God we were assholes back then. Everything was so fucking mean and xtreme.

the advertising was garbage but it was the time that the electronics industry decided that the coolest possible move was to make everything in colorful translucent plastic, which was objectively cooler than the cold heartless metal that everything is made of now. It’s inoffensive and appeals to everyone I guess but it also sucks in comparison if you liked your extreme green gameboy pocket

In the 90s, ‘Political Correctness’ was sweeping through the western world, and was big news in the public consciousness. And that brought along some strong sentiments.

At that time, ‘Political Correctness’ was seen by many as nothing more than “a list of things you shouldn’t say in polite company” - that is to say, purely performative rather than something that would actually change behaviours or meaningfully improve anyone’s lives in the way we see inclusive behaviours to be now. It was nothing more than lip gloss for public speakers and TV presenters, and people thought it pointless, and stifling of free expression.

In other words, Political Correctness felt to many like a top-down push to enforce change, spearheaded by people it didn’t actually affect. Very unlike modern inclusion where change originates from within communities who are themselves affected.

It created an environment where being offensive and “non-PC” was therefore a counter-culture challenge to authority, and especially among young people there was nothing cooler than challenging authority.

Given the young demographic of gaming magazines this created the ideal conditions for these wild ads. A lot of them were extremely ableist and mysogynistic, but a lot were also extreme simply by featuring violence and sex and drug use. Being extreme in any way was the whole point, because the purpose was to say “You want me to be ‘PC’? Well fuck you,” and throw up the middle finger.

Of course, there’s a tremendous amount of irony in advertisers jumping on this sentiment of anti-conformity to sell products… but that’s another point entirely.

It was a wierd time.