this post was submitted on 23 Apr 2026
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Funny: Home of the Haha

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[–] GreyShuck@feddit.uk 79 points 2 weeks ago (9 children)

I think my equivalent at that age would have been going to a friend's house to watch their newly acquired colour TV instead of our B/W one.

[–] plantfanatic@sh.itjust.works 25 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Before that, listening to the radio.

[–] crimson_iris@piefed.social 28 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Color radio was a big deal, to be fair.

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[–] Velypso@sh.itjust.works 14 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

And before that, admiring your friends newly acquired onion that you both helped tie to their belt.

[–] pressedhams@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

After all, it was the fashion of the time.

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[–] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 14 points 2 weeks ago

There’s a motel near where my mom lives that only recently updated their sign from “colour TV” to “High Def TV”

[–] BillyClark@piefed.social 9 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I remember the good old days when my friend would come over and we'd turn on my black and white TV, and change it to channel 3 so that we could play a "doubles tennis" version of pong on the little pong console we owned.

Now, this may cause you to exclaim, "How fucking old is this guy?" But what you may not know is that my parents rarely threw old electronics away. That could have happened maybe as late as the mid 90s.

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[–] Klear@quokk.au 8 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)
[–] not_woody_shaw@lemmy.world 15 points 2 weeks ago

Normal amount.

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[–] Corngood@lemmy.ml 76 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

Now we're all reading Lemmy and trying to save open computing because we're the only generation who knows what it is.

[–] jama211@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago

I think every generation knows what it is about the same amount. That is, a small amount of every generation, at each point, knows about it or cares.

[–] Protoknuckles@lemmy.world 29 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I teach computer science, and when we talk about networking and the internet, I apologize to the students. It wasn't supposed to be like this.

[–] jama211@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

It wasn’t supposed to be like this.

I dunno, we sure didn't do anything to make sure it wasn't. In fact, we kinda did exactly the things that someone who wanted it to be like this would do.

[–] MonkeMischief@lemmy.today 7 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (4 children)

It wasn't supposed to be like this.

I'm wondering if you have any reference resources on-hand for this. Like if we can identify where exactly it went wrong and how it was supposed to be, to point to in a somewhat scholarly sense.

As a 90's kid self-taught dabbler in comp-sci / FOSS advocate, my first thoughts for ultimately disasterous elements usually go to corporate disruption, like the iPhone. Maybe if we go further back, Internet Explorer?

I feel like this stuff is intentionally buried to be as if it had never been. General computer knowledge used to be more commonplace, now gen-pops are ignorant slaves to stupid black-box appliances and monolithic rent-seeking cloud services. It sucks.

We are the resistance though. The indie web is growing by the day. Gen-Z has been ditching social media. Open source stuff like Linux or Blender are exploding within niche circles like gaming and indie creator spaces. There's hope. :)

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[–] etherphon@piefed.world 38 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

We were trying to load up Leisure Suit Larry from 5.25" floppy on my friend's dad's IBM PC before he noticed we were in his office downstairs.

[–] mech@feddit.org 13 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I had a hard time getting past that game's age verification, which consisted of trivia questions an 18-year-old American should know, because I was a 6-year-old German.

But I just systematically tried out all combinations (taking notes) until it launched. And I beat the game, learning the first basics of English that way.
So yeah, some of the first English words I learned were "preservative", "hooker" and "Spanish Fly".

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[–] mcavoya@lemmy.world 37 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

One day a coworker announced he had bought a PC with the new 80286 processor running at 10 MHz (an unheard of blistering speed).

That afternoon the entire Engineering Department went to his house to look at it.

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 12 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

That was my first real computer. We had two games: where in the world is carmen Sandiego and kings quest 4 rosella's peril. There was not enough disk space to have both games (size 2 5.25 floppies each IIRC) installed at the same time. Then we got quest for glory. That was special.

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[–] Th4tGuyII@fedia.io 33 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

The millennial amount of old haha

Back when 1984 was just a story, not Government policy

[–] FlexibleToast@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago

They were still just laying the ground work for it instead of enacting it.

[–] Simon_Shitewood@lemmy.ml 31 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

The Youths (20-somethings) at work have a new 3d printer, and were explaining how they were using the printer to print additional parts for the printer, so I said "oh, like downloading Limewire pro" and the blank looks made me feel so old.

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[–] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 29 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (12 children)

Diablo 2 required OVER 1GB of hard drive space to install and 3 CDs. Computer game install sizes are getting out of control.

N64 with 4 controllers and Forsaken while getting a sweet sweet 15 frames per second of motion sickness-inducing awesomeness.

LAN party just to play the Unreal Tournament demo.

Discovering you could use 3333333333333333333 as the CD key for Starcraft.

Heroes of Might and Magic hotseat multiplayer games taking all weekend.

xvid movies that would fit on a CD-R

"Have you guys heard of this broadband thing?"

Monthly nerd conclave to install Linux from the latest Linux Magazine CD. Mandrake has this new KDE 1.0 thing, looks neat.

Magic: The Gathering - Coat of Arms is dumb why does he have 2 of them AND Slivers??!

WAAAY before that: MUDs via BBS (and later Telnet/zMUD 5.55)

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[–] TrickDacy@lemmy.world 27 points 2 weeks ago (23 children)

Old enough to know what RealPlayer was. And to use Netscape communicator.

[–] GamingChairModel@lemmy.world 9 points 2 weeks ago (12 children)

I'm the right age to be in that venn diagram of having had an ICQ account in 1996 and a Snapchat account in 2014.

Where one of my favorite things about the iPhone was that it finally put the nail in the coffin of ~~Macromedia~~ Adobe Flash.

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[–] LaoiseFu@lemmy.world 18 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

We used go to Internet cafes and log onto anonymous chat rooms as a tween group of three. Thought it was HILARIOUS. then eventually got computers in our houses... Dial up.. Rotten.com...etc etc... Funniest time of my life hands down. Big up maddox.xmission articles.👐 Would love to find all the random hilarious videos that made me crack up so much.

[–] LaoiseFu@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Biggest regret : not convincing my parents to let me but bitcoin at 50c... They thought it was bullshit and I didn't know how to. Time machine message.

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[–] Rolder@reddthat.com 18 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I remember getting in trouble for showing my friend questionable things I found on Newgrounds

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[–] rockSlayer@lemmy.blahaj.zone 16 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I was doing this with friends as late as 2012, because all of us were poor and couldn't afford those fancy new iphones

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[–] chunes@lemmy.world 16 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

You think my buddy had internet? We would go over to his house to play DOS games.

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[–] cheat700000007@lemmy.world 15 points 2 weeks ago

AlbinoBlackSheep Ytmnd Newgrounds Fark Stumbleupon

Good shit

[–] BurnedDonutHole@ani.social 14 points 2 weeks ago

Ahhh the good old 90s for me... Get together, play games, share information and combos about games. I remember playing Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, and trying to see who can do all the combos or fatalities while playing on the same computer. I recently find a photo from those times. Feeling a bit nostalgic.

[–] doingthestuff@lemy.lol 14 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

We got our first computer around 1980, there was no information superhighway then. I also remember before that, when pinball tables were pretty cool.

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[–] its_prolly_fine@sh.itjust.works 14 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

Waiting for the image/video to load because dial-up

[–] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 12 points 2 weeks ago

Or LAN parties so we could all play each other in Warcraft, or party up for a D&D multiplayer adventure together. Good times.

[–] Widdershins@lemmy.world 12 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Typing in the original Goatse URL at somebody's house on their computer

[–] The_Picard_Maneuver@lemmy.world 13 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Changing their browser homepage.

[–] MonkeMischief@lemmy.today 11 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Making it their desktop wallpaper, screenshotting the desktop, setting the desktop to that screenshot, then "hide icons."

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[–] Pat_Riot@lemmy.today 11 points 2 weeks ago (10 children)

Gathering around the very pre-internet (actually I think pre-windows) computer to play scorched earth.

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[–] OldChicoAle@lemmy.world 11 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

That's crazy. I had no idea everyone said "look at the computer". Also, I miss being a kid. Growing up in the 90s and 00s was magical time.

[–] angband@lemmy.world 9 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Trading floppies at the library

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[–] YurkshireLad@lemmy.ca 8 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

Playing Elite in the BBC Micro at my friend’s house because the internet didn’t exist.

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[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 8 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (5 children)

"Normal amount" is a bit over 40, no?

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[–] super_user_do@feddit.it 8 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Im 20 and I did this as well because cheap broadband internet didn't arrive everywhere at the same time

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[–] SanctimoniousApe@lemmings.world 8 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

We went to each other's houses because we each had a different computer - I had Commodore, one had Apple II, one had a TI-99/4A, etc. We'd work together to type in free games from program listings in magazines, and help find the inevitable typos - learned a LOT from that. Great times, indeed.

[–] mech@feddit.org 8 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Some classmates made their own website, and they uploaded embarrassing photos of me, and audio recordings of them prank calling me, and then they shared the URL with the entire class, and gave a presentation of their website in class for extra credit, and the teacher didn't get that I wasn't in on it, and said it's a really cool website, and then everyone laughed, so yeah there was that also.

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[–] hayvan@piefed.world 7 points 2 weeks ago

I was about 15 but the rest tracks.

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