Prepare for 90s nostalgia overload! For this list, we’ll be looking at staples from the decade that either no longer exist or are significantly rarer than they used to be.
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00:00Dude, I wouldn't clean my floor with this.
00:01Welcome to Ms. Mojo,
00:03and today we're counting down our picks for the top 20 things from the 90s that don't exist anymore.
00:08Wherever I go, I stay connected with everyone in my life.
00:11It's really easy to stay in touch.
00:13For this list, we're looking at staples from the decade that either no longer exist
00:17or are significantly rarer than they used to be.
00:20If there's a nostalgic 90s relic we forgot, remind us in the comments, dude.
00:25Number 20, dial-up modems.
00:28On your mark, get set, we're riding on the internet.
00:33Cyberspace set free, hello virtual reality.
00:38Internet access has come a long way in the decade since the 90s.
00:42These days, wireless internet, broadband, and LAN cables provide fast
00:45and easily accessible internet for billions.
00:48But back in the day, the internet could only be accessed through phone lines.
00:52Dial-up modems took up an entire phone line at home,
00:55while a few remote or rural areas are still using dial-up modems today.
01:00The rest of us will never have to hear that awful dial-up screeching again,
01:04except in our nightmares and in nostalgic internet videos like this one.
01:13Number 19, Butterfinger BBs.
01:16There are plenty of discontinued candy products from the 90s.
01:19One of the most beloved are Butterfinger BBs.
01:22These bite-sized balls of Butterfingers were easy to pop in your mouth
01:26and still maintained the full-sized candy bar's unique texture and peanut buttery flavor.
01:30Plus, they were advertised by Bart Simpson.
01:35Unfortunately, despite the campaign slogan warning that
01:38nobody better lay a finger on our Butterfinger,
01:40the BBs were discontinued in 2006.
01:45Although no official explanation has been released,
01:48some have theorized that the BBs' chocolate coating, which melted easily,
01:52may have been responsible.
01:53While a similar smaller Butterfinger version was released called Butterfinger Bites,
01:58they never attained the same popularity.
02:00Ay caramba!
02:03Number 18, Encarta Encyclopedia.
02:14During the 90s, the internet was not the trusted source of information it is,
02:18well, can be today.
02:20Online encyclopedias were still in their infancy.
02:23Before the rise of Wikipedia,
02:25there was another computer-based encyclopedia called Encarta.
02:28Launched in 1993 and originally packaged in DVD form,
02:32this annually updated program contained
02:34thousands of informative articles on a wide variety of topics.
02:38Not only did Encarta include text,
02:40there were also videos, pictures, and even trivia games.
02:51However, naturally, the rise of online encyclopedias
02:56ultimately led to Encarta's downfall,
02:58and Microsoft ceased its publishing in 2009.
03:02Number 17, Minidisc Players.
03:04During the 90s, audio formats were still very much a competition.
03:08One often forgotten contender is the Minidisc.
03:11Published by Sony,
03:12these miniature discs were envisioned as the next big thing to replace cassette tapes.
03:20However, despite proving popular in Sony's native Japan,
03:26MD players couldn't find success at a global scale.
03:29Record labels didn't take to the format quickly,
03:31leaving few albums available initially.
03:34Plus, blank MDs were twice as expensive as blank CDs.
03:38By the time MP3 players became available,
03:40Minidiscs were on their way out.
03:42Although niche markets kept them in circulation until 2013.
03:51Number 16, Zima.
03:53The 90s saw a trend of clear drinks,
03:56and alcoholic beverages were no exception.
03:58Coors got in on the trend and created Zima in 1994,
04:02a clear malt beverage intended as an alternative to beer.
04:05While the beer found more success among young women,
04:08Coors did their best to market it towards a male consumer base.
04:11In the end, most didn't especially enjoy the taste,
04:15and the product began disappearing from shelves.
04:18At least in the West.
04:19Coors discontinued Zima in North America in 2008,
04:22but it was only a few years before it was released in the U.S.
04:25In the early 2000s,
04:27Coors was the first company in the U.S. to launch a beer brand.
04:31Coors discontinued Zima in North America in 2008,
04:34but the beverage remained popular in Japan until 2021.
04:45Playground games come and go.
04:46During the early 90s,
04:48the biggest one was easily Milk Caps or Pogs.
04:51They're Pogs.
04:52They're Milk Caps.
04:53They're Pogs.
04:54It's a game. You stack them, and then you whack them.
04:57Players would stack cardboard discs with pictures printed on them,
05:01anything from cartoons to sports logos.
05:03Then another larger disc called a Slammer was used to knock down as many Pogs as possible.
05:08Because each player would often keep the Pogs won this way,
05:11it was viewed by many schools as a form of gambling,
05:14leading to widespread bans.
05:22When kids can't play something at school,
05:25it tends to kill the popularity pretty quickly.
05:28While they're technically still around and there are variants on the game worldwide,
05:32Pogs popularity is far from what it used to be.
05:38Before and during the 90s,
05:40most screens were created using CRT or cathode ray tube technology.
05:45Naturally, computer screens were no exception.
05:47These big bulky monitors sat on our desks
05:50and are how many of us first experienced computing.
05:53But the last few decades have seen the rise of LCD, OLED and plasma monitors,
05:57which are cheaper and generally have larger screens than CRT monitors.
06:02Some people, particularly computer gamers, still prefer CRTs
06:06because they don't have as much input lag
06:08and can display images in multiple resolutions more easily.
06:12In general though, these guys have been mostly phased out.
06:1613. Gaming magazines
06:18Video games were still considered a niche industry in the 90s,
06:22so they weren't mainstream enough to be covered extensively on TV
06:25or the still newfangled internet.
06:32Enter gaming magazines.
06:34If you were a 90s gamer,
06:36chances are you were subscribed to one or more gaming magazines.
06:39Electronic Gaming Monthly,
06:41Nintendo Power,
06:42Computer Gaming World,
06:43Tips and Tricks,
06:44these publications gave gamers detailed articles on upcoming games,
06:48walkthroughs, cheat codes and reviews.
06:50Plus, they had a surprising level of reader interaction for major publications.
06:55Tragically, most gaming magazines ceased publication
06:58as the rise of internet journalism made the old monthly issue model obsolete.
07:02Why wait to read about it in a magazine when it's already online?
07:0612. Floppy disks
07:08Removable computer storage in the 90s
07:10used to take the form of small 3.5-inch floppy disks.
07:14Although the name is a bit misleading for those disks,
07:16which unlike the disks of the 80s weren't floppy at all,
07:20when you needed to save or move information between computers,
07:23floppy disks were everyone's go-to.
07:26You just popped them into the fabled A drive and off you went.
07:29They were so widely used that the save icon in most programs
07:32is still the floppy disk to this day.
07:35But as technology progressed and storage capacity and needs
07:38expanded beyond a few hundred kilobytes,
07:40floppy disks are no longer in wide circulation.
07:43But if you're missing them,
07:44they're still sometimes used for emergency booting in older systems
07:47and in other industries like aeronautics.
07:5011. Appointment TV
07:53Once upon a time, we scheduled our lives around what was on TV.
07:57This was because if you didn't see a show or a sporting event when it aired,
08:00you didn't see it at all.
08:02Each time an episode aired, everyone was talking about it the next day.
08:06And sure, sometimes you could tape a show and watch it later,
08:08but sometimes working VCRs was more art than science.
08:12Appointment television was the norm,
08:14and so networks did big ratings when a show hit it big.
08:21Of course, streaming platforms now make it easy to binge shows
08:25or watch them at your own pace.
08:27While some streaming series do release episodes weekly
08:29and the concept is making something of a comeback,
08:32Appointment TV isn't mainstream again quite yet.
08:3910. Y2K Panic
08:42Doug, everyone here is waiting for the same thing, the stroke of midnight.
08:46We all know that the human race and planet Earth are not going to be around forever.
08:49But with the new millennium on the horizon,
08:51many believed the year 2000 was going to initiate the collapse of society.
08:56Now, the federal government is comparing Y2K to a huge natural disaster
09:01like an earthquake, a hurricane, or a tornado
09:03that disrupts people's lives for days, weeks, or maybe even months.
09:08In the 90s, several computer experts warned that
09:11because many computer systems represented years using only the last two digits,
09:15computers would mix up 1900 and 2000.
09:19This led some folks to buy up food and supplies
09:21to tide them through an imminent apocalypse.
09:24But as it turned out, the world stepped into the new millennium with minimal issues.
09:32While we have dealt with a few other end-of-the-world fears afterwards like 2012,
09:37none quite reached the same level of paranoia.
09:419. The Windows 95 3D Maze
09:52Screensavers aren't all that common anymore
09:55now that most of our devices have a sleep function to conserve power.
09:58In the 90s, however, there was one screensaver you'd see in many homes,
10:03the Windows 95 3D Maze.
10:06Here, you're basically watching your computer play a video game
10:08as it automatically takes left turns until finding the smiley face,
10:12thus resetting and generating a whole new maze.
10:15There was something really mesmerizing about it
10:17between the artificial intelligence and guessing where the face might end up.
10:20Honestly, why hasn't Microsoft made a full-fledged game out of this?
10:248. The Delia's Catalog
10:26If you weren't sure what to wear for the girls' night or the high school dance,
10:30you probably referred to this mail-in catalog of fashion.
10:33Founded in 1993, Delia's was the go-to catalog for teens
10:37who wanted to wear the latest clothes and fashion trends.
10:40Unfortunately, Delia's would be buried by competitors,
10:43in addition to being spun off and acquired on a few occasions as time went on.
10:46By the end of 2014, Delia's filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
10:50and liquidated all of its stores.
10:58While it tried to bounce back as an online-only store in 2015,
11:02this venture was a complete failure.
11:04Now, you can only get their clothing through the Dolls Kill brand.
11:087. Orbitz
11:10Yes, it's the magical beady beverage
11:12that has featured on many a WatchMojo list in recent years.
11:15Is it a bug?
11:16Did someone mistake your beer for an empty and put their cigarette butt in there?
11:20With Orbitz, there was no mistake.
11:22This obscure, non-carbonated drink was manufactured
11:26with a small variety of flavors to quench your thirst and hunger.
11:29From raspberry citrus to vanilla orange,
11:32the beads and beverage made for a unique type of drink.
11:35Alas, Orbitz would live a seriously short life
11:38because of its terrible commercial performance.
11:40Given the presence of gel and gum and high sugar,
11:43one can hazard a guess at why folks weren't picking these up off the shelves,
11:47especially when seeing the edible orbs inside.
11:536. iMac G3
11:55You gotta see this thing in person, but I'll do the best I can with video.
11:58Apple's Mac computers have come a long way.
12:01Today, design is all about improving battery life,
12:04making everything as thin as possible,
12:06and getting berated about updating iTunes even if we don't use it.
12:10But in the late 90s,
12:11a common Mac computer looked about as chunky as a CRT television set.
12:25The teal-colored Macs with their translucent Bondi blue shells
12:29were especially a huge success for Apple.
12:31But looking back,
12:32these desktop computers were also incredibly hefty and awkwardly shaped.
12:35That's because it wasn't just a monitor.
12:37This was the computer itself.
12:43Just seeing pictures of these makes us glad schools are using laptops instead.
12:475. PB Crisps
12:49Yeah, we gotta squeeze another food product in here,
12:51and this is another snack that's popped up on our lists before.
12:55PB Crisps was a special kind of sweet treat from planters,
12:59consisting of peanut-shaped cookies filled with peanut butter inside.
13:06And if you wanted an addition to peanut butter,
13:09you could buy bags of the cookies that were also filled with chocolate or strawberry.
13:13Sadly, these snacks were not around for long due to low demand,
13:17and have become a relic of the mid-90s.
13:19To this day,
13:20there is still a group of dedicated fans clamoring for the product's return,
13:25even going as far as to make a website dedicated to the cause.
13:294. AIM
13:30Also known as AOL Instant Messenger.
13:38It's been a hot minute since we heard anything remotely relevant to AOL.
13:42While AOL currently exists and was acquired by Verizon in 2015,
13:46AIM ceased operations in December 2017.
13:53We're shocked too.
13:54This service was introduced way back in 1997,
13:57and became the leading messaging service in North America for roughly a decade.
14:06But as tech giants like Google and Facebook started taking over,
14:10AIM lost all purpose.
14:20The two companies had better services and better security.
14:23Slowly but surely,
14:24AIM would begin shutting down features one by one,
14:27starting in 2007,
14:28before disappearing completely a decade later.
14:443. Netscape Navigator
14:46These days, we have dozens of web browsers vying for our attention,
14:53from Google Chrome to Mozilla Firefox to Safari to DuckDuckGo.
14:58We remember way back when the internet was a baby,
15:00that there was only one browser to use, Netscape Navigator.
15:04This browser was created in 1994,
15:06and for a short time,
15:08went uncontested in the industry.
15:17What happened to cause such decline?
15:20Well, Internet Explorer happened.
15:22Then Chrome, Firefox, Safari, all of them.
15:25Netscape would receive its final update in 2007,
15:28before ceasing support and development the year after.
15:432. The Discman
15:45Like Walkmans in the 80s,
15:46Discmans became a crucial part of our lives.
15:49There just wasn't anything like going on a walk or exercising,
15:53while jamming out to the newest albums.
15:55Besides radios,
15:56this was pretty much the way to listen to music.
15:59Of course, as we find new ways to store data,
16:02we also kill off part of a medium.
16:04Nowadays, we can just open Spotify on our phones
16:07and jam to anything we desire,
16:08without having to eject a CD
16:10and holster something chunky on our waist.
16:13Still, there is something tactile to be missed here.
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16:371. Video Rental Stores
16:44Jesus, this place is packed tonight, man.
16:46Those who grew up in the 80s, 90s or 2000s
16:49fondly look back on video rental stores.
16:52While the very first such stores opened in the late 70s,
16:55it was in the 90s that bigger brands
16:57like Hollywood Video and Blockbuster boomed in demand.
17:00For some families,
17:01weekly trips to these stores would become a tradition,
17:04as new movies made their way to the shelves
17:06and movie buffs sought out hidden gems.
17:09Wow! Wow!
17:15This industry would decline, however,
17:17as Netflix and streaming services became more and more prominent.
17:21Hollywood Video would go defunct in 2010,
17:24while Blockbuster enjoys a few thousand customers
17:26through its last and only store,
17:28located in Bend, Oregon.
17:39Do you agree with our picks?
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