Is the PS1 overated?

In short: I think it is. For those who just wanted to know that, you can now piss off.

For those who want to know what brought me to that conclusion, I suppose I can give you a backstory.

I used to have a PS1 back in the day, and I loved it. There were so many great games for it. The 3D aspect was mindblowing coming from the Mega Drive!

When I got into retro gaming, I naturally went back to the PS1. Those wobbly textures have a charm to them that you can’t recreate with modern games!

So I decided to expland into other retro consoles of that generation, and I got a Saturn, then an N64, then a Dreamcast.

Over time, I found myself playing those way more, and my PS1 was just collecting dust.

It seems I’m not alone. People my age seem to rave on about those consoles more than the PS1. Look at any meme about the 90s, and 9 times out of 10, you’ll see a reference to the N64 there.

Dreamcast obviously has it’s huge fanbase, and the Saturn has a dedicated one, too.

But the PS1 seems completely forgotten. Sure, you have some guys, such as myself, recalling memories of it, but generally, people seemed to have just moved on and don’t pay any attention to it. At least this is from my experience.

This is all despite the fact the PS1 sold about twice as many consoles as the other 3 combined.

Makes you wonder, doesn’t it? From playing all of the consoles, almost on a regular basis, I can give you my reason for doing this myself.

The PS1 just feels… bland. Lifeless. Almost corporate.

The library seems quanity over quality. Absolutely it has it’s classics, but a big percentage of those weren’t even exclusive, and most of the time, in my opinion, the PS1 version wasn’t even the best.

Wipeout is also available on Saturn and PC.

Wipeout 2097/XL is also available on Saturn and PC.

Croc is also available on Saturn and PC.

Destruction Derby, you guessed it, also on Saturn and PC.

Destruction Derby 2 was also on PC, and a Saturn port was in the works, but cancelled.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater was also on N64 and Dreamcast.

Pro Skater 2 was also on N64, Dreamcast, and PC. (There was also 2X on Xbox, but that never got released here)

Final Fantasy VII was also on PC.

Metal Gear Solid was also on PC.

Bugs Bunny Lost in Time and Sheep, Dog n’ Wolf were also on PC.

See where I’m getting at?

Don’t get me wrong, the PS1 has some absolute classics to call it’s own, such as the Crash Bandicoot games, the Spyro trilogy, Klonoa, Wip3out and Ape Escape. I’m not holding anything against those, I love those games! It also has Bubsy 3D… I guess?

But outside of those, the PS1 feels like it hasn’t got anything truly outstanding to offer.

I also respect that the same could be said for the Sega Saturn, many of it’s games were also on PC, but at least those Saturn games had multiplayer that was harder to achieve on PC, so there was a reason to own the games on Saturn, if you had one. Most of the PS1 games listed were singleplayer only.

The other consoles felt like they had personality to them, like you go to one of them to play a specific type of game.

Whereas the PS1 feels like it’s just a generic for everyone console, it lacks such personality.

I’m not knocking the PS1 at all, mind you, I still think it’s a great console, just overshadowed by almost every other console that generation.

So what do you think? Feel free to

 

Retro diary #90 – Final Yin… for a while…

A think for 2019, A’m gaun’ae lea the Retro Diary for juist special events A dae whan it comes tae gemmin. Hit juist seems pyntless tae me itherwise. Juist a desperate attempt tae keep acteeve a blog A shoud post mair creative stuff on! A think A shoud lea ma personal gemmin life private onywey.

A’m shuir this daesna interest onybody ootside o my faimly or freends, anywey. Ma diskiverin Twitter maks this hale thing obsolete regairdless.

Assumin Brexit nor Airticle 13 dinna happen (A mean Scotland coud lea the UK an juist jyne the EEA insteid… here’s howpin!), 2019 will be whaur A will stairt tae dae mair uisefu stuff on this blog. Stuff like reviews, thochts on current gemmin an media events.

Mibbie A’ll stairt daein let’s plays an video reviews an aw! A’m howpin tae! A juist need tae win a warslin match wi ma anxiety…

A’ll be shuir tae milk the hell oot o the blog for Januar an Februar anywey! A’v got’ae make the maist o whit freedoms whit hiv left, eh no?

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Last Sunday, A went tae R-cade for thair Christmas pairty, an A haed s smashin time! A played Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on the Switch, Virtual Cop 2 on the Saturn, an 18 wheeler on the Gamecube. Ah watched someb’dy play Sonic Adventure 2 Battle on the Gamecube an aw.

Retro Diary #89

Hit’s been a while since A’v done a development blog, sae hou aboot a quickly catch-up on whit we’v done…

A’v been playin Superman 64 an Goldeneye 007 (in 00 Agent Mode) at R-cade.

A’v decided tae make a gemm inspired bi Goldeneye.

Me, ma brither an his bird hiv stairtit tae play the Gen 1 Pokemon gemms, A’m playin Yellow, ma brither is playin Blue, an his bird is playin Red.

Blue haed memory problems, but A teuk oot the battery, replaced it, an it wirkit again!

Ma brither haes completit his gemm, his bird is 2nd, an A’m 3rd. A’v been ower busy tae play it maist o the time.

A funa ma auld copy o Pokemon Yellow, an gied tae tae ma ither brother, an he’s been tryin tae play it, fechin against the save data bein corruptit a lot. Gotta appreciate that!

A fund oot that the awner of the R-cade cafe A g’ tae haes been playin Pokemon Yellow an aa, wi a Game Boy Original wi a Booster Boy!

Oh ay, A got a Game Boy Printer an aa!

A’v been printin aff Pokedex entries wi it!

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On the Thursday, A got ma N64 repaired bi replacin the coolin pad in the expansion pack… A should tak photies an upload thaim here for next time A fix something! Mibbie mak a video?

Onywey, A fund oot that it wirkit whan me an ma brither played Pokemon stadium for 2 oor wioot realisin! Before, the console ainly lastit for wan!

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On the Friday, me an a mate went tae Super Bario, but it got ower crowded tae play ony gemms thare.

Than, we went tae R-Cade, ma freend wis playin Spiderman 2 on the PS2 while A juist played Pokemon Yellow on ma Game Boy Color.

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Retro Diary #88

On the Monanday an Tuesday, A played Batman Forever: The Arcade Game an Burnin Rangers for the Sega Saturn.

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On the Wadnesday, A tried tae playn the Sega Saturn again, but the laser wis malafoustered.. A’m leukin intae sortin that oot.

Sae A decided tae play ma Atari Jaguar an CD… the Jag CD didna wirk aither… A played some Club Drive… that wis hit.

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On the Thursday, A played Crash Bandicoot 3 on the PS1, an haed a richt braw time! A felt like a wee wean again!

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On the Friday, A met wi a mate an we played Batman Forever: The Arcade Game on the Sega Saturn on Co-Op, an A actual beat hit!

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On the Sunday, A played a guid few gemms wi fowk A hung oot wi. We played Mario kart: Double Dash on the Gamecube, Mario Kart 64 on the N64, Daytona USA on the Sega Saturn, an Mario Tennis for the Wii. A injoyed hit.

Later on, at hame, A played Theme Hospital for the PC.

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Retro Diary #87

On Wadnesday, me an ma brither decided tae play some gemms, sae we played Gang Beasts on the PS4, an than A brocht ma Sega Saturn doun, an than we played Athlete Kings, Batman Forever: The Arcade Game an Burning Rangers.

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Friday wis ma birthday. We went tae M&D’s an brocht alang a freend o mines, that haes been gittin intae VHS tapes lately, an says he’s interestit in playin Batman Forever: The Arcade Game, an haes the film on VHS. Sae we plan tae gae tae wan o oor hooses, an watch the film on VHS, than play the gemm on Saturn!

A gat tae bring doon some o ma consoles an play thaim. Sae A broucht doon ma N64 an ma Sega Saturn, A played Fighters Destiny an Burning Rangers.

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On Sunday, A met up wi ma cousins at wir grannie’s, an A brocht ma N64 alang wi iz. We played Tony Hawk’s Skateboarding, Ridge Racer 64, 007 TWINE, Goldeneye, and 1080 Snowboarding. We haed guid fun.

 

A kickstarter for a new N64 game!

There’s a kickstarter for a new(ish) Nintendo 64 game.

I saw newish, it’s for finishing off a canceled N64 game, but it’ll still be a new release!

I hope to back this for this reason! It’d make a nice conversation piece!

I hope everyone reading this backs this also! This is going to be awesome!

Retro Diary #84 – “I’m great at this game!” *Crashes and loses wheels*

On Tuesday, I played some WWE 2K18 with my brother, and lost all matches… it’s getting really frustrating now!

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On Thursday, I went to meet up with a friend at Geek Retreat, and we playes some SNES and N64 games.

If I recall correctly, we played some Super Mario All Stars, Street Fighter 2, Killer Instinct, Donkey Kong Country and Starwing on the SNES.

On The Nintendo 64 We played WWF No Mercy, Where we made The Coach, of all wresting personalities, Twisted Edge Snowboarding, which didn’t haave much to it and was mediocre, but was very 90s!

Finally, we played F1 Grand Prix, which was frustrating at first, but we got used to it, and had a blast. I found out that this friend of mind has a fascination with F1 and it’s video games, and seemed very knowledgeable on the subject!

He tried (Well, he didn’t try, he was just bad!) to bash the car as much as he could, and actually lost 2 wheels and front wing!

When I got home, I played some games of WWE 2k18 with my brother, and I finally got the hang of the game and how to work around it’s issues, and finally managed to beat him! …once.

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On Friday, my physical copy of Undertale finally arrrived!!!

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Retro Diary #82

On Monday, I played some matches of WWE 2K18 on the PS4 with my brother, we played 3 8-man matches, all of which he won, then we played 2 one-on-one matches, both of which I won!

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On Tuesday, we played WWE 2K18 again, this time with another brother, too! We played 3 tripple threat elimination matches, all of which I was eliminated first, then we played a handicap match, me and my youngest brother versus he 1st brother, that ended in a draw, and the youngest brother left after that. Then we played 2 6-man ladder matches, both of which I also lost.

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On Wednesday, I met up with a high-school friend at MEGAByted, and I played Supermn 64, and rage quit out of frustration, and then I played Bubsy 3D for the PS1, and got bored of that after 2 levels, but I saved the password for next time…

Then I played some pinball games. I’ve really been getting into pinball recently, it’s so much fun! And Trippy!

I then played the arcade game there (forget the title), with an old pound coin I had! So it was essentially a free game!

After that, we went home.

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Retro Diary #80 – “Help me Superman, help me!!! …but first, kill all the bad guys!”

Last Sunday, I went to a meetup at a restaurant called the Geek Retreat… which ended up not happening… but I noticed that they had a Nintendo 64, so I decided to play whatever they had, and they had Wipeout 64, so I just played that for about an hour, then headed home.

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On Monday, I met up with an old school friend at Geek Retreat, and we played some Nintendo 64 while chatting away, we played some Goldeneye, followed by Wipeout 64, and then WWF no mercy. It was nice playing them and meeting this old friend again!

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On Saturday, I met up with this friend again and his group of friends at MEGABytes, I brought along Superman 64, and decided to play that, and we had a blast just laughing at it! It is such a bad game!

We came up with an alternate backstory for the game, Lois Lane is the real villan, and Lex Luthor is just a hostage! The idea came from when “rescuing” Lois Lane, she cried for help, but then said “Before you save me, take out all the bad guys.”, and she looked so casual and calm where she was… hmm… 😛

We also joked about how Superman would be traumatised after the game ends, and will be triggered if anyone mentions rings, and we came up with all sorts of scenarios where “ring” would be mentioned to him!

After our one hour session was finished, they offered to take it off our hands for free and throw it into the river clyde, which I politely declined! 😛

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That’s it for this week’s retro diary, see youse whenever I do anything else worth of note…

Retro Diary #69 – Tony Hawk’s Racist Wasteland

On Monday, me, my sister and littlest brother went to M&Ds, which is a theme park in Scotland. (and the only one…)

There, they had plenty of arcade machines, from Pacman to Flappy Bird.