Vidya
(media.scored.co)
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I see DEI was already creeping in in '91
Inserted token representation has been a thing for a looong time.
I remember that in the 90s every elementary school textbook had to have a wheelchair kid in the illustrations. He was always somewhere.
Burger King Kids Club: Wheelz
The entire reason that DEI/ESG/whatever has had to undergo several rebrands is that 'tokenism' - which it is - is a well known negative term, a poisoned brand from the 80s and 90s. If Trey Parker and Matt Stone hadn't preserved it in the zeitgeist with 'Token Black', progressives would have an easier time trying to make people forget that tokenism is a disgraced practice, which they're constantly struggling to do.
They actually retconned that and his name is actually Tolkien Black and you were just a racist for thinking it was token. There is an episode about how Stan is an evil racist for thinking his name was Token.
Wow, crazy, I've missed so much SP. But there you go, it's a further effort to erase the failure of tokenism. Not that Stone and Parker are progressive allies, but they're uncomfortable being anyone's serious enemy.
It was literally a running gag in the 90s that you needed a specific amount of diversity to be a TV show on basic cable television. The Power Rangers are a great example. There is always a black one, and another minority of some kind in every 5 man group guaranteed.
The only difference was that at the time it was being promoted and pushed as a "we can all get along" message instead of a malicious "we must hate each other forever" one. It was still retarded, but its why people didn't really react as negatively to it at the time because it felt like it was trying to improve things (even if the Elites were using it subversively).
And the funny thing is that the actors were underpaid and treated like shit, which is why the cast kept changing all the time. They were literally used as diversity/feminist puppets.
Considering it was initially a wierd experimental show that only required like half the effort of a normal action show (since the fight sequences were provided by Japan), I don't exactly blame the production for treating them as cheap and disposable.
Double so for every cast after the initial batch, who at least was able to ride the huge popularity wave to some extent. By the time of like "In Space" it was basically a dumping ground for Z list fodder they had hanging around the studio.
Some went on to more minor things, or went to jail for murder 🔪
I'm probably the only person that remembers The Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nóg, but I thought it was weird the Water Knight was the only black man in what looked like Medieval Ireland even back as a kid.
"Air above me!"
"Water around me!"
"Earth beneath me!"
"Fire within me!"
It was catchy.
Its alright, I'm one of the few people who remembers Big Bad Beetleborgs, let alone actual plot points.
Such as them recasting one of the girl actresses, so they created an entire episode about her getting like body morphed. So Ghost Jay Leno casts a spell that makes her look exactly the same to everyone except those who witnessed the ritual, aka the viewers that they proceed to wink at.
It was a lawless time.
Don't forget VR Troopers! BBB at least changed things slightly since it was all kids who were "aged up" whenever they changed, although Power Rangers did that in Turbo with the kid eventually.
Somehow despite knowing BBB and Power Rangers extensively, I never saw or heard of VR Troopers until adulthood when Jontron brought it up.
Lawl big bad beetleborgs and VR Troopers.
Where had I heard that...
Oh, yeah. It was the Rubberbandits song Horse Outside.
"Giddy up now baby, bless my soul
I rode the fucker round a field back since he was a foal
He runs a bit like Shergar, and he jumps like Tír na nÓg
He looks like Billie Piper after half an ounce of coke
And the boys are lookin' jealous, as I lead yer one away
And just before I close the door I look at her and say
Would you be my girl, and she says I will of course
If ya grab me by the ponytail and ride me like a horse Ya!"
Yet, as far as jumping horses Tir Na Nog looked pretty average.
Black guy was always the black ranger...
Memes aside, that was only true literally once with the original (that also made the Yellow Ranger Asian). The second Black Ranger in the original series was an Asian dude, and the next one (like 4 generations later when they used Black again) was Mexican.
They always had a black person on the team, but they caught on after the original lineup to not repeat that.
ah, I never saw 4th+ gen
The last one I saw was Lost Galaxy, which I think was 5? And by saw I mean my younger brother watched the origin movie for Space and that one on VHS a lot. But I remember one of those had a black ranger for the first time in forever.
Honestly after the movie for Turbo, which is way better than it has any right to be, the entire series became "well its on" slop for children.
Tommy, the OG green/white, was the black ranger in Dino Thunder.
With the re-used Starship Troopers gear!
We weren't racists yet.
Pro tip: Find a low budget 90s show that you didn't see in your childhood and you will most likely absolutely cringe as there won't be any nostalgia-goggles effect.
Kid in the back still had an EGA monitor at home, jumping straight to super VGA was just too much for him.
I remember seeing Warcraft II for the first time in its high 640x480 resolution...I almost had trouble making the screen out because everything up to then had been 320x200 or a whopping 320x240
Even zoomed in, the screen is only like a dozen pixels, but I'm pretty sure that's solitaire.
Good catch.
Those kids are doing Solitaire wrong.
Came here to say this too. Would make sense, as it being a 'software catalog' means that it was probably not published from a games company, but instead from a home office computer company. Which probably meant windows, which probably means 'default games on your windows machine' which means solitaire.
edited for clarity cus coffee not quite in yet.
Terrible posture. To get the correct angle of approach on those older keyboards you had sit up in your chair. Sitting up straight at m&kb in the 90s was a game changer.