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PS1 Appreciation/Collectors Thread of Ugly-Ass Polygons

Fox Mulder

Member
I've been collecting snes for a year and ignored the ps1 and n64 because of dated 3d graphics, but I kind of like them again.

Got a psone mini and n64 at goodwill for $5 each and the games are pretty cheap compared to the snes. Already got stuff like road rash, Jet Moto, Crash, and even the Bruce Willis Apocalpyse shooter.
 
I was starting to work and have my own money during the ps1 era...great memories of this era early high school mid college for me...maybe 14-20. I remember renting the system and games a ton from my blockbuster before deciding on that vs the Saturn.

I think the first games I rented after owning a Playstation of my own was Twisted Metal 2 and Disruptor because they were password games and I didn't have a memory card yet.

I remember being so so amped for Wild Arms before it came out, then really liking the game when it came out, one of the first games I bought.

My ps1 collection now is small-ish, but pretty good quality wise...Suikoden 1, 2...Vandal Hearts 1, 2, Carnage Heart, Hogs of War, Mega Man 8, Resident Evil 2, Twisted Metal 2, among others....and thanks to PSN I've got lots more ps1 classics living forever on my ps3/vita.
 

ScOULaris

Member
I have so many fond memories of the PS1 era. I don't even know where to begin:

  • Metal Gear Solid blowing my mind and making me a lifelong fan.
  • One amazing JRPG release after the other. Square, Enix, Konami... etc. at the top of their game. Square's output during the 32-bit generation, alone, is something that we'll never see again. What an amazing time.
  • Glorious jewel cases with color manuals most of the time
  • My first 4-player session of Twisted Metal. This is what sold me on the system's potential.
  • Resident Evil and Silent Hill defining survival horror.
  • All kinds of quirky-but-polished games coming out of Japan. Tomba! comes to mind, but there are tons of other examples. Games were cheaper to develop, so there was a lot more experimentation going on.
  • The introduction of dual analog sticks and built-in vibration with the DualShock.

I'm still discovering PS1 games today that I absolutely love. I didn't play Vagrant Story until a couple of years ago, for example, and now it's one of my all-time favorites.
 
Ahh, the PS1 - this machine was the one that really got me into the more technical side of gaming, and the more collector-y part of gaming. I started being interested in importing games, and modding consoles, and swap tricks and all that stuff.

I loved this console, and the incredible variety of games. I loved how well-priced they were, too. $39.99 first party titles, and games generally ran up to $49.99 or so. I miss the days of fully-featured, complete package games for reasonable prices. The library is pretty epic - I won't even bother trying to list all my favorites, or all of the stuff that's still in my collection.

I still have a functional PS1 in good condition, and I still have a few quality titles floating around...I hope all Playstations at least retain BC with PS1, so we can always go back and see where it all started!
 
That demo disc collection is amazing. I recently found some PS Underground demo discs and have been getting all nostalgic on them. One of my most vivid video game memories has to be playing the Japanese demo for MGS1 from a magazine. I played the shit out of that.

I'm about to play Mission Impossible. I beat the N64 one long ago, and this one seems to be the same from looking at the back of the case. Was pretty solid from what I remember.
 

Melchiah

Member
All the games I bought for the system
8hF54sN.jpg


Unfinished:
Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain (the gameplay felt tedious to me after Soul Reaver)
D (beyond frustrating)
Final Fantasy Anthology & VI (barely even started, couldn't get past the visuals, guess I should have been there when they were released, and play them before the PS1 entries)
Metal Gear Solid (quitted it during the frustrating end battles)
Shadowman (the same as with Blood Omen)

I only managed to finish Nightmare Creatures with cheats enabled. Liked the game, even as clunky as its gameplay was, but Hated the rapidly depleting health. Which is why I never bought the sequel.

It was the generation that brought me back to gaming after half a decade's hiatus, that began in the Amiga days. And it was the birth of, or an introduction to, some of my favorite franchises. The first game I bought was Resident Evil: Director's Cut, when I bought the system in May 1998, and the one I most regret not buying is Wip3out.

Personal highlights of the gen:
Silent Hill
Resident Evil 1 and 2 (the 3rd felt like a repetition of the same, and I didn't really like the Nemesis character, as it felt like a move from horror to action)
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver
Final Fantasy VIII
Tomb Raider II (mainly because I played it first, and because you could save anywhere)
WipEout 2097


This era was really the height of Japanese development, and was a magical time when games could actually be fun instead of attempting to be bad David Cage movies

I don't think those two are mutually exclusive; you can enjoy both, how ever different they may be. I'd certainly grow bored, if the games remained stagnant, and repeated the same formula and gameplay mechanics across the board. Variety is always good in my book.
 

Danny Dudekisser

I paid good money for this Dynex!
I only had one PS Underground disc... it was the one that had Korn's Got The Life on it. That was sweet.

I had a bunch of demo discs from OPM, though. First issue I got was... I think the October 1998 issue... whichever one had Metal Gear Solid on it. I kinda want to hunt down that demo disc solely for nostalgia purposes.
 
I was checking my PS1 digital collection on my PS3 and have over 135 games across the NA/JPN stores. No wonder I have zero space on my HDD.
 
Silpheed anything like the Sega-CD one?

There's no Silpheed for the PlayStation, unfortunately. I do own the Sega CD version, and it's pretty cool. The game got a PlayStation 2-only sequel, Silpheed: The Lost Planet, shortly after the system launched. I haven't played it, though, so I can't say if it's any good.

and man, that big ass PSX stick...always wondered how it handled

Do you mean the ASCiiWARE arcade stick, like the one in my picture? If so, it's pretty decent. It works well, but I imagine it's not something that hardcore stick users would care much for. Mark from Classic Game Room did a review for it, if you're curious. If you're not planning to use it for, like...tournament play or something, then it should do just fine for your needs.

I bought it for $16 at a small game shop years ago, and I used it a lot for a few years with no real complaints. Now I have it as a back up for 2-player games, and I use a MAS stick I found at a flea market for $10 (normally goes for $150~$200+) to play stuff nowadays. Now that's a monster stick.


Don't mind the stickers on it...those were there when I got it. The stick itself works really great. It's pretty much like someone just ripped it out of an arcade machine. It's fantastic, and I use it with absolutely every arcade-y game I can...I even have a USB converter so I can use it on my PlayStation 3 and PC! I'd highly recommend the MAS stick (if you like American-styled sticks), but it can be very pricey. I'm glad I found it so incredibly cheap at the flea market. It makes my other stick feel like a cheap toy.

---

Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention in my previous post that I have a few PlayStation games I got from the PlayStation Store...mainly just to play on my PSP. I have Rayman, Tomb Raider II, Crash Bandicoot: Warped, Castlevania Chronicles, and R-Type Delta. I wish owned them physically, though, but whatever. I might buy some real copies at some point down the road.
 
I've always wanted one of the Namco sticks, but I could never find one. I've heard they're pretty good. I might still try and get one at some point down the road. Those yellow buttons and stick are nice looking.

I haven't really tried playing games that weren't really designed around a stick much, but it's something I've thought about trying more. I think I messed around more with crazy stuff like trying to play games with guitar controllers...which was pretty fun to do with friends. Gears of War multiplayer with guitar controllers-only was a very memorably hilarious moment. Haha.
 

Melchiah

Member
I've always wanted one of the Namco sticks, but I could never find one. I've heard they're pretty good. I might still try and get one at some point down the road. Those yellow buttons and stick are nice looking.

I haven't really tried playing games that weren't really designed around a stick much, but it's something I've thought about trying more. I think I messed around more with crazy stuff like trying to play games with guitar controllers...which was pretty fun to do with friends. Gears of War multiplayer with guitar controllers-only was a very memorably hilarious moment. Haha.

Yeah, it was very good, and had a metal shell. Too bad I managed to broke it in Tomb Raider rage. =/

IIRC, Tomb Raider was better with the stick, as it was easier to jump and shoot simultaneously.

Gears of War with a guitar controller sounds hilarious.
 
Yeah, it was very good, and had a metal shell. Too bad I managed to broke it in Tomb Raider rage. =/

IIRC, Tomb Raider was better with the stick, as it was easier to jump and shoot simultaneously.

Gears of War with a guitar controller sounds hilarious.

It broke? Damn...what a shame. I did not expect it to work better with Tomb Raider, though. That's crazy, man. Maybe I should try that at some point.

Oh, man...Gears of War was hilariously amazing like that. You had to hold down the whammy bar about half way just so wouldn't spin around the whole time. You turned by either holding it down more or loosening it. You couldn't shoot or more forward, you could only run and melee. I really wish I had recorded that, because watching a group of people take turns playing it like that was probably one of the funniest things ever. I remember trying out Dead or Alive 4 like that, too, but that actually worked decently...
 

Melchiah

Member
It broke? Damn...what a shame. I did not expect it to work better with Tomb Raider, though. That's crazy, man. Maybe I should try that at some point.

Oh, man...Gears of War was hilariously amazing like that. You had to hold down the whammy bar about half way just so wouldn't spin around the whole time. You turned by either holding it down more or loosening it. You couldn't shoot or more forward, you could only run and melee. I really wish I had recorded that, because watching a group of people take turns playing it like that was probably one of the funniest things ever. I remember trying out Dead or Alive 4 like that, too, but that actually worked decently...

Well, I threw it on the floor with all my strength. And boy, did I regret doing so afterwards. Tomb Raider III once made me pick a hammer and smash the DualShock to pieces. Luckily I've learned to control my temper better later on.

I dunno if it was because of what I had grown accustomed to, but some the acrobatic moves you had to do in Tomb Raider felt easier with the stick. It would be interesting to try how it's now, that I've been playing with a pad for years.

The Gears guitar session sounds like something I would have liked to see. =D
 

Danny Dudekisser

I paid good money for this Dynex!
My controller breaking prowess is second to none. And I've gotten better at it with age.

Last controller I broke, I just pushed the DualShock handles towards eachother until the thing split in half.
 

Melchiah

Member
My controller breaking prowess is second to none. And I've gotten better at it with age.

Last controller I broke, I just pushed the DualShock handles towards eachother until the thing split in half.

The old pads were pretty tough. It actually took some effort to break them.


EDIT: In retrospect, I bought quite a lot of games in those days; May 1998 - December 2000, 22 games in 2½ years. Excluding FFIX, which was released after the PS2 launch.

In comparison...
PS2 - 32 games in 6 years
PS3 - 59 games in 5½ years (of which 25 retail), excluding a handful of PS1/2 games and Plus offerings.
 

teiresias

Member
Bah
mad.gif
that game is awesome. Worth playing for the story alone, and the atmosphere, music, dialogue, and Kaiiiiin <3

The way the screen scrolls in Blood Omen always gives me motion sickness, so I too have never been able to finish it. It also almost has a 90s PC shareware vibe to it with the small actual play area and the static UI taking up so much room - I'm a bit hesitant to try and play it on Vita or my plasma for fear of burn-in on either (and I'm not one generally to worry too much about burn-in).

I originally played Soul Reaver on the Dreamcast, so I'm not sure I could play the PS1 version unless I played it on Vita or something where it would look a bit more tolerable.
 

Melchiah

Member
Bah
mad.gif
that game is awesome. Worth playing for the story alone, and the atmosphere, music, dialogue, and Kaiiiiin <3

I loved the idea, but not so much how it was brought forth. It might have been different if I had played it before Soul Reaver, and if I had more experience of similar looking PC games. The point of view was perhaps too big of a threshold for me. IIRC, the game was pretty hard as well.


EDIT:
I originally played Soul Reaver on the Dreamcast, so I'm not sure I could play the PS1 version unless I played it on Vita or something where it would look a bit more tolerable.

I'm envious about getting to experience a better version of Soul Reaver.
 

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
Really? You automatically revived if you had at least one Heart of Darkness in your stock, and they weren't exactly rare. I think I only ever got game over during my first playthrough very early on, after that it's kind of a breeze.

I don't understand the PC game reference much. I'm pretty much a die-hard console gamer, and played it in 1997 before Soul Reaver, yes, but the combat was closer to Zelda: LttP than anything else.

I can understand if someone thought the loading times were a deal-breaker, though. They were pretty damn bad, but I sat through them because they were so worth it. Kain is my favourite character of all time. ^^
 

dalin80

Banned
The Playstation was my defining moment of gaming, absolute perfection across a slew of genres and it doesn't matter how much BS publishers and developers are spewing now about every possible idea to screw over gamers as much as possible they will never be able to take those moments from me.

Even today on first sight and sound of GT, RE or MGS I become young again.
 
What's that one Playstation game you always wanted to play but never got to? For me, it was Ghost in the Shell. I played a fantastic demo that was a ton of fun, but never actually got around to playing the game proper.
 

ZeroCDR

Member
I ordered Dino Crisis and Strider 2 (disc only) from amazon, was pleased with Dino Crisis (even came with the RE3 demo, I love that stuff). Strider 2 should be here soon.

I really lucked out with Strider 2, it was listed as just "Strider" and the picture showed a disc for Strider 1, but as far as I'm aware the cover art for both games were accidentally swapped.
 

Melchiah

Member
Really? You automatically revived if you had at least one Heart of Darkness in your stock, and they weren't exactly rare. I think I only ever got game over during my first playthrough very early on, after that it's kind of a breeze.

I don't understand the PC game reference much. I'm pretty much a die-hard console gamer, and played it in 1997 before Soul Reaver, yes, but the combat was closer to Zelda: LttP than anything else.

I can understand if someone thought the loading times were a deal-breaker, though. They were pretty damn bad, but I sat through them because they were so worth it. Kain is my favourite character of all time. ^^

It's been over 13 years, so I might remember it wrong. And I didn't play that far, so perhaps I never got past the hardest part of the game. I really have a zero tolerance for frustrating parts in games, that prevent me from progressing forward. Which is exactly why I quitted gaming for a half decade in the 16-bit era.

To my knowledge, that overview interface was fairly common in PC world, eg. isometric RPGs like Baldur's Gate and Planescape Torment. Coming from PS1's 3D games it felt really odd. Never owned a 8-/16-bit console, so no experience with Zeldas either.


EDIT:
What's that one Playstation game you always wanted to play but never got to? For me, it was Ghost in the Shell. I played a fantastic demo that was a ton of fun, but never actually got around to playing the game proper.

Three of them, Wip3out, Dinocrisis 2 and The Legend of Dragoon.
 
Well, I threw it on the floor with all my strength. And boy, did I regret doing so afterwards. Tomb Raider III once made me pick a hammer and smash the DualShock to pieces. Luckily I've learned to control my temper better later on.

I dunno if it was because of what I had grown accustomed to, but some the acrobatic moves you had to do in Tomb Raider felt easier with the stick. It would be interesting to try how it's now, that I've been playing with a pad for years.

The Gears guitar session sounds like something I would have liked to see. =D

Oh...damn, man. That's a bit excessive. Hah. I'm glad I've never gotten angry at a game before. I do remember my older brother throwing controllers sometimes years ago, though...and at least once, a chair across his room after losing in one of the Final Fantasy games. Thankfully, nothing ever broke, and he stopped doing that.

I'll see if maybe I can record a Gears of War guitar session one day. Haha.

I ordered Dino Crisis and Strider 2 (disc only) from amazon, was pleased with Dino Crisis (even came with the RE3 demo, I love that stuff). Strider 2 should be here soon.

I really lucked out with Strider 2, it was listed as just "Strider" and the picture showed a disc for Strider 1, but as far as I'm aware the cover art for both games were accidentally swapped.

Dino Crisis is ace. The sequel is pretty fun, too, but it's very different. It's more arcade-y...hell, I think it has a scoring system, though it's been a while since I played it. It was also pretty short and easy from what I remember. It's worth playing, though.

I've always been so confused about why my Strider discs were swapped, and sometimes I forget they were, and end up playing the wrong one. Hah. I never knew if it was just me or a widespread issue, though.

Anyway, Strider 2 is pretty fun, but I remember always liking the first one more. They're both good, though.
 

Pics for a while back when I just made the shelves to put these on. If people can't read the lables and care enough I may take some better pics in the style of the rest of the thread.

Missing a handful of games to either theft or time, and may get back to re buying them someday. Azure dreams and Suikoden 2 have messed up booklets that I would love to replace. Some kind just tore a piece out of the Azure Dreams booklet cover to write a number down. A few games also have the marks left by that "cd resurfacer" that was big years ago.

Think the only things missing from those shelves are the boxes for Lunar 1 and 2, and Arc the Lad. Lunar boxes are ragged as fuck because I would take them everywhere with me. Not my favorite ps1 games, but meant a lot to me. Someday I may have to go to ebay to try to find a replacement for them. Lost the Ghaleon punching puppet to time as well, but probably for the best since my cats would be none to thrilled with it.
 

Danny Dudekisser

I paid good money for this Dynex!
Dino Crisis is ace. The sequel is pretty fun, too, but it's very different. It's more arcade-y...hell, I think it has a scoring system, though it's been a while since I played it. It was also pretty short and easy from what I remember. It's worth playing, though.

I've always been so confused about why my Strider discs were swapped, and sometimes I forget they were, and end up playing the wrong one. Hah. I never knew if it was just me or a widespread issue, though.

Anyway, Strider 2 is pretty fun, but I remember always liking the first one more. They're both good, though.

I think all copies of Strider 2 were reversed in the US. The US version also omitted the voice acting that was in the Japanese version.

While I didn't like the original Dino Crisis at all, I did quite enjoy the sequel, which is a straight-up action game and a lot of fun. I really should rebuy that sometime.
 
Regarding the arcade stick talk above, any of you guys ever own the Konami Hyperstick?

tumblr_ld476xyuaX1qba93f.jpg


It was pretty rad, as it used full Seimitsu parts. This was at a time when arcade-spec parts were a rarity in home console controllers. Even the monstrous HSS-0130 2-player panel for Sega Saturn had cheap clone buttons.

There's a nice writup on the Konami Hyperstick here.
 

abasm

Member
I was an N64 kid growing up, and while I think that a lot of game designs from that era still hold up today, the N64 was much more hamstrung by its tech. The forced filtering made a lot of games blurry messes, and the lack of storage kept textures painfully low-res.

It reminds me of the Genesis/SNES divide, only in reverse, and ten times worse.
 

Myriadis

Member
Finally got these two games today and both my psx favorite rpg.
suikoden2_zps26d4d9b8.jpg

Don't these games cost quite a lot? How much did you pay for it?
I always wanted to try Suikoden 2 at least (since I liked the fifth one), but looking at the prices at the european market...
 

Melchiah

Member
Oh...damn, man. That's a bit excessive. Hah. I'm glad I've never gotten angry at a game before. I do remember my older brother throwing controllers sometimes years ago, though...and at least once, a chair across his room after losing in one of the Final Fantasy games. Thankfully, nothing ever broke, and he stopped doing that.

I'll see if maybe I can record a Gears of War guitar session one day. Haha.

Excessive, and expensive. ;) Which is why I stopped doing so, or playing games that infuriated me.

Well, PM me a link if you ever record a video of it.


Regarding the arcade stick talk above, any of you guys ever own the Konami Hyperstick?

tumblr_ld476xyuaX1qba93f.jpg


It was pretty rad, as it used full Seimitsu parts. This was at a time when arcade-spec parts were a rarity in home console controllers. Even the monstrous HSS-0130 2-player panel for Sega Saturn had cheap clone buttons.

There's a nice writup on the Konami Hyperstick here.

I've never seen that before. Perhaps they weren't sold over here in Scandinavia? Look solid, as it has a metal case like the Namco stick.
 

Krelian29

Member
Don't these games cost quite a lot? How much did you pay for it?
I always wanted to try Suikoden 2 at least (since I liked the fifth one), but looking at the prices at the european market...

100$ for Suikoden 2 wich is the best i could find since it goes for 150$ and more on ebay, and Xenogears got it for 45$
 
Thought I'd share my early days with the PS1. I first read about it in magazines back in 1994-1995, but I didn't get to play one until late '95 in a local Toys R Us. It stood at the end of a long aisle facing the front of the store next to a Saturn which also stood at the end of it's own aisle. So there I was looking at 2 next gen systems, one with a demo of Virtua Fighter, and one with an entire demo disc. I played them both, but in the end I wasn't overly impressed by Virtua Fighter, but I was captivated by a cool new game called Wipeout. Holy shit that was a game changer for me.

So in early January 1996, I drove to Sears (I had just gotten a credit card there) and bought my Playstation. I picked Ridge Racer as my first game. As impressed by Wipeout as I was, I had been reading about Ridge Racer for about a year and I had to have it immediately.

9TQygOk.jpg


So I drove home with my new swag, so excited to tear into it. This was upstate New York in the middle of winter. It was the middle of the day, but it was dark and overcast. Though there was no snow on the ground, there was a huge wind storm happening, and I remember dodging fallen branches in the road as I made my way back home.

I finally made it home only to be greeted by the news that the power was out. And the power would remain out for the rest of the day. Here I was with my new Playstation, so fucking eager to play it, the situation mocking me. In the end that became a memorable day for me, but at the time it really sucked. The power finally came back the following day and I played my new system for hours and hours.

I didn't just play Ridge Racer, I also played with the demo disc that came with the system. The same demo that Toys R Us kiosk had featured.

Nth7T7P.jpg

The actual game/demo from the purchase of my system

That demo disc sold me on a shit load of games. Though only a few were playable like Wipeout (it also had playable demos of Jumping Flash, Battle Arena Toshinden, and ESPN Extreme) but it sold me on games like Warhawk, Destruction Derby, and Twisted Metal. I played the ever loving shit out of that demo, and to this day I have fond memories of it.

In the first few days following my new purchase, I would find myself buying Wipeout and Warhawk, and renting a shitload of games including Destruction Derby, Road & Track Presents: The Need For Speed, and Kileak the DNA Imperative. I rented them numerous times but eventually bought them all.



Later that year I would be fortunate enough to play games like Resident Evil and Tomb Raider, and gaming was never the same for me again. I'd been playing games since Pong, but the appeal of video games were starting to wane. The Playstation changed all of that for me and it remains my favorite game system of all time.

I love stories like this!

One of my fondest memories of the PS1 was playing wipEout with a friend, who was my neighbour back then, before the national day in Norway (it meant no school the next day). We sat on the floor in my bedroom with our backs towards my bed and a shitty old colour TV my parents had handed down to me (it took several minutes to warm up and show a picture each time you powered it on). The TV didn't have scart, so I had to buy a RF adapter for my PS1:
We played for hours into the evening (summer evenings in Norway are really bright and you don't get any sense of it being late). My parents gave us pizza, soda and lots of sweets. Since the game is singleplayer only, we would take turns for each race in the championship. We stuck to the tracks we knew, so I could race every other track really well, while my friend knew the other ones in-between.

What an amazing summer evening *nostalgia tears*
 

Danny Dudekisser

I paid good money for this Dynex!
As I suspected, talking about the PS1 made me wanna buy shit for the PS1.

1uMh554.jpg


Bought the Japanese version of Lammy cuz it's not censored. You go to Hell in the Japanese version. In the US one, it's some crazy time travel shit that goes on or something. I dunno. I need a drink.
 
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