MEMORIES

 5 THINGS EVERY 90S KID REMEMBERS

90s kids were great, they had real friends instead of online friends. They had many layers in the brain to store wonderful memories, they lived their life happily and learned everything independently with curiosity. People put another one on silent mode "shh... I'm on my phone" they say. Playing outside has been replaced by sitting inside texting, playing video games and surfing the internet rather than releasing toxins and sweats. 

1. Rotan fixes literally everything.

            It was very rare for 90s kids to have sporting or a friendly parent, if they exist beating up with rotan is their favourite way to express anger. Basically not only rotan, hanger, belt, whatever their eye sees everything is a weapon. If mom takes rotan to hit the eldest, the others will be quiet and do everything correctly. So, rotan fixes everything the right way as per strict parent's law.

2. Even stand fan excites us. 

            Screaming in front of a stand fan, was the best thing to do. It literally feels like heaven. Even we don't know why we are doing this. Why are you shouting in front of stand fans? To release stress? usually we'll do it to have a robotic voice and cool air going in our mouth. 

3. Waiting for dad to come home to play games on his Nokia. 

                Snake, bounce, pitfall jungle and space impacts, these games were ruling our childhoods and turn addictive too. Waiting for dad to come home to play snake games, to developed the skill of quick thinking before the snake bites its own body. Life back then was great. 

4. If you eat the seed, a tree will grow in your stomach.

picture credit: Ahseeit

                This was the biggest scam of our childhood. If you accidentally swallow seed while eating fruit, you'll harvest fruits from the belly they say. Imagine making money with the fruits every time you burp. Basically, it's a lie as a seed has zero possibilities to germinate and grow in the stomach as it produces gastric juices and other immune defences. 
                While there have been cases of plants growing in the lungs reported, it's possible but rare. The statement should be "don't swallow seeds, it will grow in your lungs". Forget about the stomach, it much too harsh an environment for any seed to survive there.

5.  Letters and personalized cards!

            Nothing can beat the emotion and romance a personalized letter or card gets. It can't beat a thousand flowers or any other expensive gift. It was purely true love. We used to deliver a card for festivals and love letters to our crushes in schools. The technology advancement made it go extinct. The dead feel should be back.

GAMES

10 Best Nostalgic Games Malaysian Kids Played In The 90s 

Kids nowadays all on the phone playing candy crush, PUBG, ML and all those games which numbs them physically and mentally. Kids nowadays are more advanced, many say but they would never understand how excited and fun 90s kids and their childhood was. We learned ways to overcome hurdles without google's assistance and inputted our critical skills while dealing with strict parent without going Kumon. All those skills mostly resulted from the games we played daily that boosts the mind's health.

1. Nama Benda Tempat Haiwan

  

            This iconic game is also known as a knowledge buster as we tend to learn new words from others. The games we played in the 90s era is mostly game which consumes no technologies that will develop our physical and mental health to become healthy and fit. 
            In this game, we usually list down words from categories such as Name (Nama), Things (Benda), Places (Tempat), and Animals (Haiwan). 
            This can be played with more than two-person. A person has to say an Alphabet, so if it's Letter 'A' we need to list down categories from Letter 'A'.
     There are also scores for the participants. 100 points if you managed to get all words and if your words are the same as the other participant, 50 points will be deducted. 

2. Board games

    

            Playing board games on a rainy day with family members while sipping hot coffee or eating Maggi hits just different. This entertainment during gatherings or parties hasn't lost its fun factor. Boards game like monopoly, snake & ladder, checkers, and more.
            Every 90s kid back those days owned at least a board game and bring it to school once final exams are over. Here, Scrabble joins the post-exam season party. Scrabble is a word game in which two to four players score points by placing tiles, each bearing a single letter, onto a game board. it also helps to build our vocabulary and creativity level.   
            Next, Snake & Ladder a straightforward game involving just dice and more than two players can play during each round. It’s also interesting because no matter how close one is to win, they might encounter a snake that’ll send them back to the start of the game. 
            Whereby the monopoly board game can be played by more than two-person. Players are needed to roll their dice to move around the board. The board consists of assets, buildings and places which involves buying and trading. In the end, the player with more assets and money wins.

3. Card games

 

            Being a kid of the '90s, we were flooded with a lot of fantastic indoor games as well as outdoor games. We have always allocated time to play and study ( basically continue playing without mom's knowledge). Our era was so beautiful with family bonding. The maths teacher's favourite topic "Probability" mostly focus on these 52, it one other than card games. Uno, Old maid, Donkey, Happy family and our favourite card games also enhance our "Matchy-Matchy", pairing up and recognizing numbers skills as well as improving our patience and memory power. 

• Happy Family 

    The game rule to play "Happy Family" is as simple as ABC. This game has 8 families and each family has 4 cards. We can easily recognize the cards of a family with the same feature and letter, the same colour and the same character. As soon as a player collects a book of cards of the same family, he must say "Happy Family". The cards must be shown and then placed face down. The game continues until either someone has no cards left in hands or the stock runs out. The winner is the player who then has the most families.

• Donkey

    Donkey is a collecting card game played by more than two people and is best for five or six players. The player who has received the card needs to check if they can make a set of two same cards. If the set is formed, they can place the set in the middle. If not, he can pass the card to the next player. The person in the end who is left with one card is the "Donkey". As they receive a card from the player on their right they look at it quickly and decide whether to keep it or pass it along. Play continues until a player has 4 cards of the same rank.

• Old Maid

    Old Maid cards are colourful and attractive but their rule to play is just the same. To play this, the players need to deal with all the cards face down. Players then sort their cards keeping them hidden from all other players. The dealer then offers their hand, spread out face down, to the player on the left, who draws one card from it. If there are pairs of matching cards, with the same number or picture they should put them down face up. If the player has a card that cannot be paired, they are the "Old Maid".

• UNO

    We have been playing UNO card the wrong way since childhood, it has been a lie! Heres the correct rule, you need to score points while playing this. A set of seven cards are dealt with each player, and the top card of the remaining deck is flipped over and set aside to begin the discard pile. The player to the dealer's left plays first unless the first card on the discard pile is an action card ( just see below ). A player who draws from the deck must either play or keep that card and may play no other card from their hand on that turn, A player may play an action draw Four cards only if that player has no cards matching the current colour. The player may have cards of a different colour matching the current number or symbol or action card and still play the action draw Four cards.

    A player who plays an action draw Four may be challenged by the next player in sequence (to see Penalties) to prove that their hand meets this condition. If the entire deck is used, the top discard is set aside and the rest of the pile is shuffled to create a new deck. A player who plays their last card must call "UNO" as a warning to the other players. The score rules go as the first player to get rid of their last card, wins the round and scores points for the cards held by the other players. Number cards count their face value, all action cards count 20, and action and action draw Four cards count 50. If a Draw Two or action draw Four cards is played to go out, the next player in the sequence must draw the appropriate number of cards before the score is tallied. The first player to score 500 points wins the game.

4. Lat Tali 

Picture credit: The stars

" Lat Tali Lat Tam... Plom "

         You need to split the team? wanna know who is right? confused? When in confusion, just go "Lat tali". You're definitely not a true 90s kid if you have never played this. According to google translate, there is a meaning for each word in other languages, they're so weird. 
    
    LAT in Polish means "YEARS"
    TALI in Italian means "SUCH"
    TAM in Vietnamese means "GREEDY"
    PLOM in Catalan means "LEAD" 

            The rule to play this is very simple, We stand in a circle and wave our palms upwards and downwards while saying "lat tali lat, tali tam plom".  It can be used to single out a person from the group. they keep repeating the game till one person is odd (the only one with their palm facedown or the only one face-up). this person is "out" of the group. continues till 2 persons are left. The final winner or loser is determined depending on the circumstances.  

5. Paper soccer 

            The soccer every boy have played when PJK was cancelled in school. They insert all their creativity here, from folding papers to writing down the players names without spelling mistakes. Basically, this shows how creative 90s kids were. Paper Soccer is a game played on a table like real soccer. It requires a football and made out of paper with a folded sheet into a small triangle of two opponents sitting across from each other at a table 

            The rules of the game are very simple. Basically, the object of the game is to score touchdowns. To get a touchdown, you must flick the ball with your finger to go in the goalpost. Scoring occurs with a touchdown being six points and a field goal one point. 

Pushing the ball excessively, double flicking, kicking the ball so that it lands far away from the table, or disturbing the ball during an opponent's play may all result in penalties.

6. Ceper

            90s kids were hard workers in collecting gems such as Bottle caps. They were rare and treated as golds in mines. The rule of this game is simple. You need five or seven bottle caps with two or more players. Just simply place the bottle cap on edge while holding with one finger. Using your other hand, flick the edge of the bottle cap to set it spinning.
             You could have a contest to see whose bottle cap spins the longest or how many consecutive times the cap spins more than 2 seconds. The player who tosses the cap and gets a big number of caps get the advantage to start the game. Overlapping the bottle cap makes you disqualify If the game can continue with taking one of the bottle caps which is scattered. 

7. Fortune Teller

 

                90s kids were always curious about getting married and settle in life since small. They had the flowchart of life as "Study hard-graduate-rich-marry-kids-die", in order to have an overview to achieve heights we have fortune teller and a friend who folds it professionally to fix the problem.  To fold this origami, all you need is A4 paper, a ruler or scissors to trim off and follow some simple steps.

STEP 1: Crease a square piece of paper diagonally and trim off the excess pieces.  

STEP 2: Fold the paper on the corner to the half from each side. 

STEP 3: Bring the four corners to the centre of the paper and crease it. 

STEP 4: Flip it over and fold the four corners inwards to the centre.

STEP 6: Put numbers in ascending order on the triangles. 

STEP 7: Write the fortunes underneath the flaps. 

STEP 8: Insert your index fingers under the flaps on the other side of the paper.

STEP 9: Pinch your thumb and index finger together.

STEP 10: Then gently move them out to the side, which will open the centre.

• Know your future 
  
  
  
  
  

            The most interesting game of childhood. This is a way of fortune to know which of those fortunes we are going to experience. Like, which house you're going to stay in someday, what kind of car you'll drive, In what field would be working, who are you going to marry, your financial status and how many kids you'll have.
            This game can be played with paper, a pen, a friend and your palm. Trace your palm on a piece of paper then draw three sections. Jot down the wishes according to the category. To determine the fortune, draw a spiral and ask your friend to say stop whenever he/she wants. Draw a line, across the spiral and count the dots. The number you obtained is to count the sections according to the category. You need to eliminate two wishes for each category. The last word is what fortune tells about the future.

8. Hand clapping games

" SEP SEP SEP
TOM TOM TOM 
MILO AIS, BUTTERFLY
BIRD BIRD, KANGKUNG"

            The rhyme of happiness and teamwork. You can literally play this everywhere, playing during "rehat" time at the canteen hits different. Hand clapping games were everyone's favourite and easy to play. The basic handclapping game involves, sitting across from your partner, rhymes and clap partner's hands together thats it. 

" PEN MERAH
PEN BIRU 
YOU MARAH
I LOVE YOU"

            The loser can be determined in this phrase. If your partner hits your forehead with their hand, they win. The game can be continued with one hand. Basically, this was an apparent way to propose your crush back in school. The risk of accepting rejection is low. Just take it easy. 

9. Love meter

             Every 90s kids would have done this at least once. Having a crush and checking the compatibility with their names and ours excites us. Basically in the "FLAMES" test, which are Friends, Love, Attraction, Marriage, Enemy and Siblings. To play this test, all you need is a piece of paper, a writing instrument and the name of your crush.
                Write down your name and your crush's name. Now, strikeout all the matching letters in both names and note down the remaining letters. Count the remaining letters, then use the number you obtained to count the letters from the word "FLAMES" and refer to it with the meanings for each letter. 

• Love Percentage

                Another way to know the compatibility is with the same way but with a different rule. This time, write down your name and your crush's name. Now, strikeout all the same letter and count them. If your name and partner's name has 6 Letter "A"s write it out. Do it for all the letters, if there's only one letter, write to them too.
                Next, you need to count the numbers till it gets 2 digits. Just like in maths. The last two digits are the percentage of how much you're in love. To know yours, put your name at the top and vice versa. Happy trying, congratulations in advance!

10. Tiang game

Picture credit: New Straights Times

            School's break period wouldn't be complete without this game. You required a bunch of friends and poles that's it. This game doesn't have any complexed rules or time period to complete. The players need to stand at the centre of any of the poles and any of them should say start. Once it has announced, the players need to hold the pole and make sure any of their body parts touch it. The person who misses holding the pole is called "Monkey". 
            The monkey needs to wait for the correct time to get it from current players. The players also need to change their poles to each other in order to confuse the monkey and they need to be careful too as the monkey can hold any pole which is free. The game goes on and on if the monkey is able to hold the pole. This game will be ended if everyone agrees. 

SNACKS

10 BEST MALAYSIAN SNACKS THAT OWNS YOUR 90S KID'S CHILDHOOD

Malaysians who experienced childhood during the 90s would know the sensation of venturing into a corner shop and encountering that flood of wistfulness after spotting natural youth snacks like Choki and White Rabbit. Nonetheless, there are likewise a ton more confections that we grew up with that can presently don't be found in many stores.

We've gathered top-notch youth snacks each 90 Malaysian grew up with that you would've most likely disregarded notwithstanding this an oldie but a goodie:

In the event that you have a sweet tooth, head over to these games to sort your yearnings out:

1. Marukawa Bubble Gum

Hand a portion of these Marukawa Bubble Gumballs out in school and you'll be the famous child for a day, particularly on the off chance that you had all the flavours close by. We likely cherished them however much we did in light of its fruity flavours which weren't normal in air pocket gum, particularly honeydew. They likewise had a fantastic crunchy external layer that kept us popping them in a steady progression.

2. Listerine Sheets

 

Having the taste buds of a child implied that it was a major accomplishment for us to try and save the mint in our mouths for more than a couple of moments because of its minty sting. Because of that, it turned into a test among our companions to see who could be the best record holder.

3.

 

 At the point when you got the natural product enhanced pack, the gum pieces consistently arrived in a blend of standard tones: pink, yellow, orange, white, red, green, and white. The shading combo was famous and got a delegate of the Chiclets brand.

4.

The hard external shell tasted basically of caramelized sugar, so the most awesome aspect was getting to the centre where the genuine threat was – the asam. When we got to the dried plum in the middle, we'd bite off as a large part of the organic product as possible. It was a hard accomplishment because of its dry and unpleasant surface, however, we'd generally feel achieved when we wound up with a perfect seed.

5.

At the point when we expected to spruce up our breaths subsequent to eating our fill of keropok lekor and nugget, we'd connect for the child agreeable variant of breath shower. Hefting one of these around in our pockets additionally caused us to feel like a grown-up.

6.

We generally had a fabulous time with these yoghurt sticks that were eaten a similar route as you would eat a Choki. These, obviously, we're a lot more modest in size and came in tubes produced using firm plastic so it was simpler to hold with your teeth as opposed to having it flop around.

7.

At whatever point we purchased a  bottle of sour fruit powder, it generally accompanied a smaller than expected straw. You were intended to add a little water in the restrain and shake it to disintegrate the powder inside, yet the greater part of us generally gobbled it straight up by sprinkling it onto our tongues.

8.

The face of Lucky Cocoa Ball looked like Humpty Dumpty, the talking egg from our youth nursery rhyme. Matched with retro bundling, it appeared as though it was candy from the 80s, however the greater part of us would recall these chocolate nibs as one of the numerous mainstream youth snacks from the 1990s.

 

9.TORA

Before Kinder Eggs came moving onto the nibble scene, there was the first nibble with-toy-inside that Malaysians were all around very acquainted with, Tora. Be straightforward, did you purchase Tora for the chocolate or the toy? It was viewed as an amazing achievement deserving of gloating to companions at break time in the event that you could persuade your mom to get you one.

10. FIZZY COLA

Pop one of these heart-formed children in your mouth and experience the best effervescing sensation ever. When an enormous hit at birthday celebrations, these treats are basically difficult to get your hands on nowadays.

TECH AND GADGETS

Your Childhood Was Awesome If You Have Discovered These Technologies 
 

1.  Floppy Disk 

Floppy disk for Windows 95

         While many people were flexing with their CDs and USB Thumb drives as their personal memory keys, the Floppy disk we had long before was something special.
         In the mid-70s till the early 2000s, The floppy disk was very successful to be used for transferring files between old computers. They also have write protection which protects your data from accidental deletion. Later, as the demand for storage memory rises with the advent of laptops and computers, Floppy disks no longer support it as it takes time to transfer data. 
        The floppy disk shown in the picture is known as the first versions of Windows 95 were shipped on 21 floppy disks. Microsoft then tried to reduce the number of floppies and later shipped it on 13 DMF disks with 1.68MB storage capacity. If you wanted to install Windows 10 from a diskette, for example, you would need 2,778 disks.  

CARTOONS

1. BEN 10

Ten-year-old Ben Tennyson finds a secretive gadget named the Omnitrix on a family excursion. The gadget permits him to change into 10 different alien loaded with extraordinary superpowers. Those aliens are Heatblast, Wildmutt, Diamondhead, XLR8, Grey Matter, Four Arms, Stinkfly, Ripjaws, Upgrade, and Ghostfreak.

2. LITTLE EINSTEIN

“We're going on a trip in our favorite rocket ship

Zooming through the sky, Little Einsteins

climb aboard, get ready to explore

There's so much to find, Little Einsteins”

I guess these lyrics will definitely remind you of this cartoon. Leo, Annie, Quincy, and June are the Little Einsteins. This preschool arrangement is brimming with experiences that acquaint kids with nature, world societies, and human expressions. Every scene has a mission and excursion of disclosure that consolidates a commended piece of old-style music and a prestigious masterpiece or world culture. The Little Einsteins utilize their energy and abilities to cooperate and address difficulties.

3. TELETUBBIES

Tinky-Winky, Dipsy, Laa, and Po mess about, chuckle, dance and sing as they approach their days in a grand Teletubbyland while a really young looking sun cooperates with them in a great manner.

4. BARNEY & FRIENDS

I love you, you love me, we are a happy family. Barney, America's number one purple dinosaur, and his young companions share undertakings including melodies, moves, and games that make learning fun. Barney and his dino-buddies, Baby Bop, BJ, and the Riff are joined by a cast of kids. The arrangement centers around mindfulness, sharing, and learning.

5. HIGGLYTOWN HEROES

Kip, Wayne, Eubie, and Twinkle are a group of friends who live in Higglytown. They love singing and their best friend, Fran, is a red squirrel. The series focuses on everyday community characters like grocers, librarians, and mail carriers. The kids of Higglytown learn the importance of different jobs and have fun around their neighborhood together.

6. MICKEY MOUSE CLUBHOUSE

This cartoon is something that will bring each of us to be one of them. One of them is a "Secret Mouseketool" addressed by a question mark, in which, when the words "Secret Mouseketool" are said, the question mark changes into the Mouseketool the watcher will utilize. Another is a "Mouseke-Think-About-It Tool" addressed by an outline of Mickey's head with turning gears, in what characters should consider what to use prior to telling the Tool "Mouseke-Think-About-It-Tool, we pick the (object)". When the apparatuses have appeared to Mickey on the Mousekedoer screen, they are immediately downloaded to Toodles, a little, Mickey-head-molded flying expansion of the Mousekedoer. By calling "Goodness, Toodles!" Mickey brings him to spring up from where he is stowing away and fly up to the screen so the watcher can pick which instrument Mickey needs for the current circumstance.

7. WINX CLUB

Blossom is an uncommon Earth young lady with mysterious forces who goes to the Alfea School for Fairies to consummate her abilities. She rapidly gets to know young pixies Stella, Flora, Musa, Layla, and Tecna. Together these six young ladies are the Winx Club. Notwithstanding secondary school, the young ladies work to save the universe from Lord Darkar and witches Icy, Darcy, Stormy, and an assortment of different adversaries. Just with the force of six Enchantix pixies battling together would girls be able to save the universe. My cousins and I used to choose our characters in this cartoon.

8. SCOOBY-DOO

Brainiac Velma, muscle head Fred, fashionista Daphne, radical Shaggy, and Shaggy's high strung, talking Great Dane, Scooby-Doo, move into their green van, the Mystery Machine, and hit the street looking for abnormal wonders to address. Also, in any event, when Scooby and the pack aren't effectively looking for them, secrets simply have a method of falling into their laps. Ruh-roh!

9. POPEYE THE SAILORMAN

He can incidentally be seen smoking his pipe yet normally he honks it like a towing boat and at times utilizes it as a weapon by blowing the smoke in his foes' faces. He is super-humanly solid and can lift colossal articles, while in later transformations he isn't exactly as strong until he acquires a lift in strength by eating spinach.

10. WINNIE THE POOH

Is most of us favorite cartoon. No one can ever forget the name of the characters, Piglet, Eeyore, and Tigger.  I still remember how long I sit in my school library to search for the whole Winnie the Pooh set of books.