Peak Society ? 1990s ?

[DRD]

I think that the 1990s pinball machines represent peak pinball. WPC era DMD so the MM, TAF, MB, TZ, STTNG, SS, FT type stuff.

I'd extend this to cars. Back in 2008 I saw a TV car show saying that 1990s Merc SL500 were a screaming bargain at about £5k for the incredible build quality etc. Very heavy and thirsty with v8 5000cc 4 variable valve engines. Most were 4 speed autos

So I bought one. It has a removable hard top. I took mine off on Friday. The electric soft top was totally dead and would not move. This was the first failure in about 16 years.

So I manually released it and put it up. This was enough to unstick whatever 30 year old switch has been stuck in a closed position thanks to the hard top being on for 6 months. It's back to working flawlessly again.

Those genius Germans in 1994 made this thing so a single tool can be used to override the electric operation. And all the instructions required are printed on the plastic sleeve that houses the tool in the boot.

The car cost someone £70k in 1994. They just do not make stuff like this anymore.

 

[kev a]

Didn't the Matrix say the year 1999 was chosen as it represented the peak of human society, 26 years later and you could still make a solid case for that being true.

In terms of cars I love stuff from the early 90s, Japanese in my case but the Germans we're knocking out some great stuff too.

Although 70k would have been house money back then, the top end cars we're great but much of the quality hadn't trickled down, stuff at the budget end was pretty dire, my old 94 escort and would easily be outclassed by the equivalent 04 or 14 plate focus or Astra

 

[Asiapinball]

Although 70k would have been house money back then

My 1 bed flat in London Docklands was worth £60k in 1994. I had a friend that lived in the same block who had recently bought a late 80s Testarossa and a late 80s Aston Martin Vantage and paid £30k each for them when they were just a few years old. I remember thinking that his cars together were worth as much as my flat (and his as he also had a 1 bed flat but it was his 3rd home).

 

[kev a]

My 1 bed flat in London Docklands was worth £60k in 1994. I had a friend that lived in the same block who had recently bought a late 80s Testarossa and a late 80s Aston Martin Vantage and paid £30k each for them when they were just a few years old. I remember thinking that his cars together were worth as much as my flat (and his as he also had a 1 bed flat but it was his 3rd home).

wonder what's worth more now, cars or the flat?

 

[Ant-H]

wonder what's worth more now, cars or the flat?

I would guess with how the Docklands have been developed over the past 10 years or so and price of London property, I’d say the flat for sure.

 

[Calimori]

We are selectively remembering the past, I don’t want the 90’s mobile phones, internet or computers. Those are the areas of massive development.

 

[Fubar]

We are selectively remembering the past, I don’t want the 90’s mobile phones, internet or computers. Those are the areas of massive development.

idk... modern smartphones and social media cause a ton of damage - wouldn't say all that development is in a good direction (which is OP's point, I think). Yeah sure it's nice not to pay 10p for 160 characters, and video calls are cool.
Linux kernel 2.6 was released in 2003 and what do we have now? JS flavour of the month framework and huge ML data centers which consume a ton of resource - solutions looking for a problem.
Even BB websites such as this one were made popular in the early 00s - in conclusion I'd say OP is 10 years too early

 

[kev a]

We are selectively remembering the past, I don’t want the 90’s mobile phones, internet or computers. Those are the areas of massive development.

Honestly I'm not so sure on that one, technically things have improved.

By the turn of the millennium we had forums, file sharing, MSN messenger, online gaming was a bit crappy over 56k to be fair, but the best bits of the internet were in place without the intrusiveness of 24/7 social media.

 

[Calimori]

Who here in the last week hasn’t done any of the following:

1. Streamed a movie
2. Used a smart phone
3. Video called
4. Worked remotely

The advances in these technologies since the 2000’s have been phenomenal and we can live stream to people anywhere in the world.
I came from low speed modems, BB and IRC. Able to run an OS from a 1.44 MB disk, now days a word doc is bigger.

As for social media, I dabbled but still do not understand sharing a polarised view of your life for other to learn how to profile you for social engineering.

 

[Arv]

Who here in the last week hasn’t done any of the following:

1. Streamed a movie
2. Used a smart phone
3. Video called
4. Worked remotely

The advances in these technologies since the 2000’s have been phenomenal and we can live stream to people anywhere in the world.
I came from low speed modems, BB and IRC. Able to run an OS from a 1.44 MB disk, now days a word doc is bigger.

As for social media, I dabbled but still do not understand sharing a polarised view of your life for other to learn how to profile you for social engineering.

Just imagine what they had in 2000BC.

 

[kev a]

In the last week I have done all of those things, so at the risk of sounding a hypocrite........

I think its a generational thing, we grew up as the internet emerged, Introduced to each new thing in stages, with time to adapt, as a tool social media can be a great thing, discovering new aspects of a hobby or connecting with people who share the same interest, great stuff.
It's success is based around feeding you more of the same content, enjoy Pinball? great, your getting served up more pinball content, perhaps retro stuff, arcade and gaming.

But for a self conscious teenage girl, or insecure lad, your dropping straight into a perfected system designed to maximise engagement, the creep from workout, to self help, to Tates nonsense hot takes can lead to some very dark places, I'm glad at 15 I had the 1999 version of the internet, not the modern one.

 

[Asiapinball]

wonder what's worth more now, cars or the flat?

Well I just had to look.

And the winner is........... [DRUM ROLL]

The cars!!!!!

The flat is about £450K now.

Testarossa is around £180K and the Aston about £350K

But I expect the running costs of the 2 cars over the years far outweighed the flat particularly with the cost and frequency of Ferrari servicing.

 

[Ant-H]

Well I just had to look.

And the winner is........... [DRUM ROLL]

The cars!!!!!

The flat is about £450K now.

Testarossa is around £180K and the Aston about £350K

But I expect the running costs of the 2 cars over the years far outweighed the flat particularly with the cost and frequency of Ferrari servicing.

Yeah, the cambelt service on older Ferraris alone is not basic or cheap job like on most cars.