Best Buy ad from 1996

[SAWYER]

http://gregarious24.imgur.com/best_buy_flyer_september_1996

 

[halik]

Well apparently there's been zero progress in the vacuum technology

 

[Jeff7]

Wow, cellphones with alphanumeric memory.

And a Sir-Mix-A-Lot CD.


...gah, 33.6k modems too.


Canon BJ-4200, my first color printer.

 

[Kaervak]

Pagers. LOL

 

[Jeff7]

Pagers. LOL

Sadly, now we have cellphones with texting capability, or in other words, 2-way paging. Yay.

 

[gevorg]

Picture-in-Picture was a hit in TV those days. No one really cares about it now.

Also: 3D Comb filter.

 

[IlllI]

i always wondered what happened to the dude on the norton antivirus boxes

 

[Poulsonator]

I played the hell out of WC2 and Triple Play 97. That Motorola flip phone was my first cell phone as well.

That ad came out the day before my 22nd bday...ah, what memories.

 

[LordMorpheus]

Pitfall! That game kicks so much ass.

Haha, also, look at the simulated screen images on page 8. They aren't even close. The digital age has done wonders for production values.

 

[Tristicus]

And people complain about a dual core Toshiba laptop with 4gb of RAM costing $350. Fucking cheap asses.

 

[rcpratt]

Awesome. Crazy how fast things change. Obviously cell phones, the 1.6 GB HDDs for $240, 33.6 modems, walkmans...prices were crazy too, considering inflation.

 

[Aharami]

hah...I used to have that $499 aiwa stereo in page 11

 

[Narse]

Wow I forgot how expensive PCs were then, Apple's expensive as always also.

 

[Powermoloch]

good ol times

 

[lxskllr]

I played You Don't Know Jack with my ex and one of her friends, and dominated the game. They were acting like I was some kind of genius, but the questions were easy as hell. I probably shouldn't have tried so hard, but I was excited at winning, and I usually suck at trivia type games. I also get caught up in the moment, and tend to be competitive when diplomacy is a better long term strategy :^D

 

[ockky]

each page had the same reaction from me.
first, i was like :awe:, then i was like D:

 

[Lifted]

That Toshiba must have an IPS panel for $2,500.

 

[drebo]

Wow, awesome.

$150 for 16mb RAM? Sheesh, I just bought 16 GB RAM for $100.

 

[lupi]

so much fail in that now.

 

[Cheesetogo]

That Toshiba must have an IPS panel for $2,500.

Easy viewing with large 11.3" display!

 

[Nizbot]

I was actually quite surprised by the software prices, especially the games. Figured they'd be a little lower.

i always wondered what happened to the dude on the norton antivirus boxes

I was thinking exactly the same thing when I saw that.

Nice find OP! :thumbsup:

 

[The Boston Dangler]

my intro to pc's was my friend's packard bell 166, just like the 1 in the ad. i very much learned what a pc should not be like due to that thing.

1 of the garbage links at the bottom took me to this:

 

[fatpat268]

Sure as hell seems like Best Buy put more effort into selling you stuff back then. Comparing it to now, Best Buy is barely trying.

Brings back memories. I was only 9 at the time, but I remember a lot of that stuff. What I don't remember was the prices. No wonder why I didn't get that new computer for christmas.

 

[Dominato3r]

I vaguely remember having that mac around the house, I think it was my family's very first PC.

 

[Poulsonator]

That picture is outstanding.