The greatest tech hits of the 1990s

Technology is so ubiquitous today that we barely give it a second thought. Everyone carries a supercomputer in their pocket or a bag that would baffle the classic sci-fi authors of yesteryear. And you no longer have to trudge to the video shop to rent the latest blockbuster movie – a world of entertainment is available to stream instantly at the tap of a button.

But did you know that much of what we now take for granted was birthed around 30 years ago – during a period of extraordinary growth, both in tech and the bottoms of our jeans?

The ’90s were arguably the most pivotal decade for gaming, mobile phones, communication, and even our cars. We saw the first consumer sat-navs, MP3 players, satellite television, and the debut of the flatscreen TV to watch it on. And all through our floppy, curtained fringes as the Britpop battle between Oasis and Blur raged on.

Oh, and there was the small matter of the World Wide Web and email – they might have had a bit of an impact in the future too. So, let’s celebrate the ’90s with the greatest tech hits it spawned. You might even have a few of these still lurking in a drawer or two – some potentially still work.

GAME BOY (1990)

While Nintendo’s first handheld was technically introduced to the world in 1989, it didn’t make its debut in the UK until 1990. And it turned out to be well worth the wait. Hard to see with its non-lit screen, the device nonetheless gave us hundreds of games to swap between – and a battery bill of £100s for all those AAs we burned through.

Launch price: £99

TIGER TALKBOY (1992)

The Talkboy from Tiger Electronics became one of the number one tech toys for Christmas 1993 after its debut in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York a year before. Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) used one to terrorise his assailants and while it was released to tie-in with the movie, the lack of some features meant most waited until the Deluxe model arrived 12 months later. The new model added a voice-changing mode and other effects, to enhance what was essentially a Dictaphone for kids.

$25 (around £15)

SONY MZ-1 MINIDISC PLAYER (1992)

MiniDisc should absolutely have worked and become the number one format for music releases, but didn’t. That’s partly due to high pricing of the players themselves, including the Sony MZ-1 – the first to market – but also thanks to the record companies which continued to champion the cheaper CD tech instead. To be fair, MiniDisc did feature compressed audio at launch, against CD’s higher bitrates, but even the ability to record onto blank discs didn’t save it.

Launch price: $750 (around £450)

SONY DCR-VX1000 MINIDV CAMCORDER (1995)

While camcorders had been around for more than a decade, the Sony DCR-VX1000 was the first using the MiniDV format. And while its price put it out of reach for most home users, it changed the way TV shows could be made: previously the equipment cost tens of thousands, but the VX1000 gave similar quality for a lot less.

Launch price: $3,000 (around £2,000)

PAGE ONE MINICALL (1994)

Available from NEC and Motorola, the Page One Minicall pager was specific to the UK. You would ring a UK number and leave a message with a human, who would forward a text version to the recipient’s pager. Alternatively, you could send a numeric message directly, and the owner would call you back. Basic stuff, but extremely handy before affordable mobile phones arrived.

Launch price: £70

PHILIPS FLAT TV (1998)

Philips has been renowned for TV innovations over the years, so it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise to learn that it was one of the first to introduce a flatscreen television. The cunningly-named Philips Flat TV was a wall-mountable plasma screen that made jaws drop, not least thanks to its eye-watering price ticket. It didn’t have Ambilight, though.

Launch price: $15,000 (around £11,000)

TAMAGOTCHI (1997)

There was a point in the late ’90s when it seemed everyone had a virtual pet in their pocket – either Bandai’s official Tamagotchi or a cheaper knock-off. Entire offices and classrooms would stop every so often to feed or attend to multiple digital pals. There was even a helpline set up to help owners whose pixelated pets had died. No, really. And in many ways we’re still obsessed by the needs of simple, virtual beings who live in our devices – we just call them TikTokers these days.

Launch price: $17.99 (around £13)

LOGITECH MOUSEMAN CORDLESS (1991)

Logitech had already released a wireless PC mouse beforehand, but it required line-of-sight as it used infrared. The MouseMan Cordless was the forerunner to just about every wireless mouse today, because it used RF tech to communicate with a receiver with little latency. Without this early effort, who knows where we’d be.

$150 (around £110)

TOSHIBA SD-3006 DVD PLAYER (1996)

We didn’t realise it at the time, but watching movies on VHS was a miserable experience. But then came DVD, and home entertainment changed forever. Still standard definition but with higher bitrates and surround sound, they were the spark the home cinema market needed. Toshiba was the first to market with a player.

$699 (around £500)

KYOCERA VISUAL PHONE VP-210 (1999)

Not only was the Kyocera VP-210 the first full-colour camera phone, it was effectively the first selfie phone too, as the lens was front-facing. Only released in Japan, the handset had a two-inch display and the camera was just 0.11-megapixel – but you could send your images via email, and it took rivals a fair while to catch up.

Launch price: ¥40,000 (around £200)

APPLE iMAC G3 (1998)

Where would Apple be today without the iMac G3 – with one of the most jaw-dropping designs in computing history. Desktop computers were largely grey or black boxes (beige in Apple’s case) before Sir Jony Ive got his hands on Steve Jobs’ latest product line. The end result was a part translucent, part-coloured bubble of an all-in-one, with a funky keyboard and circular mouse to match. Computer nerds hated it, but the general public embraced it with a verve that no other PC had been treated to before.

£1,299

PALMPILOT 1000 (1996)

Where the ’80s introduced leather-bound personal organisers, the ’90s saw a rise in their computerised equivalents. Palm and Psion were the two PDA (personal digital assistant) pioneers that offered tech planners that could fit in a pocket. The PalmPilot was arguably the most popular device in the field, with the first arriving in 1996, setting a trend that lasted long into the smartphone age.

$129 (around £90)

NUVOMEDIA ROCKET EBOOK (1998)

In comparison with modern e-readers, including the Kindle, the Rocket eBook was a humble device. It used LCD screen technology rather than E-Ink and could only store around 10 books, but as one of the first ebook readers it gave us a glimpse of what was to come. If it wasn’t for the likes of the Rocket eBook, Amazon may never have become the force it is today.

Launch price: $499 (around £315)

GARMIN STREETPILOT (1998)

Satellite navigation had been around for a while before the Garmin StreetPilot, but generally only for military or commercial use. The StreetPilot was one of the first to be available to consumers – albeit at a high price. It was black and white, required the use of cartridges for its map packs, and there was no voice guidance, but interest was high and rivals, such as TomTom, soon jumped on the bandwagon too.

Launch price: $550 (around £400)

PLAYSTATION (1994)

Nintendo and Sega had ruled the worldwide console scene for many years before Sony decided to come a-calling. And it changed everything. Having originally planned to launch a machine with Nintendo, it instead went it alone and produced a console that appealed as much to adults as children, if not more so. Launch games like Wipeout, with its hardcore, club-inspired soundtrack, set the stall for a different era for gaming – and Sony hasn’t looked back since.

Launch price: £299

VIRTUALITY 1000CS (1991)

Although virtual reality had already been in development before, it wasn’t really made available to the public until the early ’90s. The first consumer headset experience came from Virtuality, which made pods and sit down arcade units that the public could pay to use. The screen was blurry, many complained of wooziness, but it was a sign of things to come.

Launch price: $60,000 (around £40,000)

DIAMOND RIO 500 (1999)

Although a couple of MP3 players had appeared earlier, the Diamond Rio 500 was arguably the most significant. It was the first to include a USB connection, making it easier to move MP3 files onto the digital media machine. It also added a card slot for storage expansion – which was important considering you could only fit a couple of albums on its 64MB of internal space.

Launch price: $200 (around £150)

SKY TV (1990)

Sky Television had actually been in operation in the late ’80s, but it wasn’t until 1990 that it really took off. That’s almost entirely thanks to the £304 million spent on broadcast rights to the new Premier League in 1992. This turned out to be totally transformative, both for increasing take-up of the service and for English football in general.

Launch price: £250 for the equipment, channels free

NOKIA 3210 (1999)

Although Nokia had already established itself as a major player in mobile phones in the ’80s and early ’90s, it was the 3210 that made it the biggest trendsetter. That’s in no small part thanks to the swappable fascias – of which there were thousands – to customise your device. It also introduced an internal antenna to the mass market, which further helped the phone become seen as a fashion accessory, too.

Launch price: £149.99

FURBY (1998)

We all went crazy in the late ’90s over ‘intelligent’ electronic toys that essentially spoke gibberish and randomly woke up in the middle of the night to scare the willies out of everyone. Tiger Electronics’ Furby was so popular that there were 40 million of them by the turn of the century – and while they’ve been relaunched a couple of times since, working originals can change hands today for £100s.

Launch price: $35 (around £20)

GREATEST TECH FLOPS OF THE… ’90S

Not every tech innovation of the decade was a big success. Here are three that fell by the wayside…

APPLE NEWTON MESSAGEPAD (1993)

Apple hasn’t always been infallible. The Newton MessagePad was the company’s answer to the likes of the Psion Organiser and PalmPilot, and to be fair it lasted a few generations before being retired in 1998. The idea was also sound, with later models even offering handwriting recognition, but part of the problem is that battery life was poor and prices remained high throughout its brief life.

NINTENDO VIRTUAL BOY (1995)

Buoyed by the success of the Game Boy, and in an attempt to capitalise on the emergence of virtual reality, Nintendo decided to launch arguably its craziest console – the Virtual Boy. It also proved to be its biggest flop (even worse than the Wii U). You placed your face forward onto it and were treated to 3D gaming in red and black. Funny enough, Nintendo will soon re-release the concept for the Switch and Switch 2.

NAPSTER (1999)

Napster had the world at its feet when it launched in June 1999, Thanks to the rise of the MP3, the peer-to-peer file sharing system co-founded by Sean Parker became an overnight success – although largely for the wrong reasons. Piracy concerns meant it was shut down just a few years later. A bit more foresight and it could have beaten Spotify and iTunes to the punch as the number one music delivery service.