The Epiphany of the Sony PS 1

z80CPU

What was your first experience playing the PS 1? Mine was playing it on a racing game with a similar study avoiding student in 1999. I was late to the game. Never have bought a Playstation though.

Trip down memory lane

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdSoLqOrd8M

Inviere

The magazines and media of the era hyped the console up significantly, so much that I sold my 16bit treasures and bought into the PS1 hype without ever playing it beforehand. Still remember bringing it home, and loading up that demo disc.....jaw on the floor moment.

Timfy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UT4JWmePGR8&ab_channel=JimboGaming

1996 - This!

RobbingBandit

Metal Gear Solid Dual Shock floor vibration it was awe inspiring

KeRbDoG

The cracking soundtracks - Sony could do but others couldn't due to Sony Music and other music labels they owned.

Gran Turismo 1 - was most awesome

Metal Gear Solid - the memory (card) reading and the needing to move the controller from port 1 to port 2 to defeat a boss :)

Retr0gamer

A posh friend got one with ridge racer and a copy of the demo disc. It was mindblowing and exciting to see such realistic 3D graphics. Would be a long time before I got my own PS1 but I could at least revel in the second hand excitement about the system from playing some of the game on the PC and at friends houses while following all the games in the media.

It was touch and go of the ps1 would really succeed. The Saturn did ok in 1995 and the software on the ps1 after a cracking launch was spotty. The n64 was also on the horizon with reports about how mario 64 a game changer.

And then 1996 happened and was a cracking year for the ps1. Resident Evil really sold the system to me but there were loads of great games. And 1997 was even better.

Before Mario 64 could hit Europe and the US the ps1 had tomb raider and the crappy crash Bandicoot but both gave the system the icons it was missing.

newmember2

First game I played proper on a PS1(after several magazine demos that I can't remember) I think was Tomb Raider which I remember at the time as being magical. MGS was like another level when it came out,

Hell...this was magical!...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jwln1ai_DYU&ab_channel=Mateoski

o1s1n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120950038#Comment_120950038

:D

1997 opening with FFVII

It was the first intro, for many, in that kind of game and an openish world setting.

Sure there was the Final Fantasy games on SNES and PC had the graphics but this was a first for a lot of console gamers

Steve X2

I remember going to the PlayStation launch event in Temple Bar in 1995. I think it was in the Temple Bar Music Centre(now The Button Factory), but its a bit of a blurry teenage memory 🙂 I do remember we all got the demo disc to take home.

I've googled it there and cant find any record of it happening, but i was definitely there 🙂

Anyone else make it to that one? I'm guessing it had to be 1995 as 1996 sounds a bit late.

Tork

The PS1 was the first console that came into our house. We'd played games on an Amiga and a PC until then. I can't remember if the console came bundled with anything but I know I played Wipeout 2097 a lot early on. Sometimes when I'm driving on a motorway I like to put on some of the tunes from the soundtrack. Especially "We have explosive" but the Future Sound of London. There were other great games after that of course but Wipeout is the one that springs to my mind immediately.

I used to buy the PlayStation magazine because in those days you'd get a cover mounted disc with each issue. Because those were pre-internet times, I played demos of games I might not have looked at twice otherwise.

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120950514#Comment_120950514

To Quote Die Hard:

"I was in Junior High dickhead".

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120950561#Comment_120950561

Wipeout 2097 was a massive deal at the time. I even remember them talking about it on the radio. The first game was a showpiece for the PS1 launch but it had major issues and was too hard. 2097 though was such a massive improvement. The soundtrack was even better (licensed stuff was good but I think the standout tracks were by psygnosis' inhouse composer Cold Storage). It looks incredible as well, the blue vapour trails from the vehicles just looked insane. It was a much better playing game. I actually eventually got the game on PC when a 3D card enabled version came bundled with my 3D accelerator and it still looked incredible.

I much prefer F-Zero as a game series but Wipeout had a look and attitude that was iconic to the mid 90s and the playstation.

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120950514#Comment_120950514

I'd say it was 1995 if it was coinciding with the PS1 launch. I imagine that the irish papers covered it but also doubt that they were publishing online at the time or if they are it's not archived well.

TechnoFreek

Hey Steve. I was at a playstation event in Temple Bar but it was around 1996 or so I think. It was some invite only event that I registered for somehow. The console was already out and the event was a sea of CRTs and ps1s with upcoming games to play.

I could be misremembering but I got a vhs tape at this event in a goodie bag with the below trailer on it.

Some of the games in that trailer are tomb raider and die hard trilogy which came out in 1996, as did the music track on top of the video

https://youtu.be/ZO5ptU3IUU4

not saying this was the event you were at, possibly another one!

Retr0gamer

Pretty sure a cider based man from this forum was at it as well.

Steve X2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120951660#Comment_120951660

It could very well be that as I thought it was 1996, but as the console launched in 1995 my brain might have "re-adjusted" things.

I don't remember the VHS, but do remember registering for the event somehow as it was invite/registered only. Damn those hazy teenage memories 🙂 Around that time I would have spent a good bit of time in the Cyberia internet café in temple bar, so might have heard about it there.

SheepsClothing

The demo 1 dinosaur is still yet to be surpassed:

https://youtu.be/k7Lk7idveeU

o1s1n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120953029#Comment_120953029

It's amazing how quickly the music and sounds in that clip take you back to the mid 90s! Forever ingrained into part of your brain.

I reckon Demo 01 has to be one of the most impactful pieces of videogame media ever made. It might sound like a big claim, but it was literally that moment where most of us experienced not only the next step from 2D games to 3D at home, but a real shift in the feeling of what was actually possible with videogames.

Sure, games like MGS would come along that were absolutely groundbreaking, but people already had a feeling as to what was possible on the Playstation at that point. Playing Demo 1 for the first time when the console was released (for me anyway!) was actually experiencing that sense of playing games of the future, everything was possible and it was incredibly exciting. Not only that, the sheer volume of content on just one disc was hard to fathom for someone who was used to only getting a couple of new games a year.

I don't think that has ever been surpassed. Came close to it when I first plugged in my Oculus Rift DK1 years ago, but can't think of anything else that had me floored quite as much.

o1s1n

Decided to see if I could fish out my old ps1 demo discs from back in the day. Threw out all the mags years ago but held onto the discs. I think at one point they nearly ended up in the bin too.

Almost two years worth from '97 to '99. Wonder why I stopped buying them in 99, I suppose it was quite the commitment from my younger self at 7 Irish pounds a month.

Some really interesting games in there all things considered. Mostly Western studios with some Japanese big hitters then thrown in.

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120953852#Comment_120953852

While we got the **** end of the stick with 50Hz games which unfortunately make up most of my collection, the UK Official PS1 mag had all the Net Yaroze games on the demo disc and those discs are the only way most of those games got preserved.

That MGS1 demo disc could be the greatest demo ever. Not a lot of game in there but the gameplay and systems of the game were so good you could play it for ages discovering new things.

Quigs Snr

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120953852#Comment_120953852

I seem to have all the same demo discs and all of the corresponding magazines in the attic. And for some reason my collection also stops in 99.

The Magazine pile in the attic however starts in 2000 with PC Zone which ended up going for 3 years in my collection, so looks like I flipped to PC collecting after Half Life blew my socks clear off.

o1s1n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120954891#Comment_120954891

Oh of course! I bought an IBM Aptiva in 99 and switched over to PC gaming, that completely makes sense. The Playstation would have been consigned to the attic at that stage and all my time was spent playing Half Life DM online.

o1s1n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120954399#Comment_120954399

The excitement around that MGS1 Demo disc was huge. I remember the day I bought it and rushing back home to give it a go. Rather amazingly that disc also has every Net Yaroze game worth playing on it too.

Yeah Net Yaroze is fairly forgotten at this stage, it's a shame they haven't been catalogued somewhere official.

Must fire up that disc and give some of them a go again. I remember being quite fond of Blitter Boy and Hover Car Racing.

IstvaanV

My brother bought me one the Christmas it came out. A bunch of friends from around the housing estate would come hang out and play Wipeout over and over. Became the main hangout spot for the group for a few years as a result. For anyone who was there I say to you: Long live The Shroom and the PVG.

Steve X2

I must dig out my Net Yaroze and see if she still fires up. I had some plan for it when I picked it up years ago, but never did anything with it.

KeRbDoG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120955758#Comment_120955758

I wonder how complete the Wikipedia entry is of demos/games released to the public https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Net_Yaroze_games

CiDeRmAn

I bought it upon it's launch here, and played Wipeout pretty much non stop, to the point I could beat the whole game in a single sitting, while drunk...

A little later I played a ton of Ridge Racer, Destruction Derby and Ace Combat (Air Combat at home in Japan).

cj maxx

I got one in England in about 86/87 . Great times for the whole house. Mostly F1 / Worms/ Mortal Kombat . I took it home when I moved home but my father dumped it because my spa brother went on for hours and gave himself some sort of epileptic fit . Looking for a ps5 now if you have any recommendations for games

megaten

Saw them for years at firends houses before I had one. Didn't actually own one myself until the PSOne version when the ps2 was already out. My parents convicned me to get one over a ps2 becuaase it had more games on the box. Of course the reality was they couldn't afford to buy me a ps2 becuase before the euro change over shops were looking for huge money on the ps2.

Damien-King

I think the first time i was blown away was seeing & Playing the F1 game complete with commentary from murray walker round at a mates house. Picked one up for myself shortly after.

One of the first games i got was colin mcrae complete with a steering wheel, that was incredible.

Loved the originality, soundtrack and humour in Vigilante 8

Biggest disappointment had to be fade to black (sequel to Flashback) I was probably just expecting too much from it.

The hands down winner for all out fun had to be a week spent at my cousins back in the late 90's, I'd brought along my playstation and all games but we just ended up on circuit breakers and a multi tap every night after the pub, usually around 6 of us including their friends. After a couple of days of this craic alliances for the evening would be formed in the pub.

Fun Times