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Bringing together three prior DF Retro episodes for a long-play marathon video spanning a massive two hours and 46 minutes, John Linneman and Audi Sorlie revisit the launch of the Sony PlayStation from its origins in Japan to its eventual rollout across the globe - and in the process, assess every single launch title in all three territories, stacking them up against other versions on other systems. It's coverage without compromise. This is DF Retro.

00:00:00 Introduction
00:01:33 Chapter 1: Interactive Origins (Making of PlayStation)
00:09:05 Chapter 2: PlayStation arrives in Japan (Japanese launch games)
00:12:18 Ridge Racer
00:18:56 Gokujyou Parodius Da! Deluxe Pack
00:26:19 TAMA: Adventurous Ball in Giddy Labyrinth
00:29:39 Crime Crackers
00:35:33 A IV Evolution
00:38:09 Nekketsu Oyako
00:43:50 Mahjong Madness
00:48:52 Chapter 3: Journey to the West (Launching PlayStation in North America)
00:52:28 Chapter 4: The American Dream (North American launch games)
00:54:43 Total Eclipse Turbo
01:00:19 Battle Arena Toshinden
01:06:27 Rayman
01:17:00 Street Fighter: The Movie
01:26:21 The Raiden Project
01:30:53 NBA Jam T.E.
01:43:35 Power Server 3D Tennis
01:46:17 ESPN Extreme Games
01:51:55 Kileak: The DNA Imperative
01:57:47 Chapter 5: To a New World (Launching PlayStation in Europe)
02:05:06 Chapter 6: Your European PAL (European launch games)
02:07:45 Wipeout
02:15:08 Air Combat
02:17:20 Rapid Reload/Gunner's Heaven
02:25:24 Novastorm
02:32:03 Jumping Flash!
02:38:35 Lemmings 3D
02:42:54 Ending
02:44:41 Credits

 

[diffusionx]

ESPN Extreme Games was great and I'm tired of pretending it wasn't.

 

[Mr Hyde]

ESPN Extreme Games was great and I'm tired of pretending it wasn't.

One of the best launch games ever! Played the shit out of that one.

 

[GametimeUK]

I'm so sick of the Digital Foundry Xbox bias. They're releasing PS1 videos now so Xbox Series X has something to beat performance wise.

I see what they're really up to.

 

[Fake]

PS1 and PS2 are the best systems to date. Software its what matters.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

The only DF content I still respect.

Giving this a nice fat watch! GGs John!

 

[FunkMiller]

This may just sound like old man nostalgia, but there will never, ever be a one two punch in video games as good as Ps1 & 2. It was easily the absolute best period in gaming history, and I very much doubt it'll ever be matched.

 

[Sp3eD]

I remember getting a ps1 a few months after it came out and being so excited for toshinden. It’s so clunky and slow today, but 13 year old me played that game like crazy and got all the unlocks. Rolling around in 3D was magic at the time and the soundtrack is something I can go back and listen to even today! Those butt rocking guitar solos are amazing.

 

[The ninja farmer]

I remember getting a ps1 a few months after it came out and being so excited for toshinden. It’s so clunky and slow today, but 13 year old me played that game like crazy and got all the unlocks. Rolling around in 3D was magic at the time and the soundtrack is something I can go back and listen to even today! Those butt rocking guitar solos are amazing.

So this , maybe not quite 13 though

Also loved me some tekken, wipeout and ridge racer in that first year. Capped of with the complete doom (spent an Xmas in the dark ploughing through it , but can’t remember if it was year 1, or the Xmas slightly after)

Then topped off with the die hard trilogy, with a light gun The cherry on a large and great cake

It’s what reignited my love of gaming, for me

 

[Hudo]

read "Marathon" thought it was about Bungie's classic Marathon trilogy and was disappointed.

Well, that's on me.

 

[Alexios]

It really drives home how its launch lineup wasn't anything special and its success was all because of Sony's marketing prowess (whether overhyping their stuff or slander against the competition). Not that other systems had great launch windows but, PS didn't really top what they had shown by then.

SNES/Genesis level 2D run and gun/shmups and some crude 3D titles were hyped as the second coming of gaming Jesus while the competition was judged on its own lackluster launch and, mostly by the western media, deemed dead on arrival despite quickly redeeming itself with great content.​

 

[Horseganador]

The biggest generational leap in history, going from a SNES to a PSX or Saturn was incredible.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Really drives home how its launch lineup wasn't anything special and its success was all because of Sony's marketing prowess (whether overhyping their stuff or slander against the competition). Not that other systems had great launch windows but, PS didn't really top what they had shown by then...

I disagree. The Saturn did have a pretty good early library of games and arguably the best 3D fighter from a gameplay POV during that period, but most of its best games were arcade ports with very little new content. Not only that, but some were already ported to other systems like the 32X (VF and Virtua Racing).

And while Virtual Fighter beat Tekken & Toshinden in gameplay, overall I still find the other two more interesting to go back to for a quick session or what-have-you. Also FWIW, I don't really remember Sony pushing any slander against SEGA outside of the stuff like the Crash Bandicoot ads, which weren't any different and arguably tamer than the stuff SEGA did against Nintendo in the 16-bit era.

It definitely wasn't all down to marketing why PS1 took off in the West and Saturn didn't; SEGA might've arguably had a few very select edges in very specific genres (3D fighters, light gun, maybe arcade racers) in pure technical terms, but they didn't have the variety or volume of content Sony did even from early on. I'd say both had about the same number of "great" early games but PS1 had a lot more "good" games than Saturn in the early phase, at least in the West.

 

[nush]

ESPN Extreme Games was great and I'm tired of pretending it wasn't.

That's the one we used to stay behind and play in the shop after hours. It was accessible to any skill level.

 

[BigLee74]

Olympic Soccer on the PS1 was my jam.

Well, that and Tomb Raider, and Final Doom.

 

[Mr Moose]

I'm so sick of the Digital Foundry Xbox bias. They're releasing PS1 videos now so Xbox Series X has something to beat performance wise.

I see what they're really up to.

John doesn't like MS/Xbox.

 

[diffusionx]

Really drives home how its launch lineup wasn't anything special and its success was all because of Sony's marketing prowess (whether overhyping their stuff or slander against the competition). Not that other systems had great launch windows but, PS didn't really top what they had shown by then...

By the end of 1995 we got Twisted Metal, Destruction Derby, Tekken, Warhawk, Loaded, X-COM, and the best console port of Doom. So the games came out fast and furious.

 

[Alexios]

By the end of 1995 we got Twisted Metal, Destruction Derby, Tekken, Warhawk, Loaded, X-COM, and the best console port of Doom. So the games came out fast and furious.

At least 5 of those are bad games. X-COM is great (but hardly the type of game that made PS popular).

 

[diffusionx]

At least 5 of those are bad games. X-COM is great.

All of them were great fun at the time. Maybe dated badly, had issues, or were supplanted by sequels, but the system's success was not just muh marketing.

 

[nush]

At least 5 of those are bad games. X-COM is great.

Go stand in the corner.

 

[YCoCg]

This was one of John's best, nice to see it combined as a full three hour documentary for people, it's a perfect Sunday watch seeing him and Audi go over the pre-hype, the launches, the games, etc from all three regions.

 

[nush]

What does not get mentioned enough is the Link Cable games and how in a pre-internet connected world for consoles (PC already had LAN parties) this was something special and unique. It did take a while for normies to learn about this.

 

[Rocco Schiavone]

What happened to the devs of Battle Arena Toshinden?? First and second game are criminally underrated.

 

[nush]

What happened to the devs of Battle Arena Toshinden?? First and second game are criminally underrated.

No shit.

 

[skit_data]

I was a bit confused because I swore I'd seen this content before and then I realized they just merged three separate videos into one

 

[Badlucktroll]

they need to show these classics

 

[freefornow]

​

00:00:00 Introduction
00:01:33 Chapter 1: Interactive Origins (Making of PlayStation)
00:09:05 Chapter 2: PlayStation arrives in Japan (Japanese launch games)
00:12:18 Ridge Racer
00:18:56 Gokujyou Parodius Da! Deluxe Pack
00:26:19 TAMA: Adventurous Ball in Giddy Labyrinth
00:29:39 Crime Crackers
00:35:33 A IV Evolution
00:38:09 Nekketsu Oyako
00:43:50 Mahjong Madness
00:48:52 Chapter 3: Journey to the West (Launching PlayStation in North America)
00:52:28 Chapter 4: The American Dream (North American launch games)
00:54:43 Total Eclipse Turbo
01:00:19 Battle Arena Toshinden
01:06:27 Rayman
01:17:00 Street Fighter: The Movie
01:26:21 The Raiden Project
01:30:53 NBA Jam T.E.
01:43:35 Power Server 3D Tennis
01:46:17 ESPN Extreme Games
01:51:55 Kileak: The DNA Imperative
01:57:47 Chapter 5: To a New World (Launching PlayStation in Europe)
02:05:06 Chapter 6: Your European PAL (European launch games)
02:07:45 Wipeout
02:15:08 Air Combat
02:17:20 Rapid Reload/Gunner's Heaven
02:25:24 Novastorm
02:32:03 Jumping Flash!
02:38:35 Lemmings 3D
02:42:54 Ending
02:44:41 Credits

Appreciate the timestamping adamsapple

 

[Insane Metal]

Wipeout and Air Combat. Fuck me. That was AWESOME at the time.

 

[Fabieter]

The only DF content I still respect.

Giving this a nice fat watch! GGs John!

Same here. John is doing the retro content justice but all the other videos ain't worth watching.

 

[Buggy Loop]

2h45

PSX will always have a special place in my heart. Even that intro, fucking hell, masterpiece



Peak teenage years. Me and my brother would play Resident Evil non stop when it released, It would be an event, we took the family TV hostage and everyone watched us play it.

The console looked good, maybe the last true good looking console in fact. Those black boxes that followed were ugly imo.

 

[ShirAhava]

Battle Arena Toshinden was a BIG fucking deal at the time. "AURORA REVOLUTION" "CALL ME QUEEN"
I remember that was the stand out until we all found out how good Wipeout was.

 

[Audiophile]

I remember living up on the top, end-flat near a roundabout around my neck of the woods. I was about 4 and I recall my brother who's ten years older than me constantly pestering my mum about a "Play Station". I had zero concept of what this was and distinctly remember thinking in my 4yr old mind's eye that this was some sort of "station that you'd play at", like a mat with some beams and pillars attached that you'd put together and panels with toys attached or dangling.

Up until then my only concept of a console was his SNES which I only recall playing some game on where you'd ride unicycles on a rainbow. When I heard "Play Station"; it really didn't compute that it was another thing like that. Through my lens at that age I just thought of physical things you play with/at, wondering if like my plastic tool bench it'd have toy drills and bolts and stuff..

What I can only assume was about a year later he had a PS1 & TOCA and I recall being blown away that the bonnet would come off of cars. Thinking it was so realistic!!

 

[sachos]

The amount of love, knowledge and work John puts into his Retro videos is astounding. Hard to find someone that loves games and is as knowledged as him in the industry. I wish he would do a PS2 sequel to this one (i know he has a stream with Audi but its not the same). His PS3 1080p Dream video is amazing too.