Archive for the ‘ 90s Technology ’ Category

DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION

Ahhh the original DDR! Remember when it only cost $2 to play?

Dance Dance Revolution (abbreviated DDR) is a music video game series produced by Konami. Introduced in Japan in 1998 then released in North America and Europe in 1999,

DDR is the pioneering series of the rhythm and dance genre in video games. Players stand on a “dance platform” or stage and hit colored arrows laid out in a cross with their feet to musical and visual cues.

Players are judged by how well they time their dance to the patterns presented to them and are allowed to choose more music to play to if they receive a passing score.

Dance Dance Revolution has been given much critical acclaim for its originality and stamina in the video game market. There have been dozens of arcade-based releases across several countries and hundreds of home video game console releases.

The series has promoted a music library of original songs produced by Konami’s in-house artists and an eclectic set of licensed music from many different genres.

 

My favorite tracks were “Butterfly” and “Boom Boom Dollar” prolly because they were on basic mode and I can actually finish the whole song without failing.

One time I was at the arcades dancing to “Bumblebee” and it was too hardcore for me I fell off the platform. Soo embarassing especially when you have an audience.

I was smart enough to know that I don’t have the co-ordination to even attempt “Paranoia.”

2012
02/09
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CD-ROM

How exciting was upgrading your computer to have a CD-ROM! 

A CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to but not writable by a computer for data storage and music playback.

In the 90s CD-ROMs were popularly used to distribute computer software including video games and multimedia applications though any data can be stored (up to the capacity limit of a disc).

CD-ROM discs are read using CD-ROM drives. Virtually all modern CD-ROM drives can also play audio CDs (as well as Video CDs and other data standards) when used in conjunction with the right software.

My first ever VCD was “I Know What You Did Last Summer” and having a CD-ROM meant I could burn all my favorite Boyz II Men hits onto the one CD.

Whack!

2012
02/08
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CLONING

Dolly (5 July 1996 – 14 February 2003) was a female domestic sheep and the first mammal to be cloned from an adult somatic cell using the process of nuclear transfer.

She was cloned by Ian Wilmut, Keith Campbell and colleagues at the Roslin Insitute and the biotechnology company PPL Therapeutics near Edinburger, Scotland.

Dolly was “the world’s most famous sheep”, she lived until the age of six at which point she died from a progressive lung disease.

The cell used as the donor for the cloning of Dolly was taken from a mammary gland and the production of a healthy clone therefore proved that a cell taken from a specific part of the body could recreate a whole individual.

On Dolly’s name, Wilmut stated:

“Dolly is derived from a mammary gland cell and we couldn’t think of a more impressive pair of glands than Dolly Parton’s.”

After cloning was successfully demonstrated through the production of Dolly, many other large mammals have been cloned including horses and bulls. 

Making cloned mammals is highly inefficient (Dolly was the only lamb that survived to adulthood from 277 attempts).

Wilmut, who led the team that created Dolly, announced in 2007 that the nuclear transfer technique may never be sufficiently efficient for use in humans.

2012
02/08
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MIRC

A/S/L? LOL @mIRC #oldschool.

mIRC is an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) client for Microsoft Windows created in 1995 and developed by Khaled Mardam-Bey.

Although it is a fully functional chat utility, its integrated scripting language makes it extensible and versatile.mIRC has been downloaded over 30 million times from CNETs Download.com service. Nielsen/NetRatings also ranked mIRC among the top ten most popular Internet applications in 2003.

How embarassing (sometimes narcissistic) are the screen names we give ourselves in the cyber world eg: S3Xy_Grl_15 or  jnr-R0ME0

We’d sneak dinner into our rooms for a marathon of keyboard gymnastics only to stay up all night chatting to the people we’d see at school the next morning.

It was “dial-up” days and I chuck mentals when I get disconnected mid way through sending a pic… what I’d give to see my chat history logs.

2012
02/08
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SUPER NINTENDO

If titles like Super Mario World, Legends of Zelda, Donkey Kong, Metroid and Megaman make you jizz I’m going to assume you owned a SNES!

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (also known as the Super NES, SNES or Super Nintendo) is a 16-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo between 1990 and 1993.

The SNES was Nintendo’s second home console, following the NES. The console introduced advanced graphics and sound capabilities compared with other consoles at the time. Additionally, development of a variety of enhancement chips (which were integrated on game circuit boards) helped to keep it competitive in the marketplace.

The SNES was a global success, becoming the best-selling console of the 16-bit era despite its relatively late start and the fierce competition it faced in North America and Europe from Sega’s Genesis console.

The SNES remained popular well into the 32-bit era, and although Nintendo no longer offers factory repairs/replacement or accessories for the console, it continues to be popular among fans, collectors, retro gamers and emulation enthusiasts (some of whom are still making home brew ROM images).

Super Nintendo Entertainment System Games

Summer vacation was spent barricaded in my room trying to clock the latest release SNES release.

How bout that heart attack you get when your console crashes and you blow into the bottom of the cartridge and it magically remedies the problem.

To my fellow vintage geeks if you’re still lucky enough to have your Super NES games in mint condition you might wanna check out this toy.

2012
02/07
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DISCMAN

Let’s rewind back to the time when iPods didn’t exist and they invented the craziest thing ever, a portable CD player (used to play compact discs).

Prior to the development of the CD, cassette tapes were the dominant form of audio storage in regards to the then-fledgling portable audio industry.

Sony had revolutionized the way in which music could be enjoyed with the introduction of the first portable music player, the Walkman. With this portable unit, music was able to accompany a person anywhere it went. Gone were the restrictions of a stationary player.

The Walkman became part of culture and even part of fashion. As Sony began to realize the potential of the CD, executives pushed for a means to give the CD player market momentum, moving it from audio enthusiasts to the mainstream.

Discman was the product name given to Sony’s first portable CD player, the D-50.

One of the major problems with the early Discman was something called skipping. Skipping consists of the laser inside the CD player temporarily losing its place on the CD, interrupting playback.

The basic features of a portable CD player are:

  1. Play/Pause
  2. Stop
  3. Rewind
  4. Fast forward
  5. Hold (some models)
  6. Liquid crystal display
  7. Headphones

The play and pause feature allows the user to pause in the middle of the track (song) and resume it at the same place the listener left off at once the play button is hit again.

The stop feature stops the track allowing the user to then switch tracks easily.

The fast forward and rewind feature will either fast forward or rewind the track the amount of time you hold the button down.

The liquid crystal display provides a visual of how much battery is left, what track (number) is currently playing, and the amount of time elapsed on the track.

The headphones solely function to amplify the music so it can be heard.

I can’t begin to imagine how many batteries I’ve went through to keep up with my slow jams and top 40 addiction.

Not only that but how about the manual labour you had to go through just to change CDs and make sure you had your favourites stocked in glove compartment or in your back pack.

Arghh the skipping! No way you could’ve jogged with that bulky thing.

As much as I love and respect 90s technology I still can’t live with my iTunes [hugs PC monitor]. 

2012
02/07
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