Today we would like to wish a very happy birthday to an old friend; the PS1 who turns 25.
While those of us who grew up in the 90s probably didn’t discover gaming with the PS1, our love for the art was certainly cemented by it. Many of us already had a PC or an older console such as a SNES or Sega Megadrive (Genesis to our American cousins), but console gaming was about to become a much bigger deal.
While it competed directly with the equally impressive Nintendo 64, the PS1 differentiated itself by introducing certain gaming characters, franchises, technologies and customs that are still going strong today. We barely notice loading screens today and when we do we’re annoyed by them, but seeing a loading screen on the PS1 made the technology seem so much more sophisticated than what had come before. Although several years later, we were truly sick of them.
While the Sega Saturn was the console that pioneered games on disk it was the PS1 that nailed it. Just listening to that noise the machine made when it was activated is enough to immerse many gamers in a wave of nostalgia. This was the console we played when we got home from school or on a lazy Saturday. It was what we played in our bedrooms while the smell of our favourite dinner was being cooked, or the console we played on for hours once our pesky homework was done and finally out of the way. It was how many of us relaxed when we were younger so it’s no wonder that the noises it makes gives us a little nostalgia tingle. Even the noise of a spinning disk takes us back.
The stories told on the PS1 and the characters we met there are still our companions today. Culture references which are today iconic were only small and cult like then.
This was the console that gave us Lara Croft’s swan dive then let us lock her old butler in the fridge. We got to see Racoon City succumb to a zombie plague. Feel Cloud’s crippling identity crisis with him. Snuck into a military base without being seen to destroy a nuclear armed walking tank. Took our revenge on our cruel father during a fighting tournament. Navigated a beachball for some reason. Went looking for our missing daughter in a misty town. And finally threw apples around with an over excited bandicoot.
All the above are legendary now and our journey as gamers would be a little less bright without them.
Thank you very much PS1 and happy birthday!
