There are certain things that only make sense if you were there. Not the big cultural moments — everyone knows about those — but the small, specific, intensely personal things. The ones that don’t come up unless someone else mentions them first, and then suddenly you’re back in 1997 wondering how you’d managed to forget something that felt so important at the time.
This is that list.
Score yourself as you go. One point per item you genuinely remember — not just recognise, but actually remember. The feeling of it. The moment. The specific place you were when it happened.
Share your score in the comments or tag us on Instagram @analog.knights. We want to know how 90s you really are.
☑️ 1. You had a Tamagotchi that died during school
Not just a Tamagotchi. Specifically one that died at school — either because you couldn’t reach it in time, or because you left it in your bag and forgot, or because a teacher confiscated it at exactly the wrong moment and handed it back to you later with the death screen already showing.
The grief was real. Disproportionate to the situation, but completely real.
Score: 1 point
☑️ 2. You knew the exact sound of a dial-up modem connecting
Kshhhhhhh… ping… brrrrr… DING.
You didn’t just hear this sound. You knew what each phase meant. The initial handshake. The negotiation. The moment it either connected or failed. You could tell from the sounds alone whether it was going to work before it finished. And the relief when it did, and the specific frustration when it didn’t, are still somewhere in your nervous system.
Score: 1 point
☑️ 3. You blew into a cartridge to make it work
The game wasn’t loading. The screen was glitching. You removed the cartridge, blew into it — firmly, deliberately, with the confidence of someone who had done this a hundred times — reinserted it, and it worked.
Nintendo has since confirmed this does nothing and may actually make things worse. You don’t care. It worked. You were there.
Score: 1 point
☑️ 4. You spent a Saturday morning with the TV schedule memorised
You didn’t need a TV guide. You knew. Exactly what was on, on which channel, at what time. You planned your Saturday around it. You woke up early for it. You ate cereal in front of it. And if you missed something because of a family commitment, you felt the loss for days.
Score: 1 point
☑️ 5. You owned a Game Boy that you could barely see in the dark
The original Game Boy screen was, by modern standards, essentially invisible in anything less than direct sunlight. You held it at angles. You positioned yourself under lamps. You played under the covers with a torch. You developed a kind of sixth sense for where things were on the screen even when you couldn’t quite see them.
The Game Boy Advance SP eventually solved this problem with a backlit screen. It felt like a miracle.
🎮 If the Game Boy years hit different — there are now backlit IPS screen upgrade kits that transform an original GBA SP into something genuinely playable in any light. The screen quality is extraordinary compared to the original.
Score: 1 point
☑️ 6. You had strong opinions about the N64 controller
The N64 controller had three prongs and one analogue stick positioned in a place that made no ergonomic sense unless you had three hands. Somehow this was fine. You adapted. You developed your own grip — probably involving the middle prong and one hand positioned in a way that would alarm a physiotherapist — and it became completely natural.
The specific texture of that analogue stick. The satisfying click of the Z button on the back. The way the controller smelled, slightly, of other people’s hands.
🕹️ The N64 analogue stick fix — modern wireless N64-style controllers have the original form factor with a proper analogue stick that doesn’t drift after six months. Works with Switch and PC.
Score: 1 point
☑️ 7. You ran home to catch the Pokémon episode after school
Not to watch TV in general. Not to relax. Specifically, urgently, to catch the Pokémon episode — because if you missed it there was no catch-up, no streaming, no second chance. It was on at a specific time and then it was gone. You ran. Sometimes you made it. Sometimes you didn’t.
Score: 1 point
☑️ 8. You said «Let it rip» at least once a day
Beyblade created a specific vocabulary that spread through playgrounds with remarkable speed. Let it rip was the phrase. The launch technique was the skill. The competition to have the heaviest, most destructive top was the arms race.
If you never said «let it rip» in a completely unironic, fully committed way, you weren’t playing Beyblade right.
Score: 1 point
☑️ 9. You knew the layout of your local video store by heart
The new releases wall at the front. The action section on the left. The horror section at the back, slightly elevated, slightly intimidating. The foreign films nobody ever rented in the corner. The specific carpet smell. The specific plastic smell of the VHS cases. The way Friday night felt like an event because of it.
Score: 1 point
☑️ 10. You owned a Furby that terrified you
The Furby was marketed as a cute, interactive pet. It was also a device that activated itself in the dark, spoke in a language you didn’t understand, and made sounds at 3am that no toy should make.
Most Furbies ended up in a cupboard. Not thrown away — that felt wrong, somehow — but silenced. Hidden. The modern version is considerably less terrifying. The original was genuinely something else.
😱 The Furby is back — the 2024 version is significantly less haunted than the original but still has the eyes, the voice and the unpredictable responses that made it iconic. You’ve been warned.
Score: 1 point
☑️ 11. You stayed up past midnight on a school night for a game
Not because you forgot the time. Because you knew exactly what time it was and decided the game was worth it. The next day was difficult. You didn’t regret it. The specific quality of concentration that comes at midnight, in a dark room, with the volume turned low so your parents don’t hear — there’s nothing quite like it.
🎮 Sonic Mania + Team Sonic Racing Double Pack — the late-night gaming feeling in a modern package. Sonic Mania is the Sonic game that the 90s deserved, made by fans who grew up with the originals. The late nights it will cost you are your own problem.
Score: 1 point
☑️ 12. You played Bop It until your arms hurt
Bop it. Twist it. Pull it. Bop it. Twist it. PULL IT. BOP IT. TWIST IT. PULL—
The instructions came faster and faster. The game was essentially a stress test disguised as a toy. There was no real endpoint — you played until you failed, then immediately wanted to play again to beat your score. It was addictive in the most direct possible way: no story, no characters, just a loop of escalating difficulty and the specific satisfaction of keeping up.
🎵 Bop It is still in production — the current version has the same escalating difficulty, the same voice, the same specific shame of pressing the wrong thing at exactly the wrong moment.
Score: 1 point
☑️ 13. You had a Super Mario desk clock or bedroom item
The Nintendo aesthetic crossed over into bedroom décor in the 90s in a very specific way. Posters. Alarm clocks. Pencil cases. Lunchboxes. If you loved Mario — and most children did — the characters escaped the screen and colonised your physical environment. A Mario clock on your bedside table was not unusual. It was aspirational.
⏰ The Super Mario alarm clock is back — Paladone makes a Super Mario Bros alarm clock with night light that looks exactly like the kind of thing that would have been on every 90s kid’s Christmas list. Desktop nostalgia done properly.
Score: 1 point
☑️ 14. You had a specific phrase for when the internet kicked someone off
«Don’t go on the internet — I’m waiting for an important email.»
«Someone’s on the phone.»
«Mum picked up the phone and disconnected me.»
The dial-up era created a whole vocabulary around internet access that made no sense to anyone who didn’t live through it. The phone line was shared. The internet used it. Anyone who picked up the phone anywhere in the house immediately ended your session. This was simply how things were, and everyone accepted it, and it was completely insane.
Score: 1 point
☑️ 15. You remember exactly where you were when you first saw a PS1
Not just that you played one. Where you first saw one. A specific house, a specific room, a specific friend who had one before everyone else. The startup sequence. The way the disc spun up. The sound — that crystalline, cinematic chime — that told you something different was happening.
If you were there for the first time someone turned on a PlayStation in a room you were in, you remember it. It’s the kind of moment that marks a before and after.
Score: 1 point
🏆 Ready to Find Out Your Score?
You’ve read the list. You know which ones landed and which ones didn’t. Now get your official result — with the retro picks that match exactly who you were in the 90s.
One Last Thing
The toys that came up in your memory just now — the specific ones that landed hardest — are still out there. Some of them never left. Some came back. Some are better than you remember.
The Memory Vault has the ones worth tracking down today. And if the nostalgia is hitting particularly hard, come find us at @analog.knights on Instagram — that’s where the conversation is.