I didn’t grow up with the original Playstation, but its impact was definitely felt as a Nintendo owner. My Nintendo 64 could not do a lot of the “cool” stuff the PSX could do. I would come up with excuses as to why it didn’t matter, the fact was that I was jealous. I did finally get to play most PS1 games I always wanted once I got a PS2. Despite not owning it, I definitely felt part of its era. So here is my little tribute to the Sony’s Playstation.
It was the 90s and being able to play a game from a CD felt futuristic and modern, I’ve now grown to hate that media type but that wasn’t the case in the 90s. > I mean I did hate the loading time, it did take too long a valid criticism. At the same time it made you excited to see what was coming after that if done right. Being in CD and not having restrictions on space meant full music and voice acting. That was mind blowing to me to go from bips to actual recordings. It made the N64 feel so old in comparison.
PS1 games abused Full Motion Video and CG cutscenes but that didn’t matter. Through those pre-rendered intros and movies we were able to see graphics beyond what the hardware was capable of, not to mention entertaining to see a story play out on our consoles. This was a huge selling point, even if we knew the actual game was nothing like it, it did its job. The same as FMV, all those games that used pre-rendered backgrounds made games look so much better. I hated the limited movement but they also did its job well like FMV did. These two factors made the N64 look ancient.
I would’ve definitely used it as a CD player had I had one, but since I didn’t it’s not a feature I got to use. The controller itself while just being a SNES pad with handles, didn’t feel great to me, I didn’t like the d-pad. When they added the two analog sticks it did feel like a huge upgrade, the second stick in particular. Also having two L/R buttons was a great move. The design of the console was not great, it always felt a bit boring and old. That did change when they got the sleeker Playstation One revision after the PS2 launched.
The branding was on point, hearing the Play Station sound before games and in commercials made you remember hwat it was. And it did carry all that “this is not for kids’, these were games for “older/mature” audiences. That kind of branding was very valuable and made Sony’s console the one to have. It was just cool and it had the titles you couldn’t find on Nintendo systems. Including RPGs which were hitting its boom, and as mentioned anything that required CD techonology like FMV and voiece acting.
Now let’s talk about games, with Tomb Raider and Resident Evil, they dominated. They still had a mascot with Crash even if he was no Mario. The amount of different genres and styles just meant that you could get whatever you wanted. RPGs were plentyful as well as the anime games which were becoming a more and more important part of the gaming market at the time. The games were also cheaper which meant most licensed games were here as well.
The graphics were not the strongest point, in fact I was not a fan of the now iconic PS1 look. Those pixelated blocky 3D figures and pixelated textures looked terrible. I much preferred the N64 look which seemed more modern. I can now appreciate both unique looks that each console has. When I finally got a PS2 I bought a bunch of PSX games for cheap, both new and/or used. Granted there were so many plus the PS2/Gamecube games coming out that I never got to give most a chance back then. I still tried to play as mucha as I could fromt hat oldgen.
In the end the hype, strong library of titles and attitude meant I could not go on long without a Playstation. And that was an easy reason as to why I got a PS2. I could finally play all those Playstation 1 games I always wanted and be part of the Sony ecosystem.