While it seems like the generational leaps in today's video game industry
are losing a lot of its importance, and the jumps are becoming less and less
"amazing", and now we're seemingly entering a era of just "improving",
there was a time when a new generation meant new possibilities.
The jump of 8-Bit games to 16-Bit games let developers create games that were
way more complex and complete, bigger and generally, more feature rich games.
Besides the visual candy, video games grew in meaningful ways thanks to the new hardware.
That's what I think about when talking video game generations. Having better visuals and calling
it a day is quite boring for me, being a guy that really doesn't give that much importance into it.
That is why I find the fifth generation of consoles so damn interesting. The jump from 2D
gaming into a new realm of three dimensions meant a lot of things, but most importantly,
new ways to imagine, design, create and play video games were going to appear.
And the system associated mostly to this era of gaming was the strange result of
a relationship between two companies that we now see as a sort of "two sides of a coin".
I'm talking about the PlayStation.
And the creation of Sony's PlayStation quite curious indeed, as it wouldn't have been created without the involvement of Nintendo, of all companies. In fact, the first gleam of the creation of this device goes back to 1986, the very same year the Famicom Disk System was released.
While it initially was rather successful and led to very important games to be created, cartridge storage capacities ended up catching with the floppy disks making the Disk System kinda superfluous, and ended being outdated for the rest of the life of the Famicom.
But with the invention of the Super Famicom, Nintendo looked back at the FDS with the intention of creating a similar device that would hook up with the base hardware, in order to make the system being able to read CD-ROMs, a media with much more space than a cartridge (but also very expensive at that time).
Nintendo approached Sony, back then famous for their audio and video technology, after all, they had a common past with Ken Kutagari, who was the man who interested Casa de Mario on the SPC700, the famous sound chip for the Super Nintendo (and Ken almost gets fired by Sony because of his relation with Nintendo). The important part is that a deal was made between companies, and created several prototypes of this peripheral together, with one of the couple names for this add-on being PlayStation (the other, simple being SNES CD).
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The system itself ended up being a rather lackluster machine, in some regards even inferior to the original SNES hardware. Reading CDs was pretty much the only good point, even more in comparison with other CD Add-Ons like the Sega CD.
Not only that, but the contract proposed by Sony ended up being incredibly unfavorable to Nintendo. Sony expected to have all rights on every single game released on the SNES CD format, which sounds as unfair as you may think. Nintendo's president back then, Hiroshi Yamauchi, found the deal so unfair he cut relationships in a pretty rude manner (he should have probably read the deal the first time through, I believe). He cancelled the project without telling Sony, and then he got a new deal with Philips, and we know how that thing ends...
Sony would later try to make another deal with Sega that didn't end up happening, as Sega saw no value on it, with a viewpoint based on the lack of Sony's knowledge in both hardware and software af far as games go... And next, trying to create something out of what they had from the previous tries, based on the Super Famicom, but they got into a lawsuit with Nintendo for that. Finally, after that, Sony and Nintendo struck a deal where PlayStation would get SNES ports, and Nintendo would still get supplied with SPC700 chips.
But that ended up being absolutely pointless, because Sony after that decided to restart the PlayStation and target a new generation of consoles. One of the funniest things for me about this story is when Sony wanted to cut all links to Nintendo and the PlayStation project, the idea they got was to just put a space betwen Play and Station, "cutting Nintendo's involvement with it".
Maybe is my sarcastic side, but... "PlayStation" to "Play Station" doesn't really look that different. Rights and deals sure are funny sometimes. To be completely fair, the creation of the PlayStation is really not one of the most interesting tales of the medium, and in fact is kinda sad to see the greedy and hostile side of the companies being the starting point of a console.
...Anyway, after all that, things got a bit more peaceful and the development of this second attempt was smoother, although Sony was in doubt about if they should take a 2D focus or not. It wasn't until Virtua Fighter (by Sega), which was the first Arcade fighting to use polygonal graphics, that the goal for the console was clear. Although they didn't have Arcade hits to port to their system, they struck a lot of exclusivity deals with third party companies in order to put a few important games on the system for its launch.
The PlayStation would end up being the most popular and best sold system of the generation, selling an incredible 102.4 million units. A really, really big success. But one that I don't really find completely unexpected myself.
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| I like all three, even if my experience with Saturn is rather short. |
I mean, when you stop and look at the three main consoles released on that generation (seeing how other attempts died way before their time), PS1 is the one with the least "problems" to hold it back both for consumers and developers.
Sega would enter this generation with the Sega Saturn, a system that could read CDs just like the PlayStation, but unlike it, the device was mainly thought as a 2D Powerhouse, meaning it was at a disadvantage on the generation where 3D graphics and environments were going to be the future.
On the other hand, Nintendo's own system, the Nintendo 64, was quite a bit better at doing 3D visuals (and didn't suffer certain things like texture warping, although the best looking games required a RAM expansion), but it had the weak point of using cartridges instead of CDs, so the small space available and the price of these new cartridges put a lot of problems in the way of getting more games, limiting up to a point the success of the system.
PS1 ended up being the intermediate point, better suited for 3D stuff than the Saturn, and without the weakness of the cartridges of the N64, becoming a decent ground for game developing, and for consumers to get a place with the biggest amount of games because of that. It avoided the "trappings" of its two competitors, in my mind it kind of makes sense it ended up being the better selling system.
Of course, that's not counting the amounts of money Sony is able to sink into marketing. That tends to help. In the end, though, I really don't care much about how "won" whatever.
The important stuff is really what games we can play on it, right?
You're goddamn right it is.
But first let's check the controller of the PlayStation.
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| I can't help it, I just see a SNES controller with legs. |
Well, let's not beat it around the bush: It looks a heck of a lot like the Super Nintendo controller, which can be taken by some as a ripoff, and by others as something logical seeing how this device started as a Super Nintendo peripheral. To me there's a bit of Column A, and a bit of Column B.
While I usually like companies to design their own controllers, I can't really be too negative against the PS1 controller. The SNES pad was certainly a pretty great road to follow, offering a good number of frontal buttons, triggers and such. The original model, on the left, is what Sony released the console with. Mostly the same as Nintendo's 16-Bit system, but in truth they made some changes.
For one, they added two more triggers. If the originals were just named R and L, now having two of each is logical to name them R1, R2, L1 and L2. Having the ability to map more actions to more buttons is always welcomed (specially since during this generation, camera movement took R1 and L1 many tames for it). The face buttons don't use letters or numbers like previous systems, instead it uses shapes.
Cross, Circle, Square and Triangle become the new B, A, Y and X. This is for the most part a cosmetic change, but there's something really annoying with this because of Sony. You see, when they brought the console outside of Japan, the company had the bright idea of swapping the functionalities of Cross and Circle in many games.
In japan, Circle was to A what Cross was to B on a Nintendo controller. A being commonly a button for "Accept" in menus, while B being a button to cancel or go "Back" in said menus. In Japan was very common to use a Circle for correct answers or choices, and Cross for wrong ones. Makes a lot of sense, right? I hope you can see where I'm going.
Those buttons being swapped can get very tiring, specially since some games do it, while others don't, and sometimes the changes are definitely for the worse. And this is something that has stuck for generations, they never reverted it back. It's, sadly, something you need to get used to.
Lastly, the D-Pad was different in the sense they made what previously was a single cross-shaped piece of plastic into four sort of "buttons". The parts you touch are separated (although on the inside is the same piece). I'm not very crazy about it, to be completely honest, but it works which is what's important.
By 1997, the controller suffered a change. You see, a year prior, on 1996, Nintendo would release their own system, the Nintendo 64, with a newly designed controller. One of the new aspects, and probably the most important one, is that it added an Analog Thumbstick.
While many previous attempts for Analog inputs where made to be controlled by your entire hand, this little guy was designed for a single finger. It offered much more precise movements, not to mention different grades of intensity that would translate into several speeds to move. It was designed similarly to a mouse of that time, and the point of it was simply improve the control on 3D games, which it did by a lot, with Super Mario 64 being the showcase for it.
Sony would update their controller with not one but two Analog Thumbsticks, one to each side. This new version it would name DualShock, and this became the standard controller, as you may expect. The addition, as you may expect was welcomed, and it also became for the most part the default template for controls to come.
And, at last, what we care about the most: The games!
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| This is but just a tiny handful. There's games here for years on end. |
Well, there's really two words that kind of define the library of the PS1. Those being extensive and varied. PlayStation got a really big amount of games, and it is truly what still makes the system so interesting to me to this day.
PS1 would become the successor of sorts of the Super Nintendo, as far as software support from third parties goes. In fact many series would jump from the SNES to the PS1. And yes, it means PS1 got loads of RPGs, continuing that golden age for the genre. Many great games of the genre would be created, and Squaresoft, among others, would still shine as it did on the 16-Bit system.
Just like I started this entry, this generation would lend developers create many new experiences that were impossible to create on older hardware, not just on a technical level but on a game design level too. Those three dimensions changed the rules completely.
CDs being the main (and well, only) format in which games came meant now everybody could benefit from larger storage capacity and make games much bigger, or add more stuff in the way of CGI videos, voice-acting, better and more involving cutscenes. This stuff already started on the CD-Addon peripherals like the PC-E CD or Sega CD, but now started to extend to an entire system and every developer that wanted get into the system.
And like very new generation, a whole bunch of new franchises would be created, such as the more popular stuff like Spyro the Dragon, Crash Bandicoot, Armored Core, Resident Evil, Ape Escape, Suikoden, Gran Turismo or Tomb Raider, and more obscure stuff like Fear Effect, Wild Arms, Grandia, Guilty Gear, or Legacy of Kain. Just like the prior generation (and the next one), it was a fertile land for new and fascinating games that could coexist with long running series.
Having said that there were still loads of 2D games present on the system (to Sony's dismay, as it seems the company kinda pushed against those types of games, but then you also got developers saying "If you're not letting this one game go, that other more new-looking one goes away too", ask Konami). In reality the library has loads of games for just about everyone that puts a little bit of interest in games of this era (and knows how to avoid shovelware, which is rather abundant).
Sadly, not all of them have aged as well. While certainly I still find many enjoyable, there are games where the performance was... Let's say less than stellar. I can stomach the lower resolution, I really don't care, but there are games with frame rates that go from kinda disappointing, to quite atrocious.
It is one of the downsides of this generation for me. You have loads of interesting stuff, games trying to do things that still were limited by the hardware, and some of them didn't put the performance in mind. Although I rather have a game losing frames for trying to do interesting stuff that challenges the hardware, than one chugging because they wanted to make a pretty picture because it sells better.
Oh, and by the way, if you live in Europe, like me, or in Australia, let me give you one tip: Don't trust PAL versions of PS1 games. PAL 50hz is bad enough (not matter the platform) to make me choose to not play anything if that is the only option, but PS1 conversions can be even worse than the usual. Unless you know what you're doing, I really recommend against buying PAL games, for the most part you'll be wasting your money for something that just has no real value when NTSC versions exist.
With all this said, you have to bear in mind one thing: these games are on CDs.
Yeah, Captain Obvious and all that.
What I'm trying to say is that you ain't saving your progress on that CD you got. You need a Memory Card.
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| "You better have me... Or else!" |
Possessing one of these will dictate if you're able to continue your progress or not.
While certainly is not the first system to do it (PC-Engine comes to mind), it is the first console that had something like this and became popular.
Each one of these cards can story around 128KB of information. Most games took 8KB, although some used 16, and others even more. There are even games that grow bigger the more stuff you get, like Vagrant Story.
As you can imagine, you can't save many games on these objects. Unless you had the luxury of getting several, you were going to erase saves to make new ones back in the day. It is a big change in comparison with the previous Super Nintendo, or the Nintendo 64, that had the ability to store saved files (the big advantage of the cartridge, alongside lower loading times, which the PS1 is kinda famous for).
Sony never made a bigger card, and the third party ones that did were sometimes blocked by Sony. You see, the company made certain developers, like Square or Capcom, to check if the memory card was official, and if it wasn't, well, you're not saving your game. Quite a slap in the face, if you ask me, but hey, it is Sony, it is to be expected. Because of that, even if you try to get a third party Memory Card, don't go for the bigger ones, as they're more easily stopped, at least based on my experience and research I made on forums and such. This also happened on the PS2.
Fortunately, now there are ways to back up your files inside the memory cards to make space for new games without losing them if you still play with original hardware, and having them be safe on a USB or your computer. With the amount of great and interesting games the system has, you really need one (or maybe two) of these if you want to play games using the real consoles, and at least one of them being official, for those "blocked" games, which might be harder by the day. Of course, emulation is another option (and one I respect when talking about old systems, even more if we're avoiding PAL 50hz), and probably way less annoying because of things like this, but playing on real hardware is still important for many.
And hey, not everything is bad. The Memory Cards on PS1 are region free, meaning they can contain save files of several places at once, which is quite nice, specially for Japanese games you may want to try. Also, you didn't need to bring your games to a friends house only to have your save file played on another system, not to mention that in case your game got damaged, you would still have your save file because it was on a different device. Your saves could be copied onto different cards, wich let you bypass the limit of save files most games have (like Super Mario 64's 4 Save Slot limit).
Memory Cards would become the standard way of saving data until the Seventh generation, where all the three important machines, Wii, PS3 and XB360 came with internal memory to save, so they stood with us for quite some while.
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| I've always been interested in that screen... |
After some time, Sony ended up doing several revisions of the system. Some to change or remove certain parts of the hardware, or to improve the disc drive and lens (which were the culprit of many hardware malfunctions, something that would also affect its successor), and others to redesign the system to reduce its size, like the model above, called the PS One, which has a much more slick design, and also happened to be the one I had growing up.
And well, there's not much more to say. Really, in my eyes the system itself is not nearly as interesting as its library, and I'm not saying it as a knock against the hardware, but more as praise for the games themselves.
There's much to talk about as far as software for this device goes, so I hope I can get to it and showcase lots of fun stuff!
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