If you were a child or teenager in the 90’s, you’ve probably had a few articles circulating among your Facebook friends recently with titles like “You Know You Were a 90’s Kid If…” and “10 Things 90’s Kids Will Have To Explain to Their Children.” These include such things as Lisa Frank, Global Guts and how to wind a cassette ribbon back into place with a pencil.
Some of these nostalgia items are adapting themselves however. You don’t need to explain them to your kids and you might even get a nice walk down memory lane yourself. And we have the smartphone to thank for it. Trends whose time seemed to have been long past are being recreated as apps and we’ve put together a list of the top ten, so that you can respond on Facebook with more than the usual “Totally! Lol!”
1. Tamogatchi
This was just meant to be. In case you were living under a rock from 1994 to 1996, Tamogatchis were digital pets that lived on screens encased in plastic pods and attached to key rings. You had to care for them constantly by pressing combinations of three buttons. If you didn’t feed them or nurture them, they died. The app version is clearly built for nostalgia, since it gives you the option of showing the entire plastic pod on the screen, with your pet in 8-bit black and white.
2. Oregon Trail
In this classic computer game, you traveled the Oregon Trail, met historical figures and most importantly: hunted buffalo. The app is nicely modified for smartphones so that you may even be able to get your kids to play it and not just use it as a trek across memory lane.
3. Snood
This was the original and best catapult shooter game. You had to shoot squat aliens out of cannons to rescue the rest of the aliens before they were crushed by the shrinking ceiling. Or something like that. The story was never particularly clear and so the app includes both a “classic” version and an updated version which has a story line and sleeker graphics. Obviously I’ve only been playing the classic version.
4. Lisa Frank
For the boys of the 90’s: When you were making sure your school supplies had the right football team’s logo on them, the girls made sure they had neon pink unicorns, rainbows and waterfalls and the Lisa Frank logo in the corner. The Lisa Frank app lets you attach the traditionally eye-shattering hearts and flowers to pictures that you take with your smartphone.
5. MASH
We’re not talking about the TV show here. We’re talking about the game you played to pass the time in math class or under the covers with a flashlight at camp. To fill the boys in again: MASH stood for Mansion, Apartment, Shack House and involved using a randomly picked number and a process of elimination to predict who you would marry, where you would live, what job you would have, etc. The app is just a high-tech version that suggests options, lets you share results and does away with the scraps of paper that would awkwardly discovered under your desk by the boy who you had just been told you were going to marry.
6. 90’s Radio Music Player
Pretty self-explanatory. It’s for those of you who desperately miss N’Sync or the Smashing Pumpkins.
7. AIM
If you thought that gchat and facebook had destroyed AIM, you were mostly right. This app lets you integrate them both, as well as group chat and share pictures and voice messages. Plus it’s sort of fun to tell people that you still use AIM.
8. Full House Quiz
If you were a fan of the 90’s TV show, then this might be a great app for you. But be warned, you’ll need to be a true devotee. Being able to name all three of the Tanner daughters may not be enough. But try it as a group, since it’s the perfect game to play on a ladies night out.
9. LiteBright
This is for those of you who were really young in the 90’s. It’s not nearly as cool as the original toy, in which you placed transparent colored pegs onto a black covered light board and then lit up the pictures you had made. Since the whole screen of your smartphone is of course lit up, the effect isn’t as great but it’s still a fun drawing game.
10. Reading Rainbow
For the parents among us, here’s a way to really blame your kids for your reminiscing. The Reading Rainbow app is an interactive version of the classic TV show with LeVar Burton. It’s got a great library of picture books, video “field trips”, reading lists and don’t worry, it’s still hosted by LeVar Burton.
