On-line music. I have maintained an MP3 site since 1996, when it was an MP2 site (MP2 was an older standard). The site has records I remastered myself from my collection of 78s.
SimCity. I had the first one, back when it was still pretty marginal, and have owned every version since. (I also had SimEarth and SimLife.)
I was into rap a couple years before Biggie and Tupac were shot. (Rap has been cool since before then, but all my friends only started listening to it after that happened)
and;
Adult Swim
Anime (I used to have to wake up around 6:30 AM to watch DBZ)
I’ll think of a couple more soon.
Hippie fashion before the latest revival that now has the damn stuff selling all over the pre-teen section of Wal*Mart.
Yep, I loved buying me the real goods off of eBay and people "ooh"ing and "aww"ing and asking where I bought it.
Those were the days!
Now one has to compete with Mary Kate and Ashley low-rent knock-offs. Hmmph.
OH! Did you have the dark red pieces lists of codes? The nigh illegible ones?
IMO, SimCity hasn’t been cool since that version. While cleaning out my computer a few months ago, I found the original SimCity in my C drive. I don’t remember where I found it, I don’t remember downloading it, it was like finding a fabulous treasure in my computer. Ah, SimCity. Where no matter what you do, your citizens will complain about the traffic and taxes until you’re broke.
I love that game. And I’m sooo not a gamer.
This should read: “Did you have the dark red pieces of paper listing codes?” There. Now it makes sense.
I just want to chime in as another huugge SimCity fan. Hell, I have the original Commodore version. Oh, and I was actually good at SimCity. I played it for hours; even bought strategy guides. To this day I still maintain the original version is the most fun to play.
Its too bad V4 is so rediculously bloated and slow.
Office Space. I saw it in theaters in 1999, where it made only 6 million dollars, and loved it and bought the DVD when it came out.
ditto, was wearing mom’s old hippie clothes before anything even came on the scene. as pissed that i was that people were labeling me a posseur, i admit i was happy because bell-bottoms were readily available in stores, which made shopping for jeans easier (as theyre the only kind i wear)
It’s cool. Went to my first race in 1964 at Riverside and was hooked. Getting info on NASCAR races was almost impossible here in the Northwest. Then I found a copy of Stock Car Racing magazine. Bought my first subscription in 1968 and have been a subscriber most years since. Going to the race at California next Labor Day.
I got my first tattoo when I was 18 in 1989, when I didn’t know ANYONE who had one. A friend and I were sitting around with nothing to do for a couple of days, and one of us (I forget who) suggested “Let’s drive to New Orleans! And get tattoos!” It was a major, major rebellion when I got it.
Unfortunately, within about three years everybody I knew had one, and instead of being cool and rebellious, mine just looked small and crappy.
I was into Nirvana when they were nobodies on Sub Pop, and thought “Bleach” was the coolest album ever. I was absolutely shocked when “Nevermind” went number one.
I knew the Reverend Horton Heat back in the late eighties in college, and watched him play clubs with ten or so people sitting on the floor, on the stage out back of my fraternity house (so did Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians, now that I think of it), that sort of thing. His getting big was no surprise. He gigs like a maniac and works his ass off.
Cooking (I was getting into it when I was 6) now you can’t move for TV cookery shows, which is fine by me.
Aphex Twin and most Warp records electronica, I got into Aphex back in 1990 also all his other incarnations ‘AFX’ ‘Caustic Window’ and ‘Polygon Window’ now his music crops up everywhere - even on a Gary rhodes cookery program! (see where my interests collide? nice eh?)
Not sure if this counts, but I was saying “D-oh” ala Homer Simpson 30 years ago - once the show got popular I just had to give it up. On a much more obscure note, CITY TV used to broadcast “Lone Wolf & Cub”, “The Water Margins” and Hong Kong Kung Fu action flicks back in the early 80’s, and I’ve been a huge fan of the genre ever since.
I don’t remember what was cool when I was 10, but if Quiksilver Clothing wasn’t, then I’ll say that. I remember wearing that stuff on cold winter days, especially the long-sleeve t-shrits, they fit great under a sweater.
And I also had the original SimCity with that block coding thing, probably still have the sheets lying around in a filing cabinet, but the game is long gone.
Bah, anyone who didn’t get their Dragon Ball Z in Japanese from a third-generation dub is too new-school for me! 
And I’m another who was into Iron Chef around '95 or so, due to KTSF.