Before Furbies or Nano Kitties came the electronic pet that kicked off one of the biggest trends of the late 1990s. Tamagotchi was the first pocket-sized digital companion: a computerized alien pet that you could raise and care for through birth, maturity and, eventually, death. This egg-shaped electronic taught an entire generation of kids the true meaning of responsibility, or just as often, a tough life lesson about how much work goes into raising an IRL animal.
The original Tamagotchi was conceived by the Japanese developer Akihiro Yokoi and released by the toy company Bandai. It hit the American market in the spring of 1997, and to date, over 82 million Tamagotchi devices have been sold worldwide. The word Tamagotchi is a mash-up of tamago — the Japanese word for egg — and the English word for watch. At the height of their popularity, it’s estimated that a Tamagotchi device was sold every 15 minutes in the United States and Canada.
As the virtual pet trend dominated the latter half of the 1990s, kids everywhere were responsible for the regular feeding, cleaning, and entertaining of these beeping and chirping alien accessories. Leave your Tamagotchi unsupervised for too long and you would come back to a crabby companion. In July 2019 Bandai released a revamped version of the nostalgia-inducing toy, this time featuring an all-color screen and improvements to the interactions that owners can have with their portable pets.
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Remember playing Toss and Catch in your yard with friends and neighbors? Not much has changed with this simple yet effective design over the years, but it’s still extremely satisfying to stick that long catch from across the street.
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The Nintendo 64 is consistently ranked by video game enthusiasts as one of the best gaming consoles of all time – and for good reason. It turned an entire generation of ‘90s kids onto the fun and adventure of both 3D role-playing games as well...
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Getting a copy of Pokemon Red and/or Blue is your chance to show the OG Elite 4 who's boss. The only question is, which starter will you choose? Gotta Catch 'Em All!
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Having glowing star stickers on your wall was very popular as a '90s kid. Whether you got them as a prize from Chuck-E-Cheese, or found some in the dollar store - it was cool to sleep under the stars every night of the week. In fact, it’s still cool!
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It's morphin' time! Tommy is ready to fight Puddys and drive some Zords. When trouble arises, you can “flip” on Tommy's Green Ranger mask and commence the theatrical karate. He also comes with a few weapon and armor accessories that your dog will enjoy chewing up, if you don’t lose them first.
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In 1999, Super Smash Bros. brought all of our favorite, well, 12 of our favorite characters from the Nintendo universe into one groundbreaking battle royale. Created for the Nintendo 64 by Japanese video game developer HAL Laboratory, Super Smash...
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Super Mario World is a classic Mario side-scroller that was developed to show exactly what the SNES had to offer as a console. Nintendo sold over 20 million copies, making it one of the best selling games for the SNES platform.
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Once again, it is time for you to rescue Princess Zelda and the kingdom of Hyrule by challenging the evil king Ganondorf and defeating his sinister forces throughout the realm. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was released on Nintendo 64 in...
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