Sega Is Making an Emoji-Only Pager That's Sending Us Back to the 1990s

Are you having any nostalgic longings for the 1990s lately? Does the era of Tamagotchis, pagers, Oregon Trail and Ring Pops seem like a kinder, gentler decade? As the co-author of The Totally Sweet ’90s, a pop-culture encyclopedia about that hella cool decade, I’m right there with you. So, of course, I was fascinated with the news that Sega is coming out with something called an emojam pager — a colorful little device that works as a pager, but for emojis, not text.

According to Creative Bloq, the emojam is made for kids and has over 1,100 emojis available, though they can use only 10 in each message. They can have group chats of up to five people, but they must physically tap their device to a friend’s in order to set up a group for security reasons.

The sad news for 1990s retro-heads is that it’s going to be available only in Japan, where it will sell for 7,150 yen (about $46), and will go on sale starting Dec. 10. So until then, a better time warp to the ’90s might be to crank up some grunge, get yourself a Hypercolor T-shirt and strap on some Rollerblades, Everything old is new again.