LEGENDS NEVER DIE

Rollerblades: The Wheels That Took Over the 1990s If you grew up in the 1990s, there was a pretty good chance that at some point you strapped eight tiny wheels to your feet and convinced yourself you were basically an extreme athlete. Welcome to the era of Rollerblades. Technically, Rollerblade was a brand name. But by the 90s, people used the word for almost any inline skates. And for a while, they were absolutely everywhere. Parks. Sidewalks. Cul-de-sacs. Beach boardwalks.

Looney Tunes Raised 90s Kids… and Somehow Made Us Want to Buy War Bonds There are certain things that immediately transport a 90s kid back in time: cereal commercials, Saturday morning cartoons, the sound of a VHS rewinding, and Bugs Bunny calmly ruining someone’s entire day. The funny thing is, Looney Tunes wasn’t really ours. Most of the classic cartoons were made decades before we were born. Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Yosemite Sam, Tweety, Sylvester, and the rest o

The Scholastic Book Fair: The Greatest Shopping Mall of the 90s There were certain days in the 90s that just felt different. Pizza day. Field day. The last day of school. And then there was the absolute king of elementary-school events: THE SCHOLASTIC BOOK FAIR. The moment those rolling metal cases appeared in the library, everything changed. This was no longer a school. This was a shopping mall. And you had $12. Maybe $20 if your parents were feeling generous. You walked in

You’ve Got Mail… Eventually: The Dial-Up Modem Experience ☎️💻...90s Nostalgia at Arcade 92 If you grew up in the 90s, you remember the sound. That awful, beautiful, robotic screech of a dial-up modem trying to connect to the internet. EEEEEEEEE… KRRRRR… BONG BONG… SHHHHHHHHH. And then, if the technology gods were feeling generous… You were online. Dial-up internet was not fast. It was not reliable. And it definitely was not convenient. But at the time? It felt like magic. Yo

Revolution X: When Aerosmith Took on an Evil Empire With Machine Guns and CDs...90s Nostalgia at Arcade 92 There are video games that make perfect sense. And then there is Revolution X. Released into arcades by Midway in 1994, Revolution X asked one of the most important questions of the 90s: What if Aerosmith was kidnapped by an evil government organization and the only way to save rock ’n’ roll was with machine guns and exploding compact discs? Obviously, someone at Midway

FORTNITE DIDN’T COME OUT OF NOWHERE — RETRO GAMING HELPED BUILD THE ROAD TO IT 🎮🔥 Retro Gaming at Arcade 92 When people think of Fortnite, they think Battle Bus, building, skins, emotes, crossovers, and 100 players fighting to be the last one standing. But Fortnite’s story actually starts years before Battle Royale — and in a lot of ways, it stands on the shoulders of decades of video game ideas that came before it. Epic Games first revealed Fortnite in 2011. The original c

Y2K: When We Thought the Computers Might End the Party...90s Nostalgia at Arcade 92 If you were around in the late 90s, you probably remember the phrase Y2K being absolutely everywhere. News reports warned about computer failures. People talked about banks crashing. Airplanes supposedly might fall out of the sky. Power grids could fail. ATMs might stop working. And all because computers might not understand that “00” meant the year 2000 instead of 1900. For kids and teenagers

Ninja Gaiden: The 80s Game That Taught Us Pain, Patience, and the Power of a Ninja...at Arcade 92 The 1980s gave us plenty of video game heroes. Plumbers. Space marines. Elves. Yellow circles that ate ghosts. And then Ryu Hayabusa showed up with a sword. Ninja Gaiden first hit arcades in 1988, followed by the legendary home-console version that helped turn the series into one of gaming’s most recognizable names. And while plenty of games from that era are remembered fondly, N

💦 The Super Soaker: The Toy That Turned Every Backyard Into a Battlefield...90s Nostalgia at Arcade 92 If you grew up in the 1990s, there were certain sounds that meant trouble was coming. The snap of a slap bracelet.The screech of a dial-up modem.And the unmistakable pump-pump-pump of somebody charging a Super Soaker around the corner. By the early ’90s, ordinary squirt guns suddenly felt obsolete. The Super Soaker didn’t gently spray your opponent—it blasted them. And summ

The Glorious 90s Era of Trunk-Rattling Bass...90s Nostalgia at Arcade 92 There are certain sounds that instantly transport you back to the 90s. The startup chime of a Super Nintendo. The screech of a dial-up modem. The intro to your favorite Saturday morning cartoon. And, of course, the unmistakable sound of a car rolling through the neighborhood with so much bass that you heard the license plate before you saw the headlights. The 90s were a magical time for car stereo cultur

Joust: The Arcade Game That Made Flying Ostrich Combat Legendary at Arcade 92 Some arcade games are built around spaceships. Some are built around martial arts. Some are built around race cars, monsters, aliens, or fantasy warriors. And then there is Joust — the game that looked at all of that and said, “What if knights rode flying ostriches and fought buzzard-riding enemies over a lava pit?” That is not just a video game idea. That is a fever dream with a joystick. Released

Excitebike: 8-Bit Dirt, Big Air and a Touchy Engine at Arcade 92 Before racing games had online multiplayer, realistic physics, licensed vehicles, and cinematic cutscenes, there was Excitebike — a game that gave you a dirt bike, a track full of ramps, and one very important life lesson: If your engine overheats, you are absolutely going to regret it. Released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in the 1980s, Excitebike became one of those classic games that instantly made s

The Matrix: The Movie That Put the Perfect Bookend on the 90s In 1999, as the world was counting down to Y2K and wondering whether computers were about to either save civilization or completely destroy it, The Matrix arrived in theaters and gave the decade the ending it deserved. It was stylish. It was paranoid. It was cyberpunk. It was philosophical. It wore black leather, sunglasses, and trench coats like a uniform. It asked big questions about technology, identity, control

The 90s Photo Quest: Taking Your Film to the Store and Hoping for the Best Before every phone had a camera, before selfies had retakes, and before anyone could take 400 pictures of their lunch, photography was an adventure. In the early 90s, taking a picture meant commitment. You had a camera, a roll of film, maybe 24 or 36 chances, and absolutely no idea if any of those photos were good until days later. Every click mattered. Every blurry birthday party. Every family vacatio

When Asteroids Got an Upgrade Button...Blasteroids at Arcade 92 Some arcade games whisper. Blasteroids kicks open the airlock, fires the laser cannons, and asks if you brought a friend. Released by Atari Games in the late 1980s, Blasteroids took the classic Asteroids formula and gave it a serious arcade power-up. The original Asteroids was all about simple, brilliant survival: one ship, one screen, a field full of space rocks, and the terrifying realization that every asteroi

Transformers Rolls Out Again: Stern Pinball Brings Autobots and Decepticons Back to the Arcade at Arcade 92 Autobots, roll out! One of the biggest names in 1980s pop culture is transforming again, and this time it is not on a cartoon screen, movie screen, or toy shelf. It is heading straight to the pinball playfield. Stern Pinball is releasing a brand-new Transformers pinball machine, TRANSFORMERS: More Than Meets the Eye, and for fans of classic arcades, Saturday morning car

Zaxxon: The Game That Faked 3D and Blew Our Mind (at Arcade 92) Before 3D graphics became normal, before home consoles could throw entire worlds at us, and before every game had a tutorial explaining exactly what to do, there was Zaxxon. And Zaxxon did not care if you were ready. Released by Sega in the early 1980s, Zaxxon was one of those arcade games that immediately looked different from everything around it. At a time when many space shooters were still moving left, right

Shinobi: The Arcade Ninja Classic That Still Hits Hard at Arcade 92 Before ninjas were everywhere in video games, before every action hero had wall jumps, throwing stars, stealth attacks, and dramatic sword strikes, there was Shinobi. Released by Sega in the late 1980s, Shinobi became one of those arcade games that immediately grabbed your attention. It had style. It had speed. It had danger. And most importantly, it made players feel like they had stepped into the role of a

Primal Rage at Arcade 92: The Dinosaur Fighting Game That Stomped Through the ’90s Arcade Scene In the 1990s, arcades were ruled by fighting games. Street Fighter II had players mastering combos, Mortal Kombathad crowds gathering around brutal finishers, and every arcade seemed to have that one cabinet where people lined up to prove who was the best. Then came Primal Rage — a fighting game that looked at all of that and said, “What if the fighters were giant dinosaurs and mas

Capri Sun: The Iconic Pouch, the Impossible Straw, and the Summer Vibes of the ’80s and ’90s There are certain sounds that instantly take you back to being a kid: the ice cream truck in the distance, the click of a Nintendo cartridge, the buzz of an arcade cabinet warming up, and that unmistakable little pop when someone finally stabbed a straw into a Capri Sun pouch. Capri Sun was more than just a drink. It was a full childhood experience. The drink itself started in Germany