The Sony PlayStation 1

Tuesday 17 Feb 2009

Our gaming hobby might be movie like in this day and age, but it is because of consoles pushing the limits by outclassing each other with each new generation that this industry evolves so quickly. Some of you have been with us since the Atari 2600 days in the 70’s and some might have only joined recently without any knowledge of where it all started. Come back every week, as we will be looking at each console and what exactly it did that made us buy into it and how it helped the industry to become the monster we know and enjoy today.

Sony PlayStation 1

Intro:

Up to this point gaming was really a niche market that mostly incorporated what the human demographic out there would regard as “losers.” You were not cool, you did not have many friends and, plainly put, you were seen as an Über-Nerd. Sony changed all that when they released the broadly accepted Sony PlayStation (PS1) to the world in all its 3D glory! Suddenly you could find the consoles at raves or in restaurants; it was something that was part of the modern society and something that made gaming cool. Having a PlayStation was now like having a TV. Times had suddenly changed… and for the better! SEGA had launched the SEGA Saturn four months ahead of Sony, but Sony had already planned to release the console at $100 cheaper with more developer support.

As for Nintendo, they had not yet launched, but there was a reason for that – it was because of a deal falling through with Sony that they were late to the party. Nintendo had a contract with Sony to do an add-on for the SNES, dubbed the SNES-CD. Sony had everything in place with, now “Father of PlayStation,” Ken Kutaragi leading the project. Just before E3 of 1991 Hiroshi Yamauchi re-read the original 1988 contract and realised that if this went ahead Sony would have complete control of the CD format on their Nintendo console. At that E3, out of the blue and to Sony’s surprise, Nintendo announced a deal with Phillips. Sony was booted from the project after spending so many resources on it. This is how the PlayStation brand was born and Nintendo had no idea what revenge Sony would take in years to come.

Look and Design:

The PS1, which is the first console in history to sell over 1 million consoles, had a whole new look to it. It looked very 1994/95 and it was the future. Gone were the ugly black consoles, gone were cartridges, gone were old RF cables…everything was modern, everything was digital and everything just worked. The console was gray in colour, possibly resembling the SNES in some way, with two ports, a reset button and a massive power and eject button. It just looked so cool and futuristic! The lid, when opened, had a circular look to it discarding all that squareness that had plagued hardware over the years. With this huge step, and it being a high quality Sony product, it came with an AV out and with a port to link two PlayStations together, a first in gaming. It also introduced memory cards instead of stupid passwords to save games. They did everything right! Nothing looked out of place.

Later on Sony would release the PSOne which was a revamped version of the console, cutting costs and making it smaller to save space under your television. But the most important aspect of them releasing it was to try and stop hackers from modding their console - the PS1 was modded beyond recognition which in return meant Sony lost millions to pirated games. Unfortunately this also did not last very long as hackers figured it out quite quickly.

The controller was a whole different little beast altogether. It was made with 3D in mind. Instead of your normal square looking controllers it now had handles to wrap your hands around and the start and select buttons represented symbols found on CD players. Out went the “A”, “B” and “C” buttons, replaced with shapes: “X”, “Square”, “Triangle” and “Circle.” Another two shoulder buttons were added making it four as gaming was heading in a direction which needed more inputs and Sony was right on it. A feature overlooked by many would also be that the cable was about three times as long as the competitors’, making it much easier to sit a further distance from your TV.

Several years later they also released the now well known Dualshock. With this they added two analogue sticks and rumble which just proved how versatile Sony was in their approach of this console. They were ready for everything and had virtually created a controller that would last for the next 14 years (1994 – 2008).

Games:

This is where gaming as we know it now really started. Wipeout, Tekken, Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy 7 (3D Final Fantasy), Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Gran Turismo and many, many other games made their debut on the PS1.

When the PlayStation launched it was two games that took the market by storm: Ridge Racer and Tekken. These were the two latest Namco arcade games and the versions on the PS1 were Arcade Perfect. In a sense one can blame the demise of the arcade in Western territories on the PS1 as people now had the arcade at home.

Sony’s business plan was to get as many third party developers on board by lowering development costs and at the same time upping profits for them. This showed when games started pouring onto the console in 1997. EA was a massive loss to SEGA and joined Sony instead by releasing FIFA, Tiger Woods, Madden, Medal of Honour, Need for Speed and several other big name franchises throughout the lifespan of the console.

With the console being after a mature market one would think that it ended at that. Sony bought a (then) small company by the name of Naughty Dog who was hard at work on a little game called Crash Bandicoot, which would later be labeled as the PlayStation brand’s mascot. We all know now that this was all a load of rubbish as you can find him on about everything these days, but at the time it was exclusive to Sony and it really did feel like a more mature Mario or Sonic.

To go into depth of each and every PlayStation title would be far too time consuming. There were so many sequels on the platform, the majority being high quality, that it just felt like this never-ending drumming of awesomeness. Wipeout 2097, Gran Turismo 2, Tekken 3, Resident Evil 2, Final Fantasy 8, Crash Bandicoot 3… the list goes on.

Add-Ons:

There were many add-ons released for the PS1, but if one had to single out the two most important ones it would have to be the Multi-tap (actually quite necessary),and Namco’s Lightgun. If you wanted to play any sports game it was very important to purchase a multi-tap and then we also had the birth of FPS games on the PS1 and several racing games which were all great 4-way multiplayer. As for the lightgun, there was really no other way to play it and it came bundled with Time Crisis which was a massive arcade hit at the time.

Overall:

This is by far the most important turn in the console industry. If it was not for Sony I am quite terrified of what it could have become. SEGA and Nintendo took the move to 3D very slowly while Sony took it upon themselves to lead the industry. They made gaming cool and acceptable in all communities. The PS1 eventually came to an end with the launch of the inevitable follow-up from Sony, but even then it fought back, outselling it for several months before developers jumped for greener pastures on stronger consoles. It is very simple though, look at most of the games today and you will realize that the big franchises started their lives on the PS1 and that many concepts and ideas started there as well. This console leaves a colossal legacy.

If you missed the first seven weeks of the series, check out the Atari 2600, NES, Sega Master System, SEGA Mega Drive, SNES, the Panasonic 3DO and Sega Saturn.