Gaming Decades: The 90's | The Playstation
Unlike the Nintendo and Sega, both had competed with their consoles before. Sony's PlayStation appeared out of nowhere without a predecessor, and with 102 million consoles sold it won the fifth generation of console war! Beating both Nintendo 64 and Sega's Saturn in sales and games!
Playstation had many innovative technologies. Like using CDs instead of Cartridges which allowed to store a massive amount of data with the drawback of longer loading time. This allowed developers to do amazing things like FMV (Full Motion Video) sequences in their games!
"I mean look, this was on PS1!"
I remember feeling rewarded every time I reach an FMV in a game. In the 90s and early 2000s, these short videos with better graphics than the whole game never failed to capture my imagination!
PlayStation also improved on the Nintendo 64's controller idea and presented Dual Shock! A more comfortable controller with a vibration that set the road for many future controllers to follow in gaming!
I remember turning the vibration effect off most of the time, as it made me uncomfortable when I was younger. But now, I like having the rumble effect when I'm playing with modern systems!
Playstation Games!
Playstation had a mix of 2D and 3D games. While their 3D graphics look bad in today's standard they were revolutionary in 1995! As developers got more used to the system, the games that appeared later in the PS1 lifespan were generally better looking.
The best selling PlayStation game was Gran Turismo, but I'm not a fan of Car Racing games. Other notable games are Crash Bandicoot series, Tomb Rider and Tekken 3. The former's protagonist became the unofficial Playstation 1 mascot rivaling Nintendo's Mario and Sega's Sonic!
Final Fantasy VII the second best selling PS1 game was the first 3D games in the series and had so much content it spanned three disks! The game almost single-handedly popularized RPG genre outside Japan. It's also one of my favorite games of all time!
Symphony of the Night
Other amazing games include Spyro The Dragon and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night the latter had proven that 2D games still have a place in "an increasingly 3D market"
On STEEM I Have three posts about the PlayStation games I played in my childhood and teenage years! PS1 is the console I spent the most time on (because PC isn't a console.) I remember spending whole summer days from early morning to late night in front of the screen.
Fun Thoughts!
- Playstation had 7900+ games. (Counting multiple region games as separate games.) and sold more 960 million copies collectively.
- Dragon Quest VII was the best selling game in Japan.
- The "focus on 3D" direction was decided by Sony after witnessing the success of Virtua Fighter in the Arcades.
- Playstation CDs are copy and region protected. This was done by writing data tracks with wavy spiral paths rather than smooth paths like normal CD-burner could at the time.
Some of my fave games are PS1 games as well, and I can't get enough of them, even today. CTR, Harvest Moon, Vigilante 8...sometimes I wish I didn't leave my PS1 in my cousin's house who live so far away in another city.
Yes, the graphics look bad, yes the movements aren't so fluid, but when I think of the day of PS1, the joy can't be replaced with today's gaming experiences. It was special <3
Ah, memories... I remember playing CTR with my brother for a whole day once. I never played Harvest Moon on my actual Playstation. I emulated Back to Nature with a PC years after my PS1 died and I loved the experience!
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