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Back in the day the struggle was real
- Thread starter Pilgrimzero
- Start date
Did anyone else have that one rich friend who had a Laserdisc Player instead of VHS? My mom's manager at the time had one, and I remember sometimes the entire office and their families would go over to her house to watch new releases on her big screen TV.
Yep. This was terrible, like this eerie quiet boringness that would set in. Obviously I can still get bored today, but nothing like back then.
For me at least because things were so much harder to acquire (be it knowledge or movies or tv shows or music or games) they meant so much more.
I'm actually thankful I grew up in the era before the internet because it makes me so much more thankful for things like Netflix, Spotify, Gamepass and YouTube. The amount of value from them is still astounding to me for my $30 per month.
I was in grade school during the mid to late 90s right as trashy talk shows came into the scene, so on sick days I would have a blast watching Jerry Springer and Maury. I also really liked The Price is Right for some reason...
I had to buy a magazine to go through indiana jones and the last crusade (game). Finding the magazine was even harder.
Some kid from my high school was on that Ricky Lake show
Listening to music on the go was much more of an ordeal. I still have my old portable CD player and a multileaf padded disk holder for all of my custom burned disks. Lol, what a pain.
Reading books on my phone has changed my life. I can carry my whole library with me and have several books going at once, complete with notes, without having to think twice about what I packed before leaving the house. Commutes and lines are easy to endure now.
Consumer tech has massively improved over my short lifespan. If you're grateful for nothing else, at least be glad we live in a time with practically unlimited access to media and information. It's worth appreciating.
Reading books on my phone has changed my life. I can carry my whole library with me and have several books going at once, complete with notes, without having to think twice about what I packed before leaving the house. Commutes and lines are easy to endure now.
Consumer tech has massively improved over my short lifespan. If you're grateful for nothing else, at least be glad we live in a time with practically unlimited access to media and information. It's worth appreciating.
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Lol, now I'm reninded of that thread where dude tried to tell you communism was fine despite you living under it.
Pretty much. Always have an agreed meeting spot or you'll never find someone
Without home internet, I had to do most errands outside. Need to mail a package? Had to go to the post office to weigh and get a stamp instead of pre-printing the label and dropping it off or just handing it off to the postworker. Want to do research, look something up, or need general internet access? Had to go the library (which my mom would force me and my brothers to go anyway). Any game, movie, or toy I was looking for I had to call in or order from a magazine instead of using brickseek, eBay, or any other stock checker or look for a vintage store for anything old or rare.
I watch my kids have every cartoon known to man at the touch of a button and it reminds of the days when cartoons after 5pm was a small miracle. We would be outside and somebody would speak the greatest phrase a kid in the 80's could hear
"I think a Charlie Brown special is about to come on!"
or
Having to call 1-900-288-0707 (Nintendo Power Line) and pay $1.50 per minute to get help on beating the NES classic Section Z, it was the only time I ever have to pay to get help with a game, and I still feel dirty because of it.
"I think a Charlie Brown special is about to come on!"
or
Having to call 1-900-288-0707 (Nintendo Power Line) and pay $1.50 per minute to get help on beating the NES classic Section Z, it was the only time I ever have to pay to get help with a game, and I still feel dirty because of it.
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Any of the olds from the NYC Tristate area remember the 4:30 Movie? Monster Week was an event
Edit: Sorry, this thread has become a general nostalgia thread for me, the only struggle about Monster Week on The 4:30 Movie was that my mom always made dinner right in the middle of it
Edit: Sorry, this thread has become a general nostalgia thread for me, the only struggle about Monster Week on The 4:30 Movie was that my mom always made dinner right in the middle of it
I remember staying up late playing my Gameboy color in the dark, but I had to use the little plug in light that plugged into the side of the Gameboy. It drained the batteries SO FAST but it was the only way to play at night without my mom knowing lol
It's a thing in many countries, I found porn in the woods as a kid. When I was old enough to by my own porn, when I was finished with it (could not throw it in the family trash as they would see it), I'd play it forward and also dump that stash in the woods for the next generation. The circle of porn life
And then hitting up the microfiche machine after the librarian had to hook you up with the reel.
Stealing my pervy uncle's VHS to be amazed at tiddies.
Recording Dragon Ball episodes to be able to watch them again (DBZ aired here in the 90s)
Having so little information that my dad bought me a SNES game for my NES.
Recording Dragon Ball episodes to be able to watch them again (DBZ aired here in the 90s)
Having so little information that my dad bought me a SNES game for my NES.
Anyone else here use CB radios to talk to their friends lol. We did that and also fucked with truckers with them.
I actually started collecting old typewriters as a hobby recently. Older typewriters without eraser ribbons is a brave man's game. Especially with how much pressure used to be needed to depress the keys.
2nd phone lines were surprisingly expensive back in the day.
Now nobody even has one in a lot of houses.
Mine is basically the OPs with a slight twist.
I was into obscure pro wrestling in the 90s, between ECW (which was largely a northeast US regional thing for some time and not very accessible if you lived in Texas) and Japanese wrestling. In order to get new stuff in those veins, I had to use the internet to set up tape trades with people who had VHS tapes of shows I wanted do see, and then we'd each dub bootleg copies of those tapes and then mail the other person the physical tapes.
As a result, you'd have some match that would happen in Japan where you'd just hear people talking about "holy shit that was great", then like two months later it would have come out in some taped form and started circulating among the higher levels of the tapes scene, and then a solid month or so later it would have trickled down to where someone I knew got their hands on it, which then meant that I could set up a tape trade and probably finally see it like 2 weeks later once it'd arrived in the mail.
I think about that every so often when I'm up early some morning watching some japanese wrestling being streamed live on the internet.
I was into obscure pro wrestling in the 90s, between ECW (which was largely a northeast US regional thing for some time and not very accessible if you lived in Texas) and Japanese wrestling. In order to get new stuff in those veins, I had to use the internet to set up tape trades with people who had VHS tapes of shows I wanted do see, and then we'd each dub bootleg copies of those tapes and then mail the other person the physical tapes.
As a result, you'd have some match that would happen in Japan where you'd just hear people talking about "holy shit that was great", then like two months later it would have come out in some taped form and started circulating among the higher levels of the tapes scene, and then a solid month or so later it would have trickled down to where someone I knew got their hands on it, which then meant that I could set up a tape trade and probably finally see it like 2 weeks later once it'd arrived in the mail.
I think about that every so often when I'm up early some morning watching some japanese wrestling being streamed live on the internet.
Paying almost $200 for entire db + dbz + dbgt bootleg series on ebay. Man I thought I struck gold.
That feeling of being out of the loop cause you didn't have whatever new toy or gimmicky shit companies were flooding the market with. Seems like nowadays a kid has a smartphone they're pretty much set
This. Also, part of the fun was actually coming up with answers based on the info you had at hand and making "logical" conclusions to things. I remember when I was gifted a CD with Encarta (maybe 1998), my mind was absolutely blown that so much information was at my fingertips. I ate it all up. That fact that it's such a ubiquitous thing right now is almost scary.
I started driving at the same time cellphones become normal. And since then Ive probably been dead on the road at least 5 times.
So let me get this straight. Back then when peoples cars broke down... they had to walk miles to a payphone or go hitch hiking? Probably bother a random house to use their phone?
So let me get this straight. Back then when peoples cars broke down... they had to walk miles to a payphone or go hitch hiking? Probably bother a random house to use their phone?
I was also fortunate enough to find forest porn. About 4th or 5th grade, perfect timing.
Watching scrambled porn on tv was also part of the struggle.
Remembering the phone number of everyone you knew.
Some people today need check their own phone when asked their own number...
Some people today need check their own phone when asked their own number...
Runescape was my battlefield, we had dialup until around 2005.
ikr. I remembered so many phone numbers back then now i barely remember my own lol
Well payphones we're everywhere back then, as they had high use unlike now.
Doing a full preview of an NES game and deciding what one game you were going to get for the next 3-4 months based entirely on the front and back of the box.
God going on mapquest and hand writing the directions cause i had no printer was a fucking nightmare. Then carrying a stack of CDS in my car and a portable CD player with a tape deck back in 2002. Those were the days!
I loved growing up in the 80s as a kid.
Especially if you are into video games. Seeing most major moments as they happen is something older people are lucky to have experienced.
In the beginning it was just cover art.
But after some time you were buying it based on the company. I knew if it said Konami, Capcom, Nintendo, etc. it was something I had to have. And for the longest time the rule was nothing involving a movie license because it was always dog shit.
I thought that way too until I was tricked into buying The Adventures of Bayou Billy.
:lol
Still better than the judging by the box art.
By box art alone Megaman is a 1/10.
I didn't buy too many bad games for NES in the '80s. Rentals, Playchoice machines, asking to try out games at some stores, borrowing games, and magazine reviews helped weed that out.
My VIC-20 picks before that were more random but I trusted buying Atarisoft and Creative Software games.
My VIC-20 picks before that were more random but I trusted buying Atarisoft and Creative Software games.
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I remember having to wait, like, 45 minutes for a goddamn topic to load because of these things. Figuring out how to turn them off was a gamechanger.you joke but
who remembers forum signatures
Some were actually legitimately good though
I used to fucking make them and thought I was gonna be a graphic designer one day
Yeah but what if you have a lame, cheap brand or an old model? The equipment changes but the game remains the same.
Having to travel to NYC or LA to be able to find rare out of print CDs, and then paying triple price for them.
Having to show up 6 hours before a concert, in hopes that the door will be selling tickets, because standing in line at Ticketmaster was a waste of 5 hours.
Having to actually go to the theatre in advance, to buy movie tickets.
$20 all you can play arcades in every mall.
Having to rely on fliers, posters, or word of mouth, in order to find a party.
Never finding an unrented copy of Robocop on VHS at Blockbuster, which was the only way to watch it.
Being able to go to clubs at 16, with no ID, until 10 am and not one cellphone or camera in sight.
Staying up on Sundays until 3 am watching 120 minutes and Aeon Flux on MTV.
Having to show up 6 hours before a concert, in hopes that the door will be selling tickets, because standing in line at Ticketmaster was a waste of 5 hours.
Having to actually go to the theatre in advance, to buy movie tickets.
$20 all you can play arcades in every mall.
Having to rely on fliers, posters, or word of mouth, in order to find a party.
Never finding an unrented copy of Robocop on VHS at Blockbuster, which was the only way to watch it.
Being able to go to clubs at 16, with no ID, until 10 am and not one cellphone or camera in sight.
Staying up on Sundays until 3 am watching 120 minutes and Aeon Flux on MTV.