[ Retro Scan of the Week ] AOL Titanium 5.0 CD
May 9th, 2011 by Benj Edwards
There are about 730 hours in a month.
You may remember getting one of these in the mail in the 1990s.
Ok, ok…you may remember getting dozens and dozens of these CDs in the mail. Some people used them as coasters, some as Frisbees. Some put them in the microwave to watch them sparkle. (To any kids reading: please don’t try this.) Me? I collected them.
I saved just about every CompuServe, Prodigy, and America Online floppy disk or CD I ever received back then, and I amassed quite a collection. Some day I plan to write about these promotional disks more, but for now you’ll have to be satisfied with this shiny blue AOL Titanium 5.0 CD from way back in ’99.
Discussion Topic of the Week: What did you do with all the promotional CDs and floppy disks you received in the mail?
May 9th, 2011 at 4:38 pm
Receiving all those free floppies was great – I never had to buy any.
It was a pity when AOL moved to CDs – not much recycling value. I made wind chimes out of them, though they never sounded very good, and AOL CDs were the original coasters, before CD-Rs came out.
May 10th, 2011 at 12:31 am
I always loved the AOL CD’s that came in those metal tins. The tins cleaned up nicely for other projects.
May 11th, 2011 at 12:29 pm
This isn’t just AOL, it’s TITANIUM. You get 500 FREE HOURS which come down like a TITANIUM SLEDGEHAMMER OF VALUE!!
for a month
May 11th, 2011 at 12:31 pm
I can just imagine the echo in your voice when you say that, Braybett. Hehe.
May 11th, 2011 at 1:52 pm
I agree w/ Salzman – those last few years saw some pretty ingenous packaging. I still have some of the nifty packaging (like the tin and the one where you pulled a flap from the bottom of the box and the disc would pop out of the top). I don’t think I have any of the actual discs anymore, though.
May 18th, 2011 at 7:51 am
I would love to see some screenshots of the software included on these and the progression it made.
May 19th, 2011 at 10:19 am
I remember if we ever needed to reinstall AOL we would just check that day’s mail.
May 22nd, 2011 at 7:32 am
Benj,
Are you planning an AOL disk/CD slideshow? That would be awesome.
May 22nd, 2011 at 10:39 am
Are you talking about AOL disk images through the years or pictures of the software on them? Not a bad idea.
Now that you mentioned that idea out loud, someone might beat me to it.
May 26th, 2011 at 6:11 pm
I came here to see what year this CD was from.
I made a coaster to keep drinks on out of one of these CDs and wanted to see how long I had it for.
12 years now… crazy.
May 29th, 2011 at 4:46 pm
This is you?
http://aolcollecting.com
December 21st, 2012 at 7:29 pm
We had those discs lying around all the time at cash registers in grocery stores a good decade or so ago, each batch slightly different, for example with different grocery chain logos on them depending on where you got them, so I made it an activity to collect them. I can’t remember how many thousands of hours I amassed, but it was a major stack of discs in the end. I’ve always told myself that I’d put them to some use eventually, but ultimately I just threw them away when I moved out for university a few years later. That was definitely less of a mistake than throwing away my trusted old Pentium 1 computer.