The manga Good Morning Call was written from 1997 until 2002, so there are a lot of things that stand out for being something of the era. So this will be a memory lane for some and an anthropological look at a past culture for others. So let’s take that blast into the past through Good Morning Call manga.
The Video Rental Store
In the manga Good Morning Call, Hisashi worked at a video rental store. Video rental stores first opened in the 1980s and they only rented VHS and beta tapes (whatever that is…). Now they rent out movies, TV shows, and video games. The video rental store was at a high during this point with the emergence of DVDs in the early 2000s. Most of us now can rent/watch movies from an online source (Netflix) or by using on a special device (Roku). There isn’t much need for the video rental store as much anymore. Plus I can go to the library to ‘rent’ movies for free.
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The Playstation
Created by Sony Interactive Entertainment, the Playstation was first release in 1994. Looking at the Wikipedia site, there was a lot of drama in the beginning days between Sony and Nintendo. But it eventually led to Sony creating a CD-ROM-based console with capability of 3D graphics instead of cartridges like Nintendo.
The Playstation is something I remember we owned. I don’t think we had one until the later 90s. People still purchase them as a memorabilia and to play the games from their past. Once you’ve come as far as we have technologically, it is really hard to play with the old school graphics.
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The Nokia
The company Nokia is a Finnish business that was established in 1865 with focus in multinational communications, information technology, and consumer electronics. At one point in time, their mobile phones were the most bought which takes us to this point right here. It was a phone that everyone had. And I remember the only game you could play was the frustrating game of Snake. I’m glad we have moved past this point.
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The iMac G3
There is a long history about the company Apple Inc. and I think it can be seen in the Steve Jobs film (I’m not sure since I haven’t seen it yet). The iMac G3 is a series of PCs from 1998 to 2003. I remember having this computer in our technology class in 6th grade. I thought it was the coolest things (since we didn’t own a computer). But we have come so far with computers and things are still really cool.
Here’s a commercial:
Personal Handy-phone System
I have no clue what this is. Of course the caption explains it. On Wikipedia, it says that it was used mainly Japan, China, Taiwan, and other Asian countries. And so that’s why I know nothing about it. I tried to read more about it but it’s archaic technology is beyond my ability to comprehend. You can read more about here. Brain hurts…
Well this blast from the past has been real fun. It so interesting to see how time can change our everyday ways of living. It’s often technology (or war) that does this. I am often apprehensive of technology for many reasons, but I am also very appreciative of it as well.
What are your thoughts on Technology?
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