There were no digital movie collections yet, since downloading such files (properly) wasn’t really a thing. Winamp was the most popular MP3 player, and most of us got our songs from interactive CDs bundled with computer magazines like CHIP or InfoKomputer.
The most well-known ISP at the time was Telkomnet Instant. It used an analog modem (56Kbps) connected through a landline phone. Plugging the modem into the phone jack meant you couldn’t receive phone calls from outside. That’s just how it worked.
A CD-ROM drive was essential if you wanted to copy MP3s or VCDs. You could also trade MP3 CDs with your friends or neighbors. These CDs were mostly available in places like Glodok or Mangga Dua—because, at the time, MP3 CDs hadn’t made their way into the stalls of pirated VCD sellers (you know, the ones blasting dangdut on the sidewalk -_- ).
Flash drives? Not invented yet. The go-to portable storage was the 3.5-inch floppy disk with a whopping 1.4 MB capacity. To copy music files, you had to use file-splitting software like HJSplit so they’d fit across multiple disks.
Of course, everyone’s pre-internet experience was a bit different. For the slightly more tech-savvy crowd, games like Age of Empires II or Counter-Strike were all the rage—played over LAN during neighborhood "LAN parties." So, what do you think, fellow jadulers (old-school folks)? Does this bring back memories?
