4 items
"FORWARD THIS TO 10 PEOPLE OR..." — the chain letter reborn at internet speed in 90s inboxes. Bad-luck threats, sick-kid legends, glurge poems, free-money hoaxes and virus panics, all forwarded with a wall of ">>>" quote marks and a hundred strangers' email addresses.
A 3D-rendered infant doing the cha-cha — arguably the first viral video-meme of the internet age. Born as a software demo in 1996 and spread through email chains like a digital chain letter, the "Ooga-Chaka baby" went fully mainstream when it started haunting Ally McBeal.
Before your phone knew where you were, you printed directions from MapQuest and prayed you didn't miss step 14. The pre-GPS road-trip ritual, in a stack of warm printer paper.
An online multiplayer paintball game — teams, squads, and ranked stats — played over dial-up through America Online's games area in the late 1990s, back when premium online games billed by the hour and the meter was always ticking.