Good is...? 1990s - Technology

The 1990s were an incredibly revolutionary decade for digital technology. Cell phones of the early 1990s and earlier were very large, lacked extra features, and were used by only a few percent of the population of even the wealthiest nations. Only a few million people used online services in 1990, and the World Wide Web had only just been invented. By 2001, more than 50% of some Western countries had Internet access, and more than 25% had cell phone access.

• On 6 August 1991, CERN, a pan European organization for particle research, publicized the new World Wide Web project. Although the basic applications and guidelines that make the Internet possible had existed for almost two decades, the network did not gain a public face until the 1990s. 
• Y2K spread fear throughout the United States and eventually the world in the last half of the decade particularly 1999 about possible massive computer malfunctions on January 1, 2000. As a result, many people stocked up on supplies for fear of a world wide disaster. Eventually no globally significant computer failures occurred when the clocks rolled over into 2000. 
• Advancements in computer modems, ISDN, cable modems, and DSL lead to faster connection to the Internet. 
• The Pentium processor is developed by Intel. 
• E-mail becomes popular; as a result Microsoft acquires the popular Hotmail webmail service. 
• Instant messaging and the Buddy list becomes popular. AIM and ICQ are two early protocols. 
• Businesses start to build E-commerce websites; E-commerce-only companies such as Amazon.com, eBay, AOL, and Yahoo! grow rapidly. 
• The introduction of affordable, smaller satellite dishes and the DVB-S standard in the mid-1990s expanded satellite television services that carried up to 500 television channels. 
• The first MP3 Player, the MPMan, is released in late spring of 1998. It came with 32Mb of flash memory expandable to 64Mb. By the mid 2000s, the Mp3 player would overtake the CD player in popularity. 
• The first GSM network is launched in Finland in 1991. 
• Digital SLRs and regular digital cameras become commercially available. They would replace film cameras by the mid 2000s. 
• IBM introduces the 1-inch (25 mm) wide Microdrive hard drive in 170 MB and 340 MB capacities. 
• Apple introduces the iMac computer, initiating a trend in computer design towards translucent plastics and multicolor case design, discontinuing many legacy technologies like serial ports, and beginning a resurgence in the company's fortunes that continues unabated to this day. 
• CD burner drives are introduced. 
• The CD-ROM drive became standard for most personal computers during the decade. 
• The DVD media format is developed and popularized along with a plethora of Flash memory card standards. 
• Pagers are initially popular but ultimately are replaced by mobile phones by the early 2000s. Hand-held satellite phones are introduced towards the end of the decade. 

Video games

The 1990s were a decade of marked innovation in video gaming. It was a decade of transition from sprite-based graphics to full fledged 3D graphics and it gave rise to several genres of video games including, but not limited to, the first person shooter, real-time strategy, survival horror, and MMO. Handheld gaming began to become more popular throughout the decade, thanks in part to the release of the Game Boy. Arcade games, although still relatively popular in the early 1990s, begin a decline as home consoles become more common.

4th generation

Starting in 1987 and ending in 1996, the fourth generation of video game consoles consisted primarily of games and systems programmed for the 16-bit era.[citation needed] During this generation, 2D graphics had improved over the previous generation and experimentation began to occur with 3D graphics, although 3D games were more prevalent on the PC at the time. The fourth generation also was the first time Compact Discs were considered a viable port for video game retail sales with the CD-i. Some of the most notable systems released during this generation were the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (1990), the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis (1988), and the Neo Geo (1990).[1] Nintendo's Game Boy was also released during the fourth generation, which would later become the most popular series of handheld gaming systems during the 1990s. A rivalry between Sega and Nintendo occurred during this generation, starting the first ever console war.

5th generation

Approximately starting in 1993 and ending in 2002, the fifth generation of video games are most widely known to be the 32/64 bit era and for being the transition period for video games to evolve into the third dimension.[citation needed] The Nintendo 64 (1996), PlayStation (1995), and Sega Saturn (1995) are considered to be the big three gaming systems of this generation.[citation needed] With the introduction of the PlayStation and Saturn, compact discs (CDs) began to replace cartridges however the Nintendo 64 remained loyal to them due to the load times on CDs at the time and became one of the last cartridge based systems in mass production.

Technological Innovation

Said to be one of the most revolutionary video games, Super Mario 64 was praised for how it took to 3D environments of wide open spaces and graphics at the time. Many games that moved onto 3D also tried to mimic Mario's success. Instead of pixels, polygons became a standard sight to be in video games from then on as they looked more lifelike when programmed into the right shapes.

Nearly every system released in the mid-late 1990s began to move to the new CD-ROM technology, with the Nintendo 64 being the last major home video game console to use ROM cartridges. Also appealing to publishers was the fact that CDs could be produced at significantly less expense and with more flexibility (it was easy to change production to meet demand), and they were able to pass the lower costs onto consumers. In particular, the fifth generation marked a turning point for optical-based storage media. As games grew more complex in content, sound, and graphics, the CD proved more than capable of providing enough space for the extra data. The cartridge format, however, was pushed beyond the limits of its storage capacity. Consequently, many game developers shifted their support away from the Nintendo 64 to the PlayStation.

Controllers

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System game controller introduced a more rounded dog-bone like design and added two more face buttons, "X" and "Y", arranging the four in a diamond formation. Another addition was the "L" and "R" shoulder buttons, which have been imitated by most controllers since. 

The PlayStation controller was the first standard operating device for a home console to use two handle-bars at the bottom of the controller whereas previously this feature had been relegated to niche specialist controllers. This has been standard in most game controllers since, until the Wii appeared. 

The Virtual Boy controller was a controller which utilized dual joypads similar to how analog sticks functioned in later "dual control" sixth-generation systems. The presence of two pads was an effort to control objects in a 3D environment (one pad controlling pitch and turning while the other controlling forward movement and strafing). 

In 1996 Nintendo introduced the first analog thumbstick on the Nintendo 64 controller. It was subsequently followed in the industry during the fifth generation by the Sega Analog controller (packaged with Nights into Dreams...), the Sony Dual Analog gamepad which introduced the use of two analog sticks, and the Sony DualShock. Since then, all major video game console controllers have included two analog thumbsticks, except for the Wii's "Wii-mote".