The Video Game Entry: Playstation (One)

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!

The memories the memories. 883 horsepower Toyota Supra RZ waiting to spin out on a moment’s notice!

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!

Be thankful if your only exposure to this piece of crap is this well-done review!

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!

Kick, punch, it’s all in the mind!

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.

I preferred going from 24th to 1st at Bristol in 2 laps myself, LOL.

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.

Here is a little bonus room where you can play…

I’d also be remiss if I forgot to mention about the “musical fruit”.

You know how the song goes!

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.

The Video Game Entry: Sega Genesis

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, I am going to discuss the Genesis, the start of my gaming sub-culture.

Back in the 90’s, the Sonic character ruled, and it was no different in my family. Whether it was 2, 3, with or without Knuckles, Spinball, 3-D, you name it, that blue hedgehog’s innovative way kept creeping into the house.
One of my favorite memories of the Sonic games was when you would put the Sonic 2 or 3 cartridge in the Knuckles cartridge, and suddenly the original game (2 or 3) changed big time. Who knew in Chemical Plant Zone 1 there was a little cheat to get three extra lives, or who knew climbing up walls in 3 would get you extra big rings? Knuckles had the power, and that little red monster certainly kicked ass.

Of all the Sonic boss battles, none were as hard to beat (in my opinion) than the final boss of Sonic 2. It was impossible to hit, and mainly, one hit was death because of the dearth of rings available to you to grab. At least they somewhat “corrected” that in Sonic 4.
Did anyone else thing that Scrap Brain Zone from the first game was entirely way too difficult? Seriously, that level in its whole required the precision of a heart surgeon to get through without losing a life, much less a hit! Hitting some of those jumps correctly took a wing and a prayer to execute, and even then, it was sometimes impossible!
Another one of the more popular games in the house was Kid Chameleon. Released in 1992 to mild critical acclaim, this difficult side-scroller was interesting in it’s conventions.

For example, when you collect the diamonds, you really collect them for either protection or any of Kid’s alter-egos to get either more hit-points, lives, enemy wipeouts, etc. There’s a limit of 99, and when you try to collect them after that number, they “fall” off the screen.
Also, there were “wall” levels that continually scared me as a young one, where you have to outrun a spike-filled wall and avoid the traps. That was not easy, trying to not only do it as fast as possible, but also not get hit or anything!  Bloody Swamp was by far the worst of these levels, but after some trial and error, there’s a pattern (and alter ego) you need to possess in order to successfully go through it.

As Pink Floyd would say, “RUN… RUN…RUN….RUN…”

Another innovation was the “pods”, where depending on level, took to you to either the beginning of a level, another level entirely (mainly ‘Elsewhere’ levels), or just a little bit forward/backward.
This game was ingenious also in the fact that with a cheat code, you could warp from Blue Lake Woods II all the way to Plethora*, which is the last zone of the game. Where you see the asterisk, the cheat code under the Youtube embed!

An epic cheat code. DOWN-RIGHT-JUMP-ACTION at the same time, which by default, is the down and right buttons on the d-pad, b and c! Modify this cheat accordingly due to your controller setup!

 

Speaking of CHEATS, there is one more major one to discuss, a time warp cheat. First off, it requires you get 100,000 points. You complete the first two Blue Lake Woods levels, with all the bonuses (no hit, no prize, fast time, etc.). Then you need to do the first Highwater Pass with the same thing, but only get the Bezerker alter-ego at the beginning (this is a requirement). At the end of this level, you will have about 60K points, maybe a tad more. THEN, you get to the second Highwater Pass level. Go through it, but when you go downhill, you can go right or left. Go right, and up the platform with that green hand of death. There’s a pod, TAKE IT! You’ll go to a ‘Elsewhere’ level where with a hidden continue, you need to get the Cyclone alter-ego, which is the fourth block from the left on the top level of "hiding” blocks. Fly to the pod on the other side of the level, and it’ll take you to Under Skull Mountain I. Run and fly to a point where the ground is covered with pointy “dead bones”, if you catch my drift. There is a “hidden” block with a life ‘P’ above it. Either get it or skip it, but keep flying to the right, and up. There are 4 ‘P’s worth 10K of points (as in it says 10,000). Get all four P’s, and this happens:
 
That flash will transport you… ALL… THE… WAY to Woods of Despair I, which is approximately 2/3rd’s into the game! Cool ain’t it? After that, you’ll be back as Kid, but you get a alter-ego choice at the beginning. After that, you complete that level, and it turns out, you truly have more than ONE MILLION points!

A better example of what I was talking about. Insane, isn’t it?

One more game of smashing success I’ll tell in this edition is the Road Rash series. Between myself and my brother, we could never get enough of speeding bikes, abusing cops, and more importantly, abusing the riders whose mission was to take you down. While Road Rash I may not have much in the way of weapons (clubs), it’s a better “seat of your pants” racing game, where literally strategy will get you to your final destination.

Home of one of the most epic title menu tracks of all time!

Road Rash II has an awesome cheat code. Watch here:

What he doesn’t tell you is when you hold down the buttons, you hear the music slow down, and the main player goes, “YEAH!” When you hear this, the cheat is done correctly. Now you have unlimited nitros, and a top speed of 228 MPH. Good luck holding on in the slower categories!

#2 of the RR series also has more weapons (chains and I think mace), and Hawaii is a VERY slick track.
#3 is a little more lackadaisical. With more weapons, the driving style is not as engaging and while the bike customization is expanded, the vehicles themselves feel always 10 miles per hour slower than the competition.
Here’s a video of #3 at the snowy Germany track.

Running over that flag man is funny stuff!

While I could go on for days and days about how many great games there are for the initial Sega outing of systems, one does deserve mention for being the standard-bearer for which all racing games were compared to: Ayrton Senna Super Monaco II.

Racing in the Master category with a SEVEN SPEED manual is the only time you get to race with Senna in the first race!

When I was younger, all I knew how to do was ‘Automatic’, and severely lagged behind my brother, who would kick ass and take names with a seven-speed manual. 214 is faster than 198, that’s for sure!
As I got older though, I learned to race with the manual, and became a prodigy at this myself. I remember the first time I won at USA in a Serga with a seven-speed, and therefore went won to win all the races in the season and inherited the Madonna. A proud kid I was indeed, though emulators helped hone my skill.
In conclusion, there is one more story I’d like to tell, and it doesn’t even revolve around a game.
Back on Christmas in 2008, I was watching ‘Grumpy Old Men’ with my siblings. At the same time, we were pondering what to get our mother for her birthday, seeing as it falls on the second of January. We all though yeah a gift card was nice, but what other options could we do?
As time in the night went by, we were all thinking about the Genesis we had that went by the wayside in early 2004 because it, as you would hear from the Simpsons, “…died on its way back to its home planet.” By this point, we’d also hear from our mom about how she misses the Sega too.
So for her birthday, we all went in a Genesis with a ton of games to boot!
The look on her face and the jubilation in all of ours made it feel so worth it. It was as if a time warp happened, and all of us children were little again. Trading the controller back and forth on Kid Chameleon was a tradition that took place once again, and trying to get through all of Mega Bomberman without dying (or losing that infinite bomb card) was reborn again. 
So here’s to you Sega Genesis, a 16-bit gaming phenomenon from the golden years who deserves every bit the recognition you accumulated. 

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