revisiting the PS1

[Iron Draggon]

I've recently added about a dozen PS1 games to my collection, and after checking them all out, I have to say that I'm amazed at just how great this system is... I never really noticed it before, but it is truly awesome! I always preferred the Saturn, but now I wish that I owned alot more PS1 games... I sold about as many games as I own now, and some of the ones that I've purchased recently are games that I once owned before... and I'm so glad to finally have those games in my collection again... I just wish that I could replace more of the rest of the ones I used to own, and pick up a few more that I never owned before... it's hard to believe how impressed I am with this system now... I've even noticed that among the games I own for both the PS1 and the Dreamcast, the PS1 really isn't a very significant drop in quality... I know this isn't saying much, since all the Dreamcast games that appeared on the PS1 as well are just slightly upgraded versions of their PS1 counterparts, but it's still amazing to me how favorably the PS1 versions compare to the Dreamcast versions... I wish that more PS1 games had been given Dreamcast makeovers, but it doesn't really seem to be all that necessary... so I can only imagine how well the PS1 holds up against the PS2 and the XBOX as well... I wish that I could afford to collect for the PS2 and the XBOX to find out!

[Kevincal]

the PS has an insane amount of good and great games. It didn't kick the Saturn and N64's ass for no reason... ;) The thing that impressed me the most about the PS was the number of good and great games that came out on the system shortly after its launch.. I mean, in the 3 months after it launched in the US, there were easily 15-20 MUST HAVE games already!

[jahvybe]

I wish that I could afford to collect for the PS2 and the XBOX to find out!

It seems to me that lately most ps2 and xbox games are dirt cheap even compared to psx. I think ps2 and xbox are at a perfect place right now for building a collection because they are just old enough that average people prefer current gen stuff and not quite old enough to be sought after by most collectors. Except crazy people like us anyway.

But I completely agree with what you say about psx. I got a psx kiosk last year and it got me interested in getting back into it. I have been working on getting back all the psx games I got rid of too. I especially miss Tomba! and the Resident Evil series.

[Pezcore343]

I agree that PS1 has a fantastic amount of great games, and it's one of my largest collections as far as systems go. Going along with what jahvybe said, ps2, xbox, and even gamecube games are insanely cheap right now, especially at GameStop. It's at the point where stores are just trying to get rid of the old games and make room for newer systems, but where there's not a high demand for them yet. Some great games for the XBOX can be picked up for a couple dollars. I'd look into it if I were you.

[TwinChargers]

It seems to me that lately most ps2 and xbox games are dirt cheap even compared to psx. I think ps2 and xbox are at a perfect place right now for building a collection because they are just old enough that average people prefer current gen stuff and not quite old enough to be sought after by most collectors. Except crazy people like us anyway.


Agree with this statement 100%. I was originally an owner of the PS2 and bought tons of games throughout its lifespan. Never really had interest in an Xbox. Then, last summer I saw an Xbox at a garage sale for $40. I figured, what the heck.
My Xbox collection of games is nearing my PS2 collection simply cause I can find games all the time at local pawns (and GameStop if you don't mind them) for $5 and under. These aren't shovelware or sports titles either. Splinter Cell, Mech Warrior, Project Gotham Racing... the list goes on and on. Now is the time to check out the Xbox if you haven't already.

[eskobar]

I always compare the PLAYSTATION with the NES in terms of originality and ingenuity. Too many developers and too many fresh ideas were two key reasons to the PS1 success in the world.

It was a very well designed hardware that always had extra power for the developers that really got into it ... jewels like Metal Gear Solid, Vagrant Story, FF Tactics, Castelvania SotN, Klonoa, Tomba, FF7, Thousand Arms and many more will always be remembered by anyone who played them.

I am very glad that you gave yourself a chace to play on the PS1

[Graham Mitchell]

PS1 really was pretty great. I think I enjoyed it much more than the PS2. As somebody else mentioned, I'm also in the process of getting back some of the PS1 games I had gotten rid of (most notably Final Fantasy VII and Kileak: The DNA Imperative).

There are a lot of quirky games on the machine too, some good, some so-so. Psygnosis turned out to be a pretty bizarre developer on that machine. I recently acquired their version of the City of Lost Children (which plays sort of like a cross between Alone in the Dark and Space Quest) and a really unique one called Sentient. It falls a bit short of expectations due to technological limitations and somewhat punitive gameplay (your success depends on performing certain tasks within a certain period of time, or obtaining crucial items from areas that you absolutely cannot revisit, and once you fuck up, that's it--your game is irreversibly altered and you will die within about 10 minutes.) But, it has a lot of ambient effects and a rather scarry sci-fi theme that lives on today in games like Bioshock and Dead Space.

One game I really want to pick up is The Sentinel Returns. I see it for $5 on Amazon sometimes. I never did play the original Sentinel, but I read nothing but favorable things about The Sentinel Returns.

[Kid Ice]

The PlayStation is simply my favorite console ever. It's the only system I've played more than I played my VCS when I was a kid.

Why more PS1 games aren't released for PS3/PSP simply baffles me. I would buy Colony Wars, Tekken 3, Gran Turismo, Einhander, N2O, Wipeout XL, or R4 for ten bucks without even thinking about it. And that list is just off the top of my head.

[kupomogli]

From a basis on what the system itself can play without backwards compatibility and the like, the original Playstation is my favorite.

The system itself is mainly a haven for RPG titles, though there are alot of good 2d and 3d games from other genres as well. If RPGs were out of the picture though and it was just a basis on every other genre, the PS2, SNES, and NES would beat the original Playstation as, while the system did have amazing titles in the other genres, there aren't enough to stack up in comparison to the many on NES, SNES, and PS2 that are just that good. Beat's out every other system though, even without the large list of amazing RPG titles.

[Greg2600]

The CD Format was the key for the PS1. Though I had the N64 back then, I would buy a lot of PC games. When I started going through the list of PS1 games, I found almost all of my PC games were released on it. No reason for a Saturn. Granted the graphics on a PC version are 10 times better than the PS1. So I don't know about the "ingenuity" mentioned by eskobar, since the PC and PS1 versions usually came out at the same time. Looking back though, I'm not a huge fan of the PS1's graphics, which are very poor in my opinion.

I've been picking up PS1 games lately though. Unfortunately the PS2 doesn't do much for the graphics. Played on a PC emulator, the games are very good, on the PS1 or PS2, eh, N64 is much better. That said, in my neurosis, I have considered getting PS1 copies of games I have for PC, like the Need for Speed Series, Die Hard Trilogy series, etc., and dumping the PC versions. Granted the PC versions have better graphics and mods, but I can't be bothered installing the games first. Hate that. Am I nuts? Probably. I do enjoy them on the PC emu, just not as gung-ho on the PS2.

As for the availability, the GC, Xbox and PS2 were the previous (dead) gen, and those games are always the cheapest and most available for a few years.

[Haoie]

Yay another fan.

Well, I don't collect exclusively for this system for nothing, you know.

[Flack]

While working on an upcoming videogame-related project I spent quite a bit of time going back through my old PS1 catalog of games. I had forgot how good a lot of the 2D stuff looked and how bad and compressed all the FMV looked. Some of the 3D was hit or miss. All in all I enjoyed playing it again. I think it was a great system. You can see how, by the time they got near the end, they were really pushing the hardware and needed to release the PS2. I don't feel that way about the PS3 today.

[Graham Mitchell]

While working on an upcoming videogame-related project I spent quite a bit of time going back through my old PS1 catalog of games. I had forgot how good a lot of the 2D stuff looked and how bad and compressed all the FMV looked. Some of the 3D was hit or miss. All in all I enjoyed playing it again. I think it was a great system. You can see how, by the time they got near the end, they were really pushing the hardware and needed to release the PS2. I don't feel that way about the PS3 today.

I never really noticed the problems with the FMV back then, but I was recently playing Final Fantasy VII on a PS3 through the HDMI cable and it just looks terrible when the game starts to process video, and it's not an emulation problem. The limited color palette and pixelly appearance start to show themselves. They really depended on your TV having a low-res output back then, didn't they? But I think I was so used to the awful Sega CD video back then that the PS1 looked like freakin' VHS in comparison.

[Joe West]

i have a psx..w/a lcd screen..thats the only way to go....& modded of course

[backguard]

I never really noticed the problems with the FMV back then, but I was recently playing Final Fantasy VII on a PS3 through the HDMI cable and it just looks terrible when the game starts to process video, and it's not an emulation problem. The limited color palette and pixelly appearance start to show themselves. They really depended on your TV having a low-res output back then, didn't they? But I think I was so used to the awful Sega CD video back then that the PS1 looked like freakin' VHS in comparison.

I was thinking the same thing. On a smallish CRT these games still look decent...but they certainly weren't made for today's HDTVs. I found Fear Effect to be almost unplayable on an HDTV because it was impossible to make out what was what.

PS1 still rocks though. :)

[thom_m]

Although I've always loved gaming, it wasn't until last december that I got my very own PSX (back then, I got stuck with the Mega Drive, while mopst of the other kids went along with saturns and psxs).

I'm really having a blast with it. Lots of good games - SOTN, Silent Hill, Skullmonkeys, cool versions of SFII - and I'm finally getting the hang of playing 3d games thanx to it. It's hooked to a 21" CRT TV, so the games look really good on it (they looked like crap on my mom's 42" LCD, though).

[Greg2600]

I thought the FMV looked fine, no better/worse than PC versions. The biggest ill for me are the polygons and lack of texturing and filtering. The PC Emu's clean the games up really nice though. Normally I don't complain about older systems, and enjoy the graphics for the period they were created. Just that some of the games look so cruddy it's actually difficult to see/play.

[darkslime]

The PS1 is a great system, the first console I ever owned and has a lot of awesome games.

[Retsudo]

I love the PS1. Recently I've been wanting to play some oldies, but they look pretty bad on my HDTV. I waiting until my brother give up his GXTV to me.

[Iron Draggon]

I really wish that I was rich and finding any original version out of print game still factory sealed for any discontinued system wasn't an issue... if that was the case, then I'd complete all my collections, and I'd buy and collect for all the systems that I missed out on... but I can't stand to buy used games, and I can't stand to buy greatest hits versions either... so I'm still way too late for most of the PS2 & XBOX games that I'd be interested in, and I'm really too late for all the N64 games that I'd like to have now... I had to stop collecting for the N64 because the games were just too damned expensive... I could get 2 or 3 games for any other system for what just one N64 game cost, so I abandoned it, and regretfully I didn't take advantage of all the clearance sales on games when the N64 was discontinued either... and now there's no way that I'm gonna fight a bunch of other collectors to get back into collecting for the N64 again, cause even now it would still be way too expensive to get all those games factory sealed, if I could still find them all

so I'm really seeing why the PS1 kicked the Saturn's & N64's asses now... besides the quality of it's graphics being on par or superior to everything else on the market at the time, and the massive library of games to choose from, the prices were very affordable, and you could find all the games anywhere... definitely not the same situation with the Saturn and the N64, much less the 3DO and the Jaguar... it was actually everything that it was hyped up to be, and them some... a developer's dream system, and a gamer's dream system too... so I'm glad that at least I didn't miss out on it entirely, but I really wish that I hadn't lost my job at a crucial time for continuing to collect for it... that was why I sold off half the games I used to own for it... with no way to continue collecting everything that I wanted for it, I couldn't stand the thought of missing some of the titles in all the series games that I had, and at the time it was far more important to me to work on completing all my other collections... so I sold almost all the PS1 RPG's that I had, which was most of them, and used that money to help complete my other collections... but now, if money wasn't a problem, I'd buy almost everything back again

I'm kinda wishing that I hadn't been such a Sega loyalist back then too... I always chose the Sega versions over any other versions of games that were made for multiple systems, which means that I own the Genesis & Saturn versions of most games that I should own for the SNES & PS1 instead... but it wasn't just the Sega brand name that I preferred... I always preferred the Sega controllers too, and I still do... so that kept me from buying SNES & PS1 versions when I had a choice... which is why all my other collections are much smaller than all my Sega collections... I only felt it necessary to buy all the games that I couldn't get on a Sega system for all the other systems... and I only made a few exceptions to buy duplicate games on multiple systems

I really wish that Nintendo was marketing Wii games like PS1 games were marketed too... amazingly, there's really not a bunch of crap on the PS1, despite its massive library, but the same definitely can't be said for the Wii! Nintendo doesn't seem to care about ensuring quality games anymore, they just grant a license to anyone and everyone who wants one, and let them crank out all the crap that they can develop for it... it's really pathetic... the Wii is gonna go down in history as having even more crappy games for it than the Atari 2600 does... but I still love my Wii... the few gems hidden in its library make up for all the crap quite well, as far as I'm concerned... and like the PS1 before it, the price is right, so it's easy to get all the games for it

anyhow, on the subject of PC versions, the biggest difference between then and now is that back then most PC games were still mucked up in DOS... so that had alot to do with why the PS1 did so well too, I think... nowadays I think it's worth it to choose PC versions over console versions, because the graphics are superior, but back then that was overshadowed by the sheer shittiness of running PC games in DOS... it just wasn't worth all the hassle

now if Nintendo would just come out with an upscaler that makes Wii games play at HD resolutions on an HDTV... they'll prolly call it Wii II when they do it, but I'll be among the first to buy it... that's the only thing that they really did wrong with the Wii... it should've been able to play all its games at HD resolutions on an HDTV... other than that and all the crapware for it, I like it better than any other modern console, including the PC... and I like it better than most of the classic consoles too, except the 16BIT stuff... I'll always prefer that era of gaming over everything else, but I still love the 32BIT era and all the modern consoles as well... I just can't afford to collect them all... otherwise I would've been among the first to own XBOX, PS2, Gamecube, XBOX360, & PS3... but without a job that pays good money, like I used to have, it's impossible to keep up with all that stuff, so I had to give up trying

P.S.: I am gonna start collecting for the Gamecube, since I do own a Wii, and I can play all the games on it... I have a question though... does the GBA Player work with the Wii, or will I have to buy a Gamecube just for that? I really wanna play all my GBA games on my TV, but it would be nice if I could just buy the GBA Player and not have to buy a Gamecube too for it to work

[Sonicwolf]

I was a Nintendo person when the PlayStation was king. Just this past month I have discovered how fun the PlayStation is. So many great games. I have been expanding my collection alot because of this discovery.

[Greg2600]

Anyone have a Playstation website recommendation? Along the lines of Atari Age for Atari, Sega-16 for Genesis, Nintendo Age for NES, which has pictures and reviews? I use the video game critic a lot, but he doesn't have more than one picture, and Moby Games is somewhat barren on PS1 era. I loathe IGN and Gamespot.

[AMG]

The PSX is my all time favorite game console, tied with the SNES.

The amount of quality games for it is staggering. It has pretty much every game genre covered with great titles.



P.S.: I am gonna start collecting for the Gamecube, since I do own a Wii, and I can play all the games on it... I have a question though... does the GBA Player work with the Wii, or will I have to buy a Gamecube just for that? I really wanna play all my GBA games on my TV, but it would be nice if I could just buy the GBA Player and not have to buy a Gamecube too for it to work

You need a Gamecube to run the GBP, which will only set you back around $50 nowadays. The GCN is a fine (and now cheap) machine with some real gems to be had, I would pick one up.

[RPG_Fanatic]

Anyone have a Playstation website recommendation?

Dangerboy's site is the best for the PSone

http://game-rave.com/


Check it out

[Greg2600]

Dangerboy's site is the best for the PSone

http://game-rave.com/

Check it out
Oh yes, I think I have seen it before, but forgot to bookmark. That is a nice site, tons of pictures (especially of physical media/case) and analysis for the games it covers. However, so far it has only reviewed a small portion of games.

[boogiecat]

For me the PS One is one of my fave consoles of all time due to the variety of games in it,i've owned three PS1's..:love:

[Haoie]

I'm glad to see so many fans for PS1. Woot.

[Graham Mitchell]

I'm glad to see so many fans for PS1. Woot.

It's no surprise. That thing dominated the market for about 5 or 6 years. But that's because it really was great at the time.

[rpepper9]

My favorite PS1 games were the Oddworld games. Too bad that MicroSuck and the XBox got exclusive rights to the games. I think that the play mechanics would work awesome on the Wii!

[eskobar]

The CD Format was the key for the PS1. Though I had the N64 back then, I would buy a lot of PC games. When I started going through the list of PS1 games, I found almost all of my PC games were released on it. No reason for a Saturn. Granted the graphics on a PC version are 10 times better than the PS1. So I don't know about the "ingenuity" mentioned by eskobar, since the PC and PS1 versions usually came out at the same time. Looking back though, I'm not a huge fan of the PS1's graphics, which are very poor in my opinion.

I've been picking up PS1 games lately though. Unfortunately the PS2 doesn't do much for the graphics. Played on a PC emulator, the games are very good, on the PS1 or PS2, eh, N64 is much better. That said, in my neurosis, I have considered getting PS1 copies of games I have for PC, like the Need for Speed Series, Die Hard Trilogy series, etc., and dumping the PC versions. Granted the PC versions have better graphics and mods, but I can't be bothered installing the games first. Hate that. Am I nuts? Probably. I do enjoy them on the PC emu, just not as gung-ho on the PS2.

As for the availability, the GC, Xbox and PS2 were the previous (dead) gen, and those games are always the cheapest and most available for a few years.

I used the term "ingenuity" referring to the novel game concepts that the PS1 empowered.

I agree that the CD-Format was "key" to success, but the real factor was the hardware design of the console, it was indeed designed with the "next generation" in mind.

The hardware had several faults but it was very fast processing polygons, supported M/JPEG, had great lighting effects capabilities and the machine had great support from SONY, always improving the development systems.

This little console had the power to expand and "materialize" new ideas with less effort than its competition (Saturn, N64); that "ingenuity factor" is only matched by the NES .... every other console uses the same ideas with minor improvements like better graphics, better sound, better design, better control, etc etc ...