Tomorrow, the 3rd of December 2014 marks 20 years since the release of the Sony PlayStation in Japan.
Happy 20th!
So let's discuss the wonders of the system.
This GamesMaster clip really reminds me of my Fleet friends Jimmy_G and BA005. We used to watch it again and again and again. Although they were extremely early adopters of the Saturn (see 'Sega Saturn - 20th Anniversary of Japanese launch' thread) it only took a couple of weeks for their heads to be turned by the Sony PlayStation. This turned out to be an early reflection for how the rest of the World would feel later on of course.
I wanted to be loyal to Sega, although I never respected Sega in the home before the Saturn (my Japanese RGB Mega Drive, the 12th in the country from years before was a mere nostalgic memory after the infinitely more pleasure the PCE and SFC had given me thereafter), they were obviously the joint kings of the arcades with Namco but a new Nintendo was miles away and looked dangerously Americanised and Sony were just nothing without Namco. It might as well of been the `Namco PlayStation`.
It was definately Sega versus Namco again, this time for the home. The only choice for me was a Saturn and the eventual 2D plain arcade action games it surely must be able to cope with. I was a huge Ridge Racer fan in the arcade and I was hugely disappointed with the conversion on the Sony Playstation (regardless of the obvious unfair expectations) half the framerate, lower resolution, more pop-op and horrendous polygon folding. It did nothing for me. I knew both machines were no good for 3D but I bet on the Saturn to be the 2D powerhouse. Overall I think I was wrong, the PlayStation turned out to be the greatest 2D powerhouse of that generation behind the Sega Saturn, just.
Although Jimmy_G already had a Japanese RGB Sony PlayStation with Ridge Racer for Christmas 1994 from CEX Rathbone Place, London, it was "pant wettingly exciting" that one of us would be the first person to finally be going to Japan, to Tokyo a few months later. That person was BA005:
`I first visited Tokyo in March 1995. The trip was my 18th birthday present from my Father. When I woke up on my birthday, there was a card for me. At first I thought he hadn't bought me a gift, but when I opened the card, there was a message saying that my present was his offer to take me anywhere in the World.
Because I so desperately wanted a Sony PlayStation and Ridge Racer at that time, I told him that the place I'd like to go the most is Akihabara in Tokyo.`
And I`ve never met anyone else since that went all the way to Japan just to buy one game, 20 years ago!!
20 years ago most English kids were still playing on their 16-bit PAL computers and "waggling their joysticks frantically in their bedrooms."
22:26-24:25:
What are your memories of the release of the Japanese Sony Playstation?
Happy 20th!
So let's discuss the wonders of the system.
This GamesMaster clip really reminds me of my Fleet friends Jimmy_G and BA005. We used to watch it again and again and again. Although they were extremely early adopters of the Saturn (see 'Sega Saturn - 20th Anniversary of Japanese launch' thread) it only took a couple of weeks for their heads to be turned by the Sony PlayStation. This turned out to be an early reflection for how the rest of the World would feel later on of course.
I wanted to be loyal to Sega, although I never respected Sega in the home before the Saturn (my Japanese RGB Mega Drive, the 12th in the country from years before was a mere nostalgic memory after the infinitely more pleasure the PCE and SFC had given me thereafter), they were obviously the joint kings of the arcades with Namco but a new Nintendo was miles away and looked dangerously Americanised and Sony were just nothing without Namco. It might as well of been the `Namco PlayStation`.
It was definately Sega versus Namco again, this time for the home. The only choice for me was a Saturn and the eventual 2D plain arcade action games it surely must be able to cope with. I was a huge Ridge Racer fan in the arcade and I was hugely disappointed with the conversion on the Sony Playstation (regardless of the obvious unfair expectations) half the framerate, lower resolution, more pop-op and horrendous polygon folding. It did nothing for me. I knew both machines were no good for 3D but I bet on the Saturn to be the 2D powerhouse. Overall I think I was wrong, the PlayStation turned out to be the greatest 2D powerhouse of that generation behind the Sega Saturn, just.
Although Jimmy_G already had a Japanese RGB Sony PlayStation with Ridge Racer for Christmas 1994 from CEX Rathbone Place, London, it was "pant wettingly exciting" that one of us would be the first person to finally be going to Japan, to Tokyo a few months later. That person was BA005:
`I first visited Tokyo in March 1995. The trip was my 18th birthday present from my Father. When I woke up on my birthday, there was a card for me. At first I thought he hadn't bought me a gift, but when I opened the card, there was a message saying that my present was his offer to take me anywhere in the World.
Because I so desperately wanted a Sony PlayStation and Ridge Racer at that time, I told him that the place I'd like to go the most is Akihabara in Tokyo.`
And I`ve never met anyone else since that went all the way to Japan just to buy one game, 20 years ago!!
20 years ago most English kids were still playing on their 16-bit PAL computers and "waggling their joysticks frantically in their bedrooms."
22:26-24:25:
What are your memories of the release of the Japanese Sony Playstation?
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