Reminisce About the Late '90s

I was wondering if anyone here would like to just reminisce about anything going on in pop culture, news, games, or music during this time period. Specifically during the year 1999. I'm writing a story set in the time period and would love to hear anything anyone wants to contribute: personal stories, childhood memories, anything goes!

I'll start off. I was 5 at the time and my preschool was run out of this lady's big house. I remember my Mom driving me there in the mornings and smelling the sizzle of bacon and sausage. I remember the upstairs was off-limits because some of the railing was broken and my friend claimed he had snuck up there and jumped off onto the couch below. I remember watching Bear in the Big Blue House and seeing the older kids play Super Smash Bros in the living room. Good times!

In 1999, I pre-ordered the Dreamcast at Toys R Us, it was the first time I not only preordered a system, but the first time I bought one at launch.

I graduated high school.

https://youtu.be/RkEXGgdqMz8

Man I fancied her.

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Originally Posted by cleeg

Man I fancied her.

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She blew up, still sings though.

I was 15, just finishing secondary school (Graduate in 2000) and keeping with the theme here, had put all my hard earned money towards a Dreamcast at UK launch with VF3, Sonic Adventure and Sega Rally 2.

I have nothing but fond memories of the 90's and although I'm so happy now, I do frequently look back during those times and wish I was there! I was a kid with all the free time in the world, young love with my first girlfriend, great music (Adored Blur, Oasis, Fatboy Slim, The Prodigy) and gaming was so exciting with the early real 3D era with the PlayStation and Saturn.

Yep, life was ace. Saturn and Nirvana all the way in our house.

"Late 90s" was pretty much my high school years for the most part so most of my memories are tied up with stuff like that. Plenty of game memories though, playing the Lunar remake was amazing to me to see the anime cut-scene upgrades after the SegaCD version.

Literally the first two games that came to mind were Tony Hawk's Pro Skater & Lego Racers tbh.

Every fucking artist had to have some song or album called "Millennium" or somesuch.

The late 90s, where boy bands roamed the streets and the prospect of Y2K was far more damaging than Y2K itself. There was this genuine fear that all the worlds nuclear weapons would launch into the air when the clock struck midnight at the year 2000. Of course anybody with any sort of computer literacy knew this was a load of bunk.

As far as me, I was young, enjoying Pokemon and drawing crude drawings of teachers receiving negative treatment from Dragon Ball Z characters. There were a few things I personally noticed, namely the slow death of arcades. A few that I frequented were closing down. The one in the mall got replaced by bathrooms, the big local one was decaying due to lack of maintenance. Yes, the age of the arcade was over, and I stood there and watched it happen, for there was nothing I could do.

Heh, boy bands, albums named Millennium and the Y2K Bug. Those are definitely some standouts.

A lot of my free time in 1999 was spent playing UMS maps on StarCraft: Brood War with friends (using dial up Internet, of course), various Genesis games (my only non-handheld console at the time), and Pokemon. I was also getting into MTG at the time.

Shouting "WAZZAAAAAAAAP!" to your mate on the phone, asking them to come round and play some Tony Hawks and drink Tizer whilst listening to KoRn's Issues album surrounded by piles of Kerrang!, and cheering after finding actual real money inside your pack of Walkers crisps, all whilst wearing Placebo hoodies and massive black jeans with the flares and chains, and reading game cheats from the back of physical magazines.

Oh and the console wars debate of the time: the upcoming PS2, Gamecube and Xbox fight! Loved the 3D mockups on magazine covers.

Awesome. Lol, love hearing abt stuff like that. Really wish I was actually old enough to actually experience the 90s. I was born in '94, but my family was always behind the times, so I was still playing Aladdin and Sonic 2 in like 2003 lol.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GriskaGyoran

There were a few things I personally noticed, namely the slow death of arcades. A few that I frequented were closing down. The one in the mall got replaced by bathrooms, the big local one was decaying due to lack of maintenance. Yes, the age of the arcade was over, and I stood there and watched it happen, for there was nothing I could do.

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I would have loved to experience the heyday of arcades. I've only ever been to one real-deal arcade when I visited Tennessee several years ago. Although the used game store at the mall has several arcade cabs in the back.