Best Buy ad from 1996

[coloumb]

Wow... very interesting to see technology has improved significantly while the prices have dropped... with the exception of software - it's still about the same price.

Definitely looking forward to seeing what technology will look like in another 16 years [2028]

 

[gaidensensei]

Sadly I don't think any of those have retained decent value or are currently worth more than they costed in 1996. Kinda makes you think how cheap the useless stuff can get.

 

[Karl Agathon]

Sega Genesis FTW!

 

[goog40]

Montell Jordan, hells yeah.

 

[Via]

hahaha

I had that Sony VCR. It had a great picture, but the stupid VCR+ never did work right.

 

[busydude]

I was in 6th grade then.. just had my first experience on how to use a computer. Stole the ball of a mouse. Learned the basics of DOS. Played Sky Road and Donkey Kong to the death. Programmed for the first time(Logo).

 

[adlep]

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

Except the cyclonic technology - Dyson and clones. I have one of the clones and it is amazing how much dirt it picks up. Lound and heavy but also easy to clean and does not loose suction...
Cyclonic all the way!

 

[The_Dude8]

wow, look at the prices of those tube tvs.

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

Forrest Gump is that old? Ugh

 

[theeedude]

I had the 27 inch sharp on p14

 

[angminas]

We pretty much all noticed the same stuff. Didn't remember Warcraft 2 being that old.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

Ummm... 15 year old advertisement makes everything seem outdated? WOW.

In other news, half of Shakespeare is completely nontranscribable to modern teenagers. Without input from a third party, a full half of the bard's catalog is indecipherable to modern high school students. Shakespeare scholars are baffled, saying "when you say scholars, do you mean there's more than one of us?"

 

[The Stigenator]

sweet jesus...

 

[KidNiki1]

awesome!
my dad had that pioneer 101 cd player. lol.

and man i played the crap out of You Don't Know Jack.

good times, good times.

 

[Mr. Lennon]

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.

Serious. I think I begged from the time I was 7 or so. I was about 12 when my parents finally bought one. I think my old man blew over $2k on a Dell. That thing ran Rainbow 6 like a champ. We were the first on our block to get cable internet too. All my friends on 56k would rage.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

thats from the days when half of a computer store was filled with free-after-rebate software

lol $2300 for an acer desktop, $149 for an 8x dcrom, $160 for a 33.6 modem

ten years from now we'll be laughing at ads with tablets selling for $300 and laptops with only 4 cores. that would be an interesting thread: what do you think ads will contain 10 years from now?

 

[stargazr]

Nice cell phones

 

[mmntech]

I had forgot how expensive computers used to be. $2000 will get you a gorgeous gaming rig today.

LOL at the Sega Genesis and PS1. I seem to remember new releases being more expensive than that at the time. Maybe that was just here in Canada.

 

[shortylickens]

300 dollars for a 25 incher?
I'm sorry but even back then that was an absolutely shitty deal.

 

[shortylickens]

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

Apparently, yes.
In reality, wrong.

They take much less power at initial kick-start, better and more filters, including a HEPA exhaust filter, and can get more dirt out of deeper carpet.

But those arent easy to advertise. The big selling point is usually bagless (which actually turns out to be more difficult) or HEPA, which is too common to be a real feature to push.

Also, for those who dont know, there were a lot of quality made consumer products in the 70's, like vacuum cleaners, which turned incredibly shitty during the 80's and only just recently started getting better again.

 

[Rubycon]

300 dollars for a 25 incher?
I'm sorry but even back then that was an absolutely shitty deal.

25 inches for 300 greenbacks sounds like a great deal to me.

Oh wait that's for a TV?

 

[dabuddha]

Man sega genesis, how I loved thee!

Thanks for the post!

 

[Sephire]

I miss PiP.

 

[AdamK47]

I use to browse the Best Buy ads to see how well my current self built PCs stacked up against the pre-built systems. My P166 I built around that time was considerably cheaper than the one listed in this ad. It also had a Diamond 3Dfx VooDoo 1 and a Creative 3DBlaster with the Rendition Verite V1000 (Two 3D accelerators in one system!). The pre-builts couldn't play squat when it came to OpenGL/Direct3D games.

 

[dud]

Wow, awesome.

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

If the price of RAM hadn't dropped since then and assuming prices remained constant then your 16 GB of RAM would have cost you $130,000!