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10 Year Anniversary of PS1 Launch
1up is reporting on the anniversary this week of the original PlayStation. For many people the system represents a fundamental shift in consumer gaming. From the article: "PlayStation changed the way people played games--the way they thought about them, really. When Sony launched its console, the gaming industry was bogged down by expensive production, too many competing standards, and crippling uncertainty among the mind-share leaders. In just a few short years, PlayStation rose from that morass to become the undisputed champion of the era, not only taking the 32-bit prize but simultaneously paving the way for a comfortable lead in the following generation."
And I remember when it came out and I was so excited because of the incredible graphics. Time certainly hath passed.
Microsoft is like...no, it's much worse.
And I still like the games I have with it. Destruction Derby 2 was awesome. I fell out of the console scene (and back into PC gaming) around 97 so I haven't had much interest in the new consoles. Come to think of it, is there any way to play these games on PC yet?
Too bad nothing seems to have changed. Articles about the massive expense of making next-gen titles are common these days. Arguments over either DVD, HD-DVD, and Blu-Ray or the differing architechtures of the PC, PS3, and XBox360 are also common (haven't heard much about revolution coding). Uncertainty also seems rampant, if you count that by all the sequels and cheap licenses that come out. But I feel that just like the other issues, the creativity/sequel issue is no more or less prevalent now than any other time in console life. No, what the PS1 did what is propelled games into the mainstream. Though it's awful cliche, the PS1 made it cool for the MTV crowd to play games.
I thought people were bitching because it costs millions of dollars to produce modern games, and small independents couldn't afford to get into the action. Seems like that was better 10 years ago, not now.
"The objective of securing the safety of Americans from crime and terror has been achieved." -- John Ashcroft
Sony and it's Playstation did for gaming what AOL did for the internet and cartoon network did for Anime. They all let the unwashed masses of sheeple into a place where the did not belong.
The article just reeks of Sony fanboyism. Sure, the PlayStation was a successful 32-bit console when it appeared near the end of the 16-bit era, when the SNES and Genesis roamed the land, but the writer makes it sound like the PS1 was some sort of monumental occasion worthy of inclusion in the Civilization tech tree (Computing --> PlayStation --> Cure for Cancer).
Modern copyright is theft of culture from everyone and it retards the progress of the useful arts and sciences.
How is that nobody has tried to port linux or the *BSDs to this console? There have to be millions out there, waiting for an excuse to be used.
What did happen to "Runix"? Did it even existed?
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Anyway, I couldn't find the ticket to buy the thing so I asked an employee who was just coming on duty who had never heard of the PlayStation (imagine that happening today) and insisted they didn't sell such a thing. I had to show him the PS in the display case to prove it to him, but then he made me a ticket I could use to buy it.
I remember looking at the selection of games and wasn't immediately drawn to anything as a must have game. As I remember there was Battle Arena Toshinden, Tekken (something), Ridge Racer, and a few others. I bought Ridge Racer and BAT. A bit later I bought Rayman when it came out.
Ridge Racer I had never heard of, but I LOVED that game. Battle Arena Toshinden was a fantastic fighter (that was the first "3D" fighter I ever really played, even though it wasn't really 3D) and that was tons of fun. My brother and I got tons of time out of that.
Still ran until I sold it about two years ago when I was cleaning things out. Got TONS of hours out of that system.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
I remember all the hype, but once I got a hold of Ridge Racer and Battle Arena Toshi.. I was quickly disapointed. Also the first games were released in those god awful Sega Saturn CD cases. I didn't really start to like the PS1 until Resident Evil, Tekken 2, Doom, and also got addicted to Demolition Derby.
But the thing that the article really reminded me of was Jumping Flash. I loved that game and it's sequel. You played inside the Rab-bot (giant robotic rabbit) and jumped around in true 3D and shot and enemies and collected carrots and... something. It sounds kind of dumb but the game was fantastic (just a weird premise).
I discovered that game from the demo disc that came with the system. I still don't understand why they don't do this anymore. There was a little demo of it on the disc and I played that one level over and over and over until my local stores finally started carrying the game after it came out.
Not only did you get that demo disc, you also got a tech demo disc with things like showing tons of colored cubes (all the colors it could render), bouncing balls, a large walking T-Rex you could make growl and rotate around (to show off high poly counts, I think) and other such things.
But then there was the controller I never bought. On the box of the original PlayStation were pictures of games and peripherals you could get. One was a cool double-joystick. I didn't know what games it would be for, but I thought it was very neat. I kept waiting for that to come out, wondering what it would be used for. It never did come out, and about a year later I remember seeing a PlayStation box and they had changed the picture (it had obviously been canceled).
Of course, the PlayStation had innovations. It was TINY. I remember getting the thing home and being surprised how small it was. It was the size of a magazine which seemed unfathomable for some reason (although I suppose the SNES was about the same size). Maybe I thought that after seeing the large black brick that was the Saturn (I loved those "Theater of the Eye" commercials). The memory cards were a great idea. SNES games didn't need them, and the Saturn and Sega CD had built in memories in the system. You could backup to a memory cart, but it wasn't like the PlayStation where you could take your game data to someone else's house and you could BOTH have your data to play with (for a Saturn you could only have one cart, so only one player's data).
What a great system. Hard to believe that's 10 years old. So many great games too. The ones mentioned above, FF VII and IX, PaRapper, UmJamma Lammy, Crash Bandicoot (when it was good), Ape Escape, Ace Combat, and so many many more.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
Third to last line of the article. Let's see...they make more profit than Sony and MS games divisions combined, and make more profit than Sony as a company. Oh yeah, and Revolution will launch with something like 1500 games (estimate based on combined NES, SNES, N64, and gamecube libraries). That probably won't hurt either. Also, don't forget that the current best-selling console is the Nintendo DS, and there are almost 100 million GBA consoles at large still.
WILL NINTENDO SURVIVE?!?! The answer is yes.
As much as I was stoked to get the PS1, after a short time I only had a few games I played regularly: Madden series, GameDay series, Jet Moto (only 1, NOT 2 or 3), and Twisted Metal 1 and 2. I was very disappointed at the utter lack of 2D platformers. I've just never been a fan of the 3D platformers like Tomb Raider and Crash Bandicoot (and I really wanted to like Bandicoot after his awesome Pizza Hut commercials). If I remember correctly, Sony really discourged 2D development. Whatever the reason, the PS1 ushered in a 3D revolution even if it was a bit premature.
Nintendo's 16-bit Goliath was entering a twilight of late-life masterpieces when PlayStation launched.
Wtf? The SNES is released roughly FOUR years before the PS1 and they say it entered 'a twilight of late-life masterpieces'? Final Fantasy 3US/6JP was released the year before ('94) followed by Chrono Trigger ('95) and were arguably two of the most successful games of the system. If anything Nintendo's SNES was ENDING its life by the time the PS1 was launched. (Yoshi's Island was really a final 'tech demo' if you will of the SNES's hardware when you really think about it.)
This whole article is riding on the failures of every other company (Nintendo, Atari, Sega) while writing off their successes. N64's z-trigger, analog stick and vibration and Dreamcast's controller design and built-in modem and online gaming for the masses being the biggest high points. Nitpickers could probably throw in some more, PS1 starting the overly long and overly used FMVs, horribly pixelly graphics even into PS2 games, a largely copy-cat controller design and the beginning of selling what should be standard accessories (memory cards that only holds 16 slots? 8 frikin MBs memory cards for the PS2?!)
It does? The majority of the article is simply a summary of events between Nintendo and Sony leading up to and through the the PS1. How is that fanboyism?
Oh, I forgot, anything on slashdot not denigrating Sony and the Playstation is Sony fanboyism.
Don't think of it as a flame---it's more like an argument that does 3d6 fire damage
are you on mushroom?