If you hold a video cassette in front of a boy who was born in 2009, you will probably get a frown. As a member of Generation Z, he grew up with DVDs and video streaming on Netflix and Co. and will probably only recognize a VHS tape if his parents are particularly fond of nostalgia.
For most people over 30, however, things are very different: There are simply objects that have accompanied entire generations over the years and shaped their youth accordingly. Those who were lucky enough to finally be able to buy a Game Boy with pocket money or who received one as a gift from their parents will certainly still remember this day today.
We dug seven items out of the moth box that are guaranteed to be easily remembered by anyone over the age of 30 - but they are more of a real mystery for those younger.
Before we take you on a little journey through time, allow us one more quick question:
The pocket-sized game console revolutionized the gaming world. Finally playing everywhere, no matter when and where. In Germany, Nintendo sold the first, still large, white, bulky Game Boy with a black-and-white display from autumn 1990 for what was then 169 Deutschmarks in a bundle with the cult game Tetris. A number of further developments followed: the Game Boy Pocket, the Game Boy Advanced, the Game Boy Color.
With more than 118.69 million units sold, the Game Boy is still one of the best-selling game consoles ever. For a long time, it even held the record for the world's best-selling handheld console. However, another Nintendo product was able to break the record: With around 154.01 million devices sold, the Nintendo DS is now the record holder.
The Dutch technology group Philips presented the first compact cassette at the consumer electronics exhibition in Berlin in August 1963 - civil rights activist Martin Luther King gave his famous "I Have a Dream" speech in the same month. You could play them on the new Philips EL 3300 cassette recorder, which went over the counter for 299 Deutschmarks when it was launched.
Even more than the Game Boy, Sony's Walkman was a revolution in terms of media consumption: music went mobile. The first model came out in 1979 and became a bestseller. The Walkman from Sony also had a special function: it automatically made its wearer cool. Back then, when fast-forwarding and rewinding was still perceived as an important additional technical function.
It was the logical further development of the Walkman after CDs had replaced cassettes as the main medium for music: the portable CD player, i.e. a Discman. The electronic skip protection, called "Anti-Skip System", "Electronic Skip Protection" (ESP) or "Anti-Shock" prevented the music from being interrupted if you hit something with the portable CD player.
Ideal for sports, for example. Even better for the kids of the nineties: It was finally possible to fall on your knee pads while inline skating and Gigi D'Agostino still blared through the headphones!
VHS is the abbreviation for "Video Home System". In 1979, the Japanese group JVC brought it to the European market. The side of the cassette with the flap had to be inserted first so that it could be opened in the recorder and the magnetic tape underneath could be read.
Anyone who grew up with video cassettes still knows it: the tape salad - and the absolute favorite pastime, series sequences, films and TV shows with the video recorder.
Okay, the good old vinyl disc and with it the record player are experiencing a comeback in Generation Z. In contrast to all millennials and boomers, however, they first have to learn how to put on a disc, take care of it properly and ensure that it remains scratch-free for as long as possible.
Choosing the right speed is also crucial: LPs had to be played at 33 rpm, singles and EPs at 45 rpm. From the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s, record players from the Black Forest company “Dual” were the most common in German households.
It used to be a real hassle to write a professional letter or cover letter on a typewriter! A typewriter, the forerunner of the computer keyboard, worked like this: Each key was connected to its individual type lever via a linkage, which hit the paper. There was an incredible mechanic behind it!
Even today, some writers still swear by the feel of a typewriter and continue to compose their manuscripts on the analog devices.
Which object from your childhood or youth do you remember in particular? Feel free to share your thoughts with us in the comments!
And for even more nostalgia, we recommend taking a look at this article:
