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Boring Intro: Sometimes in this crazy world, there is nothing more relaxing, more social, or more entertaining than playing a good video game, whether it’s by yourself or with friends.
My current gaming credentials are as follows: I own a Xbox 360, slim, connected to a 37” Vizio with HDMI. I’m a Gold subscriber (pretty much have to be), with a controller, a headset, and about 10-12 games. Also where I live, there’s a Sega Genesis in the living room, and a Playstation 2 plus original Xbox downstairs.
Today, we’re focusing on the original Playstation, the evolutionary leap in the next generation up from the last review .
In was mid-1998, and Blockbuster was slowly starting to faze out Sega Genesis games. It got to the point where when they fully stopped, my Mom wrote a nasty letter about the issue.
How was she rewarded you ask?
Got a whole bunch of free rentals, but for the games that were in stock.
Back in the summer of that year, she did one thing you can’t do at Blockbuster anymore: she rented a system. The system, was indeed Playstation.
As you can see, the picture of the system came with a controller that was made before the invention of Dualshock. The system was pretty simple in design, where the button on the left would turn on the system/turn off the system, while the button on the right would open the disc hatch. You could also play music CD’s in there, so if you needed to do work of any sort, now you have background noise coming from the gaming system!
If anyone was wondering what games were first sampled, my Mom rented Gran Turismo and the Bubsy game that was in 3-D.
Gran Turismo was an experience. For you younger gamers, you have to understand: by that 98 summer, the best game we might have had for racing was the Super Monaco games. Sure Mario Kart might have been born, but that was for the Nintendo 64, and my family was NEVER a Nintendo one.
License tests? Cars you can buy, modify, and race at the same time? How an adjustment can radically change the characteristics of a car? Once upon a time on Sega, choosing between transmissions were the only thing you can do!
Some things were apparent: the Subaru rally car is the best handling race car in the Simulation mode, the Dodge Viper GTS should be run in the “stock” race, and the Honda del Sol was surprisingly one of the best handling cars in the Arcade mode!
Bubsy on the other hand was a game that should have never been released. After two stellar games on the Genesis, #3(d) was released to horrid reviews, mainly about the unplayable controls. Sure enough, not even ten minutes were used up and they game was CHUCKED!
After some deliberation, the Playstation was a keeper. In early August, mom loaded us all up in the 1987 Mercury Grand Marquis and went to K-Mart in the center of town. Playstation, Gran Turismo, and FROGGER were purchased, and thus the next chapter in my gaming heritage is born.
While all the males (which included me, my bro, and my dad even) were hog wild into GT, my sister went another route. My sis and I were brought to Toys R Us to spend our birthday money. I got NASCAR 98 (which I still have to this day), and my sis got Parappa the Rapper (which I believe is still lying around as well).
Parappa was one of those games that, while I hating playing it, I loved WATCHING it. You know what’s up when Master Onion teaches you karate and rapping in the same session!
Throughout the game you deal with frogs, chickens, and other assorted animals “rapping”, and then you face off against them in the final level of the game. This is one of those games that definitely gave a unique voice to the PS family, that is for sure!
As for my NASCAR ‘98, well, its an ODD game. For starters, it was meant to be an arcade game and not a simulation game, so there are some weird physics.
For example, when did you ever get to cut a 12 second lap at Bristol?
Or when could you cut a 52 second lap at Talladega when running 213 MPH the whole time?
Anywhos, my favorite thing about the whole game is a cheat code. You start a race, pause the screen, and go down to the lineup line (or something similar). Press “x” to enter that screen, and hold down all four buttons on the top of the controller (the L1,L2,R1,R2 buttons) at the same time. An engine noise will be activated, and thus the paintballs will too. Press Triangle to execute those bad boys.
Over time, the library expanded to include the likes of not only the four games mentioned, but also GT2, NASCAR 99-2001 (though 2001 truly sucked), NASCAR Heat, Final Fantasy Tactics, Reboot, Need for Speed III Hot Pursuit, Test Drives 5 and 6, the list goes on.
However, there is one game I didn’t mention in that list that I’m going to talk about somewhat in-depth here.
That game would be SKULL MONKEYS!
(And yes, the cover of that game is exactly how I have it too!)
During the free rental bonanza of 1998-1999, this was a game that was debated about amongst the family in the stores. After some discussion, the game was picked up, and we had no idea how awesome this game was.
After the opening screens, which was highlighted by a video prefaced with ‘a bad man falling out of the sky’, we’d be treated to a side-scroller that had hamster nun-chucks and UNIVERSE, ENEMA!!!!
This game had a password system, which was odd because most PS1 games at that point allowed you to save stuff on memory cards.
For me, the game draws a lot of comparison to Kid Chameleon. It is a unique game beset of traditional conventions. It is also a very long game (some 200+ levels), and the controls are VERY slippery at times. Jumps that look like they can land could sometimes be well off the mark, just like Kid!
Also like Kid, the “teleports” aren’t exactly normal either. At the end of the level, you’re mostly given one of two choices, a white ball that transfers to the next level that isn’t too hard and another colored ball (ranging from purple to red) that gives you a hard time of a level.
One area where the game shines big time is the soundtrack. Because the PS1 took advantage of the CD’s they were written on, there was a TON of music written and used for the game. Music varieties ranged from moderately-tempo’ed traditional game music, to jive, to folk, and even some “soft rock” of the bonus levels.
I’d also be remiss if I forgot to mention about the “musical fruit”.
After renting the game, it made such a lasting impression that I asked for it for my 10th birthday in 1999. And I got it! And it received TONS of play time not only in the PSOne (which was the renamed/redesigned version), but also in the PS2, whose entry will be very soon in the offing.
Unfortunately, the system was struck by a common ailment in Sony gaming products: DISC READ ERROR! Since this was later 2001, and Playstation 2 was just released, it seems like we got ourselves a setup for the next chapter!
In conclusion, I miss the PS1. It was a simple system, had good games, and it served as a evolution from 16-bit to 32-bit gaming. However, it will quickly become ancient history as the PS2 will take over and pretty much become the biggest video game system in history.
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