I remember just like yesterday when I was like 10 and we got our first color TV set and cable TV; the next cool thing we got was a VHS player with a remote attached, yup; there was about a 10 or 20 foot cord attached to the remote and I thought we were HOT stuff.. this was soo cool; never get up to change the VCR, way cool. Then a little bit later we got our first Nintendo game boy and then the Nintendo NES… boy I thought I was spoiled… look at what our kids have now…. I thought it would be fun to show what we had back in the day and what the kids have available now.
Remember I grew up in Germany, back in the 80’s and 90’s we weren’t quit as advanced as the US was, at least we thought so, may or may not be what you know or had… but I still hope you enjoy the travel back in time….
Handheld Gaming then and now?
Nintendo back in the 90’s the ever so cool and totally new Game Boy one color screen, that bluish green and nothing else, arcade style games, but hey, it was handheld and totally awesome back then and now in 2011 we have the Nintendo DSI and more…
In the 80’s/ 90’s what was the PC like ?
Back in the late 80’s early 90’s this is what the PC’s looked like at home and in some class rooms; they were very expensive and only a few people had these, very few had the colored Monitor, I had a Black and white monitor and remember mine also had a actual Tape player compartment that had tapes to load the game, it took 30-40 min for the one side of the tape to load, I then had to turn the tape and load the other side about 30-40 min before the “high tech” game like Pac man or thereabouts came to life…. besides gaming, the PC’s were mainly used to prepare documents; no internet, no e-mail, no connection outside your home to any other Pc.
In the Year 2011 what is the PC like?
Almost everyone has more than one PC in the house and besides the home PC there are Laptops, iPads, iPhones, ipods and numerous other devices that help us through the day to check our e-mail, prepare documents, read newspaper and play games…
TV’s then and now:
TV’s back in the 80’s had very faint color and we had no TV remote, most TV’s only had about 10 channels and we actually only had 3 working TV channels till we got Cable TV in the 90’s.
The TV’s in 2011… well.. besides being able to watch TV just about anywhere with any device, the actual TV’s are so much more lighter, thinner and the picture quality is out of this world. With too many channels too count I’m sure nowadays there is something somewhere for everyone to watch. Also no more cords attached to the remote..lol… you probly can voice activate your TV by now, too.
Video Games Then and Now?
Back in the 90’s we got the Nintendo NES; I remember I was about 14 when my mom got this used Video Game system and she spend hours playing it; the picture was simple and so were the games. We loved the Mario Brothers. It was our new found addiction.. We though this was HOT stuff back then and of course, nothing was wireless.
Video Games in 2011 aren’t anything like we had in the early 90’s. The games now are so advanced that you think you are actually playing with live characters, the picture quality is so real and the technology like the Wii is unbelievable, you can totally interact with the video game and put yourself in the middle and best of all everything is wireless, no more pesky cords all over the place!
Music players then and now?
In the late 80’s I found one of the coolest inventions of all times, so I thought. I so wanted to have one and it took me month to save up my money and for my parents to allow me to get one; Once I finally had one I needed tapes and a bag to carry the thing around; but you were Oh so cool if you had a Walkman; each side of the tape played about 30 minutes worth of songs and then you turned it around for the next 30 min… if you didn’t like the song you forward or rewind.. remember those days??
Well now in 2011 everyone has an MP3 player that is so tinny it can fit in the palm of your hand and hold a good 3000+ songs and run for 8+ hours on one charge… I only dreamed of that back in the 90’s…. what a difference.
Does all that bring back memories to you, too?? Our kids sure don’t know how good they have it with all the technology like we have it today; I remember the day my Teen was born his dad told me “ I can’t wait to see what Video game is out when he is in his teens”…. well, I say the same thing to my Teen now “ I can’t wait to se what Video games are out when you have your own kids”.
It is amazing how technology has changed and it’s kind of exciting to see what will be next in 3,4 5 or 10 years down the road. A little scary but still cool. I loved all the different things we had when we were little back in the day and I know 20 years from now my kids, kids ( maybe I should say 30 years, but then I’m gonna be older than dirt.. mhh how am I gonna talk myself out of this one…lol) will shake their head over the things we have TODAY, just like my Teen did a few minutes ago when he saw this post…. he just shock his head and said “Wow, that’s what you had??”.
Would love to hear what you remember about the 80’s and even 90’s.. miss anything?? Glad that’s gone..? Can’t wait to hear from ya….
Ken says
I recently went through some of my old stuff and was amazed at how many different walkmans that I can accumulated during the 80s and 90s. The best one was a non-skip CD player for when I would jump on the trampoline.
CrazyMom says
hahah Ohh the non skip CD’s.. remember those….:-)