If you’re anything like us, PlayStation will have been a part of your life for almost as long as you can remember. We have some great memories of Sony’s original grey box, and we figured it’d be fun to share those with you as the brand celebrates its 25th Anniversary this week. But this isn’t just about us: we want to hear your best PSone stories in the comments section below.
Sammy Barker, Editor
As a shy 7-year-old, I remember accompanying my father and brother to an event in Birmingham. I think it was in the upstairs area of an HMV, but it could have been an Electronics Boutique. This was the first time I saw a PSone in person, as lairy attendees whooped and hollered over a projected screen which I believe was running Ridge Racer.
I didn’t really understand the significance of the games on display that day; my mother and sister had split from us, and I knew they were going to Toys R Us to look at the Transformers figurines. I was hoping for Optimus Prime for my birthday, you see. I also somehow managed to spill one of the complimentary bottles of Pepsi on the carpet; I don’t think I’ve ever admitted to making that mess before. Sorry!
My brother would later purchase his own PSone, and we’d procure 50p CD-ROMS from one of my father’s work colleagues. Back then you had to put sticky tape on the disc tray to run the pirated software, which I became at whiz at. I obviously remember all of the classics like Crash Bandicoot and Metal Gear Solid, but in those early days Adidas Power Soccer was a favourite of my brother and I.
Designed to advertise the sports giant’s popular Predator boots, the arcade football title allowed you to perform special moves where you could kick the ball so hard it’d set on fire and literally push the goalkeeper over the line and into the net. I have fond memories of those early days, where gaming felt a little more like the Wild West, and you were never quite sure what you were getting.
Robert Ramsey, Deputy Editor
The PSone was the console that essentially introduced me to video games. As a kid, I had friends who enjoyed Nintendo and SEGA's offerings, but I never felt compelled to pick up a controller until I saw Tekken 2 running on my uncle's impressively large (at the time) TV. My cousin and her boyfriend had brought their PSone over to show it off, and I was immediately hooked.
That Christmas, I got a PSone of my own -- complete with Crash Bandicoot and, er, The Lost World: Jurassic Park because I was obsessed with dinosaurs. One of those games was a lot better than the other, but at that point there was simply no stopping my new favourite hobby.
Years later into the PSone's life, I'd go on to discover my love for role-playing games with Final Fantasy VII, VIII, and IX. I can't actually remember which one of them I played first, but these titles showed me what storytelling could be in video games. Up until that point, I had been happy to mash buttons in Tekken and watch Crash jump and spin his way to victory. Suddenly, the medium seemed to offer so much more, and I was truly enthralled.
The PSone was a magical little console. Classics like Final Fantasy IX, Crash Bandicoot 3 Warped, Crash Team Racing, and Tekken 3 all helped establish my expectations of games going forward, and looking back on them now, it's easy to see why I've stuck with PlayStation for so long.
Stephen Tailby, Associate Editor
My earliest memory of the original PlayStation is my cousin attempting to explain it to me. At the time, my family owned a SEGA Mega Drive, and I enjoyed playing the likes of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Ristar, and Streets of Rage. I'm not sure if my cousin's explanation of Sony's flashy new console was poor, or if I simply didn't understand what he was saying, but I remember being confused about what a PlayStation was. Was it a place you go to? I recall it never crossing my mind that it was a games console.
Some time later, I returned home one day to see my Dad playing the Actua Golf demo on the machine's brilliant pack-in software, Demo 1. This is when it all started to click. He booted up the Crash Bandicoot demo, handed me this alien controller, and that was that. I've extremely fond memories of games like Spyro the Dragon, Driver 2, Tombi, and many more besides. I remember being flummoxed by WipEout's tough controls, swapping the controller with my sisters as we tackled Croc: Legend of the Gobbos, and honing my GunCon skills to a fine art in Time Crisis. We got a PSone a little later than launch and I missed out on some of the true classics, but I was fascinated by what I was playing nonetheless.
A feeling that I'll never get back from those early days is that of figuring out how much I liked video games. I knew I liked the Mega Drive, but the PSone was the machine to really kickstart my interest. Being in my formative years, playing these amazing titles and absorbing all the excitement surrounding this grey brick under the TV -- it was far too potent a combination. My fate was sealed.
Graham Banas, Reviewer
I got my start loving video games at a young age. For the first few years I only ever really played on a computer unless I was at a friend’s house. That’s when I started to notice there were a lot of games I really wanted to play on the PSone. So I proceeded to ceaselessly beg and plead with my Mum for one. For months. Eventually, she caved and we made the trip to GameStop to grab a used one as well as a few of the games I really wanted: MediEvil, Medal of Honor, and Mortal Kombat Trilogy.
What I didn’t know at the time, is that, while I liked PC gaming well enough, this magical little console would ignite a passion for gaming that burns hotter than a thousand suns and has no signs of slowing down. Ever since getting that banged up, used PSone, my love for games has never waned, and I’ve been nothing if not devoutly passionate about them for every moment of my life since then. So what if I’m the only person on the planet who never actually got a PS2. So what if my Mum totally kicked my ass at Mortal Kombat and to this day is better at fighting games than I am.
What’s important is that PSone kindled a great passion in me, and while I did rejoin the PlayStation family in the late PS3 era, that early time was magical in such an impactful way I can’t even begin to describe its significance. Which is why -- fast-forwarding some 20 years -- getting those same feelings from things like the true rise of VR or emotionally resonant experiences like The Last of Us, every so often, brings a tear to my eye. It all started with the number one.
Jacob Hull, Reviewer
I was late to the party with PlayStation. I was still playing on my trusty old SEGA Mega Drive until 1997. We weren’t exactly a rich family, so it took a lot to get my parents to invest money into a games console. We eventually picked one up at the tail end of ’97, but it was probably more for my dad than for me.
With Final Fantasy VII recently on store shelves and Metal Gear Solid’s Western release just around the corner (it was already out in Japan and it was making waves on the pages of Official PlayStation Magazine), this was around the time my Dad first picked up games.
For months after we got the PSone, 7-year-old me, still stuck in his ways, continued with the Mega Drive. I had been scarred by the nightmares caused by those distant roars of the T-Rex in The Lost World game. PlayStation was the scary console, and I’d been sent scurrying back to warm embrace of Sonic the Hedgehog many times before I took to Sony’s console. I remember my Mum pointing out, “He doesn’t seem to like the PlayStation very much – what a waste of money!” My dad, of course, sipping on the joys of Resident Evil, put her mind at ease: “He’ll come around.”
And I did, eventually. It was V-Rally that first got me hooked – those 3D graphics were to die for. And even though the game felt impossible to play as a kid – those cars swinging about like Waltzers at the fair – I kept coming back for more. Cool Boarders the same.
I think one of the best things to have come out of this time and this console for me, however, was how it became a shared bonding experience for me and my dad. We would play through Tomb Raider together – one of us with the controller, the other with the Prima walkthrough, directing the other.
To this day, these are some of my favourite memories, and I’m very thankful for them.
Despite being on opposite ends of the country, my father and I still share this common hobby. We play mostly solo, but we speak often about the games we’ve been playing, what we like and what we don’t. My childhood simply wouldn’t have been the same without PlayStation.
Jamie O'Neill, Reviewer
Thinking back to Christmas 1995, and first playing a PlayStation console, I'm reminded of good times hanging out with friends. We'd been gaming together for years -- I remember competing in California Games on the Commodore 64 during the 1980s -- and we'd gathered at my mate's house for my first real experience of 32-bit gaming.
However, I'd played a shop demonstration 3DO console, and the year before in 1994 I'd spent too much money on the technically stunning new sit-down Ridge Racer arcade cabinet, with the same group of friends on holiday in Cornwall. I was also hyped about the forthcoming 32-bit era from reading magazines like EDGE and Ultimate Future Games, but during the 1995 festive season nothing could prepare me for playing Ridge Racer on my friend's swanky new PlayStation.
My expectations were high for SEGA's Saturn, but the new PlayStation seemed like an underdog in the early 32-bit era in my eyes. SEGA and Nintendo were the big names in console gaming, not Sony. Yet, I couldn't believe that one of the most technically impressive arcade racing games I'd experienced was now running on a console in my mate's living room, just a year after the coin-op released.
Compared to Virtua Racing on the Mega Drive or Stunt Race FX on the SNES, the technical leap to Ridge Racer on the original PlayStation made my jaw drop. As the PS4 passes the baton to PS5 in 2020, I doubt a generational leap as visually striking as the move from 2D to 3D graphics from the 16-bit to 32-bit era will happen again. Funnily enough, if you asked my friends about their memories of that time they'd probably reply with stories about playing multiplayer Worms, not Ridge Racer. There were so many memorable Worms showdowns with exploding sheep and banana bombs that Christmas.
John McCormick, Reviewer
Our school trip in 1995 was to Lightwater Valley, which is the best Theme Park in the North East of England by virtue of the fact that it's the only theme park in the North East of England. There's two things I recall vividly from that trip. First, I was convinced that I was going to fall out of the pirate ship and meet a grisly, albeit hilarious end impaled on the novelty jolly roger flag pole below. Second, after that very real brush with death I gave rides a miss and threw a handful of twenty pence pieces into an arcade cabinet that would change my life: Tekken.
I spent hours playing Tekken. I'd never played anything like it. And so when it came time for a family outing to our local video game emporium to pick up a new console, we ended up going with a PlayStation instead of a Saturn despite always having SEGA systems in the past. We picked up the console, two pads, Tekken, WWF Wrestlemania The Arcade Game, and of course, Demo 1. I would love to know how much time I spent messing around with that dinosaur thing in Demo 1. Probably days.
Anyway, I have so many fond memories of my time spent with the original PlayStation. Joining Avalanche and stopping Sephiroth. Searching for my daughter in Silent Hill. Solving the murder of an eldery French man and uncovering a global conspiracy in Broken Sword. Replaying the demo of Metal Gear Solid over and over again to see if there was anything I'd missed. Holding my finger down on the taser button until the baddies caught fire in Syphon Filter. Gran Turismo taking up all fifteen slots of your memory card when you wanted to save. All fifteen. Ludicrous.
Hats off to the PlayStation; undoubtedly, one of the finest consoles of all time. Oh, and PSone classics on PS5 with Trophies, yeah? Do it you cowards.
Ken Talbot, Reviewer
Late 1996, my mother is kind enough to ask what I want from Santa. We didn't have a lot of money and we both knew if I asked for what i was definitely going to ask for, I probably wouldn't get it. I asked anyway. The contents of that month's games magazine was my secret weapon, which contained a detailed breakdown of an exciting new horror game called Resident Evil. I assured my mother that having the console with that particular game would teach me "lateral thinking" as it contained taxing puzzles and logic conundrums. I didn't know what lateral thinking was, I just loved video games and horror. She caved and made a significant financial sacrifice I'll forever be grateful for.
Scraping together pocket money and trading in all my cartridge based games, I'd go on to play all the biggest PSone titles. The console started my lifelong love affair with cinematic storytelling (Metal Gear Solid), JRPGs (Final Fantasy VII, VII & IX), simulation racing (Gran Turismo), and offbeat puzzle games (Kurushi, Kula World). The original PlayStation is a grey box full of happy memories and I cannot wait for number five.
Lloyd Coombes, Reviewer
I remember going to a school friend's house (around 1997), and him turning on the PlayStation. I'd seen the SEGA Mega Drive, but this little grey box had so much mystique -- where did the cartridge go? What were those shapes on the buttons for? Who is Sony?
We played Crash Bandicoot 2 for a while, and with every slapstick death animation, with every close encounter with an enemy, and with every Wumpa fruit claimed, I fell just a little bit more in love with the game -- and, by extension, the console.
That Christmas, this peculiar little box was top of my Christmas list, but it never came. Thankfully, on Boxing Day my parents and Grandparents revealed that they'd been saving for it. It came with Batman & Robin (based on the Clooney movie), and whichever F1 was current that year, but I spent two weeks playing the demo for Disney's Hercules instead. Finally, when my birthday rolled around just two weeks later, I unwrapped the first Crash Bandicoot -- kicking off my deep love of all things PlayStation and all things Naughty Dog.
Nat Eker, Reviewer
The first time I can recall playing a PlayStation was at my cousin's house, when we were around nine. Our only consoles were our archaic Game Boy Colors, so seeing this monster in action, with its 3D graphics and revolutionary voice acting, was mind-blowing.
It was actually my Uncle's system, and was therefore strictly off limits. So one night, we tempted fate. While the grown ups had their dinner, we snuck into the lounge, carefully disconnected the beautiful grey box, and connected it to my cousin's tiny television. We'd never heard of the game that was in the disc drive: Resident Evil. Huh. We assumed it had to be some exciting, adults-only game, so you can bet we booted it up.
The pitch black room was illuminated by a wave of red, followed by some truly unsettling music. I took control of Chris Redfield, and having zero idea what to do, wandered aimlessly around the mansion. Then, we saw it. That decaying, grey head, and those sunken eyes, turning towards us. He was eating something. We screamed, horrified by the sight of our first zombie. In a flurry of panic, we smashed every button, snatching the controller back and forth, and failing to fight back in any way. We could only watch helplessly, as our character was devoured by the living dead.
Though the first Resident Evil is now regarded as a campy pastiche of cheesy 70s horror films, then and there it was the scariest thing in the world. The only thing that we knew? We had to have a PlayStation.
Nicole Hall, Reviewer
I’ll never forget the day my Mum first sat me down in front of the tiny box TV in her bedroom and thrusted the PSone pad into my even tinier 8-year-old hands. After watching both her and my Dad dig into a steady stream of video games over the years it felt quite the undertaking to finally take up the reigns for myself. I was scared -- excited. I promptly found myself washed up on N.Sanity Beach and with a quick rundown of the controls I was off.
A great deal of gamers began their video game antics with Crash Bandicoot and my younger self was no exception and I’ll forever be grateful for the title that paved the way into my life of gaming. That said, although Crash may serve as the cornerstone of my love for the platforming genre, my fondest of PSone moments reside in memories of evenings spent nestled under a blanket with my Mum, teaming up against Baron Dante in Croc: Legend of the Gobbos.
It was the first time I remember truly connecting with a game. I was enamoured with the colourful level design, the comical enemies, and the cutesy little Gobbos (naturally). Even the soundtrack gave me chills and I vividly recall humming the charming tunes in the playground at school. I replayed the same levels over and over hunting for secrets I’d missed in hope of finding ways to savour the experience even more.
Looking back with a more mature pair of eyes that have sampled many a game since, it’s all too easy to pick at its questionable camera workings and general clumsiness. However, I'll forever be fond of the charm and sincerity it practically oozed and I fell head over heels in love with it.
These are our favourite PSone memories, but we want to hear yours in the comments section below. When did you first get your hands on Sony's magical grey box? What was your favourite game in those days? Let us know in the comments section below.
Comments 39
it was 1997, i had saved all my money from my paper round and ball boying and i walked into Woolworths with my dad and i walked out with a PS1 and FFVII
i had read about FFVII in a gaming magazine and i just had to play it so that meant buying a PS1 but it lead me into a world of fantastic games and fun times that carry on to this day
i had played games before on my brothers NES and SNES but the PS1 was MY console
Me and my friend was a huge sega genesis fan before PlayStation.i had the Sony walkman in 1991 so i was already a sony fan.when i heard sony is going to make a video game console.i was hyped so was my friend.i was there day 1 in September 9.1995. Hint thats why i called myself PlayStation 1995.in new york city in queens people l💚ve the PlayStation 1.i always l💛ve video games.been playing video games sinnce 1981 with atari.started for me.nintendo was cool.but im a. Sega genesis fan.not a sega master system.not a sega saturn fanboy.not a sega dreamcast fanboy.but i am a sega genesis fanboy.the sega genesis was the icing on the cake.but PlayStation was the cherry on top.crash bandicoot is my second favorite ps1 games ever .and syphon is my favorite ps1 games ever.ps1 really made me l💖ve video games even more.if it wasnt for PlayStation 1 entering the video games consoles.i would not enjoy the video games Like i am now.ps1 is and was a gamechanger.word up son
I member....lol. Going to Toys R Us with mom dukes and older bro to get one. The titles I wore out the most were Tekken 2, Battle Arena Toshinden, TM and TM2, Wipeout, FF7 the most FF9 in the middle and FF8 the least but still excessively, Chrono Cross and all the Crash games. Good good times on that system.
Cant forget Jumping Flash and Cool Boarders!!
How did @Quintumply manage to mention the PSone demo that came with the console and not mention the most iconic bit of it?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCtZIlolG6w
Also, Adidas Power Soccer was great. There was a very random "cheat" to give you female commentators (who came out with same grade A cringey lines).
Damn, same age as me..
Well I was pretty much an established gamer before the PlayStation hit the scene having grown up with the original NES, and then later the SNES and Sega Genesis. Just before the PlayStation came out I had a huge decision to make to I get a N64 or the Playstation? See before that every console I got was a gift either a birthday or Christmas gift this console was going to be the first console I bought on my own since I just got my first job at my local Kmart back then.
Long story short after hearing that one of my favorite gaming franchises made the jump to the PlayStation (Square with Final Fantasy VII) I knew that I had to have a PS, that and my brother just got a N64 for his birthday. So I ended up buying FFVII first before getting the console at the time my friend had a PS so I would go over to his house every weekend to play FF VII for a few weeks. Eventually one glorious payday I walked into my Circuit City and bought my own PS.
They say you never forget your first, and I have such good memories of FFVII which was what made me ask for a PlayStation when I saw the commercials. I was 8 years old and it just blew my mind. Today with long story campaigns in a lot of genres, and some RPGs essentially expecting you to put in over 60 hours (or 100 with the most recent Persona), it's a different world, but back then I was amazed that a single game could just do and give you so much. Along with playing Super Mario 64 before that, it’s probably my purest gaming experience.
As I’ve previously mentioned, I seemingly found PS1 discs incredibly tasty while teething and so have no real memories of actually playing the thing since I mostly ruined it for my older brother. How silly I was, Metal Gear Solid was a lot more fun playing a few years ago than my dad’s copy must have tasted.
However, my real first Playstation console was my uncle’s PS2 which he gave us around 2007 after my dad walked out. As a result, I spent many many hours playing through the impressive collection he gave us along with it - I was still young and having all those new games to play got me through an otherwise difficult period.
It was a few years later when I was first exposed to the PS3, maybe 2010. My dad had an OG model and we’d play games of Modern Warfare or FIFA when I went to visit him. He ended up giving us that console when he upgraded to a PS4 so I finally got to play the single-player current gen games I’d been dreaming of like Skyrim and Mass Effect. Having mostly grown up with Nintendo, it was a revelation to have access to sprawling open worlds and more mature storylines.
While I played the occasional game of NBA or played Gauntlet on my dad’s PS4, I started seeing him less and less as I got older and now, owning my own PS4 bought with my own money and mostly having cut ties with him, I see the PS4 as more of a solitary console. This is when I’ve been playing the most single-player AAA experiences and I went back and played classics from previous gens.
Going forward to PS5, I’ll be almost in my placement year for Uni and am starting to think about moving away so this could finally push me to get into online multiplayer over local. It’ll be interesting to see where the next 5, 10, 20 years take us but who knows, by the PS6 I could have my own kids teething and thinking those 8K Blu-Ray discs taste yummy!
The first time I ever saw it was round at a friend's house, I'd have been about 13 and the best graphics I'd seen up to then would have been the Megadrive/SNES. He was playing Tekken and after experimenting with a few characters I settled on King and proceeded to beat everyone with a variety of wrestling moves. Then he put on Resident Evil and I was immediately hooked, the mansion looked real for the time and we were all scared as soon as we saw the first zombie and then of course that dog scene, at that moment I knew then I needed one of these.
A couple of years later I had my own and had just got Resident Evil 2 and took it round to a friends at night and we scared ourselves silly. I'll never forget that first fmv of the licker and those zombies reaching through the barricades and that jump scare in the interview room, such an awesome game and still my favourite PS2 game to date
Other highlights outside of the obvious are the Die Hard Trilogy, Destruction Derby 2 and the unbridled joy of getting a demo disc and playing bits of games for hours on end
@carlos82
Holy crap! Die hard trilogy!! I completely forgot about that game. I can't even tell you how many hours I spent playing that game
Oddworld: Abe's Odyssey has particular memories for me. My family aren't gamers but it really captured my dad's imagination as well as my uncle's (who was staying with us at the time).
We used to sit taking it in turns at the game and all found the verbal commands (and farts) hilarious.
Too many memories! I had the saturn and PlayStation within weeks of launch.. Not wealthy but always been a saver... My gaming started at swimming pool aged around 5 Yrs. The swimming bored me but the space invader cabinets mesmerised me. PlayStation took me away from Amiga at the age of 21... The speed of loading the games, the accessibility for friends who went gamers at the time and the joy of a whole new game era... The PS came with loaded a twin stick shooter with banging 'real' music and two player.. Games came thick and fast afterwards, I'd hire them, borrow them, swap them and occasionally buy them. As a few pals also had the PS 6 this was never an issue... Drunken nights smashing bells out of reach other on teken, MK, SF etc, crazy racing on wioeout, RR, demolition Derby etc... Needless to say the saturn was soon forgotten about.... Happy Times!
I was busy playing the revolutionary Goldeneye 64! Along with Mario 64, Donkey Kong 64 etc and arguing with mates at school on why the N64 was the better console. Yea it was really powerful at the time plus you could add an expansion pack to make it even more of a beast. I had to admit though that the PS1 had way more games.
First memory, Die Hard 2 at my mates with the light gun. I’d go every other Wednesday just to play it. He’d come to mine every separate Wednesday and we’d sit in silence wishing we were at his. Would be almost a year later before I got my own. That guy had fulfilled his purpose and was of no further use to me so I cast him aside like so much trash.
Another favourite memory was going to Meadow Hall in Sheffield back when it was good to buy Resident Evil 1 with my mum. Guy wouldn’t sell me it because I was like 12. I gave it to my mum and she gave it to him, paid, gave it back to her and she gave it to me 🤷♂️ Thanks mum! Kinda dampened by my sister buying Bubsy 3D the same day mind you...
1997 and I had joined the military, was in training and flush with cash from my first steady paycheck. The PS1 was available at the base exchange and I got it, even though I had always been a Sega guy. Games like Abe's, Tenchu, Colony Wars, Spyro and Medievil were my go to titles. I still have the same PS1 today and those games and dozens more. Cracking it out today is terribly hard on the eyes, but back then the graphics were gorgeous.
I chose to get an N64 myself just because I loved Goldeneye that much. I have very fond memories of playing the PS1 at my friends’ houses though. Most of all, epic Worms matches, the crazyness of Twisted Metal, Tekken 3 owning house parties, Crash Bandicoot, lots of This Is Footballl, and marveling at Gran Turismo. Great days!
@NYJetsfan123 same here, each of the games were so much fun, for some peculiar reason I actually have Die Har Trilogy sat under my TV next to my PS4, I do have a PS one but it's in a box somewhere with the rest of the games
I remember selling my mega drive to some guy at school and get a paper round to try and fund a ps 1 as my folks wouldn't get me one for crimbo. My mum went crazy and took the money from me as my mega drive had been a Christmas present from 4-5 years before. That Christmas I opened all my presents and no ps in sight! Then my dad nonchalantly handed me a small present and said I must have missed it. I opened it and it was a ps controller!! Started so many memories, playing final fantasy vii and renaming aeris after the girl I fancied at school (lame), inviting some guy from a new class up to play iss pro and ending up being still mates 20 years later (were going out tomorrow for beers), playing tekken 2 with mates from halls till all times in the morning and having to unlock all the characters as we didn't have a memory card. Irreplaceable memories and fantastic times
Round of applause for Lloyd Coombes' story necessitating a screenshot from the underrated-yet-still-terrible Batman & Robin game. That was a pleasant surprise to see amidst all the usual suspects for this kinda retrospective.
As for me, yeah, similar story to many here. We'd had an Atari and a SEGA MegaDrive II as "family consoles" growing up, but then my extended family and school friends started to talk about this PlayStation thing and I ended up getting to try stuff like Tekken, Theme Hospital and Tomb Raider (all the Ts, it seems) during visits and sleepovers. It wasn't until 1999 however, when I realised that our PC wasn't powerful enough to play the new Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace game coming out, that I lobbied for my own PlayStation as a Christmas present.
On the day itself, my stocking was filled with Memory Cards and cables, whilst my main presents included a driving wheel, a second controller and all the games I'd asked for, including The Phantom Menace. With everything but the console itself laid out before me, my Dad said "Right, that's it, all presents done!" and lasted an excruciating fifteen minutes before conveniently finding a brand new PlayStation in the back of a kitchen cupboard... y'know, as you do.
My first ever console all to myself, and it introduced me to so many new things. I became a huge James Bond fan after playing Tomorrow Never Dies and fell in love with Lara Croft during her multiple adventures (albeit a different kind of love than many gamers, I'd wager). Medal of Honour, Rainbow Six, Syphon Filter 2 and Time Crisis were other fond memories, memories I can still recall thanks to PSone Classics on PS3 and a shelf full of carefully-preserved original discs. I'm still going back and discovering new experiences I missed, like I did with Metal Gear Solid six years ago. What a legacy.
@R1spam bit mean just giving you a controller no? I’ll have to remember that one when I’m a dad. I’m gunna have so much fun trolling my kids.
Oooh, the psone, amazing times. My Dad told me we would be getting one, I was excited but didn't actually know what to expect. I just knew the next generation of video games could only be a good thing.
But wow, what an understatement. On seeing Tomb Raider loaded up for the first time with my family, I was absolutely amazed. And that feeling continued for quite some time, what an incredible game. My jaw dropped a few times at Final Fantasy 7 as well, they told one hell of a story there.
@RogerRoger I see our parents rock a very similar style, cheeky scamps!!
@kyleforrester87 haha yeah I did get the playstation like 5 mins later! It was top trolling though, I plan on carrying on the tradition and building my daughters dolls house this year in the dining room, putting all the present in the Christmas tree in the living room and pretending there must have been enough room on santas slay!! 😂
@R1spam ahh nah, see I’d give them consoles with the internals removed and rig the on button to give them mains powered electric shocks n stuff like that.
@R1spam That they do! What is it about parenthood that brings out everybody's inner pranksters?
Spooky that we were writing our replies, and therefore recalling our similar stories, almost simultaneously. Maybe it's the Ghost of PlayStation Past paying us a visit!
I remember I drove my dad crazy to pick me up a PS One, and it was really late when he actually did grab me one, it was around the time when PS2 was new.
So obviously I was a generation behind everybody else, and it sort of felt bad that everyone was talking about all these games I couldn't play but it didn't stop me from enjoying my time with my PS One and besides... I was only six years old at most.
I remember playing these amazing games like Crash, Medal of Honor, Driver 1 and 2, Syphon Filter 1,2,3, All the Biohazard games and Dino Crisis. Yeah... they didn't just make good memories. They changed my life for good.
I always say this, I'm greatly indebted by video games and especially Playstation family and I'll pay my debts to them one day by making games in return. What goes around comes around.
Happy 25th anniversary to the world's best home console.
I was born the same year the PS1 hit America, so I was behind the times when I first played it in 2000. It was a Christmas gift that year.
I had probably close to 20 PS1 games, which was a lot for a family living off of Grandpa's retirement, but about half of those were junky licenced games or stuff for kids. I'm talking stuff like Blue's Clues or Rayman Brain Games (The first Rayman, but for 1st graders).
Of course I was thankfully given some actual games there too. Unsurprisingly to anyone reading this, I played every Crash Bandicoot game with the system, Crash Bash being the game I got with it. I also played my share of Spyro. The original Tomb Raider was the first game I played with a realistic human as the player character, followed by Metal Gear Solid. Need for Speed: High Stakes began my interest in racing games. Tekken 2 started my love of fighting games, therefore plenty of bad ideas.
It was a fun time while it lasted. I would get a PS2 a couple years later, and that started my interest in PlayStation.
Destruction Derby, Jumping Flash and buying very cheap and not very legal games from a bloke who came from Huyton in a tatty Fiesta every week. Ah, the memories.
Anna Kournikovas Smash Court Tennis.
I went through Commodore 64, to Amiga, to PC. But I did buy the consoles for my kids and enjoy many titles with my kids on PS1 and PS2. I purchased PS3 mostly for the bluray player again while playing World of Warcraft on PC enjoyed many PS3 titles. PS4 was a game changer!
Console were very public and my loved PC fell from the public eyes to online Steam only. I still believe because it went all digital and was no longer part of the retail market. The launch of PS4 was fun and exciting in a very social way. For the first time in my eyes PlayStation 4 was very close to and sometimes better than my PC.
For the first time I became 100% console on PS4. Games like Spyro, Crash Bandicoot, Ratchet and Clank and Jak & Daxter started me out with my kids. PlayStation Single Player Story driven games have made me love my PS4 over my PC.
@Thrillho The t-rex is the best
I think I must have bought mine in the summer of 1996. It makes sense as my birthday is in June and I remember Euro 96 being on the tele.
I bought 3 games with it (all of which I still have). Destruction Derby, Ridge racer revolution and Adidas Power soccer.
I sunk literally hours of fun into those games but strangely the thing I remember having the most fun with was the demo disc that came with the console.
The demo discs were awesome back then and I really wish they were still a thing
Think my brother had bought one first a year in or so. We played Resident Evil and Tomb Raider, later on MGS and FFVII. Then just used to rent a bunch of random games like Twisted Metal, D, GTA, racing games. I never really was interested in PlayStation mascot type of games back then, so no Crash and others, that was where I'd just go with Nintendo.
Think it was Christmas'97 that me and my brothers and sister received a PsOne as a gift and from that day I was hooked. Fondest memories are from playing 4player Circuit Breakers, Hogs of War, ISS Soccer Pro and Toca Touring Cars! Very very fond memories
I remember the day i finally beat Nitros Oxide on CTR. It took me forever. It was a Spring morning, my mom was cleaning the windows and 2 of my cousins had slept over the night before. We took turns racing Oxide and finally we beat the game!!! We were probably about 6 or 7 at the time and were super excited about it, only to find out we now had to get all the Relics and race him again! Some fun times and memories!!
All the stories people have shared about the ps1 are wonderful. My memories aren't quite as nice but I do love the the ps1. I was introduced to gaming around the age of four. My parents got me a plug and play console namco I believe. After seeing my love of classics like pacman and digdug my uncle gave me his ps1 after upgrading to ps2. I played a fps game and I have no idea what it was. My parents decided I couldn't keep the game because they was completely convinced violent games were evil. anything with violence, witchcraft, fantasy, ect was banned in the house. I only played racing games shortly after I got the ps1 it was stolen along with the games. I got ps2 after ps2 same story I have my doubts about that though. I didn't get another console until I was fourteen, it was a ps1, but got lost in fostercare. When I was sixteen I got a ps1 from a friend along with disc1 of metal gear solid, and pool. I moved and my parents said it was stolen, however I had metal gear with me. A couple months ago I bought two ps1 consoles from a friend along with a copy of crash bandicoot (great game btw little clunky), neither works but they're cool to look at and the startup is awesome. Sorry for punctuation.
I love the community here some great posts and memories , we did a podcast episode recently you guys might enjoy ?
Too many things to List really
Entering the police station in RE2 for the first time was like a revelation to me
Tap here to load 39 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...