1990s Toys/games

After several months away, I'm returning to the 1990s to finish off the last few categories.

Thunderbirds Tracy Island (1992)

In 1992, this was the must-have Christmas toy - the secret headquarters of the Tracy family, known as International Rescue's "base." But demand outstripped supply, leading to a shortage. Blue Peter came to the rescue, showing viewers how to build a home-made version out of household waste. The BBC was then, in turn, overwhelmed by requests for copies of the instruction sheet for making the model. Eventually the broadcaster stopped sending out the sheets and released a recording of presenter Anthea Turner's demonstration, Blue Peter Makes a Thunderbirds Tracy Island, on VHS.

Sony PlayStation (1994)
On December 3, 1994, Sony released the first PlayStation in Japan. The Playstation, which sold for 37,000 yen (about $387), skyrocketed in popularity and was considered Sony's most important product since the Walkman. It was released in the US in September 1995 and was an instant hit.

Tickle Me Elmo (1996)
After coming up with the idea of creating a stuffed animal that would laugh when someone tickled it, inventor Ron Dubren teamed up with engineer Greg Hyman to create a stuffed animal with laughing technology. Although that toy was never successful, Dubren's idea lived on. In 1996, the Tyco toy company asked to use Dubren's technology to create a doll with the character of Elmo from Sesame Street . Tickle Me Elmo (or Elmo Cosquillas as it was known in Spanish), became one of the most popular children's toys and was named the most desired toy of the 1996 Christmas shopping season. It now lives on the list of "100 Greatest Toys of All Time" from TIME magazine.

Toy Story Buzz Lightyear Action Figure (1996)
This saw a re-run of the Tracy Island shortage. Due to the enormous success of Toy Story upon its release, Thinkway Toys was unable to meet the demand for Buzz Lightyear figures in the holiday season of 1996. With the assumption that Woody would be the most popular character, only 50,000 Buzz Lightyear toys were manufactured compared to 200,000 Woody toys. The supply deficit resulted in hundreds of shoppers queuing in the hope of purchasing a Buzz Lightyear toy and required the delivery of emergency supplies, with the BBC describing Buzz as "the year's most sought-after Christmas present."

Nintendo 64 (1996)
On June 23, 1996, the Nintendo 64 was released in Japan, becoming the first home console to feature an analogue stick as the primary controller. In September of that year, the N64 made its way to the US The console was a breakthrough in the gaming industry, allowing users to aim with precision and control like never before.

Tamagotchi (1996)
The Tamagotchi, the original virtual pet , is a childhood staple of the 1990s. Released in 1996 by Bandai, more than 40 million units were sold worldwide. In a way, the portable handheld device taught children to be responsible, from playing with the pet to picking up their virtual waste.



Gaming
• Home consoles become powerful and affordable enough to begin replacing trips to the arcade.

• CD-ROMs, which was first introduced as a software storage media with the 1988 launch of the PC Engine CD-ROM² System in Japan, gradually replaced ROM cartridges and floppy disks as the primary storage media for video games, starting with the release of platforms such as the Turbo Duo and Sega CD, later on with the PlayStation and the Sega Saturn, while CD-ROM drives for PCs became standardized. The sole exception was Nintendo, who canceled their plans to release a CD-ROM adapter for the Super NES and chose to employ cartridges for their subsequent home console, the Nintendo 64.

• Gaming, along with animation in general becomes more appealing to adults.

• Online multiplayer environments are popular over the internet during the later half of the 1990s. The first console with built-in Internet connectivity was the Dreamcast in 1999, which failed due to the low download speeds common at the time but eventually led to an online-centric gaming industry by the late 2000s.

• First-person shooter games become popular with the release of Doom (1993).

• 3D graphics overtake the traditional 2D graphics in the mid-nineties with the release of Quake and Super Mario 64 in 1996.

• The PlayStation is released in Japan on December 3, 1994 and in North America in September 1995.