Things that quietly disappeared in the last 20 years

[Bunk Moreland]

Good pubs.

All the classic buildings are apartments now. most still in an old site have changed hands every 18 months and nothing ever improves, going from wine bar to high end to pokies venue to the current trend of trying to be retro but everything feeling empty and echoey and incredibly bland inside.

There's a reason people still love places like the Standard, the Rose, the Napier, the Park. they tread a good line between standard menu items without them being microwaved shite with half arsed limp salads and without being a little bit too full on and restaurant-y; a front bar people want to sit at; an old original bar with old original taps; no CUB/Lion lock in contract of beers; good bar staff some of which are hot women; clean but with some heritage and hangovers from older days; no bouncers; footy on the screen but it's not a sportsbar...

I live near a pub that's been around for 140 years and it was always a bit daggy but still pretty good value inside. just got bought out and they're talking about 'embracing its heritage and regulars....' and... they're changing the name it's had for most of its history...

Unfortunately they just don’t make money any more. People don’t go to them in the numbers they did back in the day.

Multiculturalism means a lot of Australians don’t have a drinking culture engrained in them.

And changes in the family / social unit. It was (and still is) more common for my dad’s generation to spend a couple of hours of a weeknight, or all Saturday afternoon, in a pub. That’s just not the case any more. Women don’t accept it from their men. They want help with the kids and men to be more active in family life. Which is fair enough. None of it is compatible with drinking 12 pots at the pub every Saturday. It’s much rarer.

 

[Dogs_R_Us]

Unfortunately they just don’t make money any more. People don’t go to them in the numbers they did back in the day.

Multiculturalism means a lot of Australians don’t have a drinking culture engrained in them.

And changes in the family / social unit. It was (and still is) more common for my dad’s generation to spend a couple of hours of a weeknight, or all Saturday afternoon, in a pub. That’s just not the case any more. Women don’t accept it from their men. They want help with the kids and men to be more active in family life. Which is fair enough. None of it is compatible with drinking 12 pots at the pub every Saturday. It’s much rarer.

Driving laws, increased prices due to inflation. I read recently that young people especially are watching their pennies and not wasting as much on expensive cocktails, for example, or not as often.

 

[MrsEddieBetts]

Hard copy encyclopaedias. Whenever I had a question as a kid, my dad made me look it up in one of the Funk and Wagnells. Now my kids ask siri.

 

[Pistol Night]

Hard copy encyclopaedias. Whenever I had a question as a kid, my dad made me look it up in one of the Funk and Wagnells. Now my kids ask siri.

Funk and Wagnells made encyclopedias cool. Sounded like a 2 piece hip hop group

 

[Gough]

WWII veterans.

 

[Pistol Night]

Pub debate. These days Google ****s that in 10 seconds

 

[errant bounce]

Unfortunately they just don’t make money any more. People don’t go to them in the numbers they did back in the day.

Multiculturalism means a lot of Australians don’t have a drinking culture engrained in them.

And changes in the family / social unit. It was (and still is) more common for my dad’s generation to spend a couple of hours of a weeknight, or all Saturday afternoon, in a pub. That’s just not the case any more. Women don’t accept it from their men. They want help with the kids and men to be more active in family life. Which is fair enough. None of it is compatible with drinking 12 pots at the pub every Saturday. It’s much rarer.

A lot of the good ones do make very good money though.

I can get caught up in it but there aren't that many migrants that make a pub unfeasible. young people go in droves to places like the

One thing I can't stand is being penalised for using the most popular form of payment. banks have always made businesses pay for card facilities, just as power companies require you to pay power bills and those stools your on are also paid for. it's sneaky shit.

Don't get me started on surchages for public holidays. if you can't afford to operate a venue when staff have their entitled extra pay, don't put it onto the consumer.

I remember going to the Spread Eagle on Bridge Road one Anzac day and it was $19.50 for a pint through all these fees.

My old local did exceptionally fine without any of this bullshit.

 

[Cruyff14]

My work is very niche and I get to interview people, write articles and have free reign over layout and the cover and even the ads. it's not within the industry I'd love to be in but it is pretty cool to have a magazine you basically made come into your hands. I've got to do some very cool stuff on the work clock under the guise of 'work.' we have a bit of weight in an industry that touches all sorts of other industries so you can weasel your way into lots of very good chats. pretty cool going into the RACV Club or MCC or some of those Collins Street buildings and some hot assistant in Louboutins calls you sir and gets you a flat white...

One of the coolest thing that's ever happened in my shitty life was a mate of mine being in London and picking up a music mag and really resonating with an album review and him seeing my name as the author.

Magazines are awful for pollution because you can't recycle the paper and about 30% of editions are returned which sucks, but they're a perfect medium.

Loaded, FourFourTwo really inspired me as a kid.

This is really, really cool.

I too miss magazines. I remember going to the newsagent as a kid and flicking through gaming magazines (I had a heap from the late 90s through early 00s). They were all the way down the back and near the pornos hahaha.

There was one particular magazine that was listing the top 100 games for the year 2000, it was great reading through that. Think I chucked it out, but I got so much out of it reading through it was a 12 year old.

I too enjoyed FourFourTwo. Powerstation (PS mag) was excellent.

 

[kickazz]

I still like to buy a magazine occasionally, even get a sub once in a while.

Online articles are all click-baity drivel. I enjoy reading something that had had some effort put into it.

Harder to come across new ones by accident though. Speaking of quietly disappearing - newsagents are fewer now.

 

[PoppedCorn]

we still have a set of New Age encyclopedias
just like these ones

BAY BOOKS COMPLETE SET (NEW AGE ENCYCLOPEDIAS) 1983 - 30 BOOKS | eBay

These are vintage books and very rare to find.

www.ebay.com.au

think theres a set of dictionaries too, they were the FILs and my wife has always kept them stashed away

 

[PoppedCorn]

My work is very niche and I get to interview people, write articles and have free reign over layout and the cover and even the ads. it's not within the industry I'd love to be in but it is pretty cool to have a magazine you basically made come into your hands. I've got to do some very cool stuff on the work clock under the guise of 'work.' we have a bit of weight in an industry that touches all sorts of other industries so you can weasel your way into lots of very good chats. pretty cool going into the RACV Club or MCC or some of those Collins Street buildings and some hot assistant in Louboutins calls you sir and gets you a flat white...

One of the coolest thing that's ever happened in my shitty life was a mate of mine being in London and picking up a music mag and really resonating with an album review and him seeing my name as the author.

Magazines are awful for pollution because you can't recycle the paper and about 30% of editions are returned which sucks, but they're a perfect medium.

Loaded, FourFourTwo really inspired me as a kid.

this is awesome
what a job
i was forever getting heavy metal mags when younger and still have a massive stack.
im thinking of bagging and boarding them all to keep them in great condition

 

[Mofra]

 

[peternorth]

Manners

 

[Dogs_R_Us]

we still have a set of New Age encyclopedias
just like these ones

BAY BOOKS COMPLETE SET (NEW AGE ENCYCLOPEDIAS) 1983 - 30 BOOKS | eBay

These are vintage books and very rare to find.

www.ebay.com.au

think theres a set of dictionaries too, they were the FILs and my wife has always kept them stashed away

My family had a set of Arthur Mee's Children's Encyclopaedia passed down. We read every volume (10) cover to cover.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

This is really, really cool.

I too miss magazines. I remember going to the newsagent as a kid and flicking through gaming magazines (I had a heap from the late 90s through early 00s). They were all the way down the back and near the pornos hahaha.

There was one particular magazine that was listing the top 100 games for the year 2000, it was great reading through that. Think I chucked it out, but I got so much out of it reading through it was a 12 year old.

I too enjoyed FourFourTwo. Powerstation (PS mag) was excellent.

They were fantastic.

One on One (basketball mag)

Several gaming mags - awesome reviews of games

All the specialist auto mags. I recall Street Commodores. I think Street Machine is the only one still going.

They’d be $5 - $10 and you’d get days of reading out of them and then keep them as reference.

Always came with folded posters in the middle.

And of course the pr0n mags that would get passed around and traded at school

 

[Pistol Night]

They were fantastic.

One on One (basketball mag)

Several gaming mags - awesome reviews of games

All the specialist auto mags. I recall Street Commodores. I think Street Machine is the only one still going.

They’d be $5 - $10 and you’d get days of reading out of them and then keep them as reference.

Always came with folded posters in the middle.

And of course the pr0n mags that would get passed around and traded at school

Picture, Penthouse and the holy grail - Penthouse Premium.

 

[errant bounce]

I used to like those gaming magazines too, you'd get previews on games that were still in development and sometimes a throwaway article from a provincial magazine is the only proof that some games were even being made. it was also way more fun just trying to imagine it when you were going off 3-4 screenshots and 500 words. probably encouraged you to buy a game you otherwise wouldn't, while now it seems everyone just plays the same 3-4 massive titles.

The demo discs were so good too.

 

[Plugger35]

I used to buy Uncut magazines every month which were great for films and music and they had a free CD with each issue which they called A Guide to the Month's Best Music with songs from the albums they rated the best from that month, it was great value.

They are still producing magazines but I got out of the habit of reading magazines and listening to CDs so I no longer buy them.

 

[Over The Post]

The time between the internet emerging from defense / uni's, into being available on home PC's and smart phones was the golden age of the internet. You needed at least a minimal tech familiarity to be online, precluding the many idiots with smart phones, who could never have figured out how to get online, if it wasn't all done for them. Unsurprisingly, if you just looked at those old enough to potentially have been online before smart phones, but weren't, and those who are the most tin-foil hat, alternate medicine, etc. nuts, there's a hell of a lot of overlap.

"I like Fidonet. It keeps the fwits off Usenet."

 

[Cruyff14]

They were fantastic.

One on One (basketball mag)

Several gaming mags - awesome reviews of games

All the specialist auto mags. I recall Street Commodores. I think Street Machine is the only one still going.

They’d be $5 - $10 and you’d get days of reading out of them and then keep them as reference.

Always came with folded posters in the middle.

And of course the pr0n mags that would get passed around and traded at school

Hahaha yes the pornos were at the back too and 12 year old me would side eye the magazines on my way past to the gaming mags haha.

Yeah, those magazines were top notch. I loved reading them.

I used to like those gaming magazines too, you'd get previews on games that were still in development and sometimes a throwaway article from a provincial magazine is the only proof that some games were even being made. it was also way more fun just trying to imagine it when you were going off 3-4 screenshots and 500 words. probably encouraged you to buy a game you otherwise wouldn't, while now it seems everyone just plays the same 3-4 massive titles.

The demo discs were so good too.

Yep, and the in depth reviews too. Print media has died pretty much - and I get it - but getting a good magazine was great as a kid.

Demos were elite. I reckon I still have the demo that came with the Playstation Australia magazine that had MGS on it.

 

[errant bounce]

Demos were elite. I reckon I still have the demo that came with the Playstation Australia magazine that had MGS on it.

Metal Gear Solid was on heaps of them, it was such a good game that the first level was so difficult and intense that passing that alone was more interesting than most full of games.

My favourite thing was just being able to play a small portion of a genre you'd never buy a full game for, like I'd never buy Colin McRae Rally or a basketball game but I enjoyed being able to play through a race or a game every now and again.

I was really obsessed with soccer games too and this was an era where you'd get heaps of rival titles to FIFA/PES and it was good fun getting to try all of those.

That's another nomination for this thread, too: niche sports games and rival major sports games.

It's just FIFA now, even PES is just a free download now. but 20 years ago you had This is Football which had some game modes like jumpers for goalposts and wild shit like the Papua New Guinean league, Club Football was a game where you bought the Arsenal or West Ham (or even Birmingham City) version and all you could do is use that team. as a kid I remember EA Sports' NBA Live, Microsoft had NBA Inside Drive, there was NBA on NBC, NBA Jam. Kelly Slater having a surfing game and there being wakeboarding, three-wheeler games is wild to think of now.

 

[RedmanWasHere]

AFL sides being older than me.

 

[magpie_marty]

Going way back in time I had a Nintendo 64 and had to buy a cheat book from the newsagents to complete levels,Mission Impossible springs to mind.

 

[cats_09]

Going way back in time I had a Nintendo 64 and had to buy a cheat book from the newsagents to complete levels,Mission Impossible springs to mind.

I recently found one of my N64 cheatbooks

I’ve also still got my N64 Golden Eye walkthrough - not sure if that was also a newsagency purchase

 

[Andre]

"I like Fidonet. It keeps the fwits off Usenet."

Ah, Usenet. That's bringing back memories. I also remember using Mosaic back in my Uni days when WWW was the new kid on the internet block.