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[nani17]

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On this day September 29th, 1995 the PlayStation 1 codenamed the PSX launched in the EU. It was released in Japan on 3 December 1994, in North America on 9 September 1995, Australia on 15 November 1995. As a fifth-generation console, the PlayStation primarily competed with the Nintendo 64 and Sega Saturn.

Sony began developing the standalone PlayStation after a failed venture with Nintendo to make a CD-ROM peripheral for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in the early 1990s It's believed Nintendo instead stuck a deal with Sony's rival Philips but never went through with it.

The Nintendo Sony prototype

The console was primarily designed by Ken Kutaragi and Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan, while additional development was outsourced within the UK. Stress on 3D polygon graphics was placed at the forefront of the console's design. PlayStation game production was designed to be streamlined and inclusive, enticing the support of many third-party developers.

​

The console proved popular for its extensive game library, popular franchises, low retail price, and aggressive youth marketing which advertised it because of the preferable console for adolescents and adults. Premier PlayStation franchises included Gran Turismo, Crash Bandicoot, Tomb Raider, and Final Fantasy, all of which spawned numerous sequels. PlayStation games continued to sell until Sony ceased production of the PlayStation and its games on 23 March 2006—over eleven years after it had been released, and fewer than a year before the debut of the PlayStation 3.

The PlayStation signaled Sony's rise to power within the computer game industry. It received acclaim and sold strongly; in but a decade, it became the primary computer entertainment platform to ship over 100 million units. Its use of compact discs heralded the sports industry's transition from cartridges. The PlayStation's success led to a line of successors,

Spoiler: Some Games

There were many amazing games on the PS1 back in the day from Metal Gear Solid to Final Fantasy 7 which games do you fondly remember?

 

[MasterCornholio]

Have some really fond memories of this system.

 

[Captain Toad]

I get it. I'm old. Stop telling me.

I remember driving to get my PS1. It was the first console I bought myself after getting a job and my license.

 

[Rocco Schiavone]

Where are the grey PS5 faceplates or the classic grey dualsense controllers???

 

[GenericUser]

Happy birthday, I love the playstation 1.

 

[German Hops]

The best system , only below the PlayStation 2.

 

[ShirAhava]

Oh, and never forget Polygon Man or he'll make you fight your co-workers in a shitty smash bros clone game

 

[Fake]

And still beat the modern Playstation emulation.

What a world.

 

[digoutyoursoul]

Still the best PlayStation for me, even that start up screen and music remains awesome.

I remember what a ignorant vomit bucket I was for dismissing Sony entering the console market. I then received one that Christmas and was blown away. How wrong I initially was.

 

[Mr Hyde]

One of the greatest consoles ever made with an equally great library of games. PSX took gaming to a whole new level. So many fond memories from this era. It's where my interest in JRPGs started. With Suikoden in 95. And then it went on. FF 7, 8, 9. Parasite Eve. Xenogears. Vagrant Story. Grandia. Legend of Dragoon. The hits just kept coming. It never ended. So much creativity in this era. So many new genres and IPs. It's like the developers fought with each other who could make the most groundbreaking games. Will always love the OG Playstation. It's the reason I'm a hardcore gamer still to this day.

 

[marcincz]

Happy birthday old friend.
MGS, the best FF's, AC, SH, RE 1-3, Crash 1-3, GT 1-2. What a memories.

 

[nominedomine]

If there is one thing I hate the most about Sony is how they handle their legacy library. You should be able to buy the vast majority of these games on your new PlayStation and have it running in 4K great CRT filters on pair with the best emulators at the very least.

 

[lame gag1990]

Crazy it's been that long. I remember we got a chipped PS1 from the car boot. Good times.

 

[Nitty_Grimes]

Was working in Toys R Us the first Christmas it came out - fun times watching people come to blows trying to get one while Saturn boxes just sat there doing the Matrick ‘no, please’ gif.

Bought mine with Destruction Derby and Loaded.

 

[DeepEnigma]

Damn, still feels like yesterday. I remember getting mine with Tekken and NFL Gameday.

 

[kyussman]

Looking back now,getting my PS1 with a copy of Tomb Raider was the biggest WOW! moment I've ever had in gaming.The CD drive and the amazing 3D graphics felt so advanced back then,nothing since has really felt like such a big deal.

 

[amigastar]

I was always a Nintendo guy so i didn't play those (admittedly awesome) games like Final Fantasy or Gran Turismo 2.

 

[Nitty_Grimes]

Ah Gran Turismo 2 with the scratch and sniff disc.

 

[TGO]

I feel like a OAP(Old Aged Playstationer)
Awesome system.
Literally change the game.
Still got mine and the games.

 

[skit_data]

Got mine in 1996, my first console. I still have it, but it stopped reading discs at some point so it’s just memorabilia.

 

[Rocco Schiavone]

I was always a Nintendo guy so i didn't play those (admittedly awesome) games like Final Fantasy or Gran Turismo 2.

 

[Werewolf Jones]

I was 5 when it came out.



Sometimes I wish a was a Baby Boomer doing coke to Blue Monday in the club then going home to my easily affordable house.

Other times I wish I was Gen X so I could've been around 20 or so when FF VII dropped... Think I'm at the right place though, grew up with the PS1. Good times.

 

[Robbinhood]

A customer left it in my dads cab, thats how I got a PS1.

Its my fondest gaming system to date. What I loved about the old era of games is that it was such a linear progression. Graphics, animation, level design, it continuously got better in a linear way, so we were constantly improving forward, not 2 steps forward 1 step back like with Microtransactions changing how games are designed and so on.

Games were built to be 5-20 hours long with only small exceptions. No loot systems or multiplayer Gaas shite.

I still think games are much better today in terms of mechanics and graphics but game design can be so tedious today.

 

[ReBurn]

Where are the grey PS5 faceplates or the classic grey dualsense controllers???

I would buy this if Sony made it.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

The d-pad which was shit (Genesis and SNES were better as a single piece) and the loading times were crazy long.

But what a time for console gaming. Ya, if you had a CD-rom PC you already knew about FMV clips and CD quality audio, but it was a new thing for most console gamers as most of us didn't have a Turbo CD or 3DO from years before.

I think the first batch of games I got were TR, RE, Face Off 97, Formula One, Tekken 2, Ace Combat 2.

The mem card system was fine. Never ran out of room as I didn't stockpile tons of games and most games save file were just 1 mem block.

Only drawback was I got the shitty laser too. The upside down trick worked, but only for so long. Not the end of the world as I was already tired of the system and waiting for PS2. I gave away all my PS1 gear to a coworker who didn't care if the system only worked half the time.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

All the game covers in OP except one are US versions. Just sayin’.


I got my PS circa one month before Christmas 1996. My father got home from work that evening, leaned into our living room and said to me, “Why don’t we go buy a PlayStation?!” Something miraculously stopped me from asking him if he’d gone mad, as my father never played video games. I just said yeah, and down we went to the store. Choosing between Rayman and Resident Evil was one of the hardest choices of my gaming life. I chose wisely, and a little later we were home with a brand new PlayStation and a copy of RE.

All my father ever did with that PS was fiddle around with the Tomb Raider demo for all of ten minutes. He never picked up that pad again. But for me, it was a new world.

 

[SkylineRKR]

Yeah I remember. I was at third grade high school. I didn't have money for a PSX yet. And it wasn't on my radar before, as I had a Sega. But everything pointed towards Sony having a fighting chance. They managed to outperform the Saturn in reviews and hype. They locked MK3. They did some smart stuff. So when it launched yeah, I saw them demo'd, and PSX simply looked better. I started to lean towards this machine. Saved up and bought it a year later or so, after the first price drop.

 

[Orta]

I hated myself for buying one but Sega fanboy or not, I had to.

Glorious memories of Doom, Tomb Raider, Ridge Racer Type 4, Resident Evil 2, etc.

 

[RAIDEN1]

....And yet Sony doesn't give a dam about that or to bring its legacy forward to the Playstation 5...if it did it would make the current console somewhat more attractive...because there is no doubt that what you got in the PS-1 generation, for all the latest tech the PS5 has, it doesn't have the games that match the calibre of what you had on the PS-X

 

[Phoebe Buffay]

"Two nine nine"

 

[Slicker than your average]

Man the delay in the 90s for games and consoles to Europe from Japan release date were wild.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

....And yet Sony doesn't give a dam about that or to bring its legacy forward to the Playstation 5...if it did it would make the current console somewhat more attractive...because there is no doubt that what you got in the PS-1 generation, for all the latest tech the PS5 has, it doesn't have the games that match the calibre of what you had on the PS-X

Sony's studios are go big or go home. The smallest game you'll get is Astrobot or Dreams.

You'll never see cool and quirky small scale games like Parappa or Intelligent Qube from Sony ever again.

 

[Rac3r]

The good old days. My dad was't much of a gamer outside of arcade shooters like Galaga and a little SNES (which he sold), so we didn't get a PS1 at launch. Eventually, Gran Turismo came out, which really impressed him, and he ended up buying a PS1 for the family. I was probably only like 4 or 5 at the time and I still have vivid memories of playing GT1 for hours, doing everything on the demo disc multiple times, and watching my dad play Crash.

 

[amc]

The true start of my gaming addiction. I'd briefly dabbled with the VCS but soon got bored. Had a crazy night in 92 after a bunch of us went to a service station after a club and I managed to throw a Virtua Racing twin sit down into free play (I turned it on and off again at the wall lol). It was an epiphany, is this what games had become?, we played that sucker until the sun came up, many an odd look from passing Little Chef patrons.

Was super pissed to find out that 3D was basically shit on anything from the home, Indy 500 on my younger sister's Amiga just didn't cut it. I actually started to read Edge after seeing it one day in W.H Smith, issue 1, how apt, anyway, although I'd bought a SNES for a bit of Star Fox and Stunt Race FX I still didn't get a lot out of gaming, was more of a play a game now and again with a few joints type. But having been reading Edge, I knew that the shit I was after was just around the corner.

I imported a JPN machine for much wonga, along with Ridge Racer (had a scart lead directly soldered into it by the import shop, not sure if it was RGB) It blew my fucking mind, this was it, my 3D dreams where coming true.

Eventually moved on my import and bought a PAL machine due to PAL Wipeout's music being fucked up when playing in NTSC. Games and gaming became my main from those days until today. Some insane two player nights with Wipeout and Doom on two machines and two TVs with a mate, all night sessions that will never be beat.

Loved the PS1.

 

[cormack12]

Ahhh, so this is why Leo Di Caprio swore off PlayStation 2 years ago.

 

[jigglet]

lol as if this new kid on the block has any chance against Nintendo. Ps1 will be dead before 1995 is over.

 

[Kazza]

I remember what a ignorant vomit bucket I was for dismissing Sony entering the console market. I then received one that Christmas and was blown away. How wrong I initially was.

I think this is a point too often forgotten today. It wasn't a given that Sony would be a success and there was a lot of scepticism at the time. The 3DO had a lot of big payers supporting it but never took off after all. However, by the end of 1995 I think it was obvious that they were here to stay. They got everything right!

I had a Saturn throughout and loved it, but there's no doubt that the PS1 dominated culturally, so I still have a lot of nostalgia for it.

 

[El Sueño]

You have no idea how I felt when I saw Alucard entering the castle of his father and the music starts among the lightings.
Ps1

 

[Davevil]

Too many memories

 

[Rykan]

If you were an EU Playstation 1 player, then you'll probably recognize this:

 

[Fake]

Ahhh, so this is why Leo Di Caprio swore off PlayStation 2 years ago.

Underated post.

 

[Nitty_Grimes]

This was the one that came with the launch consoles.

 

[lh032]

hmmm hidden meaning?
Major announcement coming soon!?

 

[Captain Toad]

Where are the grey PS5 faceplates or the classic grey dualsense controllers???

That is beautiful.

 

[gaming_again]

Even though I'd grown up gaming on the Spectrum, Amiga, NES, PC, Master System, and SNES, nothing made me feel as though I were being kicked into another dimension as the original PlayStation start-up sound did. Fucking hell, whoever composed that is a straight up genius.



The sound of dark and wet October evenings round my friend's house desperate for time to pause so I didn't have to go home for dinner.

Feel bad for younger brahs who hear this as retro rather than the sound of the future.

 

[EverydayBeast]

We saw Sony enter the gaming world and dominate and btw MGS is just the greatest thing ever

 

[Rocco Schiavone]

This was the one that came with the launch consoles.

I still have the european demo disc. But Loaded was censored without Blood. At least the Demo disc version that was included in germany.

 

[DeepEnigma]

Even though I'd grown up gaming on the Spectrum, Amiga, NES, PC, Master System, and SNES, nothing made me feel as though I were being kicked into another dimension as the original PlayStation start-up sound did. Fucking hell, whoever composed that is a straight up genius.



The sound of dark and wet October evenings round my friend's house desperate for time to pause so I didn't have to go home for dinner.

Feel bad for younger brahs who hear this as retro rather than the sound of the future.

Damn that remastered version tickles the synthy ears!

 

[Thanati]

This and the Xbox 360 are my favorite consoles.

I still remember the marathon FIFA 99 sessions we would have in my student days. Great times.

 

[Star-Lord]

I was 8 when I first got my hands on a PlayStation. It came with Rayman, Ridge Racer, WipeOut, and two controllers.

I was hooked from day one.