The Sony Playstation during the mid-90's was the new revolution in gaming. It ousted Nintendo from the gaming throne it occupied for more than 10 years with mind boggling sales numbers. Rumor has it that the Sony Playstation was submitted to Nintendo as the design for the game system to replace the Super Nintendo. Nintendo rejected Sony and the Playstation saying it wasn't ready for a CD-based system. Instead, Nintendo went with the cartridge-based N64 while Sony released the Playstation on its own. Since then, the Playstation dominated the 3rd party market while the N64 was left to rely on its own franchises like Zelda and Mario plus a few new hits like Golden Eye and A Perfect Dark.
The Playstation assumed the lead role for a tough transition time in gaming. Games during the mid to late 90's were beginning to use polygons instead of sprites. The infancy of this technology combined with the limited hardware at the time translated into some pretty tough graphics in my opinion. Sprites were very well rendered in games for the Super Nintendo and created a great era for gaming graphics. However, the new polygon era exchanged the clear sprites for the 3 dimensional polygons where you had a hard time recognizing some of your favorite characters. Some games like Metal Gear Solid and Gran Turismo, worked miracles here, others like Final Fantasy, Madden, and Crash Bandicoot left some rough edges graphically.
Despite the new polygon era, the Playstation was in the driver's seat. Looking back at the system in 2004, it was a success and helped to rewrite the rules for future gaming consoles.
The Playstation's Hardware
The Playstation's hardware was not ahead of its time. Rather, its main competition, the N64, was a far superior machine. The Playstation's processor is a 32-bit, 33 MHz processor with 2MB of RAM and 1MB of video RAM. The maximum screen resolution is 640x480. The sound output runs on 512 KB of RAM and has 24 channels. This is compared to the N64, which was running on a 64-bit processor at 94 MHz with 4.5 MB of RAM. The Playstation has a double speed CD ROM drive, and the media is a CD that can hold up to 660 MB of data. As you can see, this is not exactly state of the art technology, however the Playstation did well with what it had with regards to its raw technology.
The outside of the Playstation is contained in a gray casing and is roughly the size of the old Genesis console. On top of the console is where you have the hatch that opens up to put in your game CDs. The hatch opens by pressing the "open" button that's also located on top of the console. The final button that lies on top of the console is the power button. This is a toggle button that when pressed in signifies that the machine is on. In the front of the console is where the two controller ports are. In the back is where the ports for the A/V out and AC power input are. The unit itself is pretty sturdy in that it has a low center of gravity.
Accessories, or Taking Us To The Cleaners
One of the worst aspects of the Playstation is its accessories. There are certain accessories that must be purchased in order to enjoy a game to its fullest. Sony seemed to recognize that and charge a boatload of money to pay for all the accessories.
The most basic accessory for the Playstation is its controller. The controller is actually very well designed and the Dual Shock version is second only to its predecessor, the Dual Shock2, in terms of quality and design. On the left side of the controller there is a directional pad used for the typical 8 directional movements. On the Dual Shock controller there are also two analog sticks on the left and right side along the bottom of the controller. These are for more precise and sensitive directional movements. These analog sticks can also be pressed in and used as another button (L3, and R3 respectively). The older controllers do not have these buttons. On the right side there are 4 more buttons shaped in the form of a diamond. These buttons also have a shape to label them. Starting clockwise from the top there is a triangle, circle, X, and square. Along the front side or top of the controller there are 2 sets of stacked shoulder buttons: L1, L2, R1, and R2. This corresponds to the side and depth they are on that side. In the middle of the controller, there's a select and play button as well as a button to toggle the two analog sticks on and off. The buttons on the controller are all digital. This means that the amount of pressure you put down on them doesn't matter to the system or game you're playing. The controller is easy to grip and for many games you end up using three fingers on each hand for the different buttons and your ring and pinky fingers to hold the base grip of the controller. Also featured on the Dual Shock controller but not the older ones is motors inside the grips. These motors are used for the "rumble" function.
The second most basic accessory for the Playstation is the memory card. Since you're running off of read-only CDs, this is the only way you can save your progress in games. These memory cards are expensive running roughly $25 per 8MB card. These cards can store data for many games. However other games like sports games with franchise modes can put a huge drain on your memory card space. They are also a necessary evil even for those who do not wish to invest a lot into a game system.
There are many consoles that have 4 controller ports in the base of the game system. However, the Playstation isn't one of them. If you wish to play with more than 2 players, you must purchase a multitap device. One of them allows you to play with up to 5 players as it expands one of your two controller ports to 4. If you use 2 multitap devices, you can play with up to 8 people at a time. While this is not as necessary as a controller or a memory card, it is one more way Sony nickel and dimes you to death.
So you don't want to pay through the nose for Playstation accessories. Well who can blame you? You may think you have options through cheaper 3rd party accessories, but you really don't. These accessories, despite having a distinct cost advantage, are not very reliable. While I'm ok with the unreliability of 3rd party video cables, I don't think you'll want to take a chance with their memory cards or controllers. Many controllers are known to just plain not work for certain Playstation games. The situation with the 3rd party memory cards is much worse. Imagine spending many hours working on a game only to lose your data all of a sudden for no logical reason? That's the risk you take with 3rd party cards. Therefore there is very little or no relief from the spending once you get involved.
The Software Advantage
The software is the strength of the Playstation platform. Like many successful platforms before it, the Playstation relies on a large number of titles with a large amount of variety and various big names across many genres. There are so many options for a vast variety of gamers, which is the key to the Playstation's success.
Squaresoft is one of the biggest names to exclusively develop for the Playstation platform throughout the mid to late 90's. They developed many highly successful series that include Final Fantasy, Xenogears, and Chrono Cross. These games sold very well. Final Fantasy VII practically sold Playstation units all by itself in the late 90's. If you are a roleplaying game fan, but do not like Squaresoft, there's always Breath of Fire.
If you're interest is sports, you have lots of options as well. EA developed many great titles for this platform including it's popular Madden Series, NBA Live, NHL Hockey, and Triple Play series. If you aren't a fan of EA, Sony had its very successful Gameday series that rivaled Madden for many years. There are In addition to traditional sports, you also have Gran Turismo, Tony Hawk Pro Skater, as well as many WWF games.
Besides, these games, there are many other great games like Crash Bandicoot, Metal Gear Solid, Silent Hill, Castlevania Symphony of the Night and Yugioh.
Value Verdict
When considering a value for this console, two factors play a huge role. The first is the amount you have to pay in accessories beyond the cost for the basic console itself. The other is how the Playstation 2 allows you to play all the Playstation 1 games in addition to the Playstation 2 games. Taking those factors into consideration I would value the Playstation at $30. This would mean that it would really be $55 after purchasing a memory card and assuming you do not need a second controller. I was able to get a used GameCube (without a memory card) for $60 after rebate just the other week. While the Playstation is a great system because of the quality of its game library, right now it's just a better deal to get a Playstation 2.
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