[as1mov]

Were computers common in schools in India in the early 90s? I was born in 1993, so this is a bit early from my time, but when I was in a (government) school computers started appearing in the early 2000s. They became common in households way later, probably around the late 2000s.

Also funny that your name clicked something in my head to check your profile, and yep you're indeed the Flash guy!

Back in the 2005-2010 era I was making Flash games as a hobby and used to browse a bunch of related forums/sites (flashkit, gotoAndPlay) for tutorials. Your name always stuck out since you're one of the few Indians who were well known for their expertise :)

[Brajeshwar]

Yes, Computers in the 90s were rare in India and even rarer in the North-Eastern region. I took every opportunity to be around computers during school and college days, mostly helping out pro bono. I might have visited and helped almost every commercial establishment with computers in my town. Fortunately, I also had a weird cousin, much older than me, who reads and talks about some of the weirdest things in the world. He had a computer in his study room in the early 90s. I was, I think, the only person allowed to touch his computer. Around the time when the Internet was launched in India (Aug 15, 1995), he told me that the world would soon become all connected with computers, “Imagine working for a company in the USA, while sitting in your home in India. Learn the Internet.” My ultimate goal during college was to leave that town as soon as I could. I started to understand all of his ramblings and weirdness as truths way later in life. btw, the Internet reached that town only around the mid-2000s and was an ultimate luxury.

Ah! Flash. Yes, I was lucky to be there. Invited inside Macromedia (first from India, and I think only one too for that thingy), listened to Gary Grossman talking about ActionScript, and worked with the whoswho of Flash at that time. Got my name listed in the Flash IDE’s credits roll, and all that Jazz. ;-)

That went down memory lane. Here are some interesting photos from that time https://photos.app.goo.gl/hrV8xZ8GVf8cRXLt5

[as1mov]

Ah that tracks with my experience later too. Even in the mainland, computers were pretty rare for us regular folk. Early in the 2000's, my father for whatever reason assumed computers would be hugely influential in the future and borrowed money to buy one for us. Mostly meant for my older sibling who was in high school, it didn't take his interest but worked its charm on me hah.

And thanks for the pictures! I was a kid during this time, so had no contact with any professionals. Just other kids on various places like Newgrounds and other forums. I remember emailing Armor Games and Miniclip for sponsorship for my shoddy games and understandably not receiving a reply ;)

Nostalgic see to those giant beige CRT computers, that damn copy of Flash MX and people just goofing off haha.

[Brajeshwar]

If you were into Flash, you would realize that the people you see in the pictures are Colin Mook, Branden Hall (you’d have definitely read their books), Aral Balkan, Flashguru (aka Guy Watson), Jesse Warden, and (forgotten the names of the few others).