Help finding a PS1 retrospective

[BoringSupreez]

The "Which (2) 5th GEN Consoles are you owning?" topic and the ongoing debates within have made me start thinking about the PS1. I'd like to read a retrospective on it, preferably spanning it's entire lifespan, but I'm especially interested in reading about the state of the PS pre-FFVII, and even more specifically, the launch. Anyone know of any good articles, or have written one yourself? A Google search pretty much only brought up really brief histories or stuff about PS2/3.

[TornadoCreator]

The Playstation had a quite successful but somewhat unimpressive launch. In Sep 1995 (discounting Japan that get's everything ealier) it was released WorldWide. The launch titles where...

Battle Arena Toshinden - 3D fighter that doesn't really hold up now, but was good for it's time and gave virtua fighter a run for it's money.

ESPN Extreme Games - Decent racing game featuring guys on rollerblades and skateboards. Plays very similar to the Saturn/PSOne version of Road Rash.

Kileak: The DNA Imperative - Doom style FPS, not bad for it's time, bit generic but it has some impressive FMV sequences (better than FF7, some of them).

NBA JAM Tournament Edition - Classic arcade basketball game. A near perfect arcade port of the original cabinet. Still fun now.

Raiden Project - Classic 2D Shmup. It's good, but not great. To easy I felt, but it was still a well made game.

Rayman - Classic 2D Platformer and unofficial mascot for a little while. Rayman is too slow for me, but it's still a decent game.

Ridge Racer - THE Launch Title for the Playstation. It showed off it's graphical capabilities and it was really fun. Good Racer game but it's showing it's age now. I personally think Daytona USA on the Saturn is better and retained it's charm where as this one didn't age as well. Still it had more courses so technically a more varied game.

Street Fighter: The Movie - The less said about this the better. A fighting game that is best left forgotten. Awful in every way. It's like someone took Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, merged the two, took out everything likeable and sold it.

So those are the Launch games, released within the first two months of the launch was a large selection of games... In order of release (only listing the worthwhile/important games):

Tekken - Classic 3D arcade fighter.
Total Eclipse - Solid on rails shooter.
Wipeout - Fantastic futuristic racing game.
FIFA '96 - Solid football game.
PGA Tour '96 - Surprisingly good golf game.
Doom - The most classic FPS you can get.
Gex - Great 2D platformer
Twisted Metal - Classic comedy racing game.
Road Rash - Great bike racing game.
Worms - Decent game, awkward when not on the PC though.

That's pretty much everything that came out of value in 1995 for the console, so that gives you an idea of what the Christmas releases where like (most of the above where released in November). There where a few others but nothing special, and this was before the Dual Analogue controller.

I hope this gives you an idea of early PSOne.

[BurningDoom]

Resident Evil was released a year before Final Fantasy VII. Me and a lot of friends of mine bought the system for Resident Evil. I know a lot of people that bought the system for Tomb Raider, as well, and that was also released a year before FFVII. Tomb Raider's not a personal favorite, but it was popular. Twisted Metal was also pretty big since it was a great multiplayer game for the time. I played a whole lot of Twisted Metal back in the day with my friends. Crash Bandicoot and Gex were also released beforehand, but I don't think they were really system sellers. They were more like icing on the cake after you had bought the system.

And personally (and I'm sure I'm the only one here), not only was Resident Evil the reason I bought the PS1, but also King's Field 1 & 2; which were also both released before FFVII, heck you might as well call the first King's Field game a launch title.

[retrosportsgamer]

Im guessing you'd prefer the Internet but didn't gamespite publish a book about the ps1? There is also a good ps1 history article in the latest retro gamer compilation mag (volume 5 I think) that talks about the launch.

[Sideroller]

Resident Evil was released a year before Final Fantasy VII. Me and a lot of friends of mine bought the system for Resident Evil. I know a lot of people that bought the system for Tomb Raider, as well, and that was also released a year before FFVII. Tomb Raider's not a personal favorite, but it was popular. Twisted Metal was also pretty big since it was a great multiplayer game for the time. I played a whole lot of Twisted Metal back in the day with my friends. Crash Bandicoot and Gex were also released beforehand, but I don't think they were really system sellers. They were more like icing on the cake after you had bought the system.

And personally (and I'm sure I'm the only one here), not only was Resident Evil the reason I bought the PS1, but also King's Field 1 & 2; which were also both released before FFVII, heck you might as well call the first King's Field game a launch title.

Heh, I would agree with you on everything except Crash Bandicoot. I think that little guy sold many a boatload of PS1's. I know that's the main reason I bought mine back in the day (I wasn't quite old enough to be into RE). I think that goes for a lot of the mostly younger video game audience at the time.

Plus don't you remember all those commercials of the guy in the Crash suit?

[CRTGAMER]

Help finding a PS1 retrospective.

Maybe hit the Playstation Guides right here on Racketboy? Games Defined, 101 etc.
http://www.racketboy.com/category/retro/sony/ps1

There is also Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_(console)

Also click my RARE DUAL ANALOG signature link for info on the face buttons: X O □ ∆