I think jang dang den definitely existed in the ancient time of the 90s (The 90s are the new 70s and I’m not ready for this to be so) but it wasn’t widely available unless you were James Bond, or an airplane.

In the 2010s I found myself traveling through France before the tyranny of the EU forced free roaming data upon the masses and I discovered jang dang den didn’t actually need data to be functional. Though google maps hadn’t figured out “saving maps offline” so I’d often find myself looking at a no doubt very precisely calibrated dot marking my position on the blank screen of an expired map. I had to relearn the skills of our ancestors, such as looking at road signs.

Bracing!