The ‘90s nostalgia is on full blast these days, and we thought it would be fun to look at some of the most important tech items from yesteryear.
If you lived through it, you will remember. If you didn’t, you might learn a few things.
We will start with video games in our exploration of the best tech from the ‘90s. We promise our list is “da bomb” and “all that and a bag of potato chips” and it is broken down by category.
Here’s our look at what happened in video games during this important decade.
The ‘90s really saw huge advancements in terms of the role that video games played in society.
Sure, the ‘80s saw the birth of Atari and Nintendo and the industry as a whole, but the ‘90s brought the industry even more into the mainstream.
Gaming on the go
The beginning of the decade brought the popularity of Nintendo’s Game Boy, which was released in the middle of 1989 and began to see widespread usage throughout the next decade.
Its simplicity is what makes it so popular, and it continued to be a mainstay even into the early 2000s until the Game Boy Advance replaced it and production ceased in 2003.
Sega’s Game Gear was a rival to the Game Boy and certainly had its fans due to its color and faster processor, though the battery life was much shorter.
Odds are if you were a kid in the ‘90s you owned one or the other for those long car rides at some point.
Video Games becomes a literal battlefield in the ‘90s
The war between Nintendo and Sega certainly played a huge part in the development of video games over the course of the decade.
The ‘90s ushered in the infamous “console wars” between the two companies with the Nintendo and subsequently the Super Nintendo and the Sega Genesis.
Sega had the warp speed and edgier image than the family-friendly Super Nintendo, but both consoles pushed one another to launch some of the most iconic games ever.
The ‘90s brought games like Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Mario World, Mario Kart, Donkey Kong Country, Street Fighter II, Mortal Kombat, NBA Jam, Madden and so many more to both older and younger gamers alike.
64 Bit era goes above and beyond with graphics and gameplay
About halfway through the decade saw the release of Nintendo’s N64 and the Sony PlayStation to move gamers into an even more realistic world.
Mario 64, Mario Kart 64, Goldeneye, Grand Theft Auto, Crash Bandicoot, Tomb Raider, and many other games pushed gaming to new limits in the latter half of the decade.
Arcade gaming finds a new generation
Finally, the decade was huge for the continued growth of arcade gaming.
The ability to play with four people at once at the local arcade or pizza shop meant huge developments in graphics, interactivity, and branding for video games in general.
Ask any kid who lived through the ‘90s about their arcade experience and they will surely have a few tales to tell.
Retro gaming is now all over the place
Clearly, the impact this decade had on the gaming industry as a whole is huge.
Odds are fairly reasonable that you might be playing a franchise that kicked off during this period or even are a part of the growing Retro Gaming movement encompassed by the recent popularity of the NES Classic, SNES Classic, Sega Genesis Mini, or the Arcade1Up machines.
Or perhaps you have an emulator app that allows you to play classic games on your computer or television. “Barcades” is even now a phenomenon to embrace this trend.
One thing is for certain: the ‘90s pushed gaming to new heights and is part of the reason for how big it is today with new releases from both Sony and Microsoft.
