Growing up before the internet age

pramod

pramod

Banned
I guess most people are probably too young to understand what im talking about.

But for those of us who grew up in a world without the internet, without Youtube or Amazon or Google, it was a magical place back then. Walking into an arcade to see a new game you never heard of. Finding a new book in a book store. Picking up a new comic book. Reading about video games in magazines and having to imagine how they look and play. Opening a newspaper and finding out theres a cool movie playing in your local theater.

I guess ill end this rant before it gets too long...but i think you old guys like me...u guys get it...the world was full of mystery and excitement back then, waiting for you to explore and discover.
 
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Yeah it's true, the world was a lot more fun and interesting back before everyone was constantly connected to some online device that allows you to look anything up anywhere. Like as a kid growing up in the 90's I remember how amazing it was to go to my local Funcoland, play the demo consoles, and check out all the games they had. When I first started going there all I had was a Sega Genesis, and I still remember how blown away I was the first time I was Virtua Racing playing on their demo Genesis, I actually bought the game right then with my allowance money I had saved up. I never even knew that game existed before walking into that store, and just watching the game doing it's demo look, amazed by how my Genesis could play 3D graphics.

That, and I think people forget how much more normal and grounded everyone was before the internet and social media culture took off. Nobody cares about all the crazy crap they obsess over these days, everyone had their own lives to live and they weren't constantly obsessing over everything/everyone else. I mean I was just a kid, but people hardly ever discussed politics, and social issues had awareness but they weren't obsessed over. That and people just seemed to be a lot easier to talk to, they weren't all locked into some device chatting with people somewhere else in the world.
 
I remember Leonard Matlins movie book that basically just listed movies and who was in them or made them, basically IMDB in book forum.

Magazines were HUGE and pretty much anything you could think of had a hobby zine for it, they were the "forums" before forums.

Walking into stores and seeing ABSOLUTELY NEW shit, books, games, etc that you had NO IDEA could even exist.

Stuff stayed in the public mind for YEARS, a film could circulate around and around and VHS was super expensive and limited. Rental of a new film could take weeks if demand was high for the 5 copies any store had.

There was this thing that had ALL YOUR DADS INFORMATION IN IT! Where he lived, often who he was married to, and his phone number!!! It was called a phone book and EVERYONE got one.

You had to schedule a time to have the phone free from your damned sister so you could call your bub to plan for the weekend. None of this "just text me bro..." crap.

There were the BIG BOOKS OF MAPS you had to buy to find out how to get places. A trip across state to a place you haven't been to before could involve significant adventure.
 
Hearing new music and new genres was the thing for me. As a kid living in a small town in the middle of nowhere, hearing Sublime, NIN, Tool, Leftfield, all blew my damn mind. I was very fortunate to befriend people with really good music taste and a solid collection of CDs, records, and tapes.

Now I just fire up anything, including weird shit like Slow Gherkin on demand 24/7 no matter where I may be.

e: fuck, now that song is stuck in my head (I don't think enough, I think too muuuuuuuuuch)
 
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Things weren't as immediate and the world was better off for it. I dread to think how I'd view the world growing up in today's environment.

Also teletext/ceefax was the best.
 
I was GLUED to EGM and Nintendo Power (among others) every month. You never knew exactly when Walmart would stock the new issue. Every page was exciting.

Also, blockbuster was better than Netflix. I loved going in and seeing an entire shelf devoted to a big new release.

One thing I cannot imagine is driving without Google Maps. By the time I was driving around, Maps was around.
 
Things are a lot more convenient now but yeah a part of me misses the old days.
Sharing tips and secrets about games with friends because you couldn't just go online and find out everything about them. Or buying magazines and learning about tons of games you had never hear before, or going to Blockbuster and renting a movie without preconceived notions from Rotten Tomatoes/IMDB and internet buzz, etc.
 
Yeah, I can definitely relate. There were a lot of special moments I had back in the day that just wouldn't have existed today. I remember the N64 being due for release, and an electronics store had Super Mario 64 running on display behind the glass in the storefront. I passed by just about every day just to watch Mario's face on the title screen and the gameplay reel that would run when idle. It was mesmerizing.

Arcades were amazing as well...when I was real young, my dad had arcade machines at his store and the excitement of seeing the van pull up for a new cabinet machine was like nothing else. The day we got Double Dragon II is a core memory at this point, with all the neighborhood kids losing their collective shit waiting for it to be set up.

I kind of feel bad for kids nowadays. Their worlds are just far too large and everything is immediate. Don't get me wrong, I very much appreciate the convenience that our current technology provides, but there's just something lost when everything is instant.
 
Efficiency (of work and production) and too much information are a cancer to living in the present moment, to that increasingly elusive feeling of being *alive*.
 
Amazing times.

Then along came the PlayStation, which got pretty close to arcade quality.

...then arcades had to work another angle for appeal... But then for the PlayStation we had dance mats and steering wheel peripherals.

The arcades through the 80's and 90's prior to "getting caught up" were amazing.
 
I walked into a store one day and just randomly saw FFX sitting in the case brand new. The amount of shock and surprise I had was crazy. Hadnt heard about it but loved the previous entries.
Basically an old school shadow drop I guess.

Some stuff was better and a lot of stuff was worse as well.
 
You would talk to someone about a pretty popular band, and people would ask you how you found out about them. Like you would be able to tell some amazing story about how the singer's sister sent you a telegram about them or something.
 
pramod said:
I guess most people are probably too young to understand what im talking about.

But for those of us who grew up in a world without the internet, without Youtube or Amazon or Google, it was a magical place back then. Walking into an arcade to see a new game you never heard of. Finding a new book in a book store. Picking up a new comic book. Reading about video games in magazines and having to imagine how they look and play. Opening a newspaper and finding out theres a cool movie playing in your local theater.

I guess ill end this rant before it gets too long...but i think you old guys like me...u guys get it...the world was full of mystery and excitement back then, waiting for you to explore and discover.
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I grew up before the internet but I can still do all of this stuff. I see new games at Dave and Busters quite often. I see new books all the time. It's just better now because I can drink beer while doing this stuff.
 
I loved growing up in the 80s. We built a fort, a zip line, and had swords and made trails in our friends woods. It was the best.

Having a NES, and competing with each other, getting a remote control car that we would race around our block.

The merry go round and trying to make people fall off.
 
And best of all no social media idiots and constant news or politics. Only time you got exposed to it was from watching news at 6 pm or 11 pm, reading a newspaper, or it was election time and every channel covers it that night. Other than that. If you didn't watch news, didn't get a paper delivered to your door, and didn't care about voting (you preferred watching sports or a rerun on TV that night), your exposure to stupidity was 10x less than now.

Going to rental stores to check out movies and games was sweet. Even though sometimes you come back empty handed because what you want isnt there, at least you and your friends or siblings got out of the house and likely got some food on the way home anyway.

Couch coop and competitive play sitting together in front of the tv or cramming shoulder to shoulder playing a computer game was fun as hell. I never did LAN parties for shooters which some shooter fans did on PC, but I remember doing EA hockey tournaments in our basements and someone writing down on paper standings and GF and GA to set the brackets.

People who never played MP games together in the same room missed out. Fun, laughs, food. Fat guys, smelly guys, guys who get their greasy fingers all over the Genesis pad, every guy ripping farts. Total immaturity. But fun times.
 
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Remember when a show came on ONCE, and if you missed it you'd better wait for rerun season for it to come on ONCE again.

Or shows that only came out certain times of year.

We got all of our news in a 30 minute block once a day, or in a well edited and well researched dose in the newspaper. No race to be the first and cloak opinion or marketing as news.

You made a mix tape, on an ACTUAL CASSETTE TAPE, for a girl you liked.

Parents kicked you outside right after breakfast and you COULD NOT come home till dark.

Rooms had like one outlet because the only things that needed power was a lamp and maybe a clock. The atari was downstairs cause that's where the one TV was.
 
jayj said:
Yeah it's true, the world was a lot more fun and interesting back before everyone was constantly connected to some online device that allows you to look anything up anywhere.
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And in an ironic turn of events most young people nowdays are thick as pig shit and dont know anything. Even asking questions on Facebook they could find out on the very thing they're typing into..

Funny how it turned out.

We grew up in the best time.
 
Boomer checking in.

When I was growing up as a kid in the 90s you couldn't find me and my friends inside. We come home when the sun set like at 9pm.
 
Traveling was an adventure.Planning a trip involved so much more of you, and depending on where you went, a new language.I miss the investment people had, and the character it builds.
 
AJUMP23 said:
I loved growing up in the 80s. We built a fort, a zip line, and had swords and made trails in our friends woods. It was the best.

Having a NES, and competing with each other, getting a remote control car that we would race around our block.
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Lauren Conrad Awww GIF


AJUMP23 said:
The merry go round and trying to make people fall off.
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Wait What Reaction GIF by Willie Jones
 
Basically before the internet if you wanted to insult someone you had to mostly do it face to face. So talk shit get slapped. Also any rumour that sounded plausible was automatically entered into playground law and became a fact.
 
Glad most of my hard-core raving and shesh moments, were all pre camera phone, and social media to post said pictures on...........

Also parents not wanting you home before dark, to stay out and play in the woods.

Using phone boxes to ring girls

Smacks and sweets still having all the E numbers and therefore flavour

Going to blockbuster

£10 of weed still being 1.8g

Fuel was below 99p a litre

No game patches, if it released fucked, it stayed that way 🤣
 
I still think fondly of my first travel to Europe before smart phones, and the internet wasn't ubiquitous. Following a little map with missing streets in my lonely planet to get to the hostel in Paris. Good times. Felt like an adventure.
 
nush said:
Hoping her parents would not answer the phone... tense times.
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Remember when reverse dial suddenly made crank calls and "call and hang up" useless? Or three way calling. Hell, even call waiting was a novelty for a while.

Or when your moms picks up the phone RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE of a modem download or match, cutting the connection.....
 
spons said:
Fucking zoomers and their instant gratification. Back in the days we had to work for shit.
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I had to imagine what a naked lady looked like. The only other option was scrambled soft core on the late night slots on the premium channels.

Seeing shit online for the first time, in the dial up age, was crazy. It took minutes to load a low res image. Every click was a gamble. The skill gap among the sonic fan "art" community is staggering.
 
jason10mm said:
Remember when reverse dial suddenly made crank calls and "call and hang up" useless? Or three way calling. Hell, even call waiting was a novelty for a while.

Or when your moms picks up the phone RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE of a modem download or match, cutting the connection.....
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Learning the engineer test numbers for phones. 17676 put the phone down and it will ring back a few moments later. Just a recorded voice "High loop resistance" repeating. Top japes to do this on public payphones, free entertainment laughing at people picking up the phone and looking confused.
 
AJUMP23 said:
You have never sat on a merry go round and have your friends spin you so fast it threw you off.


Playgrounds don't have merry go rounds any more.
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When people say merry go round, I assume they mean the large types at theme parks/carnivals/fairs/zoos, you know with fake horses and such you sit on as it spins in circles.

So yes, due to the vague phrasing, I was having the visual image of you and your friends running around on one of those trying to make OTHER people fall off. Sounded vaguely psychotic, but now that you've cleared it up, sounds legit.
 
There was this funny thing called 'the outdoors' back then, too many cars now so probably for the best those days are gone.
 
Maiden Voyage said:
I had to imagine what a naked lady looked like. The only other option was scrambled soft core on the late night slots on the premium channels.

Seeing shit online for the first time, in the dial up age, was crazy. It took minutes to load a low res image. Every click was a gamble. The skill gap among the sonic fan "art" community is staggering.
Click to expand...

All porn in the UK was softcore, no boners, penetration or cumshots. If you wanted to see anything real it would usually be a 10th generation VHS copy of German porn "Fick mine". I could not believe that uncensored porn on the internet was allowed back in the day. Click on a low res thumbnail and wait for it to load in line by line and hopefully it would be something you could fap too if not, start all over again. It's incredible that The Hun and Greenguy are still active websites.
 
When I was in the suburbs things were good like that, but after moving to the countryside, internet was a godsend. Nothing to do here but harass animals
 
Man I miss arcade machines, one of my childhood memories is that we used to go to a takeaway on a weekend where they had a few older machines such as Daytona, Ridge Racer, etc, and me and a few mates would order a kebab each (and this place did an awesome chilli sauce) and a pizza to share and just used to knock out a few rounds on those machines.
 
Yes, internet is so convenient, but it's the worst invention from mankind.

Between this and nuclear bomb, I'll keep the nuclear bomb.
 
I miss it. No leaks 2 months before a game comes out, no zillion opinions bitching about a tiny change in the game etc. One of my memories is waiting for C&C Tiberium Sun release. All you had was gaming magazines and everyone was speculating what it would look like. Are there going to be 3 factions, will one of them be aliens. Then going to the shop to ask...is it out today, is it out tomorrow etc :) Same goes for Quake 3 and UT releases...oh my god what is this online only thing, how will it work. Basically especially if you were a young teen, the game seller was your info guy. And you couldn't wait for the next magazine issue to sell you some new secret.

Yes there was internet in 1997 even but as a kid, you didn't rely on it because it wasn't as popular for information searching. There wasn't even Google, I think I was using AltaVista search engine. It was so basic. Internet at that time I remember only used for MP but then again most of it was local Lan parties.
 
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I've got a semi long rant. I actually love digital, but I also grew up with VHS tapes as a kid and I still enjoy shopping. The book and game store is a mood killer. I use to frequent Hastings/Blockbusters/Hollywood video and Babbages/EB/etc. Now all I need to do is a google search. I can download the game I was willing to go to a store for. I don't even look at GameStop when I drive by. Sometimes I just look at the marketing material on the glass. I use to go to the kiosk, ask the employees for a printed sheet of what's coming out, ask the staff about the games they're playing and then look at the games. When I go to the mall, I don't have to go to GameStop because I've prebought online or already own what they sell. I have a large amount of what I want at home.

Books are one or two clicks away. If I can't find it on Kindle or Audible I'll head over to eBay. Which kinda kills the feeling of going to the store. The store gives me an idea and I just Google to find a better price. I bought Snow Crash at a local book store back in 2018 and I had the audiobook from Amazon with the Kindle version for about the same price. I kinda defeated the purpose of buying the book at the store. I use to walk the isles at Barnes & Noble looking for a good book. It's all about reviews, noteworthy books anymore. Reading reviews or the overall quality of what you want out of the book makes the purchase feel pointless. It feels weird cause reviews are suppose to give you a good idea of the quality. I find it making me not spend time on things I would have probably enjoyed from the store. I guess I lost some of that feeling of enjoying a mediocre book.

Arcades use to make the experience or the game look like a big deal. You could play a game that not everyone had in their arcade or you were playing something you couldn't own at home at the time. NFL Blitz, Tekken Tag Tournament, and etc. I remember buying Blitz on N64 and that was a big deal to me. I'd take my N64 memory card to the arcade with me too.

I hate sounding like that guy, but sometimes I feel like the last man on earth enjoying some of these things. It's not like I can't see how niche some of the stuff I like is, especially video games. It's that I feel like all I'm hearing about are people getting review codes or they're leaking stuff online. I remember when people got fired for breaking street date and now we have people posting their first 5 hours with the next big video game. I know if I walked into Target or somewhere that I'm not getting that game early. Maybe brick and mortar made things feel more personal? Sometimes I feel like following along with modern day entertainment is just following someone's soap box for their income and social status on the internet. I am realizing it a lot with catching some of the comments on Bayonetta 3. It feels like there's obnoxious comments by people who got early copies. If this was brick and mortar, we wouldn't have had their stupid opinion before playing the game. Lol long rant here.
 
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