Beeping marvellous
It's a sad day when you realise that you'll never hear the sound of a dial-up modem again. That digital crunching noise that seared phone lines around the world as people connected to this thing of wonder -the Internet - for the first time.
It's also a sad day when you realise there's a whole generation of kids being born who will never know sounds that represented such a simpler time.
Back then, we had to have patience, maybe go away and make cups of tea as our internet connection established, yelling when someone would pick up the phone and try and make a call, disconnecting us from our MUD game. Remembering the abject joy when our favourite games console loaded up, eventually, without demanding we download a two-hour update before we're allowed to play anything.
There are many sounds that we associate with those simpler times. Here are some of our favourites.
1. Dial up modems
Such a good sound that over 4 million people have listened to this clip of a dial up modem, proving we're not the only one to miss it.
2. Windows 95 startup/shutdown
All the excitement at your OS finally booting up culminated in this Windows Start sound. You might have had to make a cup of tea while it loaded, but that sound meant you were ready to pop minesweeper up and try, once more, to beat it.
3. PS One start up sound
This sound was as wonderful as some of the games that were made for it. The original Playstation boot-up noise got us in the mood for adventures and competitive button-bashing with more progressive audio than previous consoles.
4. Sega Megadrive
"Seeeeyyy-gaaaaaa". Need we say more?
And who could forget the bundled game you got with the Mega Drive, Altered Beast, with its synthesised voice? "Wise fwom your gwave"
5. Super Mario does a fireball.
Nothing beats the 'blup blup' sounds of Mario shooting a fireball. The NES provided those first moments where fans all over the world were born and dreamed in 8-bit action.
6. The Commodore 64
Another epic loading sound, this is the Parallax boot sound made for the Commodore 64. Just stick it on loop.
7.The GameCube startup sounds
Not technically a 90's console, it was released in 2001 so it's close enough to join this older batch of sonic nostalgia finds.
Did you know it possible to vary your Gamecube boot experience with the right key presses? If not, we pity you. Luckily, you can hear them right here:
8. The sound of a dot-matrix printer.
Having homework, reports or graphs to print was always a chore because of how long it took. Printing was both highly irritating (and loud) and also oddly soothing as the printer screeched out the sounds of your work - and you were lucky if you managed a page a minute.
9. An old CD Drive opening and closing.
The worst thing about the CD Drive was accidentally getting something stuck in there. Sometimes at night, we still hear the noise...
Shout out to all the parents and grandparents who used it as a cup holder before they were shown the light.
10. Whiz Kids (TV Show)
Made in 1984 and very short-lived, this TV show followed hot on the heels of Wargames. Revolving around computer geeks who happened to use their skills as investigators, the show's opening titles pretty much encapsulates our fascination with 80s computer tech.
11. Microswitch joysticks
The microswitch joystick. The loud clicking noises you made frantically bashing at the buttons was the closest thing we'd come to the arcade experience at home. Here's gaming mavern Ashens taking us through a myriad of controllers you might have seen at home.
12. MSN Messenger
This sound of a message popping up in MSN Messenger was the sound of friendships being forged, relationships being destroyed and people coming back from an interminable AFK.
13. And finally...Bill Gates
We present Mr Bill Gates, in quite an early promotional video for Microsoft. What is love, indeed.
