Things that you miss from the 90s?

[pestro87]

The title says it all. Here's mine:

- Euro dance
- 16-bit gaming
- Arcades
- Cheesy B action movies that doesn't take themselves too seriously
- Rollerblades

[opt2not]

Good Hip-hop.

[pestro87]

Good Hip-hop.

YES!

[trap15]

Good hip-hop, resampler-heavy techno, token racial-inclusion characters, geometry.

[KAI]

- Rollerblades

Non mainstream anime and video game culture.
Namco.

[BulletMagnet]

Rocko's Modern Life.

[XoPachi]

The emotion in Pokemon.
The toys (Hot Wheels ftw)
And I'd say cartoons but I'd just be acting like an old man. I do really like a lot of today's toons. But the superhero shows don't live up to old Marvel and DC anymore.

[Aguraki]

ecstasy

[broken harbour]

Rocko's Modern Life.

This.

I miss the carefree-ness and lack of worry in my life in the 90's. Also I miss the music.

[Austin]

Good games.

[Specineff]

The sense of wonder at seeing nascent games, game technologies, peripherals, systems and arcade boards. Flat-shaded polygons, sprites, 60fps scaling. How they did so much with so little. The competition between companies to out-do each other. The fact that games didn't need patches or updates. MiniDiscs. The 16-bit wars. The blunders made back then. Being blown away by the beauty of the first Samurai Shodown.

The fact that the cold war had ended and there was technically nothing to fear.

[louisg]

Batman: The Animated Series!

I miss videogame developers having to cleverly design around limitations. Back then I wished games could be more like movies, but I didn't realize then how boring that would make them. When FPS games came out, there were so many possibilities-- I liked watching every new game that came out introduce something new that we would eventually take for granted. Even the most rudimentary 3d tech was exciting. I liked all the clever work-arounds, and the fact that every 3d engine had to be so focused and not multipurpose.

One thing I miss, being involved with the tracker scene, was that the only way to get anything approaching 'real music' out of a computer was to write it well. It was fun to show people modules and have them remark, "Wow! This sounds like a CD! I didn't know you could do that with a computer!".. speaking of taking technology for granted

I also miss videogames being valued more. By that, I mean that there weren't a bunch of games you could just get for $5 a pop online. You brought home a CD or cart, and that is what you played for the next few months. Though maybe this is just a symptom of getting old I think the market wasn't as glutted though. Indie games are great, but stuff like those used to sell for full retail. I can't decide if this is better or worse!

Figures that everything I miss from the 90s is about tech

[BareKnuckleRoo]

The C64 port of Outrun. I used to love it as a kid, but never found myself very good at it. Going back and playing it... no wonder it was so hard to complete, it's brutally unforgiving with the time limits and the traffic is way harder to deal with than even the arcade is (I thought console ports were usually supposed to be EASIER)! I've beaten the E route in Outrun in MAME, but not on the C64. Thankfully there's a lot of C64 games that have aged much better...

Also, that feeling of getting a new console and feeling nothing but pure excitement. I was always behind console generations (never had a gameboy, was playing C64 even when the NES was out, etc,) but then when the N64 was just released I got one as a present brand spanking new (was christmas or birthday, can't remember) and it was the best thing EVER.

Nowadays any time a new console is released you're worried about patches for fixing bugs, whether games get region free releases etc... we didn't even think to worry about different versions in the 90s as kids...

[ZacharyB]

The dignity of not knowing the depth of man's brazen idiocy via the internet; the prospect of people.

[njiska]

Good Hip-hop.

YES!

Couldn't have said it better.

[louisg]

The C64 port of Outrun. I used to love it as a kid, but never found myself very good at it. Going back and playing it... no wonder it was so hard to complete, it's brutally unforgiving with the time limits and the traffic is way harder to deal with than even the arcade is (I thought console ports were usually supposed to be EASIER)! I've beaten the E route in Outrun in MAME, but not on the C64. Thankfully there's a lot of C64 games that have aged much better...

Huh! I didn't know C64 Outrun came out in North America. I kind of like that version, but probably only because I'm a fan of both Outrun and the C64. I was exposed to that version when I got some emulator that came with it. I was thrilled because nothing on my computer let me play the real Outrun (it was a 486, and MAME didn't even support Pole Position yet).

Yeah, I was also playing C64 well into the 90s. I remember trying to tear my friends away from Doom to check out Skate or Die to no avail. Good machine! Kinda underrated these days IMO. I think it probably complements the NES rather than competing head-on with it.

[Kaiser]

Decent midi/tracker music from late 90s PC games, Alexander Brandon (who composed many soundtracks including unreal series, jazz jackrabbit 1&2&unfinished 3, Deus Ex) was a genius in this regard.

Oh and how games were becoming more and more fun to play until early 00s happened then things started to go downhill gradually reaching the shitpile of gaming that is now with stupidly expensive (including DLC) and casual-infested games made for fucking kiddie jackasses. Sure there are exceptions but i'm talking about the MAINSTREAM

[Gespenst]

Namco.

More like the whole 90's era VG industry.

Whatever EA has murdered this decade (Westwood, Origin, etc) >:(
Quake 3, Unreal Tournament (the first game).

[Skykid]

16bit

[Rob]

The dignity of not knowing the depth of man's brazen idiocy via the internet;

Or not having the internet to expose one's idiocy. Hard to resist sometimes.

[null1024]

Namco.

Man, Namco and Sega were pretty much the 90s for me when it came to arcade favorites.

Rocko's Modern Life.

Oh man! I miss that show. Same with Animaniacs.
And then I used to watch the fuck out of Swat Kats.


Ah, this thread's bringing back some good memories.

[Jonst]

Playing streets of rage 2 for the first time.

[emphatic]

When 12" vinyl was prominently club music aimed at DJs and not "limited" releases of "cool" bands for hipsters to frame and hang on their walls. Seriously, I can only buy EDM releases in digital format now but every fucking metal or singer/songwriter releases coloured vinyl albums? WTF?

[Randorama]

good hip-hop

Well, I happen to agree with DJ shadow on this:

Why hip-hop sucks in '96

...and I miss Taito, but more in general arcade culture.

[TransatlanticFoe]

Toaplan
Exo Squad
Cart-based consoles
The absence of smartphones

[Ed Oscuro]

Well, I happen to agree with DJ shadow on this:

First thing that came to my mind too

I only first heard it last year though.

Ehh, I miss Macs with weird hardware and software (Claris Works lol). Also huge files across the Internet...30MB!? How am I gonna find that many floppies?

Cart-based consoles
The absence of smartphones

Add "consoles that didn't sound like jet engines" (at least until 9/9/99)

Also obvious - no War on Terrorism. We did have drugs and Iraq though!

[Obiwanshinobi]

Photographic film, partying, schools, rock concerts, taping the radio programs, people who are no more.

[NTSC-J]

Aside from the best decade of video games, I miss anime on VHS and there being only one Star Wars trilogy.

[Gespenst]

Those cheesy live-action FMVs in video games? Check.

[dan76]

TV movies, everything else sucked.