First time I used the internet as a kid was at an internet cafe. Spent hours playing counterstrike here. I remember having to stop at an Internet cafe about every other day to catchup on emails and read the news because we didn't have a PC at home. Anyone else have nostalgic memories of these places?
Not quite, but we used the public library next to our school. We had to sign up days in advance to book half an hour. We played a lot of RuneScape, they weren't gaming computers.
>public library
>RuneScape
That was exactly what me and a few friends did after school as well. The library was at the end of the road that our school was on. Even though I had a computer at home, it was nice to go there with everyone all together.
I remember this small Internet cafe where my mom would leave me while she was at work. I’d surf the internet all day with a grilled cheese sandwich and a bottle of coke. Whenever I’d happen to walk past that joint I’d look through the window and see if my old PC and desk were still there, but a few months back I saw all the computers had been removed and it became a regular boring ass cafe. The new owner even discontinued the grilled cheese.
I was the only guy playing flash games on flash websites while everyone else was playing Warcraft III, Counter-Strike and Vice City.
I've never used an internet cafe but back in the early to mid 00s I would frequently go to the library to use their computer lab.
Despite the lack of privacy and being limited to one hour, it was actually kind of fun because I got to see the local town weirdos and smell their awful BO and breath.
There was this one guy named Will with rotted out teeth, he was always there and then there was this kind of retarded overweight black guy who once tried to trash talk me about Rammstein while boasting about shitty 70s classic rock.
They probably thought I was a weirdo too but whatever.
In 2006 I got a PSP and would go to Barnes and Noble and pay like $5 to use their wifi in the little starbucks they had while I drank coffee, that was a ton of fun.
Yeah public internet is actually kind of nice because it's a communal thing and gets me to take a break from being a hikikomori.
The only downside is there are certain sites and activities I can't do in a public setting.
I remember buying GTA 3 and trying to run it on a computer at one of the public libraries here.
There was something so majestic about PC versions of games back then, even though there wasn't much of a difference to me it felt like a completely different game.
>Yeah public internet is actually kind of nice because it's a communal thing and gets me to take a break from being a hikikomori.
What spooks me about modern technology is how atomized it is. People used to sit in packed theatres to watch films, families used to gather round the radio or TV, friends would listen to music together on a boom box or head over to the arcade and take turns at games, and gamers would gather in internet cafes for LAN parties. Of course that's not entirely gone away, but the last time I went to a theatre it was empty. Now everyone ones a smart device and can cut themselves off from other people and immerse themselevs in content spoon fed by cooperate algorithims. Once upon a time, people talked on the streets, now everyone just stares down at their phones with headphones on. It's like everyones a loner autist these days. Don't think for a second that this wasn't intentional, governments and cooperations have been trying to break society up into passive, unthinking, consumers for centuries. Well, now they've got their wish.
I remember when they opened an Internet Cafe in my city like 20 years ago, back then i visited them almost every week. I was playing RuneScape, Counter-Strike, browsing GeoCities sites. Sometimes when it was early morning and it was quite empty in there, i used to save pictures of naked ladies (preferably from anime) on CD and fap to them later at home ( ´ω`)
> In 2006 I got a PSP and would go to Barnes and Noble and pay like $5 to use their wifi in the little starbucks they had while I drank coffee, that was a ton of fun
Takes me back. I used to work at a stall at this shady black market, the Chinese guy next to me would get raided for selling fake handbags and fendis every week. I used to just sit there all day on my PSP playing games and listening to music, it was pretty easy work. But I never sold anything and eventually the store owner fired me.
I remember visiting those in the early 00's, the last years of so-called «computer clubs» in my country. I've lived in a small town, kinda rural area, so many of my friends still didn't have an PC in their households.
In spite having an PC myself, it was enjoyable to gather together and play Quake 3/4, Doom 3, Unreal Tournament, Counter-Strike and various UT2004 mods.
Good times.
I saw an Internet cafe the other day. It’s a run down little shit hole mostly used by poor immigrant workers who don’t own their own machines or have a net connection. Maybe I’ll go down, sit at the PCs see if I can access 4chan maybe play something too. Just like old times.
>In spite having an PC myself, it was enjoyable to gather together
Exactly why I went to one as well. It was nice to hang out together, play games, and in my area we were the only ones who ever showed up. It was just a walk up the road from school. We typically had the place to ourselves besides the one person working downstairs. It also was nice that their computers were better than mine at home. Things did get weird during the last year I went due to everyone just wanting to jack off to porn and hentai instead of anything else.
>>15
I hate that time in your teens when everybody discovers sex and can’t stfu about it and become obsessed with fapping. It’s so cringey and annoying.
There was a lot of porn in the computers at the cafe.
I remember I used to watch this video at my local net cafe all the time. I stopped going there after I got into an argument with some fat bitch with pink hair and she ended up pulling down my pants and everyone saw my dick cuz I go commando (still go commando to this day, fuck underwear)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RG4fLxB47xY
>>19
i'd like to go commando but i get frequent boners and i'm scared of getting branded a sexual assaulter
>>22
It's a typical mockery. I remember high school guy pulled down my pants and I was in elementary.
I remember that happening to a kid in elementary school and his crush (we knew) was right in front of him and she saw his ochinchin. Poor guy, he cried.
Yea my mother never let me use her computer or have my own, so I spent my teen years in those places. I remember once she got me in summer school because my grades were shit, except I knew all the lessons, everything. It was boring as shit the first day so I never went back, I would spend the ~2 hours those mornings at the nearest cyber cafe.
>>25
I remember the time I watched hentai on my mom’s work laptop. I made the beginner mistake of just deleting the history but not the browser cookies before she handed it back in to her office.
My parents used to dump me in this library youth center, so I'd go and use the computer lab on the second floor. Even though I was like 10, I'd be web surfing, visiting forums and watching videos. In those days, YouTube was blocked, so I had no choice but to watch stuff on Google Video which sucked shit. All I wanted to do was watch some Nintendo nerd FFS. Archive.org had a bunch of free horror movies and liveleak videos on it, so I'd just spend hours watching that. Not sure if this counts as an internet cafe story, but whatever. Do I miss them? Yeah, it was nice to have a place where shady internet dwellers could physically hang out.