Computer Games: Construction

This will already be our last post about nineties computer games, and this time we will talk about some games that involve some sort of construction in it and that were released in the 90’s.

Age of Empires is a series of historical real-time strategy video games and the gameplay revolves around two main game modes; random map and campaign. The games were developed by Ensemble Studios and were published by Microsoft Studios. The first Age of Empires came out in 1997 and since then seven titles and three spin-offs have been released. The other Age of Empire games that came out in the 90’s are The Rise of Rome (1998) and Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings (1999). The games in the series focus on historical events throughout time. Age of Empires (original game) covers the events between the Stone Age and the Classical Period in Europe and Asia. Its expansion, The Rise of Rome, follows the formation and rise of the Roman Empire. Age of Empires II follows Europe and Asia through the Middle Ages. The Age of Empires series has been a commercial success, selling over 20 million copies. The popularity and quality of the games has earned Ensemble Studios a strong reputation in real-time strategy gaming. Critics have credited part of the success of the series to its historical theme and fair play; the artificial intelligence players fight with less "cheating" than in many of the series' competitors.

Another well-known series of “construction” games is the Sim-series. These games were developed by Maxis and published by Maxis and Electronic Arts. The first Sim game was SimCity, released in 1989, this game was followed by a numerous amount of other games released in the 90’s and later decades (see the timeline), including the immense popular The Sims video games.  

The Sim games are city-building simulation games, in which the player has to build a city (you don’t say?) without any specific goals to achieve. The player also had to face disasters like tornadoes, earthquakes and attacks by monsters. SimCity still proves to be popular and therefore a new SimCity is expected to be released in 2013.

This marks the ending of our Computers Games week, but next week we will be back with movies from the nineties!

Computer Games: Action

Go to our >>>> Facebook Page <<<<< and like us there! The winner will receive a message from us :).

Today we wil discuss several computer games from the nineties that could be classified as action games. 

Need for speed (NFS) is a series of racing games, published by Electronic Arts (EA). The first NFS game was released in 1994 and was available for PC and PS1. All the NFS games up until 2002 were only available for PC and Playstation. The other NFS games that were released in the 90's are: Need for Speed II (1997), Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit (1998) and Need for Speed: High Stakes (1999). NFS focuses on racing various races in different types of racing cars. 

Grand Theft Auto (GTA) is a multi-award-winning video game series that was developed and published by Rockstar. The game focuses on an open world, where the player can choose missions to progress an overall story, as well as engaging in side-activities, such as driving, role-playing, stealth and racing. The games gained some controversy for its adult nature and violent themes. The first GTA game was released in 1997, and GTA 2 in 1999. If you still want to play GTA 2, here are some cheats which you can use. You first have to activate the cheats modus by naming yourself GOURANGA:

GODOFGTA - All weapons with 99 ammo

FLAMEON - Infinite flamethrower

VOLTFEST - Infinite electrogun 

EATSOUP - Carshop is free 

RSJABBER - Invulnerability

ARESTAR - Keep you're weapons after being arrested 

IAMDAVEJ - $9,999,999

Starcraft is a military science action real-time strategy video game, developed by Blizzard Entertainment. The first game was released on 31 March, 1998 for Microsoft Windows. In 2009 Starcraft sold more than 11 million copies worldwide, making it 1 of the best-selling games for the PC. The 3 distinct races in Starcraft are widely credited with revolutionizing the real-time strategy genre.

Warcraft is a franchise of video games, novels and other media, created by Blizzard Entertainment. The series consists of 4 core games; Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and World of Warcraft (WoW). The first three games are real-time strategy games and WoW is a MMORPG. Warcraft: Orcs & Humans was released in 1994 and Warcraft II in 1995. Here are some cheats for Warcraft II:

On screen - Shows you the whole map.

Make it so - Speeds up building and unit production.

It is a good day to die - Makes your units ultra-powerful.

Unite the clans - Win the scenario instantly.

Glittering prizes - Increases your resources.

Hatchet - Trees can be cut down with two chops.

Deck me out - Gives you all the weapon/armor upgrades.

Every little thing she does - Gives you all spell upgrades.

There can be only one - Takes you to the campaign victory sequence

Quake is a series of first-person shooter video games, produced by id Software. Quake (1996) involves a marine traveling through alternate dimensions to prevent an invasion of inter-dimensional monsters. Quake II has nothing to do with the first Quake, and was originally intended to be a separate franchise. Quake II (1997) involves an assault on an alien planet, Stroggos, in retaliation for Strogg attacks an Earth. The other Quake games were released after the 90's.

Quake 2

Resident Evil 3

Resident Evil is a survival horror video game  by Capcom. The first installment in the Resident Evil series was released in 1996, and was one of the first games to be dubbed a "survival horror". Accordingly, Game Informer refers to the original Resident Evil as "one of the most important games of all time". The Director's Cut of Resident Evil was released in 1997, Resident Evil 2 in 1998 and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis in 1999 (all later games were released after the 90's).

We will add a little section about the video game Commander Keen, due to a request ;) Commander Keen is a series of video games developed by id Software. It focuses on the adventures of Billy Blaze, and 8-year old boy who travels through space and assumes the identity "Commander Keen". There were several episodes released in the early 90's, 1-3 in 1990, and 4-6 in 1991. The episode Keen Dreams was also released in 1991

This was all on action video games, next time we will discuss construction games!

Facebook Giveaway!

Go to our >>>> Facebook Page <<<<< and like us there! The winner will receive a message from us :).

Computer Games: Adventure and educational

This week the 90's theme is computer games and we will start of by discussing the genres adventure and educational games. Some games might not be categorized perfectly but we needed to make some sort of equal devide (this goes for all the games we will discuss this week). The adventure games we will go over are Rayman, Final Fantasy and Prince of Persia.

Rayman The Great Escape

The Rayman series are developed by Ubisoft and was released for PC on April 30, 1996. Next to a PC game, this platform video game was also released for the Playstation, Atari Jaguar, Sega Saturn and several Gameboys. The first Rayman is a side-scrolling platform game where Rayman must travel through 5 worlds to free the caged Electoons and fight Mr. Dark. The sequel, Rayman 2: The Great Escape, came out in 1999. Several more Rayman games were released, but all after the nineties, including the Raving Rabbits series.

Final Fantasy is a huge Japanese franchise that includes the popular role-playing games for the PC (and lots of other platforms). The Finanal Fantasy games released in the 90's are: Final Fantasy III to Final Fantasy XIII (we're currently up to FF XIV).

Final Fantasay 1

Prince of Persia 2

Prince of Persia is a platform game developed by Broderbund and was released in Europe in 1990. There is a Prince of Persia trilogy, that consists of Prince of Persia (original game), Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame and Prince of Persia 3D. The second game was released in 1993 and the third one is 1999. PoP remained popular and there were several other games released after the 90's.

The educational games we will discuss are RedCat, Junior Detectives and Freddi Fish.

 RedCat was the main character in a series of Dutch educational software for elementary schools. The first RedCat was released in 1994 and had an immediate sequel in the same year. The RedCat games released after that all were related to a subject taught in school, such as math, spelling, topography and biology.

Junior Detectives is a series of educational games for elementary schools. For each grade was a different game where you had to solve mysteries, applying knowledge you learned in school. Next to Junior Detectives there was also the Robbie Konijn series, that was designed for children in the lowest grades.

Freddi Fish is a series of educational games for children, developed by Humongous Entertainment. The first Freddi Fish game was released in 1994 and 2 more were released the 90's (the final one in 2001). Freddi is a joyful fish that helps you solve underwater mysteries, together with his colorful friends.

We hope you've enjoyed this post about adventure and educational games. Next time we will go over several 90's action games!

Collectibles: Other

This is our last short summary post about 90's collectibles.
Some of the other things that could be collected in the nineties were; Movie posters, Banners, Cardboard Cut-outs, Comic Books, Action Figures and even Cereal Boxes.

The guy in the next video will show you his enormous collection of 90's Collectibles.

Next week the nineties theme will be Computer Games, so don't miss it!

Collectibles: Trading Cards

Today's topic is nineties trading cards (or collectible cards). This is a small card, usually made out of paperboard or thick paper, which usually contains an image of a certain person, place or objects (fictional or real). On these cards are a short description of the picture, along with other text such as attacks, statistics and other trivia. There is a wide variety of trading cards an there is distinction between sport cards (like baseball and basketball) and non-sports trading cards that often feature cartoons, comics, book characters or stills from television series/films.

In the 90's, cards designed specifically for playing games became very popular, and became a category of their own: collectible card games (CCG). The world's current best-selling CCG is Yu-Gi-Oh! The CCG all have their own set of rules, which all the players have to follow and are usually accompanied by a starter set (an introductory product that contains enough cards for 2 players and includes instructional information on how to play the game). Next to the starter set are also the tournament/starter deck, theme deck and booster packs.

Some other well-known trading cards from the 90's are: Dragonball Z, Pokémon, Marvel Trading Cards (comics) and Digimon.

 

This was all on trading cards!

Collectibles: Flippos

This week we will go over several collectibles that were trending in the nineties; we will start off by discussing the Dutch fad of Flippos.

Flippos are little discs that used to be in the Smiths potato chips bags, on these discs were images of cartoon figures like the Looney Tunes and Chester Cheetah. The flippos were introduced in the Netherlands and Belgium in 1995 and became very popular instantly. The collecting and trading of flippos was very popular among elementary school children and there were several games devised (by the children as well as the company) in order to win each other’s flippos. Smiths also brought out several binders in which the flippos could be collected and the goal of this was of course to collect all the different flippos and therefore make parents buy more potato chips by Smiths.

Because the flippos were so popular amongst young children several other companies made clones in the hope of riding along on the wave of success. Some of the more familiar flippos copies are the Topshots by Croky which had soccer players on them and the Jam Caps by Jamin which displayed cartoons like Smurfen, Garfield and Hanna-Barbera Cartoons. 

The Dutch flippo series:

Looney Tunes

Series Name	Numbers	Description
Looney Tunes	1 - 75	In the first series the Looney Tunes are displayed in a music or sports theme. The numbers 60 to 75 show the individual characters: Tweety, Bugs Bunny, Coyote, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Marvin, Speedy Gonzales, Road Runner, Taz, Yosemite Sam, Elmer, Sylvester, Marc Antony and Sylvester Jr. The flippo has a green backside and is worth 1 point.
Mega	101 - 120	These flippos also show the Looney Tunes, this time in a close up. The flippos have a pink backside and are twice as thick as regular flippos, which could be an advantage in flippo games.
World	141 - 240	The World-Flippos continue until the end of the first folder and is with 100 Flippos the largest series. The Flippos different from the earlier series because they are educational tinted. The Flippos show next to the various Looney Tunes characters themselves important world figures, buildings and cultural phenomena (such as sports and dancing). In the accompanying binder the images will be explained. The World-Flippos were available from mid July 1995, were blue colored and worth 4 points.
Flying	251 - 290	In this series the flippos portray the Looney Tunes and different vehicles with regard to aviation. There are also some cuts in the flippo in order to play a number of new games. With the aid of another flippo, and the cuts you can make this flippo fly. The flippos are purple and worth 6 points.
Adventure	341 - 420	In the Adventure Flippos the Looney Tunes are portrayed as being in an adventurous situation. The Flippos are green and yellow-gold and display different letters (plus possibly one or more question marks). When this set of flippos was available, some children's magazines (like Donald Duck) placed an advertisement.  Following this add, you had to use the letters on the set Flippos in order to form a long sentence, this sentence was a hint to a Smiths hidden treasure. The flippo is worth 8 points.
Olympic	431 -  490	On these flippos different Olympic facts are shown and on the back the image is illustrated. In the second folder the images are also described, sometimes with other facts than those on the flippo itself. The Flippos not have the same colors; up to 4 colors combined are combined in them. The Olympic-flippo is worth 9 points.
Griezel	536 - 545	These Flippos were, instead of plastic, in whole made ​​of cardboard. In addition to images of the Looney Tunes, several horror figures are shown on these flippos. It is possible to use a tab to bring out an otherwise hidden image. On the tab itself are some keys with which you can play a game. The flippo is worth 13 points.
Limited Edition Adventure	816 - 818	These were obtained by solving the puzzle on the back of all Adventure Flippos. They had a red and green back and are worth 25 points.
Winter	I -  X	The Giga Winter-flippo is approximately four times as large as a normal flippo, and with the aid of a cut, it is possible to use this as a Christmas tree ornament. On the front are the characters of the Looney Tunes and on the back a drawing of a snowman. These large flippos are worth 14 points.
Golden Flippo	Not numbered	This extremely rare Flippos were randomly hidden in bags of chips. The lucky finder of such flippo was awarded a cash prize by Smiths. There were also real gold Flippos to win during the Flippo Finish Show aired by Kindernet.
Special Christmas flippos, only distributed to the staff of Smiths	Not numbered	This set is really rare and consists of 10 flippos with special Christmas images on them.

Chester Cheetah

Series Name	Numbers	Description
Chester Cheetos	76 - 100	These were worth 2 points.
Techno	121 -  140	This Flippos had serrated sides and notches. This enabled a construction of techno flippos.
Strip	241A - 250C	Flippo A to C of a particular number told a little story (comic) about Chee-tos. Flippo A suggested a situation, flippo B showed that situation with a bag of chips, flippo C showed the effects of that. Furthermore, these Flippos also covered with the same cartels as the Techno-flippos.
24 Game	291 - 315	On the back of these flippos were 24-game game boards.
Guinness Record	316 - 340 and  421 - 430	These flippos portray Chester performing different records from the Guinness Book of Records.
Joker	None, only a binder	There are a total of six Joker Flippos;  the 2 and 5 Joker (cut edge with purple paw print and round edge with green paw print) and the super 10 Joker (one with a yellow paw print on the back and one with a face of Chester on both sides). If you found a Joker Flippo was, you could send it back to Smith with a request to  receive a number Flippos (2, 5 or 10, as the joker denoted), in order to make your collection complete.

Looney Tunes & Chester Cheetah

Series Name	Numbers	Description
Spiek	491 - 515	The back of the Spiek Flippo shows a mnemonic or a useful factoid, the front displays the text on the back. The Spiek Flippo consists of up to 3 different colors and is worth 10 points. The numbers 491 - 500 had pictures of the Looney Tunes, and the numbers 501 - 515 pictures of Chester.
Time	516 - 535	The Time-Flippo shows a clock in yellow on the back. Besides the clock, it also has an excuse or another factoid on the back. The flippo is worth 7 points. The numbers 516 - 531 and 521 - 535 had pictures of the Looney Tunes, and the numbers 522 - 530 pictures of Chester.

This was all on Flippos, but stay tuned because next time we’ll discuss several collectible trading cards of the nineties!

Like us on Facebook and Follow us on Twitter 

Playground Fads: Mini Games

To conclude our playground fads week we will discuss several games that were played during recess in the nineties. There are tons of games that were played on the playground and we will go over several (Dutch) games. The first popular game is of course the classic hide and seek game. This a game in which a number of players conceal themselves in the environment, to be found by one or more seekers. The game is played by one player (designated as being "it") counting to a predetermined number while the other players hide. After reaching the number, the player who is "it" tries to find the other players. After the player designated as "it" finds another player, the found player must run to base, before he is tagged by "it”. There are several variations to this game such as sardines; where only one person hides and the other players have to find him/her. A familiar Dutch hide and seek game is “10 Tellen in de Rimboe” where one person counts down from ten and the others have to hide.

Another well-known game is tag (also known as tip, tick, tig, tiggy, dobby, it, chasey and many other names). This playground game is played worldwide and involves one or more players chasing other players in an attempt to tag or touch them, usually with their fingers. There are many variations, such as British Bulldogs, Busted, Freeze Tag, Cops & Robbers and the Dutch Shaduwtikkertje. Most forms of tag have no teams, scores, or equipment.

Not sure if they're playing tag or beating the kid up...

Some of the more familiar Dutch chanting games (in combination with clapping or crossing a certain area) are: Annamaria Koekkoek, Schipper Mag Ik Overvaren, Charlie Chaplin Ging Naar De Disco, Pepsi Cola and Er Is Een Vrouw Vermoord. The lyrics of the songs can vary between different parts of the country or even between schools.

This was all on playground fads, we hoped you’ve enjoyed it, even if you haven’t played any of these ;)

Next week we will talk about 90’s Collectibles! 

Playground Fads: Skipping

Remember the time when you had great stamina and could play with the jumping rope for hours? Today we will discuss the jump rope and several games related to it.
Skipping is defined as swinging a rope over one or more participants heads and they then have to jump over it. You can do this alone, by holding the two ends of the rope yourself or you can use a long rope where two people will hold the ends and swing the rope and other people jump inside it. You can also play with two turning ropes; this is called Double Dutch and is significantly more difficult.
The are several jumping rope rhymes and they are often chanted beginning when the skipper jumps in and ending when the skipper is tripped up.

Maybe you can become like this man if you practice very hard ;)

There are several jumping rope techniques, here is a list of some of them:

Basic jump or easy jump

This is where both feet are slightly apart and jump at the same time over the rope. Beginners should master this technique first before moving onto more advanced techniques.

Alternate foot jump (speed step)

This style consists of using alternate feet to jump off the ground. This technique can be used to effectively double the number of skips per minute as compared to the above technique. This step is used for speed events.

Criss-cross

This method is similar to the basic jump with the only difference being that while jumping, the left hand goes to the right part of the body and vice versa for the right hand, with arms crossing in front of the body.

Side Swing

This is a basic technique where the rope passes the side of the skipper's body, without jumping it. Usually the skipper performs a basic jump after a side swing, or a criss-cross.

EB(front-back cross)

This is similar to the criss-cross except one arm crosses behind the back.

Double under

To perform a double under, the participant needs to jump up higher than usual while swinging the rope twice under his feet. It is possible to have the rope swing three times under the feet (triple under). In competitive jump rope, triples, quadruples ("quads"), and quintuples ("quins") are common.

Double Dutch

Double dutch is a game in which two long jump ropes turning in opposite directions are jumped by one or more players jumping simultaneously.

Toad

The toad is a more complicated trick where the jumper performs the "Cross" manoeuvre with one arm crossing under the opposite leg from the inside.

Crougar

The crougar is a trick where the jumper jumps in a normal open jump, but with one arm hooked under the same leg.

Awesome Annie

This is where the jumper alternates between a crougar and a toad without a jump in between.

Inverse toad

Similar to the toad, except the arm crosses the same leg from the outside (rather than the opposite leg from the inside).

Elephant

A cross between the inverse toad and the toad, where both arms cross under one leg, rather than one.

Frog/Donkey kick

This is a variation of a handstand, with a beginner version and an advanced version. In the beginner version, the jumper does a handstand, comes down and then pulls the rope under. In the advanced, the jumper pulls the rope while coming down from the handstand.

Combination jumps

There are many more difficult jump roping tricks that combine two or more of these techniques to make a single trick. These combinations can also be used in Chinese Wheel, Double Dutch, Egg Beater, triangle and Long Rope.

Other

Many other variations are possible, including: "skier", a side-to-side jump keeping the feet together; "bell", a front-and-back jump keeping the feet together; "scissors", a jump putting one foot forward and the other back, then switching back-and-forth; "jumping jack", a jump putting the feet apart and then together; and "can-can" a jump with one leg up and bent, followed by a jump with both feet on ground, followed by a jump kicking the foot out. The possibilities are endless, and many Grand National champions have routines consisting of tricks they made up.

There are also some familiar jump rope rhymes, the most famous are Charlie Chaplin and Big Ben Strikes, the lyrics of these song can vary between different regions.

Next time we will go over several mini games that were played during recess!

Playground Fads: Marbles

Who hasn't played with marbles when they were young? (If you didn't, go play with it now!)
A marble is a small toy made of glass, clay, steel or agate. Like you know, the balls vary in size. There are really small ones (1/30 inch, 0.111 cm) and really big ones (over 3 inches, 7.75 cm). The average size of a marble is about 1/2 inch to 1 inch (1.3 to 2.6 cm). We can't really name the sizes, because the names of these marbles also differ per country, region or even school. Next to playing with them, people often collect marbles because of their aesthetic colors. Because we prefer playing before collecting, we will discuss some fun marble playing games! (Maybe you don't know them, marbles games are different all over the world)

Normal game

Try to get all the marbles in the pit. If you miss, your oppontent may try. If you succeed in bumping your marble in the pitt, you're allowed to take one more turn. The one who bumps the last marble into the pit, can have them all.

Pointing game

Draw several cirkels on the ground like in the image next to this text. The lines are 10 cm from each other. The bull's eye count for 50 points, and the other rings for 40, 30, 20 and 10 points. The players aim with a pre-arranged amount of marbles or till an agreed number of points is reached. The ones who wins gets all the marbles.

Bombing game

If you own this game you probably make more enemies than friends while playing it. Each player puts an amount of their mables in a cirkel. With turns, each player will hold one marble an arm length above the marbles in the cirkel and drops it. The marbles bumped out the cirkel are now the belongings of the ' bomber'. The bomber also gets his 'bom' back. The game ends when all the marbles are bumped out the cirkel.

Remember: it's not about the marbles, but all about the games!

Also remember to like us on Facebook and Follow us on Twitter

Fashion: Hair

In addition to 90’s fashion, we will conclude this fashion week by discussing the hair fashion of the nineties.

Men: Men's hair became increasingly shorter from the early 1990s onwards. In the early 90s curtained hair (sometimes dyed blond) and small ponytails were popular among yuppies. Side-partings were briefly popular in the mid-1990s before head-shaving had become an acceptable way of dealing with male pattern baldness. In the late 1990s variants of the quiff became popular among young professional men. Dark haired men dyed their spikes blonde and some tended to have wavy blonde streaks - this trend continued towards mid-2000s, namely until 2004 where they started to go back to their natural dark hair.

Woman: Women's hair changed from the teased curls popular in the late 1970s to late 1980s to straight, smooth hair, which was a revival of late 1960s hairstyles gradually between 1989 and 1995. The pixie cut and Rachel haircut which resembled elements of the Marlo Thomas haircut on the tv show That Girl, inspired the haircut worn by a character from the TV show Friends, were popular among women in as early as 1995. Straight hair was also styled with a short fringe cut just above the eyebrows, known as a “hime cut”, and those with Afro-styled or naturally curly hair would rely on a Relaxer to keep the sleek straight hair. In the mid-1990s this style went out fashion until its revival in the late-2000s. Dark-haired women tended to dye their hair a lighter color (with highlights and lowlights) with blonde streaks (popularized by Jennifer Anniston) - this trend continued until mid-2000s.

Youth: For teenagers longer hair was popular in the early to mid-1990s, including collar-length curtained hair, shaggy surfer hair popular among some Britpop fans, and dreadlocks. This changed in the mid-1990s when the much-ridiculed bowl cut became a fad among skaters, while hip-hop fans wore a variant of the flattop known as the Hi-top fade. In the late 1990s hair was usually buzzed very short for an athletic look although a few grunge fans grew their hair long in reaction to this. Headbands and scrunchies of various styles and colors were popular with girls throughout most of the 1990s who frequently wore them with side ponytails and bangs

This was all on 90’s fashion, next week we will go over Playground Fads of the nineties!

Like us on Facebook and Follow us on Twitter

Fashion: Late 90’s

Men: In the late 1990s men wore khaki cargo pants, leather jackets based on the same cut as blazers, duster coats, bowling shirts, black bomber jackets with orange linings, preppy brands like Old Navy, tracksuits, and various types of sportswear manufactured by Adidas, Reebok, Hitec and Nike. At this time it became fashionable to leave shirts untucked. In Europe single-breasted three and four button suits began to replace the 1980s power suits. In America suits went out of fashion as men began to dress smart-casual and business casual, a trend kickstarted by Bill Gates of Microsoft

Women: In the late 1990s, women wore flared trousers, pastel colors like pink or baby blue, fleeces, miniskirts, grey sweatpants or yoga pants, tank tops revealing the midriff (crop top), capri pants, low-waisted jeans inspired by the designs of Alexander McQueen, thong underwear popularised by contemporary R&B and jungle music, and Union jack motifs inspired by the Cool Britannia movement. This continued into the 2000s

Youth: The late-1990s saw the rise of the British chav subculture, an offshoot of the casuals, a football fan subculture of the 1980s. Psychobilly bands popularised brothel creepers, gas station shirts and dark-colored bowling shirts, and pop punk and nu metal fans opted for spiky hair, black hoodies and baggy pants in black or red Royal Stewart tartan. Popular American fashions included capri pants, ponchos, bootcut jeans, hoodies, and cut off denim shorts.

The hair fashion of the 90’s will be discussed next time!

Like us on Facebook and Follow us on Twitter

Fashion: Mid 90’s

Men: In the mid-1990s, 1960s mod clothing and longer hair were popular in Britain due to the success of Britpop. Men also wore Aloha shirts, brown leather jackets, loafers, paisley shirts, throwback pullover baseball jerseys, graphic-print t-shirts (often featuring dragons, athletic logos or numbers), and neon-colored trainers (sometimes incorporating flashing lights and elastic self-tying laces). In America hip-hop fashion went mainstream, with oversized baseball jackets, bomber jackets, Baja Jackets, gold jewelry, baggy carpenter jeans, tracksuits and overalls popular among young men as casual wear.

Woman: The mid-1990s saw a revival of 1960s fashion, including hippie-style floral dresses, turtleneck shirts, lace blouses, conch shell necklaces, straw hats, Gypsy tops, long floral skirts, chunky wedge heeled shoes, and dolly shoes. Around this time in Europe and America it was also fashionable to dress entirely in black or wear designer clothing displaying Italian or French labels (such as Lacoste, Yves Saint-Laurent, Armani, Gucci, or Chanel) as a way of demonstrating one's apparent social status and wealth. A common outfit was to wear a skirt, dress shorts, baby doll dress or short dress with black opaque tights, white slouch socks and white sneakers. In America olive green dresses and yellow or blue denim shortalls, a version of overalls in which the legs of the garment resemble those of shorts, were very popular

Youth: In the mid-1990s the grunge style resulted in a decline in bright colors from 1995 until the late 2000s, and was dominated by tartan flannel shirts, stonewashed blue jeans, and dark colors like maroon, forest green, indigo, brown, white and black. For younger children, the mid-1990s was the Golden Age of Disney films with T-shirts and sweaters featuring characters like Simba, Mickey Mouse, Aladdin, and Winnie the Pooh. Tartan trousers, striped shirts, long sleeved polo shirts, and sweaters (often knitted by the child's grandmother) were worn by young boys in the UK. Blue denim and railroad stripe overalls were also popular for females as seen on television and commercials throughout the decade, and for teenagers who would leave either strap hanging loose. Wide leg jeans, bomber jackets, tracksuits and baseball caps worn backwards became popular among hip hop fans together with gold chains, sovereign rings, and FUBU T-shirts.

Next time we will discuss the fashion of the late nineties!

Like us on Facebook and Follow us on Twitter

Fashion: Early 90’s

This week our topic will be the fashion that was wore in the nineties. We will start by discussing the fashion of the early 90’s of men, woman and youth.

Men: In the early 1990s flannel became very popular and lasted through most of the decade. Unlike the fitted Western shirts of the 70s which fastened with pearl snaps, the flannel shirts of the 1990s were padded and loose-fitting for optimum warmth. Preppy clothing was popular in the US, where wealthy young men wore khaki slacks, navy blue blazers and canvas boat shoes. Men also wore Converse All Stars, Acid wash denim jackets, straight-leg jeans like Levi 501s, wool sweaters, black leather jackets, sheepskin coats, Members Only jackets, corduroy, anoraks, polo shirts, white Adidas trainers and Aviator sunglasses popularized by rock star Freddie Mercury.

Women: The early 1990s saw a continuation of 1980s fashion: women wore tight-fitting trousers with elastic boot-straps (stirrup pants/leggings), denim button down shirts, neon colors, drainpipe jeans, oversized sweaters, T-shirts, sweatshirts, and black leather jackets. Women also wore court shoes, cowboy boots, colored tights, bike shorts, tartan skirts, baby doll dresses, matching jeans and denim jackets (in dark shades rather than the bleached acid wash of the 1980s), headscarves, leggings, trenchcoats lined with fake fur, and penny loafers (associated with the preppy look). Many women wore black leggings with white slouch socks, athletic sneakers and oversized T-shirts as exercise wear. It was not uncommon to see mothers dressed right along with their daughters in slouch socks worn over leggings or sweatpants, oversized shirt or sweater, and sneakers like Keds or Converse.

Youth: The new wave and heavy metal fashion of the 1980s lasted until early 1992, when Grunge and hip hop fashion took over in popularity. The sagging trend began in the early-1990s and continued until the mid 2000s but faded into the 2010s. Hardcore Punk fashion, which began in the 1970s, was very popular in the 1990s, and Goth fashion reached its peak. The dominant youth clothing fad at the beginning of the 1990s was fluorescent clothing in blue, green, orange, pink, and yellow. Hoop earrings were also a popular accessory for teenage girls and women in the first years of the 1990s. Popular colors for girls included coral, hot pink, and turquoise. In Britain and the USA, girls wore oversized tee shirts, sweat shirts, sweaters, slouch socks worn over sweatpants or leggings, black or white lace trimmed bike shorts with babydoll dresses, belts worn with dresses, sweaters, and t-shirts, flats, Keds, Converse Chuck Taylor All-Stars, shortalls, flared trousers, and athletic shorts. Boys wore soccer shorts, jean jackets, tartan shirts, tapered acid wash jeans, and sweatpants.

Next time we will go over the fashion of the mid-nineties!

Just some nineties stuff...

Series: Fox Kids

Today we will post our last blog about 90's series and we will conclude this week by discussing the American channel Fox Kids and the 90's series that aired there.

Fox Kids was the Fox Broadcasting Company's American children’s' programming division and brand name from September 8, 1990 until September 7, 2002. The channel focused on young children, aged 7 - 11 and preteens, aged 12 - 14. The network lived to be the longest running children’s television block/network, alongside Nickelodeon and managed to have high ratings throughout its run. Fox Kids' history is closely intertwined with the history of The Disney Afternoon, airing series like Gummi Bears, Ducktales, Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers, DarkWing Duck and Aladdin. Later on, Fox Kids aired several shows of Warner Bros. Animations, such as Animaniacs and The Magic School Bus.

 

By 2001 Fox Kids felt like they couldn't compete anymore with the other big childrens networks and it was overtaken by Kids WB, containing programs like Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh! Even later, Disney owned the companies rights and therefore also the rights of series like Digimon, Power Rangers, Bobby's World and X-Men.

This was all on Fox Kids and its shows, we hoped you liked it! Next week our topic will be 90's Fashion, so make sure to read it!

We would also like to recommend you to also follow us on Twitter and Like us on Facebook, where we have added a new Welcomepage!

Like us on Facebook and Follow us on Twitter

Series: Nickelodeon

Today we will discuss Nickelodeon and its 90’s series. Nickelodeon is an American cable channel owned by Viacom and exists since 1977 (then called Pinwheel). Nickelodeon is a popular channel amongst kids; it was ranked as the #1 cable channel of 2011. In 1990 Nickelodeon opened Nickelodeon Studios, a television studio/attraction at Universal Studios Florida, were many shows were filmed. In 1991 Nickelodeon developed its first animated series; Doug, Rugrats and The Ren and Stimpy show. These shows are called the original Nicktoons and started airing August 11, 1991. Doug aired from 1991 to 1999 and it won 2 Kids’Choice Awards , in 1992 and in 1995. Rugrats aired until 2004 and was then followed by All Grown Up! (2003-2008). Rugrats also has 2 movies; The Rugrats Movie and Rugrats in Paris: The Movie. The Ren and Stimpy Show ran until 1996 and was rated 7 years and older because of controversial elements like black comedy, toilet humor, sexual innuendo and violence.

In 1999 Nickelodeon debuted the animated series SpongeBob SquarePants, which quickly became one of the most popular Nicktoons ever, and is still very popular today, consistently ranking as the channels highest-rated series since 2000.

Of course we know that you all love these nineties series and wished you could still see them on television. Luckily, Nickelodeon had the same idea, so since July 25, 2011 you can watch The 90's Are All That. This is a programming block that airs every night between midnight and 2 a.m., with an encore till 4 a.m. Currently it airs All That, Kenan & Kel, Doug, Rugrats and Hey Arnold!

We hoped you’ve enjoyed this post about Nickelodeon and its 90’s series. Next time we will discuss Fox Kids and its shows!

Like us on Facebook and Follow us on Twitter