming to DVD any time soon -__-

Other things:

When Sierra On-Line was an actual force in the PC gaming market.
The Nintendo vs. Sega rivalry.
Suncoast Video.
Going to Hastings or whatever video rental every weekend and genuinely being excited.

Stupid as this sounds, I miss VHS tapes, and particularly the part where you could fast-forward through ANYTHING (unlike DVDs where you're often forced to watch logos or FBI warnings).

Oh, and when anime was actually a new and exciting thing and everything looked like it had potential, not like now where we're oversaturated with martial arts fighting and other overdone genres and true classics often get buried (although hopefully Discotek media will begin a resurgence of this kind of stuff).

When Rumiko Takahashi was most known for Ranma 1/2, not Inuyasha.

When nerdy references in fiction were rare and something to be delighted to find, not like now where they're done purely because the authors are uncreative nerds themselves.

[Gespenst]

The era when people never complain whether a game isn't hyperrealistic or not.

Today? Just take a look where most people keep bashing any non-simulator games for being 'arcade shit' or whatsoever.

[null1024]

Today? Just take a look where most people keep bashing any non-simulator games for being 'arcade shit' or whatsoever.

These are the kind of people who should be flayed.

[louisg]

The era when people never complain whether a game isn't hyperrealistic or not.

Today? Just take a look where most people keep bashing any non-simulator games for being 'arcade shit' or whatsoever.

In the 90s? As soon as 3d systems hit, anything 2d automatically got like a 2/5 review, with most of them saying something like "Ew this looks like Genesis graphics!". It was *all* about virtual reality. Why would you ever want to play Darius when you have Shockwave Assault?! This isn't something I miss. I think people have a MUCH better attitude on arcade-style games now.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

In the 90s? As soon as 3d systems hit, anything 2d automatically got like a 2/5 review, with most of them saying something like "Ew this looks like Genesis graphics!". It was *all* about virtual reality. Why would you ever want to play Darius when you have Shockwave Assault?! This isn't something I miss. I think people have a MUCH better attitude on arcade-style games now.

When Final Fantasy 7 came out, its graphics were all the rage despite that, quite frankly, they looked quite shitty. Yes, it was an early release, but the overworld map models looked way too low-res and blocky, and the 3-D really didn't do much to change the standard RPG gameplay. Stuff like Parasite Eve, FF8 (vast improvement in graphical quality), Legend of Dragoon, etc, did a much better job of showing what the system could do... but people loved what was new and shiny.

[pestro87]

The C64 port of Outrun

Nice! I had the Atari ST and the MD port but I've always liked how different the Atari ST port felt (or maybe I just felt that way because it had a different OST ). It seems like the C64 port is a bit more closer to the arcade (as it's more fast paced).

Playing streets of rage 2 for the first time.

This!

And The X-Files.

Amen.

The X-Files is one of my favorite tv-shows of all time! I remember being devastated as a kid when each season ended in a massive cliffhanger The first arc (with the government conspiracies) is still the best imo (and I've re-watched it countless times, haha). I'm not a big fan of the second arc when Scully was pregnant with an alien, Mulder went missing and he was replaced by the Terminator from T2 :/

Also, I remember the hilarious fan-art in the swedish SEGA Force magazine (I think that's what the magazine was called but I might be mistaken) during the 16-bit wars. They mostly consisted of Sonic killing Mario in different ways

[BIL]

Awesome GameFan Dimahoo & ESP Ra.De. features

Cool, never seen those before. They also had a Batrider two-pager which mentioned Toaplan, Cave, Psikyo and Raizing, along with a handful of their games. That was hugely useful just for letting me know these games were still current in Japan. When I got into import shooters a few years later in the early 00s those were exactly the names I looked up.

[null1024]

When Final Fantasy 7 came out, its graphics were all the rage despite that, quite frankly, they looked quite shitty. Yes, it was an early release, but the overworld map models looked way too low-res and blocky, and the 3-D really didn't do much to change the standard RPG gameplay. Stuff like Parasite Eve, FF8 (vast improvement in graphical quality), Legend of Dragoon, etc, did a much better job of showing what the system could do... but people loved what was new and shiny.

Oh man, FF7 is atrociously ugly. Even at the time. Didn't understand all the hype about how it looked. It has its moments where it does something neat [seeing the backgrounds switch to FMV and rotate occasionally was neato], but is super-ugly for a 1997 release.

FF8 was something to behold at the time though, and it's still pretty pretty.
Although, all my memories of FF8 during the 90s were of my brother hogging the damn system and then selling the PS1...

I always wondered why Square did all that pre-rendered BG stuff, it doesn't hold up as well to me as realtime BGs. More immersive. Like in Threads of Fate [although, I popped it in for the first time in ages and wanted to sell it ASAP]. Would have been neat to see Killer Instinct style FMV backgrounds though.

I would say I miss virtual reality being all the rage, but now we have the Oculus Rift on the way. Just seeing the pictures of it on people gives me that 90s "jack-in" feeling. All it needs is more wires to complete the effect, haha. And they need to come out from behind the head, of course.

[EllertMichael]

Oh, man… what do I miss from the 90's?

THE CHICKS!
Alicia Silverstone
Liv Tyler
Neve Campbell
Rose McGowan
the pink power ranger
Kelly Bundy
Topanga
Kelly Kapowski
Joey Lauren Adams
Jennifer Love Hewitt
Jenny McCarthy
Pam Anderson

Gaming, obviously.
Even though most of the gaming I do today is 90's developed/released.
But Arcades existing sure was nice...

TV was better. That's just a fact.
Nickelodeon - SNICK
Mtv - Beavis & Butt-head
TGIF - Boy Meets World

Batman: The Animated Series!

^Yes! & the X-Men cartoons

Delicious Discontinued Snacks:

Ecto Cooler.

^of course!
Cheetos paws
3d Doritos
OK soda
Surge
Butterfinger BB's
Green Gatorade in a glass bottle after Soccer practice



Oh, yeah... and EC f'n W.

[Dragoforce]

Oh, yeah... and EC f'n W.

Stone Cold Steve Austin/WWF attitude
X-files
Eurodance
Not having internet
Racism being considered retarded (unlike today)

[No_not_like_Quake]

Scrambled porn.

[KAI]

The Simpsons.

[GaijinPunch]

Raves (in warehouses)
Ambient rooms (at raves in warehouses, which have now been replaced by the lounge)
DJ population being a fraction of what it is now in size, but requiring much more devotion of each of it's constituents
Same statement as above, but substitute DJ for clubber
The thrill you'd get before walking into a brick and mortar store wondering what new gem you'd find, or good deal you'd find.
Always being the youngest guy in my group of friends... whereas now I think I'm the oldest.
Good Simpsons episodes
Low gas prices (although I don't give a shit now as I drive like once a year)
Icy Hot Stuntaz

[shmuppyLove]

Icy Hot Stuntaz

At least one of them turned out alright