Newbury Street in the ’90s Was a Trip

Take it from someone who was there: Newbury Street in the '90s was a completely different vibe than it is today.

I attended Wakefield High School from 1991 to 1995. Every February, the Wakefield High School Jazz Band, under the direction of the esteemed educator Kim Smith, would participate in the Berklee Jazz Festival, which was held at the Hynes Convention Center. Between sets, most of us hoof over to Newbury Street to saunter around after a slice and a coke at Little Steve's on Boylston St.

I continued my sojourns to Newbury Street as a student at Berklee in the summer of '94 and as an undergrad an Northeastern University from '95 through '99. Back in those days, the boutiques played second fiddle to the music and popular culture hubs that were clustered together starting at the corner of Newbury and Mass Ave. I miss those days, and they all came flooding back recently.

I came across a clip shared by the GBH Archives called "A walk along Newbury Street, circa 1997." Before I even pressed play, I imagined my own strolls back in those days. I'd start at the multi-level Tower Records on the corner of Mass. Ave. and Newbury. If I was craving something sweet, I'd grab an ice cream right next door at J.P. Licks. No Starbucks, though. I'm all set.

Then it was off to '90s Gen X Mecca: Newbury Comics. This was the '90s, so the bulk of the store was crammed with CDs, tapes, and records. I'd regularly raid the discount 7" bin for songs to play on my radio show at WRBB. Condom World was a few doors down, but I'd skip that and head directly to CD Spins to trade in CDs I didn't want for ones that I did. Oh, I almost forgot Trident Booksellers. And that was just one block!

At least that's how I remember it. Let's take a look at that GBH clip and see how accurate my memory is.

I've been thinking a lot about retro video game systems as of late. I want you to think about them, too, and tell me your favorite.

This all started because part of my stupid job requires me to look at stupid Facebook. It's a hellsite and a time suck, but once in awhile it does yield something useful. Case in point: one of my Facebook friends shared a post from a Facebook Group called Righteous Memes for Generation X. It's a graphic breaking down popular video game systems and platforms by generation and it looks like this:

Pretty accurate, right? I mean, I'm Gen X. My first at-home, console gaming experiences were with Atari and Intellivision when I was in grade school. By the time I was in Junior High, we had the SEGA Master System in the house. And when I was in High School, I bought my friend Andy's used NES from him because he wanted to upgrade to Neo Geo. So yeah, this graphic speaks to me.

So let's use it as a jumping-off point. I've hand-selected a handful of the gaming systems in the Gen X and Gen Y columns above for this week's 12-Inch Poll. And you know what? We'll throw a couple from the Gen Z column in, too. The focus here is on "retro." It's all about the consoles that are now obsolete that we wish weren't. It's all about those early gaming experiences.

Scroll through my list and take your pick. I stuck to the biggest, most popular gaming systems for obvious reasons. But if you have a more obscure platform that you want to show some love to, just hit up ROCK 92.9 on stupid Facebook and post up in the comments.

The OG. Omnipresent in middle-to-upper-class suburban homes in the early '80s.

Atari's main competitor. My Uncle Michael was the only person I knew who ever had one, and he owned every game!

The Nintendo Entertainment System. The 8-bit system that owned the mid-to-late '80s.

SEGA launched their Master System in North America in 1986 to compete with the Nintendo Entertainment System.

Nintendo went hand-held in 1989 with the debut of its 8-bit Game Boy. A true game changer.

Not to be out done by their main competitor, SEGA debuted their 16-bit offering in 1989.

Nintendo blasted into the '90s with the Super NES and its mind-blowing (at the time) 16 bits of gaming fun.

Sony's debut home gaming console. It hit American shores in 1995.

Five years later, Sony followed up with what would become the best-selling home gaming console of all time.

The original Xbox console launched in the U.S. in November of 2001. Like the PlayStation, it's gone on to spawn an entire line.

Launched in 2006, Nintendo game straight at Microsoft's Xboxes and Sony's PlayStations with this one.