SvennoJ said:
Jaicee said:
Wow, that really does sound different from what I experienced growing up! Kinda cool too. Copy parties?  I remember video games in general feeling a lot more expensive than now. People today gripe about games costing $70 in U.S. money. $55 to $80 was a standard price range for Super NES games in the mid-90s; the difference being that that was nearly 30 years of inflation ago. In today's American money, that would be equivalent to like $120 to $150 per game. And that's before the infamous Texas sales tax. I suppose many in today's generation don't remember that because their parents were buying their games back then if they were even alive yet. |
I had to pay for my own internet and phone bill as well. I played Everquest from 1999 on, first on dial up. So that was $9.89 a month originally for the EQ subscription (989 studios publisher), paying for ISP access (35 guilders a month), plus paying local phone costs which Everquest drove up to avg 200 guilders a month. Then you had to buy the expansions separately as well. So about $1,400 a year to play Everquest before expansions. $2,380 in today's money.
Plus I was playing on a 9,000 guilder PC at the time. About $4,000 back then, now $6,800.
But it was all possible because I got a good job while still living in cheap accommodations right out of university. My living costs were 10% of my gross income. My rent was 300 guilders a month ($136 at the time) including utilities. I didn't have much though, but enough to play games in!
Btw I always find it funny Americans complaining about sales tax. It was 19% for us in 1999, nowadays it's 21% in Europe! I live in Ontario now where it's 13%. But I also remember getting 6.5% interest on my standard bank account back then...
There are still some people keeping the tradition going
Most screens had this running
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Fun to read. 
You are older than me so you remember this all much better than I, and the Amiga was before my time altogether, but even I still have some vague memories of how it was a little like this from when I was a child a little later.
Also, 300 Guilders rent including utilities.. I know you've been away for a while now but let me tell you, today you couldn't even rent a closet without utilities for that kind of money! 
