Remember Pogs? The game with little round cardboard disks that you would stack up and slam with an iron 'spinner'. The ones that landed face up became yours. That was a huge fad in the mid 90's. My classmate played it left and right. I personally didn't care for it so much.

The 90's is also the release of the N64 and the classic game The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. That is still in discussion with FF VII as best game of its generation and of all time. (and I am not alone in that discussion).

The 90's is when the cell phone became accessable to the average person and was not the size of a dinosaur. It was still basic, but accessable.

As for cartoons, remember Animaniacs, Dark Wing Duck, Tail Spin, or even Boonkers? I used to watch them, especially Animaniacs. 1999 was also the year that Pokemon was release in mass numbers with a video, video games, and the cartoon. I also remember watching a few episodes of Wild Cats, Power Rangers, and Mighty Ducks, the cartoon spin-off of the then Aneheim Mighty Ducks NHL team.

And speaking of which, that team was created due to the popularity of two movies, The Mighty Ducks and D2: The Mighty Ducks with Emilio Estevez and Joshua Jackson (whom some might know from Dawson's Creek). In fact, the team logo from the second movie was the logo picked for the NHL team.

1998 and 1999 were the end of the Denver Broncos golden years with John Elway. He retired after the 98-99 season after winning back to back Super Bowls. He was the one to beat Favre in Green Bay's last SB in one of the greatest Super Bowls yet.

Who rememebers dial-up internet being the standard? I do. I never really got onto a lot of sites back then, but a lot of it has to do with slow internet. Of course my first experience with anything faster than dial-up was in Community College in 04-05.

I can go on for this too, but I'll let some others post as well.

Awesome opening post, Shadowlander! You've helped me remember quite a few things.

What is now sometimes called Gulf War I (the 1990 event mentioned above) began (in my time zone) the evening of a long-time friend's birthday. I recall that I was on my way to the birthday party when the radio announced the US-led response to the Kuwait invasion had begun (January 1991).

And to an old fogey who grew up in the shadow of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the duck-and-cover school drills of the Cold War, the fall of the Soviet Union and reunification of Germany was truly unbelievable. It's still incredible to me that such astonishing changes occurred, historically speaking, in the blink of an eye - and all we could do is stare in wonder as history was made.

In sports, the Twins won their second World Series in 1991, just 4 years after the their first, and the Twin Cities went crazy all over again. Those were fun times. And just days after the victory parade, the Halloween Blizzard struck the state, setting some records for the month that still stand.

Earlier this evening I was reflecting on other, more personal events of the decade. Highlights include the weddings of both of my younger siblings, and the arrival of the first adopted child from China (others would follow early in the next decade).

Speaking of The Lion King, just recently we watched part of an old home movie in which a very young girl (a friend's child) was singing "Hakuna Matata." She just loved that movie.

I began camping with friends from church in 1990, and the tradition continues today. We visit Minnesota state parks over long holiday weekends, and in the 90s took extended camping trips to some of the national parks in the Western US (like Grand Teton, Rocky Mountain, Olympic, and Glacier), where we saw some truly incredibly awesome scenery. Some of these have become my favorite places to visit.

More to come later, most likely.

(edited)

Additions inspired by Fencer's post above: The Super Bowl was held here in 1992; the widespread concerns over a blizzard or really cold weather didn't materialize. That winter saw the construction of a 166-foot tall ice palace for the St Paul Winter Carnival. It was lit at night and very spectacular.

The movie The Mighty Ducks was filmed here at the same time - I watched (from a distance) the filming of the Rice Park ice sculptures scene - and the story goes that the movie was going to include an explosion of the ice palace. But a January thaw forced its early demolition.

The mid-90s also saw the short-lived run of one of my favorite animated series, Gargoyles. (My current avatar - for the moment - is one of the iconic scenes from the show).

Hmm, let's see.... the 90's..... well, I was born in 1992 for starters. I can remember a few of the things you mentioned in your post, SL:

Tamogatchi pets: Hate to admit it, but I had one of those things. Mine was a little dog. It kept dying on me as well as making that annoying little beeping sound when it was hungry. We finally started sticking it in a canning jar and putting it in the back of the house at night.

Jurassic Park: I was too young to remember the first one, but I do remember when The Lost World: Jurassic Park came out and wanting to see it. Of course, I could not, so I slowly waited for years (ages it seemed like) until I was allowed to watch the first film. I finally got my chance to view JP when I was 10 and loved it.

Godzilla 1998: One of the great defining moments for me. When the film came out, I was only 6 and my parents didn't think I should watch it. My Mom remembered going to see some of the old Japanese Godzilla films when she was a kid, so she got a few VHS tapes from Blockbuster and let me watch those. I was hooked. Ever since I saw my first Godzilla film, I have been a fan ever since. Granted, now I see that some of the films are worse than others, but I still love watching Godzilla destroy cities and battle other monsters.

Pokemon: Every kid had one. They were everywhere!!! Of course, while my friends were collecting Charazard's and Pikachu's, I was busy trying to find out more info on Godzilla or....

Star Wars: My first true love when it comes to movies. I was only 5 or so when my Dad came across the first film on TV. I only saw the cantina fight scene, but that was enough to get me hooked. I still have binders full of drawings I did of Star Wars stuff....

Gameboy: Another gadget that every kid seemed to have. My cousins we're the one who introduced me to video games and especially Gameboys. Great little system that is.

AMC/Friday Night VFX special/Monsterfest: A very fond memory I have of staying up late on Friday night's to watch the "Friday night VFX show" hosted by the late, great Stan Winston (R.I.P). They would have a half hour show that would focus on the making of a certain kind of visual effect (weather, monsters, prosthetics, CGI, etc.) and then would show a classic monster movie.

"Monsterfest" was also a fun time as AMC would show all the great old monster movies from the 50's all through Halloween. Good times...

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I better stop now. Anyway, that's the things that I remember the most from the 90's. I'm sure I'll think of more.

Since i was born in 1995 i don't remeber much, I can remeber my brother gettign a nintendo 64 when i was 3 or 4.Other then that ir emeber someone stealing my muffin at the day care centre and painting a fence with thsoe water paints.

Remember Pogs? The game with little round cardboard disks that you would stack up and slam with an iron 'spinner'. The ones that landed face up became yours. That was a huge fad in the mid 90's. My classmate played it left and right. I personally didn't care for it so much.

I remember those. I graduated high school in 1990 but my nephews and nieces all had piles of them around the house, and as I recall you could get promotional ones from various products (pizzas, soda cartons, etc.). The strange thing is that no one I knew seemed to know how to play it. Mostly the kids I knew just seemed to collect them. I'm still a bit baffled by how it's played, but I guess I'm too old now to figure it out.

And to an old fogey who grew up in the shadow of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the duck-and-cover school drills of the Cold War, the fall of the Soviet Union and reunification of Germany was truly unbelievable. It's still incredible to me that such astonishing changes occurred, historically speaking, in the blink of an eye - and all we could do is stare in wonder as history was made.

It happened very quick, seemingly overnight. Whether you love them or hate them you have to give much credit to Reagan and Thatcher for bringing the fall of the Soviet Union about. Another amusing memory...remember how the East German and Soviet judges would always give their participants ridiculously high marks at the Olympics? I mean (and I'm just totally making up a name off the top of my head) Boris Sporansky could perform a dive and then do a hard bellyflop on the water, creating a massive tidal wave in the pool, and those folks would hold up cards with scores of 9 or 10 on them. Every time! Ahh...those Soviets...

Remember Pogs?

I sure remember them...collecting them, that is. I never really figured out what I was supposed to DO with them.

The strange thing is that no one I knew seemed to know how to play it. Mostly the kids I knew just seemed to collect them

Oh, I see I wasn't the only one then

Awesome opening post, Shadowlander!

And a hearty "ditto" to that!

Although I never listened to them (wasn't allowed), I remember The Spice Girls being huge. All my friends had the tapes and all kinds of memorbilia. I distinctly remember thinking their platform shoes were soooo stylish.

I guess this will be the only "decades" thread that I can actually remember stuff from.

I was CRAZY about Beanie Babies. I collected them, but I didn't "collect" them. That is to say, I always took the tags off (saved them tho) and actually played with them instead of sticking them on a shelf. My first Beanie Baby was a green rabbit called Hippity, but I called her Hopper instead. To this day she still has a burn mark across her face from the morning when she was "watching my toast in the toaster" for me.

EDIT:

For anyone interested in fashion, the 1990's saw the rise of the "grunge", and "androgynous" styles. The decade was pretty minimalist in style, I think. Not that I really remember, but this is what I have found from research . The 90's also was when supermodels were made (Kate Moss, Linda Evangalista, Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford).

Wiki- link to "1990's fashions"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990s_in_fashion

I was born in 1992 so I don't remember a ton of stuff from the nineties. I was only eight when they ended. I remember everyone being scared that the world would end when 1999 ended.

I remember that, narnian_at_heart. I think a lot of people were secretly stock-piling supplies. We were. And then of course nothing happened and we had enough toilet paper, bottled water, and canned food to last for ages...

Oh my goodness, pogs, the Spice Girls, tamagotchi pets, Nintendos...this was decade I grew up in.

What about clothes? It might have been residue from the 80s, but I wore taper-leg high-waisted jeans or overalls with turtlenecks stuffed in them. My mom sometimes wore stirrup pants. When we went on a hike or outing, we wore little fanny packs.

The two events I remember best from the 90s are the Oklahoma City bombing and Princess Diana's death. I was only 6 and 8 years old, respectively, but images from those news reports still stick in my mind. I also vaguely remember my dad being deployed during the Gulf War, and wondering why he was taking so long at "golfing."

Not many poeple are gonna go crazy for the end of the world in 2012 since theirs a 99% chance it aint gonna happen. We certaintly didn't go crazy in 1999(that year is kind of what you call it to predictable to be a disater, if you know what i mean).

If you were born in 1995, you wouldn't remember the mass hype and panic there was right before the Millenium Bug. Teachers, media, and quite a few others were warning everyone about the impeding disaster. I was even shown a video of 'what would happen' should the bug hit and suddenly between 1999 and 2000, all power would shut off, computers would lose all their data, etc, etc. People were making a big enough deal that ocean liners were acually parked at the docks so no ships were sailing over that night. And the worst effects: gas prices temporarily went up because the ships carrying the oil from the Middle East were docked and not en route.

As for 2012, if there is going to be a hype, it won't be as bad at in 1999 because of how easily fooled we (generally speaking) were to fall for the Millenium Bug. And after several more of them, when the real one hits, (ie the Rapture) no one is going to be prepared for it. After all, that's what the Bible says. "No one knows the day or time of the end of the age except the Father." Not even Jesus knows when he is returning. I'll just say I am ready.

One thing I remember about the 90's was the rise to prominence of the Redwall Series by Brian Jacques. The only other books that I can think of that were huge hits was the release of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (I think that was released in 1999, because it needed to become popular before the making of the 2001 movie). Any other major books/series released during the 90's that you can think of? I didn't read much back then, so I can't really rememeber what was out.

A long-time friend is (and was back in the 90s) a computer geek/professional, and was involved in some of the large main-frame reprogramming efforts to avoid the Y2K bug. We've commented that it's possible that most of the forecast side effects were in fact prevented by the massive reprogramming and updating done in the years just prior to that.

2012 is a bit off-topic, but there's an excellent article here explaining the origin of the myth behind all this and debunking the 'science' already appearing in some email chain letters.

I also recall seeing the Oklahoma City devastation on TVs during breaks at work. Princess Diana's death came over the US Labor Day holiday weekend in 1997, so we were camping without access to news. On the way home we stopped at a gas station/convenience store and were astonished to see it all over the papers.

Another noteworthy event was the June 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines. Some 800 people died in the eruption, and so much volcanic ash was launched into the air that Northern Hemisphere temperatures took a short but measurable dip (we had no days of 90F or more in the summer of 1992, a rather unusual occurrence).

In 1993, the Mississippi River basin in the central US had floods of legendary proportions. This was particularly noteworthy coming so shortly after the drought of 1987-88, which many called the worst in the US since the Dust Bowl days of the 1930s.

Another noteworthy event was the June 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines. Some 800 people died in the eruption, and so much volcanic ash was launched into the air that Northern Hemisphere temperatures took a short but measurable dip (we had no days of 90F or more in the summer of 1992, a rather unusual occurrence).

I remember that...that much more ingrained in the memory...how often does a volcano erupt nowadays? The video from the Phillipines was terrible stuff. I don't specifically remember if the temperatures dropped, but I do remember the event.

In 1993, the Mississippi River basin in the central US had floods of legendary proportions. This was particularly noteworthy coming so shortly after the drought of 1987-88, which many called the worst in the US since the Dust Bowl days of the 1930s.

I remember this too. The floodwaters were lapping up against the bottom of the St. Louis Arch and the river was lined with people filling sandbags. There were people from around the country volunteering to go there to help build temporary sandbag dams and dikes. If you've ever been to the Arch it's truly mindblowing as the water is typically a good 20 feet below the concrete it sits on (did you know there's a museum located under the Arch? And you can take an elevator to the top of the Arch...nifty ).

well, I was born in the 1990's! Sept. 14, 1993 to be exact! so that's the best part for me!
I gave my life to Jesus in April 1998! another very aweome part of the 1990's for me!
I will try to think of more.....I'll get back to ya''l later about the good old 1990's!