If we had the internet a decade earlier...

[Sharkhunter]

Some of you will remember the days, in the early days of online media, when there was no such thing as "surfing for porn". There would be the occasional website such as Pl@yb0y or P3nth0use serving up images we had already seen in the pages of their magazines, but in the main things weren't so easy as they are now.

I am sure that there are some of you around my age or older who will remember binary files, and downloading a series of files from Usenet newsgroups - with a slow dial-up connection, of course - and "stitching" them together to create a (often very small) image. More often than not, you'd spend twenty minutes or more putting together an image that was rubbish, or not even the girl you thought it was going to be. Porn enthusiasts these days don't know how lucky they are!

In the mid-1990s the printed magazine and scratchy VHS was still the big thing, and following the first batch of Eastern European models making their way onto our newsagents' top shelves or the bowels of excitingly seedy shops in Soho, it was a great time to be a porn hound. Indeed some of the best magazines with the best content are from around 1990-1997, proven by their popularity - and current cost - on reseller and auction sites such as eBid.

Porn was always going to be a big thing on the web, but by the turn of the millennium it had really taken off. More and more specialist sites started to sprout up, and more crucially models would start to work for these websites rather than individual photographers to make their way into the pages of magazines. Of course, some photographers were able to reinvent themselves for the new market, such as Denys Defrancesco, Suze Randall and Viv Thomas.

By the early 2000s the market had changed for good. Even top photographers were rolling out more web-based content, with magazines just a sideline. By the end of the decade, the magazine market was in complete decline - witness the changes that made a booming company like Paul Raymond Publications turn into a poor quality outfit churning out magazines that are, compared to the same titles twenty years ago, awful by comparison in terms of content, publishing values and print quality.

I have always collected certain models that piqued my interest and stirred my loins - initially in magazines and then in digital format.

While I had ended up hunting high and low to put together my printed collections, I soon found that in a short period of time I could gather hundreds of photosets of my favourite models on my hard drive(s). The reality was that while models before the internet era would do one photoshoot which would then be rolled out across a couple of magazine titles over a couple of months if not longer, their modern counterparts will often do one shoot which will hit one home page or another over a couple of weeks, before doing the same thing for another website. They'll then go back for another shoot, repeating the same cycle over the course of a couple of years - or longer of they prove to be popular.

This meant that, in the space of a couple of months, you could gather fifty or more sets of your favourite girl - and over a longer period of time you could have a collection went beyond anything you could have previously imagined. In fact, you would often end up with sets that you'd only look at once - with collecting becoming an end in itself.

Back in the day, I'd find myself wanking over a "fave babe" photoset in a magazine a good dozen times before the next one appeared, and then the same again. I'd get very familiar with the sets, the outfits and the poses to the point that they'd be burned in the memory. These days I might find three sets of one of my favourite models on various websites and forums in one day, and while I will probably do the hand-shuffle over one of them, the other two will just be placed in the appropriate folder in the hard drive.

As I collect a number of girls, chances are that there will be more new stuff the following day, meaning that some sets will never really be looked at, let alone used for any pleasure beyond the fact that I am happy to have them in my collection.

This made me think a little. I have around 1200 photosets of Sophie Moone aka Renata Somossy/Stella, more than 700 sets of Little Caprice, 800 sets of Zuzana Zeleznovova, and more than 500 sets of my favourite Anjelica aka Abby - with the latter gathered in just over four years along with hundreds of videos.

When I compare this with some of the models I collected in the 1990s, their output is simply phenomenal. Yes, there are some photosets from the 1990s (mainly Viv Thomas and Suze Randall) which were later released in digital format - a great thing for me, in that I finally would get to have the complete shoots of all of those photosets I'd have seen in magazines - including the elusive pink shots which were not included in the PRP mags until around 2002.

Of course, when I count up these sets I am lucky if I can find a couple of dozen sets of each of my 1990s fave babes. In some cases, it's just a matter of surfing around here and there and filling in gaps - scanned images from the magazines I might have missed out on at the time (I only used to buy Club, Mens World and the odd copy of Men Only and Mayfair - as a student back then one's porn budget was only so much!)

It does make me wish that the Internet came decade earlier - with the same technology, we would have seen a whole lot more of a number of models who today would have been turning out hundreds of photosets. Which brings me to what led me to write this long and convoluted post in the first place.

My three favourite models of the 1990s, who would have blown the internet up if they had been able to achieve the same level of output and publicity as their modern counterparts.

Ginny/Jisel aka Brandy Ledford

Volume 19 No. 2 of Club International. As soon as I saw that cover shot, I knew my balls were going to explode as soon as I turned the page gto her photoset. Having waited impatiently for the magazine after seeing the preview in the previous issue, I had a vague idea about what I was going to see, but the reality was far, far better... An absolutely stunning series of photos culminating in a trouser-arousing centrefold. I ended up getting another copy some years later that I still keep in my "quick access mini-stash" in the bedside drawer, and I can't imagine how many times I have spanked the old fella to that set.




History shift: If the Internet was big in the 1990s as it was a decade later, Brandy would be a sure-fire hit on sites like Tw1stys or 21st S3xtury. We would have got to see a whole lot more of her delicious pink, and maybe more.

Jacquie aka Sara St. James

A model who captured my heart after appearing on a number of PRP covers. Perfectly built with pert tits and stunning toned body, I could melt just be looking at her shiny baby blue eyes. Every photoset was memorable, and each one must have had two dozen wanks, usually after a busy evening of studying and revision. It was like reliving my youth when I found the additional photos, including a number of fantastic pink shots.




History shift: If the Internet was big in the 1990s as it was a decade later, Sara - like Brandy - would be a sure-fire hit on sites like Tw1stys or 21st S3xtury. Plenty of solo stuff with some girl/girl action thrown in.

Evie Stewart

A brunette to break the blonde babe stranglehold. Appearing in a number of magazines in the mid-1990s, Evie was an utter sweetheart, and the "soapsuds" Mens World cover was the sort of thing that had me itching to get home as a horny twenty-something desperate for a tug. Unlike Ginny and Jacquie who opened their legs with abandon, Evie was a more traditional glamour model - not once did I see her flash any flange, even in PRP's racier labels in Men Only. Not that it stopped me fapping like crazy over her - she was utterly gorgeous.




(Props to the scanners here... My Evie collection was more or less gathered from this fine board!)

History shift: If the Internet was big in the 1990s as it was a decade later, Evie would have been a guaranteed superstar on the erotic nude sites like M3t-@rt or X-@art. Can you imagine all the pretty lingerie we would have seen her slip in and out of?

Other notable mentions: Poppy Coles

First spotted in Club International. Absolute class, and another model who would have been right up there in everybody's digital archive had the Internet been around when she was in her prime.



Shanine Linton

I first spotted Shanine on Page 3, and soon discovered that she showed a lot more in "naughty mags". I then discovered that she showed a whole lot, lot, lot more and even sucked cock in those mags you had to go to "specialist" shops for.



Stacy Tyler aka Misha Lee/Michelle Tooley

Just like Shanine, Misha was another Page 3er who did a whole lot more. What drew me to her more than anything else however was her close resemblance to a girl I fancied whilst at university. I didn't share the fact that I used to think of her whilst wanking over Misha's pics...

[Girlfan]

Interesting post. You are dead right, if we'd all have had the internet at "2000" levels by, say 1990, we'd have seen a lot more of some of our favourite girls who we saw relatively little of in "paper" format. For me, someone like Denise Marsh, one of my favourites, would have been just a few clicks away, rather than getting to see her maybe two or three times a year via Men Only or Club.



Your choices are all top-drawer, by the way, Sharky: Ginny and Poppy (especially) rate as two of my all-time favourites!

You are so right about us "using" (ahem!) the same set over and over again, and often for months, if not years, back in the day. I recall being very fond of the Club set of Ginny in a white nurse's uniform - I must have "used" that dozens and dozens of times - especially this shot:




Nowadays it's so easy to click-click and there's another set, another girl, so we just collect, as you observe, merely for the ritual of collecting.
In the internet age, we all have probably thousands of pictures we never looks at: in the "paper" days we might have had (well, me, at any rate) 10 or 15 magazines at any time.

[bb77]

Shanine was my first page 3 turned porn model obsession. I quite enjoyed the thrill of seeking out her top shelf appearances and the adrenaline rush of trying to buy a mag without getting refused service or getting stuck in a queue at the newsagents holding a jazz mag. I travelled miles to go to out of the way newsagents.

I'm not sure I would be quite so enamoured if we could have just downloaded pics on a whim, so I think the net came at the right time for me. You appreciate it more when you've worked for your porn fix.

Incidentally, I don't remember ever seeing Shanine suck cock as you mentioned. It was always simulated soft stuff. Did I miss a darker side somwhere?

[Greenman]

We did have it a decade ago BUT there was nothing like the content available today back then and even the now defunct other search engines wouldn't yield much. We had to rely on scanners of all sorts AND those with substantial collections of pictures OR had access to a website, usually a pay one, that would be generous enough to upload stuff to the then groups that appeared on Yahoo and other places AND newsgroups. Personally I was glad to see the back of dial-up, as it drove me mad - in one case I took my frustration out on a cardboard box with my late grandmother's old wooden stick-one day I missed the box and hit the wall taking large dents out of it with the head of the stick.!!

[Sharkhunter]

Originally Posted by Greenman

We did have it a decade ago BUT there was nothing like the content available today back then and even the now defunct other search engines wouldn't yield much. We had to rely on scanners of all sorts AND those with substantial collections of pictures OR had access to a website, usually a pay one, that would be generous enough to upload stuff to the then groups that appeared on Yahoo and other places AND newsgroups.

Yep, it only really started to accelerate in the early 2000s - I remember the moment when PRP started advertising "sexclub.com" on and inside their magazines. I signed up for it, and it was a real pile of useless shite. By 2005 things were pretty decent, and this was the core of my initial point - Had 2005 been 1995, we would have seen a flood of Ginny, Sara St. James, Poppy Coles, Shanine, Evie and Misha.

Thinking of the late 90s and the early days of the net, does anybody else remember Scanmaster 95? He was a legend among scanners, and all of the images (though postage-stamp sized compared to today's examples where you can see the individual threads on a pair of knickers) were of the highest quality. I remember gathering a ton (quite literally, around 100 images) scanned from Pl@yb0y and P3nth0use. There were others too, of course - I had a very small selection of cumshot images, which were like digital gold.

Personally I was glad to see the back of dial-up, as it drove me mad - in one case I took my frustration out on a cardboard box with my late grandmother's old wooden stick-one day I missed the box and hit the wall taking large dents out of it with the head of the stick.!!

Haha! I remember those days well. When 28.8kb/s was seen as fast. You'd spend the best part of an hour on one of the many newsgroups downloading half a dozen binary files (usually alt.binaries.scanmaster), before ending up almost salivating as you stitched them together.

Here's a little selection of images - well, five dozen - including the likes of Erika Eleniak, Karen Foster, Deborah Driggs, Melissa Evridge, Lisa Matthews... and the lovely van Breeschooten twins Karin and Mirjam. As a randy nineteen year old, I would have given anything to have a roll around in the sand with both of them.

[Sharkhunter]

Originally Posted by buz77

Shanine was my first page 3 turned porn model obsession. I quite enjoyed the thrill of seeking out her top shelf appearances and the adrenaline rush of trying to buy a mag without getting refused service or getting stuck in a queue at the newsagents holding a jazz mag. I travelled miles to go to out of the way newsagents.

Plenty of posts on these sorts of memories... Fear of old dames staring right through you, schoolkids rumbling your purchase or, horror of all horrors, the entire contents of the top shelf falling on top of you as you claw that elusive copy of Club. Shanine was mighty hot, and there was always that special thrill of seeing a Page 3 girl showing off her muff and more.

I'm not sure I would be quite so enamoured if we could have just downloaded pics on a whim, so I think the net came at the right time for me. You appreciate it more when you've worked for your porn fix.

Yep. Those old enough to discover these things will never experience it the way we did. I love hardcore porn as much as the next pervert, but there was something magical about buying a mag, getting home and finally turning over the cover. I sometimes took just a matter of seconds before I shot my load sometimes.

Incidentally, I don't remember ever seeing Shanine suck cock as you mentioned. It was always simulated soft stuff. Did I miss a darker side somwhere?

Maybe I am just embellishing my memory-fantasies! I do remember her tongue coming verrry close to a shiny bellend in a copy of Whitehouse, and there were those shots when the model would sort of shield her mouth and the guy's cock with her arm or something else, making you wonder what was going on behind. Yep, a time when imagination was not only a thing, but when it often ran riot!

[soulreaper]

If i had it erlier, i think, i witnessed the good big-boobed models(hard and soft) at their prime. Girls like Lisa Lipps,



Letha Wheapons




Angelique




Traci Topps




Alyssa




Babbette




or Dixie



The list goes on and on....

At the other thing, i witnessed the next generation, like

Sharday




Autumn Jade




Linsey




And, of course Kerry Marie

[bb77]

[/QUOTE]Maybe I am just embellishing my memory-fantasies! I do remember her tongue coming verrry close to a shiny bellend in a copy of Whitehouse, and there were those shots when the model would sort of shield her mouth and the guy's cock with her arm or something else, making you wonder what was going on behind. Yep, a time when imagination was not only a thing, but when it often ran riot![/QUOTE]

Ah, I remember that very shoot where she had the cock in her hand and her mouth looked too big not to be in her mouth behind it. Never got to see any actual penetration though. Such a shame.

[Girlfan]

I think Shanine was one of those girls who did "nearly but not quite" hardcore pics, including a well-known set with Jo Guest and a (very) lucky guy:



I first had internet access in (I think) 1996 or so, but what a very different place it was back then! You actually had to seek out porn then, rather than it tumbling out at you from every angle of the digital World!
I well remember the usenet groups - I think something like alt.binaries.lesbians was my favourite - and that after an hour of use, you might have managed to get your hands on 10-15 pictures. A lot harder than what we could get here in the UK at the time, but then real hardcore was never my favourite, so I stuck to magazines - and increasingly as the 90s progressed, perhaps oddly, (VHS) videos.
By the end of 1999 I was disillusioned by the way my favourite magazines like Club and Men Only were going, and I simply stopped buying them, virtually overnight. In fact, apart from a flurry of buying (or rather, re-buying) 1980s and 90s mags from the sainted Jobbydealer in the early 2000s, I think I have only bought one new magazine from a newsagents since the turn of the Century. That was just to "see what they were like now", and would have been in around 2005. I wish I hadn't bothered: shaved pussies, plastic boobs, rampant tatoos and hard-faced anything-for-the-money girls proliferated - everything I dislike in smut. There were, of course, notable exceptions such as "Stella"/Sophie Moone and others, but they appeared (to me at least) to be in the minority. Look back at Sharky's post of the Scanmaster images from the mid 1990s: every one of those girls - every one - is a truly beautiful lady. You just don't get that nowadays - the criteria for a girl to succeed nowadays is what she will do not how she looks.

GF

[Girlfan]

A brief observation: looking back at some of these posts my view that the "golden decade" of smut was from around 1985 until 1995. (I use that rather awful word smut as a catch-all covering everything from Page 3 cheesecake shots, through soft-core stuff - actually my favourite area - like Club, Mayfair, Fiesta et al, and off into the hardcore zone).
It's probably just my age - I was early 20s in 1985, and early 30s by 1995. I suppose that "smut" fans born in say 1985 (so 30 now) would most likely love the stuff from the last 10 years, having been brought up on it, and would look back on my favourite stuff as being ridiculously coy and slightly odd - I can almost here them muttering from beneath their baseball caps "didn't those women have access to a razor? Why do they all have such small tits? Wouldn't they look better with some nice body art?"

Different times, but I know which I prefer.