Surfing in the 90s

In the 90s – that rogue era of lawlessness, Pokémon, and plaid shirts – I imagine many members of my generation first experienced internet in their schools. After all, the internet world of the era was confusing, slow, and dominated by America Online, which was often quite restrictive at the time (hell, my mom still finds it hard to believe that you can access the internet outside of its window!)

However, my first brush with the internet was not actually in my school per se. My mother was a teacher, and at her school they had internet before my elementary school did. I would go with her there during her workdays in the summer, usually to lounge around and play video games or browse the internet on the Power Mac in her classroom. The Power Mac looked exactly like this:

(it even had the same Zip drive!)

It featured a 90mhz PowerPC processor (way before the days of Intel Macs), ran Mac OS 8, and was connected to the internet via a Davidson County Schools backbone connection, using what I assume was the AppleTalk protocol so popular at the time. Of course back then I had never even used a dialup connection, so I just logically thought it was through a phone line even though there was never any actual dialing or dialtone present. Nevertheless, it was just about as slow thanks to the Ethernet speeds of the time and the fledgling DCS network. This computer was a central part of my childhood; in subsequent years before she got an iMac, mom would bring it home for the summer and I played Riven and StarCraft on it, and even wrote my first stories on the machine!

My interests at the time consisted almost entirely of video games and Pokémon. Therefore, when I first discovered the internet, I assumed it would be home to an abundance of information about those games I loved. If the player’s guide could tell me so many secrets, just imagine what other people on the internet could!

I’m not sure why, but one experience that sticks out particularly for me revolves around my favorite game as a late elementary schooler: Final Fantasy VII. In this melodramatic Japanese role-playing game, you ventured around the world with your companions to save humanity from the machinations and mistakes of an evil corporation that eventually led to the angering of someone – or something – far beyond their control.

I had gotten very far in the game, and at this point was able to take on various side quests that branched off from the main game. In these side quests I could fight very powerful monsters or tackle challenging puzzles, with rewards like powerful weapons for my characters, cool magic, or interesting pieces added to the game’s story. I had done a lot of them, so I decided to look on the internet for more.

I remember I used excite! search to look for “Final Fantasy 7 secrets.” I stumbled upon a site that was probably on GeoCities, Homestead, or the like, filled with all these “rumors” about the game and secret stuff. I was too young to think about where these rumors could actually come from, and instead just believed them. They told me I could fight the mysterious “Onyx WEAPON” if I ventured to a cave under the sea in a particular cave for two minutes.

I did. Nothing happened.

I thought maybe it was just me. Maybe the submarine was placed a few pixels too far over. Perhaps I needed to line it up with the wall. I tried over and over and over again, to no avail. I tried different caves, thinking maybe I had just goofed. Many afternoons were blown drinking Dr. Pepper and eating crackers from the teacher’s lounge, desperately trying to crack the code on this mysterious rumor.

However, eventually, my 8 year-old heart was crushed when I realized that the site was probably lying. And then I finally understood my mother when she told me to not trust strangers.

GeoCities sites still fill me with rage to this very day.