And this one time, at band camp...

Call the 1990s what you will, the decade before the new millennium, 10 years of cheesy music or even the bit before the end of the world. However, for many people, including myself, the 90s is fondly remembered for being our childhood, and what a great time the 1990s was to be a kid.

First off, we saw the rise of games consoles with the success of the NES in the 1980s fuelling more consoles to be produced by Nintendo, including the SNES and the N64. This also prompted Sony to bring out a rival, called the Playstation, and so throughout the 1990s home gaming took off. From a personal view, I never had a Nintendo console, but I spent a staggering amount of hours sitting in my Reebok Classics and Joe Bloggs t-shirt playing Spyro The Dragon, trying to defeat Ripto and his merry monsters while painstakingly collecting as many diamonds as my eyes could handle.

1998 was also another breakthrough year in gaming technology, as the release of the Gameboy Colour took the world by storm. It was the latest must-have toy for that Christmas, and with that everyone could realise their dream of being Ash Ketchum. For the rest of the 1990s and into the early 2000s, Pokemon became one of the biggest crazes amongst the gaming world. However, while I think everyone once dreamed Pikachu was actually real, I don’t think anyone would have wished a Magikarp on their worst enemy.

When I first sat down to write this article, naturally memories began to flood into my mind back from when I was growing up. Like when I fell off a cupboard trying to turn on the light consequently breaking my arm, meeting Mickey Mouse at Disneyworld, my sister pushing me into a paddling pool fully clothed or even seeing the glow in the dark Sooty show.

However, when childhood memories are discussed with friends, work colleagues or even people you met the other night, it is always the material things that seem to crop up into conversation. This is probably because more people can relate to an episode of Sabrina the Teenage Witch than to you falling in some stinging nettles while playing tag at school. With channels such as Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network at our disposal, what was a kid to do except watch an unhealthy amount of Dexter’s Laboratory and Kenan & Kel, not forgetting the Rugrats. Personally, I found Mojo Jojo from the Powerpuff Girls the scariest thing since Jaws. After watching the show again recently for a bit of fun, I struggled to comprehend how a monkey with his brain in what can only be described as a jam jar was rational, let alone frightening.

Anybody remember those small discs that you had to hurl at stacks of other discs? Does the word “pogs” ring any bells? Yeah that’s right, that’s the game that used to be so addictive, but now seems so pointless. In fact, when you think about it, there seems a growing trend of pointlessness amongst toys in the 1990s. Tamagotchis are another fine example, and past the furry exterior Furbys were another waste of valuable hours as a child. However silly this seems now, that was one of the best things about growing up, playing with pointless objects and games, and getting such unexpected enjoyment out of it.

I could go on endlessly about the different toys, TV shows and computer games we used to play or watch when we were younger. While our Saturday mornings always seemed pre-conditioned for SMTV:Live, everyone will have a slightly different take on their childhood. By saying that I don’t mean growing up drastically altered if you chose Charmander instead of Squirtle when you started off playing Pokemon.

The 1990s provided children an abundance of different things to keep them occupied. While this may be true of every other decade, in the 90s home entertainment broke through in the form of games consoles, and coupled with other factors I feel the 1990s were one of the most exciting decades to grow up in.

Whatever your take is on your childhood, I can guarantee that you will look back on that terrible show you used to love, or possibly disgusted with yourself for thinking that Mr Blobby would make the best role model. On the flip side, you can always think of yourself as a cool kid for wanting to hang out with the Chuckle Brothers, or even for waving round a toy lightsabre pretending you were Luke Skywalker. Anyway, enough of dwelling on the past, I’ve just remembered that my Furby is moaning at me for not watching the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air with him...