Star Struck Gaming fans, today were travelling back to a day marked in history, a day when a little company by the name of Sony launched their first console and changed the standard of console gaming forever.
Sony PlayStation – a new era begins
Its September 1995 (I can still remember the day clearly when I purchased mine) and a console has been released by the name of Playstation, people approached with caution a console made by the same people who made Walkmans (portable music carrying devices usually involving inserting a tape for our younger fans). When the first brave people got home and placed their little grey box in front of them and dropped in the demo disc all fear was put aside, and now you had the issue of getting your jaw off the floor!
Who remembers demo discs?
The PlayStation may have only come with a demo disc but it was enough to blow you through the wall, pull your pants down, slap you to get your undivided attention and catapult you back towards the television. The Dynamic Dinosaur demo was amazing as the camera panned around this fully rendered dinosaur and then to really up the excitement a playable demo of Destruction Derby – with it’s realistic looking stock cars and incredible physics when cars collided. Then came the super fast Wipe Out giving you a sense of speed never seen in a game with a pumping soundtrack you knew you were onto a winner.
The initial concept for the PlayStation was a collaboration between Nintendo and Sony and was a project titled the SNES CD, but this was eventually cancelled after Nintendo cancelled the contract and Sony decided to carry on the project alone.
I’m kind of guessing Nintendo don’t talk about this decision, whoever pulled the plug probably mops the floor now at Nintendo HQ. After the collapse Sony even offered to join forces with Sega and it was taken to the board of directors where it was dismissed with even one director staying it was a stupid idea, and Sony had no idea how to make hardware (we can only assume that after the Mega Drive all people in charge at Sega had some operation to place their brains up their own backside).
An impressive launch to say the least
The launch line-up for the PlayStation was highly impressive with the likes of Ridge Racer, Warhawk, Wipeout and Actua Soccer, and the games just got better and better. We were treated to multiplayer vehicular mayhem in Twisted Metal and amazing races in Gran Turismo which went on to be the PlayStation’s best selling game.
All games had to be saved to a PlayStation memory card which slipped nicely into slots just above the controller ports and of course how could we forget to mention the amazing controller that rested so easy in your hands with its analogue sticks, bumper buttons and well placed buttons – allowing effortless control over the games you were playing.
Taking a seat at the king’s gaming table
As time went on the PlayStation began to dominate the console market leaving the Sega Saturn and Nintendo 64 for dust. The graphics got better and games like Resident Evil 1 and 2, and Tomb Raider flew off the shelves at remarkable speeds. The console literally had something for everyone from Disney games to puzzle games and shoot em ups.
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At the time the PlayStation 1 was discontinued it had sold over 102 million units and was just the beginning as we all now know as Sony continue to dominate the Market 3 consoles on, and for a company that had never made a console before what they have achieved is nothing short of remarkable.
So Fans were heading back to the present so as you sit there reading this article with your PS4 controller not far away take a look at your PS4 a machine 20 years in the making and thank the people at Sony who decided to soldier on after the Nintendo Big boy canned the deal and Sega declined cutting themselves out of the Greatest console brand ever made.
