The first week of December saw the 15th anniversary of the release of the original Playstation (in Japan, anyway). The cynic in me (who is, essentially, me) thinks that the coverage that this milestone received was thanks to overactive marketing executives taking a break from the coke to try to drum up some Playstation column inches. "Hmm" think the readers of the marketing-generated copy "Sony Playstation. I had one of those back in the 'day'. I wonder what Sony are doing now? Number three you say? What does that do?".
So, showing that I'm a sucker for a good manufactured news item as much as the next man (which is why I always steer clear of the Daily Express), here's my Playstation personal retrospective. Actually the 'next man' is sat on the train seat next to me as I hammer this out on my Blogpress iPhone App, reading the Financial Times with a serious look on his face. I doubt he would be suckered by the marketeers. He'd probably scoff at it and want to know Sony's financial results. Killjoy. Anyway.......
I first played the Playstation in early 1996, when a friend brought his sparkly new console to my student house before a West Ham game (I lived within walking distance of the Boleyn Ground) and we marvelled at FIFA 1996 ("wow, the commentary uses player names - that's creative midfielder Ian Bishop!" and Destruction Derby. Neither have aged well (particularly FIFA 1996, which wasn't even that good - 3D sheen and commentary aside - at the time) but I could see the potential.
The clincher that this was something special, for me, came with Resident Evil. Another friend had bought one and I went over to his flat, had a go and my mind was well and truly blown. I'd heard from friends before that this was a scary game and scoffed at them - as if a game could scare you! And then the dogs jumped through the window. And then the second set of dogs jumped through the next window. Actually, I thought (screamed) a game could scare you. We played the game between us that night, switching the joypad every so often, until 5am in the morning (I had to get up for work at 7am). One of my most memorable gaming experiences ever.
Soon after, I persuaded my older brother, with whom I was living at the time, to buy one. They were still about ￡200-￡250 then I think and you'd need another pad and a memory card before you even thought about buying games - all well outside of my budget back then. By some silver-tongued trick of mine, I managed to persuade him, with faultless logic, that the best place to situate the console was, actually, in my room (placed, for reasons I can't quite remember, on an upturned washing up bowl).
I finally got my own machine in late 1997 (there was a price drop to ￡125) and gave my brother his one back (he seemed grateful enough). That grey wonder still works today (though you have to balance it on its side these days). Will my 360 or my PS3 still be on this side of the veil in 2021 (the year, not 8:21 this evening, though I see your point)? I'm on my second 360 (I know others have had far more than that) and - touch wood - no problems so far but I can't see it still running Bioshock two decades on. My Wii will probably survive though - the reason soldiers have insufficient body armour in Afghanistan is that Nintendo make their consoles out of the stuff.
Other fan-led retrospectives, particularly Game Central's Inbox feature last weekend, have, in the main, praised the machine and its effect on the gaming landscape (a landscape that would have suffered from 'pop-up', I'm sure). The thing is, I remember in the mid-nineties that Sony were on the wrong end of the kind of pelters from hardcore gamers that the Wii gets these days. Earnest letters were written to Edge (are there any other kind?) about how Sony was destroying gaming with their 'cool' console, pandering to clubbers, getting on the cover of trendy non-gaming magazines, abstract TV ads ('I have conquered worlds', anyone?) and generally appealing to the mainstream. Mom & Pop concerns like Sega & Nintendo, the fanboys said, who actually cared about gaming (so not profit, then) were being kicked to the kerb by this upstart and gaming was doomed.
I thought this was cobblers at the time and still do. Some of my favourite games of all time were on the Playstation - Vagrant Story, Vandal Hearts, FFVII, Resident Evil 2 - and it was home to a broad church of different types of game (certainly more so than any of the current gen consoles are). I think it was because Sega/Nintendo fanboys were so set in their own little two-sided confrontational universe (like the CIA when the Soviet Union was more than just a fashion motif) that any attempt to muscle in on that was bound to short-out their minds. Coupled with the fact that change is never welcomed by some quarters.
The thing is, a lot of the core gamers that are around now cut their teeth on the Playstation - without it, gaming may well have died, or at least not been the multi-billion dollar industry it is now. I'm sure there are those that would think that this would have been a good thing but then I'm sure there were cavemen that thought 'fire' was an advance that they could do without and that mammoth tasted quite OK raw, thanks very much. Personally, here's to cooked games.
I was actually one of the ones in the Sega camp, and refused to believe that a console made by a 'TV company' could be any good. I was dangerously close to getting a Sega Saturn for the christmas of 1997, only changing my mind because two of my friends had a PSX (only one other had an N64, nobody had a Saturn) and reasoned that we could swap games. That christmas day with Alien Trilogy, ReLoaded, Psychic Force, Destruction Derby and (ahem) Casper the Friendly Ghost was the best day of my 12 year old life. Although now it's come full-circle and I find myself desiring a Sega Saturn again.
ReplyDeleteAh, that Resident Evil night. Possibly my most memorable night of gaming ever.
ReplyDeleteNot like me to out-remember you, but as I recall you started playing at around 9pm (I let you play as I had already played a bit beforehand), and you played solidly throughout. Also, as I tell it at least (and I have told it a few times), I went to bed at 6:30am, you played on until 7:15am, had around an hours sleep, and then got up for work (I didn't have to start until 11 or 12 I think).
We both jumped out of our skin quite a few times that night. The tension was unbearable. Great stuff.
@24HG I picked up a Saturn in Gamestation a couple of years ago for £30 with 6 games (mostly duff - Andretti Racing stands out in that regard - but C&C and Alien Trilogy were there), an additional controller and the official steering wheel (which was un-ergodynamic rubbish). A decent enough machine and worth picking up if you see it cheap but not a patch on the PS1
ReplyDelete@Warren - on Resi night I played until I'd got further than you and then we swapped. I'm pretty sure you played on after I headed to bed, as I am certain that when I came into your lounge after my two hours' sleep, you were playing the the generator room bit (with the monsters with the hooked claws that crawl along the ceiling). Mind you , it's 13 years ago now - maybe both of our memories are faulty!
I meant to put it in the post but Resi is probably the game that I have the most versions of - Resi PS1, Resi Director's Cut, PS1, Resi remake, GC, Resi DS and Resi Saturn! An excellent game that, even though there were a couple of similar games before (Alone in the Dark), defined survival horror (literally, I think, as it used the phrase when starting a game)
I loved the PS1, being a 90s kid it was the first console that I owned, getting one as a joint Christmas present with my brother.
ReplyDeleteI remember the day very clearly, the console came with two games - Formula 1 and UEFA Striker.
Of course, to my football-mad mind at the time UEFA Striker was the greatest game ever created, even though it was nigh-on impossible to get any elevation on your shots. Ahh, the days of playing as England, in a 45-minutes per half match, and beating San Marino over, and over, and over again, as they were the easiest team on the game.
Formula 1 was a bit more complicated, so this usually resulted in me choosing to race at Monza and cutting across the sand to avoid having to actually race properly - bizarrely this didn't seem to slow the car down at all.
Great memories, I still dig the PS1 out occasionally when friends are round for a bit of International Track & Field, which is simultaneously the most fun and most painful multiplayer game I've played on the console.
A little off-topic, but I notice you've registered over at videogamespace (thanks!) so if you want to, feel free to copy and paste this to your blog over there, this is exactly the kind of stuff we need on the site.