Back To The Future

TokTik

If Back To The Future was made now, Marty would be going back to 1994.

What massive changes would he see?? Fair enough the internet and mobile phones, but what else that we don’t think about??

Quantum Erasure

Hoverboards

Peregrinus

Well, everything that depends on the internet and/or mobile phones — e-mail; GPS navigation; Uber Eats; (indeed, Uber;) consumer banking transactions that don't take three days to clear; TV streaming - no Netflix; audio streaming — no Spotify, no podcasts; etc, etc. Youj watch television programmes at the time they're broadcast, or you wait for the repeat.

DVD players don't exist, but you do have VHS tapes. Video rental stores are a big thing. Newspapers are big — and very profitable; almost all adults read a newspaper every day. Newspaper ads are how you sell almost everything from your unwanted furniture to your house.

If Marty's in Europe, he'll find it much less integrated than today. The Maastricht Treaty has only just entered into force. The era of cheap flights is just starting but, if Marty's a student, he's getting around Europe by rail and ferry. There are a lot more long-distance trains than today. Of course, there's no euro; Marty has to change his money every time he crosses a border. Exchange rates aren't fixed. Travelling Marty probably carries traveller's cheques.

If Marty's in Ireland, it's a much less confident country, both politically and economically. It's the very early days of the Celtic Tiger but, of course, nobody knows that; Ireland's image, and self-image, is of a relatively poor country with high unemployment, high inflaction, relatively high poverty and low growth; this has been the norm throughout the '80s, so it's a well-entrenched perception. Emigration is, unsurprisingly, high. On the other hand, because of high birthrates and low emigration in the 1970s the country has a very youthful population. Cultural life - music, the theatre - is vibrant.

Nobody walks along the street or hangs about in public spaces drinking coffee (or anything else) out of disposable cups. If you buy a coffee you sit down, indoors, to drink it before you leave. The disposable takeaway coffee cup won't really take off for a number of years yet.

Oh, and a pint of Guiness costs about £2, the equivalent of €2.54. We can't express this in relation to the minimum wage because there was no minimum wage in 1994, but this would be a bit more expensive than 3 litres of milk.

BrianD3

At about this time in 1994 in Ireland, the excitement about the World Cup was starting to ramp up. I have a recording from 2fm from a few hours before the Italy match and the DJ described it as "the best thing that's ever happened in the country" and "50 times better than Italia 90".

If we had a decent team now would there be the same interest or are we too "sophisticated" with too many other sources of entertainment now.

Pauliedragon

Imagine trying to explain to someone in 1994 what social media is and the effect it's going to have on society. I doubt it could be exlained accurately no matter how hard you tried.

ruth...less

If it was Ireland in 1994, Marty's parents would probably share that kiss off their head on E at a rave 😁

Sultan of Bling

Barmen on strike

Motivator

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122205369#Comment_122205369

Irish football will always capture the imagination of the public, no matter what era we’re in. If we were at the Euros in 2 weeks time there would be 40,000 heading for Germany.

I travelled to Poland, this very day in fact, in 2012 and it was a magic trip. From songs to the fans, the football team always has the biggest bandwagon when they’re going well and I suppose it all leads back to Italia ‘90. However many tournaments we qualify for in the next 25 or 30 years it will always lead back to 1990.

If you travelled back to 1994 now and were told the national team would be on its knees now for the last however many years I would think you’d be quite surprised. 1988 and 1990 set the bar in terms of expectation for the national team going forward. Failure to qualify for 1992 was seen as just a blip in terms of progression and the expectation was that at the very minimum, we’d be represented at every major tournament.

It’s funny, when you look at the fortunes of the rugby team compared to the football team the last 8 or 10 years you’d expect rugby to be number 1 with Joe Public but rugby will never capture the imagination or drag people in like the football team can.

Quantum Erasure

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122214478#Comment_122214478

when you look at the fortunes of the rugby team compared to the football team the last 8 or 10 years you’d expect rugby to be number 1 with Joe Public

when you look at expectations versus results… I don't think anyone was 'expecting' us to qualify for tournaments in the soccer, definitively hoping… but probably not expecting.

Whereas we've definitely underperformed in the rugby

Quantum Erasure

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122205597#Comment_122205597

I was just a bit too young for that, listening to tunes on tape in my bedroom at the time

TheValeyard

Ahh the Eurovision high point for us.

Strumms

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122205369#Comment_122205369

Similar interest I think. But a lot less expectation.

Back then we actually had seriously good players though. A high percentage of that 22 were players who were with Premier League or other top division clubs and getting regular or close to regular first team football……..

Players playing for United, Liverpool, Leeds, Villa ( a seriously good team then ), Chelsea, Blackburn, Arsenal……

i think there would be now a great buy in of excitement from the public…with a similar level of talent..it’s been a tough old 5/6 years here, it would be welcome.

One thing lacking though I suppose with the younger lads now is personality. Everything is so carefully managed for them. Every pre/post match interview is the same….all media trained to say as many words as possible without saying anything vaguely relevant, interesting, insightful or to the point at all. Current lot don’t really capture the imagination in my view in the same way…

iamstop

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122204728#Comment_122204728

I'm pretty sure we had internet in the gaff by 1994. My bro used to work for AOL so we had an account. It was dial up. The auld modem call sound. No one else could use the phone when you were online. We used to go on IRCC chat rooms. ASL? etc.

Obviously it was very limited compared to now. I'm not sure search engines existed yet but Netscape navigator used to be the browser at the time. Geocities came by late 94.

iamstop

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122204728#Comment_122204728

To add to this:

No bluetooth. Everything was wired. Headphones obviously but you might have a set of small speakers that were wired between them and then to the jack.

Something like these:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/145800142178

And you didn't have any mp3 players back then. As you said, no phone. You'd need a Walkman to be able to travel with music. I used to bring extra batteries and at least 4 x 90min tapes on my trips to town.

In '94 you couldn't DJ with CDs as CDJs were not invented yet. The only way to DJ was vinyl. No streaming when you went to your friends house. Someone had to own a physical copy. No minidiscs in 94 either, at least not in Ireland AFAIK. I think it was around 96/97 when they started to catch on, just before the iPod came out and pretty much obsoleted them for most people.

We did have bus passes back then. I think when they first came out it was $5 for 10 student fares. Or maybe less? I vaguely remember the fares working out to 35p when I was in 1st year getting the bus but tbh I could be wrong.

https://colnect.com/en/transportation_tickets/transportation_ticket/3439-Student_Weekly-Student_Travelcard-Dublin_Bus-Ireland

This one is from 2000. I remember them being yellow around '94.

gipi

I used a weekly bus pass in 1978......(now I feel old!)

BorneTobyWilde

Unreal that there isn't a remake of a film, with ENDLESS possibilities.

1000's of possible story lines, from a very Dark , B.T.T.F , to a family B.T.T.F , from moments in time, as Dino age, to 100's of years into the future.

cj maxx

after the 2012 euros I’m not so sure

AMKC

Martys dad would drive a Ford F-150 and then Marty would take it out and when challenged by the others in a VW Amorok he would back out and a Bentley Bentaga would emerge from the crossroads and he would say "I could have crashed onto that Bentley and been killed"

iamstop

He could go to 2015 and buy a few thousand bitcoin…

Mrs OBumble

Pre 1997ish, only geeks had personal email accounts.

If he went to an office, the fax machine would be busy -and a great place to find out the gossip about your colleagues.