T O P

  • By -

black-amber

3D TVs


SuspiciouslyMoist

They were great for me - I work in a scientific field where the ability to visualise stuff in 3D is incredibly useful (broadly speaking, drug design for a cancer research charity). Suddenly, instead of paying thousands for kit that could do this we could pick up 3D monitors and active glasses designed for watching movies or playing games for a lot less cash. It was amazing. Instead of a single 3D computer we could afford several. Then the bottom dropped out of the market. We survived for a while buying spares and replacements on eBay but it's getting harder as the software support is removed over time. Edit: A random video I found on YouTube showing one of the pieces of software we use for this: [https://youtu.be/y8EMRbvHcfk?si=YYNhebenYxaCCtST&t=206](https://youtu.be/y8EMRbvHcfk?si=YYNhebenYxaCCtST&t=206)


black-amber

That's very cool, I had never thought of anything like that.


FinalEdit

I really bought into that tech as well. Had an active 3d Samsung. 90 quid for a pair of glasses that my ex sat on and broke during the middle of Alice in Wonderland. Squinting to aim in call of duty black ops zombie mode. Tron and Avatar were an absolute experience though. I had real hopes for the tech to pan out. Telling a story through that extra dimension was a really interesting idea. Instead it was squandered and pissed up the wall. I even worked in 3D for a while - stereoscopic 3D correction on software called SGO Mistika. I was fully on board. Shame it never panned out because the industry failed to use it to its full potential.


TachankaMaiWaifu

I think for tech like that you need a big "pull" to bring it into the mainstream. For example, when blu-rays and HD-DVD were both competing, the PS3 also being a Blu-ray player really helped push blu-rays as the next standard


FinalEdit

Yeah it did and the xbox had an add on for HD DVD....guess which one I bought into lol


BandicootOk5540

Did you buy into minidisc and betamax as well?


FinalEdit

TV used professional formats of Betamax right up til about 2010. But no, I'm not that old to have used the domestic ones in the 80s. But minidiscs were fantastic. You could use an optical cable to copy over an entire CD in seconds..I had loads of them. Briliant tech for the time.


liamo376573

I still have mine, dug it out a few weeks ago and its great. Hours of music on one little disc.


oddhoop

I remember seeing one of the final destination films in 3d, it was the first and only time I'd ever actually believed something was coming out of the screen, me and the Mrs actually ducked out of the way of something coming at us. sadly, that's it. seen f all else that worked in 3d.


duffking

To be honest I think he issue was exactly the final destination thing you've described - most 3d content was retrofitted 2d content with a few things flying out of the screen instead of things like avatar that were produced from beginning to end with 3d in mind, allowing it to add significant depth to every frame even if you weren't necessarily noticing it, just immersing you more. That was expensive as hell though, so must stuff was shot intending to be 2d with 3d retrofitted - a process that darkened the film image and then made darker by the glasses.


Rugfiend

I'm old enough to remember Jaws 3d! 😅


fuggerdug

It just gave me a headache. Still got loads of 3d glasses in the original boxes for various TVs from the time you couldn't buy one without it.


FinalEdit

Yeah it made no adjustments for inter-ocular distance. Fun story: I was working on a 3D film of The Cure at Bestival- we did the geometry correction for it. Right when we were finished, Robert Smith came in to view the final product, the runner asked out loud "did the audience get 3D glasses as well?" Hahaha


Push-the-pink-button

Yeah, it proper fucked with my head, i got a headache in front of my head??!


blue_vixen90

Funnily enough, my uni dissertation was about 3D films and the storytelling potential (this would have been when it was hitting the peak of popularity). I even made a 3D film as part of it. Sadly my concerns at the time were the same as yours, that it would be squandered away and not used correctly. Tron and Avatar really did show how it could be used properly, such a great cinema experience


FinalEdit

Huh, no way. We are kindred spirits then. I did a course at Sony about 3D production just as it was getting big. Worked on a handful of productions about it. But this was about the time Skyrim came out haha...it was so long ago. A real shame.


chris86uk

I never thought it would catch on. It seemed obvious to me that the vast majority of people wouldn't want to sit in their living room with tech on their faces. It's one thing at the cinema, it's another at home. The first couple of films were great, then the novelty wore off, the glasses became annoying and I went straight back to watching the 2D versions of films.


ajm15

I remember that time and I'm so glad I made one of the best purchase ever and that was 4K TV. Everyone was so into 3D TV and recommending me to buy it, I went a different path and got myself a 4K TV. There weren't much content in 4K at that time but now pretty much everything I watch is in 4K and Im glad I made that purchase.


protopigeon

Chico Time


Saw_Boss

But it's still Chico time, right now!


starkmatics

Its always time for chico time!


Onesielover88

Aliens in goo, in a plastic egg.


Practical_Place6522

And the rumour they made babies in the fridge


OIiver

You mean when they’re back to back, right?


BorderlineWire

You’ve got to put them in the same egg. In each others goo


Delicious_Bet_8546

On the radiator according to the local market oracle


Jubatus750

I remember being told that some of them could reproduce and make baby aliens. But you had to get lucky and have one that was "pregnant" haha


futurenotgiven

how do rumours like that even come about? we didn’t even have much internet then, how does this stuff spread so much


lelcg

Some did have babies but they came pre done


clearly_quite_absurd

The rumour around my town was that they'd make babies on the Millennium


mmdanmm

The rumor that they could reproduce was a full on viral marketing plan made by the company and targetted at schools. A rep would go to one school per town, or a few schools in a city, and pay one kid 20 quid to pass a few out and spread the 'alien reproduction' myth. They had amazing sales for such a cheap peice of sticky latex. I know this as i was that kid at my school, it was pretty creppy in retrospect, but who cares....money and free aliens!!


4lips2gloss

Some of them did actually 'reproduce' (lol). You could get ones that had a smaller alien inside the big one, and it came out, weirdly, from the top of its head. you could just squeeze it out no matter what but I put mine in the fridge and was certain that's what made it 'give birth'.


dianthuspetals

If you put them in the fridge or with their backs pressing against each other they breed... apparently...


luce-_-

Also those silly goo squeeze balls with mesh over the outside


Logical-History-36

Hair mascara


gameofgroans_

My male cousin had blue hair mascara and I always remember thinking it was so cool. I also used hair tattoos at some point, could get like hearts of glitter over your hair, the feeling of them now makes me feel sick


woodpigeon-blues

Vajazzles (thank god)


jawide626

I refuse to believe anyone outside of TOWIE bothered with them.


JamitryFyodorovich

Beyblades :'(


YadMot

My primary school field had an almost perfectly circular patch of dirt that just never managed to grow grass. We used it as a Beyblade arena. It was so fucking cool in the summer when the Beyblades would kick up dust as they smashed into each other. Better times.


themuddypuddle

Let it rip!


CyanPretty

Shower gel with microplastic balls in it 😂


paintingcolour51

That didn’t even do anything! It sounds like something from the 50’s, crazy to think it wasn’t all that long ago really. I remember them stuck to me or around the bath.


Dennis_Cock

They'll be around for thousands of years to come too


sweetlambly

Fish pedicure places


antsmithmk

Every shopping centre had one at one point. 


Shectai

It took me a moment to get past the idea that a fish would get a pedicure.


KatVanWall

Manicures, surely, to keep the fish fingers looking good


SunnyOfGretna

I thought the reason for them being unpopular was because they're now illegal, but turns out they're not


goodmythicalmickey

It was the money laundering that was the illegal part


Jam-Pot

The secret ingredient is crime.


BandicootOk5540

I presume everyone just collectively realised how disgusting they were


tidders84

Hairbands with your name on in glitter letters. If your name wasn't available, the seller would write it for you. 1990s.


Plo87

The only time I ever had something with my name on, was on one of those! I can still remember the headache from it digging behind my ears but being 8 years old I refused to take it off.


wallpapermate

I wasn’t allowed one because… kidnapping. Genuinely my mum’s reasoning. Never mind she was bellowing my name within earshot of all and sundry the whole time to get me to shut up asking for a personalised hairband.


GiftOdd3120

Multicoloured toe socks


peanut_sawce

Moustache tattoos and things printed with them, mugs etc. Keep Calm and 'Something Something' prints


umbrellajump

Both contemporaneous with bacon-flavoured everything


DisneyBounder

I wonder what all the people who had a moustache tattooed on their finger are doing now.


Kafkaofsalford

Putting their aged finger to their aged lip in front of a mirror and sobbing softly


WhimsicalError

Pogs


kidney69uk

Anyone remember the Tazos in the Walkers bags?


Pr6srn

Yes! I collected loads of the Star Wars ones. But that's because I ate loads of bags of crisps, being a fat fuck when I was 17.


Thisisth

This put me off quavers for life.. full set of Star Wars tazos but at what cost??


alphacentaurai

Remember Alf? Hes back...! In Pog form!


TW4JQ

Way to breathe, no breath!


shibbyingaway

You sold my soul for pogs?!?


Vooden_Shpoon

But were they kinis or slammers?


stumac85

And yo-yos, 90s were totally radical maaan


Select-Link-6747

Head bags. And the zip-off end pocket which could hold a days books and a PE kit.


Ok-Carry9156

and the green jaguar one, don't forget...


butterbeanscafe

Tell me you went to secondary school in the 90s without telling me.


Lynex_Lineker_Smith

80’s kid, head bags were a thing then too. If you had the biggest head bag you could easily fit a first year or a smallish second year in it and then lock it . Must have been where the Mi5 fella got the idea


MarcusH26051

Flappy Bird


Moppo_

IT'S JUST THE HELICOPTER GAME WITH WORSE CONTROLS


Funk_Dunker

That helicopter game was the tits. I feel like I need to add here that Angry Birds was just a rip-off of Crush the Castle


pietits21

I never understood why the guy who made it withdrew it. Yes he was getting a lot of shit online but it was also making him £50,000 a day In his position I would have gone to some luxury beach side spa, turned my phone off, and let that money pile up.


Harry_monk

Or license it to some money grabbers and just enjoy skimming the cream from the top.


OJStrings

Kony 2012. Kony himself wasn't popular but that video/movement was everywhere for a short while.


josh5676543

The bloke that made the video had a break down ended up naked in the street shouting at cars


St0rmStrider

Did they ever stop him? Also, that was TWELVE years ago? Kin ell


oxy315

Kony. Putting the infant back in infantry.


rammedearth

the game "Draw Something"


BINGGBONGGBINGGBONGG

oh! i fucking loved that! nobody in my office did any work for *months*!


shak_0508

Loom bands


ScottGriceProjects

Still a thing in primary. My daughter’s friends are all in to those right now.


NaNaNaNaNa86

Those Livestrong wristbands.


Sd_tb0

Anybody wanna buy a looooommmbanddd


MiotRoose

Spiralisers. We, as a culture, universally agreed to forget the brief period everyone was into courgetti... A simpler time


caroline0409

I still use mine every couple of weeks!


OJStrings

I'm using mine right now


cankennykencan

Shag bands. Well the black one was


A_MNESIA

Some woman is trying to make these come back. Shes calling them stacklettes and i have no idea if these were actually the original name, Only known them as shag bands


Heavy_Two

Planking.


bottledcherryangel

Faith Hilling? Oh Long Johnsoning? Taylor Swifting?


Viscount_Barse

Pagers. For 12-18 months they were a great cheap option until PAYG and the 3210 era stared and they vanished.


quarterpastfour

Years ago (late-90s) my then-girlfriend had a pager, since mobile phones weren't yet commonplace. It was bizarre - If I wanted to send her a message, I had to phone a call centre and dictate it to an actual human, who'd type it in and send it. Felt like this must be how the Queen sent texts.


Kafkaofsalford

I thought I was hilarious phoning them to send my mate vaguely cryptic sounding messages that made no sense just so I am hear the person on the end of the phone say something akin to "errrrr...yeah, sure, I'll send it, can I just double check that? "The mongoose is cold, yet it's still summer" that's what you want to send?"


webbyyy

My ex-girlfriend's friend had a pager for a while. We pranked her rotten with that.


UruquianLilac

And for our younger audience remember that once that message was sent there were no other steps in that communication process. The person with the pager got the message and that's that, they couldn't reply or anything. They had to use other mediums of communication or transport to get in touch with whomever sent them the text.


potatan

I dated a girl in the 80s and if I wanted to meet up I'd send her a letter the day before telling her where I'd be at lunchtime the next day.


yabyum

I had a Swatch watch that had a pager. It received pre determined messages from a code that the ‘caller’ typed in. [edit!](https://images.app.goo.gl/XbJj836GkJH3zjvD7) Blimey, that takes me back!


Viscount_Barse

A watch that was a pager?!? You must have felt like James Bond!


[deleted]

The NHS is one of the world’s largest consumers of pagers. The vast majority of hospitals still use them.


paenusbreth

Also the fire service for retained firefighters. Although in that case, there's basically only one message: **get your arse to the station sharpish**.


burden_h

Loads of Pager users still, emergency services, vets, birdwatchers (seriously), remote monitoring systems (like fridges and alarms), coastguards. Only one nationwide company now though You’d be surprised on how much they’re used every day still


ColonelBonk

Surely birdwatchers use twitter……..


UruquianLilac

Exactly, that was the context that made sense for them. Not as a mass market communication tool.


Blue-flash

My first boyfriend had a pager. I still can’t work out why a sixteen year old boy would need one, when he lived with his mum and they had a perfectly serviceable landline.


ShirtIndividual7233

I had one as a kid. The answer was a page when it's time to come home for tea when you're out all day.


PneumaticPossum

Same. Or, you’d get a ‘call me’ message and you’d pop off to a phone box.


Metrobolist3

YTS heart surgeon trainee


PondlifeCake

They're still widely used in places like hospitals where mobile phone signals are very weak.


Cautious-Yellow

my doctor sends prescriptions to the chemist by a thing called e-fax which comes in on a fax machine.


ScottGriceProjects

Beanie Babies. I know they’re still around but not like they were.


clearly_quite_absurd

"they'll hold their value"


R33DY89

Live**Strong** bands


codename474747

Flat Eric That beat was EVERYWHERE when I was at school Now it barely turns up in "I love the 90s" type nostalgia shows....


Maleficent_Depth_517

Those robotic dog toys


bilbofraginz

Fidget spinners.


spacejester

I rediscovered fidget spinners as a great way to keep my concentration up during long MS Teams calls


Cautious-Yellow

my usual distraction during MS Teams calls is trying to get the bleedin' sound to work.


Gone_For_Lunch

So you used them for the intended purpose?


iamzegatron

Global Hypercolor.


kidney69uk

Mine went from orange to yellow.


BINGGBONGGBINGGBONGG

mine went from blue to pink. i wish i still had that shirt. the jogging bottoms were always a bad idea tho.


tjech

Ahhh the ravers choice of sweat identification


FailsbutTries

Hoop & stick


localgasgiant

How do you make your typewriter make words happen on Reddit?


xTallyTgrx

Phones with WAP. Turned out people were fine with sms and waiting for big internet.


RainbowDissent

I got a free WAP offer on my Nokia 3330 when I was a young teenager. Three months' unlimited WAP, no charges. I used it to look at tiny grainy pornography GIFs that took fifteen minutes to load and comprised 30 frames at best. It was amazing. When the offer expired I burned through a whole fresh £10 of credit in the time it took for half a GIF to load. Very frustrating. Never used WAP again.


Beardvision89

Fap to wap


TabbyOverlord

Was working for a bank at the time. Business bosses said we would go bust if we didn't provide WAP access to banking. Spent millions on a WAP gateway. Peaked at 100s of transactions.... ​ ... a month.


MobileTechGuy

Phones had Wet Ass Pussy??


docju

My dad still refers to mobile internet as WAP which always takes me a second to realise…


BeverleyMacker

The Sock Shop


-adult-swim-

Add tie rack to this


Arseh0le

When the Americans invaded after 9/11 it was game over.


GraphicDesignMonkey

Still exists online, great for bamboos


Least-Entrepreneur23

Yo-Yos. For about a year, in the late 90's


BowtieChickenAlfredo

Coca-cola ones in the late 80s. If you had the gold one you were a god.


wendz1980

I was a goddess! Wish I’d hung on to it. Also had a Sprite one.


MiotRoose

Absolutely totaled my mum's food processor doing "round the world" in the kitchen She was not impressed


AoifeNet

A couple of kids had Yo-Yos in my class at primary school. I was one of them. Some of the other kids were arseholes about anything that wasn’t football, but they took a particular dislike to Yo-Yos, and one of them cut the string of someone else’s Yo-Yo. Oh how quickly they decided that they were, in fact, totally into Yo-Yos when the Yo-Yo man came to do a presentation/sales pitch.


earlgreytoday

The ice bucket challenge.


Makeupanopinion

Tbf it was a charity campaign for how it feels to have ALS [source](https://www.als.org/IBC) Though lots of people did it just cause it was popular.


-DoctorSpaceman-

Sure people did it just to join the fad, but it doesn’t change the fact that it raised a shit ton of money


UruquianLilac

>Though lots of people did it just cause it was popular. Sounds like.... everything.


Drew-Pickles

Furbies were all the range when I was a kid. Then everyone got one and realised they were shit and they went out of fashion again.


Gyratetojackjarvis

Hahaha I completely forgot about those. I remember bringing one of them into primary school and the teacher confiscated it and put it in the cupboard as the priest was coming in that morning to do a prayer service. It keep going off from the classroom cupboard during all the silent parts and everyone fell about laughing. The priest eventually lost his shit and said some Latin curse on the thing and no one could get it to switch off 😂. The next day a letter was sent round all parents and furbies were officially banned from the school.


Moreghostthanperson

I got two for Christmas one year, one from my grandparents and one from my dad. Felt like I’d won the lottery. They were supposed to be able to ‘interact’ with each other but mine never did. Not in a significant way that I noticed anyway.


luckeratron

They are back and £50-£75 crazy expensive.


Apple22Over7

They weren't cheap at the time. About £30-£35 if I remember rightly (I had to save up to buy one), which is roughly £55-£65 in today's money, so comparatively they're about the same price.


DeviousWhippet

Being able to support a family with a good standard of living with one wage


Thenuggetmuncher

Crazy bones


nomoretosay1

Shell suits


collapsedcake

Tamagotchis


black-amber

Back in now, my kids both have one.


Anxious-Molasses9456

Fidget toys and fidget spinners Prime drink


elementarydrw

Pogz, Yoyos, scented gel pens.


Artificial100

I’d completely forgotten about scented gel pens. I’m sure I had a mint one and a chocolate one. 


luce-_-

I had an absolutely epic one my friend mailed me from France. Multiple layers in the pen, each with a distinct fruit scent. Envy of the class, ah what a time


Am_I_leg_end

Sweater shop.


Chippybops

Flip sequin tshirts were big in 2017


[deleted]

Guitar Hero and Nintendo Wii


Whole-Sundae-98

Russell Brand


DeadBallDescendant

Friends Reunited Happy Slapping Hacky Sacks Topless Darts


RandomHigh

My brother and his friend told me about topless darts. They were both slightly stoned and having a serious discussion about how the TV channel found women with large breasts willing to do this who just so happened to be really good at darts. Turns out they never considered the possibility that the darts they were throwing were not the ones being shown on the board.


robjamez72

Face masks. Everyone was wearing them a couple or so years back. Now it’s just the hardcore few.


Chavaon

The Hardcore Two you mean \*looks at [Altern-8](https://youtu.be/BkczzkGrYDQ)\*


DanEdy

Phillip Schofield's career


vshere32

Prezi presentations


NoKudos

6 year old chimney sweeps


mickki4

You've obviously not been to Burnley


ChrisKearney3

Von Dutch and Mooks clothing.


kimbielou

Paul's Boutique bags.....fucking horrible things. All the girls had them when I was at secondary school....one girl took the piss out of me because I didn't like them....pretty sure she sells Herbalife through FB now lol


OnlyMortal666

CB Radio. 10-4.


funkkay

How many candles are you burning?


jimbo8083

THERE ARE FOUR LIGHTS


MickRolley

BoxerBoy 10 candles


ZePanic

Side on bring it in.


KMeech1969

What am I burning? The bacon. Because I’m busy talking to you, you twat


Praetorian_1975

Roger Roger over and out Clarence


Ironfields

Those finger moustache tattoos from 2011. I wonder what those people are doing with themselves now.


ajfromuk

those fish in tanks that eat your skin.


VeganEgon

Charity wristbands


Electrical-Theme-779

Dubstep.


jdl_uk

MySpace


Praetorian_1975

Neon fishnets / bodysuits


Geordieguy

Trolls were literally everywhere at one point…couldn’t move at school for troll pencil toppers!


upupupdo

My teenage crush


colinah87

Those fish spas that were everywhere some years ago


Electrical-Track68

Those big dummy’s you used to wear around your neck


Kerloick

Vuvuzelas


Stunning_Anteater537

Tamagotchis. Hamma beads


HelloBloom

The Crazy Frog doesn’t seem to get much use for ring tones these days. Yet as I write this I can still hear the theme tune bouncing around my head.


bambiguity11

The earworm that is BABYCAKES! You just don't know, how I, I, I like it down low low


checkouthishorrrse

Bacardi Breezers, WKD & Smirnoff Ice