What were 90s or 00s Internet Cafes like?

[Spiderman]

I read that there used to be a thing called Internet cafes. I mean well there still are but people keep talking about the ones from the 90s and I never experienced that.

Did anyone ever go to one in the 90s or 2000s?

 

[botboy]

some were small and others I heard were larger and very hot inside. Very smelly too.

 

[SilverClouds]

I got born in 1990 but when I was a teen they already weren't a thing and I didn't go to any as a child so yeah . Actually had my first PC at 7 years old I think (?) so that was 1997, I was sitting at home in front of my computer all day lol.

 

[Dopious]

They were mostly a place to hangout, sad place really. I almost started one once, but government discounted PC`s became a thing here and they all went bust in my country.

 

[GoldenGlovez]

Back home I never bothered with Internet cafes, but when I moved out to China in the 00's I spent time in a few. My girlfriend at the time and her friend were both big World of Warcraft nerds and I'd hang with them while they played, usually just hanging out drinking beer and having a laugh (technically I couldn't use the machines there, because Chinese government required a local ID at the cafes which I didn't have as a foreigner).

Growing up in the 90s, we'd have LAN parties every once in awhile instead. Half the time was just getting shit-faced drunk while troubleshooting LAN and PC issues, moving around gigantic CRT monitors, burning pirated copies to CD-R to pass around, then brief spouts of Quake death matches, Command & Conquer, StarCraft were often played. These would go on for 3-4 days in a row... sleeping wherever you could find a spot.

This pretty much captures what those were like: