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The 1990s was an amazing decade to grow up in. We had the golden era of Disney Channel Original Movies, the release of the Nintendo 64, Crystal Pepsi, AOL instant messenger and some amazing music. And if you’re looking to reminisce on the days of watching Rugrats and slurping up milk through a Froot Loops cereal straw, we’ve got the perfect list for you down below.

We took a trip to the Throwback Machine Instagram page, which will instantly transport you pandas back to the 90s, so enjoy scrolling through these pics that might remind you of your childhood if you're a 90s kid. Keep reading to also find a conversation with Dave Fife of Retro Injection, and be sure to upvote the pics that make you long for that simpler time back.

The Throwback Machine Instagram page, also known as ‘90s Kids,’ notes in their bio that their goal is sharing “posts that make you go ‘holy [crap], I remember that!’” And clearly they’re doing a great job of evoking nostalgia, because the account has amassed over 95k followers through sharing only 716 posts. The page reminds visitors of their favorite childhood video games, television shows, snacks and more, and today, all of you pandas get to take a trip down memory lane too.

To learn more about what life was like during the 90s, we reached out to nostalgia expert and creator of Retro Injection, Dave Fife. Retro Injection is a FeedSpot-ranked "Best 25 '80s Blog/Website,” and the perfect place to visit if you’d like to reminisce on the past few decades. And according to Dave, the 90s were the “last great decade.”

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Dave shared with Bored Panda that some of the best video games were released during the 90s. “The console wars raged between Sega and Nintendo on every school playground, while arcades were experiencing a resurgence with games such as Street Fighter II: Champion Edition and Mortal Kombat,” he explained. “You'd see Neo-Geo ads in magazines and wish you could afford the $650 console. The '90s were a great time to be a gamer!”

Dave also noted that “the internet was around, but hadn't yet become an invasive datamining mill. When you found something interesting online, you felt like Indiana Jones unearthing some hidden treasure. And dialing into AOL to chat with your friends on Instant Messenger was always a blast, until someone needed the phone. In my opinion, the '90s were special because there was enough connectivity to be fun, instead of an obligation.”  

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Panda Kicki
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The joy when the parents could afford colour TV. My first memory is black and white TV.

Jill Sadler
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Taping your favorite show but sitting next to the vcr and being techy by pausing for commercials

Shannon Hawks
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

dialing only last 4 numbers to call someone in same town as you

Roger9er
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The sound you heard when you accidentally called a fax number.

Robert T
Community Member
1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

You can still hear this is you are a telemarketer and phone my landline - I have a Raspberry Pi setup to check caller id and answer as a fax machine if it doesn't like you. :D

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Sunny Day
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

TV shut down at midnight. "This is the end of our broadcast day. Please join us at 5am for the Farm Report." Then the National Anthem played.

Sherri Mantooth Bagwell
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Driving on Sundays & just dropping by, unannounced, to visit family & friends... and they were happy about it!

Imma
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I don't see myself THAT old, but my 11 y o didn't get the connection between a cassette tape and a pencil. Or how to call someone with a phone with round dial plate. So, maybe I am THAT old :(

Greenmantle
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

When my dad bought my mum a microwave for the first time. It was heralded with as much pomp and excitement as a brand new top of the range TV would be these days

Der Kommissar
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Sir Walter Raleigh cigarette coupons. S & H Green stamps. Blue Chip stamps.

Ozymandias73
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My first video game console controller consisted of a single button and a joystick.

sara fulmer
Community Member
1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Knowing by heart the call in number to request your favorite song on the radio

Marley Nachi
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

video games didn't have the option of choosing a girl character

Mikey Kliss
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

dial collect on the pay phone and leave your message in the name part

Mikie4332
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Watching a TV show where there was a proud announcement of "shown in COLOR". Didn't make a difference to our b&w TV

Alex Jumpeter
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Telephones were connected to the wall and you had to physically dial them...in a circle

Lisa B.
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

How about party lines? Or, does anyone remember when you waited on Saturday morning for the screen on your TV to change from the brightly colored lines, for the cartoons to start? After school specials? How about when you gassed up your car by Sunday afternoon, or got groceries before 6pm...cuz then everything closed down until Monday morning about 8am? No such thing as all night stores or gas stations.

Amberlie Mikelsen
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

When the highlight of your week was Bugs Bunny's antics on Saturday morning...

Katie
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

How to dress nicely to go to the supermarket and to fly on a plane ! How to be respectful, how to speak nicely , music without swearing and violence, film clips with people dressing silly but not ladies in bra and kickers !!

SkekVi
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

you can't pause or rewind. when my friends got tivo and you could SORT OF do that it was insane. pausing tv??? unheard of. And now you can choose what to watch? Choosing what to watch consisted of flipping channels and seeing what was on or, if you had the tv listings, just looking through those and planning your whole life around when stuff you wanted was on. you didn't have to 'catch up' with tv bc everyone had to watch the new episode at the same time. that was kind of nice bc then you could talk about it for the next week!!

Mike Fitzpatrick
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The little round pedal behind the parking brake that controlled the high beams.

Never Snarky
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

So glad that got replaced with a smart switch. Trying to find that button was always dangerous.

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Stephanie Did It
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Getting the busy signal and calling back every 2 minutes to see if it would ring

Kathleen Ryan
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My first computer had a tape drive. But I never got to use it because an Amish boy stole it.

Quarkbeast
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Party lines, and I don't mean the 1-900 type. My neighbour down the street had one with her next door neighbour. I guess we were rich because we had our own phone number.

David R.
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

When we said "hang up the phone," we literally hung up the phone.

matt playford
Community Member
1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Manually rewinding your cassette when the strip bubbled a liitle so it didn't get Dickerd when you tried to play it on side b.

Kevin the Manager
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

You had to screw the UHF converter into the cable outlet on the back of the TV to connect the NES. Look it up!

Grace Knowlton
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Old school games that had save points so when you died you had to go all the way back to the beginning

Deery Lou
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Rabbit ears, tinfoil and sitting in a specific area so you could watch american cartoons without paying for cable

Sherri Mantooth Bagwell
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

3 channels, (4 counting PBS) If there was a Presidential Address, you were screwed for the evening as far as watching TV went

Andrew Holloway
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That when you wanted to know what was on tv....omg you'd have to look at a TV guide!!!!

detective miller's hat
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

and if you really knew what you were doing, you could shimmy up the utility pole to steal your neighbour's cable.

Verena
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Adventure games needed text to be typed to get the figure on the screen do something. The first Kings Quest and Space Quest required a dictionary for non-English players. "Take dehydrated water".

Mrimion
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My parents got me a portable white TV with 2 antennas that ran on 12 AA batteries. I would take it everywhere and watch WB64 in black and white. Ahhh.... Such wonderful memories.

Kat097
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

something I fondly remember is playing out with the neighborhood children in the summer time until dinner or dusk which ever came first

Mintii Bunnii
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

if we wanted to listen to music on the go, we would have to "burn" the music on a cd

Gareth Baus
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Anything about physical media like VHS, DVDs, or cassette tapes. I was towards the younger end of people who grew up with those things as a major part of most people's childhoods, but I can still remember them clearly.

John George
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The frustration of missing the DJ's back-announcement of a 5- or 6-song set (on a "progressive format" rock station) because someone chose that exact moment to engage you.

Dan Perez
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Cable box attached to 📺 with a long cord. Up and down switch. Press the button on the box to change channels. HBO going off the air.

Douglas Studney
Community Member
1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I don't know how my parents afforded it, but we had a huge console/log with a big color TV embedded. For the Moon landing. July, 1969.

Lene
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

When we in Denmark got our 2nd national tv channel, tv2. :) wild times to actually have two channels to choose from ❤

Printerman
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Losing your 8-hour download at 6hrs 58mins because SOMEone in the house just HAD to pick up the phone.🤬

Okido
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Connecting to the internet and hearing that connecting sound.

Karl
Community Member
1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Calling the TV repair man on the neighbour’s phone because the rented B&W set had blown a valve

Pandroid Rebellion
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

We made plans and then did those plans at the time and place we said we would do the plans. Without cell phones and texting.

LeeAnne B
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Carefully removing the centre page of Top 40 magazine to stick up on your bedroom wall.

stupidMonkey
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Cordless phones had a switch that would make them dial with clicks like a rotary phone instead of touch tone because some phone companies hadn't yet updated their infrastructure.

Terri Martin
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Bringing your Boom boxes to the courtyard to play jax and jump rope while eating "Kool cups "during the summer!

Robin DJW
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

when touch tone number pads on telephones was the hot new thing.

Cynthia Kelly
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

You could only dial 3 numbers (many combinations) for party lines.

KittyGaming
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

You know what, my switch on the tv only works on a certain channel

BradGfromDaBoo
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

they used to have a little selector box you had to attach to the back of the TV to switch between game and tv

Sami-Jo Ross
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Cable box with numbered buttons on the top, and the channels only went to 65 at most.

Lee Henderson
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

A lot of tv channels signed off at midnight. Don Kirshners Rock Concert. Calling my cousin 10 miles away (in another county) was a long distance call.

Sue
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

No bras required in junior high (middle school but grades 7-9). Pretty much free for all dress since we were in Florida with no AC in school & right after the Hippies busted up all the dress codes. Now they're whining about kids today.

Trash Panda 🦝
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Baaaaaaaaaa-weeeeeeeeeoooooohhhhhweeeeeeooohhh-schhhhhhhh-buuuuuuuuuuuuuu-squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. YOU'VE GOT MAIL!

Sean
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Nope, actual analog channel 3. Old game consoles came with RF modulators since older, pre-1990s TVs didn’t usually have RCA jacks for composite video (the AV connections).

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Linziaj
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'd never heard or seen video games. Now betamax was a thing when I was little

cdubaya
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Watching Wonderful World of Disney and Hardy Boys on like a 16" black and white tv in the 70's...while waiting for my Dad to finish watching NFL games on Sunday. It was always "2 minutes left in the game" when any NFL fan will tell you 2 minutes equals like 30 minutes in real time.

Joshua David
Community Member
1 year ago

This comment is hidden. Click here to view.

I think a lot of kids play coy and "stupid" about a lot of things. At least in my life they do. Like, what's that mean? Kinda stuff.

Greenmantle
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'm guessing you're retired or have a cushy job now if you are so out of touch to make a comment like this

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We also asked Dave if there’s anything from the 90s that he wishes we still used today. “Physical media was king back then in the '90s, and I miss the PlayStation demo discs that you used to be able to pick up at Toys ‘R’ Us,” he shared. “At one point, even Pizza Hut gave them away! I would play the limited levels for hours. And yes, I still have the discs.”

“Even though they weren't specific to the '90s, I also miss video stores, which of course rented games,” Dave added. “My mom would sometimes check out Fatal Fury 2 and Primal Rage for my Genesis.”

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And if Dave could go back in time and tell his 90s self something now, he says, “I would tell myself to cherish every moment, and to brace for a barrage of largely-manufactured crises. I'd also advise myself to start earning money right out of high school, and not waste time and money on college. And if I could go back in time, I wouldn't return.”

As far as why younger generations should keep looking back to learn more about the 80s and 90s, Dave says, “The cultural output of these decades was built to last, whereas today everything is disposable. There probably won't be a huge demand in ten years for today's auto-tuned songs or CGI-bloated movies. But even in fifty years, people will be jamming out to R.E.M, and quoting Ghostbusters. There's currently a 40th anniversary celebration for John Carpenter's Christine. Much like that '58 Fury, the '80s and '90s will never die.”

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If you’d like to learn more about these magical decades, be sure to visit Dave’s site Retro Injection!

Now, we can’t pay homage to the 90s without taking a moment to appreciate how wonderful the outfits of the era were. Bright colors, loud patterns, baggy jeans and sweaters, and layers upon layers upon layers. There are a few different subsets of 90s fashion, as some people were more likely to wear colorful windbreakers while others were more drawn to the grunge look with Dr. Martens and plaid flannels. But one thing’s for sure: everybody looked fly.  

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Another lovely aspect of the 90s that Dave mentioned, that kids today don’t get to experience, is the fun of visiting a video store. A Friday evening trip to Blockbuster was the highlight of my week. I got to pick out whatever movie I wanted (that was appropriate for kids of course), find my preferred chocolate bar of the week and return home for the best night ever. There was always a risk that they wouldn’t have the film you wanted or that nothing would look appealing, but the excitement over the trip was enough to convince you to choose something. There was no going home empty handed from a video rental store.

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Snack time during the 90s was also next level. It seemed like not as many parents were concerned about cavities and processed sugars, so the snack of the day could be Gushers, Dunkaroos, Oreos, GoGurt or a cup of Trix yogurt. And you couldn’t forget to wash it all down with a Capri-Sun or Yoo-hoo! While you might reach for hummus and carrots or an apple and peanut butter today, you’ll never forget those delicious days of 90s treats.  

We hope these photos have filled you with nostalgia for the 90s, pandas. We may never be able to get that time back, but thanks to the technology we now have, it’s able to live forever virtually. Keep upvoting the pics that bring back memories for you, and then if you’re interested in reading another Bored Panda article, we recommend this one that will give you major nostalgia for the past few decades!

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