Wow, this brings back memories. I'm probably just a few years older than you, so much of this stuff was coming out just as I was old enough to start buying handguns myself. This was an interesting time because it during the federal AWB period, but also in the same period many states were passing new laws changing from may issue to shall issue carry permits. So, lots of new carry permits were being issued, but there was still a 10 round magazine capacity. As a result, the trend was to smaller, lighter carry guns; or to larger calibers in mid and full size guns.
Alongside the big caliber full size / smaller caliber subcompacts new gun development, there was huge demand for Glocks, 3rd Gen S&Ws, Beretta 92s, SIG P226s, and anything else that had decent availability of pre-ban mags over 10 rounds.
The 1911 was in resurgence on the bigger caliber side. This was when Kimber really established themselves, and when they were arguably making their best pistols. Springfield Armory was making their V-xx ported barrel pistols. The Glock 26 and 27 were a big deal then. Seecamp pistols and the similar NAA models were popular. Even with the private citizen 10 round mag restriction everyone was still trying desperately to catch up with Glock on service pistols. This was the time period when the Steyr M9/M40, S&W Sigma, Walther P99 / SW99, and HS2000 (now Springfield Armory XD) entered the market. I'm sure there are others I'm forgetting, but hopefully those models will jog someone else's memory. Surplus Russian and Bulgarian Makarov pistols were very popular then too.
On the revolver side S&W and Taurus were in a race to build the smallest lightest 5 shot .38s and .357s. Titanium and Scandium were the rage. Taurus had a wide variety of brightly anodized colors of Ti frames. IIRC, this also the period when the Raging Bull was first released, which was a big deal since it was the first DA revolver in .454 Casull. IIRC, surplus Nagant revolvers started hitting the market in the early 2000s as the supply of surplus Makarovs started drying up. The early 2000s also saw a big release of used S&W model 10s and similar service revolvers onto the used market as corrections departments and security companies finally followed LE and started switching over to semi-autos en masse.
Again, I'm sure I'm forgetting a bunch of stuff, but hopefully what I've posted will jog some other memories.