This is our last competition for the year and it’s a massive one. Enter for a chance to win a brand spanking new 20th Anniversary Limited Edition PlayStation 4.
Only 12,300 of these consoles have been made so when we say ‘limited edition’ the term actually has weight. You cannot but this console in stores, which is a shame because it’s legitimately gorgeous.
This console arrived in our office and people got excited. It’s a console directly designed to elicit nostalgia and tech-lust at the precise same time — a delicate line to walk. It looks new and modern and sleek, but still manages to feel retro at the exact same time.
Anyway, enough gushing. The details.
We’re looking to make this competition as easy as possible to enter. There are no barriers to entry. You don’t need to have editing experience, of photoshop experience. No artistic talent is necessary. What we want is your story. Your PlayStation story.
Tell us the story of your very first PlayStation experience. That’s it. This could be the first time you saw a PlayStation, played a PlayStation or bought a PlayStation. It doesn’t really matter. The person with the best, most interesting story wins.
Keep your entry under 500 words, because I’m going to have to read through all of these entries and I expect there will be a lot of them!
We’re giving you a long lead time for this competition. You have until January 5 to enter. Drop your answers in the comments below. Good luck everyone!
You can find terms and conditions for the competition here.
Comments
556 responses to “Win! A 20th Anniversary Limited Edition PlayStation 4”
Do we just write said story in the comments?
@markserrels
That’s a really good question.
so……do we? @markserrels
Last paragraph of the post.
Win a fridge!
Oh, a PS4.
Well, I’ll still write a story, but it won’t be as good.
You could try!
My story isn’t a grand one its just one that brings a smile to my face.
I was always one of those quiet kids in the family. Older siblings and cousins always made me feel like I didn’t quite fit in with my own family. So ever gathering I was that awkward quiet kid that hid behind her hair and drew on napkins.
One christmas, while hiding in the corner, my older cousin says to me “Hey, I got this cool game on my Playstation, wanna go?”
I pause what ever boring thing I am doing and nod slowly. Sure I thought. If I don’t like it I will just crawl back to my corner when they stop paying attention to me again.
So I pick up this weird controller, and suddenly I am controlling this athletic chick. She’s sliding down a hill and my cousin yells “press the jump button!” – Too late, she just died a horrible death on a bunch of spikes. I laughed. Everyone laughs.
For the next 3 hours, we did everything we could to advance Tomb Raider with its clunky controls and glorious graphics.
When we were bored of that, I then proceeded to smash them all in Fifa.
It was the first time I really played with my siblings and cousins and from that moment on the awkwardness slowly seeped away.
I’ve owned Playstation consoles ever since <3
How do we enter ?
That is all.
Well said! or not said, or whatever
My first experience with a playstation was when I was about 10. My younger sister made friends with this girl in primary school. As it turns out her father worked in sony repairs and frequently repaired broken playstation 1’s. Long story short one day after work he went dumpster diving and scavenged enough working parts to build us a functioning playstation. Even bought us a controller to use for it. Oh man I was so excited. For about a week we only had that “Demo one” disk that came with it. I remember every day I would come home from school and watch the Soul Blade trailer on it desperately wanting that game, and then having a bout of abe’s oddysee demo before usually finishing off with that dinosaur model view that was in it. After a week I think my parents got the hint, they bought me soul blade and abe’s oddysee. God I was so happy. Here’s the trouble though, we didn’t have a memory card. I would play abe’s oddysee hour hours sometimes days without shutting the console down just to preserve my progress. This went on for months
For my birthday that year my parents bought me a memory card and jeez did I hit the ground running with abe’s oddysee. I finished it in a weekend, but by that time I could do the first half of the game with my eyes closed.
Eventually our library grew and so did all the fond memories of my childhood. That playstation is still alive and kicking today.
In about 1996, I remember going over to my friend’s house and he told me he got this thing called a Playstation. I had only heard about this console as I only had a Nintendo and computer. The graphics were amazing and there were heaps of different games! We played Time Crisis for hours on end, handing over the gun controller (which unbelievable at the time – having an arcade style gun IN YOUR HOME) each time we died. We went and bought the Playstation magazine each month and played through the demo disk over and over. The demo’s usually lasted around 20-30 minutes but we would play them over and over again. During the entirety of our friendship, I don’t remember a time where we hung out and didn’t play his Playstation.
That’s one of my fondest childhood memories.
My first Playstation experience was playing Resident Evil 2 on my brother’s Playstation (in secret while he was at work, because we didn’t really get along back then). At school, I used this amazingly futuristic thing called the “internet” and discovered that you could unlock alternate costumes by getting to the police station without picking up any items. After some tense moments, and a few retries (shut up, I was 14, and accustomed to the Saturn controller), I managed to do it, and unlock Leon’s ridiculous hat and singlet outfit. As an added bonus, I discovered he held handguns sideways like a gangster. 😉
Then my brother got home and wouldn’t let me save. 🙁
(although I can’t really blame him, those things were expensive, and didn’t hold much)
He also never let me play Final Fantasy VII, but that’s a different story.
I never had a PS1 – I was a staunch Nintendite from the good ol’ days of the SNES. In high school, however, I happened across a gloriously massive 240×480 video, streamed through lightning-fast realplayer down my massive 56k pipe, of Kolona 2: Lunatea’s Veil.
It was that game, funnily enough – not GTA3 or any of the other Sony staples – that got me pretty much hooked on Playstation. I went out and bought it when it was released, despite not having a PS2 for another 2 years, and played it at my brother’s friend’s house whenever I took him over there. That game was – and still is – one of my favourites. Everything about it felt right, and it looked rad too. I had to survive on those scant moments between me dropping him off and then leaving to go home to play as much of it as I could until, upon Christmas 2003, I got my own PS2 packed in with Prince of Persia: Sands of Time.
My first Playstation experience was booting up Final Fantasy 7 for the very first time and losing myself to rpgs for the rest of my life. Would not change a thing.
My story is not that grand i remember early high school going to friends place that had a play-station and watching him play it for ours and wishing i had one at the time all i had was Nintendo
I’ve never owned a Playstation, feel like I missed out on a lot of good games.
Still a better story than Destiny.
Give this man a PS4!
This man has won enough stuff. GIVE HIM NOTHING!
In fact, take stuff away from him =P
PSN & a Vita.
Train fun before work!
2001, age 6, the first sleepover I ever attended. My friend had a PS1 and I was insanely jealous of it despite having little idea of what a videogame even did. She showed me Crash Bandicoot and the original Spyro and I thought it was the most magical thing in the world. I begged my parents to buy me one but they refused, so years went by and despite discovering that this friend was a generally awful human being, I kept her around just so I could nick turns on her console. Does that make me a terrible person? Who knows. Still totally worth it.
(Now the proud owner of a PS2, PS3, PS4, PSP and Vita. Old habits die hard. Never did end up getting that PS1 though…)
I fell in love during my first real Playstation experience.
I was around 10 years old, and the game was Final Fantasy 7. All my friends got it at around the same time, and it was my first game. I was mad about PC games before then, but this was my first crack at the console. I was competing with my friends to see who could finish it first. I started late, but for some reason my friends all struggled to beat the Materia Keeper, while I basically just strolled through, so I had a good chance of finishing first. I had never been as involved with a game before, and to be honest I’m not sure I have since (although HL2 probably came close).
I don’t know exactly when it happened, but at some point along the way I fell in love with Aeris.
I didn’t even realize until Sephiroth kills her. I just stared at the screen in shock. Then I started crying. I was depressed for days; my parents kept asking me if anything was wrong, but how do you tell them you are devastated that an imaginary character died in a game your were playing?I rushed straight to the endgame, and got thoroughly whooped. I barely scratched the guy! I was still angry, so I focused my attention on beating him. I bred a Gold Chocobo, and got knights of the round. I levelled up all of my characters. I was ready!So after a few days of mourning, I turned my attention to beating Sephiroth.
I remember that night distinctly, even after all these years. It was late, and being a young’n I had a fairly strict bedtime. So I travelled to North Crater, and saved just outside. I was giddy with excitement; my time of revenge was nigh! I eventually got to sleep, and woke up to hear my brother playing the Playstation. He was playing something different. I couldn’t wait, so I invoked older brother privileges and kicked him off so I could finally defeat Sephiroth and avenge my lost love.
That’s when he told me that the memory card was broken. I can only imagine the blank look that I gave him as I tried to process him telling me that he had somehow snapped the memory card in half trying to get it out of the socket. It was over! There would be no revenge. There would be no justice. All of that preparation, all of that time spent, all gone.
Needless to say, I didn’t win the race to finish the game. In fact, I was so devastated that I never even finished the game. I tried to, a few months later with a fresh memory card, but it just wasn’t the same. I had loved, I had lost, but there was no closure. I never saw what happened to Midgar.
So that was my first real Playstation experience. Entertaining, extraordinary, and yet utterly devastating.
That, or the first time I saw a Playstation game. I sleepover of 9 year old boys playing Resident Evil. We all were so terrified at seeing the first zombie that we switched the game off and that was that. Fun times.
Gosh i wish I could remember. I got my first PlayStation on Christmas day ’96 and subsequently owned the PSOne, 2, 3, 3 Slim (and PS4 in seven days). It was also my first gaming platform, never owned an Atari or NES or MasterSystem before that.
The ‘first experience’ that jumps out in my mind is playing PaRappa the Rapper for some reason. I remember sitting around with friends (within touching distance of the TV of course) taking turns at failing.
Is second thing that comes to mind is driving that yellow Mitsubishi GTO LM around High Speed Ring in the original Gran Turismo.
What sparked the love of games for me was the original Metal Gear which i would have got the following year.
The first game we got on our PS1 was Gran Turismo. Coming from an original Nintendo and playing games like Mario Bros and Duck Hunt (play for a bit, turn it off, no saving), this completely changed gaming for me. I suddenly became a “100%er” and needed to have as many cars as possible and finish all the tracks and different race types. I’d sit in front of that thing for hours on end and completely lose track of time. I remember calling my Mum to tell her that I’d just finished the 2 hour enduro race, I was so proud. She (sarcastically) gave the phone to my Nanna so I could also tell her the good news. After a pause of disbelief, all my Nanna said was “…. is Kobi (my cousin) home? Go and play with him.” They just didn’t get the appeal.
While I do like how the black of the newer consoles and how it fits in with the rest of my entertainment unit, that fantastic grey of this PS4 reminds me of those months playing that game non-stop. Good days.
The year was 1998, it was my first year of uni. I grew up with strict parents and never owned a game console in my childhood. They would have gotten in the way of my studies apparently. At the time my older brother worked as a manager at “Games R Us”, a now defunct video game retailer in Perth, which was awesome because he was able to bring home consoles and games to, you know, get familiar with the products he had to sell. I remember when he brought home the Playstation 1, with a copy of Resident Evil 2. I knew of the game but had never played it or the first game in the series. I remember when he first booted up the machine and hearing that Playstation ping and then the game loaded followed by a deep ominous voice saying “R-e-s-i-d-e-n-t E-v-i-l Twooooo”. Man I had goosebumps. I proceeded to watch him play it. He hardly ever let me have a go until he got bored of it, siblings for you. I remember being amazed at the graphics and how lifelike the game environments were. The whole opening with the zombie outbreak in Racoon city, and damn that licker.. what the hell was that? I was genuinely scared. This made me realise the potential that Playstation games had over the cartridge based Nintendo & Sega consoles at the time. It really felt like a shift in the gaming industry, like some kind of door was opened with the possibilities of what the developers could fit on the (then huge) game CD.
I first played an original Playstation when I was nine years old, back in 1997 at my friend’s 9th birthday party. He got the Playstation as a birthday present with Destruction Derby as his first game. It was fun but when I was a kid, I was a Nintendo fanboy, big time, however all honesty I was secretly jealous of the Playstation… it had awesome games that never came out on the N64, classics like Final Fantasy VII and VIII, Resident Evil etcetera… and my God, the cut scenes! The full motion cut scenes! Why didn’t the N64 have those?! Not gonna lie though, the Playstation’s loading times sucked.
All my friends had a Playstation and they all got ’em “chipped”, so they could buy super cheap, illegal games from Bali here. I was always a little jealous of that.
We didn’t get our own Playstation console until my brother got a silver Playstation 2 for his birthday, his 18th birthday I believe back in 2004. This was a very bold change, as my brothers and I were usually always Nintendo boys. My most memorable game would be Final Fantasy X, the first and only Final Fantasy game I have ever played from start to finish. FFX holds a special place in my heart as not only my favourite Final Fantasy game but also one of my favourite games of all time. It’s in my top ten for sure.
The Playstation 2 was also the first time when I played games online on console, which was a so awesome and such a new experience at the time. I had one of those internet cable connector things on the back of our Playstation 2 and I remember playing, and having so much fun in Battlefield 2. I specifically remember always running over my friend with a jeep. Every. Single. Match.
One of the things I loved about the Playstation 2 was the amount of games. The library was huge. I played so many games, buying new and pre-owned games alike, borrowing games from friends and hiring out games from the video store. So many games! I remember with our Game Cube that the library was unfortunately quite small. I went to the video store and asked about Game Cube games, “What’s a Game Cube?” the clerk would ask, confused by my question. When asking about Playstation 2 games? God damn, there was a lot.
I used to be such a Nintendo fanboy, but I think the Playstation 2 helped me open my eyes and broaden my reach in gaming. Now I enjoy Playstation, X-Box, PC, tablet and iPhone games. Finally, I used to think the Game Cube was my favourite console but I just realised that no, it wasn’t. I loved the Game Cube, but after writing this little trip down memory lane… I can safely say that yeah, the Playstation 2 is my favourite console of all time.
I was always a Nintendo fan, so my PS1 memories are few and far between, but my friend had an original Playstation, and while there was no tension from any sort of console wars existing, I do remember being somewhat jealous. Didn’t get to enjoy PS gaming until the PS2!
My first memory of Playstation is a fading one, in which an old friend and I were seated firmly on the floor, controller cable wiggling its way to the console which was also laid out on the floor. Our little heads were tilted up to the small, flickering screen, and upon that screen was a little green crocodile appropriately named Croc. I remember viewing the box art on the floor, among a variety of other games I can’t recall, and thinking it looked pretty cool. The bit I remember specifically about this whole memory though is him playing and mentioning that he was stuck at a certain bit that involved collecting gems in some underground cavern level, and then me, stating proudly as a kid, “Try it now! I’m a good luck charm to other people, not myself though”. So he gave it a go and surely enough he made it through the tough spot, accompanied by an excited arm thrust. I probably followed that up with a, “See, I told you!” but my mind can’t remember much further.
I do have other random memories of playing the PS1 at other friend’s houses, including crash bandicoot, and seeing the opening cut scene in FFVII, but this specific one is the earliest I can remember.
In 1997, my brother and I (ten and seven at the time respectively) saved up all our pocket money for the whole year in order to buy our very own Playstation (Mum and Dad helped once they saw our immense dedication!).
I remember coming home from the shops, brimming with excitement at the prospect of using the machine I so longed for, opening it up with my brother to suddenly remember that they only came with one controller and we hadn’t bought a second one. We bickered over TV watching all the time, this was going to be a nightmare!
But after a small pause, my brother said: “it’s ok, you can have the first go.”
The Playstation emcompasses one of my first memories of my brother and I becoming best friends.
I was quite young when the PS1 came out but my first experience with Playstation with the PS1, playing Gran Turismo with my older brother, he would always sit on the floor and me on the lounge, this was for a strategic purposes if he was losing he would either pull the controller out with his foot or press the reset button with his toe, of course being the younger brother i always got the second controller. Good times.
Wow ok, story time. My father has had a crazy interesting life and is one of those people that tells these incredible stories where you are left wondering if any of it is true. If he wasn’t my father, and I didn’t know the other people around at the time, I wouldn’t believe a word. To set the scene for this particular story, dad is in his mid 30’s, travelled the world and was always getting himself into various situations, some fun, some not. At this point in his life, he finds himself jumping feet first onto the first ship that will take him out of a US port and out of the country. He had in fact, just bartered his way out of jail, after having a run in with some local mobsters who had paid off the local cops to put him in jail until their boss got into town (this is mid 70’s btw). He boarded the ship with the clothes on his back, a handful of dollars and an old ham radio.
He then discovers the ship is heading to Japan, much to his alarm as the mobsters had ‘connections’ there. While he is on the ship, he uses the ham radio to send out a message out asking for help from anyone that will answer. Eventually, a Japanese man replies, who happens to be studying English. They converse for a while and he finally says he can stay at his place while he sorts everything out. Fast forward a decade until I was born, and that is how my god father is a Japanese Buddhist monk living in Tokyo!
How does this relate to a PlayStation? Well! My parents where reasonably strict on encouraging me to play sport and do ‘outdoors’ stuff (even though mum was an IT Teacher!), so computer games and the like were a definite no no when I was young. Then, around my 10th birthday, Bucky my Japanese monk god father, sends me a package. Much to my parents horror it is a PlayStation. I was CRAZY stoked, and I knew my parents couldn’t take it off me without offending Bucky, so I was golden. It was a profound moment for me, even that young and I attribute that to setting my life direction where I ended up completing a degree in games design and animation and now work in a senior position within the ICT industry. Thanks Bucky!
Picture a 12 year old boy waking up on Christmas, after dropping hint after hint about this new gaming system to his parents for months, rushing to the Christmas Tree in the morning and seeing a wrapped box that looks like it just may be…
This boy, once the family has gathered to exchange presents, eagerly tears of the wrapping to reveal…… a brand new Sega Saturn!!! Just what he wanted! Because what would Sony know about gaming systems?? Sega had the Genesis, Master System & Megadrive! What had Sony done?
My first experience with Playstation was defending Sega to the death against my mates. Even when the writing was on the wall and I knew it was futile, I defended Sega. I knew though, I knew all along how much I enjoyed playing my friends Playstation and that it was superior.
Christmas day 1997 I finally got my long awaited PS1 console for Christmas! Wrapped up under the tree, green wrapping paper with Abe’s Oddysee. I spent most of the day making Abe fart, it was hilarious!
My best experience on Playstation was playing Call of Duty Black Ops whilst receiving a head job from my girlfriend at the time. She wasn’t very good at it but it did help me call in dogs in search and destroy.
When I was a young kid, I would wait for my brother to get home from high school and the second he would walk in I would beg him to turn on the PS1 and play ‘Metal Gear Solid’. I would do this every day, and he would start it, finish it by bed time and this cycle would repeat every day. Saw the full game 100+ times. I would be captivated during every second. I eventually tried to play it myself, and it was the first game I ever finished.
Once I went to school, I would play ‘Pretend MGS’ every day at recess and lunch with my friends. Each day we would continue where we had finished the day prior. Once we got to the end of the story, we would repeat it again but playing different characters. This is why the PS1 will always hold a special place in my heart. It is the reason I am a gamer today, and it was responsible for the happiest memories from my childhood.
When the Playstation 1 was released in Australia it was $700 at Toys R’ Us. I never paid any attention to it because “who the hell would pay that much for a game system when the SNES was better?” so I ignored it. I must of been around 12 or so? We had Japanese exchange students staying with us at the time and they had brought a VHS tape 1 of them had recorded of Dragon Ball Z so they could watch 12 or so episodes at once while they were here. I understood none of it but I watched it with them and then came an ad for Breath of Fire 3 that was going to be released soon. At the time this was mind blowing that the graphics (sprites) were so clear, the spell effects were just amazing it was in 3D! The screen could spin and show you different angles and everything. This short 30 second ad was pretty much responsible for making me want to own a playstation and when I eventually could afford to buy one I sure wasn’t disappointed. Sure the NES and SNES got me into RPG games but it wasn’t until the PS1 came out and I had played games like Chrono Cross, Legend of Mana, Legend of the Dragoon and Breath of Fire 3 that I became such a huge RPG nut.
My first ever experience is a little hazy, to be honest.
I was only very young, so it’s hard to recall the exact year it was, but I remember it being a big deal, and being too young to understand the fuss.
I would say it was around 1998, putting me at 5 years old.
It was at the local Dick Smith, the only technology shop in my small little town, where my mum and I were out Christmas shopping for presents. I remember being enthralled watching a man play the demo stand they had set up for at least 10 minutes.
He was playing Spyro the Dragon, and just couldn’t get past this one tough point.
He left the stand in defeat, letting me have a go at playing.
I managed to get passed the point where he was stuck at with ease, and continued to play for another 5 minutes.
Having enjoyed myself, my mum came to get me as she had done her christmas shopping, and we left, not giving it a second thought.
That year I got a PlayStation for Christmas.
The man who was playing before me had stayed to watch me play, and had seen that I had managed to get passed the tough spot, and saw that I was enjoying myself and that I was quite good at the game.
He then had apparently found my mum in the store to tell her that I was really enjoying myself and was really good at the game, and had recommended it to her as a potential present.
That was my first experience with PlayStation, and my first experience with videogames, and I’ve been a PlayStation fan ever since.
My last year of high school was 99 😉
Oooooooold!
Age won’t keep us apart, Jimu :*
Neither will your wife.
*sultry stare*
*nipple flash*
My first playstation experience was with the PS1. My school friend owned the console at the time (my first PS console was the PS2 a while later) and he lived a fair bicycle ride away from our place. On the weekends I would bike all the way there then stay the night (after getting parental permission first!), it took me nearly an hour to bike there, but it was worth it! The first time I went there he showed me MediEvil – I was amazed after seeing Sir Daniel Fortesque detach his own arm to be used as a weapon, as well as the epic adventure the game put us through. I had a super nintendo at the time and hadn’t seen a game with graphics like that before. We played it nearly all night, until we couldn’t stay awake anymore. Since my parents wouldn’t let me play games all night before, this experience at my friends house gave me my first gaming hangover but it was worth it!
Playstation has been the conduit for some very beloved memories.
I was introduced to the world of Playstation by my uncle at a very young age (1994 being the year I was born).
We would constantly play games together. Games like Crash Bandicoot, Medievil, Oddworld: Abe’s Odyssey & my favorite… Spyro The Dragon… Even though I adored all of the games we played together.
Ever since then, I’ve been a huge Playstation fan, currently owning a PS3, PS4 & a PS Vita with my PS1 & PS2 tucked away for safe keeping 😉
I feel that without my uncle & his love of Playstation, that I may not have developed such a strong passion for Playstation & be the gamer I am today.
Winning the 20th Anniversay Edition PS4 would be a fantastic reminder of the memories the two of us shared together from the year I was born & the year I first met Playstation.
To me, Playstation means memories, whether it’s being by my uncles side as we broke creates in Crash Bandicoot or saving Ellie in The Last of Us, Playstation holds a huge place in my heart & it will for a long time to come.
Thanks for reading & Happy 20th Anniversary to one of the world most amazing forms of entertainment.
It truly is the best way to play.
My first playstation memory was when I visited my brother who was living with his girlfriend. I had come down to see him for about a week and he couldn’t get much time off work.
“Here you should check this out” and he pops in Final Fantasy 7…
I do not remember much of that week, except occasionally switching to play Syphon Filter and tasering people until they caught fire.
I’ve never owned a playstation, but a lot of my mates have. The earliest memory I can think of is playing one of the early Tomb Raider games, wandering around Lara’s mansion being followed by what I assumed at the time was her terrifying zombie butler! I had hidden in the pool, but the shuffling bastard followed me and watched Lara take a dip.
Spooky stuff indeed!
My first PlayStation experience was the morning of my 15th Birthday, opening up this precious, precious gift of a PS2! My first own gaming console (prior was a shared SNES). That’s not even the best part though – I had been hinting at wanting a GTA game for years, ever since I had seen my cousin playing GTA 2 on his PC. The next present I unwrap was my long awaited GTA game, GTA 3!
Never have I been so enthralled in a single game, I remember getting 100% on GTA 3 so many times, I’d actually maxed out all the save slots for the game! This is pretty much the experience that made me a PlayStation fan over anything else, and while I have owned other consoles too, I always come back to my trusty PlayStation!
My first Playstation experience was fairly late in the game. 2001 to be precise. Up until then, I’d never had a Playstation, nor had any friends who owned one. First time I ever touched one, was at work, when creating models for the sequel to Championship Surfer (which ended up being released as Sunny Garcia Surfing!) It was a rather messy experience, given that it was a developer unit, and the only thing I could play on it, was a half finished game! Wasn’t til years later that I got my own Playstation (3), sometime after the PS3 was released! So despite the fact that I worked on Sunny Garcia Surfing, I never actually got to play the finished product, as I never owned a PS2! :0
My first experience with Playstation was when i was 14, my friend was going to throw out his original Playstation because the controller port was broken so i took it home pulled it apart and put in a new part and it worked and i played final fantasy VII with my friend when i was paying disc 2 he would play disc 1 etc.
My Favorite and earliest memories are from when my dad first bought a playstation and me and him spent the entire school holidays playing MediEvil and Crash Bandicoot 🙂
I remember having the PS2 (my second favorite console behind the N64). one of the first games I ever got was GTA3/ Vice city double pack. My brother and I would sit in the computer room less than a meter away from my Nans old CRT television just wasting time cheating in tanks to terrorize the streets of Vice city. We only had a very few games for the system so we rented heaps from Block-Buster (R.I.P). One of my favorite games that I never owned was the Ratchet and Clank games. they were goofy and fun and I am sure there were so many jokes in those games that we were just too young to understand and I would love to play them again.
the Playstation 2 was the console I have played on the longest I only had six or seven games on it for nearly seven years but i somehow made those games last.
This would always happen after getting a new game, however I loved running home from school to sit down and play Metal gear solid on PlayStation with my little brother. We would normally take turns, one life each, though it would involve me watching him for ages as he would never die, then back tracking for all the extra items that he missed once it was my go. He’s now living in NYC, it would be amazing to play this with him when he gets back in January. I miss those days. The best!
I believed I was 10 years old at the time. I was quite an active kid, always riding my bicycle around my neighbourhood 4-5 hours a day. One day, I had an accident. I hit a pot hole and fell down hard. The front tyre was bouncing from the bike frame, the steering wheel broke from the frame and I cannot move my entire right arms. Yup, I dislocated my right shoulder.
Afterward, I spent most of my time at home for my treatment and my Bike still busted. That’s when I stumbled into my Brother’s Playstation. Final fantasy 8 is the first game I played on ps1. I spent hours and hours playing it and other great games (Musashi, FF-series, crash bandicoot). After my ps1 broke I got a ps2, then moved to ps3 (YES to classic game on PSN!) and now ps4.
Haha I have so much fond memories with Playstation. It have been with me through a good and rough time. That’s how I got hooked on Playstation, through a dislocated arm.
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I lived in the country with no games shops at the time the PS1 came out. I was 14 at the time.
Somehow one of the local video stores got in a demo kiosk.
I used to spend the whole hour or so that my mum was doing the groceries playing the few demos running on the system.
Mostly WipEout and Destruction Derby.
Over and over, and over. I must have spent 30 hours standing at that kiosk until I was able to finally get one of my own.
Owned every PlayStation since. And every version of WipEout.
My favourite PlayStation memory is be able to play the drummania series using PS2 at home! I had to import the games, buy the USB-midi adapter and a set of yamaha DD55 drums to play it!
We grew up pretty poor in a very well off town. I was always made fun of for wearing second hand clothing and shoes but it never really bothered me. For my birthday that year I was given a yoyo, which was pretty exciting at the time (the 90’s were weird ok). Being the only kid without some kind of console and not that popular I got plenty of practice. Enough practice to enter competitions in town. I managed to win the local tournament and take home first prize. A playstation. I still have that yoyo but not the playstation. It’s the only time in my life I have won something and the only time I ever felt talented. And after writing that I am going to go home and break out some yoyo tricks.
My first experience was with the first original playstation console, with the first game being Tony Hawks and since then I have been hooked on playstation. I then went onto a PS2 and actually owned 3 PS3’s with the highlight being my girlfriend giving me one for a birthday present.
Upon the PS2 I enjoyed the game Star Wars Bounty Hunter and the PS3 is ultimately the MW series.
The original playstation console have moved a long way since with the playstation console family, it was fantastic at the time and got many years of enjoyment out of it alongside with family and friends
I have 2 brothers, and we’ve always been Nintendo kids. We started on NES with Mario, Duck Hunt and Gradius, then moved on to the SNES with Mario World and StarWing, and eventually, the N64 with Mario 64, Golden-Eye, and MOTHER-FLIPPING DIDDY KONG RACING. We weren’t fanboys, we didn’t care who owned a Sega or a Nintendo, we just grew up with Nintendo, there wasn’t any other way as far as we were concerned.
Then one fine day, in Video Games Heaven (not even embellishing here, that’s what the store was called), I saw a Sony Playstation on display. My brothers and I were always big fans of fighting games, with Street Fighter 2, TMNT Tournament Fighters, and even Clay Fighter getting plenty of use, but then I saw Battle Arena Toshinden, and my mind was blown out of its tiny skull. It was 3D, dynamic, and unbelievably gorgeous (them Dorito graphics). It was clearly the NEXT EVOLUTION OF FIGHTING GAMES, and we had to be a part of it.
So with almost no fight, my brothers and I decided to do the unthinkable: sell the N64, all of our games, and pick up a PS1. Our dad being the economical type, decided against going to the store and instead grabbed the Trading Post, and that tight-arsed decision worked out so well in the end that I could have kissed him if he wasn’t my dad. Did we get Battle Arena Toshinden? No. What we did get was our first introduction into the benefits videogame piracy, a chipped PS1 with 50 GAMES, introducing us to Tekken 3, Gran Turismo, Ridge Racer, Metal Gear Solid, and the game that took over at least an entire summer for us – Bushido Blade 2.
If you know the game, then you would know it’s the perfect fighting game. 1 on 1 sword fighting, simple mechanics but lots of depth, and no health bars – a critical hit is a kill. If you let down your defences or poorly timed your attack, you were dead. You saw an awesome action replay of the pixelated blood spraying from your body, then the round resets, and you do it all again. You could carry on like this FOR HOURS, and that’s exactly what we did. We mastered all the stances, all the weapons, all the characters in that game, and in the end we were all as good as each other, the score would remain almost 1 for 1 for hours. It remains some of the most fun I’ve had with a game to this day.
I still rant about how much I love that game any chance I get, and I still check the PSN classics to this day to see if Sony would ever do me the favour of re-releasing it – all because 20 or so years ago we dumped Nintendo in favour of the new shiny grey box.
And it was totally worth it.
It was 1996 when I first played a Playstation. Little me was seven years old when my Father brought home a Playstation for himself, as well as the newly released Resident Evil. No matter how much I begged, complained or cried about it, I was forbidden from playing it. “You have your Sega son. This game is for grown-ups only”, my Father told me. Now being seven, I thought I was plenty grown-up, and so that made it okay for me to get up in the middle of the night and play the game after my parents and brother were asleep. Besides, Video Games are for kids anyway right?
Needless to say, my parents were awoken to me sobbing with fear and trying to climb into bed between them. I had nightmares for weeks. Going from Sonic and Echo the Dolphin, to Resident Evil was perhaps not the best idea… To this day, horror games are kept to the daylight hours just for good measure.
A couple of friends and I went out the local night club for a good night out in late ’95, we rocked up and to the side of the venue they had a wipEout stand setup with a PlayStation rep. They would let everyone have a practice go and then a proper race and record your hot lap. So I had a go and thought I did alright.
Someone called me up a few weeks later saying I got the fastest time at the club and they were having a state final. I rocked up to it not expecting much but the club was open early that night just for the wipeEout competition. I was so nervous but got up there and did my best. Unfortunately I only placed 3rd but I was rewarded with a wip3out shirt and CD soundtrack.
The next day I went out and bought a PlayStation with wipEout. It’s been one of my favourites ever since.
Circa 1995. I enter a Mortal Kombat competition to win a Sony PlayStation and think nothing of it until THAT package comes…”Congratulations, you’ve won a Sony PlayStation with Mortal Kombat 3!” What??!! I scream, I cry, I’m an instant superstar amongst my friends. I remember travelling for an hour on public transport to take it to a friend’s house and turning it on for the first time to hear the PlayStation intro chime…the chime that would symbolise the best childhood ever! It still gives me Goosebumps every time I hear it. Fast forward to 1996…Resident Evil! But that’s another story.
I was in line to hire a PS1 in a Blockbusters video shop when ‘that’ scene from Lion King was playing in store.
The person serving me thought I was just really emotional to be getting my hands on a PS1 for a few nights.
In hind sight I should have been.
I haven’t been able to watch Lion King since….
9 year old me at my best friend’s (still best friend) house playing his brand new Spyro 2 game on his birthday! I remember laughing at Money Bags, I thought he looked so funny!
My first Playstation experience is one of my very first memories.
New Year’s Eve, probably 1998 – I’d have been 7 that year, which sounds about right. Dad had bought himself a PlayStation for Christmas – at least, I think that’s what happened. It may have been a present for us kids. It was probably sold to my mum as a present to us, knowing that once we were in bed he could get in some Tomb Raider.
I hadn’t been allowed to stay up for the midnight fireworks before, but I somehow managed to con Mum into letting me. At about 11, Dad busted out the PlayStation, and started playing Soul Blade… and I was enraptured. I can still remember that night to this day. There’s the stage where you’re on a raft floating along a lake, and the one on top of a mountain, and the temple, and the forest. And the characters… 7-year-old Michael had no idea what the hell a Voldo was (23-year-old Michael is still unsure), but that backwards crab walk was something else. My dad liked Seong Mi-na. To be honest, I think he just liked saying the name.
We were up til 2. I don’t think we even saw the fireworks.
I’d go on to play Spyro and Klonoa and Crash Bandicoot and Ratchet and Clank and Jak and Daxter and God of War and Uncharted and Infamous and The Last of Us, and I remember many of them well, but I don’t think I’ll ever forget that night.
When my parents got divorced a couple years later, Dad and I mostly stopped gaming together. We were only there once a fortnight, and I was 11 and too cool to do that sort of thing anyway. We haven’t really played a game together since, to be honest. Sometimes we loan each other games – we both loved the newest Tomb Raider – but I don’t know that we’ve both sat down with a controller in our hands since that night.
He hasn’t got a PS4 yet. Maybe I could give him this one, and we could bust out some online multiplayer. Is there a new Soul Calibur coming?
1 Shade of Grey by robbiey
It was a warm Christmas Day in 1995. The heat was palpable and made me sweat from head to toe. I was extremely hot. It was then that I grabbed this box. It was so big in my hands. I opened it quickly without even a thought. It was so tightly packed, with cables and a big black demo disk. It was then that I saw it. So grey…So very very grey. 1 shade of grey to be precise.
My hands begin to stiffen as I grab the large object in the box. With one smooth movement I plug it in and then that intro sound. My heart skips a beat. I can feel it throbbing like it was about to exit my chest. I gently open the lid and place my hard Ridge Racer disc in its slot. I then grab the controller. My hands by this stage are so sweaty that I can hardly hold onto it. It keeps slipping up and down my palms. So I washed my hands and dried them off. That’s much better.
I begin my first race. The adrenaline is racing through my veins. How could a video game make me feel so good…so alive. I keep holding the button. Faster. Harder. Faster. I’m coming 2nd and there’s half a lap to go. I’m now at the last turn. One last slide around the corner and it’s over. I’m in 2nd as I approach the finish line next to the car in 1st place.
Our body kits start rubbing against each other as both our engines are at full throttle. For a few seconds we are one, joined together by the universe. So I nudge the pixelated automobile out of the way into the wall just before the finish. I win. I climax and call out “Ridge Raaaaaaaaaacer” as the corny Japanese electro music rings out in the background. My hands unclench the controller and my breath returns. It was there that our 20 year relationship began.
A+ for creativity!
LOL
Hehe first experience? Getting my first one. Booting It up, hearing the chime and proceeding to smash ass with Xiaoyu on the Tekken 3 demo. Then running to my room to cry when people learnt how to button mash the kick buttons with Eddy. Damn you Eddy.
My first ever experince with a play station was at the local computer store, must have been around 1996 or 97. Every day after school I would go in there and watch older kids playing tekken on a huge tv while mum did food shopping. I spent so much time lining up waiting for a game only for mum to pop her head in the door, “time to go home now” she would yell and have to give up my spot in the line for a turn. Very rarely I would get to the front of the line for a turn, only to be wiped across the floor by a kid 5 years my senior. Such fond memories of yelling at the screen and making noise when someone pulled off a special move that obliterated the competition.
good times
my first playstation experience was final fantasy x, a game that blew my mind, I utterly adored the characters, swore my head off at some of the areas, and cried like a baby at the end of the story line. I was very lucky in that I was playing along side 3 great friends and it really ignited my passion with video games and I still love the franchise so much. It was amazing and still is!
I remember New Years Eve in 1999 and I was at my aunt and uncles place with all my cousins. We were ranged from ages 3 to around 9 huddled in my oldest cousin’s bedroom, sitting bright eyed and cross legged on an old mattress staring at a small box TV with Playstation One controllers being sporadically passed around the room, race after race. We were all playing Crash Team Racing; the game I’d just got from Santa on Christmas Day. We stayed up in that room for at least four hours, taking turns with the two controllers we had racing time and time again on the same few tracks. Our parents yelled at us to come downstairs, but there was victory to be won. We entirely missed out on the 9pm fireworks and raced right through them, but of course, being kids we didn’t have the energy to stay up for the midnight ones. Even so, Crash Team Racing on New Years eve became a tradition with my family for years.
The very first time I played a PlayStation was about 15 years ago at a friend’s when I was around 10. And since then a few of us would go to his place almost everyday after school just to play Crash Bandicoot. My parents never allow me to get a PlayStation back then, so I missed out on the PS2 too. I didn’t own one until last year I bought a PS3. Now almost 15 years later, the first game I purchased from the online store was Crash Bandicoot. While playing it, all the memories of the good ol’ times of PS1 just relives again. =)
Well I was way to young to remember my first PlayStation experience but I can still see vividly the first cave of Tomb Raider which I played over and over again. I was too young to really understand how the game worked and never really progressed anywhere. But to me, that first fight with the tiger always made my heart pound and in my eyes in was the best thing ever.
Christmas a whole heap of years ago came and there was a PS2 sitting under the tree for me, but exciting as that was, there was also a stack of 3 games. Ratchet and Clank, Sly Cooper and Jak and Daxter. I don’t want to think about how many hours I’ve sunk into those 3 series combined, across PS2, PSP and PS3… It’s definitely time I wouldn’t have preferred to spend any other way though. Some of the best gaming memories I’ve ever made.
receiving my PlayStation from my aunt and cousin when I was 4-5 with them telling me that I could only have it if I remembered their names next time they visited.
Let’s just say that I defiantly remembered their names!
The Playstation saved my life.
Because of the games I was missing on at the tail end of the PS2 and the potential of the PS3 I gave up World of Warcraft.
Playstation was able to show me that playing the same game over and over for years on end just isn’t as much fun as playing God of War, Shadow of the Colossus, Uncharted, Ratchet and Clank etc etc
My first playstation experience was a great one! I was always fond of the Sony gaming console. My family had different interests. One day the family took a trip to town, my siblings bought animals. Fish and rabbits, I had a different idea. Before this I had never spent over $100 on anything. I was a smart saver at 13. But this day I decided to buy myself a playstation 2 and GTA III & Vice City. 11 years later my pet is still alive, on display up beside my two PS3’s
I’ve always been a PC gamer… Dad was into computers (round the time they still had punch cards) and he even built them. Back in post war Poland computers and parts were hard to come by. I started gaming on a PC back then around the age of 4.
It wasn’t until I was in about year 8 when I came across my first PlayStation. In fact I think it was PS2. Were those the ones with the black CDs? I can’t remember now.
In any case, I went over to a rather wealthy friends house and we played Timesplitters.
I really liked that game. I didn’t like a shooter with a controller (that hasn’t changed) and consequently my friend kicked my ass every time.
It was an interesting experience. It was fun but due to my upbringing and previous experience I just couldn’t shake the call of the PC.
That friend played on both platforms so he was cool with it. Perhaps life would have been different if my first PlayStation experience wasn’t a shooter… who knows.
Since then I’ve learned to accept consoles and their place. I even own a few now, but I’ll never forget that first day playing Timesplitters with that weird two joystick thing and those crazy black CDs….
Hi Mark,
So, I never had a PS1, thus my first experience was a PS2. My parents got it, I think it was hidden in a black rubbish bag as the moved it into the house. If I recall correctly I had to go to my room while they set it up. Got called down a while later and BOOM, right there a gorgeous PS2. It came with one game “Tony Hawks Pro Skater 3”, and for a while that was all we played.
We either didn’t have a memory card or I didn’t know how to save the game. This meant playing the same level every time I put the game on. Which made me feel like a pro, because I could totally ace that one level.
That is my story, and I love PlayStation, and Kingdom Hearts (so please let me win so I can get Kingdom Hearts 3).
That would be at my mates places playing Ready 2 Rumble Boxing, I was probably 10 or 11, and it was my first time I had ever played a PlayStation or really any games console, I think, apart from maybe a bit of N64 at a mates before he moved to Roma. I also distinctly remember the posters of topless women that were on the back of his door, he was forever cool with me for that 😛
I later bought that PlayStation off him which was conveniently mod chipped and had something 40 or 50 games, 2 controllers & a light gun which for it I had Time Crisis 1& 2 along with Point Blank 1 & 2, also that was about when I got into the GTA series with GTA 1 & 2. It was such a great console, I got so much use out of it and so much fun.
So I think it’s been about 15 years since my first encounter with PlayStation, one I haven’t looked back from, cause I always founds it had the games I liked.
One of the best memories was playing Gran Turismo with my Dad on the original PlayStation. Not only did we race all the iconic cars but we even managed to break the game – we flipped upside down on the High Speed Ring track! I think that was one of the best memories I had using the PlayStation and nothing beat taking the reply file on the memory card to friends’ houses and seeing their faces after showing them what we’d done.
My first Playstation experience was when I was around 11 years old. A friend from school had a birthday party and our only friend who had a playstation at the time bought it to the house to show off Metal Gear Solid.
He’d been talking about this game for weeks and used to flick through a stack of pages on which he’d printed out a list of all the secrets in the game.
Before actually seeing it in action I was already amazed at all the tiny details that were contained in the game,
– Then we watched the opening movie.
My mind was blown.
From the brooding soundtrack to the pixelated submarine and then to the first codec conversation, I was drawn in completely.
Later on I ended up getting a psx and for the longest time all I had was the MGS demo that came with a playstation magazine.
I must have played through that demo 50 times, trying different techniques and getting to know the system.
Eventually I played the full game while staying with my sister and after smashing it out over a weekend my concept of what video games could be was changed radically.
Let’s not even get into Final Fantasy 7…
My first Playstation experience was playing V-Rally on the original Playstation with my older brother. It is also one of my earliest memories. I was barely three years old so obviously I was terrible at it, but I loved it none the less. We played that game all the time for years. My brother now lives on the other side of the world and doesn’t own a Playstation 4, strange considering how much we both loved the 1, 2 and 3 growing up. To be honest, I actually want to be able to give him the console, rather than keep it for myself
My first experience with PlayStation was with the PS1. I can’t remember how old I was but was definitely a youth. I had owned a SNES with SMB3, Super Mario World, Kart, Donkey Kong + a bunch of other classics. My friend however was lucky enough to get a PS1 for Christmas. Him having a PS1 and myself having a SNES naturally led to sleepovers. We spent so much time at each others homes that we were practically room-mates. We got hooked playing that battle mode in SMB3 on the SNES and Star Wars: Masters of Terras Kassi on the PS.
We played Masters of Terras Kassi to the point that the disc drive spazzed out, and in order to run games you would need to flip the machine upside down and place it on top of a VHS case. Now don’t get me wrong, Masters of Terras Kassi may be among the worst fighting games ever and is such a piece of hot garbage, but fortunately we had the power of stupid kid brains to not know any better. It was the first 3D game I’d played and was blown away by those sweet blocky models. My friend had been saving up his money to buy a PS2 when it released in Australia and when he did buy one did the ultimate lad move and gave me his old PS1. I still have that machine and once every blue moon (not actually once every blue moon, isn’t that like every two weeks?) it gets taken out of storage for beers and a Terras Kassi session with the same friend.
That’s my first and still probably favourite PlayStation memory.
I bought my Playstation the year Final Fantasy VII came out. It was $125 second hand from my cousin.
The games that came with it was Star Wars Rebel Assault 2, Die Hard Trilogy, and crash bandicoot.
I ended up having the playstation taken away from me that weekend by my parents because “I was spending too much time playing games” and “not having any friends”
I dont think I got more than 4 hours of gameplay before I lost it for a month.lol
Out of the 3, the game I always played on repeat was Rebel Assault 2, My love for Final Fantasy 7 would come about 12 months after i bought my playstation when I rented it overnight in a video store, but then because I couldn’t count in roman numerals apparently I went and bought Final Fantasy VIII and it got to be 2001 before I found a copy of Final Fantasy VII in stores to finish playing that game.lol
My first Playstation experience is not necessarily a good one, but it is one I will never forget.
I had just broken my wrist and was staying home from school, so my brother let me play his Playstation.
I was super excited and loaded up a demo disk that had a demo for Metal Gear Solid on it and got ready for some “Tactical Espionage Action”.
In my haste I forgot to make sure that vibration was turned off, and as such the first time I got shot (which wasn’t very long due to my ineptitude when it comes to stealth), I got a blast of pain right up my arm from the controllers vibration.
To this day I still hold a grudge against Metal Gear Solid (even though it was my fault)
My first experience with the Playstation one was at my cousin’s house when I was in primary school. Saw this awesome game called Resident Evil 2. Started it up, died to the second zombie. Had nightmares for days afterwards.
I never had an original playstation, but I inheritated an older model Playstation 2 and used that to play a lot of Playstation games I missed out on.
My story starts off a few months before launch. I was 17, in school, and desperately wanted to get one. Problem was, I was never going to get one bought for me. I started looking for a weekend job, but found a full time job at a furniture manufacturing bussiness. I ended up ditching school about 2 or 3 months before graduating, just to take a job that’d ensure I had the cash to buy a PlayStation.
Lanch day comes and I had ample money to buy it.
My Girlfriend at the time, a mate and I caught a bus into the city to pick it up from Harris Scarfe. It was one of the most exciting times ever. We got in there picked it up, bought 3 games (the only one I remember is Ridge Racer), Then eagerly waited for the next bus to get us back to my place. I still remember the ride feeling like it was taking hours. It was only about 30mins.
Got home, set it all up, and you wouldn’t believe it… It didn’t fu#@ing work!!
The rage was REAL. I was beyond pissed. I checked every cable so many times, but no, it was dead.
Back on the bus we go. Get back into the shop and try to swap it, but they have no more stock. I actually wanted to kill someone. I was told they will swap it out, but I’d have to wait untill they can source more stock. I called them daily for nearly 2 weeks just dying to play the damn thing. Finally the person tells me “yeah we’ve got your replacement here, it’s been here for well over a week. I thought someone would have called you about it”. I was so angry but at the same time, I was just relieved that I could finally go back in and get it. I hung up, went in there and let them know what I thought about them. Got it home and set it up, and still remember thinking that the load times were so much better now that it’s on a disc. Played RR for an entire day just looking at the best graphics ever!! It looked so real.
That same PS died only last year. We may have had a rocky start, but we sure had some AWESOME times together.
It’s funny being asked this question, because it really is one of the oldest memories I actually have of my childhood. It’s definitely one of my happiest and one of the most significant things that and shaped me and my life.
I was 8 years old and I was told that I was going to visit my relatives in Indonesia which I my family often did yearly. I really, like really didn’t want to go because I remembered it being really boring (they lived in a very remote area, it was pretty much a village), and also I had a cousin about the same age as me who I would always fight with and I would try to avoid because I felt intimidated by him. My dad reassured me that it would be fun because my cousin had a computer game so I would be good fun. So off we left..
When arrived on that very hot, humid day I remember just laying around the house the whole day doing nothing and bored out of my mind, it was too hot outside to play, my family was talking to my relatives in Indonesian so I couldn’t understand them and my cousin and I couldn’t really do much together because we couldn’t speak the same language, but then a miracle happened, my not so mean cousin anymore pulled me towards the TV area and sat me down, he then turned it on this grayish box thing I’d never seen before, he unraveled the controllers and booted it up, ah that nostalgic sound.
This was my first encounter with any gaming console, and it was the PlayStation. I was instantly hooked, I remember he only had one game but he did have 2 controllers so we could play together, It was a side scrolling fighting game called “Bloody Roar”, we played it together all day, everyday for 2 weeks. We were laughing and screaming and having a blast together, even though we couldn’t communicate with words we were having still so much fun. It’s what made us become close friends (even today we skype and play online together daily).
I truly believe it’s changed my life in many ways, after becoming good friends with my cousin I wanted to learn the language so in future I could communicate with him. I visited every year with my family, when I was 17 I started going on my own. A year later I met a girl who became my fiance (and very now 4 years later, soon to be wife). I’m so grateful that I had learnt the language and was able to talk with with her.
I think if it wasn’t for the PlayStation, I would have never been interested to learn the language and want to go there, I would have never become best mates with my cousin and met my fiance, It’s what got me where I am today ,I really do believe that my first encounter with Playstation truly change my life, thank you PlayStation :”)
Mine was not going to bed as I was meant to on Christmas Eve when I was a kid and seeing the television light on through my door. I snuck out to the lounge room and hid behind the couch to see that my parents were watching. I was greeted by the beautiful boot up noises of the PS1 and them loading up the FF8 demo disk and being absolutely amazed as the last console I had was a Sega Master System. I was then grounded and wasn’t allowed to play it the next day as it was meant to be a Christmas Gift. When I was allowed though I sunk far too many hours in and got so absorbed in Final Fantasy 7 and Abe and even mucked with the Final Fantasy 8 demo a lot. I was obsessed with the Trex and Manta ray demos on the disk that came with the sony. Been a Sony fan boy ever since.
My rich friend had just fired up his PlayStation while the rest of us poor students stood huddled around the TV. He then popped open the top, put in a disk, and fired up… Tekken.
WOW!!
Mind blown!
This was the same game that’s in the arcades! HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE!!?
From that moment on, I scrimped and saved to get myself one of these mystical devices. Before this I was never really into consoles, having had multiple computers ranging from the C64 through to the Amiga 500, then into an old 486 PC. This changed everything!
I came to Australia for a holiday when I was 10 just to see the ps1 at toys r us at pacific fair ib the gold coast. True story honestly. Left with a sega megadrive, now I have a megadrive and a ps1 because im a big boy who has a job and can goto cash converters and buy one. I like cats
Probably when I was about 4 or 5 and I used to watch my dad play Crash Bandicoot on the PS1 and I used to love just watching it, I was amazed. Then my dad asked me if I wanted to play and I was pretty scared cause I didn’t want to ruin the game for him but I played and fell in love with video games, still play games till this!
One time someone asked to see my willy and I could play their playstation. It was last week on my 30th birthday. Yaaaaaaaaaay
Previously I had taken every opportunity to play video games that I could, I would play stupid little free games online on my parents computer and whenever I went over to my Uncles house I would play Battlefield 2 on his PC. However my parents weren’t very fond of video games so they limited my ‘playing time’ as much as they could.Nonetheless I broke them when it came to my 12th Birthday. I knew they had bought me something gaming related, as they’d dropped hints, but I didn’t know what it was. Possibly also because my mum referred to anything gaming related as ‘Nintendo’, even her work computer. So when I woke up on my 12th birthday I ran downstairs, jumped on my parents bed and demanded to see my presents along with my twin sister. After furiously shredding through wrapping paper but finding only clothes, books and Harry Potter stickers my parents handed over the last box, it was a PSP. I abandoned my family and eviscerated the contents of the box. Discarding everything but the console, the charger and the copy of Lego Batman that came with it. I slammed the charger and after scratching around the back for 5 minutes I found the where to put in the game, and put in the game. However the whole time a terrible though was lingering in my head, School. I didn’t dare take my precious in as I went to a Catholic school and knew that if they found me with it I would be crucified along with my PSP. So I got dressed, ate breakfast and steeled myself for the longest day in the history of long days. When I got home after school I whirled through the house to my room where I turned on the PSP and delved into the excitement of collecting studs and smashing bricks. After an hour of standing a metre from the wall socket I got tired so I took my PSP off charge and jumped onto my bed. That was when tragedy struck. As I raised my device to eye level I was greeted by only a blank screen, initially I though the game was only loading but boredom turned to terror as I realized that my new companion had decided to switch off. I tried to turn the PSP back and was greeted with… nothing. I cried, my best friend in the whole world wasn’t here to stave off the boredom. I ran to my parents and their only comments were, ‘did you follow the instructions ?’and ‘we’re not getting you a new one.’ I tried everything I could think of, but as my desperation grew I decided it was time to take the only option left… read the manual. On the second or third page I realized that I was actually meant to put a battery in, and memory card. I did and was soon back to batman smashing goons. My only regret was the afternoon wasted…
My first experience began with Tekken 3, a bit late to the party but there it is. I first saw this game in an arcade that my best friend took me to for my birthday. Sadly also my first experience in an Arcade seeing as I lived in a small country town far from the city.
Despite never having played it, I managed to beat him at this game and I loved every second of it, it’s the first time I’d seen a game like it, the graphics were amazing and the way the characters moved totally blew me away.
A few months later I hear a commotion coming from my brother and a group of his friends. Turns out one of them had brought a PlayStation over, and wouldn’t you know it, they were playing Tekken 3! Having come fresh from a Sega Master System, this was nothing short of mind-blowing to me, that a game like this could be played in your own home.
Video games were never the same to me after that, peeking through his bedroom door and watching them play Tekken 3 was probably the moment that turned me from a casual gamer into the lover of video games that I am today. Needless to say I have my own disc copy of Tekken 3 now, and a PS1, and I still love to bust it out every now and then to relive those days.
So one xmas (when ps1 had been out for a year or two) my family was extremely poor, mum didn’t know about the playstation at the time, only that I had been asking 6 months for a game system that would work on our little shitty tv, she ended up gifting me a ps1 rip off console that was something in between the ps1 and sega, but looked almost exactly as the ps1. At the time i didnt care, I was very young, and to me I had the newest game console, and showed it off to all my mates who came over (who were oblivious). The console only had a few pre-loaded games on a cartridge, but she spent money on a ps1 game anyway which turned out to be Suikoden 2, which fetched a nice price last year online. Managed to buy her a car with some of the money for xmas. Feels good man.
For those who were wondering, i got the ps2 for an xmas a few years after, and it was the real thing. It blew my mind on how they made such an improvement over the ps1, in hindsight, I was a dumb kid.
My playstation story began when i was about nine years old, at this point I had been into games for a while but was still playing oldschool dos-games on the family PC.
My father passed away shortly before Christmas and I had sunk pretty heavily into just being introverted and reclusive. While I was like this a distant relative of mine ended up moving in to help my mother while I was like this and for christmas he had saved to buy me a PSX with games I would learn to treasure til this day.
Some of my fondest memories growing up are the all nighters playing Dino Crisis with my “Uncle” and comming home from school to find he had gotten past me in progress on his own save again. I remember the pride he showed me when I figured out the Leo/Sol puzzle at the start of the game in moments, after he had been stuck there for over an hour.
Most notably though, the first game he had bought for me (and the first one I played) was Final Fantasy VII, the mature themes really resonated with me and one part in particular (Aeris) confronted my emotions directly.
The idea of death and the helplessness of avoiding it even with the amazing powers in the game were emotionally jarring at first but I loved the game and decided to keep playing. The continued progress forced me to move through the feelings shared by myself and the characters in the game itself.
The ideas of moving on and the spirits of those that have passed returning to the earth were hard to swallow but really helped me to reconcile my feelings and understand that life comes to an end and should be celebrated while it lasts.
My PSX was my most treasured console and I still have it today, it helped me move through the most difficult period in my life and I’ve forged so many awesome memories with friends and family in front of it.
The recent nostalgic theme on the PS4 actually made me tear up when i started the console up and heard the original PSX boot noise haha.
So, Sony has quite literally been one of the most important aspects of my life, not just then but many times since too. I’m hardly a fanboy, but even now thinking about it, I’ve picked up every Playstation console on launch, even when I’ve had nothing to play on it. I guess the nostalgia has just stuck.
My first experience,
It was my tenth birthday and its was the year that the original PlayStation portable had hit aussie shores. I was quivering with anticipation as my parents handed me my birthday present. it was thick, the buttons where clunky and the thumbstick was stiff but in the hands of 10 year old me it was the most magical experience of my life. The games where vivid and colourful and the games where oh so hard. My Playstation portable was my first true gaming experience and one i will still never forget. And the best bit? I still own the damn thing 9 years later and it still chugs along.
My parents separated when I was 3. My mother, who we stayed with most, had no real idea about video games but my father appreciated how much my brother and I were in to video games, and the day he brought a Super Nintendo home I sat on that thing, determined to not let my brother ‘have a turn’. I was so determined, so adamant (and so selfish) that right there, in the lounge room, I let the warm embrace of human excrement kiss my inner thigh and trail off down my leg and into the carpet. Such was the want for me, in those days, to have it all – to be better than my almost-2-years-younger brother at video games that I would actually rather piss myself and take the verbal scalding than hand a corn-chip-dusted SNES controller to my own flesh and blood.
When the PlayStation was released, I remember the two of us constantly asking our Dad for one. We only stayed with him every second weekend in those days, and I truly treasured that time because it came with a chance to not only see Dad, but to play on his consoles too. Before long, we either were convincing or downright annoying enough to get Dad to get us our first PlayStation.
I remember the purchase clearly – it wasn’t at one of the now-prominent specialist game stores but, in fact, it was in the electronics section of a major retailer. The walls weren’t lined with flatscreens playing FROZEN on repeat for the doe-eyed children that wandered their linoleum floors, nor were the latest iPads sitting shackled to desks, finger and tongue prints all over their reflective screens. No, this was an electronics department in the 90’s where jewel cases lined the shelves, TV screens flickered in and out of colour and, somehow, somewhere, for some reason… somebody was buying a discman.
Importantly, my Dad certainly didn’t have the money to be buying the console and more than one game. So what would we choose? I knew the “older kids” liked Crash Bandicoot and I implored Dad and my brother that this was THE game to have. No other would suffice. My brother complained, surely knowing that a repeat of The Human Waste Incident would occur if we bought a 1-player game, and offered up the idea of purchasing Space Jam.
Space. Jam.
As in, The Video Game based on the movie in which Michael Jordan is pulled down a magic hole in a golf course and is roped in to playing a basketball game against interstellar mutant aliens, who have captured the talents of five NBA players (again, magic), to ensure that Bugs Bunny and his friends don’t have to work in an alien amusement park. That Space Jam.
Dad (I love you) in his infinite wisdom (I really love you) got caught up in this idea that we could both play at once – likely because he was the one that cleaned up the mess the last time we had a new console – and with that Michael Jordan’s Space Jam was the first PS game that ever came home with us. I was infuriated. “DAD, SPACE JAM? WHY? DAD WE NEED CRASH BANDICOOT!” I was devastated.
Until I got home.
To this day, I love the PS1 video game ‘Space Jam’ based on the movie of the same name. My brother and I hardly speak to each other anymore and we had a lot of rough times together as we grew up, but I will never forget sitting on Dad’s floor playing Space Jam with the little guy. My first PlayStation experience isn’t just a fond memory, it is a window into a relationship that I often regret not fostering and a time where things were much simpler. Brothers only argued about who would get more time on their video games. I love you little brother, if you’re reading this. Sorry I pissed myself to get more game time.
Christmas 1997. Albany. Western Australia. Even though at the age of 16, walking out of the only Toys “R” Us store in town with a PlayStation sent my giddiness to sky heights, a kid once again. This was the best Christmas ever. My hands were sweaty with anticipation as I raced back home to jump into the PlayStation experience – everything I’ve read and followed as a avid reader of the Hyper Gaming magazine since 1993. I remember the slight frustration as I fumbled with the cables, working out what to plug in where. Flicking quickly through the instruction booklet, skimming details just enough to work out what to do. Then finally…… “Bwuuuhh…. ting-a-ling ting-a-ling Bwuuuuhh”, the most memorable start up sound I still recognise instantaneously today. But the moment was short lived as I eagerly moved on and opened up my first game. Taking the CD in hand was already strange, not a block of a cartridge, but like a music CD with a colourful printed title – Soul Blade. A moment of silence as it loaded and then – “Transcending history and the world, a tale of soul and swords, eternally re-told” – by the time the drums kicked in, I was floored. A samurai! A ninja! A guy with nun-chuks! A barbarian with bear skin! *gasp* A ghost pirate! How could the graphics be so good!! I watched the intro over and over again, before even starting up my first round. That moment defined my first PlayStation experience. Incredible graphics, crystal clear sound, heart pumping music, an epic story, and the following hours and hours of gameplay that was like nothing I have experienced on a console before. That was the most unforgettable Christmas since. And one of the most unforgettable gaming experiences in my life. I also believe I developed long lasting affections for Taki in those following years…..
My first PlayStation experience would have to be when I got my brand new PS2 on Christmas day 2000, I was 4 years old at the time and the games I had for it consisted of two PS1 games, one skiing game another a shooting game and also Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex which I played non stop alongside Final Fantasy X which somehow I was better at then my Dad…which still confuses me to this day.
All I know after seeing the SNES that made me want a console the PS2 could not of made me happier, to this day I still find myself plugging it in and playing games. I would write more and less vague and condescending stuff but there is only so much I can remember from when I was four.
I had an original NES. It was my birthday coming up, and all I wanted was brand new video games. My mum got me a Playstation console, with Crash Bandicoot and Abe’s Oddysee. I was blown away. I could not believe I could control a character in a 3d world. Crash Bandicoot was amazing. And then I played Abe’s Oddysee. It blew my mind. CGI Cutscences that looked better then any cartoon on TV? I could not believe it. Changed my life! Viva La Playstation! I will never forget.
It seems like it was only 16 years ago… and I remember it clear as day.
Her pale complexion, that curvaceous body…
I held her handles tight, and I quickly learnt to press all the right buttons…
it didn’t take long to turn her on…
I scrambled for the volume control as her moan was loud enough to wake my younger brothers!
Then I put it in… …”Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee”
A game with fantastic design. Great soundtrack. Stellar graphics, and engaging gameplay.
Yet the first time I played it, I found a good portion of my time was spent ordering fellow ‘RaptureFarms’ slaves to “follow me“, just so I could fart at them, watch their reaction, and giggle to myself.
On that day… my love for PlayStation was already in full flight.
At that moment… I knew I was a player.
Hi there Mark I live in South Africa can I also enter?
My first Playstation experience was when my girlfriend (now wife!) bought a Playstation 1. She bought it to keep at my house so we could play games together. Totally nice and awesome.
The first game we played was CTR (Crash Team Racing). It totally blew my mind at the time and still to this day solidifies my opinion as the greatest kart racing game I have ever played. It was such an awesome experience as a teenager to play games like this with my girlfriend and have a great time. To this day, I remember this being the start of my infatuation with gaming that has only grown stronger.
So in summary, my first Playstation experience resembled the social aspect of gaming which still holds true to me to this day. Playing games with you significant other and friends was defined in the original Playstation era.
Move aside cartridges – Now your games live on CD. And not only do they live on CD, they look awesome, and you are going to love it. Games aren’t just for kids – these are games for adults.
So my 18 year old brain viewed my playstation. The Mega Drive era was done, and now it was time for serious gaming. And no game was more serious than Duke Nukem.
Forget the Leisure Suit Larry style adult games on PC….. This was the Duke, and nothing was more awesome than redesigning your friends living room, putting their two tv’s back to back and getting your Duke on with your mate. This was the future….. and oh it was good. My PS carry case travelled so frequently I never took it out of the bag (Gee that was a good travel bag…. you just unzipped the top and dropped the velcro at the back and you were ready to go).
Guys don’t communicate well most of the time. It is not something we do well that often. But get us on two linked playstations shooting hideously overpowered weapons at each other, and suddenly we have found the connection to actually talk to each other (After a reasonable amount of trash…).
The logistics that went into our game times meant they had to be planned, and looked forward to. Now that playing a multiplayer session is as easy as an internet connection, the memories of lifting furniture and tv’s to game seem very distant…. but forever awesome.
Back in 2002 I was five and our family wasn’t the most wealthy. My exposure to games had been virtually nothing but I always wanted to try them. But on my birthday in December the first game console I received was a second hand first model PlayStation 1. I was curious to see how it worked so I immediately wanted to set up the console and with the help of my parents I did.
I turned on the power button and it was then that I saw the iconic PlayStation One startup screen which back then I wouldn’t have guessed would have been ingrained for the rest of my life. Soon after I realised that a disc needed to be placed in order to get the PlayStation 1 to work so I then placed the one game I had called Crash Bandicoot 3. I was awestruck with how vibrant and imaginative worlds could fit into a disc, and even more impressed that I was able to control where I was in this world. I loved every minute of playing Crash 3.
It would be much later until I could afford more games for my PS One, but that first experience with my PlayStation and gaming altogether successfully started my love with video games and I later branched out to Nintendo & PC Gaming. But I always have a soft spot for PlayStation after that.
“rrriiiiiiiddddddggggeeee raaaccceeerrrr” lost many hours and days off school playing this game when playstation launched, and i still play it to this day, yes, & still on my original playsation!
My earliest PlayStation memory really shaped my future as a PlayStation fan. When the console first came out my family rented the PS1 and the Nintendo 64 to try both out and make a decision on which to purchase. I loved Banjo-Kazooie so I was all for the 64, but my parents were smart enough to recognise the PS1’s potential and decided to purchase the PS1 for my brother and I. Today, as a loyal PS2, PS3, PS4 & PSP owner, I still think that was one of the best parenting decisions my parents ever made.
My first Playstation experience was at my aunty’s house. Her children were all grown-up, and had long since moved out. When I came to visit, her son’s old Playstation was offered to keep me, the bored kid, occupied.
In a tiny dusty space between the TV cabinet and the VCR, sat the humble grey rectangle, with its protruding circular hump. The hump, as I discovered, was determined to remain prominent: The lid wasn’t always easy to open or close. But once I got it shut, powered on the thick old CRT TV and the console itself, I was taken elsewhere.
I sat in that bedroom and played. It was the room of someone else, someone older. In those moments, I trespassed into his life. It felt sneaky, and exciting. I sat on a musky bed, surrounded by a music collection that was alien to me, and played Crash Bandicoot 2 from the beginning. My own unfamiliar little save file, sneaking into someone else’s well-used game.
I loped along in those strange, boxy linear 3D worlds hunting silver gems and purple crystals. I became well acquainted with the angel of Crash, and the sound of his passing “whoa!” became ingrained in my head. Equally, I came to know intimately the arrogant and evil laughter of the ‘yellow N guy’, who I only later called Cortex.
I did get better. I learned the button patterns, found more apples, and memorised the paths of pursuing snowballs. I learned it was fun: A fun that encompasses frustration, but also accomplishment. Mostly though, fun meant escape.
Escape. Gaming at its purest. Before reviews, before graphics comparisons, there was that dusty grey Playstation. The heat of a dry West Australian summer could be forgotten when I sat in that disused room; swallowed by someone else’s things. With Crash 2, I my mark was made on some weird third-party memory card. Maybe it is still out there. But I like to think someone overwrote it, and started again, just like I did.
The original Playstation was my first console ever back in 1996 for Christmas & at the was totally oblivious to what the machine was or could do, but when I was given the PS controller, all of it made sense to me. Countless hours of playing Crash, Spyro, Hercules, Medievil, Croc, Parappa the Rappa, Apes Escapes etc…& despite a PS2 & PS3, I still have it my original Playstation & it’s still in working order.
Fondest memory is early 2000, during the hot summer, my brother’s room and my room doesn’t have any cooling devices so during summer it gets really hot, we would sleep in the living room with the aircon on. My parents were not found of gaming but we received a PS One for my brothers birthday from a family friend. During the summer, we (my brother and I) found out about GTA and played the crap out of that game. We found the game for sale at a Vietnamese festival of some kind and bought it, GTA 2 was so much fun.
My first memory of my PSX was it being stolen. I literally had it for a couple of days after Christmas and it was gone…was a pretty traumatic experience at the time, given I was 10 years old. I don’t remember what I played before that, but I remember being extremely excited for months about getting one, only to lose it immediately. The first night after the robbery, my brother and I built a PSX out of a box we’d found in the garage. It wasn’t well cut or drawn on, and the tv we played on was a piece of cardboard with a game drawn on it, which we’d change every now and then. That’s a big memory for me, just remembering how we handled the situation and made some fun where ours was stolen.
There’s a silver lining though as we did eventually get a new PSX a couple of months later 🙂
Wow, such a long time ago. Our families first playstation came in when I was about 7 or 8 years old and barely old enough to actually complete any game. However, I fell in love with the first crash bandicoot games, I spent countless hours trying to defeat all the levels but always required the help of my older brothers who were much better than me. As I was the youngest, I learned fast and am now superior than all of them and have loved playstation ever since.
July 9th, 1998. I was only 6 years old and went to a friend’s birthday at a playhouse. It had everything I could hope for such as indoor play equipment and lots of delicious junk food! But then… I looked at a corner and saw birthday boy and his friends playing video games on display, and this introduced me to the PlayStation. My eyes laid upon one of his friends playing Crash Bandicoot 1, with the marsupial running away from the now famous boulder chase level… I was given a turn and did an awful job as I was too caught up in excitement to even know how to play or use the controller. After my mother picked me up from the party, I tried explaining to her how amazing the game I was playing! Sadly I didn’t know what it was called and dubbed Crash Bandicoot “Man-Game”.
On my birthday in December 1st that following year, my parents got me a PlayStation of my own and 4 games (including a demo that came with the console) to start me off! The first game I picked up had a familiar face on a motorcycle with a female companion and I must have had the biggest smile on my face ever. My dad helped me set it up to our spare TV upstairs and I placed in Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped into the console, and hearing that nostalgic Sony and PlayStation logo jingles that would forever stick out in my mind. As soon as the cut scene started I immediately recognized Crash and yelled out “IT’S THE MAN-GAME GUY!”.
I wasn’t very good at playing the game since I didn’t think the buttons did anything other than the directional pad and constantly died a few times till I got a game over. But over time I learned the controls and got better at the game! Then I was introduced to the other games my parents got me…. I’ll never forget the difficulty and humour from Oddworld: Abe’s Oddesy, the colourful world satisfaction of breathing fire and ramming into enemies in Spyro, and the Demo 1 disk that got me hooked on Tekken and Medievil!
Since then, I’ve become a dedicated fan of the brand with over 100 games across the PS1, 2, 3 and PSP. Long live the power of PlayStation!
Lol. This competition was made for my first experience with a Playstation.
I first saw the original Playstation in late ’95 when I was 9. I was in a Harvey Norman store and they had a display set up for it. I think it was selling for $799. Being a Nintendo SNES player up to that time, I had no idea what it was. But it sure looked amazing! They had the original demo disc loaded on it and someone had left it on Toshinden. I marveled at the 3D fighting game and watched as some random guy had a go.
When he was finished, he had returned the system to the game select screen (which was itself pretty nifty). I approached the display and picked up the controller (so comfortable). As I cycled through the available games, I saw what I thought was one called “Loaded”. Now a part of me thought that this was an odd name for a game and I was slightly hesitant to select it. “Loaded”. Load. As in load some software. I don’t know how to explain it, but I felt like this wasn’t supposed to be something that was to be selected. Like it was some thing that had to do with the internal workings of getting something to load (other than a game) deep within the system. That it was not to be touched. After some further hesitation, I selected it…and then the system turned off. Just a black screen. I freaked out! Shit!! What had I done?? I had wrecked this uber-expensive marvel. I knew I shouldn’t have selected “Loaded”! I looked around, but no one had noticed. I quickly fled the scene of the crime to find my parents in the white goods section. No jail time to be served today.
It wasn’t until days later that I was back in the shop and just so happened to see a guy on the menu screen of the now miraculously working system. He selected “Loaded”. Oh no, I thought. He’s doomed. And there are so many people around to see the disaster. This guy is toast! The system then loaded up a top-down shooter called…”Loaded”.
To this day I have no idea what happened when i tried to pick that game, but it was clearly a freak occurrence. Nevertheless it remains a funny yet haunting memory of my first experience with a Playstation. I have owned every PS system with the exception of that first one. My brother had the honour of having it. Maybe it was for the best.
My first Playstation experience was playing the Tekken 2/Wipepout demo at a friends joint. I was amazed at the 3d graphics of Tekken 2 and saved to buy my own Playstation which came with the same demo, which i played for over a year till I bought my first video game, Tekken 2. I was 13. Cheers and good luck everyone.
A simple story. Growing up in the 16 bit days I bought a mega drive but then things went downhill. I saved enough money for a Game Gear and spent more cash on batteries than games. I managed to scrape enough money for a Mega CD with the promise of next level graphics but instead got pixelated actors. Then I was silly enough to buy a 32x just to play DOOM. My console comsumed more power than a small city.
When the Saturn came out I was tempted to buy it. What a launch……Virtua fighter and Daytona! Things will be different this time, surely? It was like I kept getting back together with the same girlfriend and her name was SEGA.
I’m not sure why but I decided to buy a PSX, I needed a fresh start. Initially it was a little awkward with a chubby Mark Hamill in Wing Commander 3. But things worked out just fine.
The first time I laid my eyes on a PlayStation was in Dec 96 Was in a store called Bond and Bond in NZ there it was my eyes zoomed in on a shiny grey machine that we all loved the game that caught my attention was Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex strikes Back Anyway wow my mind was blown as I was pressing buttons memorized by the graphics back then as a kid so enticed by how fast and fluid like crash was oh how fun was that game I remember going wow being chased by a boulder in one stage and cruising on a jet powered surfboard on another 4 hours I spent greedily on that epic game soon it was closing Time and I had to leave feeling sad my mind was fixated on obtaining that game could not sleep or eat anyway this was the week of christmas the day after saw all these presents stacked up in one corner of the room being naive I picked one and lo and behold there it was Crash 2 my heart leapt for Joy!!! And by christmas I got a PlayStation but the sad part sacrificed it the year PS2 had arrived and so since then no playstation but that was my story 🙂
My first Playstation experience was reading about all the great games available on the console. Being a Sega fanboy and owning a Saturn at the time and seeing all the PS exclusives (Tomb Raider 2 & 3, Tekken, Crash Bandicoot, etc), I got a bit depressed that my Saturn’s lifespan was already being cut very short. I then found solace in PS emulation via Bleem! and VGS but neither could deliver the experience I was after and there was a high compatibility with a lot of games which then prompted me to save and purchase my own Playstation. Have since owned the PS2 and PS3 but have yet to take the plunge to purchase the PS4… help me out Kotaku!
My first Playstation experience was late November 1996 in Philadelphia Pennsylvania, age 11. I had been playing Daytona USA & Virtua Fighter non stop on a friends Sega Saturn and finally convinced my mum to buy me one. We headed into our local Funcoland to purchase my new Sega Saturn only to have the sales assistant inform me they were sold out (Christmas time). He then suggested a console that he had in stock, a Playstation. I had no idea what it was, none of my friends owned one and it sure as hell didn’t have Daytona USA. I remember feeling devastated, then the panic set in, this may be my only chance to get a NEW console (my consoles were second hand and always at least one generation behind). I told my mum that’s the one I wanted, grabbed a copy of Blazing Dragons and I was off. Best on the spot decision of my life.
When the first Playstation became available, I was studying at University, though I lacked the monetary funds to purchase such an extravagance, barely managing to pay my share of the rent.
I had two house-mates however, with jobs and incomes, so I hatched a clever plan to subtly influence their purchasing habits and desires.
Nearly twice a week, I stood outside the doors to their respective bedrooms, whispering in the dark, such that their sleeping ears might hear… “Buy a Playstation. You want a Playstation. You want to buy a Playstation.”
Now I know that sounds a bit creepy, but what’s a little psychological manipulation between friends?
Eventually they caught me out one night, I was laughed at, and instructed to go back to bed.
Right around the time of exams however, when my 21st birthday rolled around, my house-mates and friends got together, and they bought me a Playstation as a surprise birthday present. Woohoo!
So that’s my story. Little did they know how much defeat they would soon face against my eventually well trained button mashing instincts. It just goes to show you though, hypnotic suggestions for the win!
My first Experience with Playstation, was when i went to a friend house to hang out, and after being there awhile.
I noticed he had a PS1 and i had asked what it was like he told me about some of the games he used to own and what they were like, sounded like a pretty fun system, downside to the story is one of his parents had sold all the games and he all had was a demo disc.
So an experience nonetheless but a pretty terrible background to it though
Though to be honest my second experience with a PS1 is not much better, though that was rental games, theft and arguements – at least i did not live in that house either.
i had never had anything to do with Playsation till 2 years ago, when by chance – someone out of the blue asked me if i wanted their PS2 – now i own a PS3 with dozens of games. courtesy of all these HD remasters – the PS2 had some really good games
The PlayStation one and the amazing Toy Story 2 game (if you know caddicarus, you will understand what’s am talking about!) are some of my first memories! I remember distinctly waking up way past my bed time and running down to the Ye old CRT TV to watch my Aunty take on the “slime time” level for what was the thousandth time! It was only later in life when my Aunty and I finally moved passed that level! Great and fun times! I would love to win this amazing (and very pretty) PlayStation, as I think it would rekindle the relationship between my Aunty and myself, as it has been many years since finishing that final level of Toy Story. Thank you for this fantastic chance!
A year or two into high school I got a N64 for Christmas. I enjoyed reminding a good friend of mine that owned one and he didn’t. Soon after he got a PS1 for his birthday. One weekend he called up and said he had a game called Metal Gear Solid and I should come over and play. So I jumped on my pushy and headed over. From the moment my friend booted up the game until the credits rolled I hadn’t touched the controller. He offered it too me but I refused. Blown away I guess and perfectly content watching him play. As a gamer I think of that experience as a pretty special moment.
I was always a Nintendo fan, having played the old NES back in my vacation care days before receiving a SNES for my birthday not long after. You can imagine my surprise when I visited my family in Hong Kong that Nintendo was not as well known as Sony. My first experience with the Sony Playstation was at my cousins where I got to play through his game collection while the relatives were out. My first game was Fighting Force and boy did I love playing that game! It introduced me to 3D adventure gaming (games on the SNES I had at the time were generally side scrollers or racing games) and I have since loved playing Adventure games. This experience influenced my decision when it came to purchasing my next console and I opted to purchase a Playstation2 over the Nintendo Gamecube. Many hours were spent on this new console and I have no doubt I’d choose the PS2 again were I given the choice to make that decision again.
My parents were always vehemently opposed to having any console in the house so we had no hope of getting one through them. Then one day as we were getting ready for school we get an unexpected phone call; my older sister had won a brand new PlayStation 2 by sending in Chupa Chup wrappers to a competition (yeah apparently people actually do win these competitions). The entry to the competition was sitting in our car for weeks and we only bothered to send just before it closed when we were at the airport on our way to holidays. As deprived console luddites, this was obviously pretty huge news for 10 and 8 year old brothers. Hell, the height of our shared console experience before this had been brief moments playing Nintendo 64 at friend’s houses. Our parents still being non-believers would only let us play on weekends, so we savoured our Saturdays and Sundays playing Need for Speed, Crash Bandicoot, Dragonball Z Budokai, and SSX Tricky. Of course any time our parents left the house we snuck in 10 minutes here and there during the week 😉 Needless to say, whenever my little brother beat me in anything it was obvious that he had the better controller, mine must be defective somehow. Some of my best memories of childhood with my brother were spent with that chance won PlayStation, in fact I might go have a spin at Crash Nitro Kart now…
I wanted a Playstation from the moment they were released, but as I already had a Megadrive, my parents wouldn’t buy me one. Too young to have a proper job, my dad and I came to the agreement that If I worked on some home renovations with him, I’d be paid the princely sum of $3/hour. It took a very long time, but I eventually managed to amass the small fortune (relatively speaking) required to buy one a couple of years after its release in Aus, along with a copy of command and conquer – red alert and Firestorm Thunderhawk 2 which I played to death.
Good idea!
My first Playstation experience was playing Final Fantasy 8 with my neighbor (as i ashamedly only owned an original Nintendo and Atari Jaguar console wise), he’d play a couple of battles then i’d have a go and i was honestly just blown away at the graphics for the summons, it still blows my mind.
This was probably what lead me to finish the 10+ games in the Final Fantasy series starting with Final Fantasy 8, not to mention my great appreciation for JRPG’s in general. Oh and FYI guys, Squall is not “emo”, he’s just complicated haha =)
My first chance to actually sit down & have a proper go of a PSX was ruined because my uncle & his pal (who had invited me earlier) later decided it was going to be an adults only night. You may presume there were strip-hookers there or something equally exciting, but best guess, they were probably just having beers…or bongs. Or bongs & beers. We’ll never know because I didn’t get to go, instead I went to grandma’s, played Mega Drive.
Fast forward a few years, I’ve moved to Brisbane & and a friend invites me over to play Street Fighter Alpha & Crash Bandicoot.
Crash was pretty fun, they managed to translate a 2D platformer into a 3D world. We had the code, so you could enter an even longer code to open all levels & we did.
But the star of the weekend was Street Fighter Alpha! Oh my, they had somehow managed to bring the arcade experience into the living room!
It. Was. Amazing.
Such fluid animation & no missing bits or dodgy graphics like the SNES port of Street Fighter 2.
The future was here and it’s name was PLAYSTATION!!!
I grew up in the Philippines and our family wasn’t well off. We lived next to a rice field and me and my friends past time involves a tin can and slippers (we normally put the tin can far away from us and whoever topples it over with their slippers first wins the game) or playing basketball on a cemented court barefoot as we didn’t want one our slippers to break. It was a fun and simple life, got to play outside, had a roof over our heads, have daily meals and if lucky, get to watch a TV program or 2!
A rich kid always plays with us, his name was Marc. His parents worked in Japan and he stayed with his grandparents. We sorta created our own gang who would always meet up after school and do random stuff.
During the Christmas break on 1994, he pretty much vanished and we could not really contact him as phones were pretty rare back then. We summed up the courage to visit him at his house around January the following year and found him in his room playing in front of his massive 28″ Sony CRT TV and a little silver box with some sort of controller attached to it. “Hey guys, come on in and watch. Got it from my parents over Christmas”. As we sat on the floor and looked at the TV, we saw a bunch little characters that was in a formation and kept going back on forts hitting the guy in a suit in front of them. The figure I remember the most was this yellow haired guy swinging a massive sword around and also a kind of green sphere that starts out small and then engulfs the entire screen.
My mind was blown away and for the first time in my life, at a mere age of 10, I started to want something that I would do everything I could to get it. Daily errands of delivering hot bread in the morning before going to school, to helping out in the rice fields and manning the local dairy, occasionally visiting Marc to remind me of the prize I am reaching for. After 16 months of hard work and saving everything I had, me and my mom rode a 2 hour bus ride to go to the city and purchased the Playstation. I only had enough for the console and 1 game (final fantasy 7) but my mom ended up getting me another game, Soul Edge.
I held onto the console the entire bus ride like my life depended on it. Safely getting home, my friends waiting in front of our house, we all rushed towards the TV, hooked up everything and heard a tune when the Playstation logo popped up, a tune I would end up remembering until now. But before we wandered off into the game, I got up, hugged my mom and said “Thank you”
Yes, I could talk about the how Final Fantasy 7 was the most epic thing I played in my entire life, or how me and my friends went over to Marc and begged to borrow his other controller so we can play Soul Calibur, or how my love affair with JRPG’s started (we are still together now in Australia after moving 2 countries later if you had to ask), but the most memorable thing about it for me is the road I had to take to earn it and the friends I played the games with.
If you really want something bad enough and you don’t give up, you can achieve anything. And games are a lot more fun if you have friends you can share it with.
I grew up in a small town in north QLD and didn’t have much to do other than throw sticks at things. All that changed one day when one of my dad’s close friends came by the house for the day. He brought his new Sony PlayStation, I had never seen one before, I had only heard about it and seen the ads on TV. He brought two games with him, one was Tekken 2 and the other was Zero Divide. Being a small boy of course I wanted to play Zero Divide as it had fighting robots!!!!!!, but he said I can only play it if I beat Tekken 2. After a few hours of continues and changing characters I eventually got to the end and defeated DEVIL with Paul. After all that hard work I finally got my hands on Zero Divide, I then realized I liked Tekken 2 better… go figure.
Not long after my dad bought a PlayStation then eventually bought Tekken 3 and to this day I am the best Tekken fighter out of all my friends and anyone else I’ve met who plays it. It’s not an action packed memory but it is one of a younger me getting into a new generation of gaming that I still continue today.
Wow ok, story time. My father has had a crazy interesting life and is one of those people that tells these incredible stories where you are left wondering if any of it is true. If he wasn’t my father, and I didn’t know the other people around at the time, I wouldn’t believe a word. To set the scene for this particular story, dad is in his mid 30’s, travelled the world and was always getting himself into various situations, some fun, some not. At this point in his life, he finds himself jumping feet first onto the first ship that will take him out of a US port and out of the country. He had in fact, just bartered his way out of jail, after having a run in with some local mobsters who had paid off the local cops to put him in jail until their boss got into town (this is mid 70’s btw). He boarded the ship with the clothes on his back, a handful of dollars and an old ham radio.
He then discovers the ship is heading to Japan, much to his alarm as the mobsters had ‘connections’ there. While he is on the ship, he uses the ham radio to send out a message out asking for help from anyone that will answer. Eventually, a Japanese man replies, who happens to be studying English. They converse for a while and he finally says he can stay at his place while he sorts everything out. Fast forward a decade until I was born, and that is how my god father is a Japanese Buddhist monk living in Tokyo!
How does this relate to a PlayStation? Well! My parents where reasonably strict on encouraging me to play sport and do ‘outdoors’ stuff (even though mum was an IT Teacher!), so computer games and the like were a definite no no when I was young. Then, around my 10th birthday, Bucky my Japanese monk god father, sends me a package. Much to my parents horror it is a PlayStation. I was CRAZY stoked, and I knew my parents couldn’t take it off me without offending Bucky, so I was golden. It was a profound moment for me, even that young and I attribute that to setting my life direction where I ended up completing a degree in games design and animation and now work in a senior position within the ICT industry. Thanks Bucky!
*Repost as my first post doesn’t seem to have worked!
I got an original grey PlayStation for my 11th birthday, it had already been out for a couple of years as it came with the dualshock controller and bundled with NFS: High Stakes. While I loved that game, I think I spent more time playing a Metal Gear Solid demo that came with the console, that Konami intro music “bom, bom, bom, bom-bom-bom” still sends a shiver down my spine. I replayed this small taste of a masterpiece endlessly. It took almost a year for me to find a copy of the full game for sale in Melbourne, everywhere had the Special Missions expansion disc but the actual game seemed very rare. Once I had it I was able to actually find out what happened after the (fake) DARPA Chief has a heart attack in his cell. I used to love quoting it with my friends “Metal Gear… it can’t be!” “How did you know that?” “We’ve had a couple of run ins in the past”. Right now I can hear the chief’s voice exactly how it was. Even if it don’t win the retro PS4 just writing this has got me all nostelgic.
I grew up in Brisbane and the Philippines as a kid in the late 90s because my dad was working over there for awhile.
Because of this arrangement, I received both a PAL and NTSC PSX console at the same time.
Now I admit, I don’t have any memorable stories of my parents or friends sitting down with me sharing in my gaming hobby or any other sentimental crap like that.
They weren’t interested.
I just wanted a console to burn through the day because the 90s in Brisbane could be a very dull place at times; I used to cry on the couch out of boredom because I was constantly stuck at home thanks to an over-protective and unadventurous mother.
However, one of the first things I ever learnt back then was that a PAL game didn’t work in an NTSC console and vice versa. I remember cursing out my parents for not knowing this and receiving a slap on the bum and no supper as a response.
As a result, I led a double PSX life.
In Brisbane, I played the same crap games over and over again because I was nine, my disposable income was zero and my video game outlets nearby were a choice of either Target or Kmart with their predictable range on offer – Crash Bandicoot, Croc or Spyro. My mother did compensate me though with 20 minute rides to Video Ezy where I would pick up copies of Alundra 2 or Blazing Dragons and see how far I could get in an overnight period.
In the Philippines however, I received a modded PSX and went to work on games such as Legend of Legaia, Jade Cocoon: Legend of the Tamamayu and Nuclear Strike. I felt exhilarated playing games that I had never seen before, let alone ever to be released in PAL format. To this day, I still own my burnt copies in a moderately preserved CD case. Going through them, I have;
• Chrono Cross
• Persona 2: Eternal Punishment
• Front Mission 3 (Vividly remember seeing this in my local Kmart only once)
• Bloody Roar 2
• Saga Frontier
• Breath of Fire IV
• Ehrgeiz
(Had to stop writing this for a bit. I’m getting all nostalgic going through my case again.)
Anyway, a lot of these titles were not exactly system sellers back in the day but even as a child, I had niche taste once I got over my initial platforming binge of Crash and Tomb Raider. The reason I asked for a PSX in the first place was because of the variety of games on offer.
It wasn’t hard to compare as the PSX shelf space in Kmart and Video Ezy reinforced my decision.
Honestly, I feel that my opportunity to play PSX in two countries left me with an open mind on gaming at a young age – try something other than the mainstream platformers, analyse the story and game mechanics in front of you and just enjoy yourself.
It was 1996, I was14 and I had taken up a job after school taking care of the greens at the local golf course, thinking it was going to take me forever to save up the $800 to buy a PS1. My Aunt had come to visit from interstate (she was coming to check on us as my mum had recently passed away). Surprise Surprise she had a PS1 for me and about 5 games. The job at the golf course had to take a back seat to my game time.
To this day I still love the playstation brand and still think I have the worlds best Aunt.
Dammit Mark, it has to be interesting? Psh, merit-based competitions… why couldn’t it be a draw? I’m luckier than I am talented. Anyway, no matter… it’s just a fond memory to put out there. I’ll keep it short and sweet.
My first experience with a Playstation was the original PS1 while living in a residential college. Some of the coolest, most popular guys in the dorms were big sportsball fans. Big jocks. They had all the traits that smoothed their way through university life: attractive, big, athletic, confident, had cars, popular with the ladies… they inspired envy and awe in the cluster of IT/engineering geeks I was hanging out with.
One night after the IT/engineering nerds had hosted a somewhat subdued movie night (The Usual Suspects on VHS. Those were the days) in one of the common rooms with pizza and fish-and-chips, the cool guy jocks invited the nerds to come play Gran Turismo with them on the Playstation back in their dorm.
Everyone competed, joked, laughed, trash-talked without malice, and swapped controllers freely, and bullshit demographic labels melted away.
I saw ‘nerds’ and ‘jocks’ brought together by gaming, that night, and I knew the world was going to be a better place. A place where anyone can be a gamer.
I was never allowed a video games console. I’d played some SimCity 2000 on Mum’s work laptop and watched the other kids play Pokemon Red on their Gameboy Colours, but since “video games rot your brain”, the PlayStation was just something to be ogled at in the Target catalogue.
Then, when I was 10 years old, my family immigrated to the UK. We stayed at a family friend’s house when we first arrived, and sitting there in their empty house (they were skiing at the time), was a PS2, wedged between the bleached Ikea wooden frame and the Panasonic CRT widescreen. The details have stuck with me till this day, because the thrill of moving to a new country was nothing compared to knowing that I was in a PlayStation house: there was nothing to stop me from just reaching across, turning it on, and playing PlayStation for the very first time.
Except there was something stopping me: my Mum, who decided I should wait till our family friends had returned from skiing to ask to play his PS2. “Of course he’ll say yes” wouldn’t suffice, I would have to wait. That night I didn’t sleep, all those games in his draw I again found myself ogling, closer now then ever, but still too far from reach. I couldn’t sleep on the second night either, so on the third night, I crept down the old wooden staircase, turned the TV on (immediately pressing mute and turning the volume to zero) and pressed the green button on the top right of the upright console.
The TV came to life, and I found myself looking down on the blue skyscrapers that would soon become all too familiar. As I unravelled the controller, I learned that my first true 3D console gaming experience would be the Burnout 2. I flicked through the menus, and chose an Arcade race in the Japanese Muscle Car, before a sound upstairs echoed through the house. Leaping into action, I threw myself at the TV, turned it off, fumbled the cord together and ran into the adjoining bathroom. Footsteps followed down the stairs and I held my breath until they disappeared to safety. I myself crept back into the camp bed in the study, tucked under the covers, and smiled quietly to myself: I was a PlayStation person
Favourite PlayStation memory.
SO many. But one comes to mind is when we had a party and original PlayStation was new
we all gathered around having a few drinks (a lot) playing Crash Bash with 4 players (mulititap) on a small OLD tv. We so much fun. lots of laughs that night.
we played till the sun came up. #goodtimes
I was allowed to join the PlayStation party when my brother (5 years older than me) decided I could handle the pressures of playing his save on Gran Turismo 2. Together we went through much of the game (almost everything except the 12 and 24 hour endurance races). At this point I decided to take our memory card to my friends house and show them just how awesome a team my brother and I were… We decided to trade a few cars across memory cards (sans our prized R33 Nissan GT-R Nismo that we had bought at the beginning and slowly turned into a monster) and then subsequently wiped our card of all GT related data and replaced it with my friends. I hid the memory card in my pillow hoping my brother would just forget he had ever one. When he finally found it the fury he unleashed on me was something I’ll never forget (he was torn between crying and killing me).
It is still very much a taboo subject at the dinner table.
Crazy enough i still remember as if it was yesterday. Sorry if this is long but this is not so much my first memory but my first memories as from first seeing to get one was nearly 6 months in the making.
I went over to an old family friends house in the outer suburbs of Melbourne to hang out with their child while mumsy did the old girl chit chat thing.
The friend of mine (cannot remember his name) turned to me and asked if i had seen the Playstation before i looked and said nah don’t own one and i doubt i will get one (i was a Sega boy).
We went into the families dark and dreary looking play room. Light was slightly sneaking in through the curtains wasn’t a warm day but it was nice enough for Victoria early August.
As i sat there a bright eyed 9 year old not knowing what to expect i watched as the CD was taken out of the case and placed into this beautiful but strange looking grey box. I saw the cover of the disk it read International Track and Field original cover as the platinum versions obviously were not around at the time. The what would soon be very familiar sound of the playstation came on then the Konami logo and finally the intro to the International track and field game.
We participated in running and the other assorted events each game making me want this console more and more. When it was home time i got up not in tears but disappointed i had to go home to my Mega drive. I turned to mum and asked if i could get one and the answer was a polite no, Why would i get one we were only living in Melbourne temporarily and living in an Aunty and uncles house. I pushed mum and dad to get one more and more each time being turned down.
The reason i was in Melbourne was due to needing an organ transplant and this was also the reason mum and dad were reluctant to get a ps1 they needed the money in case i had to go stay for a longer than expected period of time and Hotels were a possible go to place when it occurred.
I finally got the transplant call and in the recovery process i had my ups and downs. On one particular down period my parents walked in and asked how i was i replied i felt like crap and they just nodded, Dad handed me a piece of paper with a list of presents they wanted to get me to help cheer me up 1 was erased fairly poorly by a pen it read Playstation my eyes went as wide as anything and i felt gobsmacked. I asked if that was a serious thing they thought of and they said yes but again could not afford it especially with the chance i would be leaving Melbourne soon to go back to Tasmania.
Again a few months passed i was allowed to leave Melbourne in about November during that time i went to every video game store, target, Myer anywhere i could to play the Ps1 even stooping as low as telling kids it was not working so i could sneak up to play when they left.
After all of the waiting Christmas time came around and guess what i had in my stocking the glorious PS1 with a brand new copy of Mickeys wild adventure that moment then was the happiest moment in my life and they were my first true great memories of the Playstation,
I had a lot of bad ones too not long after but they are best saved for another day.
My first experience with the playstation was the first one. I was about 10 years old and I came home from school and my mother was playing it, I finally got on it after about 2 hours of waiting for my mum to get bored and just about every days since then I reckon I have played on a playstation
A little over 20 years,
we’ve all shared laughter and some tears.
The battles we have faced and won,
Some epic moments with greatest fun.
For me it began in ’97,
I honestly thought it was heaven.
For my parents to give to me,
A Playstation console with CD.
My very first game was called Croc,
A little thing who really rocked,
Until I got a PS2,
End of December 2002,
Playing games like Midnight Club,
I honestly couldn’t get enough.
My PS3 came 2009,
Grand Theft Auto & Online,
Up until last year,
A PS4 a love so dear.
I played the demo disk on my Dad’s PS1, I got so good at that one level of Crash 3 and the three levels of Spyro that were playable.
The first games I purchased were Crash Bandicoot, Spyro 1, 2, and 3, Crash Team Racing and Crash Bash, these were the games that defined me in my childhood, and they’re the ones that I’ll come back to when I want to just take it easy and play something simple.
Back when it first came out, when I was about 16. We went into the city in school holidays for the annual KFC and Time Zone sessions. Bit of a hike from Campbelltown. Anyway after we’d blown all our coins, we’d end up at Blockbusters in Pitt St Mall. Not the Rental store Blockbusters, but this was a proper shop which sold games, and other electronic stuff, possibly videos too. In the corner they has a PSX , SEGA Saturn set up etc. The PSX has Crash Bandicoot. Who could forget the level where Crash is running towards you, as you are jumping gaps, and being chased. The intensity, the polygons, and the depth for a game of that nature, just killed everything we’d played all through HS on our SNES consoles. Half a life time later, and its still a great memory.
The blood of Playstation flows through my veins,
The rush of playing all their games.
The bonds of life those games did form,
As brother and sister we created a storm.
The hours we played together as one,
From croc to sackboy and all of the fun.
Now 20 years later the bond still remains,
My brother and I, Playstation and games.
Both of us are older and still we like to play,
Those consoles we’ve loved from back in the day.
I’d never had a home console and desperately wanted a SNES for Christmas after playing Super Ghouls n Ghosts at my best friend’s house. Luckily, my parents were switched on enough to listen to my older cousin who recommended they get me the next gen PlayStation. I remember being amazed at the screenshots on the console box and immediately enchanted with the signature start-up music. Unfortunately, my parents weren’t switched on enough to get me a big name game, so I had to settle for Robotron X for a couple of months after Christmas. Most of my initial gaming on the system was spent with rentals like Crash and Tomb Raider and the demo discs packaged in with the console or mailed out and those included with my childhood bible, the Official PlayStation Magazine. Those early gaming experiences with PlayStation really felt like I could do so much in what seemed like massive game worlds; I really loved looking for and occasionally finding little secrets buried in my games.
I was born in 94, and grew into up in the world of Playstation.
As a toddler and young child I would watch my brother play Resident Evil and laugh at the funny looking people, dogs and my scared brother. Soon enough I was playing my way through the many discs of Final Fantasy VII and from that first epic adventure, became a Playstation fan for life.
Having weaned myself off my glorious SNES (and before the N64), I jumped into the PSX after my cousin bought one. Not really my first gaming experience on the console, but I distinctly recall losing my mind over the offical PSX magazine’s Metal Gear Solid demo.
I played that first glorious stint on Shadow Moses until I perfected it. I would invite friends over as we eagerly awaited the full game and like maniacs kept on taking it in turns, even creating our own games; can’t be seen or game over, can’t use weapons and most importantly, time trials. We would use our own timer to get through that arctic helipad, the many shimmying vents (oh hello Miller) and the penultimate goal to get to that cargo elevator as soon as humanly possible. By this stage we had memorized every line, including every Codec call.
At the time this was the pinnacle of fun but looking back its kind of strange to get this much joy from a demo. Then again it is the flawless masterpiece from Kojima that sealed the deal and made me want the PSX in the first place, and each play-through, gripping that sleek grey controller, see-through green memory card jutting out and the occasional whir of the machine, it all amounted to a truly wonderful experience I will never forget.
My uncle had a Playstation 1 and I was always excited to visit, he only had one controller so my sisters and I always fought over who could play it first. I thought it was strange how the discs we black underneath and not like regular DVDs.
He had Hot Wheels, Rugrats and Crash Bandicoot along with other games we couldn’t play, but my favourite was Hot Wheels Turbo Racing, speeding through loop to loops and making big car jumps was always fun. I would try and find secret tunnels to go through and find hidden cars.
Also my cousins were there so we all took turns in playing it and trying to beat each others scores, and that was my first family gaming session.
We loved playing it so much that the disc spindle broke while changing discs and we couldn’t play it anymore.
My first experience was on my cousin’s original playstation 1 in the 90’s. The first game I played on it was the first Tony Hawks Pro Skater, and the only we could get the game to load (or any game thinking about it) was to flip the playstation upside down and place the lid side on the floor then turn the system on due to a dodgy mod chip installation. Was a quite memorable experience and got me hooked on Tony Hawks.
That’s a fairly easy one to remember due to the content of the story. It’s a bit long, but hopefully it gets read.
It was 1997 and my step dad had worked out that an effective way of bonding with me was through video games. We’d hired out a Sega Saturn from our local Video Ezy and played Virtua Fighter until we had calluses on our calluses. It was an amazing game. I’d never played a 3D game up to that point, so I was in awe of the graphics. I couldn’t get enough.
We’d become good friends from the sessions we had playing together. He was the first fatherly figure I’d ever had after my mum left my real father when I was barely born. I’d heard stories of my father from my mum but I always felt like chunks of her tales were being left out. I planned on contacting him when I was older to get in touch, I needed to hear things from him.
We didn’t have a great deal of money at that point in my life but I was still beyond excited when my step dad hired out a Playstation for my 12th birthday. Think a 4.5 on the N64-kid scale. He never got me a birthday card, but who cares, Playstation! He’d also hired Battle Arena Toshinden. What a game. I found it to be so much more in-depth than what Vitua Fighter was, and those textures, wow. It wasn’t long before we had started to get the hang of our chosen fighters. Mine being Fo. “Ya ya ya ya ya ya!”, those plasma balls were hilarious.
It wasn’t an hour in to playing when the phone rang. We ignored it and my mum answered. We kept on playing. I found the Playstation controller so much nicer to hold than the Saturn controller and it felt kinder on the thumbs. After several minutes I notice my mum crying as she hangs up the phone, and she asks me to come in to my bedroom. That was the moment I found out my real father was killed in a car accident exactly 1 year before.
I didn’t want to do anything other than sleep for the next few weeks. If I didn’t have school that’s all I would have done. I just needed to be alone. Any hope I had of meeting my father was gone. It was too hard to bear, to say very little on the matter.
Several weeks went by. I came home from school one Friday afternoon to find my step dad playing a Playstation and casually making his way through single player Toshinden. I’d hadn’t had any interest in gaming since the phone call but I figured he was making an effort to cheer me up so the least I could do is sit with him and play a few rounds. “Here’s the birthday card I forgot to give you”, as he hands me an envelope. As I open it I notice the envelope feels a lot emptier than how you’d expect an envelope holding a card to feel. Out falls a receipt from Kmart proving the purchase of a Playstation and Battle Arena Toshinden. I may have cried a little at the time and sure it didn’t patch the hole my heart I was still suffering from, but it helped ease the pain.
Thanks for organising this competition, not just for the chance to win a PS4 for giving everyone the chance to read some heartwarming stories of gaming.
edit: Noticed it’s just over 500 words, sorry.
My playstation 1 story begins with a Nintendo 64. Weird, I know. But it’s the Nintendo 64 that enabled me to get hands on with a Playstation.
When I was about 8, maybe 9, still in the single digits at least, my brother begged Mum for a Nintendo 64 and Killer Instinct gold. He was obsessed with the one on SNES and knew all the combos. Come Christmas day, he ripped open the present at about 2 am and set the system up. Though I didn’t hear it, I’m sure there was a loud crash of his hopes and expectations crashing through the ground. He didn’t like Killer Instinct gold and it was the only game he wanted the system for.
He moved away not long after through circumstances that I won’t go into detail here. (He was a shit.) He took the console and the game with him. He was living with my Nan and my uncle was also living there. The two had a discussion and decided that they should use the trade in value to get a Playstation!
They went ahead with it without my Mother’s permission and bought a Playstation before immediately destroying it by getting it chipped. This meant some games worked, some games didn’t and as time wore on, it became more temperamental.
My first experience with the playstation was Spyro the Dragon. Specifically bought for me and possibly, I suspect, to satiate my mother. (It’s for both the kids, honest! It just lives here where I can play it, I imagine my uncle saying.)
I remember first watching the cutscene in 3D. I hadn’t played anything in 3D before, because I didn’t like Killer instinct. The sassy little purple dragon was a joy to play and I enjoyed the colour and variety of the worlds. At first I remembered being annoyed that Spyro couldn’t fly, but I can certainly appreciate now that it increased the difficulty. I still hate that egg stealing bugger with his taunt though. It was challenging, but not so much that I didn’t want to stop playing. The flying levels were a pain and I would usually give it a few go’s before giving up.
It had such an impact on me that when my cousins were growing up, they all played Spyro. It was one of the only burnt games that still played on the aging playstation. They all got to experience the same joy I did when I was young and I believe they are better, more appreciative gamers for it.
I still have the old playstation. It’s in a cupboard, being kept safe until it needs to be used again. The only game I have left is Silent hill. I don’t have any of the memory cards because my Brother and Uncle still have those. The only reason I was given the relic was because neither one of the owners could see any value in it. They both had Playstation 2’s, they didn’t need that old thing any more, but I did.
I am well aware that I have digressed a bit, but I can’t help it. It was a good time for me and I feel that the small story of first playing Spyro doesn’t do the console justice considering that I almost never got one.
As for the Nintendo 64, I did end up buying one again, when I was 19.
It was Christmas 1999. I was 6 years old with the new millennium almost upon me.
There was something special under the tree that year. My face filled with glee as the wrapping paper was torn off, and there it was. That beautiful grey box. Inside it was the first games console to grace my family’s house. The gateway to the future of entertainment.
The original Playstation.
It was for my dad; his gift to himself, along with Gran Turismo.
I don’t think I actually ever beat him in a race. But once I got Spyro the Dragon, it never mattered.
My first experience with PlayStation was arriving home at age 11 to find my parents had hired a PSX from the local Magnum Video for the weekend, along with a copy of a game called “Resident Evil”. My older brother played the game as I sat next to him, watching. After he had wrestled with the controls long enough to navigate the game’s mansion for some time, encountering horrors and mysteries slowly throughout, he came to a long hallway. A hallway which is now synonymous with everyone’s first experiences in the genre of survival horror.
Everyone remembers the first time those dogs jumped through those windows.
That was my introduction to the PlayStation brand. Being able to experience real, shocking emotion from a home video-game experience.
Life changing…
My first PlayStation experience was in the 90s. Up until then I’d always thought video games were a bit simple (even though I was only 10 or so), and because of this I never had much to do with them. That is until one weekend my cousin bought a ps1 with gran turismo. We spent the whole weekend playing, culminating in Sunday afternoon when we spent hours modding and fine tuning a Mitsubishi gto to get top speed. The game had such depth, I was simply blown away by what games could do.
(EDITED: double post)
Telling this story is still an embarrassment for me, even after 19 years. It harks back to a decision I made on my 10th birthday, when what should have been a defining moment of consumer bliss became a lingering scar of buyers remorse.
My family never had much disposable income when I was growing up, so for my 10th birthday my parents teamed up with my Oma and Opa to get me something special. I’d never owned a game console before, but they all knew that I’d been thrashing hard at “the computer games” at my friends place on the weekend. On the big day, my Dad picked me up from school and we went to K-mart with a blank cheque. I was, understandably, shitting my school-pants with excitement.
The moment we got there I had already decided what I wanted. I had decided days, even weeks before… in sketchbooks and classroom daydreams picturing a glorious, brand new grey box under our crumbling and unworthy television. Sure enough, upon unbuckling my seatbelt in the Kmart car park I levitated to the counter. Peering through the glass top I saw my prize, a SNES bundled with Mario Kart.
The eyes of a 10 year old failed to notice the warning signs. The box had lost its original luster; the vibrant neon blues and greens had given way to a pastel spectrum, bleached in the relentless light of a department store sun. The cardboard itself bore the signature scars of a retail tour of duty. Abundant price reduction stickers fought to occlude each other, each discounted layer like a ring of growth on an aging tree approaching its final moment in the canopy. I didn’t care. While my filthy unwashed child hands recklessly deposited grease upon the display cabinet glass, the store attendant turned to my Dad and awaited his command.
“Why not a Play – Station?” my Dad asked, with the stunted delivery of a man encountering a word for the first time.
My eyes follow his gaze to a box higher on the shelf. The angle of my craning neck told me instantly that this wasn’t something meant for the eyes of children. The packaging was grey, sleek and angular. Beneath the shelf, a relatively small collection of square cases bore the names of exotic, unknown media. “Nightmare Creatures.” “Carmageddon.” My mind was racing.
“What’s the difference?” Dad asked the attendant.
“The PlayStation is newer and you can play CD’s on it” he excreted, with practiced Kurt Cobain-esque apathy.
In retrospect, I’d like to that say I considered the PlayStation for longer than I did, but in all honesty I insisted on a SNES for the duration of this exchange. When my friends later discovered that I’d passed on a PlayStation for a SNES I was ridiculed and ostracized. The PlayStation was, unbeknown to me, a mythical and glorified object consigned to the bedrooms of older teenage brothers, like girlfriends and stolen porn. It was cool, and I, quite clearly, was not.
Years later I rented a PS1 for a weekend to see what the fuss was about. The damaged exterior reflected a lifetime of service in adolescent bedrooms. The dude at the video store counter advised me that it only read discs when it was turned upside down. His advice proved reliable.
19 years later, I played The Last of Us and wept once more for my misspent youth.
I was 14 at the time, and went back to a friend’s house after soccer. The game was Tekken 2. Was instantly hooked. The simple, yet futuristic looking machine. Those controllers.
Has been a playstation fanboy ever since.
The first time i had ever touched a sony console was a couple of years after the ps2 came out. I was 6 at the time and i just had an operation to recieve a pacemaker, as soon as it finished i was up in my hospital bed with a tray of food, looking over at a kid about 5 years older than me playing the ps2. I had asked the nurse if they had one that i could play, but she told me that they only had two and both were in use (one with the boy i had mentioned). He heard my conversation and told the nurse that he was having trouble playing and asked me if i could help him. The ps2 was moved over to my bed, and he moved over and sat on the chair beside me, then for about 4 hours me and him played through kingdom hearts 1.
PC master race, I loathe this phrase. Yet I use to feel like I belonged to a superior way of life, we had machines we could modify, upgrade and laughed at nintendo’s and sega’s.
Then one day that super gaming pc broke, and I had nothing to game on, and with the playstation 2 incoming a friend loaned me their playstation one, our other mates bought the cola with some amazing titles, there was crash bandicoot, quake 2, metal gear and twisted metal, through all the swearing at the screen losing, all the cheers, and all the “!” it was like gaming had come to my living room and brought me into a new stage of my life for me and my mates, since then ps2, ps3, ps4, it’s evolved from high caffeine cola, to the gentlemens scotch and the latest fps, all from that one night, the console and games evolve but the mates brought together to game have not changed.
My favourite PlayStation memory was way back in the year 2000, I saw SSX running on a demo console in MYER and was blown away by what I saw, the graphics and sound on that Trinitron TV blew me away, I remember the snowboards leaving marks in the snow and I just died, I knew had to have one, so after many weeks of hard saving I finally bought a PlayStation 2 and a new TV to go with it for the full experience, needless to say I had many a jealous friend coming over each day to play together.
My first PlayStation experience is my fondest gaming memory. Back in 1999 when I was only four years old I remember playing Ape Escape on the original PlayStation and being incredibly frustrated with it because my young mind had yet to conceive how the diving mechanics worked in that game. In hindsight it’s fairly simple, you just had to click L3 on the left stick yet for some reason or other, I was unable to perform this action. Perhaps it was because I didn’t even know what L3 was back then or more than likely because it was my first PlayStation game as far as I can recall. I just remember throwing a huge tantrum over this because at the time, Ape Escape was my favourite game and I wanted to get the past the diving section so badly. It eventually got to the point where my mum came in and wanted to know why I was so upset. I kept telling her the game was being stupid and wouldn’t let me swim underwater. So she calmed me down and watched me redo the start of the tutorial until I got up to the point I was stuck at and she ever so delicately took the controller from my hands, clicked in L3 and voilà! Our protagonist Spike began to dive under the polygons and pixels of that finely crafted water, at least in my eyes. I was so amazed that she was able to do it; my jaw was figuratively resting against the floor, wide open. I thought she was using some sort of magic trick or cheat to achieve this feat. She handed me the controller and attempted her feat of technological wizardry and failed; over and over and over and over again. Eventually after five minutes it clicked for me, quite literally, as I figured out the game was asking me to click in the left stick. At this point I was so overjoyed I hugged my mum as hard as I could and kept thanking her. She laughed, hugged just as tightly and told me she would always help me when I need her. I fixated my attention back to the TV screen and was once again engrossed in my quest to capture Spector’s evil monkey goons. It is a shame the Ape Escape series has fallen by the wayside as I feel it is a really unappreciated series. I’ve been on many adventures in the worlds of PlayStation’s vast gaming library and yet even with all the graphical upgrades and fantastic story-telling, nothing compares to whenever I click L3 and the memory of my mum teaching me how to play Ape Escape comes flooding through my head. That is my first and most fond PlayStation experience.
Well, as a 14 kid growing up in a fairly strict household which always enforced the rule that education always came first, I never really got to experience many games in my early teens. But one day, my dad decided to reward me for all my hard work and took me to the local target and said something along the lines of “Pick whatever you want, you’ve earned it.”
I walked around the Toys/Lego section for about an hour carefully assessing the value of fun each toy would give me. But then I hear a bunch of kids laughing loudly in the background. I go over to investigate the noise and find a bunch of kids standing near one of those PlayStation ‘play stations?’ (I dunno what they’re called but you got to play a playstation 2 at a Target, the pun was not intended I SWEAR.) I see the kids playing the game Kamatari Damacy, and it looked bat-shit insane to me back then, I asked the group of kids if I could have a turn, one of the older kids said to me “Nope, we’re playing so get lost!” I asked them again politely, the older kid then kindly replies with the words “Get your own ps2, kid.”
So I did, I carried out a ps2 slim to my dad who buys it without question. However on the car ride home he asks “So what’s a ps2?” I tell him it was a gaming console, and as you can expect from a dad who thought at the time that games would make me stupid, he didn’t take it very well and almost returned the console. But we came to an agreement and by agreement, I mean me crying while begging him to let me keep it.
BUT UNDER ONE CONDITION, I could only play it during school holidays (which were 2 weeks away) and during those two weeks It was hell, I spent countless hours staring at the back of the box and reading the terms and agreement papers. By the end of the two weeks I could of sworn I heard whispers coming from the box saying “plaaayyy meeee.” But as 2 weeks slowly passed by the wait was over, I didn’t buy any games but the ps2 did come with a demo disk, the first demo I played was ratchet and clank, and it was fucking glorious.
Man that story was hard to keep under the 500 word limit.
Being a 30 something veteran of the Gaming Wars, a lot of my memories have decayed from their once rigid and temporally cohesive structures into a thick, slough of fragments with no contextual references. There are, however, several memories that rise from the waves like lighthouses in the fog of years.
Before we get to my first true PlayStation “experience”, let’s jump to the left a little. Memory is a funny thing, but my mind swears in a court of law that I once saw a TV ad spot for Final Fantasy VII before it had come out. That one advert had me enthralled and I knew I had to have this game, whatever it was, whenever it came out.
Fast forward a little and my parents had bought themselves a little console called a “PlayStation”. I was allowed to play it every so often and had a couple of games myself that I had bought for everyone but it was just “The Family Console”. Then, that game of legend (in my mind) descended to the mortal realm and I knew I needed to play it.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have the money at the time, so my next best option was renting. Of course, being the immensely popular game it was, everyone else had the same idea so it was an excruciatingly long wait before I had a chance to play the one game I knew would change my world.
Then, just before my number came up in the queue, I got pneumonia. Two long, hazy weeks of seesawing between feeling betrayed by the world and Gods of Gaming and sheer excitement knowing that the game was once again booked for when I was hopefully going to get out of the hospital.
Finally the day came when I was discharged and I had my chance to play this game that had danced out of my reach for so long. It was everything I’d hoped it would be and more. I knew from then on that I needed to buy my own PlayStation and have amassed a large collection of beloved favourites and memories since.
Funnily enough, there is another short story to be told that only goes to highlight that myself, sickness and gaming have a bizarre love triangle. This time I was getting in-grown toe nails removed (By coincidence, the reason I had got pneumonia was due to an infection from the first operation to deal with them) and had gone in to hospital for the operation. Once it was over, despite feeling lucid and very sorry for myself, I absolutely made sure my parents stopped on the way home to pick up my Breath of Fire III pre-order which then kept me good company in the following weeks and became my favourite game of all time.
June 1999.
Coming home from school a few months after my grandpa had passed away.
My sister and I get out of the car, and see my Dad with a grey box in the lounge room, in front of our AWA CRT tv…
It was something we’d only ever experienced previously after renting it at Mr.Magic…
A Sony Playstation, with not one, but two DualShock controllers, a memory card, and a copy of Gran Turismo.
I’d wait until no one was looking, turn on the PS1, and tear around High Speed Ring in the Corvette ’96 Grand Sport, waiting every time for Sweet 16 to start playing, as it was my favourite song on the game.
To my then eight year old self, this was monumental.
My first memory of getting a PlayStation was back when I was walking home from primary school. I had been talking to my mother for months and doing countless jobs around the house to try and save up pocket money to one day get a PlayStation. It was one of my first goals that I can remember trying to strive for. Anyway before this story gets too side tracked I was walking home on a sunny December day in Melbourne. I was very lucky that day because my mum was driving home and passed me as I was walking home, she pulled over and offered me a lift home. Unfortunately for her but luckily for me I saw a silver box in the back seat with a jacket crudely placed over it.
I think anyone reading this knows exactly the feeling that I am about to describe because my heart absolutely leaped for joy and my jaw dropped to the floor, and I was brought over with the excitement that can only occur with a young boy who has finally seen something that they know will be coming their way. I had an uncontrollable smile suddenly come over my face and it was at that moment that my mum realized what had occurred. After muttering “damn it” we got in the car and went home, I made sure not to bring it up but I knew that she knew that the surprise had been ruined.
Jump forward now to Christmas day and under the tree sat a large package with my sister and my name on it. The PlayStation came with Crash Bandicoot Warped and V Rally and I was so happy to finally have Crash Bandicoot as I had been spending my weekends going to Target and playing the demo of it for hours. Now we all know how handy having a memory card is but unluckily for me there was not one under the Christmas tree. I played Crash Bandicoot and got up to the first boss and thought I had made such a huge achievement and did not want to turn the PlayStation off so that I wouldn’t lose my progress. After an anxious wait for boxing day we made our way to Big W were I was able to use my pocket money (It really wasn’t that much) and was able to purchase an awesome 16MB memory card.
From that day on my passion for games has continued to grow and grow and has become such a fantastic hobby to play with friends and now my partner who is also into gaming and together we can share our passion for gaming. It was only a month ago that we pulled out the PS1 and started our own save file of crash bandicoot together.
My first memory of PlayStation was when I was little and my step-dad came home with a PlayStation and all 5 of us kids we so exited for our new game! I remember I always god up really early at 6:00 am EVERY DAY so I could play it before the others woke up at took it from me! My step-dad always said “first in, best dressed” So I made sure that I was first to the TV! I still have a few of my old PlayStation games and I play my uncles PlayStation whenever I visit.
Traded in our families SNES and some games at a store called Press Start for a PSOne, 2 original digital only Playstation controllers and a second hand copy of Ridge Racer Revolution. Took some convincing of my siblings to trade the 16bit gem of a console for the 32bit disc based hardware but they came around and I’m glad they did. I also recall we didn’t have enough money to purchase a memory card but dad came through and paid for it so we could save game data. Getting the Black Devil and White Angel cars whilst exclusively listening to my favourite song “Grip” is something I will never forget. Riiiiiiiiiiidge Raaaaaacer!!!
Put on
Lay-by
And
Yearned.
So
Torturous
A
Time
In
One’s
Nascence
One
Night
Everything changed.
The first time I saw a PlayStation was when my well to do friend imported an NTSC one from the US. It took a year of saving and countless jeers from my mate to get my own but damn, that first look made me feel like I was gazing into the future.
It must have been middle school, back when I was still able to pull all nighter gaming sessions and still function the following day. A group of 4-5 friends called me out to come play a new game that they had rented for the weekend. FF7 on the PS1. I had played a few FF games via the emulator on the PC previously but little did I know that I was about to experience the pinnacle of the entire series. Taking refuge in the luxurious lounge of our rich friend, we closed the door went solid throughout that night and into the next day, stopping only when stuck to reference a walkthough one of the guys had *printed out*. Even though it was a single player RPG, the rest of us just sat and watched in awe at the storyline and the graphics. When someone needed a rest, we tag teamed it around the group. I don’t remember if we even came close to finishing it; I had to leave the next day, but that night is still etched in my memory with great fondness half a lifetime later.
It became the start of my PS journey. My big brother bought me a PS1 from HK as a present and it continued from there: PS2, PSP, PS3. Each generation offering another step up. Apart from a few standouts, games don’t hold as much a sway over me these days. But it was sure fun growing up with them.
When I was seven I was absolutely terrified (possibly phobic) of the dentist (probably helped along by my older cousins, who wouldn’t shy away from a good horror story at the expense of a seven year old.) But, once every nine months my parents would drag me along, kicking and screaming the entire way.
So, the dentist had moved to a new clinic this year, and was really modern and state-of-the-art, so, spotting a kids corner, I sulked away to the chair and sat down. About five minutes later one of the dentist’s assistants came over and asked if I wanted to play something fun, then began unlocking the multiple locks on this cupboard built into the wall, before promptly pulling out this hulking black behemoth of a box from the cupboard. He then went through the process of setting it up and turning it on, in the meanwhile giving me a little book with a bunch of cd disks to pick from, not realising what I was meant to do, I just gave it back to him, open on the first disk, which turned out to be a snow boarding game.
He then set the game up and left me to my own devices, with absolutely no idea of what to do, I just started clicking the first prompt I got, eventually leading me to an opening cutscene with a few on-screen prompts, so, bunkering down, I started to wildly mash buttons and direct sticks in an attempt to make my way around the course.
Half an hour later it’s my turn to go in, but the dentist couldn’t get me away from the playstation. Following much protest on my side they agree to set up the playstation in the operating room (there was already a T.V there which would play movies.)
So, in the end, there I am, having my teeth checked out, while dusting up some snow on a PS2.
And that is my first memory of using a playstation, after that, I wasn’t so worried about the dentist, as they would just do they same thing (they got a PS3 when that came out as well!)
Also, I got an xBox (original) for my birthday a few weeks later, and my parents told me that for a while, I was trying to hold the controller upside down, so that the sticks would be in the same position as they were on a playstation.
Hope you like my tale, saw this and asked my parents what they remembered and cobbled this together using their’s and my own memories.
My first Playstation experience, was also my first video gaming one. Being born a few years after the SNES and Sega Genesis, I had no recollection of ever owning one, much less the lucidity at the time to know what they were.
I remember, when I was in my first or second year of primary school, my older brothers and I received our first video gaming console, the Playstation. Unbeknownst to me, this grey box was a complete mystery and revelation. I can remember the first time I saw my brothers play the console, like it was yesterday. Getting home from school, I remember seeing them holding one controller and playing Tekken 3. At the time, I had no idea it was a game, or why there were wires sticking out of the screen connected to a grey box, but as a 6 year old boy, I was immediately hypnotised by the realistic graphics, the fluid movements, and the sound. Unknown to me, as soon as I sat down on the floor looking at my brothers using leopard masked wrestler ‘King’, my childhood and my teenage years were already carved out in front of me, fixated with not only video games, but a personal bias to the Playstation brand.
But as I look back on the fond memories of playing a Playstation, the first thing I still think of is the orange Sony Entertainment diamond logo, followed by that full screen Playstation logo. It’s an everlasting sequence that still gives me nervous excitement.
My first experience with a playstation was plugging in the new one my brother and i had bought with all our pocket money for years. I remember the logo and sound and being blown away by how amazing it was. I remember playing crash bandicoot, destruction derby and spyro into the early hours of the morning and my parents having to hide the ps1 to stop us playing it. The nintendo started collecting dust from that day on.
Does recent count?
My first experience with a PlayStation was 1 month ago. A long term good friend of mine has recently hooked up with another long friend of mine. They invited us over for dinner and drinks….then the PS2 came out with the singstar mics. it was on for young and old! I’m belting out ABBA like I was born Swedish until 3am.
Realise this.
I consider myself tone deaf, have no sense of rhythm, and dance like a deformed monkey on crack.
That was one of the best nights of my life.
I’ve since sold my XBOX 360 and bought an ageing PS3 and a bunch of singstar discs from the local pawn shop. Battle on, baby.
I don’t think I’ll ever remember the first time I saw a Playstation, and if I do it’ll likely be during the life-flashing-before-my-eyes phase of my death. So hopefully a while away. What I do remember though, and probably will for a long time, is the first game I ever played, or saw anyone play, on the Playstation. While most people probably went to their friends’ place and discovered the awesome console, I first saw it in my neighbor’s house while visiting with my family. She was a quite elderly woman living on her own, who had a Playstation, a Sega Megadrive and a couple of games for both, none of which she had touched. Why she had these I still have no idea, but my brothers and I didn’t care about anything besides the fact that she had them, and so in our eyes, we had them. I was of course insanely excited, PC and Gameboy was all I’d ever known in my six years of existence, and then all of a sudden we had two home consoles just sitting there ready to play. My brothers picked a game and BAM, I was staring at a pink-haired kid chasing clothed pigs. Whatever I had expected, this was at least ten times better. It was Tombi!. We played for hours, all of us staring at the tiny screen completely mesmerized. Purple pants, mushroom forests, dwarf guy dancing to the music in the village. I swear we danced with that guy for five solid minutes. It was my turn. Yes, my turn to play on the sacred Playstation. YES. And guess what. I sucked. And I don’t mean that modestly, I mean I SUCKED. Really REALLY sucked. But for some reason I didn’t care. You beat me in tic-tac-toe and I’d call for a rematch. Best of three. Bring it on. But here for some strange reason I didn’t care one bit. I was controlling a pink-haired, purple-pants clad, pig-flinging madman and I loved it. I had a frog in my pocket, was dancing with a dwarf, looking for a 100 year old man and I loved it. Pig mailboxes, tomato trees, monkeys with fezes. This was my world. And I sucked. I’ll never forget that game, and I’ll never forget that old lady. Of all the people I imagined would introduce me to console gaming she was quite literally the last I could have expected.
My first experience was with the original PSX.
I got it for my birthday in 1997 the year before my HSC.
I spent many a day reading through OPSM and looking at the great graphics and reading about the realistic gameplay of the games.
The games that I read about that meant the most to me were the racing games, F1 97 and the TOCA series.
As soon as I had enough saved up, being a year 11 student it took a while, I bought both F1 97 and TOCA 2.
Studying for my HSC left me little time for playing the games I so greatly enjoyed, but my maths teacher told me to find a study method that worked for me and so I did.
While playing F1 97 I would take each corner and recite certain things from my text books so I could use the race tracks to remember things I found difficult.
My marks weren’t very high for the majority of the year but once I found this method of study my marks went through the roof and a fail mark turned into a very good pass score for most subjects and a distinction in others.
Without my old PSX and F1 97 my life today wouldn’t be what it is and to this day I regret trading in the old grey box for my PS2, mostly because I traded in all my old games, including F1 97.
I had just finished High School and started a certificate in travel and tourism in the year 2000. I moved in with my mum from my sisters and during the first quarter of that year, I developed some serious back problems. I had to drop out of my studies because I became bed ridden. I couldn’t walk further than 20 meters and my body was contorted as my muscles had locked up my midsection to protect my spinal cord. I was on the waiting list for surgery and I found out it was about a year away. I was in constant pain, sleeping no more than 4 hours a night. It was sudden and life altering. I decided I needed something to distract me so on a spur of the moment decision, I bought a PS One with the limited edition of Final Fantasy 8. One of the best decisions I had ever made in my life. That game took me away to another place, away from the pain, somewhere beyond the confinements of my mums house. After finishing, FF8, I was again taken away by FF7. Thank goodness for my PS One and its CD based games. It meant that I could play games that took 40+ hours to finish. Before then, I was exclusively Nintendo. I had seen the Playstation before hand but never played it. This was the first time when I bought my own. I eventually had the surgery at the end of that same year; the surgeon removed part of a disc from my spinal column that was protruding against my spinal cord. I woke up pain free and on my back, something that I hadn’t experienced in over 9 months. After being released from hospital, I saw my PS One sitting on top of my television and was so grateful for it really did take me to a place better than where I was at the time. It kept me sane, even though I was suffer excruciating and constant pain. I can now say I am exclusively Sony and Nintendo hahaha
My brother in-law had a mate who got one from Japan 6 months before it came out here and I was just blown away with the tech. It was a big step up from my SNES. We stayed up until daylight playing, it was a defining moment of things (and much sleeplessness) to come.
The PlayStation launched in Australia in September 1995. It was my 6th birthday in early September and I, as most kids my age would have was hoping for a PlayStation console.
I was visiting my dad for said birthday and a box appeared before me. It took me moments to process what had just been placed before me. I opened the box in what seemed like seconds and placed before that powerful looking grey console and sleek controller of the same colour. I was mesmerised. After my dad hooked it up and turned it on and I heard THAT sound that still, to this day gives me goosebumps.
I began playing my first game Mario Andretti Racing. I had little interest in cars or car games but I was eager to play (I know realise that my dad the rev head had most likely purchased it to get some mileage out of the console for himself). I was immediately blown away by the far superior graphics compared to my Atari. Due to my little interest in cars I soon moved on to games like Crash Badicoot and Tomba but Mario Andretti racing will always be my first PlayStation game.
I’ve been with the Playstation in the 19 years since that day and been treated to some of the best stories and experiences in my life, I love all my consoles but none will ever be as special as the first PlayStation.
I struggled to remember my first PlayStation memory. I could only think of the first time I saw a PS2, and it crashed shortly after we started playing with it – and my friends (who owned it) said that was the second time it had done that in the six hours they’d owned it for.
That was the thing, my household has always been a Nintendo one, from the NES days through to now. And just like the classic console wars of old, the segregation was on and between me, this guy and another friend of ours, we had Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft covered (the Xbox guy being a former Sega nut, too).
So it was at this same friend’s house that the first PlayStation memory happened. I was introduced to Abe’s Oddysee, and the hilarity of all these creatures being constantly blown apart into chunks of meat. And the comedy goldmine of not only being able to fart… but to enter in a code that enabled the “green gas fart”. Brilliance.
Naturally, both our mothers were horrified at this gory immature filth their young were being exposed to. But thankfully put up with it anyway, for whatever reason 😛
I’d always been viewing it through a fanboy’s eyes though. Playing it begrudgingly because that was all that was available, otherwise we’d be sitting there doing nothing. “Crash Team Racing? This sucks, Mario Kart is way better.” And so on. It wasn’t really until last year that things changed at all. My closest friend at college who was both a huge Sega and Sony fan had gotten himself a new phone, one which he could load up with a PlayStation emulator and connect his PS3 controller to play them. He went through and showed me all his favourite games from his childhood, telling me all about them and why he found them great. I think that was the first time I properly got to “see” the PlayStation – the eyes of a fanboy are ones I understand well, only this time they were looking at things from the other side of the fence.
My most memorable paystation experience was that one time, at band camp, when I crashed my Bandicoot into the car behind me while trying to reverse, because I forgot to pay at the paystation before exiting the car park. I got quite the dualshock! And so did the furious Ridge Racer behind me, who yelled “Δox☐!”
I don’t know what it means either.
Edit: Wait, this is a competition about my most memorable Playstation experience? Oh sorry, my bad.
I fondly remember getting the Playstation for Christmas when the prices dropped from $600 odd to $300. As with many here the infamous Demo One was my first love playing the Ridge racer demo and my jaw dropping from the lush and beautiful graphics of the time especially coming from the SNES / Mega Drive 16 bit era.
A friend at school later told me about a game that was so awesome that I should try it , so I went to the video store and rented the game out, it was so good that I actually borrowed it for longer than I should have as the game was massive and I was immersed in the plot and characters it felt like I was there and also I didn’t realize it was a 3 night rental not 7 lol.
The late fees were high but the game started my love affair for that type of game genre like many others here that game was Final Fantasy 7.
When the PS2 was announced with the ability to play DVDs and PS1 game and the images of the games which was at the time was so realistic and after finally getting to play FFX with voice acting I was stunned thing surely couldn’t get better than this.
I was wrong, so wrong.
my first memory ever was unwrapping my PlayStation 1, it was 2002 my 5th birthday i wanted the PlayStation 2 but we didn’t have much money growing up so my grandpa gave his PlayStation one to my mum to wrap up with some games (Spiro 2, mortal kombat trilogy, army men air attack 2, g-police and Aludra 2 my most favourite game of all time) it gave me my love of gaming and PlayStation, this ps4 would make my game collection of now 18 consoles and handhelds complete, and my girlfriend has a ps4 and i don’t haha.
some great stories here
Pulling my older brothers pants down after beating him at grand tourismo, he cried for two reasons that day.
Of course I was grounded……..it was worth it!
My first PS was the PSOne and my Dad bought it for me for Christmas. I spent many hours playing Spyro the Dragon as it was the only game I had but I saved up my pocket money and continued to buy Spyro games. It brings back a lot of memories because my parents were separated so it was a big deal for my Dad to buy me something and a big deal that my Mum bought me a game to go with it.
Playstation has been the conduit for some very beloved memories.
I was introduced to the world of Playstation by my uncle at a very young age (1994 being the year I was born).
We would constantly play games together. Games like Crash Bandicoot, Medievil, Oddworld: Abe’s Odyssey & my favorite… Spyro The Dragon… Even though I adored all of the games we played together.
Ever since then, I’ve been a huge Playstation fan, currently owning a PS3, PS4 & a PS Vita with my PS1 & PS2 tucked away for safe keeping 😉
I feel that without my uncle & his love of Playstation, that I may not have developed such a strong passion for Playstation & be the gamer I am today.
Winning the 20th Anniversay Edition PS4 would be a fantastic reminder of the memories the two of us shared together from the year I was born & the year I first met Playstation.
To me, Playstation means memories, whether it’s being by my uncles side as we broke creates in Crash Bandicoot or saving Ellie in The Last of Us, Playstation holds a huge place in my heart & it will for a long time to come.
Thanks for reading & Happy 20th Anniversary to one of the world most amazing forms of entertainment.
It truly is the best way to play.
Around 2001, 2002, my best mate had a Playstation. His Playstation was my introduction to video games, and ignited my passion in video games that remains to this day. My first impression of the first game I played was, “Wow, these graphics suck.” But it wasn’t the graphics I was interested in, it was the gameplay itself, which is still the most important factor for me to this day. What’s an fps again?
I quickly started begging my Mum for a console of my own. However, she was a single mother at the time, and we didn’t have much money (I was about 6 at the time). At the time approaching Christmas, there were lots of adds on TV and in magazines for the Gamecube, which was on sale for $200. I remember that it was $200 because my Mum said she would make a deal with Santa, where they would both contribute $100 to the console. Sneaky. I agreed to get a Gamecube and was looking forward to Christmas.
However, as Christmas got closer, the Playstation 2 was getting very popular, and being the ungrateful child that I was, decided that I must have it and that a Gamecube wasn’t good enough. I pleaded my case to my Mum, but she wasn’t sure, and said I’d just have to wait til Christmas.
Eventually, Christmas came. I was excited, to say the least. I ran to the Christmas tree and begun opening my presents, hoping for a PS2. Finally, hardly containing myself, I arrived to the main present. It was rectangular in shape, roughly 30cmx30cmx30cm. Suspiciously cube like, now that I think about it.
And that is the story of how I got a Gamecube. Wait, what’s this about a PS4? You going halfsies with Santa or what?
It was my best mate’s birthday. I remember turning up late to find everyone silently crowded around the TV, completely transfixed. I pushed through the crowd to say happy birthday to my mate and saw what was able to keep a group of sugar-addled ten-year-olds spellbound: an unassuming grey box and a colourful marsupial bouncing around on the screen, smashing crates.
I remember a flash of jealous and a vague gnawing of betrayal. Only a month earlier I’d been given a Saturn for my own birthday, and my mate and I had spent hours playing the demos to Athlete Kings and Baku Baku Animal. How could he have turned around and asked for a PlayStation after that?
Like any child faced with something cool that belongs to someone that wasn’t me, I remember trying to be dismissive to hide the jealousy. ‘Yeah, that looks OK, I guess. I mean, it’s not as cool as Sonic’. There wasn’t even a Sonic game available for the Saturn, and everyone knew it. My mate saw right through me. ‘Figured out what that NiGHTS game is all about yet?’ was his only reply.
It didn’t take long for me to relent – what ten-year-old could hold out against Crash Bandicoot? – and soon enough I was as hooked as everyone else. The graphics, the music, the charm of the thing – it was infectious. You could ride a pig! The bosses were Australian animals! There were four buttons on the controller!
I think in the end the PSX ruined the party a bit. My mate’s parents had organised pizzas and lolly bags and party games, but nobody wanted to leave the lounge room. I know I certainly didn’t leave until the end of the weekend. But the whole time there was still that nagging sense of disloyalty, of annoyance that my mate had asked for a different console to me. It wasn’t until my parents finally picked me up that my mate explained what should have been obvious. ‘This is so cool’, he said. ‘Now we’ve got both. Now we can play everything’.
Of course it turned out he was being slightly too kind to the Saturn, but countless hours over many years were spent in that same lounge room, huddled over Crash, and Wipeout, and Ape Escape, and Abe’s Oddysee, and Symphony of the Night, and Final Fantasy VII. I didn’t quite realise it at the time but it was a golden age for gaming, and it came to define the end of my childhood.
The best memory I can think of that is my favourite was back on the Ps1, playing the classic Trilogy of Crash Bandicoot games. They were some of the finest games I had ever played and even stand up against games of today. I loved the 3 main games and the spin off titles were pretty awesome too! I also thought the Ps1 had the best console design. That’s why I would love to win this redesigned model with the classic design scheme.
Not many people can say that Playstation truly changed their life. Maybe it changed their perception of gaming, fuelled their imaginations, or even helped them through tough times. My whole life as it exists today is directly related to Sony’s contraption of wonders.
In 1997, I was working at a games outlet called Software Today and a customer of the stunningly beautiful variety walked in looking for ‘Tomb Raider II’. To cut a long story short, we connected in a big way, played PS1 together all summer, created music, toured the country with the likes of Moby, Michael Franti and Jamiroquai, got married and now have two amazing sons.
We play our PS3 as a family these days, and I’ll always remember that the triangle, circle, X and square were there all along.
My first playstation experience was pure bliss, or I could have just mentioned it was playing Crash Bandicoot and you would have known it was bliss anyway.
Hoodabiga!
My experiences with the Playstation… Ummm where to begin
I remember playing one for the first time shortly after it came out, we never owned one only nintendo consoles and our friends used to rave about FFVII, I remember we got one with TimeCrisis and it was my dads 40th at the time instead of being outside being social all of us were cooped up inside playing time crisis all night until the sun came up and as a child it was fantastic…
I remember we didn’t get a Ps2 because at the time we couldn’t really afford one, but my younger cousin had one and when his parents passed away he came to live with us, we hired out Baldurs Gate Dark alliance and played it for about a week… (With no memory card too) so dying was excruciatingly painful… we also racked up a massive overdue fee on the rental 🙂
Fast forward to the PS3 I was queued up at Toys R Us to get the 60gb day one for $1000! incredibly exited couldn’t wait! got home and played resistance for hours and hours! A few weeks later I got Oblivion from GameTraders in the city where I would eventually be hired to work 🙂
My PS3 more or less died very short into its lifespan via drive defection, it was returned to Sony 2 months into having it, when my refurb arrived me and my friends lived on everybody’s golf for weeks on end playing big hole mode and watching all the crazy antics unfold!
I could sit here for hours talking about Playstation, the weeks thrown into PSP for MGSportable ops purely riding around to scan WiFi hot spots for extra troops, or schooling my younger cousin in syphon filter, playing Soul Blade before people knew what it even was 😉 😉 and smelling what the rock was cooking on WWF or even learning how to play Bust a Groove purely because it was the most awesome underated game!!
Let’s hope that the future of gaming stays with Nintendo, Sony and Xbox because for all of us gamers, these gaming memories we have will last a lifetime!! Thankyou for reading 🙂
The first time I powered up a playstation was back in 1995 on my birthday and it was the one gift that reignited my passion for gaming. Being a quiet, withdrawn and not many friends gaming gave me so many expriences, confidence and just the balls to go out in the world and be myself and for that I thank Playstation and the companies for releasing such masterpieces like Final fantasy 7, Legend of Dragoon and Vagrant Story. Here’s to 20 years and all the best to another 20.
My first PlayStation experience wasn’t particularly elegant. I got the PS1 in 2002 for Christmas. My friends were all playing PS2 by then but I didn’t even care – I had only ever been playing old MS DOS games up until that point, on a computer my Dad got from hard rubbish. And I didn’t get far with that, cos they were mostly hard-as-balls adventure games. DAMMIT HUGO I WAS 7.
I never had Crash or any of the fancy (well, good) games until later on…instead I started with Monsters, Inc. and Atlantis and had nothing else to play until the following Christmas. Remember those games from appearing on every Top 10 PS1 games lists? Me neither.
Booting up Monsters, Inc. for the first time though, and hearing that euphoric PlayStation opening theme, I experienced my first dose of pure joy that would come from that beast of a system. Seeing for the first time the now primitive, but at the time mind-blowing 3D graphics sported by the system is something I won’t forget. Not because they WERE mind-blowing, but because they showed me for the first time that video games are more than silly characters and fancy controllers. They were a way to enter the shoes of someone else in a different world. In my first experience, it was Mike Wazowski, which was slightly frightening looking back on it, but was joyous nonetheless.
Ever since that fateful Christmas, my siblings and I have constantly turned to video games as a pastime, escape and hobby. Even if they haven’t always been good ones.
As a kid growing up in a rural area, I was really into basketball and put in a few hundred hours in the court and on NBA Jam for SNES.
I have never heard of a playstation before and never really read any gaming magazine and the internet wasn’t that common where I lived back then.
Followed dad to the city and to an electronic store that sells games. And they had NBA In The Zone playing on a loop on ps1 in store. I don’t think I have ever been as awe-strucked as I was back then. I still have vivid memory of this moment in early 1997. This adrenaline pumping music in the background, some rapper shouting along with the background music “You’re gonna rock”!!!
I was floored, gobsmacked, ridiculously mind blown. The jump in graphics, perspective, music and sound effect from NBA Jam on the SNES to this baby on the PS1 basically forced my dad to get it on the spot with the one game and that’s the only thing I play for months.
My living room is always full of neighbouring kids ogling over the game. It still give me goosebumps to this day remembering that moment.
Here’s what I saw that day
The year was 1995. I was a 5 year old kid who loved going to my friends houses to play with their Nintendo and begged my parents to get me one too. Then one day that all changed when I saw a PlayStation and knew I it was something special. A little while after that my dad, his friend and I hired a PS1 from our local Blockbuster (those were the days) in order to try it. After that I spent what felt like an eternity for a 5 year old saving up my pocket money of less than $5 a week in order to get one. One day my dad came home from work and told me to see what was at the front door. I wasn’t sure why he was telling me to go there but I walked over there curiously, slowly opened the door and in front of me was what looked like a box wrapped in a garbage bag. I picked up the package still unsure what was inside and took it to dad who told me to open it. At this moment I ripped open the bag and what did I see in front of me? A box with the word “PlayStation” emblazoned across it. I had FINALLY got a PlayStation. It was one of the best days of my childhood.
We immediately hooked it up to our tiny 34cm TV with no remote control and put in Demo One and played with the dinosaur and manta ray and Hercules for hours until Dad showed me another surprise, he had bought me Rage Racer. After that I was playing PlayStation as much as I could and asking to go to the video store to hire many different games such as Colin McRae Rally, Gran Turismo, Total NBA 98, Driver, Need for Speed, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, Metal Gear Solid, Tomb Raider and many others I can’t even remember. Ever since that time I have been a PlayStation man and never regretted my decision to be one. I defended the PlayStation against my N64 and Saturn owning friends and the XBOX after that and I even managed to convert some of them to the PlayStation side. I still own my original PS1, PS2 and PS3 and I need a PS4 to complete my collection and continue the PlayStation legacy and to hopefully pass all these systems onto my own children one day and I hope we have as many great memories playing games together as I did with my dad.
God this made me think back haha
Where to begin, it was way back in 1997, when i did a ton of chores to save up to get a Playstation for my little bro, i eventually saved up enough to pay for half then he tells me he had saved up enough to pay for half so we ended up going halves in it and got an extra controller and we played Tony Hawk nonstop and from then on we became best friends and kept a tradition where we would fire up Tony Hawk every year and see who can get the best score out of us haha
My first experience with PlayStation was with a great game called Twisted Metal. I remember when I first was told about the game someone said, ‘It’s like an adult version of Mario Kart.” At that time I was a devout Nintendo Fanboy and couldn’t imagine playing another console, but hearing adult version of Mario Kart peaked my interest and next thing I know I am tearing it up with Sweet Tooth and the gang, feeling almost naughty since I was only young at the time playing at my friend’s house who was older. It was great.
Just on 20 years ago (give or take a month or two)
The CD-powered Playstation was shiny, bright, and new
It launched along my high school years when study would be key
Though I confess with nil regret that gaming had it’s hooks in me
“Discs will be the future” said one side of the schoolyard
While for others dropping cartridges was just a shade too hard
To me where the game was loaded from mattered very little
Though admittedly from CD-ROM it sometimes seemed to trickle
The waiting was forgiven when the graphics flickered into existence
16 million colours or more, at that point what’s the difference?
Naughty Dog’s famous bandicoot would Crash through ancient ruins
Inexplicably the target of plots that evil Doctor Cortex was brewin’
Squaresoft stretched the word “Final” far outside it’s definition
But in the realms of Fantasy, we happily cherished the tradition
Looking back two decades I’m astonished to recall
A modest library of games – a handful, that was all
Nonetheless they were each one a wealth of entertainment
Which endured through our teenage years… ‘til the PS2 replacement.
I was 7 years old, it was Christmas morning 1996, and i was unwrapping a what i believed was a CD jewel case, but it was curiously thick for a Smash Mouth LP? thats because it was a playstation one game. My parents bought me a Bubsy 3D! the revolutionary sequel to the 2d game i loved to play so much on my friends computer, god bless them.
However I didn’t own a playstation, i had never had any gaming kit and sadly my parents hadn’t bought me one. My best friend had got one that Christmas, so my parents with their limited understanding of gaming innocently thought this was a great idea, and i could take my game to their house to play from time to time.
Obviously I was disappointed but to my credit I didn’t get upset, i think i was too excited at prospect of god damn Bubsy 3D!!! look at it! its 3D! (i was completely ignorant to the existence of Mario 64).
My parents ended up buying me a playstation, and boy did play love that game. Completely unaware that it regarded as one shitter games in history.
So one xmas (when ps1 had been out for a year or two) my family was extremely poor, mum didn’t know about the playstation at the time, only that I had been asking 6 months for a game system that would work on our little shitty tv, she ended up gifting me a ps1 rip off console that was something in between the ps1 and sega, but looked almost exactly as the ps1. At the time i didnt care, I was very young, and to me I had the newest game console, and showed it off to all my mates who came over (who were oblivious). The console only had a few pre-loaded games on a cartridge, but she spent money on a ps1 game anyway which turned out to be Suikoden 2, which fetched a nice price last year online. Managed to buy her a car with some of the money for xmas. Feels good man.
For those who were wondering, i got the ps2 for an xmas a few years after, and it was the real thing. It blew my mind on how they made such an improvement over the ps1, in hindsight, I was a dumb kid.
My first Playstation experience was sitting down with my brother to play Wipeout. We got our console close to the release date by trading in our Sega Mega Drive (oh the memories!) we sat there after school on a Friday night, McDonalds take away in hand, racing each other for hours. I loved that console. To this day I look back at Final Fantasy VII and realise that it changed my life. I was so moved when Aerith died, it taught me how powerful story telling could be and now telling stories is what I do with my life.
Captain’s log starda…..erh let me start over.
October 1995, The Netherlands.
I was 15. Had the privilege to pave the early 80’s and 90’s with various wonderful Video game machines due to my hardworking father. First a Pong Sports game machine. A Philips “Video Pac”. Commodore 64. Amiga 500. Super Nintendo. ..And then i found myself at my late best friend’s house staring at his grey, sharp looking game console. I couldn’t believe he got himself a Playstation!
As soon as he pressed that big grey/green power button, that iconic intro started playing.
Instant Goose Bumps!
And might i add that only Star Wars (John Williams) could pull off a wave of goose bumps like that.
He told me to grab a controller. I clearly remember how It felt. Cool, secure and amazingly comfortable.
We Played Ridge Racer and Wipeout all night until we hit the small hours, and a worried mother was ringing me, asking what the hell i was doing at this hour.
I was hooked. It was fresh. Innovative. And it had groundbreaking views in design.
Now, 20 years, a hemisphere, a wife, a son, and 3 Playstation Generations later (no PS4 yet, no Funds -_-; ) , i realise that this “marriage” will never end.
….Don’t tell my wife 😉
Let me set the scene.
It’s Christmas ’96 and I’m 11 years old. I wake up early on Christmas morning, get out of bed and rush to the Christmas tree in the loungeroom. Mum and dad are already up and we wish each other Merry Christmas. As we unwrap our presents I spot a rectangular box with my name on it. What could it be? As I tear away the wrapping paper I see something grey…white writing…”PlaySta”…no way…I GOT A PLAYSTATION! Thanks Mum & Dad! At this moment I’m blown away and excited. Opening the box I get a whiff of that new PlayStation smell. Inside is the controller, composite and power cables, documentation, demo disc, and the console. I then unwrapped another present: it’s Destruction Derby. Awesome!
Then I notice something.
My 80s-era Sony CRT doesn’t have composite inputs. How will I connect the PlayStation to it? I ask dad but he doesn’t know. At the time I didn’t know our main TV and VCR had composite inputs hidden in the back, but in truth dad’s clueless about AV after 1983. Either way no dice. I felt crushed. I have a PlayStation but I can’t play it.
A week later dad and I are in the garage of a family friend who is a TV/VCR repairman. Bill will repair an old VCR so I can connect the PlayStation to it and then connect it to my TV via RF cable. I leave the PlayStation with him and go home to wait another long week.
It’s now January 1997, the middle of summer and the cricket is on the TV. The phone rings. It’s THE phonecall. It’s Bill, he says the VCR is fixed and we can come on over. YES! I’m excited and ready to go but dad is busy. We’ll have to go later.
In the meantime I arrange a spot next to my TV for the PlayStation and VCR.
Later we arrive at Bill’s and walk into his garage. I hear techno music pumping. Then I discover that Bill has everything set up and the demo disc running. We exchange pleasantries.
In front of me I see the word “Start” flashing on the screen. This is the moment I have been waiting for. I pick up the controller. It feels comfortable. I press Start. Using the d-pad I cycle through demos of Wipeout, Loaded, Jumping Flash and others. I nominate Wipeout to try first. After 60 seconds the game starts. There’s a 3D spaceship on the screen. An announcer counts down…
“3…2…1…GO!”
Clueless, I’m mashing buttons but soon work it out. As the anti-gravity racer zooms through the screen I witness the power of 3D gaming. Prior to this I knew 2D gaming, but the PlayStation’s powerful graphics blew me away. I bumped into the barrier too many times and finished last, but that didn’t matter. My world had been changed. I witnessed the future of gaming: it was 3D, polygons, high production values, and CD-quality music.
my first experience with the play-station was resident evil, i remember seeing my dad play it when i was 7 i asked him if i could have a go and played it for ten minutes before my mom caught me playing it saying it would give me nightmares. so i waited until everyone was asleep and snuck into the lounge-room to play resident evil i managed to play for awhile until my dad caught me playing and told me to go to bed, i stayed up most of the night scared of the zombie i thought would pop out of my cupboard. a few days later after getting home from school my dad had got me crash bandicoot which i played to completion and enjoyed it immensely.
I was never ‘lucky’ enough to own a playstation… It was my cousin who had the privilege. You know the type… The spoilt, bratty single child that got everything he could ask for, whether he appreciated it or not.
My first experience with a playstation was Christmas Day 1997. Said cousin had unwrapped his PS that morning, gloating about it when I saw him. I didn’t much care for anything he had to say other than to find out;
A) Did he get FFVII
And
B) Did he love it?
Heartbroken to hear the response “yes, and it is shit”, I was determined to change his perception. After all, with all the fanfare it had received, coupled with the pedigree that came with the name, he had to be wrong.
Convincing mum to stay at his that night it began… A two week epic quest that presented the most amazing storyline, gameplay and CGI I had ever experienced. Suffice to say my perseverance paid off, he loved it and I had one of the best gaming experiences of my life… Even if it meant that experience was watching him play most of the game, with my playtime purely restricted to level grinding.
my first experience with the play-station was resident evil, I remember seeing my dad play it when I was 7 I asked him if I could have a go and played it for ten minutes before my mom caught me playing it saying it would give me nightmares. so I waited until everyone was asleep and snuck into the lounge-room to play resident evil I managed to play for awhile until my dad caught me playing and told me to go to bed, I stayed awake most of the night scared of the zombie I thought would pop out of my cupboard. A few days later after getting home from school my dad had got me crash bandicoot which I played to completion and enjoyed it immensely
My first experience with the Playstation was when I was at my cousins house. I was still in high school and my uncle used to pick me up as both my parents had to work overtime. My cousin was quite well off compared to my family so he was given a Playstation for his birthday. I remember my cousin playing Resident Evil, it blew me away. I remember yelling ‘WOW!’ ‘it’s 3D!’ ‘looks so real!’ ‘Amazing! ‘ARGHHH!! dogs!!!’. That wasn’t just me screaming, it was my auntie and uncle screaming at the TV as the zombie dogs jump out the window of the mansion. That’s all I remember as I was knocked out by a flying coffee mug from my uncle. Ahh memories.
My brother and I would play my dads PS1 in our basement on a 15″ tv. We didn’t have a memory card so we saved our progress by leaving the PS1 on overnight. We would always play Crash Bandicoot Warped and Contra though we never beat them.
Booom!Me an my dad turn our heads to see a store exploded with shards of glass, an doll heads blowing into the street.Me an my father were out early in mid dec.on hunt 4 gifts 4 the fam.The explosion was opposite of our route.But we had to go check it out.Thats where I saw it 4 the 1st time.Charred up but still beautiful,a PS1.I heard about it at school,saw it on TV.But never saw 1 in the flesh.I picked it up still warmANDsmiled an said”this is what I was talkin bout dad”.Dec25morn it was mine.
Growing up I was never given much allowance, and my parents never spent too much money on things in general; they weren’t really interested in ‘keeping up with the joneses’ and I was pretty fine with that. I remember when a friend bought a Playstation 2 I went over to his house and I watched him play the Spy vs Spy game, and as cool as it was that he could control the stuff happening on screen; I was actually more amazed with the new DVD technology (you mean there’s no film?! How is it so thin?).
I was always one of those kids who watched other kids play; mainly because I was embarrassed by how bad I was, but also because I found it kind of relaxing not trying to compete. Cut to perhaps four years later and the only games I’ve ever played are still only flash games, until I find a battered PS1 on a kerb side collection pile, along with a bunch of games. At first I thought the games were just demo or place holder discs as I’d never seen the black discs of the original Playstation, but sure enough; they worked and so too did the console.
The only games I’d heard of before were the Crash Bandicoot series of games, but I decided I would try out some of the other games first, particularly ones with ‘cool’ cover art. The first game I tried was Soul Reaver: Legacy of Kain. It was atmospheric and boasted pretty sweet visuals, but the memory card I found in the PS1 kinda screwed up on that game in particular for whatever reason, and, frustrated at playing the same opening segment every time I played, I put it aside.
If I had stopped there I don’t think I would play games at all today, but I do, and I directly attribute that to finding that PS1 and the next game I played; Metal Gear Solid.
The visual style and over-the-top voice acting drew me in right away, and after figuring out that I didn’t need to kill the guards in the opening area I progressed into the elevator. I arrive on the surface, a snow covered courtyard ahead. I head right, with no real idea of what to do, and I see a guard approaching. Quickly I run back and hide behind a concrete wall, leaving some dark footprints in the white snow. Suddenly the guard stops, an exclamation mark appears above his head, and he follows the foot prints back to my location.
This absolutely blew my mind, the guards actions felt real, and suddenly I realised how much more games could be than almost any other media and, more importantly, how enjoyable my interaction with said media could be.
That moment is still my fondest memory of any game.
My memory isn’t the greatest, i tend to forget things a lot. Despite this i remember so many games that have stuck with me throughout my life so far. I believe my first game i played on the Playstation was Tomb Raider (Banjo Kazooie being my actual first game i ever played at the age of 3 plus being the first memory i can remember in my whole life) though i never beat the first tomb raider i never stopped playing it, trying to beat the jungle level. To this day ive yet to actually beat it while beating dark souls relatively easily haha playing these games, people always thought i was a loner or weird but that never bothered me as i was enjoying myself playing all the amazing new worlds with new things to learn about them i really loved my old playstation 1 until the day it broke but gaming has always been a big part of my life and always will be. this was a great thing to get off my chest haha never really told anyone this before
My first experience was before we had kids. Hubby and I loved playing Crash Bandicoot. We had hours of fun and actually got quite good at it.
It was definitely 1996, and since I was adopted by aunt and uncle, my siblings or “step siblings” were way older than me. Well anyway, my sister had the biggest douchebag boyfriend in history named Jose, of course. I hated this guy, his family, and especially the smell of his house. Well one random weekend, my parents needed to leave me with my sister bc they had things to go do. So i get dropped off at his house, which was really his mother’s house, bc my sister stayed there at the time. I remember being pretty pissed off about it, and as my parents left and my sister led me to the room. I saw something I’ll never forget. A 3 Dimensional red, white and blue airliner coming across the screen. I asked, “what is that?” “Playstation” was the response, and there may have been other words there but I couldn’t pay attention. All of a sudden, the stin in the house vanished, the douchebag boyfriend of my sisters, suddenly became the equivalent of your best friends badass older brother. He put on Frogged for me, and I actually cried when my parents came to pick me up. Have had nothing but playstation ever since. Except PS4, I’m too broke at the moment.
My favourite memory throughout the years playing Playstation would definitely have to be the first time I played the PS1 with my dad, I was 4, sitting next to him watching him play Tomb Raider 1, Dad had gotten up to the Atlantis part, he spent a solid hour or two trying to get past the level and ended up rage quitting and stopped playing, so I decided that I wanted to get past it for him, I was absolutely terrified of those mummy/mutant things, but I wanted to impress my dad, I had learnt what buttons to press while watching him play all day, but it took me a while to learn how to actually play, I ended up pushing my 4 year old self to impress my dad, I ended up finishing the level for him, and when I got him and showed him what I had done, he was so proud of me and we ended up finishing the game together, and till this day we still play Playstation together, playing all consoles so far.
Growing up with way older siblings was pretty cool. Sometimes. My sister had the biggest douchebag boyfriend that ever lived, jose of course, and I was 6 at the time, so it was 1996, and I hated him. Hated his family, hated his life and especially the smell of his house. Anyways, one day my parents decide to leave me with my sister as they went and did whatever they needed to do. Well my sister lived with him at his mother’s house, i remember being pretty pissed off about it. Well after they dropped me off and I followed my sister to the room, i saw the douche sitting there and what he was looking at changed everything. It was a 3 dimensional red and blue airliner rolling across the screen like a shot of a movie. Now I had a Super Nintendo and seen my share of 2D side scrollers, but this, this was something I hadn’t seen before. I asked, “what is that?” “Playstation,” he said in a voice that resembles Morgan Freeman. At least at the moment. All of a sudden. The smell of the house vanished. And Jose went from a dbag to the equivalent of your best friends badass older brother. He put on some fogger and i played it straight for about 6 hours. I cried when my parents arrived to pick me up. I drew playstations everywhere and turned every box in my room into a pretend playstation until I got one for Christmas. Thank you, douchebag Jose.
My first playstation experience was the cold christmas morning of 2003. Being 7 at the time, I hadn’t much experience of anything, let alone the awe I was about to. Bounding down the stairs and running into the front room, I was so full of excitement it felt like Christmas for the next 10 years was happening all in one day, and truth be told it was.
I ripped open the wrapping paper to my brand new PS2, my first console and my favourite to this day. I sat and played with my dad for almost the whole day on Gran Turismo 3 A-spec (the intro song by Feeder, “Just A Day” still gets me pumped for racing now!) and Star Wars Battlefront. Both my favourite games until I got my PS3 6 years later (we weren’t the best family for being up to date). I love my PS2, playing with school friends for hours at a time, well into the night, beating our previous lap times and blowing up as many Rebels as we could. Occasionally we still meet up and do it again, sat on the sofa in my room, blasting Droids left right and centre, and taking hairpin turns perfectly after years of practice, knowing that we’re still the same excited kids inside!
Watching my my friend pilot the nimble block heroine Lara Croft around, climbing walls, leaping across chasms, and occasionally swan-diving onto the ground to see her neck break.
The first time I remember seeing a PlayStation was when I was 5 years old. I remember it was night time and I went sneaking downstairs, way past my bedtime, to see what my father was doing. As soon as I get downstairs, I saw huge creepy jumping spiders and heard gun shots. Low and behold, Resident Evil became a new nightmare. Every time I tried playing it the lights had to be on and I jumped at the sight over every zombie. Even to this day, I cannot finish one level of that game due to the inaccuracy of my shots because I get nervous. But after that one day of seeing my father play Resident Evil, I began to play Ridge Racer, Tekken, Battle Toshiden, Wipeout, Jet Motto. The PlayStation has been a huge part of my childhood and now as an adult I would love to relive those childhood memories with this 20th anniversary edition PlayStation.
My fondest memory was when I first got Ape Escape. I had seen the ad for it on Toonami and I kept begging for it all year. When I had finally gotten it on Christmas Day (I was 8 in 1999) I sat down with my baby brother in my lap and played for hours. He was only 8 months at the time and he had a tendency to thrash about if he sat still for too long. But for that length of time he didn’t make any noise or even move, he just sat there entranced. He even remembers seeing some of the game, and he’s never played it. For that moment and many others, I still consider that game to be my favorite above any other that I’ve ever played.
It’s not about the game.
As a 16 year old boy, it was hard to find good friends.
Of course we chat about girls, drinking coffee from the automat and do tricky things we
shouldn’t do together with the schoolmates.
But it’s more to do than that.
Yes, we need to have a topic. Something in common.
That’s what make us close. Searching for it we were going home together.
“Check this out, have you ever played?”, he told me. Actually it was a PS2, that time most
popular.
“I’ve never tried this.”, answered being excited. “How can you play with this?”, I’ve asked
looking at the controller. Well I was used to a keyboard to play on.
“It’s easy, you’ll get used to it. Let’s try a game.”
Well he first played a round alone, just to make me believe it works.
Then he gave me the controller. It started to vibrate. I was like: “wow”.
My blood started to flow faster and my brain working on a higher level.
He was smiling. I was laughing. It was incredible.
Years passed and I can still remember.
It’s not about the game. It’s about relationship. Technical and biological.
We stayed friends.
My first exposure to a Playstation was the PS1 which was in a one of those playable display cabinets in David Jones. Whenever my mum would go shopping I would tell her I would be at David Jones playing Crash Bandicoot, I think I can still remember the first few levels pixel by pixel. Ever since I first laid eyes on it I knew I had to have one, but I had 3 brothers so my mother told me I couldn’t have it as it was too expensive. However I had a plan, I talked all my brothers into convincing my mum to buy a PS1 for our combined Christmas present. When Christmas came we all took turns playing Crash Bandicoot (and Ridge Racer I think), however I was the superior player due to my many hours of experience :D. Oh memories.
The very first time I was introduced to a gaming system was the Atari video computer system back in the early 90’s (yep, that’s right a total newb!). So imagine my reaction when my brother and his friend stayed over for the summer school holidays with the PS1 and the (then newly released) Final Fantasy VII game. MIND TOTALLY BLOWN! @_@
My brother and his friend had dibs over the PS1 that summer, the only time they let me play (on those rare occasions) was when they were tired of running around leveling up. Suffice to say my first playstation experience was mainly being a backseat gamer…but it was still an awesome and memorable experience nevertheless.
My first experience with a Playstation was opening up a box for my birthday when I was 14 and screaming my head off [side effects of being a gay child] when I discovered it was a brand new PS1 and a Disney Hercules game. Before then i’d never touched one, only ever saw them in stores.
During that year my parents had divorced and my Dad and sister thought it would be a good distraction for me, it was, I played the shit out of it, however, I didn’t know anything about memory cards and would newly start the Hercules game from level 1 every single day thinking the PS1 was exactly like my Alexx Kid game on my old Sega [you die, you start again].
It wasn’t until I started my love affair with Tomb Raider that I learned about memory cards, a love affair with a franchise and console that would last nearly 20 years! The PS1 is one of the strongest memories of my early teens years not only for capturing my imagination but helping me get through an unhappy time in my life.
My first purchase in 2004 was a PS2. It wasn’t because I was interested in it, I just bought it without a thought (lol) I wanted to try a game that’s different then, so I found this ‘Eye Toy Play’ at EB for a steep price. My god Eye Toy was the bomb back then; losing contact with reality and falling in love with the TV. I pretty much bought like the entire collection of the series to play with and never thought it’d impact me like it did with Kingdom Hearts, but it did. 😀
tl;dr: playstation eye toy camera caused the xbox kinect to happen gg
My first experience was when I was about 8, at my brother’s friends place. I had never experienced console gaming before, with my family never having enough money to afford consoles, or even gameboys at that point. I remember playing the first GTA (responsible parenting, huh?) and blowing up my car within seconds because the friend had rigged it with a bomb because I accidentally pressed the button he told me not to press whilst trying to get his dog to stop humping my leg.
I was absolutely fascinated by it. On the same day I also got my first taste of FFVII, which I still love to this day! This single experience has made me a lover of games and gaming right up to today, and into the future.
Getting a brand spanking new PS2 as a gift and loved playing all the demos.
Convincing my mother to get a PSOne with Dance Dance Revolution because it would make me and my brother exercise more… As if!
My first experience with a Playstation console was the original Playstation. I grew up in a small country town where everyone knew everyone’s business and more often than not they all knew I was in trouble before I even knew it.
Although this small town mentality can be worrying at times it also has its benefits.My locally owned and operated grocery shop was running a raffle to win the original Playstation which was a big thing for the shop as it didn’t usually run things of this nature. Throughout the year my Grandfather was quickly declining in health and eventually loosing his battle around the end of the shop’s competition. Which made no matter to me at the time I was 9 years old and had lost my Grand Father, I was beyond inconsolable. None the less coming from the small town community, the center had ‘drawn’ our ticket as the winning one, clearly a ‘coincidence’ and they also threw in some groceries to help us during that tough time. I’m not using this sad story as a an entry point but this is legitimately my first memory of Playstation, in any matter or form. A small town supporting us by gifting the children of my family with the console by means of keeping us entertained as the adults took care of their respective responsibilities. I will forever be thankful, not for the gift but the generosity and concern shown by my small town.
It was June 1998, my 12th birthday was coming up and all I wanted was a N64. I was also obsessed with cars and racing. My Uncle decided that a PS1 was better, and when I opened the box and saw the PS1, he then gave me another gift, and inside was Gran Turismo [the original!]. I was excited, but still a little sceptical [as I still was wanting an N64].
We plugged it into his big screen TV, fired it up, heard the classic PS1 startup sound [which still gives me chills], and my world was instantly turned upside down when the GT intro video started playing. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGH3uG4gGI4]. I was turned into a ‘playstation kid’ in a nanosecond. N64? Whats that? Oh yeah, that console that doesn’t have GT……
I spent a week solid playing GT. When I went home to my dad [whom I shared my love of cars with], I excitedly explained to him that I had this incredible racing game, which was super realistic. I plugged the PS into our crappy little TV, turned on the PS and smiled with glee as I got to show him GT and it’s graphics. He looked at it for a few seconds, then said ‘It looks nothing like real life’, and walked out of the room. I was pretty dissapointed he didn’t share the excitement for this game as I did.
It wasn’t just a game console, though, it was a gateway to worlds I had never experienced before. And I loved it.
My first experience with playstation was my son writing it on his christmas wish list!! He did get one and I bonded with my son playing Zelda. Playing together we were the heros, mind you it took a couple of months! Now we are in the middle opf the next zelda………..more difficult, but fun!!. So all in all you could say, I love Playstation. It allowed us to have fun as a family, beat other people, experience defeat in all its glory, yet stay grounded and explore!
The Fall of Arrogance
My dad brought the PlayStation home one night and mum was not pleased, but they agreed we couldn’t play it until the next morning. All night before going to sleep I was thinking about how I could completely beat my sister at the have we had with it: Moto Toon Gran Prix 2. Next day there we were, I had the first go using Captain Rock. I’d talked myself up cos I had beaten WizPig in diddy kong racing on my friend’s N64. The race began. I sucked. For side reason I kept holding left and right for far too long and couldn’t even go forward. I was distraught. My sister then took over (one player game) and proceeded to win. It was the PlayStation that really showed me how pride and arrogance can literally make you weep – though it also had me determined to have that never happen again, and it didn’t 😀
My fondest(and also the most bittersweet) Playstation memory was forgoing a whole week’s lunch as a dirt-poor uni student, in order to purchase a copy of PS1 G-Darius from the old Sydney Woolworth store on Pitt St. It was well worth it and then some. I still hold onto that game today.
My very first Playstation experience was when i was an 8 year old opening up a present on Christmas day in 1998 and wondering why the hell Santa had given me an M15+ game called Alien Trilogy. It scared the shit out of me when a face hugger latched onto me and it went to the cutscene of me being strangled with squidgy noises being made while my character struggled to get it off. Was pretty heavy for an 8 year old. It totally changed my view of Santa and probably led to a premature discovery that Santa likes to buy consoles that come bundled with games so he could save a few bucks ; )
I was extremely lucky in that I was given a PlayStation by my dad’s friend. This was during a dry season of games for GameCube. I got to spend my school holidays playing Final Fantasy 9, Chocobo Dungeon, Parasite Eve, Brave Fencer Musashi and Time Crisis. They’re days I look back to in fondness, I was very lucky.
I remember being in year 7, wanting a playstation so badly. EB Games offered a deal to trade in 7 Nintendo 64 games plus $50 – This got you a ps1 and a pre owned game. I did the trade and the game i got with it was Final Fantasy 7. WOW I was blown away from the second the classic Playstation startup played to running through Midgar and the entire world. I was hooked and will be a playstation kinda guy for the rest of my life!
cos i love to game with my mates since ps1 😉
I didn’t even know what a Playstation was until Christmas of ’95. It was a combined present for my siblings and I, but even then, I had to ask what it did. I still remember my dad struggling to set it up on our tv, and getting frustrated because it wouldn’t display properly right away.
I was walking down the aisle of the supermarket, the crereal ailse to be precise. When i noticed that Coco Pops where giving away a Playstation 2s every hour for a number of weeks. Been of a skptical disposition I thought watch the catch? I picked up the box and proceeded to read to the competion rules. To my amazement , other then the usual requirement purchacing a box of fore-mentioned cereal all I had to was submit an entry to go into an hourly draw. The odds seemed to be far better then most promotions so I purchaced a box and submitted my entry. Moving on with life a forgot about my entry until I recieved a phone call. The person introduded themselves and informed me that I won a prize and asked me whether I wanted ALF, NRL or an Eyetoy game (Eyetoy game came with Eyetoy). Considering there is only one game that can call it self football, I choose the Eyetoy, slighty disappointed thinking I’d only won a game (and Eyetoy). I was then Informed that my console would be sent in the next week. ‘You trying to tell me I won a console as well I asked?’, Yes said the lady on the other end of the line. I won 1 or 2 things in my time, but I’ve aways want to say, I got someting on the back of a Coco Pops pack. I got Playstation 2 on the back of a Coco Pops pack.
When it came to video games, my parents were quite strict. Too strict. I grew up in a house hold that did not have a Nintendo 64, a PlayStation 1 or a Sega Megadrive. They didn’t like the idea of having me sit in front of the TV for such a long period of time to play video games. I begged and begged to have one, to be like the other kids in my class but they simply would not give in – this still didn’t stop me from asking every time we went shopping if I could get one! Those annoying children at stores now who so badly want a toy or game – I sympathise with them wholeheartedly.
I remember early in 2000, when Sony announced and showed the PS2 to the general public, I was so utterly obsessed. I gave talks about the capabilities of the PS2 at school in my English classes. Show and tells at school consisted of me bringing pictures in, showing them to everyone and explaining every single feature of the PS2. I drew pictures of it in art – crazy pictures with me morphing into a PSMan (PS2 body with human limbs) I spoke about it constantly with all of my school friends and I even hounded my parents.
There was no budging from my parents if they would get one for me or not. Soon enough, November 30th rolled around and my parents had not purchased one for me. My mother told me that I should concentrate on my school work and my father simply told me we couldn’t afford a $799 gaming system.
Christmas came along very quickly. I pleaded with my parents to purchase one for me. I said something to the effect of ‘If you don’t want me to run away from home and ruin Christmas, please buy me a PS2”. I woke up on Christmas day, pretty unhappy knowing that there wouldn’t be a PS2 under my tree. I went to look – nothing. I walked into the kitchen and said good morning to my parents – nothing. I looked near the TV cabinet (do we remember the days of big non-flat screen TV’s?) and I couldn’t see anything. My dad calmly asked me to go and make him a coffee. Hesitantly I did, I had my back turned away from the TV, and as I turned around with his coffee in my hands I saw it.
I saw this beautiful black back and blue stand. I immediately dropped the coffee cup, not caring how hot the water would have been. I ran to the TV and started yelling at the top of my lungs “NO WAY, A PS2!”. My parents had bought me the one thing I wanted so badly. It was so amazing to turn it on for the first time and to play Tekken Tag Tournament (no one can beat me using Lei Wulong) all day with my family.
My first experience with a PlayStation was in a Toys r Us store in Canberra. I got so excited when I sore it and when I sore the price I got even more excited. The sign said $100 I thought to myself I can save $100 easy. So I got a part time job helping my next door neighbours helping pack her nutrimetics into boxes to send to her clients. After 2 months of hard savings I went back to the Toys r Us store and asked to get the Playstation, little did I realise my world was about to be shattered. The $100 was for the game sitting on top of the PlayStation. I’m pretty sure I had a look of utter disbelief and heart break on my face. I would be a few years down the track when I would buy a Nintendo 64 (sorry Sony Mario 64 eventual won out) but I did end up owning the original PS one and spending hours upon hours playing Gran Turismo Arrhhhh the memories.
I was a console generation behind when the Playstation was released, having just received a SNES for Christmas. So my experiences with the PS1 were always at a relative or friend’s house, unless they brought their system over to mine.
The first time I played the Playstation was when my cousin brought his over for the holidays. Amongst his games I remember playing Streetfighter Alpha 3 most vividly. It was the first Streetfighter I had played since SFII on the SNES and arcade (which I absolutely loved). The upgrade was fantastic, super fluid movement, a variety of modes and special meters and a wealth of new characters. Akuma was quickly becoming my new favourite.
We were slowly progressing through World Tour mode together, taking turns every level or life lost. But we hit a wall facing the final boss(es), an overpowered pair of M. Bison’s with unlimited special gauge.
My cousin still had the original PS1 controllers, and hours of spamming quarter-circles on the D-Pad had set our thumbs on fire. Adding to the pain was the insane amount of inputs required for this final boss. So much so, that when we passed the controller over after inevitably dying, we’d have to run to cool our thumb under running water just long enough to try again after the other failed.
Needless to say, if I play the upcoming Streetfighter V, I’ll be buying an arcade stick for it.
My first experience with a PlayStation was in primary school when my brother borrowed one from a friend. My family had always had Nintendo consoles – we had a SNES and a N64, and so we had all the rather “kiddy” games that Nintendo published back then. The most mature game we had was Goldeneye 64. Then my brother’s friend loaned us his PlayStation and Metal Gear Solid. Wow. What an eye-opener. My brother’s friend had loaned us the console for a week, but I’m ashamed to say that I kept finding excuses not to return it. I “forgot” to bring it to school to give back to him. I was “too busy” to drop it back to his house. Eventually he came around to collect it and my brother and I hid and made my mother lie to him and tell him we weren’t home! Sadly, it did have to go back eventually, but since then I’ve become a PlayStation convert and owned every PlayStation console since then (apart from the PS4, which I’m still trying to save up for).
I didn’t get a PlayStation until ’98. My dad was (and still is) rather behind the times with these things. I’m expecting in another five years or so a visit with the revelation that they now make slim ps3s.
Crash Bandicoot was the be-all end-all at the beginning. Croc was awesome but I’m pretty sure it existed only to entice my younger sister, effectively halving my potential game time. Still, nothing was to warn us of the darkness to come.
My family moved into a duplex with my grandmother. Her name is Janette, but mankind might better remember her as “the Bane of All Things Electronic”, or “The Harbinger of Childhood Sorrow”. My parents worked full time, so this was her domain now. The playstation was removed to the cluttered basement/garage with a small tv, and we were permitted one hours worth of game time per day, with the requirement we spend the rest of the day outside. The neighbourhood children once held a silent vigil in remembrance of my desecrated thumbs, after I spent a great deal of my allocated time trying to unlock the bandana for snake, only to have the PlayStation switched off at the wall.
My grandmother’s favourite phrases included “get your feet off the settee” and “I have feasted on the souls of innumerable children who played for longer than sixty earth minutes.” Regardless, in the time that we lived there, she never broke my will. No matter how many different varieties of vegetable you can concoct to serve for tea (a word my English grandmother used to refer to both a frequented beverage and the last meal of the day, though it could potentially have a dark and twisted meaning too), we playstation fans will not falter.
I remember borrowing and playing silent hill until my dad saw what it was and promptly returned it. I also remember playing gta2 to death, with the paramedics reviving me in time to become absorbed in the blunt narrative of siphon filter. I never questioned counter terrorist Logan’s ability to fire tasers at infinite distances to set people alight. I was too transfixed by this console I fought so hard for against the clutches of my grandmother. Some say if you hold the ps1 close to your ear, you can still hear her enraged cries echoing through time itself.
Admittedly I tried (and failed) to snag one of these gems in a JB competition that was based solely on luck, something I do not possess. I was blinded by the thought of it sitting amongst it’s brethren underneath my tv. Despite my grandmothers godless attempts to drain my soul, the original playstation logo has been burnt into my heart since the beginning (or rather, where my father decided the beginning should be). Perhaps the one thing that will finally purge the timeless haunting of Janette, PlayStation’s immortal enemy, is my obtaining this much sought after edition. Only time and the Kotaku gods (including Mark Serrels the Just and Scottish) will tell.
My first PS1 experience was Destruction Derby 2 on my cousin’s system. Of course I’d rarely visit his house, once or twice a year, but when I did my brother and I would do that one arena over and over smashing opponents into space!
Later on, a friend of the family had a son who was playing his PS1, so I went to watch. He was playing a game called Final Fantasy 6 and I thought it looked pretty cool (even though at this point FF9 was already old news). It was such an interesting story to follow that I hadn’t quite seen before in a video game. The closest would probably be Banjo Kazooie on N64, not quite in the same ball park.
The rest of my non-PS1 owning experiences were at a video game store at the local shops while my mum was buying groceries in Bi-Lo (remember Bi-Lo?). I’d play games like the Emperor’s New Groove, MediEvil and s skateboard game along the lines of Tony Hawk Pro Skater. All great games that really had me wishing I could have a PS1 for myself.
Fast-forward to grade 9, it was 2002 and the PS2 had already been out for 2 years. I’d saved up my birthday money and found an ad in the paper for someone selling their PS1 and a bunch of games with it. Everyone else had a PS2, but I was finally getting a PS1 and dang did I have a blast. I’d spend the days playing Simpsons’ Wrestling, Spyro, Ape Escape, Tekken 2 and a few no-name games. The real fun started when I got myself a copy of Final Fantasy 6, that awesome game I saw earlier. This was it. This was my Playstation 1 experience. I played it and loved it, quickly moving on to Final Fantasy 8, which I had to sell a few games to be able to buy second hand. Final Fantasy 8 was then my most played PS1 game and I was hooked on the FF series. I later borrowed FF7 and FF9 from a friend at school and new I’d follow this series for as long as it keeps going (which I still do, even though 12 and 13 were too far from what I liked about FF). Final Fantasy was my PS1 experience, and it has shaped the type of gamer I am today.
I’d always played games, from a young age we’d had an Apple, my best friend had a Commodore, and my Uncle had an Amiga. All of these were mainly used for work so gaming was something I got to do on rare occasions, and I’d really enjoyed it.
Fast forward to 1995, first year of University and I’d moved from the country to the city and was housed in a residential college on campus. It was a mixing pot of people, from all over the country and all over the world. As we got to know everyone in our dorm, one of the guys was from Japan, and as we found had some pretty awesome gadgets. One of the things he had bought with him was a Playstation. We were all blown away! Me in particular. This was the first machine I’d seen that was a dedicated home gaming machine. And from this first gaming machine, the gamer in me was born. Needless to say, this poor guy didn’t realize what he’d done. And being Japanese, he was so polite , he couldn’t say no.
That whole first semester his room had become a faux gaming room. There was always someone in there and the Playstation was only off when the poor guy needed some sleep, usually in the wee hours of the night. We played and played and were blown away by the graphics and variety of games.
It was also the first time I’d been introduced to crowd gaming. Nothing could beat sitting in a room with 20 mates, crowded around a Playstation and a big CRT TV playing Tekken in an elimination play-off to find the champion player, and then gloating for the rest of the week. They were good times! The Playstation became the ultimate bonding machine, binding people from all over the world as friends and gamers that would last through to today.
That first semester most of us barely scraped through our exams, but none of us cared, it was totally worth it. The gamer in us had been born, and later that year I got my own Playstation, my first gaming console. From there I have never turned back – owning a PS2 and PS3 and soon a PS4. I still have them all and occasionally when I need a hit of nostalgia I’ll pull out the PS1 and remember those good times and friends. 🙂
With some of my greatest childhood gaming memories being moments spent with my sister and cousins playing SNES on a 32cm television, a progression to Nintendo 64 was almost a given. My greatest of life choices was always going to be; N64 or PlayStation?; and it was going to be a very tough choice indeed.
Cut to another day at my cousin’s place and he’s just brought home a brand new N64 console along with Mario 64. Amazing. Surely I would be getting a new Nintendo. But wait, what was this? A newcomer? Sony PlayStation? Huh. Sony was a good brand. Trusted, and in less than a week, my role-model cousin had returned his Nintendo and brought back this grey box in its stead.
Suddenly everyone around me had this new console and its franchise-starting games. Driver. Crash Bandicoot. Gran Turismo. Resident Evil. Metal Gear Solid. Syphon Filter. Croc. Jackie Chan’s Stuntmaster – well okay, maybe that one wasn’t a franchise starter but it was still very enjoyable.
GTA. Whoa. My parents were never going to let me buy that one, so I played a burned copy at my friend’s place whenever I had the chance. All of these great titles I had the pleasure of playing at their inception, and a grand console inception, it was too.
Sony had swept up everyone I knew into its path and I cannot remember a single mate that owned a 64, and in turn, no one to lend me games if I had purchased the Nintendo console. A Sony PlayStation heading my way was looking to be a certain thing – then came the deciding factor.
I was having a threeway call on the landline with two friends when one invited me around to see an ‘awesome new game.’ That night I skipped out on listening to and recording Ugly Phil’s Hot30 to cassette tape and instead rode my bike a few blocks over to see this said title.
Now here was an interesting game, Final Fantasy VII, not just because of the visuals – which were incredible for its day by the way – but because of the length. Never before had I seen a game that required forty, fifty plus hours to complete. And to be enthralled for every single one of those hours. Shortly after that night, I went and bought FFVII before I had even owned the console.
FFVII changed me. I changed Cloud to Benny and Tifa to the name of a girl I had had a crush on at the time. This was me putting myself into a game – turning it into a life experience, of sorts. A life I really wanted to be in and literally be a part of. Imprinted memories of characters and environments were hard pressed into my head, along with scenes that I cannot forget to this day. Rarely does that happen to me whilst gaming these days.
It was 1998 and I had just had my twelfth birthday, and used all the money I had received in gifts from friends and family to buy a…. Second hand Megadrive with four games from Cash Convertors. The next week was awesome, spending all day and night playing Altered Beast, Ghouls n’ Ghosts, Mega Lo Mania and The Chaos Engine. Then one fateful day my mother came to pick all us kids up from school, at the odd time of 11AM. Things got stranger when we were taken to a new house, and all of mums friends had car loads of our belongings moving them in. As naive kids we simply thought we had moved and mum needed a hand unpacking.
Stranger still was when dad did not come home at his usual time. Mum relented from the nagging of 5 children and broke down and let us know she had left our father. Terrible news, but I was 12 and wanted to play Megadrive!
Unfortunately it seemed the Megadrive was lost in the move or had been left at the old house, and as a selfish child I was more upset about this than the splitting up of my parents. Anyway fast forward about 3 months and we were finally able to see Dad again, and I was hoping my Megadrive would be at his house. Nope nowhere to be found, Dad was left with pretty much nothing but the clothes in his cupboard, he was a wreck. This was finally starting to take a toll on myself and my brothers and sisters. We all cried! I told Dad how I was upset that this had happened so close to my birthday and not only that I’d lost all my birthday presents. Dad being a good Dad that he is knew how to fix this.
The next weekend when Dad arrived to pick us up, he informed me on the drive to his house that he had been looking everywhere for the Megadrive, but was unable to locate it and apologized profusely! We got to his house and opened the door which went directly into the lounge room, and there sitting on the floor was a brand new Playstation!
I’m pretty sure I played the demo of Kula World and MediEvil until about two in the morning.
Aight, this is gonna be tricky cause I’m at work and my boss is walking around. But I’ve never had a Playstation, so I figure I should give this a go. My first experience with a PlayStation was when I was about six or seven. I had flown from my home in Canberra to visit my Grandparents, Aunt and Uncle in Queensland. As they went about their daily business, preparing for Christmas I tried to entertain myself, because I was the discovery kid. I found my fathers old Lego and
Star Wars toys after awhile. Which was cool, but they smelled funny so I left them alone. I kept rummaging through various boxes until coming across the weird grey thing that was a PS1. I asked my Aunt what it was, instead of explaining what it was she showed me. I think for the next week and a half I would spend majority of my time playing Crash Bandicoot and Frogger. I did this every time I visited my grandparents. A good four or five years running …hang on…sorry, boss was watching me.
Anyway, eventually I stopped visiting. It just become such a hassle to organise it all every year. Many years passed and life choices forced a major location move. Now I live with my grandparents. Helping them and working full time. I’d fallen into the Xbox crowd because that’s where my friends were. I tried to play the old PlayStation a few weeks after I moved up here. Spending all the free time I had finding her cords, controllers and games. I put Crash Bandicoot in the disc tray and tried to turn her on. Nothing. She was gone. Perhaps years of neglect took her, or maybe one too many heavy boxes placed on top. Either way, that PlayStation still serves as a monument to sweet childhood memories as it sits next to the Xbox. Hopefully I can re-create my great memories with my future kids when they come to visit me and find my old PS4 Anniversary. When they ask ‘what is this grey box?’ as I did fourteen years ago, I will show them. Thanks for reading!
My first Playstation experience was seeing a demo unit up close and personal outside of the MYER Centre in Tea Tree Plaza during school holidays in 1996. The game? Total NBA ’96. Being a basketball nut as a kid, I just about lost my mind and waited patiently in line to get my turn at the game. I remember gawking in awe at the graphics and deciding then and there that I HAD to own a Playstation. The problem? A $999 price tag was a little out of reach for 11 year old me, and my parents were in no way interested in dropping that kind of coin in 1996 on an idiot box.
So began the waiting. And waiting. And more waiting. Eventually (I think 1999) the PSX dropped to $250 Australian. I had an older brother with a job. We were on. Game time. During school holidays that year, our lives revolved around a Playstation, one controller passed back and forth, 8MB of precious Memory Card and the game, DRIVER.
Those that played the original DRIVER will remember that right near the end is a near impossible mission that occurs over 2 parts and you CANNOT SAVE in between them. For at least a week, my brother and I held in-house sleepovers in the bigger of our 2 bedrooms, and for that week the Playstation was NEVER switched off. We learned to live with the constant hum and the sound of a disc spinning all to get through the President’s Run ( I think?). It was the most fun week of bonding for my brother and I, while simultaneously being our parents most hated week in history (the SMELL was… yikes!). From that week on, the Playstation was never the same and required special tricks like holding down the lid to even have it boot into a game properly. It was all worth it. The original Playstation will forever be special beyond just it’s technological mastery!
My first experience with a PlayStation was receiving a copy of Taiko No Tatsujin 2007 (Drum Master) from a new friend from Japan. I immediately went out and bought a PS2 slim but had to get the region lock disabled as this was the only way you could have a chance of playing that game series in Australia at the time. Needless to say I later married that beautiful girl which was the obvious thing to do and we became especially addicted to Katamari Damacy together. Back in our early days, language was a bit of a barrier between the two of us but quirky Japanese games we could play together helped shape a friendship for life and also lead to a costly pastime – We now have a Metal Gear Solid 4 Hagane PS3, a Ni No Kuni PS3 (which I’m especially proud of), the old PS2 slim and a bunch of PSP’s. We are a game proud family with a history of PlayStation.
Ps Logan Booker could do me a solid and repay that favour for the ticket to the Ace Attorney movie with a PS4 hahaha
http://www.kotaku.com.au/2012/08/who-else-saw-ace-attorney-at-the-melbourne-international-film-festival/
As a manager of a photography store in a shopping centre I frequented on a daily basis during my lunch break the games shop located nearby. For months prior to the release of the Playstation 1 this shop had a demo set up displaying Battle Arena Toshinden (the hero launch title). On the day of the Playstation’s release I bought the console and Battle Arena. That weekend I had a party at my place and watched as all my friends stared in awe at the T.V, all gobsmacked by the sheer brilliance of the graphics. Even the T-Rex on the supplied demo disk had jaws dropping all around the room.
At 11 years old, I still believed in Santa. My best friend had received a Sony Playstation – and I, I had a cheap father. He was un-wealthy, and unwilling to purchase anything that cost more than a pack of cards! Every year I would write Santa Clause. This particular year, 1995, I asked for one item – Sony Playstation.
Christmas day had came. Gift after gift, it was socks, underwear, pencils crayons. The feeling of grief was un-mistakable. I walked back down the hallway to my bedroom, and I cried. I shamelessly cried in my pillow. 1 hour later, my father yelled “Kurt, Santa hid a gift underneath the couch with your name on it!”. My walk of glory, as I remember, brought me to my fondest childhood memory. The old man.. err.. Santa, received my letter, and had given me a Sony Playstation.
My hope in winning this Playstation was to give to my son – not resell on Ebay like so many other. I want the opportunity to relive my childhood memories, and provide my son the same experience. Make me cry again, tears of joy! I’ll record it!
My first memorable experience was coming home late one night from a pizza delivery shift in the mid-90s. I’d bought the original Resident Evil earlier in the day, so I thought I’d give it a bash.
I kept the lights low, so as not to wake anyone… and I booted it up. The intro story – a short live action movie, really (and one of the first live action intros I’d seen for a computer game) was pretty scary at the time. But I thought I’d press on.
I started playing the game proper, and it was suitabley creepy, haunting and lonely. I walked through disturbingly empty rooms… and then I came across some activity on the floor… someone bent over and seemingly munching on a corpse. Then the figure turned around, a hideous rotting corpse of a face. Then our clock struck the hour, and donged startling the bajeebers out of me!
I hit the PS’s power button and hurried upstairs to bed, telling myself that playing the game during daylight hours would be much more preferable 🙂
Come with me, boys and girls, on a journey into the rose-tinted spectacle of yesteryear…
*clicks heels and fades slowly into the past*
Can you see it? Can you feel it? This is what life used to be like. The musty smell of small boys who resisted daily bathing slowly turning into men who resisted daily bathing. Their one and only bond is the game console they share and fight over. The room they’re in was a garage in a day that predates their memory, but its conversion into a rumpus room was so thorough that the tale of its genesis surprises most people, and It’s more their home than their bedrooms.
For nearly their entire lives, the Mario vs Sonic debate has raged with incredible ferocity around them. They have never owned a Sega system, so their path has been chosen for them, and they follow it assiduously with the loyalty of trained soldiers. At one point or another, they’ve owned every Mario and every Zelda game that has ever been made, and have beaten all the titles that small boys could reasonably beat.
The entry of the Playstation into the gaming market was one that passed by with barely a blip as they worked together to win all the cups in Mario Kart 64 or slaughter all the gold Skulltulas in Ocarina of Time, or win gold in every mission of Rogue Squadron.
They were Nintendo boys. Loyal to the brand, and to the branding. Slaves to the repetition of gameplay, memorisation of routine, obsessively gathering collectables, shunning anything representing itself as a competitor.
Stay with me, gentle folks. We’re going to fast forward a few years.
After the century has turned and games are starting to feel stale for both boys, the elder boy gets his hands on Metal Gear Solid for the PC. The acquisition is purely by chance – his dad has won a software voucher in a golf tournament of some sort, and has no use for it.
It doesn’t take the boys long to realise that gaming has changed. It has been revolutionised in a way that they hadn’t even realised. It’s the biggest evolution in gaming that they can remember. They scour the magazines in their newsagent to find out more, desperate to consume this newer, edgier, more mature material in its entirety.
This game, and others like it, are available on a system called the Playstation. Have you heard of it? It’s a couple of years old now, and is in the process of being superceded by the Playstation 2, but it’s still a decent (and more importantly for convincing the parentals, it’s cheap) machine.
Only days later, they’ve bought a Playstation from a classified ad in the local paper. And they own Metal Gear Solid.
Watch them carefully. In this moment, they are taking the next step towards manhood.
(And yet, to this day, they retain a little of that childhood wonder. They also continue to resist bathing.)
Oh, you’re back. 😛
My first playstation experience was when I first saw Kingdom Hearts 1 and I knew I had to have this game. It was several months before Christmas so I convinced my parents that I had to have a PS2 and the game. I bought the strategy guide months ahead and would read every page, obsessing over it, drawing the characters etc, even taking it to the beach to read it.
Then the day came – I opened up a big box and saw the PS2 in all its glory, yus – then I opened up a present the size of a game and instead of KH I saw ‘Ben Hur: Blood of Braves’… I (as you may guess) come from a Christian household. May of not been a good first experience but all the other games that came out after more than made up for it (GTA etc.)
The funny story is that after all that and the years of having my PS2 – i only ever rented Kingdom Hearts and didn’t play it properly till the HD remake came out.
I wasn’t allowed a console of any kind. I borrowed a friends’ gameboy colour, and pretended I was tired so I could play pokemon silver in bed. I secretly bought and upgraded our PC with a graphics card so I could play KOTOR. Living in an anti-gaming house, I naturally enjoyed my time at friend’s houses, and have very fond memories of Perfect Dark and Goldeney on N64. However, my greatest gaming achievement to date, and also my introduction to the playstation, was thanks to Ape Escape. I would spend hours with my friend chasing those damn monkeys through space and time, getting all the special gadgets you needed, sneaking up on them and triumphantly slamming that net down. We would often stay up until the wee hours (11pm), taking turns netting these fiends with their stupid flashing hats, and this finally culminated in us completing the game and catching them all, the only time I have ever finished such a task (feathers and pages in the AC games just aren’t the same).
This experience was the start of my journey with Sony, leading to the PS2 being the first console I ever owned myself, purchased with the first paycheck I earned after finishing high school. Master Chief stole my heart with Halo 2, and my PS2 and buzz controllers with the release of Halo 3, and I’ve been trying to justify buying a PS4 since it’s release. Whichever camp I’m in, those innocent days and late nights spent in the shoes of Spike, have not been forgotten.
I’m gonna keep it short and sweet but it was Definatley watching my brothers play tony hawk and crash bandicoot I loved just watching it was very exciting
The first time I ever played a playstation, me and my best friend Daniel talked my ex’s brother into spending $100 to rent a playstation from Blockbuster so we could play Command and Conquer. We played the entire weekend, returned the playstation, got the deposit back and pocketed the cash. We told him Blockbuster was going to mail him the deposit back and every time we saw him afterwards, we would sing “We’ve got a pocket full of caaaaash…” and he constantly bugged us about the fact that Blockbuster had not sent him his deposit money.
Not long after I got my licence I took a drive down to the local shopping centre. Did my business, got back into my car and drove up to the gate to pay for parking. The booth was usually manned by a guy who I’d come to recognise from years of tagging along with my parents. He’d check the ticket, tell us the price (the LCD display was always broken – and management were too cheap to fix it, he said.) That day though, he wasn’t there and there was no-one else in the booth.
So I buzzed the machine and got the security office, who were confused. Apparently they didn’t have a parking station attendant any more since they introduced the electronic boom gates.
Turns out the guy was pissed off about being retrenched, and just kept on showing up for work, pocketing the money from people who opted to pay cash at the booth instead of using the “self serve” PayStations.
Wait, I read that wrong. P-L-ayStation experience… my bad (OK not really – just thought it was a more interesting story than my first PS experience, which was buying a PS2 on the cheap 2nd hand, and then whoring games to the greatest extent possible on a kid’s income – that’s me and every other PS fan on the planet, right?)
My first Playstation experience was when i was seven years old waking up on christmas day and unwrapping the original PS1 and being amazed playing it for hours on end the next few days until i finished the game Tarzan, however my best experience would have have to be either playing Tekken 3 or Crash Bandicoot at a mates place every time i came over those were the only games we wanted to play.
I never played the full game of Tarzan but I played the Tarzan, Lara Croft and Die Hard demos on repeat!
A story of joy but ultimate sorrow.
1997 I worked for 2 weeks leading up to xmas with my old man at a betta electrical store as a ‘store boy’. My payment for 2 weeks of stinking hot hard work was none other than the PS1.
I think that was the happiest school / xmas holidays I’d ever had, followed by 10 months of gaming bliss, my fondest memory would be falling in love with Lara Croft as a sweaty 16/17yr old boy.
About the halfway mark of the year talk of schoolies week begun and I had to figure out how I would fund my schoolies week with no job, no pocket money, no income of any kind. I would have to make the ultimate sacrifice and sell the one possession I owned with any value, the one possession I didn’t want to part with, but, would have to if I wanted to go to schoolies week.
I sold my PS1 and assorted games for $250 which funded my schoolies week and, ultimately, lead to me losing my virginity . . . .I guess you could say it was worth it after all.
My favourite PlayStation memory was when I was 10 years old, back in 1998. There was always talk among school friends as to which console was better: the PlayStation or Nintendo 64. My friend bought his own PlayStation and I went over to his house to play. I immediately liked the fact that it used CDs, instead of cartridges. It looked so high tech during those days.
We played the PS demo one disc that came with the PlayStation. I still remember the PS demo one disc: Gran Turismo, Kula World, Tekken 3 and Medievil. All four games were heaps of fun but Medievil just shone above the rest (here’s hoping that Sony will make a Medievil 3). After playing, I knew I wanted a PlayStation. I needed to know how Medievil will end after defeating the glass monster.
My family didn’t have a lot of money back then, and we couldn’t afford to such a large purchase. So I decided to save up as much pocket money as I could to buy one myself. I was given around $5 pocket money a week. This took over a year to save up but the end result was worth it!
I had enough money, went with my mum to The GamesWizard and bought myself a PlayStation and Medievil. They also had a free game deal as well, so I got Dead Ball Zone as well. My own PlayStation and 2 games. I can say without a doubt this was the happiest day in my childhood memory.
Ever since then, I haven’t looked back. Not to PC gaming, not to any other console. PlayStation was an extremely important part of my childhood development, and will always be a part of my life.
Back when I was a PC gamer I was seeing this girl that was a console gamer with a game called monster rancher, I would comer over with my vast music collection and we would see what special monsters we could unlock. We are now married with 4 kids I guess thanks to PS and the monster rancher game. (ps im now a console only only gamer)
My 2 brothers and I up visiting our relatives in boring old town of Cowra for a week of boredom then going to our aunties house to find our cousin had this psx he loads up twisted metal all of us taking turns playing till what felt like 30 minute’s of playing it’s actually been 12+ hours and it’s about 2330 and getting told to piss off its late good times that was the longest my brothers and I didn’t argue or fight. That Christmas we saved all our money and got our self a 2nd hand psone, good times
My first Playstation experience was when my older brother and I got the very first Playstation for Christmas from our parents in 1997 or 1998. The first game we got was Formula 1 97! My brother was more stoked than I was because I was still a bit too young to know what anything else except for a Nintendo 64!
My Dad helped us unpack and connected it to the only tv we had in the lounge room. My brother got the first go on it and then it was my go. I can’t remember what track or even what driver I played, but I loved it.
My mind was blown! Sitting on the floor playing my first of many Playstation’s! I was so pumped that I could control this car on the tv and could go so fast! I remember pretending to be an F1 driver and winning those races (when I finally could keep the car straight :P) as if it were real life! I still even have the same game and Playstation sitting in my house I loved and still do love it so much. So, that was my first Playstation experience!
My first PlayStation memory is waking up on Christmas Day 2001 with a PSOne waiting under the tree, and subsequently spending the rest of the school holidays playing Tony Hawk 2 and Colin McCrae 2. It was my intro to the PS family, and the start of a lifetime of PlayStation memories.
my first playstation experience was back in the late 90’s I was in primary school and a mate of mine had bushido blade 2, to make matters harder he had a Japanese copy, so we spent ages going through each of the menu options to find the modes we wanted to play (mainly versus). We spent every day after school playing that game and many an all nighter on the weekends versing each other. Pushing each other and yelling when someone would get a lucky sword throw kill in. I cant say how many hours we put into that game but it was the most fun ever! especially when you can read anything and have to try out every menu option to work out whats what. He also gave me a copy of metal gear soild when he was done with it… i didn’t get a playstation for 6 months after on christmas.. after begging my parents every day… i believe i still have the japanese disk for bushido blade at my parents house in boxes of my childhood stuff.
I was very young, my parents had scraped together to buy me a playstation for christmas, I ended up with Crash Bandicoot and Spyro, I still remember how amazed I was at the huge world in Spyro; so much to do and see. We hooked it up to our tiny little extra television which had about a 12 inch display and I played it until complete exhaustion; I fell asleep and awoke with the imprint of the controller on my face. Good times indeed.
My first playstation experience was the moment on Christmas Day when my sister and I unwrapped a brand new psx, she got some horse riding Barbie game and I got Abe’s odyssey and spyro. Having only played snes before it was amazing seeing the graphics that those games had! I spent hours trying to get out of the slaughterhouse area of Abe’s odyssey and not having a internet connection to check what to do made it all the more exciting to finally get past it. I also played the demo disc that came with the playstation so many times I’m sure it’s as scratched up as my monster rancher disc. Unholy wars and ghost in the shell ftw!
It was in 2009 that I got my very first PlayStation, and of course that’s when the PS3 just came out. My parents wanted to buy me preferably an X Box as a birthday present. When we came into the shops, we asked if they had the X Box, though they had sold out! I was fairly disappointed as I was only 8, though my dad spotted that they had the all new PS3! After some discussion between my parents (so stereotypical) they decided that it was a good idea to get that console instead. It was the PS3 Fat version. The best thing was that you got a bundle including 2 games of your choice and it was all for a fair price! I got Little Big Planet and Sonic the hedgehog (I ended up getting stuck on one of the early levels of Little Big Planet and as for Sonic – I just found it boring/annoying). The PS3 has been working perfectly until recently. Now it has the YLOD Syndrome (Yellow Light Of Death). Therefore I’m without any consoles (That was the only console I ever had). I would be so grateful if I even had a PS4, let alone a Limited edition PS4! But that is my PlayStation Story and I’m so glad that the X Box was sold out at that store, otherwise I wouldn’t have had such great times (like that one time after years of growing up and then finally getting past that Little Big Planet Level) all with my PS3. 🙂
My first Playstation Experience was when I was 9yrs old,
It was my mother’s birthday and so she had plans to go out with friends, because of my unbelievable level of immaturity she didn’t have a choice but to drop me at one of her friend’s houses, to a lady I gave the nickname Satan. She was horrible and asked me to do all her chores and when having to stay the night’s enforced and early bedtime. When we arrived at Satan’s house she was her usual friendly self… to my mother, she was always nice whilst my mother was present, it’s not until she leaves that the Red starts to show through the cracks on Satan’s Skin. We went inside and that’s when I noticed something [or someone rather] different. A girl, one that is a few years older than myself but a hopeful comrade.
Mum said her goodbyes and walked out the door, as soon as she pulled out of the driveway Satan started glowing her familiar red. She ordered me to change into my Pyjamas, brush my teeth and get ready for bed, it was only 5pm. I did as she asked; I knew better then to argue with someone who saved her worst chores for visiting children, and my mum taught me to always respect my elders. After I had brushed my teeth she gave me permission to sit in the lounge and watch TV for 10 minutes as she has something she needed to attend too. She ushered me into the lounge and that’s when I seen her again, the girl, she was watching TV. NO! She was Playing a game! ‘My god this is amazing!’ I thought. Satan Told me to sit quietly so as not to disturb ‘her daughter’ that’s when my world shattered, Satan had a daughter. I sat down, quietly.
I looked for what she was playing; the controller was foreign to me being raised on Nintendo so it made me all the more Curious. I followed the cord from her hands to the Grey box that was sitting on the floor in front of her, I couldn’t make out what it said. Then I seen the jewel case sitting next to her ‘Playstation , Jumping Flash’ so that’s a Playstation! She turned to me… I froze. “Do you want a go?” I didn’t hesitate when saying yes. She handed me the controller and started telling me what to do. I was playing for maybe 30 seconds when Satan returned. “off to bed now” I hung my head and went to hand the controller back to the daughter. She looked at me, turned to Satan and said. ‘Just a little longer please, he is helping me get past this level’ Satan, looked at me, and in a moment of kindness she said. “10 more minutes” and left the room. We played for another hour before she came back. This was my first Playstation experience and my first Crush.
My first marriage was short and didn’t end well. We had a Nintendo 64.
Two years later I remarried. Our first Christmas, SHE suggested we buy a Playstation 2. Fifteen years later we are still married. We still have the Playstation 2. This was my first playstation experience and I knew THAT Christmas, I had married the right girl!
True story!
(I tried posting this as a guest and I don’t think it worked, but sorry if it’s my second post!)
The year was 1998 and I was 5 years old, my parents had left me at the neighbours house, it would have been an otherwise boring affair however, their son had just gotten an original PlayStation for his birthday and one game: Croc: Legend of the Gobbos (he was at school, hence why I was even allowed to touch this precious device). Nevermind that this was my first PlayStation experience, this was my first console and 3D platformer experience, (before then I had only played Need for Speed and a Sonic the Hedgehog port on my dad’s PC) this makes it an incredibly special memory for me. I still remember gripping the analogue stick-less, non dualshock controller in my hands and jumping around while loudly exclaiming WAZOOO! and KASPLAT! In unison with Croc as I vanquished the minions of the evil Baron Dante and sent them back to the nether.
Hours seemed to pass like minutes as I toiled away, adventuring and jumping from platform to platform completely enraptured in the experience that was the PlayStation and Croc: Legend of the Gobbos. Before long, their son had come home from school and for a while I feared he may boot me off his beloved new gaming system. Instead however he joined in and became a Yoda-like figure to me, instructing me on the secrets of the game and hidden techniques such as the ground stomp (known by Croc as SHAZAM!) or the venerable aerial tail-slap. He even went so far as to help me beat the first boss who I had not yet managed to defeat: Tooty the Feeble; an innocent duck that was tragically transformed by the Baron to perform evil deeds.
Eventually, and much to my despair my parents came to take me home and I was parted with Croc and more importantly, that sweet, sweet device known as the PlayStation (there may or may not have been a lot of crying that followed our separation). Naturally my thoughts turned to acquiring a PlayStation and Croc game of my own but sadly that wish would not come true until years later when I received a PlayStation 2 for Christmas, by that time Croc and even its sequel: Croc 2 had largely vanished from the shelves of various game stores, leaving me to wonder what might have been. Thankfully though I was never truly denied the joys of gaming, my PlayStation library is full of titles I’ve enjoyed and loved and its been steadily growing since I first got my PS2 which includes PSP, PS2 and PS3 games, and also one original PlayStation game, I’ll let you guess which one (hint: it’s Croc). I sometimes ponder how my gaming life would have unfolded had my neighbours bought their son an N64 instead, but regardless I have no regrets. Even if it did take me nearly 15 years to get Croc for myself and finally beat it. That is my first PlayStation memory.
“This is Sam.” My mother told me as she introduced my new neighbour.
Our meeting was perfunctory and efficient, as you might expect of a pair of 7 year olds. We quickly established that Star Wars was the best, Disney Channel was for babies and that our Super Nintendos were better than our friends’ Sega Megadrives.
And for a time it was good.
X-Wings defeated TIE Fighters, Donkey Kong Country was explored thrice and Disney Channel was never watched.
Along came the birthdays of ’98 and Sam’s parents made their smartest decision since giving his younger sister a name that rhymed with ‘Farta’.
He got a Nintendo f*ckin’ 64 man.
I was so envious. That kind of envy that burns deep within you; like when you see a guy on Facebook with a movie quality Boba Fett outfit or full-length back tattoo of a Yeti. That envy that when someone looks into your eyes, they see nothing but the husk of a man that only 64-bits can bring back to life.
“I’m so gonna ask for a 64 for my birthday next week!” I drooled whilst Sam showed me how you could stand on a toilet in Goldeneye.
But then my dumb parents went and ruined it. My birthday rolled around and in my Bart Simpson themed pyjamas (they were the style of the time) I was forced to feign excitement at my brand new Playstation that was very much not a Nintendo 64. Oh god, and then came the games.
Mario 64? Spyro’s just as good yeah?
Mario Kart? Nah bro, have some of this Gran Turismo.
Goldeneye? Are you effing serious kid? You’re 8.
I didn’t want to be an ungracious little shit but for real, what the hell is a ‘Crash Bandicoot’? Nevertheless, I gave them a crack. And sweet llamas of the Bahamas, am I glad I did. Not only were the games I had freakin’ awesome, the Playstation was just, I dunno…better at single player games. Unquestionably, playing games like Smash Bros and Mario Party at Sam’s was awesome, but who wants to play that shit by themselves? I was happy to go next door and falcon punch Kirby into Sector Z but then I got to go home and play Solid Snake all by myself (reading that sentence back, please ignore any unintended erotic euphemisms).
Sam stayed firmly in the Nintendo camp whilst I stuck to the Playstation through the generations. But this was always to my advantage. Together we enjoyed great multiplayer games like Perfect Dark, Mario Tennis and Conker’s Bad Fur Day. But alone I had access to the phenomenal single player worlds of Final Fantasy, Tomb Raider and Grand Theft Auto.
Sam always teased my PSX by calling it a ‘Play-with-yourself-station’. Well you know what; suck it Sam, you f*cking bet it was!
After years of my family playing Nintendo growing up, we were left in the dark with the activities of other consoles and options for entertainment. It wasnt until a quick stop into Gamemania where i finally laid my eyes on a Playstation1 and Resident Evil (it was set-up for customers)
What started as a quick stop in, escalated into a two hour session of embarrassment as my father got killed time after time after time on the very first zombie.
“slash with the knife then run back” we said impatiently
“im doing it, its a stupid f!@#ing game” was the common response as “you died” was plastered on the screen for everyone to see.
After watching Chris Redfield become zombie chow for the 15th time i took the control.
Do i pick Chris again, or try this fresh faced female character?
Suit up Jill you’re going in.
My father rushed over as he heard the sound of gunshots. Jill has a gun, the zombie had no chance.
The look my dad gave me knew that i was about to embark on a journey of entertainment that we had never experienced, a world of one-up-manship
I am lucky I knew pac man and pinball machines in parlours. Imagine our surprise when gaming came into our home, my kids and us played every Sunday evening on our Play station. It was quality family time and there was no phone internet or computer to disturb us. It made birthday gifts easy as everyone got the game they asked for. So many changes since then kids are grown and I sometime miss the simplicity of that era.
Back in about ’96 my friend had an old Master System that had been handed down to him, and we spent hours playing it together. His family had a Japanese boarder staying with them at the time who would mostly stay in his room and almost never spoke to us.
One day the boarder stuck his head out the door, took a quick look around to make sure there weren’t any parental types watching, and silently beckoned us. As we entered the dim room, he motioned to his bed. We sat down nervously while he looked on, grinning.
“You want to pray?” he asked us.
We politely declined and started shuffling towards the door, when he suddenly pressed a Playstation controller into my friend’s hand, turned on the TV and sat down next to us, all smiles.
It was the first time I’d heard those startup chimes. The incredible audio and subsequent graphics blew my little mind.
As did the terrifying opening video of his imported copy of Biohazard. The image of the severed hand burnt itself into my innocent young brain and kept me awake all night.
9 years ago; in 2005 I was 6 years old at a boys house, he was on his playstation 2 playing ratchet & clank and gave me absolutely no attention, we are now engaged and soon to be a married couple and I want to surprise him for his birthday in 2 months. 🙂 :*
My first PlayStation experience was during my time as a young bloke at primary school.
Growing up as a kid in the 90’s/early 2000’s, consoles and gaming were becoming huge for our generation. All my friends were getting an N64 or a PlayStation, while I was making do with an old SEGA Master System II (Yes, Alex Kidd was awesome). Every time I went to a friend’s place, they would kick my ass on whatever console and game they had. I wanted a PS more than any other console thanks to the controller being the more comfortable of the lot (a preference which still stays with me to this day), but my parents weren’t exactly able to ‘splash cash’ on myself or my sister at the time.
Somewhere along the line, The FYNA Foods Company come to our school to do a little promo for their Wizz Fizz product, and informed us they were holding an art competition. All we had to do was choose our favourite Wizz Fizz character and present them in a medium of our choice, and the most creative pieces would win prizes. Of course, top prize was a PlayStation. Score.
Being a more quiet type of kid, I really loved drawing and art, and my parents encouraged this a lot. I spent the better part of the week on a huge poster-sized drawing of “Nerdy Neil” – pencil, permanent marker, pastels, watercolours and even my sisters’ glittery green nail polish was used in this masterpiece. I was extremely happy with and the result, and submitted it promptly.
A few weeks passed and I honestly thought my chance to win had been long gone – I’d never really won anything anyway, so I had started to forget about the competition. I remember having a friend over on this particular day when my mum answered the phone, and said “It’s for you”. I answered the phone and was told, to my extreme delight, that it was someone from FYNA Foods. They congratulated me on my submission, and told me I’d won grand prize. I’d actually won something, and it was a PlayStation. Needless to say, I was the most stoked I’d ever been about anything up until that point.
From there it was all Tekken 3, Future Cop LAPD, Crash Bandicoot, Twisted Metal 2 and Road Rash: Jailbreak – after that, it was traded in for a PS2, and then that for a PS3, and I’ve never looked back.
I still remember when I received my first PlayStation 1. It was Christmas morning in 1998, I was only 3 but I remember my 2 older sisters and I unwrapping the PlayStation 1 as it was a joint present. We were so excited, we played Crash Bandicoot for hours. As I was still young I mainly sat there and watch my older sisters play and had a go when they let me but I loved it. Over time I soon got the hang of things and became an expert at all the games.
Every time we played we would have to start all over again as we didn’t have a memory card but we didn’t mind. We would take the PlayStation 1 on all of our holidays and spend many of our summer days playing our favourite games. Our PlayStation 1 has always been our favourite Christmas present and our childhood memories will always include the PlayStation 1.
I was a little kid in kindergarten when Christmas was coming and our teacher told us we could all wish for one thing and the Santa would bring it to us. We cathered in a circle and I was the first girl after all the boys who were yelling PS1 and N64 and when my turn came I was so confused. When my name was said I just yelled N64! I had no recollection what it was (I had seriously very bad memory). My friends got their first consoles while later in elementary school and I remember us playing Crash Bandigoot, Spyro, the old Lego-games and some other seriously great games.
Those game consoles as well as Super Nintendo and the later ones from both Sony and Nintendo have made my childhood the best there is and also the game freek I’m today.
At the age of seven I experienced my first encounter with Playstation that would be the catalyst for my avid love of gaming. Although I was very young at the time, I can still quite vividly recall the details of that Christmas morning. I remember running into the lounge room, lagging behind my sister who was two years older than me.
We both had a sack full of presents left by “Santa” but the one that stood out to us the most was the colourfully wrapped present sitting on its lonesome under the tree. Naturally, being the children we were, we both jumped for it, uncontrollably curious to discover what was concealed beneath the bright wrapping paper. It was addressed to both of us and without hesitation we ripped the paper off to reveal a spanking new Playstation One, accompanied by Crash Bandicoot 2.
I remember begging my parents for weeks for a Playstation, as well as writing it multiple times on my Christmas list highlighted by multicoloured underlining. I didn’t really know all that much about gaming, but I was convinced that I really wanted one.
Before I had been given my Playstation 1, I had not been particularly acquainted with any games before and as cliche as it sounds I can easily say that Playstation ignited my passion for gaming. I can vaguely remember the first time we booted up the Playstation as the title screen flashed in front of me. It was really something.
That Christmas morning, huddled around the television sitting in my Dad’s lap, while we all had a turn in playing Crash Bandicoot. I remember punching my sister in the arm because she was hogging the controller and trying to pull it off her so I could have a turn. I even remember beating it in the days following Christmas and how accomplished I felt. This was the first Playstation Experience I ever had and it will always be the most memorable and the most important experience I’ve had with gaming.
I admit I came to the PlayStation a little late because I only bought one when the new fangled game was released bundled with the console. That game was Final Fantasy VII and I remember getting the unit home, hooking it up and having the next 12 hours disappear in a blur of continuing the storyline and chasing down all the different things you could do as side-quests and the like. And I only stopped playing then when I got a call from my mother and I answered the telephone, realising I was in a dark house, with all the blinds still open, well past time I should have eaten something and also with the sudden realisation that my bladder was about to burst, even though I was parched. Good times. It would be nice to take a day, switch on the console and just forget about everything for another good 12 hour stint at some new age replacement to FFVII – any recommendations of something that plays that long these days? Dragon Age: Inquisition? Shadows of Mordor? (I was an early adopter of the PS2 and a fairly early adopter of the PS3, but alas, I have yet to pick up the PS4).
13 yr old me Gasping audibly as Kain (of “legacy of” fame) ripped the freshly grown wings from his favored Lieutenant Raziel and casting him into the whirlpool, and the land of the dead. Only to be ressurected by the Elder God. This was my first proper taste of the themes of betrayal, revenge and manipulation voiced by Michael Bell and Simon Templeton. It was glorious and captivating and stands as my perfect example of games as art, from the perfect voice cast to the deep and complex ( for a 13 yr old ) narrative. To this day it is one of my favorites.
My story starts out kind of bad. My older brother owned a PS1 and just as any of us gamers are, we are pretty protective of our gear (lol). My brother would never allow me to play it and I was always jealous when I couldn’t hang out with him and his friends when they played. One day he was out and I couldn’t resist getting on to play Tony Hawks Pro Skater. Me never having played many video games and being about 6 or 7 years old didn’t know how to use the console or play the game all that well. In a mere matter of seconds of button mashing I ended up unknowingly at the time, over-writing his near completed save of the entire game. I thought I was clever, thoroughly enjoying myself despite my lack of skill, thinking my older brother would never know of my experience. Later that day I heard my brother storming down the hall to my room and unleashing some of that classic gamer rage at me. I proceeded to ball my eyes out and avoid contact with him, until a week later he invited me to come play… Although I thought this odd he taught me how to perform the skating tricks, how to play the game properly, and most importantly how the system worked for saving games. We ended up completing the game together taking turns, staying up too late, eating pizza and I think we both know the soundtrack of TH1 from memory to this day. That bonding experience was nothing like I’d ever had with my older brother. Ever since then I have been a gamer and still own his PS1 system and Tony Hawks Pro Skater. (I’d upload a picture if possible for validity).
As a kid I lived in a different country than my dad, he was in the US working in order to take care of me and my mom. When he came down to visit us he would bring gifts for everyone; the game Spyro The Dragon immediately caught my eye. My dad lacked gaming experience, so little that he confused my Super Nintendo for a PlayStation; I knew right away that somehow, someway I had to play that game! It was Spyro’s unique, mischievous, yet friendly design that my dad made it his mission to get me a PlayStation, immediately we traded in my Super Nintendo for a PlayStation. He was never interested in video games, but Spyro got his attention, he was right there beside me when I played as Spyro running around causing trouble to herds of sheep, he would laugh at that. I could tell he was having a genuinely good time just watching me play. If it wasn’t for my dad I would’ve never discovered PlayStation’s many jewels and treasures at such a young age that cause this feeling of nostalgia today.
My first playstation experience was when I begged my mum for a ps2 as an 8 year old kid who had only ever played pokemon snap and super mario on n64. I was very young, and very innocent.
So Christmas came around and she got me a ps2, and it came in a bundle with a second controller, a memory card, and a game. The game, at that point, was Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. I loaded it up, excited to start playing, got to the first cutscene (skipped it), ended up in that alley outside Ken’s office and then thought “okay…so how do I take photos of the pokemon?”. Spoilers: There are no pokemon in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Only hookers and sadness.
At the age of 5 or 6 I was well into gaming, and with three older brothers I had plenty of competition. Now at the same time my family was going through a move and to cheer us up my mother got us a PS1. Out of the entire collection of fighters, RPGs, and racing games I would watch my older brothers play for hours upon end. I was very close with one of my older brothers mainly because he treated me like one of the big kids. Anyway, the game we played together most of all was Jet Moto, and man was this game fun. I still remember getting into a close 2nd with every race against my brother. About 6 years later, 6 months after my 12th birthday, that brother passed away in a car accident and it also broke my other brother’s back. My life has never been the same. Now I am married and have a beautiful baby girl and life is going pretty good for me so I purchased an older version of the PS3 (the one that can play Ps1 games). I bought the adapter and was going through old memory cards when I found the files of Jet Moto that my brother and I used. Just going down memory lane with all the fun my brothers and I had playing Star Ocean and countless final fantasies on the PS1 made my life as a child very great, and if it wasn’t for our PS. Maybe I wouldn’t be where I am today. So my first experience with a PS console has helped keep a very happy memory in my head to this day, and maybe one day I’ll be able to give that same experience to my daughter, and her child as well.
My youngest son, was and still is a loner, he could do everything a lot earlier than most kids, including using computers and playing console games etc, but he just didn’t like talking much at all, he would do anything to get around having to speak, until one day his older brother had gone out with their dad. My youngest didn’t want to go out, and stayed home, but then he realised he had no one to play the PlayStation with, he was 4yrs old at the time, so he had 2 choices, spend the whole day not playing the game, or ask mum and teach her how to play. So I got “called” into the lounge, where I was told to “sit, pick up the stick and don’t go away to do housework”, so me being a good mum and totally amazed at the amount of words coming from my sons mouth all in one go, I did as I was told, and listened very attentively to all the instructions on how to play the racing game with him (I don’t remember what the game was called, other than it was racing cars, then we switched to what I think was called sonic the hedgehog?). It was the first time he had really connected and interacted willingly with an adult, and we sat and played that game for many hours on that day. We laughed and poked fun at each other, and had a fantastic day together. My husband and other son arrived home, and they could hear us laughing from outside, so they crept around the back and snuck in to see what was going on. My husband just starred in total amazement, and without wanting to disturb us, left us be for awhile, stood back and just enjoyed watching his son open up for the first time. Thank you PlayStation, you were the key to connecting with our son and helping us become a family, we owe you more than we can say. After that day we spent many many days as a family playing games on that console, as for many years it was the only time he would speak much. He is now 26yrs old, and things haven’t changed much, he still doesn’t speak to anyone much, is still a loner, and really only connects to people whilst playing a game. Thank goodness the range of games now is more extensive lol. THANKS PLAYSTATION xox
First Experience with the Playstation – It began on christmas day 1998, I was 8 and my older brother 10.
We used to use large pillow cases as “santy sacks” filled with presents but this years seemed to have an odd large box inside. I think I was so young then I didnt quite understand why my parents got this for us, they knew I liked our uncles Sega Master System also my grandfather was over that Christmas and was filled in – he bought us Toca Touring Car Championship and my brother and I were hooked, we played so much on the old 13inch CRT TV down stairs – playing upstairs on the 19inch giant block of wood that was a TV was a special Treat.
The next year though… Something happened…It was my birthday and some how my brother (who was already over the PlayStation except for Crash Bandicoot 3) went shopping with my mum and randomly pointed out Final Fantasy 7.
And that’s where my gaming lifestyle began.
Since that day – Gaming became a passion and a priority over just about everything – it launched me into mmorpgs over the years building new gaming pc’s and into my career as an IT Tech
Leading me where to I am today 16 years later.
First Playstation experience was the PS1, living with my brothers while doing uni.
I remember spending many-a-dollar on Tekken at the rec club, having my arse handed to me by King aficionados with their endless throws. I always came back to it, marvelling at the 3D-ness and mechanics of the game.
That first Christmas, my brothers and I pooled our money to buy the PS1 – and me to buy Tekken. There was something marvellous about playing the arcade experience at home, owning my brother’s with Paul’s sweep-kick combo without fear of King-man spoiling my inflated ego. I still have bruises from those times – sibling rivalry can be harsh.
I can also remember discussing at the time that finally, the arcade had come home. The death of arcades began, and I never spent another dollar at the rec club.
My first Playstation experience was when my brother went over to our neighbour’s house. My brother’s five years older than me and so was our neighbour. As a really annoying younger brother, I wanted to go everywhere my brother went so I tagged along and nothing he could do or say would stop me.
I was about five years old and I watched my brother and our neighbour play Resident Evil for a couple of hours.
It gave me nightmares and I cried.
My brother loved it and somehow we ended up with our own Playstation. I remember a huge air of excitement followed by several hours of watching adults try to tune in the RF unit while looking at the box and being amazed by the prospect of a demo disc.
Many years later I found a note that I wrote when I was a kid saying “I used to like Nintendo but now I like Playstation” although I can’t remember writing it. My best guess is that I was brainwashed by the witch doctor in Crash Bandicoot.
The PS1 was the first console I ever owned, and the one that had the most lasting impact on me. Just seeing the colour of that PS4 brought back fond memories, and I secretly hoped it would have the pop-up disc tray. I can still remember getting way too excited playing a frustrating level in Spyro and pulling out the controller’s cord, or loading up my memory card with my save games and taking them over to a mate’s house. But the most lasting experience for me, was playing Croc – Legend of the Gobbos. I remember, way back in ’98, having a lot of trouble navigating through some of the platforming levels, and every time I died, they’d play some of the most depressing music, and show the Gobbos that I was letting down. It was the first time that music has ever really made an impact for me in a game, and it’s happened rarely since. And now I’m gonna have to hook it up to the TV again
I was 5 years old the Christmas that I got my first Playstation. Until then I didn’t even know what a games console was. I lived in Sydney, and that year my parents managed to sneak the console all the way to our family celebrations in Adelaide without me noticing. I wasn’t even sure what it was when I opened it, but dammit was I excited! I really feel sorry for anyone else who bought me a present that year.
The gift, accompanied by Crash Bandicoot and Hercules, was from the ‘cool’ uncle who was in his early 20s at the time. He didn’t actually have one himself, so he was just as excited as I was to plug it in and get going. Being a five year old who had no idea what a Bandicoot was, let alone a Crash Bandicoot, I fumbled the Hercules disc into the console and pressed buttons until it magicked itself to life.
The game began and all of a sudden I’m Hercules, albeit a Hercules struggling with basic movements. I can only imagine how frustrating it must have been to watch. I get frustrated now just watching my 18 year old brother things I could “do in one try if you’d give me the damn controller”.
I’m not sure if this story really translates for whoever is reading this, but just try to imagine the excitement of Christmas when you’re five years old combined with the excitement of first turning on a new console! Who knows, maybe one day I’ll see the same Playstation magic if I ever give a console to a young son/nephew/neice/daughter on Christmas day.
My first experience actually began with the Nintendo 64…it was the late 90s , I was 14, and the world was ruled by the number of bits a console had and to me it seemed like the N64 would be unbeatable and I was a staunch Nintendo fan defending the SNES from my other Sega loving friends. I would never have thought at that time that “Sony”, a company synonymous with the music and the “Walkman” would significantly shift the then gaming rivalry between Sega and Nintendo and become the first console I owned.
I would always go over and play my best friend’s SNES and both of us frothed with excitement at him getting his hands on an N64 for Christmas. However, one day when I was loitering around the games area of Kmart (while my mum shopped at woolies) I happened across a kid playing Final Fantasy 7 on a Playstation. When the kid left, the guy behind the counter handed me the controller and I began playing what I still consider one of my favourite games.
Since then every time I went to the shopping centre, mum would drop me off at the games section and I would start playing FF7. The guy behind the counter actually noticed this and he cheekily offered me a memory card (that he would keep under the counter) to save my progress with. I never thought I would be so entranced by a game that was mostly centred around turn based gameplay and long involved storyline. I knew then that I wanted…no I NEEDED a PlayStation.
I began my first job that same year working for a major automotive retailer (Kmart was hard to crack…it would have been my dream back then). Saving my payslips, I finally purchased my first PlayStation (much to the chagrin of my best friend who got an N64). I fell in love with Final Fantasy, Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid, Suikoden 1 and 2, Tomb Raider…the list goes on.
My parents never had enough money to buy me a console back in those days…so the PlayStation was something precious as it was the first console I bought with money I earned. These days, the console has retired in my old bedroom at home. I used to play it till the laser became so damaged I had to turn it on it’s side or upside down to keep playing. The PlayStation was my first console and it will always hold a special place in my memory.
At 15 i had moved out of home, i was living on study allowance to go to school so i couldn’t afford to buy a PlayStation, or even waste money on anything other than food and school gear.
Every week I’d walk past my local VIDEO 2000 and see the rentals board
“PlayStation System $25 per night rental, $50 deposit”
Every time I’d think, ‘man i wish i could afford that’
I had moved in with a friend a few months after moving out of home.
he had a SNES and we loved playing that as much as possible, however 1 day we decided to pool what little money we had, his father gave us the $50 deposit and we hired a PlayStation….
It was the greatest day ever, we ran down to the store, and then spent an hour and a half standing in the store trying to work out what game to hire the limited funds we had were not to be squandered, and ultimately we decided on hiring the system for 2 days… so that only left with enough money to hire 1 game….
what to choose….. i remember seeing the cover for it and thinking…. that looks amazing, the graphics were the most advanced i’d ever seen… that game was “metal gear solid”… so after making the final decision we grabbed the machine and RAN home.
Set-up the machine, inserted the disk and pressed the power button…. nothing happened…. in all our excitement we had forgotten to turn it on at the wall 😀
We sat there watching the initial PS logo, and then the opening credits for MGS, at this point we couldn’t decide who would start the game first, so we flipped a coin and he won, we agreed, each death or level completion would mark the switching point to the next player, For the first 3 hours of play this was the norm, switching and trying all kinds of new strategies… at about the 6 hour mark…. neither of us wanted to play any more… we both wanted to just watch the game be played… it was so exciting and absolutely amazing…
We played MGS for 2 days straight no sleep, minimal stoppage time for food and after about 38 hours we completed the game…. it was an amazing feeling, the first time either of us has played a PlayStation, the game we chose was so incredible, the fact that we finished it all combined to be one of my best memories.
My first PlayStation experience would be when I bought my first PlayStation Console. My family didn’t have the money to buy me one. So I saved up! It took me all year to save enough money to buy a PS3.(I was roughly 9 or 10 years old and PS3’s were roughly $500 at that time so it was a big effort) The closest store that sold PS3’s was 2 hours away and it was only weeks before Christmas! I bought an 80GB PS3 with Guitar Hero. On the way home my excitement must have been so immense that the whole family was rocking out to the radio singing and playing air guitar all the way home for 2 hours! When I got home I set it up (so much confusion doing such a simple task due to it being my first ever console). But when I saw that start up screen with the music I knew it was time to jam out with the family! We played the PlayStation the whole night! My mum and sister really got a liking to it and we played guitar hero every night for at least a month! And after that month we created “FRIDAY NIGHT JAMS” and every Friday we jammed out till the early morning for about a year! We clocked the games sooo many times! I’m now 17 and I still have a PS3 and still rock out to the same Guitar Hero Game every now and them with my mum!
Growing up, my family and I struggled with money. As such, I never felt like a normal kid. All my friends and younger cousins growing up had the original PlayStation, and then the subsequent PlayStation One. Whenever I was over at their house, I would have the opportunity to play the console for only half an hour at best. I still remember the original Crash Bandicoot, Spyro and early versions of Final Fantasy. I was upset, but understood that I could never ask my parents for one.
I finally decided to let that dream go, and endeavoured to buy one when I got older and saved up enough money from part time jobs. On my 13th Birthday, I didn’t expect much. All I wanted was to spend time with my family (close and extended). To my utter shock and surprise, my parents had organised for everyone in the extended family to chip in money to buy me a brand new PlayStation 2, complete with two controllers, a game (Rayman M), a memory card, and the DVD remote control and device.
I was so incredibly grateful for their kindness. There were no words to describe my happiness. I now know that the wait was entirely worth it.
My first experience, well the PlayStation in question was purchased before I was born and my mum used to play Crash Bandicoot while she was pregnant with me. Eventually I was two years old and I started to play Crash Bandicoot myself, it was wonderful. My dad’s friend came back from Bali with a bunch of games, Spyro, Abe’s Oddysey, Tony Hawk, Metal Gear Solid, Tomb Raider, Gex and Rayman. I played them all and loved every second of it.
I’ve never owned a Playstation, feel like I missed out on a lot of good games.
Still a better story than Destiny.
Give this man a PS4!
I remember my first PlayStation experience,
At my cousins’ place, not long after Christmas.
They’d got a new console, and I sat and watched,
And couldn’t believe what I’d witnessed.
It was surely some kind of wizardry,
The characters moved in three dimensions.
My gaming standards lifted immediately,
Plumbers and pipes no longer held attention.
My brother and I, we begged our parents,
And then, when he turned twelve,
He unwrapped that glorious PSone,
And finally, we had one ourselves.
We played it for hours on end,
Rarely stopping for a break,
One minute skateboarding with Tony Hawk,
The next, sneaking around as Snake.
A few years later, a new console was released,
We knew what we had to do,
We saved up for months and months,
And bought a PlayStation 2.
The PS2 was revolutionary,
Like nothing I’d seen before,
It could play games and DVDs!
I’d never been entertained more.
It brought us SingStar, EyeToy, Buzz,
Guitar Hero and Grand Theft Auto III,
I thought we’d reached the pinnacle of gaming,
Then along came PlayStation 3.
Games went into a new dimension,
For the first time in high definition,
Also a first, for me at least,
Was the opportunity for online competition.
I played with Sackboy in his LittleBigPlanet,
I pressed X to Jason in Heavy Rain,
I made the Journey with myself,
And defeated the Joker as Bruce Wayne.
Now the PlayStation 4 is here,
And like its older brothers,
It innovates what we know as gaming,
Keeping ahead of all the others.
I’ve grown up with PlayStation,
Pressing triangle, circle, square and X,
And even after twenty years,
I’m still just as excited for what’s next.
I was around 5 years old when I first saw the PS2 being played at my friend’s house. It was new at the time and all I had known was Nintendo consoles. It my first experience and I remember it because it was my dad and his friend playing Resident Evil: Code Veronica and it pretty much terrified me. It wasn’t until around 2003 when I got a PS1 of my own after we moved states, that’s when my real gaming phase begun, all I did was play Crash Bandicoot and Spyro.
Eventually I got a PS2 and loved that as well, and really just kept sticking with Playstation.
Gosh, I really hope my story gets noticed. Either way, here it is 🙂 back in 1998, I lived in rural Italy. Every time we wanted to go the city, San Benedetto, we had to drive this long and spiralling road down our little ‘hill village’ in Montereggioni (this is before Assassin’s Creed made the place famous!). During these trips, I would day dream about playing my PlayStation – where I was up to in MediEvil, whether my parents would buy me Crash Bandicoot 2 (or even better, 3!). A genuine PlayStation kid, through and through. I was around 9 years old, and I was obsessed with one thing only – Official PlayStation Magazine. The demo discs, the amazing hand drawn cover art – that alone inspired me on so many levels. I’ll tell you about he day, we got a PlayStation. My life truly changed – suddenly, I was learning English vocabulary at break-neck speed from the almost Shakespearean Soul Reaver, was introduced to American Military History (and superb, sublime Hideo Kojima weirdness) through MGS in 1999…and FFIX, the swan song of the lil grey platform, revolutionised my world. The effect these games had on me to this day as a person are beyond my ability to express myself – and all of them were made possible by that magic grey box. MediEvil, which I played in the best setting possible pretty much (a cosy cobblestoned medieval italian village), and Tekken 3 chewed up so much of my time, that they each delivered me straight into my two main (apart from PlayStation) life passion, Capoeira (Eddy Gordo) and Storytelling. Abe’s Oddysee, Resident Evil, Parasite Eve, even Croc! gosh…this platform, this company has simply been the birthplace of what I genuinely believe Is and will always continue to be the very best of games, and what they are capable of. You can literally feel it with Sony – they fully recognize the power of the medium, to transcend film and TV, to connect with people on the most human level – through interactivity. But let me finish my story, hehe. Back then, I saw a competiton in OPSM – an art submission contest. I discovered to my great dismay that a ‘friend’ had taken one of my drawings (a present to him), entered it under his name, and won! Well, Matteo Zinnia, if in the millionth of a chance I win this (and the billionth chance you notice this, hehe), ill happily dedicate it to your health 😛 but in all sincerity…I just know that, we’re I to be the lucky chosen for one of these (I don’t have a PS4 yet), it would without a doubt be passed on to my kids (and their kids), as a testament to the company, to the time, which bore the golden age of games. That is all. Thanks!! Sincerely and with great hope, Albert
I was young, and didn’t really have many friends at school, so my time outside of education was spent with books, drawing and of course, video games. One particularly rough day at school, I come home seeking solace in video games, my game of choice at the time was Shining Force II on the Mega Drive. I could tell I was getting close to the end, the final confrontation with Zeon. Just had to make it passed this fight with Odd Eye… From the moment I step in the door, I can tell something is wrong. My older brother is there with his 3 year old daughter, and my mum gives me a really odd look.
“Now, don’t go getting upset but…”
My brothers daughter had ripped Shining Force from the Mega Drive, managed to bend it in to a completely unusable shape, then had gotten her hands on a pair of scissors and cut the power, video and controller cables as well as jamming the scissors in to the cartidge slot, ruining the connectors. I don’t remember it, but apparently I just sat there the entire afternoon looking at the remains of my Mega Drive and Shining Force. We weren’t a well off family, so getting another console in the middle of the year was out of the question. I was honestly lost without video games.
I come home from school the next day, and there’s a plastic bag full of cables and other things sitting on my bed. I tip the contents out on to the floor so I can make sense of it all. It’s a Playstation, the cords and a blank CD case with a game inside. My brother had felt so bad he had gone out and gotten me this Playstation (I learned a few years later he had swapped it for a substantial amount of marijuana with one of his friends).
I didn’t set it up for a few days. I was still upset about Shining Force. I was really enjoying it, and I was so close to finishing. One day I set the Playstation up, put the disc in and see what the fuss is about. I don’t know what compelled me this day, but I plugged my headphones in to my TV so I could immerse myself in this experience completely.
For the next few days, when I was not at school, I was completely and utterly lost in the world, the sights and sounds, of Rollcage. The drum and bass soundtrack calmed me completely as I spend hours and hours just racing around the time trial track, learning all the ins and outs, cutting milliseconds off my previous times. I was completely zen while playing Rollcage, feeling as though this must be how it feels to be one with everything.
To this very day, this is my go to song whenever the world starts to stress me out.
I was about 8 years old, at my uncle’s house for Thanksgiving, and my cousin had his Playstation out, playing Crash Bandicoot. I was a big Nintendo fan at the time, and didn’t know about Playstation. I remember being captivated by the aesthetic style and quirky gameplay, I had to try it. I had only played NES before that so it was really hard for me to grasp the controls, so I gave up and just watched in fascination. Fast forward 10 years, finally ended up getting a PS2 and picked up Crash Bandicoot to receive a nostalgia overload! I’ve become a big Playstation fan since that day.
Being seven years old in a Toys R Us and begging my parents to buy me the original PlayStation, honestly i don’t think i even grasped the concept of what a video game was, just knew that all my friends had one and i wanted it too. Then having to leave the store empty handed and in tears..few days later i come home from school and get a awesome surprise, it was the PlayStation console along with Spyro the Dragon video game. One of my favorite memories!
‘Do not underestimate the power of PlayStation’; kind of a clever tagline, very Star Wars-y. But I took it quite literally.
The PlayStation had the power to make our share house stop playing Super Mario World. What kind of ungodly box was this? What could be better than SMW? At the time, Tekken, Wipeout, and Time Crisis were.
I’ve since returned to SMW many times… but back then, the PS1 had the power to pull us away.
I sold my first PS1 in 1997 due to poor uni grades, but couldn’t handle not having one, so I bought another one immediately. Powerful. If I win the PS4, I promise to eye it suspiciously as it sits under the TV, poised to disrupt my life once again. I haven’t bought a PS4 for myself yet because I am scared.
I was a Nintendo 64 owner in the 90s living in Canberra but I had one video game obsession the 64 couldn’t quench… Tekken 3!
I’d sunk enough money into that coin-op in its first year of release to buy several consoles such was the nature of the game’s fighting mechanics and the lure of imagined greatness that came with playing as Eddy Gordo!
A local cafe in the Nightclub precinct (KC’s) used to a frequent haunt for me and my friends as we obtained grey imports of Star Trek videos from the UK and marvelled at their vast collection of imported video game curios (it’s still to this day the only place I’ve seen a virtual boy in the flesh!)
When news broke out that Tekken 3 was coming to the Playstation I started to seriously consider buying one – mentioning it to the owner at KC’s he suggested I buy a chipped Playstation (from him of course) so I could play the Japanese release.
The Japanese game came in a slimline case (the instructions weren’t those thick books) with colourful artwork but loaded with Japanese text it didn’t matter – it looked and played like Tekken 3 (better in a lot of respects)
Many great games followed – Soul Blade, Jumping Flash, Crash Bandicoot and Metal Gear Solid
You know in all the years of owning a chipped machine it was never used to play pirated games it was only to bypass the region lock on a game that I desperately had to have!
I was born in 1993, a year before the first Playstation was released. I got two big brothers (who were about to enter college) and they brought Playstation home along with bunch of games and additional accessories like gun controller to play Time Crisis.
I remembered sitting behind while both of my brother played Playstation from day to night, arguing, and fighting. But in the very next day, they are willing to sit back together to play Gran Turismo together. Though, they both have different taste of the games. My first one tends to like action and adventure, I remembered hiding behind my brother’s back while he is playing Resident Evil and Dino Crisis.
The second one tends to like sports and racing. I was there when he invited bunch of his college mates to play Winning Eleven, in a cup mode. It was a really great experience for me as a child to be able to see such enjoyment and fun that a simple box can give to a family and friends.
Now, I am on my 21, I must say I had a pretty decent gaming skills since watching from my brothers’ back. I had decent skills of playing Fifa and enjoyed to be sucked in the realms of world of many thrilling action game titles that Playstation may offer.
My earliest (and vaguest) memory is holding my dad’s hand while he carried the box to the counter in K-mart. It was a present for mum’s birthday, though looking back, I think that might’ve been a fib.
I also remember that long before my parents became the King and Queen of Tetris and Bejewelled, they would mop the floor with me and later my brother every chance they got. Mum was the Deadshot of Point Blank, while dad had perfect control of any car he touched in Gran Turismo.
Ah memories
Back in the day, there was a store that ruled all rentals known as Blockbuster. That store is long gone but it allowed for my brothers and I to experience the Playstation 1 for the first time and enjoy an awesome game called Jet Moto 2. After this experience, my memory of the Playstation has been one of pure enjoyment with Jak and Daxter to countless hours of co-op games with friends. After purchasing a PS3 two years ago, I was finally able to play Shadow of the Colossus and oh man was I surprised with how perfect the storytelling and gameplay were in that game. After this, I realized how great a history the Playstation has had through the years with their games and I am hooked.
I had heard about the Playstation for a while, even seen one in stores but I’d never played one before. When I was 8 or 9 and I was in after school daycare we would play around and so on, and usually it would be fine. But one afternoon it rained. It didn’t just rain it poured. Suddenly they pulled out a TV and a Playstation from nowhere and they where playing this weird game where a rodent guy jumps around. After a while they let me have a turn and after playing through the very first racing level in Crash Bandicoot: Warped I was hooked! I’ve bought every generation of the Playstation up til now and characters like Crash and Spyro will always hold a special place in defining why I still love games so much today.
My first hands-on experience with the PS2 was when I was 9. My parents for some reason had this weird concept that I wasn’t allowed to play “big kid” video games (such as the Play Station) until I was 10, so when my older brother received a PS2 with Devil May Cry, I had to sit back and watch. For some reason, watching violence was fine, but participating in it was not. Gosh, parents.
In any case, the game immediately drew 9-year-old me in. Maybe it was the cheering of “Cool! Bravo!”, or maybe it was the creepy phantoms with huge scissors, but some part of the game compelled me to break my parents rules about “big kid” video games. Once my family was out of the house, I played the game for 4-straight hours before being caught. I remember I got pretty far, too, since the majority of the game was button-mashing combos.
Fast-forward a year later, and I get sent to a Lutheran Private School. Maybe my old-school parents feared for me?
It was still worth it. Plus, made a best friend at the school. We’re both heathens now so maybe that game had something to say about me.
I came from a poor family and the only time I got to play a Playstation was when I went to a friends house. Otherwise, all I had was a Sega Master System II with almost every game you could think of, considering you could buy them for like 5 bucks a pop at the time from the pawn shops. I was probably about 10 at the time. (I’m 27 now). So I was pretty late to the party.
I used to go over to my friends to play Metal Gear Solid, Parasite Eve 2 and Resident Evil 2 all the time. Then I entered a Lays Chips competition to actually win a PSX and I won. Which for a 10 year old kid who never thought he would own his own console, was pretty mind blowing.
Of course though, I was still poor. So, I had to rely on demo discs to get me by. The amount of times I played through the MGS demo, I can’t even tell you. Then finally for my birthday when I was about 11 or 12, I got Final Fantasy VIII. My first full copy game. And it was glorious. Because it was my first game FFVIII still holds a special place in my heart. So yeah, I had a couple of firsts lol
My First Experience with a PlayStation was back in 1999, my brother finally got his own place, and it always used to be a treat when I got to spend the day there, Like mind blowing that this 20 yr old was willing to take care of his 3 yr old brother, but he played my very first game with me, this being the best game ever made, Medievil, this game still to this day is my favourite game, then next year he gave me the console, and I have been a gamer ever since, My first and favourite PlayStation memory 🙂
I just moved from the US to Australia (a reverse migration of my father who left Australia to live in the US at my age) and had spent a month working on a ranch in Queensland because why not. I actually have only ever been surrounded by xbox’s until I got a job at the EB Expo representing Far Cry 4 where we were able to play it on ps4’s and I could not have had more fun. I kept sneaking in times playing, the controller in particular is a dream. Anyway I still can’t afford a console as I used much of my savings moving across the planet and if I could only have one thing for christmas please god/kotaku let it be this.
My very first experience on a playstation was a PS1 at one of my (now long estranged) primary school friends’ sleepover birthday parties. We had Crash Team Racing, Coca-Cola and an endless supply of enthusiasm. We also had only 4 controllers to share between the 9 of us. Needless to say we took it upon ourselves to draw up a tournament ladder on a giant piece of A2 paper and commenced what I do believe was my very first ‘all nighter’.
That was the very first time I played a playstation. However it was also the beginning of something else – a relentless, and ultimately effective, campaign to get one for christmas from my parents (longest 5 months ever).
I’m now a university graduate with a professional job, girlfriend, home and car – and I STILL have my first PS1, my PS2, my PS3 and my entire collection of FF, KH, Uncharted and Gran Turismo games.
Interesting aside: my favourite ever video game is FFX on PS2 (and now PS3 with the HD remaster).
I suppose this post is the beginning of a new campaign for a new Christmas present. So, Kotaku, please don’t make me nag.
I don’t remember when i first played the playstation, it was a wedding present for my parents so i wasn’t born yet. All i remember about the PS1 was the games i used to play when i was finally old enough to play it. I played the must have Crash Bandicoot, That was my favourite, i remember an old racing game as well and my dad even had Duke Nukem, but i never played it as it was too violent for the 3-4 year old me, I even remember an old Sega console sitting next to it rarely used except on the occasion when me and my uncle played Sonic. My favourite experience with the Playstation is Kingdom Hearts 2 on the PS2 about 7-8 years later, The first video game i ever cried about, my nostalgia for those days has lead me to buy Kingdom hearts 2.5 and i am currently teaching my 7 year old brother how to play it.
My first, and favourite, Playstation memory was when my parents (i mean, Santa…) gave our family a Playstation 1 for Christmas in 1998, so the whole family sat around our lounge room playing the first Spyro the Dragon game and Fifa ’99. I was 5 years old and had just started playing soccer so my father and my older brother helped teach me the rules through Fifa ’99, and my younger sister and I absolutely loved Spyro from the moment we first played it.
After my parents got divorced, my mother was kicked out of the house, and with 3 other siblings younger than you, it was difficult to maintain life with a father that was a drunk. About 3 months of living with him, he told us that we were going to have one night with our mom by ourselves. He dropped us at a nearby park, and drove away, leaving us to wait for our mother. Once we saw her, we were all crying and excited to see her. She took us to her cousins house where their children had a PS2. The only game we had to play was Sonic Heroes, and because there were 4 of us, we had to take turns with the 2 controllers. That one day created memories that I would hold forever. Six years later, my 2nd cousins were donating a lot of things, and the PS2 was one of them. I didn’t want to them to give the PS2 away. I called them up, and asked if I could have the game system and Sonic Heroes. They agreed and I got it. 4 years later, whenever I come home from college and my 3 other siblings are there, I try to get them to play Sonic Heroes, for the sentimentality. But they rarely want to. Getting the PS4 would allow me to create new memories with my 3 other siblings, because let’s face it, they don’t want to play a 10 year old game on a 14 year old game system. Even though there is only a max of 2 players at a time, we will still be able to take turns playing a variety of different games, or watching movies or the other many things that the Playstation 4 can do. This would be to strengthen the weak bonds that the divorce broke between my siblings and I, so that in the future, we won’t be so distant after my mother dies. And ultimately, our kids will be able to enjoy each other’s company due to said bonds that were strengthened.
I was 4, my parents had just ordered a game from across the seas called “Muppet racing”. From memory it was from america but I am not too sure. anyway it was given to me on my birthday and ever since I’ve been a Sony fan. I still have that game on my shelf but unfortunately it stopped working after about 5 years. it is by far still my favourite game for ps1 and i’ll never forget it. Today still at the age of 14 i miss that game so much and its been 10 years since ive had it. Even if it doesn’t work i don’t think i’ll ever throw it away 😉
My first playstation memory was spending too much time at a friend’s house playing Final Fantasy 7 and and Abe’s Odyssey in the late 90s.
This led to us buying our own PS a few months later for Xmas and an addiction was spawned in my heart. This all led to the moment when I purchased The Last of Us on PS3, probably the greatest game I have ever touched.
First ever experience was 14 years ago when I can recall playing metal gear solid on PlayStation.
I truly believed it was me who had infiltrate and neutralize the terrorist threat from Foxhound.
I was nine at the time and it was the most liberating experience to watch my enemies’ fellow my footsteps in the snow only for me to surprise them with my melee attack.
I owe Metal Gear for my successful Military career.
I’m the crabby mum who said “NO, I’m not buying one of those! What’s wrong with your computer? It plays games! I play games on the computer!” And… no, I didn’t buy one, but the kids did with hard earned cash from paper deliveries. I was proud of their achievement.
Less crabby now and wowed by the awesome things I’ve seen the PS do. We even borrowed one to play Blu-Ray movies for a while and yes, I admit those games look pretty good too.
So now generation 4 of the great PlayStation is here with an anniversary to celebrate so I’d like to upgrade the old one for the kids by winning them this 20th Anniversary Limited Edition PlayStation 4 delight. Won’t that give them a fright!
My first PlayStation Experience. Wow that was a long time ago. On the Christmas of 2000 my parents bought me, my brother and sister a PSone. Along with the console they bought Crash Bandicoot, Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back and Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped. As the nerdy one of the family I immediately set the console up and started playing it without even bothering to open the rest of my presents. I spent the next week attempting to finish the first Crash bandicoot, but, only being 5 years old I got stuck on pretty much the third level and even to this day I haven’t finished that game.
Now the most interesting part of this story is the fact that the PSone interested my Dad. Now my dad is very technology illiterate. He calls me all the time asking questions like why won’t the computer turn on and it’s usually because the Monitor is turned off (lol). He has never shown any interest in video games. But he figured he would learn how to play the PSone so he went out and being the old man he is bought Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2000 (That’s right a Golf Game). He then spent 3 full days, I am not even joking it was a full 3 days, playing this game trying to get a hole in one on every hole. The best part is he succeeded in his goal and since the day he finished that game he has never touched a console since then.
This was my first experience with a Sony Playstation and not only did it make me the happiest kid in the world, it made my father, a man who would and still does, yell at me for playing games for too many minutes a day, a man who has never touched a video game console since the Christmas of 2000, spend a whole three days of his life perfecting a Golf Game and it was all because of the PSone.
One game stood out for me, a game called Maximo. I was fascinated by this game although I was too scared to play it at the time; I enjoyed watching my best friend play. It wasn’t until last year when I picked up my first PlayStation console and finally bought Maximo through PSN. still nervous from when i was a kid, watching the download bar complete, shivers went down my spine, as i knew I finally had the courage to conquer the game of my childhood.
I have devoted a large part of my life to the incomparable gaming experience that Playstation presents. I was lucky enough to be gifted with my first Playstation for Christmas as a 13 year old in December 1995, when I indulged in countless hours playing Air Combat, NBA Jam Tournament Edition and the ridiculously addictive Rayman; the primary reason why I needed toothpicks to keep my eye open at compulsory family events during that holiday period!
Now, they say people grow up and move on from these things, increasing their attention on life’s responsibilities and rapidly decreasing their devotion to seemingly ‘childless’ pursuits, like gaming (go figure?!).
But not me.
After enjoying the Playstation experience, I purchased a Playstation 2; something I had my eye on ever since peering at its beauty through the shop window one day. This resulted in several years of sleepless nights, ridiculous excuses why I wasn’t attending work and even more outlandish reasons why key family events weren’t important enough to be on my calendar. At this stage I was a FIFA franchise fiend; and it was fabulous!
My devotion was again tested (as was my relationship) when I purchased a PS3 in the summer of 2010, thinking it would be a nice hobby and a lovely way of distracting myself from a busy working life. My girlfriend at the time (now my wife, surprisingly!) told me we were to attend a christening the following week. However, I knew this was the same day as Mafia 2 was to be released on Playstation 3.
Considering I was the godfather of the child, I guess I really had to go? But it was niggling me. All I wanted to do was stay home, play the game and let her go ahead to attend the christening. So I faked being sick that morning, took the day off work and played it all day while she was at work! I hid the game when she got home, she went to the christening and I continued to play! She still doesn’t know to this day!
Well, more time has passed since this occasion and, while I’d like to think I am a more responsible and well rounded person, my devotion to Playstation has never really been tested, even after all of these events.
Playstation for life!
I was 12 when I heard of the first gen Playstation, due to its price, my parents couldn’t afford to buy me one. That was around the time when the SNES console was cheap so we got that instead. All the while, my heart was set in getting the PlayStation. So I saved my lunch money for a while, mowed my neighbours lawn for money and saved up enough for a PS1 with Street Fighter EX plus Alpha. Parents weren’t happy that I never played the SNES anymore so I sold it and gave the money back to my parents
Bought a PlayStation at a small independent game store back before the days of EB Games and JB Hi Fi and a copy of Final Fantasy 7 (in 1997). I became a fan of Japanese role playing games and have been ever since, but my favorite memory is buying Guitar Hero for my husband’s birthday party and getting all the guests hooked on it, and his classically trained violinist friend playing the guitar like a violin – violin hero – so much fun!
when I was around 5 years old I was introduced to the ps1 by my uncle who owned one at the time. When ever I went to visit him we would play grand tourismo for hours on end. I was a bit of a sore loser and would rage and cry everytime I lost. we also played the Rugrats game and there was a fashion show were you would dress up angelica, the crowd would always boo my fashion skills and cheered whenever my uncle played. Let’s just say I wasn’t very happy.
Thankfully at the age of 19 I don’t cry anymore, and don’t rage as much 😉
I’ve been a proud owner of a PS1,PS2,PS3 and yet still waiting to grab a ps4.
I don’t remember exactly when I got my PS2, but it was a while ago. I remember playing GTA Vice City for the first time at my friend’s house and marveling at the amazing (at the time) graphics, spending long hours of my day when I should have been doing homework playing MX Unleashed, and wasting a lot of my young life playing the Tony Hawk’s series from Pro Skater 4 up to American Wasteland. To this day I still occasionally boot up my generations-old PlayStation 2 and revel in the memories of my childhood, even after I got my Xbox 360 and this year my Xbox One. Sure I didn’t have the original PlayStation like the majority of the others, but my PS2 was enough for me. I was born too late, I’d say.
Jeez, my first experience with a Playstation?
I was probably about 3, and my brother had a Playstation in his loft. I’d sneak up there sometimes and play a game with one of those arcade-like guns (I honestly cannot remember which title it was). I did that for about a year, and then we moved. My brother with the first Playstation didn’t come with, but my other one did. He had a Playstation 2 (and I’m pretty sure he still has it, sadly it doesn’t read game disks any longer). I don’t know how many times I’d find myself in his room playing that thing, but I do remember that Jak and Daxter and Timesplitters 2 were a staple for me. I’d love to make maps in Timepslitters (although I could never make one with any sort of flow in the map), and Jak was basically Grand Theft Auto without the women and foul language. Eventually that Playstation left with my brother going to college, and then came our PS3. My dad and I would play Sacred 2 together, and made a pretty darn good team! We’d spend hours playing while my mom would just shake her head at us.
Great times were spent on those consoles.
(I forgot about Spyro!)
When I was a kid I was a huge fan of jrpgs on my snes so when given a choice between n64 or a ps1, I thought the n64 would continue to get great rpgs so when I found out that ff7 was coming out on ps1, I immediately sold the n64 in hopes to get enough money to buy one but I didn’t have enough so I sold my bike and my stamp collection as well to cover the gap. So my first experience was when I finally got the ps1 and ff7 I didn’t know I needed a memory card until I started playing and having sold all my valuable possessions to get this far I ended up only being able to play to the end of the first disc which I did repeatedly until I saved up for a memory card….
no story from my side , I just can’t afford it but I like it as I played this many times at friends place.
Thanks
My Old Friend………
When I was young, My father took me and my Brother to the local video shop. As always, We looked at the video games and dreamed of playing them. we had never seen a Playstation before and was surprised when Dad told us we could hire one and pick 1 game to play for 3 nights.
We both agreed on a Namco game know as Rage Racer, which was a spin off of the Popular Ridge Racer series. It had 3 tracks that repeated over and over each level plus an extra track in the higher levels and something that really exited us, Customisable car logos where you could draw a logo pixel by pixel.
The Sony Playstation console itself was you typical hire console a SCPH-1002 in a aluminium style case that was bolted in and had laminated instructions on what to do and what not to do and the correct ways to hook it up to the TV, RF or AV.
We didn’t have memory cards so we had to keep restarting the game. but we enjoyed it so much we wanted to get our own copy. then it had to go back to the rental store, the last time I would probably ever see it.
About a year later for Christmas we got a big surprise! A brand new Sony Playstation SCPH-7502 with the game “Road and Track presents The Need For Speed” me and my brother would play this as much as we could without fighting over it, but Still without a memory card.
I tried to find Rage Racer in retail but i was told the same thing at every store, It was Deleted (Discontinued) I was sad. Over the years I continued to get more games and memory cards and even moved onto the next generation of Sony Playstation consoles. soon The games we had acquired counted into the 100’s then reached over 2000.
The old video game shop That i visited so long ago was finally going out of business. at the back on a table was a pile of VHS tapes, some other DVDs not worth mentioning and a old banged up Aluminium case that was being held together with tape.
on it was a sign. EX rental console with 3 games. Tomb Raider III (Disc Only), Rage Racer and Suikoden II $30.
Hello old friend, your coming home with me….
In the late 1990s I was living in Takasaki in Japan. I had never owned a console before: just played enviously on my friends’. Unannounced and unprompted, my new girlfriend decided to buy me a PS1 two weeks into our relationship for Valentine’s Day. Incredibly kind of her, but a strategic error, as it turned out. Very soon I was asking her “Hiromi, look at how bravely Lara jumps and clings. She’s so brave. Can you jump and cling?” She either could not or chose not to.
With Resident Evil 2 and Silent Hill, she entirely regretted her kind gift.
This is a story
About a girl and the game
That drew her to Playstations
Like a moth toward flame.
My cousin and I
Sat before the TV
As he popped in a disc
With unbridled glee.
The game was MediEvil
And the plot quite ridiculous.
But he worked through each level
In a way most meticulous.
And as I watched the Sir Knight
Hack and slash through his foes
I found myself gasping
With “oohs”, “ahhs” and “ohs!”.
The drama! The challenge!
The pixellated gore!
It was my first taste of Playstation
And I wanted more.
I never even touched
The controller that day.
I was content as the audience
To my cousin’s great play.
Through gaming, we bonded.
Our list of games grew.
And as the years passed
We, of course, grew too.
No longer children
But adults mature,
You could still often find us
Cross-legged on the floor.
Playstation was and still is
A huge part of our lives.
And in our memories, Sir Daniel Fortesque,
Skeletal knight, still thrives.
I’d got the chance to play FF7 at a friends house as was blown away by the gameplay. I was about 9 or 10 I think when I first played playstation. I’d been wanting to get my own Playstation so I could get lost in this amazing new game. I’d started regularly doing lots of oddjobs around the house to try and save up some money. In hindsight it was probably more child slavery, weeding the whole backyard for $5 seemed like a good idea at the time! Eventually it came around to Christmas and my parents bought me a Playstation, I used my job money to buy FF7 and didn’t really sleep properly for at least a good few months from that point! It was such a memorable experience.
We were always pretty behind in technology in my family. So when I was 15 and got a PlayStation One I was so ridiculously happy. I will never forget playing Crash Bandicoot every single day after school. My kids still have their PS2 and I made sure they had Crash Bandicoot too… Just so I can sneak a play in every now and then 🙂
My first Playstation memory was playing Dragonball Z Budokai with my best friend Marc on the Playstation 2 in 2002. It was the first game that we’d properly played together, and the rivalry and competition made each match more intense than the last. We’ve both been getting the latest Playstation consoles ever since, and I love the way it keeps us connected. And once a month for the last 12 years we still dust off that copy of Budokai to see who’s the world’s strongest, and ultimately who (usually me) pays for dinner.
My first most memorable experience with Playstation was Christmas maybe 1998 when I was 11. My parents bought it for me as a gift. I can’t describe the joy and excitement I felt tearing the wrapping paper off and seeing the logo. It was a huge thing as we weren’t the wealthiest, my parents couldn’t even afford to buy me a game to go with it, but that didn’t stop me at all. I remember unboxing it almost instantly plugging all of the cables in and popping in my very first “game” the demo disc that comes with the console 🙂
I must have played that disc and those games 100 times over, I had the one with Crash Bandicoot and Wipeout, definitely my favourite two games on the disc. Amazingly I didn’t even get sick of it, I don’t know what it was but those few minutes of gameplay kept me hooked. I guess the gamer inside me just challenged myself to perfect it.
Eventually I stumbled upon Final Fantasy 8. I had never heard of the series before this amazingly and the instant I played a few minutes of this I was amazed, the intro movie accompanied with that muiscal composition let me know that this was a game I’d love and be addicted too. And I was. I played countless hours, waking up an hour earlier every day just so I could play a bit more Final Fantasy 🙂 Eventually I beat the game acquiring everything I could find, not having a guide. The final battle was tense and tested me but I remember the great joy beating Ultemicia for the first time. Then I was somewhat sad after the end scenes played and the credits rolled, I felt like it was over. Silly thought now as I realise, as a gamer you will always come back to the games you love most and discover and research every little thing you can find out about them.
Playstation truly opened up all these wonderful titles and series like Final Fantasy. I followed each console iteration and it’s amazing recalling all these experiences, I am glad I had the chance as they have never left me. And probably never will 🙂
As a kid, I never had any kind of gaming console because we weren’t able to afford them. I did love games though, and played my friends’ whenever I got the chance.
When I was 18 and had my first proper job, the Playstation was released in Australia. I went straight to the local Coogans store, which was a hire purchase shop that had all the latest tech but you had to pay a premium price (usually a good 20% on top of RRP). I didn’t care. I saw the Playstation and I fell in love and I picked it up along with a few games, Tekken, Lomax, and Excalibur I think. My favourite franchises, Tomb Raider and Final Fantasy, were titles I started on the Playstation, and at the height of my collection I had 35 games – a huge amount of games for anyone I knew, let alone a young woman in the 90s!
But I digress. I want to explain what happened on that first wonderful day. I got home, set it all up and noticed there was a demo disc. I popped the disc in, started it up, hearing the Playstation sound for the first time (which now fills me with such nostalgia). There was a choice of tech demo: T-Rex or manta ray. Being a bit of a marine wildlife afficionado, I opted for the manta.
I can hardly put into words the feelings that overwhelmed me when the demo started, with gentle relaxing music and the occasional whalesong. The rendering of the manta ray, and how I could view it from different angles, and just gently swim along the ocean currents… I was absolutely rapt. I “played” for probably an hour before I even looked at any of the games I’d bought.
About five years later, I needed to sell a lot of my belongings to make ends meet, and I sold most of my games, only keeping Final Fantasy VII, and the Tekken and Tomb Raider games. I later met my now husband, who was also an avid gamer, and he encouraged me to slowly rebuild my collection. I ended up repurchasing the titles I’d previously sold, and then my collection grew expotentially from there. I bought the PS2 Singstar Edition as a birthday present to myself, and the PS3 was a Christmas gift from my husband. I bought the PS4 myself. I also have a PS Vita (another birthday present!) and a Crisis Core edition PSP. The only Playstation console I don’t have is a PSPgo. Now, I have hundreds of games and heaps of accessories and I still have my original Playstation and still love it, because it was the driving force that got me interested in collecting. I now play games across all sorts of consoles and platforms, but Playstation will always hold a special place in my heart.
The PS1 was the first games console to totally blow my mind! My gaming history up till then was an Intellivision, Amstrad CPC464 and a Commodore Amiga 500+. Then this new console by Sony came out and I was very intrigued! Having just finished school, money was an issue but once Gran Turismo came out and being a car guy there was no stopping me.
The memory of driving on the High Speed Ring for the first time will forever be burned in my mind, the speed, the detail, the smoothness (yes looking at you GT5, GT6). I remember thinking that there was no way I could get sick of this game… 20 years later I’m still playing GT6 at the minimum weekly if not daily… gotta keep the daily log in bonus up! Although when I’m too busy I just watch the demo while having breakky!!
My other vivid memory if being scared half to death by Resident Evil, that was such a good game in its time, although personally I found F.E.A.R.2 came pretty close recently. PlayStation forever! LOL
Also can someone tell Sony to go back to the coloured PS logo on the regular black PS4s.
My First ever memory was tearing open the red wrapping paper on christmas morning in 2006 when i was 8 to find was was a Playstation 2 i was giddy with excitement and 8 year later i still have my favourite game, crash twinsanity.
As a girl gamer I will never forget playing tomb radar 2.
This was an overwhelming experience because it was the first time I become embroiled in the cavernous 3D environments and charismatic protagonist known as Lara Croft.
She was my first girl crush.
I was taken on a visual voyage from the waterways of Venice to eerie subterranean catacombs.
I use to practice my mid-air rolls and pretend to shoot my brother
I wanted to emulate everything she did.
To this day I keep my limited edition box set proudly near my PS4.
I was really little and PlayStation 2 just came, I was lost in a shopping centre and crying just walking around, not knowing what to do I found a try me PlayStation 2, I stopped crying and ended up spending two hours playing before my family ended up finding me
My greatest playstation memory would be from when I was 4 years old.
I would sit in the lounge room with the family and we would take turns playing two player games… Well so I thought! I eventually learnt that I would always be given the remote which wasn’t plugged in…
Wait, another fond memory would be after cleaning the disk over and over and it not working, I would put the disk in, hit the little restart button and look away. I used to think that sometimes the plAystation was shy ahahah
The first time my little fingers got to fiddle with this awesome black machine was back in high school when my neighbour got a PS1 for Christmas. From then on, I was over almost every afternoon. I wouldn’t leave until I won, and it was always “best out of 3…best out of 5, best out of 7……” Today, that PS1 is just a big black door stopper.
Oddworld. Saw a promo, fell instantly in love with Abe and the Mudakons, scraped together every cent I had, bought a PS1 & the game and was glued to the screen every spare waking second I could put into it until I saved all 99 of the little creatures. Was the beginning of an addiction if I’m to be completely honest.
I had heard about this new game called Final Fantasy VII, so I did a bit of research, read a few reviews (almost exclusively magazines in those days) and decided I really desired to play that game. I couldn’t afford a new PlayStation because the relative price was about the same as when the PS3 first came out, but I knew of a place that did repairs & sold second hand units.
With money in hand I went in but their normal 2nd-hand units were about $30 more than I could afford if I intended to get FF7 at the same time. Luckily they had one working unit for half the price of the others that they were considering junking for parts because it only worked if one side was lifted to an angle of 30 to 45 degrees. That became my first PlayStation. It worked faithfully for many years without a hiccup as long as you kept one side propped up.
I started playing FF7 & didn’t stop for a long, long time. I searched every inch of FF7 and built my characters stats up so high that I couldn’t apply any more upgrades without risking resetting them to nearly zero, which happened a couple of time and necessitated restoring from a previous save. I still remember the disbelief as Aeris died, others must have shared that disbelief because even now rumours still appear of ways to save her.
I bought other many other games before that PS got handed down to a neice for her son, but for me the PlayStation was and still is FF7.
Playstation Memories are one of the cherish ones from my childhood past.
One fine morning in 1996 Summer Vacations I went to the market for buying some new carts and some window shopping with my younger brother and saw Playstation for the very first time displayed beautifully in a glass showcase of a gaming showroom just like a gem in a shining multi colored box with gorgeous new looks of next gen console. It was something what I realized on that day what and why it is called “Love at first Sight”.
I asked the shop owner regarding the prices and specifications of this new 32 Bit monster, but at that time it was way over my budget and my pocket money limits me so I returned home sadly and annoyed but keeping my ambition upright high to bring it with me one day sooner or later………
I and my brother started saving money by giving home tuition to junior students and by selling our good old days pals Nintendo Entertainment System and Atari and got in hands extra few bucks which we can use to buy our new friend and specially to mention here the extra amount contribution was sponsored my late beloved parents.
Finally, I remember the date it was Tuesday 24th December, 1996 just a day before Christmas we have managed to save enough funds to buy our very own Playstation SCPH 1001 sealed box packed and the small grey memory card thing was also very exciting feature for us more over even the Demo Disk came with the console has its own charm. First major game we brought with the console was Resident Evil, I remember the shouts and scares we have experienced while playing it was just like a dream now.
After that exclusive comes in like Final Fantasy, Crash Bandicoot, Resident Evil 2 & 3 and many others. Playstation has outperformed and conquered the gaming industry and leaving far behind giants like Nintendo and Sega by setting benchmarks and examples.
Those old days golden memories are always living in my heart and a smile comes on my lips when I thought about those moments we enjoyed with our family, friends and off course our beloved Playstation.
It’s October, 1996. I’m 6 years old and my brother, 9. Our parents have conveniently informed us that we will be getting a Playstation for Christmas and that we aren’t to touch it till then. A month passes by and it seems like an eternity! How could they keep us from such gaming glory!
But a day had come when they would be gone for almost the whole day, now was our chance! The moment they left we searched for it and found it almost straight away, unwrapped it (yes it had Christmas wrapping) and turned that sucker on.
The first time we heard the start up and saw the Playstation logo for the first time on our tv was amazing! We played Crash Bandicoot for about 4 hours before we realised we had to re wrap it before mum and dad got home.
We packed everything away as neatly as 2 kids under 10 could and re wrapped the box (crudely) and put it back in it’s hiding spot.
Eventually Christmas morning came and well before 6am, Mum and Dad had set it up for us.
We turned it on got to the main menu and then froze as we turned to look at each other.
Mum – “Why does it have a saved game already,? I thought this was brand new!”
Busted.
My playstation experience. Let me start by saying I had very sheltered upbringing. My parents gave me a “playstation” when I was in my teens. I loved it, except it was not a Playstation it was a game console that had rips of actual games ie the frog prince which was mario. I did not know I had a fake Playstation untill my then boyfriend now fiancé asked me if I wanted to play Playstation with him. When I waked into his room and saw the console i informed him that he in fact did not have a Playstation as I had a “playstation”. I soon stoped arguing with him as I realised I had been lied to my whole life and that playstation had way better graphics and Games then my “playstation”.
My first playstation was a ps2 in 2007 and I was 10 and it’s not intended to be a sob story but that Christmas my divorced parents decided to have a Christmas where it would just be the three of us. They put there money together and go me a ps2 an a few games, but it was just a great day and a great memory of both my parents spending Christmas with and them laughing at me and how bad I was at Ratchet and Clank, Jak and Dexter and FIFA. That’s my first moment with my first playstation with a nice Christmas theme.
So My first Playstation Experience comes from when I was 9 years old and all I wanted for Christmas was a playstation one. After seeing commercials for it over and over and begging my mom for one I realized that my present under the tree was the same size as the playstation box from the commercials. So about a week before Christmas while my mom was at work I carefully unwrapped the playstation without ripping any wrapping paper and hooked it up to the tv. I played Spyro the Dragon all day untill about an hour before my mom got off work and then I would re wrap it and put it back under the tree. I did this for the next 3-4 days and actually beat the game before Christmas lol. Still to this day My Mom does not know about this story but if it gets me a Playstation 4 then I guess its time for her to know the truth.
P.S. I Miss Spyro the Dragon
(1998)
My sister was the first person in our house to get a games console, it was a PS1! I was a bit too young to understand how to use the controller properly so I spent a lot of time just watching her complete the games. Tomb Raider used to properly scare me, especially if she was stuck on a level for a long period of time (desolate landscapes in those old games have something particularly creepy about them…) However I think my earliest memory is seeing her go through the whole of Rayman. Even though I’ve never played it myself, I know the levels and sounds really well, especially the “Yeah! ♫ Dur-dur dur dur dur dur dur ♫ hehehehehe *Ding*” jingle that came on at the end of every stage. I got my own games and consoles in the following years but I still like watching just as much as actually playing them , probably because I got used to it at a young age.
My first-time Playstation Haiku.
You will find it to be EXACTLY 500 words and BOY-O-BOY did it ever take a while. haha
Best of luck, everyone.
—————–
Anniversary
Time has come for reflection
Playstation, the first
It was a long time
Before my first time playing
Generation next
It was never mine
But rather at a friend’s house
That my eyes opened
There sat the future
Grey, plastic, and whimsical
My palms grew sweaty
But only few games
Were to be found with his prize
Expedition time
At half walk, half run
To blockbuster, we quested
No map to guide us
Six games we would rent
We would play on borrowed time
Pocket money, gone
That night we played long
No time for breaks or sleeping
Dinner, informal
But what to play first?
Shuffled, held behind my back
“Left or right- choose wise”
Disc goes in, lid down
The start-up, that sound so crisp
The sound of our hope
Not even playing
But so soon to be transfixed
My heart starts pounding
Oh, Gran Turismo.
My eyes don’t believe the sight
Photorealism
Thinking back right now
The older me laughs aloud
Naïve innocence
We played for some time
Head to head, muscle for rank
We were both winners
Celebrations short
Time to switch things up a bit
Zombies need killing
Resident evil
HOLY CRAP! WHAT WAS THAT NOISE?!
Numerous bricks shat
We need to calm down
Alien trilogy next
Numerous bricks shat
Seriously, man
We’re going to have nightmares
What else is around?
Hey, this one looks good
Lara Croft, the Tomb Raider
Indi in tank top
This game is so cool
Climbing, shooting, exploring
Mostly zoomed on chest
I think we should stop
Have weirdest boner right now
Good dreams, after all
It’s 7pm
Still all the time in the world
Oh snap! It’s Star Wars!
The Star Wars brawler
Masters of Teras kasi
Let the Wookie win
Vader versus Luke
What could be better than this?
Hey, let’s try Tekken!
OH MY GOD, CHECK IT!
IS THAT A FREAKIN CHEETAH?!
Select King to win
This game is perfect
And no cheap distanced spam moves
Oh look, there’s more boobs
Ok, you win, mate
Can’t beat Marshall Law’s flip kicks
But I’m still the King
It was getting late
But we were high on sugar
Party keeps rolling
Crash bandicoot,huh?
This looks like a game for kids
Blink, then 2am
Wow, how time sure flies
We should probably get rest
But i’m no quitter
Hit the road, stylin’
Check out this Ferrari, dude!
Got the need for speed
4am, what the?!…
My thumbs feel worn to the bone
Eyes getting bleary
I can’t keep this up
But one games left in the pile
Man up, little boy
So… Twisted metal?
Guns and cars sounds good to me
In heaven, a match
Dangerous madmen
On the brink of destruction
Sweet tooth, bad temper
Woah, best game ever
What’s a missile between friends?
Sweet pyrotechnics
Oh no, it’s the folks
6am, still no sleep yet
No debating. BED!
Up at 8am
Bleary eyed yet keen for more
Unlimited joy
A weekend well spent
Playstation, the best thing since
Refrigerators
sorry for my bad english. i’m dutch.
the first time i got a playstation was about 5 years ago. every year with cristmas i thought that i got a playstation but evert year i got poor things like a saucepan from my parents :(. but 5 years ago i got one, the ps3 actually. my parents didn’t see me a couple of days after that i got the ps3. the first playstation for me was a ps3 and after that a playstation vita because i thought that i could play remote play on the ps3 but that didn’t worked. so i bought a ps4 and remote play worked perfectly. but now i got quarrel with my brother about wich game we are gonna play. i always wanna play gta 5 and my brother fifa 15. so this competition is a good result for my parents :).
My fondest memory was competing in local and regional Winning Eleven or Pro Evolution Soccer competitions.
Two of my friends and I were training for the competition day and night at my place since they don’t have a Playstation, but they were great players.
We won the local competition, I was the runner up and one of my friend who didn’t have a Playstation won the first place and some cash.
When he was interviewed by the organisers about what he’s going to do with the money, he simply said buying a Playstation.
All the competitors were shocked and ashamed that a player without a Playstation won the competition. Oh the drama!
Soon after conquering the local competition, it was the time to go to a regional competition.
Sadly when I was driving all of us to the competition, I was so focused and thinking about tactics to win the game and I got distracted.
We had a silly car accident, I bumped a car in front of me and we had 4 cars bumper to bumper accident. It was an event where Twisted Metal imitates real life.
No one was injured but we didn’t get to the regional competition.
We were so devastated, not because we had a car accident, but we didn’t manage to go to the competition.
We remembered it forever, it didn’t stop us from playing and made our friendship stronger.
I grew up with video games from the age of 6 starting with the Famicom (as it was called in Asia where I grew up). After moving to Australia, our parents bought us the Super Nintendo. We followed the development of the SNES CD Rom which seemed truly revolutionary at the time. After Nintendo dropped that project, a new console by the name of Playstation caught our eye. It was a difficult choice of whether going for the Nintendo route or gamble on the new kid on the block. Having decided on the latter (and lots of haggling with our parents to buy it), the choice paid well off as my brother and I would spend hours on truly amazing games such as Gran Turismo, Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy VII just to name a few. Looking back at it, I think the Playstation was not only remarkable for its games, but also for the way it made me and my brother truly bond, which nowadays, we sadly do not anymore. Perhaps we have simply grown apart but I can always look back on the PS era days to remind me what one console was able to achieve.
When I was a child I honestly didn’t think gaming could get any better than Boulder Dash on the Commodore 64… I mean it’s a pretty rad game but that opinion was relatively short lived. Growing up we progressed through consoles trading in/ selling on and finally settling on our very first PS1. I’m a another FFVII cliche, by then I’d played and enjoyed a lot of games (even a few that made my love of Boulder Dash seem a touch silly), but FFVII is the reason I still have a massive “nerd-on” for Sony.
After merely surviving on the rather obsolete Sega Genesis, way past what was respectable, blowing into cartridges long into many nights (contracting the self-diagnosed affliction of catridge-lung in the process) I stumbled upon my cousin playing a certain ‘bandicoot’ game on a strange greyish console. I remember thinking it looked like something from the future, the one console to rule them all sort of thing. I somehow managed to convince my cousin to ‘lend’ me this futuristic marvel for my Genesis and I still play that console (well, its progenies) to this day.
Being quite simple,
I had come home from school one day, tired asf. I walk into th lounge room and there it was. That ps2 was the first I’d ever laid l eyes on and pretty much set off my life on PlayStation.
#20
1996. Crash Bandicoot came out and my neighbours had purchased the game. I was 6 years old and my friend (who lived on my street) and I were playing it at my neighbours house. Unfortunately they had to go out and we were kicked out. We were devastated. Fortunately, they had a border collie which = large dog flap. My friend and I were determined to continue playing. We went as far as buying cloud lollies to distract the dog (as if to replace meat) and climbed my neighbours fence. We threw the cloud lollies everywhere, jumped down, and ran to the dog flap, which led into the laundry. My neighbours returned hours later to hear my friend and I screaming. They ran down the hall way (super worried) to find us running from the boulder in Boulder Dash. This was my first and best Playstation memory. Also the dog flap was always locked after that day.
Watch “DM’s Guide: Crash Bandicoot 1 – Boulder Dash (Cle…” on YouTube
DM’s Guide: Crash Bandicoot 1 – Boulder Dash (Cle…: http://youtu.be/t9Fw_BMy7xI
I woke up one morning walking into the living room where my brother had this weird thing (which was later revealed as the controller) in his hands and pressed the buttons so quickly that I thought he’d destroy it soon. (But don’t worry, it didn’t happen!) I watched him playing a few more minutes. Every time the fight was over, there was this awesome voice saying K.O. or GREAT and every time he won we cheered so loud that our mother shouted we should be quiet. Yeah, you guessed right! I saw Tekken. Finally he gave the controller to me and explained it and I instantly understood. It was so awesome, I couldn’t believe that it was actually me controlling this character on the screen. My brother annoyed me by saying that I don’t play well and he’s way better. I can’t even tell how often he said that.
After some time we finally got the second controller and we could ultimately fight against each other. Although it was not like I won every battle (he didn’t neither) I was an equal opponent, which he, of course, didn’t admit. I got introduced to the world of PlayStation. We played Tekken for countless hours, days, weeks and although our game library grew more and more, with awesome games like Spyro, Crash Bandicoot, Oddworld, Tomb Raider, Driver, Harry Potter, GTA, Tony Hawks and many, many more we frequently got back to Tekken. We got Tekken 1-3 for the first PlayStation and loved all of them.
Resident Evil looked awesome too but I was scared of playing it, so my older brother and cousins did and I watched them playing. Later we got Final Fantasy VII (the second best game ever in my opinion) which not only introduced me to Final Fantasy in general but also ignited my passion for RPGs. I really loved it and played it for hundreds of hours and even when I finished it, I just started a new game or spent days of just doing the chocobo race. (now I’m humming the chocobo theme. =) If you don’t know Final Fantasy VII and yet want to play it don’t continue reading. SPOILERS AHEAD. I really cried when Aerith or Cait Sith died, I felt strong when the victory theme started at the end of a fight. (Now I’m humming the victory theme) and even today 17 years after the release of Final Fantasy VII I sometimes go to youtube just to listen to it’s awesome music. One Winged Angel, Fighting Theme, Victory Theme, Chocobo Theme just to name a few.
I still love RPGs and especially Final Fantasy today and I love PlayStation for giving me all this unforgettable moments. I don’t have a PS4 yet but I watch every Sony conference whether E3, Gamescom, TGS or the recent PSX. This would be the ultimate console.
I’m from Europe (Germany) so I know according to the terms and conditions I’m not eligible. It’s a pity but I wanted to share my PlayStation story with you guys anyway. Thanks and good night! ^_^
My first PlayStation memory is my brothers 8th birthday. He was allowed to rent a PS1 from the local United Video as well as 2 games: The Spice Girls game and Crash Bandicoot. We spent that whole weekend with 3-4 hours sleep a night MAX, as we tried to clock both of the games. It’s cringe worthy to look back now and think of how many hours we spent tapping keys in time to Spice Girls songs. But we loved it, and Crash Bandicoot was a hit – an instant winner for us and provided us with hundreds of hours of entertainment over the years! It was the big mistake on my parent behalf though – as we spent the next year begging and pleading until we were finally bought our very own PS1.
When I was a youngster and the PS1 first came out, my parents splurged and spent a lot of money on a console for my sister and I for Christmas. My parents knew that if they wrapped the box up we would know exactly what it was, so they found a GIANT box and put the Playstation in the bottom of it, then they filled it with balloons so we couldn’t see. After we got to the bottom we were too excited that we had been given it that we didn’t even plug it in. After this I think I played Pandemonium on it for the whole day!!!
My story begins back in December 2004. At age 5 my parents bought my brother and I a Sony Playstation 2 along with a few classic PS1 games (Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, Rayman 2). Years went on and the collection began to grow and genres expanded. I began played games varying from Champions: Return to Arms to Gran Tirismo 4 and so on. Then finally in 2009 I chose to upgrade. My grandparents bought me a Playstation 3 slim that year for Christmas, however, due to the expensive pricetag on the console I traded my PS2 and game collection in to help cover the cost. Up until 2012 this console satisfied the majority of my needs but i truly missed my PS2 and classic PS1 games. This then enticed me to once again purchase a PS2 in mid 2013. Then later that year I collected my Playstation 4 on the day of release. With now having 3 playstations my collection seemed incomplete so I set out to purchase an original Playstation 1 along with the games I used to have when I was younger. Finally in early 2014 I completed my console collection and now at the age of 15 spend 90% of the money I earn to expand my Playstation game collection.
I do not, however, have a specific need for the 20th anniversary console but being the playstation fan I am wish to have it anyway. Plus it looks weird having 1 grey and 3 black playstations in my entertainment unit.
When we got our PlayStation, I was about 8 and my brother was around 14. The games we got were there usual bargain bin $10 games, but my brother and I got a big name title each; I got Tomb Raider and he got Gran Turismo. After reaching a certain point in TR where a bear kept scaring me and I couldn’t proceed further, I decided to check out Gran Turismo and see how that game was. After having a browse through all the car companies, I came across a “cute” car. I fell in love with this hideous abomination (as I would call it now) and decided it would obviously be in my brothers best interest that he get this car. I did the honorable thing and proceeded to sell ALL of his vehicles (except one just in case I needed to win more money)
and it still wasn’t enough. Even all those fancy rare touring cars he won in races weren’t worth much. So I raised all the extra cash and sold the last car. I bought it and was super proud of my efforts to get my brother this car.
Unfortunately he didn’t see it the same way…this amazing car I purchased wasn’t as great as I thought. As he explained “the high horsepower means NOTHING if it has no steering…it is a drag car and can’t win any races…and it can only be sold for a 25,000.”
Months of hard work down the toilet and it only took me 4 hours. He still thinks about it to this day…
I won’t describe my first experience with Playstation. Instead it will be of my children’s experience since it would be theirs were we to win.
I sneakily setup a ps2 slim I purchased and it also came with some games – Buzz! Jr: Jungle Party and an EyeToy : Play2 (accessories included). The amazement on their faces when we put eyetoy on was so awesome – they were actually part of the game and they couldn’t believe how amazing the console I had bought for them was. They cried when it was time to turn it off for baths and tea – 4hrs straight of non stop playing!!!!!
That day was quite a while ago now and the games selection has grown quite a bit too.Every time they spotted a different Buzz or Eyetoy game however – it was mass hysteria and a lengthy gaming session the moment they got home with the new purchase heh.
Right now they want me to see if Eyetoy and buzz are on PS4 so I can buy them incase we win hehe.
I still remember when we bought it first PlayStation me and my dad where both so excited the first game we ever played was final fantasy 7 and we used to have hours of fun on it everyday i remember the first time we played the first PlayStation it was like we had seen the best graphics on any game console my dad used to let me have a few days off school every now and then we he had a couple of days off work so we could play the PlayStation
My Playstation experience was in the Platstation 1 era. I think they launched in October/November but I always used to buy the magazines and saw they were releasing it. My dad had approached me and said if I get A’s in every single grade he would get me one for Christmas with a choice of 2 games. For someone at the time who struggled with grades I took this as an opportunity to get myself a Playstation 1. I studied hard and with a bit of luck I managed to get all A’s. Dad couldn’t believe it and to this day still brings it up when I am being lazy about something. He had to do a couple of extra shifts to pay for it (so he tells me) but the look on his face was priceless when he opened the report card. The games I chose a the time were Wipeout and Lemmings 3D. Loved opening the launch console on Christmas Day!!
I barely remember my first play station experience I was very young, got the PS1 it for Christmas unwrapped it I was over the moon I got dad to help me set it up straight away and start playing the game i got with it which was Croc and I was jumping around all over the place I don’t think i done much for the first 5minutes I was just amazed at the graphics (back in the day it was a lot better than a Sega Mega drive), my parents had a tight budget so it took me a few more years after my friends upgraded to the ps2 until I got one myself and boy I was just as amazed as I was with the Ps1, It was heaven in a box.
I knew about the PlayStation before I even knew what a console was. A lot of people I knew owned one. My first experience though was at my friends house years ago. She was playing a game I had never heard of called ‘Ratchet And Clank’, I was amazed when I saw the game and how it played. Everyone was watching for the rest of the night playing grandturisimo, sing star, it was really just fun for everyone. I really realised after that how incredible the PlayStation was! We would have huge gatherings and play singstar with tonns of people. I have been playing PlayStation ever since. To me, the PlayStation 2 was the best. I would play Ratchet and clank and do everything that was possible, and then I would do everything that wasn’t possible I’d play with all my friends, it was just endless entertainment. PlayStation is the only console I play and the only one I want to play. Sony have never failed to impress me. Nothing can top what the PlayStation has to offer.
My first experience was Christmas a few years ago, when santa bought my son one!
The look on his face made my heart scream and my eyes welt as he opened it!
Was the best feeling (apart from birth) of my life, knowing I got the pressie right!
O man, reminiscing on this moment brings smiles to my face already 😀
It was like a rumour that spread like a wild bushfire “The neighbours got a PS1 for X-mas” I remember having to finish all the boring morning present events with parents and jumped on my bike to head to the neighbours house as fast as possible.
On arrival I was not the first child to get an insight on this machine that would go on to remain in my life for the next 19+ years.
But hey that was the first time I saw a PlayStation and owned one saved from pocket money 3 months 11 days after. Owned every PS since and am yet to own a PS4.
Let me relive my childhood, with a baby on the way just once more would be enough <3
I guess most of us started with the PS1? I got mine in 1999 with Crash Bandicoot. Didn’t have a memory card though so I had to either had to keep it on all the time or become a Crash wizard. Unfortunately I never became a crash wizard and my parents kept turning it off. So my progress was never saved, and I would have to restart the game every time.
Remember basket ball cards? They were all the rage in the early 90’s I was 13 years old and fortunate enough to “work” at the local video game and trading card store. We had shelves full of SNES and Mega Drive games even consoles you could rent. As a kid I was in heaven what more could you ask for?
My boss was a major gaming freak and imported a PlayStation from Japan, My first experience was playing Teken in the store, the exact same game I’d pump coins into down at the arcades gee where did they all go?
From the first moment I played it I knew I had to have one, i had moved to my dads and Playstation had just been released in Australia I bugged the crap outta him until he finally caved in and bought me one and a copy of SoulBlade.
That Xmas my mother bought me 3 Games FIFA, Loaded and Final Fantasy VII and my love affair with Final Fantasy started.
20 years later I still have that console, it now sits on the shelf surrounded by Final Fantasy titles.
It makes me feel old and thankyou for this competition, 20 years of memories and experiences shared with friends. I still remember my old man telling me how consoles were just a phase and eventually I’d move to PC 20 years later and its still a Playstation I use for gaming.
I remember my Dad bringing back the PlayStation from a work trip to Perth, it was a Christmas present for everyone. We didn’t wait for Christmas day, but set it up and put in the Demo 1 disc – the only one we had… The sound of the PlayStation starting up as the logo spun… goosebumps, and then there was a dinosaur charging at me from out of black of the screen… That was awesome.
I ran around as a Tyrannosaur on a black background for an unreasonably long time, transfixed by the detail and ability to control the camera around a 3D moving model of a dinosaur on my TV, with a strange music track and the occasional dinosaur roar… Then when I was done with that, I switched to the Manta Ray… Even more incredible, because now I was underwater! If there were other games on that demo disc I don’t remember them, for some reason those tech demos were what stuck with me… Even when I had other great games to play, like Crash Bandicoot – the first game I completed and another great memory from the PlayStation – or forever playing the demos of Wipeout and Tekken, I would still occasionally revisit that Demo disc and romp around as a dinosaur on a black background… The PlayStation was such huge step from my friend’s old Atari that we played Frogger on, it’s amazing to look back on just how far the console and gaming has come in the last 20 years, and that Sony’s PlayStation has stayed relevant and even lead the industry for all those years, it’s really impressive – and if I sound like a bit of a fan-boy, it’s hard not to be when you grow up and in some ways measure your childhood by the console iterations and the many fond memories had with it…
I remember my first experience with Playstation, I honestly didn’t know they existed (being a young lad) but my sister wanted one for her birthday so we went to the store to pick it up… Long story short it soon became my Playstation 1 and I would be playing it all the time buying new games and trading games with my friends so we could all try them out. Many years later I got a Playstation 2 for Christmas and I wasn’t expecting that either. I have always been a Playstation guy and although my passion for the brand happened unexpectedly it is still one of the greatest memories of mine.
My parents bought me a PlayStation 1 around when I was 6 years old in 2001. However my class teacher had just talked to my mum about me being a rascal in class so the PlayStation was given to me in not the best circumstances. My mum threatened to give it back to the store so I pretty much had to beg her not to give it back and promised I will be good in class. I even begged literally on my hands and knees which shows at such a young age I was very much dedicated to owning a PlayStation haha. My very first games were Atlantis the lost empire, world’s scariest police chases and Spiderman 2: Enter electro. My mum didn’t buy me a memory card so every time I played a game I would have to start from the beginning as I couldn’t save the game. But I was a kid so I didn’t care at all I was just ecstatic that I actually had a PlayStation.
Anyway that afternoon when I first got the PlayStation I immediately called my cousin who lives a few streets down. The moment I told him he yelled out a big “YESSSSSSSSS” and hung up and started running to my house. He didn’t even say that he was coming over which was a common trend over our life time. We would always rock up at each other’s houses without notice and have a long PlayStation session. Anyway my cousin came over and for our first ever PlayStation session together and we started at 4PM and finished close to midnight. A pretty good feat for two six-year olds. We were lucky that our parents were out for dinner and our uncle was at home because otherwise that first session would’ve been way shorter.
We played world’s scariest police chases which was our GTA for PlayStation one. There were missions you had to do as police for the game but we would never do them. I don’t think we did any missions at all haha so overall we have completed 0% of the game even though we played it for countless hours. So now you’re curious on what we did for that full 8 hours aren’t you even though we completed none of the game. Well what my cousin and I did was roam around as the police car and whenever we saw a sports car we would yell out “SPORTS CARRRRR” and then proceed to chase down that car and absolutely smash it up as much as we could. Yes that’s what we did as police in the game. And every time we would see a sports car we would yell out louder than before.
So that is my first ever PlayStation experience. Didn’t start out in the best of circumstances with me begging for it, my mum nearly returning it but leading to one of many amazing PlayStation memories between my cousin and I. Happy 20th anniversary PlayStation!
We had a television which was so ancient that you needed to press the ‘on’ button 30 times before it actually turned on. The right combination was key, and the timing and speed was essential. As much as I loved television, I really had no motivation at the age of 8 to try and turn it on. It was too hard and I was confused.
When my sisters and I were given our ps1 (crash bandicoot being our first game), that old, rickety, unreliable television came to life, and the motivation to turn it on and beat the TV in its fight to stay off had now become exciting. I was crash bandicoot, and the TV was like overcoming Dr. Neo Cortex.
I went to an exhibition called “Big Boys Toys” in Auckland, for the primary purpose of checking out the range of Ferrari’s that they were to have there (F40, FTW). While wandering through the multitude of supercars and hot rods I struck upon the tech area.
It was here I saw my first ever Plasma Television which was running a brand new Playstation console, the combination of the two new technologies working together was a jaw dropping experience at the time.
The first experience with a playstation. Hmmm
We were a pretty broke family never had the cool stuff that all my friends had, the first gaming console we had was a NES and even that was only borrowed for about 2 months then handed back.
I was pretty upset about it, all my friends had gaming consoles, computers the lot.
I just had the general boring toys and an empty feeling from bullying and being left out.
Until finally we had a ps1!! It was given to us from a family friend along with a bunch of games and covered in one of those tomb raider skins, i rocked medal of Honor day in day out before and after school.
Then just as i had nearly finished it, i get home and that family friend had taken it back it was gone, everything had gone.
Now i still don’t have ps1, ps3 or ps4, i do still have my trusty ps2 slim and phat though, no one is ruining that for me this time.
Hi my story is probably going to bore some people but I’m going to try it anyway. The first time I played a PlayStation it was a ps2 and it was back in 2003 . I’d like to say it saved my sanity because I was the mother of 7 children and my husband and myself were having huge marriage problems. So I ended up having my own bedroom and I went and brought 2 ps2s one for me and one for the kids . I found I was able to enjoy myself pretty much each night by playing and most of the time the kids would be in my room with me playing the ps2 . I’m now a firm believer that it saved my sanity and brought me so very much closer to my children we had many hours of fun together. Then when my husband was removed I went and got a PS3 which has since died and now I’d love nothing better than to win a ps4 so please can I be a winner I’m really hanging to play songs newest games machine . Thankyou for reading
It was 1998. I was about 10 and my Mother, 2 Brothers, and 3 Sisters all went to Toys R’ Us to shop around. We still didn’t have the PS1 at the time because my mother was rather poor. Me and my 2 brothers went straight to the games and were enthralled at all of the PlayStation games. They were very expensive at the time and had no hope of persuading our mother into getting one. But there was a PlayStation console there to play demo’s of the game Spyro. Me and my younger brother watched on as my older brother played. But finally I had my chance. I played for almost 2 hours, ignorant that my entire family had left the store and had gone all the way home before realizing they left me behind.
My first experience with Playstation was back when my brother got one in 99. I never bothered with any of his games though. I had the pizza hut demo disc and I remember beating the metal gear solid demo time after time after time. It never got old and because of that, I’m a huge Playstation and metal gear solid fan today.
One of my favourite memories from my playstation experience would have to be a timsplitters memory. I can remember me and my mates doing all nighters when we were 12 playing timesplitters all night. There used to be 4 of us there so we would have to find the multi-player adapter so we all could all play each other on a tiny little tv. It would always be an awesome time until someone lost too many times and we would get out time crisis and use the GunCon for a lunch break from timesplitters. It was definitely one of my most favourite multiplayer games and a favourite memory of mine as well!
Everytime i reminisce this story i can’t get it out of my head for a week
Once when I was about 5 years old , a buisness partner of my dad came to our home as a guest. When he came he brought me a ps2 .
I sat on the bed in my room, asked my mom to wire it up and started playing, I had so much fun.He brought a variety of game including ratchet & clank.
When i reached the blackwater city race i couldn’t finish it so i kept retrying and at the time i was trying to get it i pooped my pants
My parents bought my two sisters, brother and I a Playstation for Christmas way back in 1998. I wasn’t too sure what it was but pretty soon after playing hours and hours of Spyro we were hooked. After this came Crash Bandicoot and it was impossible to play on the Playstation as someone was always using it. Eventually my parents grew tired of mediating the constant bickering and fighting for Playstation time that we then had to earn hours on it by doing housework, chores and cooking dinners. Suffice to say my parents certainly ended up winning in this scenario as they had four “slaves” constantly trying to “earn” Playstation hours resulting in a spotless house and occupied children…
I first remember when I first got hooked when I could not let go of Crash Bandicoot and since then I loved the PlayStation and we used to get together with friends and play and another game that I used to get hooked on was FIFA which was very popular having contests with friends and got very competitive.
I remember finding my dad’s original playstation in the garage. Put away in a box, forgotten about, with Spyro, Crash Bandicoot and some tennis game? To be honest I only ever really played Spyro. Every Saturday and Sunday morning I would get up and plug in the Playstation and start playing. The only problem being, I didn’t have a memory card. I played the first few levels of Spyro countless times. I became some sort of speed run master on maybe the first 5 worlds. (I probably spent hours playing the ice hockey mini game). Even though all of my friends had the next generation of consoles and the Original had been pushed aside. They were some of my earliest and most favourite gaming memories.
Growing up as a child in a family with 6 other siblings, it was always a struggle for my parents to provide the basics, let alone a video games console. Many afternoons after school, my brothers and I would run to the local shopping centre up the road and head into the department stores, such as K-Mart or Target, and make a bee-line straight for the video games. We would take turns on the demo stations set up in-store to play the Super Nintendo or Sega Megadrive for as long as we could each day, stretching our backs and neck from the strain of looking up at the screen for so long.
One day as we headed back into the store just like any other day, we noticed that the gaming kiosk had changed. It now had something named the “Sony Playstation” sitting inside with 3D polygonal graphics on the screen and a little orange bandicoot standing around waiting to be directed. My older brother commandeered the controller, which was surprisingly comfortable to hold in our small hands, and started moving around the screen. From left to right, up and down, and anywhere he really wanted. The character even started taunting us with animations when we didn’t press any buttons. We had never seen anything like it before. I thought to myself, ‘this is amazing, we need to get one of these!’.
That evening, my brothers and I pulled out our stashes of pocket money and counted what we had together. We were far too short off paying for a new Sony Playstation. We huddled around our parents and tried to convince them we would do anything for this console, but to our dismay, failed miserably. Before we knew it, Christmas had rolled around and there wasn’t a lot of presents around the tree that year. After everyone had opened their gifts, our father brought out one last gift for the family. We ripped into it quickly, and as I saw the grey box, I knew immediately what it was, the Sony Playstation.
For many hours, days and years after that Christmas, we would play to our hearts content. From the start to finish of the few games we owned to replaying the first stage repeatedly on Sony’s demo discs. The Sony Playstation forever changed how we looked at video games, ushering us from an era of 2 dimensional to 3 dimensional video gaming. Still to this day, PS1 is played regularly in my household as nostalgia’s grip has held me tight and nurtured me into the gamer I have become today.
Pretty straight forward really. I turned on the PS1 I had just saved yonks to buy and put in the disc. Nothing appeared on the screen and the machine made a horrid whirring and banging sound. When I took the disc out I saw I’d put one in from my Sega and my poor PS1’s laser was damaged . Hence my first experience ended up with me saving an extra long time for a second machine before I even got to see a Playstation game in action
I remember arcade visits with my Dad in the eighties, with great fondness, esp now that my Dad has passed away… We played ‘Space Invaders’ and all those timeless classic games… My first gift of any kind of game console, also from Dad, was one of those little, orange ‘Donkey Kong’ handheld games that came out in the early ’80’s… I thought I was so ‘with it’!
Apart from that, my gaming experience was pretty limited until I grew up and had my first child in 2001. By then, I had heard of PlayStation, and PlayStation 2 had just come out the previous year. I had also heard there were some great, educational games for kids on PlayStation, so we bought our first console, also in ’01. I was excited to try it, but the thought intimidated me, until I realised you could also get Donkey Kong on PlayStation…! I went out and bought a copy straight away!
That first experience of playing PlayStation is one of my greatest. I turned on the console, expecting something similar to the handheld game, and was absolutely blown away by the colour, animation, fast-paced action and the feeling of being INSIDE the console. And I’m not being sexual, when I say that! But you must all know that feeling of becoming a character…! The feeling of BEING Donkey Kong!
Playing Donkey Kong brought me back to my childhood. It was exciting and comforting both at once! PlayStation is a bit like a trip to the zoo, or a ride at a fun-fair. It takes you back to your childhood. You feel young, free and re-energised, like you, rather than the game, are the one ‘plugged in’! Actually, I would call Playstation ‘ageless’…
You can be anything you want with a game controller in your hand. You can become any character on screen.
You can be transported to any country, any place, any time…
Playstation is a brilliant invention. I wish my Dad could have been around to see it…
My favourite playstation memory from the last 20 years would be the day i received my Playstation 1.
Videogames have always been a big part of my life. Being a child from the 80’s i had the pleasure of witnessing the evolution of gaming, from the original NES & master system to to the mighty
16bit powerhouses that where the Super Nes & Sega Megadrive,console gaming was coming along in leaps & bounds. Being an avid gamer i always kept up to date with the latest gaming news through my local news agent, of all the gaming mags i read a little upstart aussie mag called HYPER(still goin strong!) soon became my go to for gaming news. It was through this magazine i first read the rumours of Sony stepping into the console market & as time went by & more info came through regarding its amazing CD quality sound,FMV capabilities & mighty 32 Bit processer i knew that this was the console for me. I quickly set about saving the cash needed to get one of these bad boys & promptly set about selling my NES, Megadrive & all the games i had to get the cash together(IDIOT!) i lived in a small rural town in central QLD at the time so once i saved up enough cash i promptly ordered my playstation along with copies of 2 amazing looking games, tekken & destruction derby & waited very impatiently for the goods to arrive by mail. I remember like it was yesterday the day it finally arrived.i was walking up the road after another long ass day at high school, head down,shoulders hunched, legs slightly chaffed & i looked up towards my house to see my old man outside enjoying a beer in singlet, stubbies & thongs while watering the lawn. He saw me coming & called out YOUR NEW GAMES MACHINES HERE MATE!! now i was quite a large boy at the time but god damn it!! my chunky legs ran harder & faster than they’d ever ran before!! I shot past the old fella, raced inside & ripped into that box like it was xmas & quickly commandeered the TV. I remember turning to my mum & saying MUM, SERIOUSLY IM NOT GOING TO SCHOOL TOMORROW!! & to my surprise she laughed & said that was ok 🙂 i then rang a close mate of mine & also convinced his mum to give him the day off too! lol he was around in minutes & we spent that afternoon,evening & most of the next day beating the crap out of each other in tekken, wreaking havoc in destruction derby & messing around with that outstanding T-Rex dino demo. Over the years i have gone on to own many other consoles(ps2,3,4 xbox,xbox360 to name a few) but the day i got my original playstation will always hold a special place.
Watching my dad play FPS When I was 6 years old.
Covering my eyes, and peeking out, but never leaving the room.
I was so intrigued.
The first games I’d ever play were ‘Kileak: The DNA Imperative’ (not really sure what was happening, but having fun wandering the corridors) and ‘Battle Arena Toshinden’ (ALWAYS choosing Ellis, because she was adorable and I wished I was her)
Saving up my money to buy my own 13 inch television, and hooking up the PS1 and then PS2. Bawling my eyes out when I learned the hard way that if you leave a disc out of its case, it will get scratched and ruined forever.
Buying magazines JUST for the cheat code sections at the back. Using my cds in the console as an actual cd player.
Playing the demo discs religiously. Wipeout, ridge racer & destruction derby were my favourite demos.
Eating flies, and karate kicking my way through tv channels with Gex, Trying to find my parents in Croc 2 with the help of the gobbos, Skateboarding my way to fame through the warehouse, school and streets in Tony Hawk.
Being super frustrated when my friends would come over and war to play Spice World instead of Doom, and also playing for hours then realising your memory card was full and you’d have to turn off the console to delete files from it, losing your game.
Playstation has been my entire life, right up until this point, where I spend my grocery money on the newest PS4 games and only eat tin spaghetti as long as it means I can have the new Wolfenstein AND inFamous.
Thank you for this opportunity. Even writing this has brought back so many memories :’)
When I bought the original Playstation in the late 1990’s, I was so excited I wanted to share my joy with my brother and his family. We spent a late night playing Tomb Raider. It didn’t matter who had the controller because we were in awe of the graphics and puzzling gameplay.
My first playstation experience was with Metal Gear Solid, I remember walking around and being amazed at the fact I was leaving footprints and that the guards would spot them and track them… of course they couldn’t find me because I was hiding in a… a box! That wonderful tool of gaming… that day the box took on new dimensions and the Playstation took a place in my heart!
My boyfriend had one back when I was 19. He and his mates used to spend all day playing Teken. One day I asked if I could have a go. I kicked all their butts!! Then they couldn’t get ME off it!! LOL..
My first PlayStation experience was when my older brother owned a PS1, I was around 7 at the time and got to play Final Fantasy 7 and wrestling games along with demo discs. Years later and now aged 20 I still have that PS1 and all the games. It was a massive changing point in my life and set me on the path to being a gamer ~ ☆
Sleepover at my friends house who had a playstation 1 so much fun, running through the jungle as crash bandicoot, dodging boulders and picking up loot. Staying up all night until our fingers were blistered and our hands were permanently stuck in the shape of the controller.
As a kid, I constantly watched my dad play his beloved Playstation One. Every day when he got home from work, he would sit down crack a beer open and try to guide this big red bandicoot through all kinds of crazy levels. I would sit on the edge of my sit as he ran from a gigantic boulder and sigh in relief whenever he made it past huge spiders and dark crevices. I would also laugh my butt off whenever he would die from unexpected objects and just plain stupidity. Together we tried to work out how to collect all the colourful gems and beat all the bosses. Although I enjoyed these times, I was lacking just one thing, not once had I been able to control the big bandicoot myself. As a child, dad told me I should spend more time outside and be active, instead of playing on the Playstation.
On the day of my 3rd birthday, I woke to dad giving me a small square present. I tore it open and I found the big red bandicoot smiling at me in jet black sun glasses. I stared in admiration, but I had never been able to play by myself before. I looked up at my dad and said “Here you play it first.” He looked at me surprised and said, “No, it’s your turn now, you can play.” My heart skipped a beat, I had never been allowed to play before. I hesitated, but my dad moved towards to the Playstation, he flipped open the lid, put the game in and gave me the controller. I felt complete holding the controller in my hands. My dad quickly showed me the controls and I began, I was slow and cautious, not wanting to die a silly death like my dad had done countless times before. I walked up to a frog, it began jumping towards me, my heart began to pound in my chest. The frog jumped on top of me, it kissed me and turned into an ugly prince. I couldn’t contain my laughter, I nearly fell out of my chair. My dad showed me how make the bandicoot spin, I restarted and went again, this time I killed the frog just in time. I continued on through the level, but came upon a man swinging a gigantic sword. I wasn’t sure what to do so I just ran, unfortunately I miss timed it and the sword went straight through the bandicoots body. His legs continued to walk but his upper body stayed still. Again I laughed hysterically, I restarted and corrected my mistakes. This was my first ever time playing a Playstation and it will be forever cherished and etched in my memory.
My first real experience came in 1997 when I was just a wee six year old boy. My friends all had a ps1 and were obsessed with Abe’ Oddysee. I remember going over and watching it for the first time and being mind blown and incredibly scared of all the sound effects and creatures. And overjoyed when Abe would squeamishly say hello.. I told my parents all about it at dinner and they promised me if I worked real hard and saved for a year I could get one.
I cleaned the house everyday weekend for a whole year until that faithful day! I forgot all about Abe’s Oddysee and was desperately wanting Croc! My parents got me a ps1 and to my surprise it came with Heart of Darkness, a mysterious game i had never seen before and while I was overwhelmed with tears and joy I had no idea the amazing journey I was about to embark on as a six year old boy just trying to find my dog whiskey who had been taken by creatures of darkness! I spent two years playing before I ever made it to the second disc, but sadly never got to finish it in my childhood. I’ll point out that this game was meant for older kids, I was just a six year old kid who kept screaming when my shadow would try to eat me. It would seem I wasn’t ready for this game yet. In 2009 when I was 17, feeling particularly mopey after my first highschool breakup, I started cleaning my room and lord behold my ps1. The only game I managed to find amongst all the clutter in our garage, was in fact Heart of Darkness. A game I forgot all about and had no idea what it was going to do to me.. I immediately set everything up, feeling nostalgic and childish, I couldn’t help but giggle when I heard that original playstation start up sound, and get shivers down my spine. As soon as the game started, I didn’t put that controller down until 5:30 the next morning.. This game made me believe in video games, it showed me how far storytelling can go, and that the adventures and emotion that exist in video game are as memorable as the ones we face in real life.
To this day I’ve never played any game that resonates the same emotion I had that night playing Heart of Darkness. A moment where I felt completely innocent and young, to being helpless and afraid..And finally humble and content with how the story ended. Playstation gave me a new outlook on storytelling and made me feel human whilst playing a game endlessly. So thanks Andy and Whiskey for helping me overcome the darkness growing up!
Watching a movie on Compact Disc with a PlayStation Console was Revelation for me.
The first time I saw a PlayStation I didn’t really know what it was.
I actually thought it was some kind of power-boosted aerial for the TV.
It was the first game-console I remember that used Compact discs instead of cartridges.
However what impressed me most was that it could also play music CD’s and Movies (video discs) too. All in one small multi-functional unit.
The PlayStation did it all.
The first time I watched a movie on Compact Disc with a PlayStation Console was a Revelation.
When I first saw a PlayStation I didn’t really know what it was.
I actually thought it was some kind of power-boosted aerial for the TV.
It was the first disc based game-console I can remember but what impressed me most was that it could also play music CD’s and Movies (video discs) too. All in one small multi-functional unit.
The PlayStation did it all.
So back in the day, my fondest memories are of playing PS1 with my dad and two sisters. we used to do the whole ‘life by life, stage by stage’ as we called it and swap over when we died or finished a level. We tore through games, whatever we could get our hands on. My dad doesn’t really play games anymore and recently I asked him why.
He told me that he only really played as it was the best way to bond with his three girls at an age where it gets hard to connect with your kids. Hit me right in the feels ;-;
Will be doing the same with my little one (now 3) <3
Dad wanted a DVD player when they were just becoming main stream, in my brilliance of my 11 year old self i convinced him that a PS2 was the way to go. Watching my first DVD, Gladiator for the first time with my family was a memory that has seem to stuck with me forever. Then there was Crash Bandicoot and things spiraled from there :).
First game console ever was a Vectrex (some of you may remember it, it was awesome and I was able to clock Scramble at will despite my being only 4 years old… a feat which is apparently now well beyond me). Moved on through the Sega systems until my brother got a N64 for christmas one year. We were both blown away by the graphics and gameplay available on that system but the problem was that it lived in my brothers room… my big angry not good at sharing brother.
I told my Mum one day that I was going to end up living a life steeped in sex, drugs and crime and that she and my father were to blame. When she asked how I figured that to be the case I told her that it was clear that she and my father loved my brother more than they loved me as he had a game console in his bedroom and my gaming needs went unfulfilled. Due to the fact that I was the unloved and forgotten child I would obviously look to find love in other places which would inevitably lead me to falling in with the wrong crowd… hence the sex, drugs, and crime. I told her I hoped she was happy that I was going to end up in jail or dead and said I was going over to a friends house to check out his new playstation which his parents had bought him because they obviously loved him.
Next day I got the PS1 and a copy of Wipeout. She thought I’d obviously put a lot of thought into the argument and had made her have bit of a giggle so it was worth it. Spent the next few years playing everything I could get my hands on with the highlights being FFVII, The God of War series, Onimusha series.
The PS1 startup screen and audio beat remains one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen / heard. I often didn’t let my brother play on the PS either and that retribution was OH SO SWEET! to my 14 or 15 year old sensibilities.
Now I’m a game designer, hopefully one day I’ll be able to design a game for consoles, the circle will be complete, I will become some kind of Darth Vader like personality and begin my quest to take over the multiverse.
End of Line.
My first memories of my first PlayStation experience were both truly exhilarating and terrifying. I remember getting a PlayStation for my birthday so many years ago and it came with 3 games. Those games were Star Wars Rebel Assault II, MechWarrior, and the Alien Trilogy.
I remember being amazed at the cut scenes for SWRA2 and how real it seemed. And the gameplay was so amazing. I remember how at the time I wasn’t allowed to play it on the colour tv in the lounge room very often so I had to resort getting a UHF adapter for my little black and white tv. I remember during the school holidays that I would get up at 6 am and drag the console out to the lounge room if only for an hour or so to enjoy the colour.
Now to the scary part. For me Alien Trilogy was the first Horror game I can recall where I truly didn’t want to open doors and literally jumped when a face hugger ran past me. I can still recall the music from the game as it was both haunting and beautiful. For those of you who enjoyed Alien Isolation and haven’t had the privilege of playing Alien Trilogy I recommend giving it a go late at night with all the lights of. And if you really want to enhance it try it on a little black and white television where you need to sit real close.
Thankyou Sony for the nostalgia.
I was sleeping over at my uncles house and this was when I was introduced to the PS1.
We stayed up playing the first resident evil together, I would have been about 7 or 8 at the time.
The game terrified me, I didn’t sleep for days and I didn’t want to touch the PS1 again.
So after a couple of years of nagging, I got my PS1 for Christmas 98.
I unwrapped it and a crispy copy of Gran Turismo. My brother and I sat down and played for the entire day, only pausing for lunch and dinner.
At 2am on Boxing Day, we realised we needed a memory card. We wouldn’t be able to get one until after New Years. We asked my uncle if he had a spare, but alas he didn’t and that was our only option. We left the Playstation on and continued our quest.
A week later, with full hearts and sore thumbs, we got to the store and bought a memory card. We returned home and that’s when mum said, “Oh I thought you boys weren’t playing it so I turned it off.”
Goddammit mum…
I remember it like it was only yesterday…
I was 14 and dating a beautiful young gal. She invited me to her house for the first time ever and her parents weren’t going to be home until much later that night; It was a big deal. I push-biked nearly an hour to get there but it was so worth it. I arrived, panting and out of breath, and she greeted me with a knockout kiss.
We find ourselves in the lounge room and she makes to put a movie on for background noise. It was then I noticed it…
The sleak grey controller, the 2 game cases with the thick border (Crash Bandicoot and Hercules!), even the sound the cases made opening them. I booted crash bandicoot and knew love at first sight.
It’s been many years since our little fling and I’m not sure what ever happened to her. I hope she’s happy and still being played, wherever she is.
Not sure what happened to the girl though.
So after a year or two of seeing stunning 3D arcade games (Virtua Fighter 2 and Tekken 2 come to mind) in town, I finally managed to scavenge up the cash for a PSX, Tekken 2, and an RF converter – the most I had ever spent on something to that point in my life!
I remember sitting in the car in 30+ degrees, unable to wait to get home to get it up and running, and opening up the Tekken 2 CD jewel case. Two surprises struck me that day:
1. A demo disc packaged with the game! Nice! (Demo discs were something I would grow to love over the life of the PSX)
2. The back of the CDs..they are black! Mind blown.
What can I say, I am easily impressed!
Stifling summer sun spread over our suburban street
As I awoke to a thrilling technological treat
It was a magnificent morning, Christmas 1995
A festival of fun; ’twas awesome to be alive!
As the eldest of four teenage girls
Extreme emotions were filling our world
You see this was no conventional group of adolescents
Seeking from Santa a cure for fashion obsessions!
Our parents had been busy it would appear
The living room was littered with Christmas cheer
Gorgeously wrapped boxes all varying in size
But there was one neatly nestled box that had captured our eyes!
Needing to unwrap gifts to soothe our immense nerves
We needed something with vision, vivaciousness and verve
And this potentially perfect package could fill that hole
You see we’d all dreamed of owning a contemporary console!
And I, being the eldest, was the one gifted the opportunity
Of which would culminate in us joining the esteemed ‘console community’
As I unwrapped this distinctively beautiful beast
The shrieks around the room immediately increased!
We now owned a Playstation; something we had strived for all year
There was endless hugs, laughter and tears
Our first experience was Rayman; a hero saving the world from evil Mr. Dark
It was every young girl’s dream; a limbless humanoid with stacks of spark!
I will never forget that Christmas day
It was beyond special in many many ways
The sisterhood bond we so happily shared
And a small screen television at which we endlessly stared!
My first experience was way way back when the the first PS was released. I was 13.
Stayed the night at my mates house. Played Resident Evil in a pitch black room with all the windows open on a windy night.
Lets just say That we didn’t sleep to well that right.
At one point I heard something blowing around outside and thought it was a zombie dig stalking us,
Hahaha those were the days 🙂
I remembered playing Metal Gear on PlayStation 1 borrowed from my neighbour, fighting Psycho Mantis and its freak me out, it changed my channel, how he know about what game I like etc. I thought there are some psychic thing going on in my living room. (mind you I was still a kid back then). I turned off the PS1 straight away, and returned it to my neighbour, and they laughed at me about how silly I am.
I was around twelve. My Mum’s boyfriend at the time bought one of these on release. I remember laughing at him a lot. The launch price was quite high here. He couldn’t even afford a game to go with it. Anyway, he fired up the demo disk. I soon stopped laughing at him and start laughing from sheer enjoyment. Destruction Derby was the reason why. I loved the sound of the impacts. Hitting someone in the sweet spot to send them spinning was a delight. I even loved that point where my car got so damaged, I was forced to reverse through the field trying to take them all out. There were other games on the disk, but this one was played for days on end, and it was a demo. I can’t imagine any leap forward in technology these days that would have me glued to a short demo for so long anymore. The man responsible for that great memory is no longer with us, but I still remember fondly how much fun he helped me have around twenty years later.
My very first memory of the Playstation was back in March 1996…I was reading about the PS1 in Hyper magazine and then my local video game rental shop had already started renting PS1 consoles to customers…So I convinced my two older brothers to hire one for the weekend and some games. So $80 later ($20 for game rentals, $60 for the console rental – luckly I knew the guy that ran the shop and waived the deopist fee)…I had the PS1 at home with Battle Arena Toshinden, Destructon Derby and Tekken…
I can still remember powering the system for the very first time and hearing the PS1 startup music and the old SCE Logo (I use the 20th Anniversary theme on my PS4).
I remember playing with my brothers until 2am in the morning going to sleep and wake up a 9am to start all over again, having my friends over playing it with me and saying it’s was the greatest thing since sliced bread
I also remember having to put the PS1 upside down in order to play games (due to overheating and worn drive rails)….It was like 1-2 months later that my brothers brought a PS1 outright and we got to gaming every night for about 6 months…and it made me a playstation fan. I still have my PS1 today (although its very worse for wear due to playing FIFA: Road To World Cup ’98 every night with my brother and his best friend for about a year)
My first PlayStation experience is actually in one of my favourite series’ as a kid, Spyro.
I’m not even sure what year it would have been but at some point my parents bought me a PS1 and I thought it was the best thing in the world. My mum and I would play games together when we had the chance but I only really remember one clearly, the Spyro series.
We wouldn’t play for very long in a sitting but we would always play together. So over the course of what was probably a year we worked our way through the three games. Then of course started them over and over again, spending countless hours as a little purple dragon. Much to my displeasure I did not grow up to become a dragon but we take what we can get.
It was a lot of fun, even if it did involve my first ‘rage quit’ and it’s my first PlayStation experience.
My story with playstation always “the rain”
1st game with psx was xenogeas. In the beginning of the game there is raining scene and made me watched it in awe.
1st game with ps2 was mgs2. The raining in the bridge.
1st game with ps3 was gta4. Awesome raining
Ps4 was tomb raider
So for me Playstation is always “rain” benchmark in next gen
Remember playing FIFA road to world cup 98 at my mates place. First time I ever saw a PlayStation in action. He showed me a trick where you could get a player to tackle the ref and they would be sent off with a red card. We used this on all our players as there wasn’t really a restriction on how many red cards you could get. We played 1v1 with just our goalies for hours. So much fun.
They should bring this back as a gameplay mode in the new ones.
Was staying over at a friends house, when a mutual friend brought over his PlayStation and a copy of Twisted Metal 2. We started out taking turns seeing who could get the furthest and getting to know which car we liked the most. I was personally fond of Outlaw2.
Any way while we were playing one of us got knocked off a building in New York when we noticed some lights that looked like a triangle. This got us very excited because the way it stood out must mean that it was a hidden cheat code! But what was it, and what did it do? We spent the next 30 mins driving off the buildings trying to find the code. Once we did get it we wondered what other codes were hidden in the game. We stayed up all night scouring every level to find them. Although the only two I can remember for sure is the one in New York, and in Paris when you napalm the picture.
We spent hours exploring the game, and we loved every minute of it. Now we have HUGE open world games like Skyrim with countless little things to discover and explore, but they will never equal the excitement we three friends had on that night in the tiny world of Twisted Metal 2.
The first memory I can recall of my Playstation was owning the PS1 classic. It wasn’t the console that drew me; but rather a game. I wanted to play and experience Final Fantasy VII. I was living in NZ at the time and I heard very good reviews of this game. To get it however, I needed to get the console, which was very expensive by the standards of those days and I was a kid in intermediate school with zero income.
For the first 2 months I begged my parents to buy me the console and game, as you do as a kid that age even though I knew our family did not have that much money. My first breakthrough was that my mum agreed for to buy me one if I can clean/fix/prettify the garden in 6 months. So I did that, every morning 6 am, wake up and spend time outside in the garden, and the same when I came home from school.
Got my first paid job as negotiation chip with my mum, as she would agree to cut the time down and purchase the console asap if I can come up with 50% of the funds myself provided still agree to continue my garden work. I remember the anguish and tears after finding out my brother took some of my money I have saved to buy himself a new bike helmet (grr), mum found out and punished him, and she bought me the console and game that same day..
I was soo happy, played FFVII all through the weekend. stopped playing when I Aeris died and spend 3 days asking friends if she comes back to life magically, as I did not want to continue if I couldn’t.. lol.. I remember the sadness after finding out I couldn’t revive her, spend the next week grinding because I didn’t want to progress. I felt soo many emotions playing that game, it remains my most memorable game to this day. I finished it at least 10 times.
My journey into owning this console shaped my character and influenced my work ethics as I now come into adulthood. It will always have a place in my heart, even though now I own an XBONE because my wife/daughter overruled me because of the Kinect.
Mine is pretty simple. My first PS memory is of playing The Lost World: Jurassic Park. For some reason, it always scared the hell out of me. Dinosaurs, right?
My brother and I got our Playstation 1 for Christmas 1997 with a copy of Final Fantasy VII and the demo disc that came with the console. We played a bit of Final Fantasy but kept getting killed against the first boss due to a weird translation / dialogue delivery choice “Attack when its tail is up… it’s going to counter-attack with its laser” we took that to mean “Attack OR it’ll attack you with its laser” and thus died repeatedly.
We finally overcame the dialogue to learn that it was probably the best first console game kids our age could have gotten. We could already read, but FFVII taught us to speed read. The storyline was engrossing, but our childish impatience and the fact that you could close the dialogue windows as soon as you were finished reading lead to us becoming very strong readers at an early age (even if part of what we were reading was translation errors).
I still remember yelling to my mother that “I haven’t reached a save point!” for many years as we acquired FFVIII and FFIX after that, playing late into the night. The Playstation 1 gave us engrossing experiences in the Final Fantasy games that i’ve never really found again on any other platform or franchise.
In a way maybe it was the worst first console experience to have. My standards were sky high from day one, and not much has reached it since. I still play it every few years, to check if nostalgia has gotten the best of me, only to learn it’s still just as good as it was on day one. I still hear the music from Final Fantasy VII and am instantly transported back to that time in my life.
That Playstation had its power cord cut, its disc spindle broken, it was dropped, hidden, everything our parents could think of, because we were so enthralled by its majesty that we couldn’t put it down. But even after months of being “banned” from playing, the day we got it back and heard the sweet sounds of its reawakening (http://youtu.be/ekqYhP8PhMg), it was like not a day had passed, like a true friend, like a warm embrace; we were home.
Damn, I didn’t see this story until today. So many good entries so far! Here’s mine.
I actually never owned a PS1…but I never owned an N64 either. I kinda skipped that console generation. So believe it or not, my first “Playstation experience” was actually playing a number of PS1 games that were released on PC – notably Final Fantasy 7, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver and Mortal Kombat Trilogy. One of my friends then won a PS1 in a competition, so I was regularly visiting him to play it. I think I may have racked up more hours on it than he did.
I then got a job working on a game helpline (this was back in the late 90’s remember, even though the internet existed it was far from the popular commercial product we know today) where I got to play Playstation games in between taking calls. We were encouraged to do so, so we could familiarise ourselves with the games better.
In a related story, back when Mr Rudd gave everyone $900, I decided to use that money to buy a console. I already had a Wii and was tossing up between the PS3 and X360 but couldn’t decide. I was working for a game developer at the time and I got a brand new, shiny X360 debug kit on my desk. Took it out of the box, plugged it in…and…bam, orange light. Not even a RRoD, it was orange, meaning general hardware fault. As soon as that happened, I said “Yep, PS3 it is!”. Never regretted it 🙂
Just before Christmas Day in 1998. Some relatives came by with a PlayStation, the original joint not the smaller PSOne. Had only one game but we played the hell out of it. It was Crash Bandicoot. We must’ve played all day. My brother and I were shocked that they’d give us such a lavish gift, out of the blue. We would’ve been about 10 years of age. Took us a while to clock Crash but it took all my siblings’ prowess to do so. Good times. Eventually we added more games to the catalogue and upgraded to a PS3 later on but that was our first PlayStation experience.
Growing up, we never had money to spare. Even though my mum worked hard, raising two kids as a single mother is no easy feat.
One particularly bad year, we had just moved house. The cost to move (coupled with bond and 2 weeks rent) really crippled our little trio’s finances. Mum went out one day, and came home with bags and bags of pasta – and nothing else. To get by, we ate plain pasta every night for 2 months. Needless to say, when Christmas rolled round towards the end of our pasta famine, there was no money for presents.
Then one night, my sister made it through to a B105 competition line. The question was “what is the word for a fear of spiders?” My older sister, budding scientist that she was, knew the answer: arachnophobia. She won us a Playstation 1 console and a copy of Nightmare Creatures. I felt like the luckiest kid in the world.
I played that PS1 into the ground. When I finally managed to scrape together enough money to buy Final Fantasy VII, I couldn’t also afford a memory card. So I would play as far as I could, and leave the console on for so long that it would burn to the touch. When someone turned it off, I’d simply insert disk 1 and start again.
Seeing the colours of the 20th Anniversary PlayStation 4 takes me straight back to those days, where video games were a brilliant escape from a sometimes difficult childhood.
Go an original PSX for Christmas a year or so after it was released. It was supposed to be a bundle package but my Mum must have got the wrong one so it was just the Console and one of those Demo video discs that just show the games rather than let you play them.
We couldn’t afford to go get games at that time so soon after Christmas. So I would watch that disc over and over again (I remember watching videos on Super Monkey Ball and Medieval) after school in anticipation of getting my hands on a game. It wasn’t until my Birthday in February that one got my first game, Crash Bandicoot. The wait was worth it.
The beginning of my Playstation story is practically synonymous with the beginning of my gaming story. When I was very young (as in, around 5) I would go over to my cousin’s house and play Spyro 2 on the PS1. They didn’t have a memory card in those days, so every time I went over, it would be starting a new game. It’s amazing the things you put up with as a kid; I got very familiar with those first few levels, and along with being the first game I ever played, it was also the first game I ever came to master.
On my seventh birthday, I was lucky enough to receive a brand new Playstation 2, which had only just come out (it was 2001). Mum also got me a copy of Spyro, because this was back in the days when backwards compatibility wasn’t a dirty word, along with a memory card so I could finally put those years of practice on the first level into action and finish the damn thing. I practically grew up with that PS2; as I got older, I moved on to more mature titles, from the generation’s PG Spyro equivalents, Ratchet & Clank, Jak & Daxter and Sly, to the technically mature but still relatively light games such as Destroy all Humans and Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, to the properly mature ones such as my favourite game of all time, Metal Gear Solid 3.
Eventually we had to sell the PS2, and I didn’t get back into Playstation until last year, when I bought a cheap PS3 to catch up on all the exclusives I missed when I moved to Xbox and PC during the seventh generation. We ended up selling it to an old man as something for his young grandson to play with when he came to visit. As part of the sales pitch, I offered to play a game of Lego Star Wars with the kid to see if he’d enjoy it. He did, and that ended up being my last go on the machine that had been my childhood for the last 8 years. I hope that kid enjoyed it; it was one of the most versatile consoles of all time, with plenty of fun family titles and multiplayer games to keep him entertained, and plenty of great mature games which we specifically advised granddad to keep under lock and key until the kid was old enough for them. Looking back on that, in this age of negligent parents buying GTAV for their 8-year olds, the fact that the dude just wanted something wholesome for his grandkid and was willing to put some effort into supervision feels oddly heartwarming.
That’s the Playstation to me; it’s got something for everyone.
Back in the day when kids had more fun sitting on skateboards and rolling down hills, there was a boy. This boy led a very blessed and fortunate childhood. He lived all over the world, traveled far and wide, and never really wanted for anything. Except one thing.
When video games started to enter the mainstream, and consoles and computer games started to enter the everyday household, the boy was forced to watch from the sidelines. Of course his parents happily got him a gameboy (for pokemon) and a slightly better computer (for Baldur’s Gate II), but they never really understood the multiplayer aspect of gaming fun that a console could bring.
So it was that the boy experienced his first gaming action on a playstation at a friends house down the street. Introducing the game of Suikoden II to the boy forever shaped his future. Increasing his love of story and choice above all else. Nurturing his almost dangerous levels of passion for collection. Creating the understanding that games are amazing when played alone, and equally, but differently, amazing when played together.
It was a time of magic, growth, and wonder. A time the boy will always remember.
My first real playstation experience is also what set me out as a gamer.
My family owned a SNES before hand, I was too young to really get into gaming then and all I wanted to do on that was play Might Morphin’ Power Rangers and live out as a Red Ranger beating putties and monsters to save Angel Grove.
When we got the PS1 we got a bunch of games for it as well, to the point it was overwhelming. I was too young to experience RE, Parasyte’s Eve, Dino’s Crisis, Metal Gear Solid and other action titles, too inexperienced to wheel out at GT, Ridge Racer and be good at it.
Until one fateful night.
It was a easy night in and I had a massive craving for sausages. My sister seemed to telepathically had the same idea and grabbed the package of sausages for herself. Being the younger sibling I was powerless against her. Was this to be my fate? A night without sausage induced snacks?
Seeing the loss fill up my soul, she struck a bargain with me. She got out the PS1, loaded up Crash Bandicoot 2 and proclaimed, ” With each level you beat in this game, you will get a little piece of these sausages’.
I jumped on that offer. At first, I was terrible, I could barely get past the first stage, but in the next half an hour I got more used to the controls, and started to get better. It became more about completing the game than the prize I was offered. For the rest of that night she watched as I played through Crash Bandicoot 2, unfortunately I got stuck at the level on the Great Wall of China and had to give up for bed time.
From this moment on however, my life has revolved around games. Never to skip out on a generation; I’ve owned the Ps1 (and Pocketstation!), Ps2, Ps3, PSP, PSP Go and PSV, each representing different periods of my lifetime. Sony Playstation have certainly been a major part of my life and so will gaming.
Power to the Players! : )
I was a wee lad when I received my PlayStation as a birthday gift from my dad.
At the time, my only experience with video games was a hand-me-down Windows 3.1 computer running SkiFree, Chip’s Challenge, and a bunch of other games whose names I can’t remember.
We didn’t have alot of money at the time, so there were a few games I missed out on (I did get Moto Racer, Porsche Challenge and Monopoly at the same time as the PlayStation, though I kinda regret that third one), but the included Demo One disc… it was a whole new experience, a gateway to a brand new (3D) world, and I would play it religiously- for some reason, I would keep replaying the video for the Rosco McQueen game, perhaps because the music was cool.
I ended up with a modest collection of demo discs thanks to the PlayStation magazines, as well as getting mailed some thanks to being a registered user (Australian Summer Special, anyone?).
Some of my all time favourite games were from the PlayStation, particularly the Crash and Spyro games. I wouldn’t be a gamer today if it wasn’t for that loveable grey box that was the PlayStation, which to this day is still hooked into a small Sony CRT TV that lives in my bedroom.
I had been an avid gamer my entire life. A Nintendo fan boi…. I had gone from the NES, to SNES to the N64. I remember when the PS 1 came out. I first likened it to the Jaguar or other failed weird branded consoles that had come out before it.
One game I had been crazy obsessed with on the SNES was Final Fantasy 6. During the lead up to FF7, all the magazines (we didn’t have the internet back then… or one that was worth using anyways) were showing lovely 3D concept art work for what the game would look like on the N64. Then all of a sudden… Nintendo and Squaresoft (before they merged with Enix to become Squarenix) had a falling out, and they jumped ship to this “PS1” device. I was in year 11 at High School when I got my PS 1 for Xmas with FF7 and no memory card. The harrowing joy of playing the system for the first time was only met by the harrowing devastation when I realised I couldn’t save my game.
Regardless…. I found the crisp clear graphics and cut scenes of the PS1 to be a refreshing change from the weird N64 Blur that I was getting in every single N64 game. I still remember the motorbike chase scene as Cloud and his friends escape Midgar. The heartbreak of Aeris dying. The confusion at some of the horrible translations that literally made no sense. And the joy of finally finishing the game.
I owned a PS2 and PS3 afterwards, but they both didn’t have the same impact as the first time I played a PS1.
I first used a playstation at Toys’R’us. , waiting in line for it to play Street Fighter. I remember going to the mall with my parents, family and friends only to spend time there. It was my must visit place as a kid, I can’t count the number of times I spent there playing, to the point I lost all sense of time to the chagrin of my parents who had to pull me away from it quite literally.
I got a Playstation 1, it was awesome, Ridge Racer blew my mind. My then girlfriend took it when we broke up. It was the happiest and sadest day of my life!
I remember back in the 70’s when I first played a PlayStation. Now PlayStation was what we called our old Atari 2600 and we called it that because we had this little area in our house we called the station because I was interested in trains when I named it. We only had 2 games for our PlayStation in those days, Adventure and Asteroid which along with the console we bought for 6 nickels and a hot meal, hot meals being a form of currency back in those days why for a hot meal you could get 12 gallons of gasoline which was enough for my papa to drive me all the way to my grandma’s house where she made the most incredible ice-cream. Now grandma only made ice-cream every other Tuesday on account of her only going into town on the Monday prior cause she didn’t like people that much, now she made three flavours vanilla, choc chip and bourbon. I wasn’t allowed to have the bourbon flavour ice-cream because I as only 9 at the time and the legal drinking age was 12 see, but sometimes she would give me a little bit and it was the most amazing flavour…
Where was I
Oh yeah, so long story short after that day we never did go down to the creek again to catch frogs.
My first job. In a small beach side town called Inverloch in the middle of Summer. I was working in a cafe in the ice cream section. Doling out ice creams to holiday goers every day. When I got my first pay I felt rich. I was going to buy everything. So I got on the bus and went to Wonthaggi, the biggest town nearby. I bought a PS1.
That was the easy part. The hard part was deciding what game to get. I saw Final Fantasy VIII. “Pfft, that’s the kind of games nerds play”, I thought to myself. At that point I hadn’t admitted to myself that I was a nerd, just someone who liked playing games.
After “umm’ing” and “ahh’ing” for awhile, I bought it. I bought FFVIII. I loved it. Still my favourite one in the series. More importantly than that. It helped me admit to myself that I was a nerd. From that point on, I stopped living a lie.
The year was 1997, I was 16 and a new game was released – Metal gear Solid. So I entered the wonderful world of Sony and it was love at first sight. Of course MGS was just the first step into this playstation world, but little did I know that I would be forever enchanted by the many wonderful games and experiences that were yet to come.
Three years later, and and I’m a big boy with a job and money, so I get the PS2 day one. My fondest memory from this gen would have to be Shadow of the Colossus – it was magical, but also pulled at my heart strings. Every Colossi I killed, I felt conflicted and mad that I had to kill these beautiful creatures.
The PS3 started slow, but came home strong with The Last of us and God of War III, not to mention all little charming titles like Journey, Unfinished swan and The Puppeteer.
Now we are on the mighty ‘New Gen’ train with PS4 and I’m loving Infamous, Driveclub (yeah I said it), Resogun and all the others. One thing is for certain, the future is very bright for Sony – bring on Bloodborne!
That was just a little slice into my Sony PlayStation experience. There have been some great memories had, and I’m sure a lot more to come.
Playstation 2 launch day, November 30 2000. I begged my parents to let me take the day off school so that I could line up and get a Playstation 2 that I had been hungrily awaiting for months. It was going to be the first game console that was not a Nintendo for me, having always had them in the past.
I was expecting a mass of people after seeing what had happened around the world on the news since Australia, like usual, was late to the party.
We rocked up in front of Kmart at about 6.30 in the morning and were greeted to the sight of 3 people standing around. Feeling kind of sheepish; especially since we lived an hour out of town and I made my mum get up at 5 am so we could “beat the rush”, we sat down and waited until 7.30 when my grandfather arrived and my mum left for work. We sat around waiting for Kmart to open. At around 8 a bloke from Target arrived and let the 6 of us who were waiting know that Target was opening early for people wanting a Playstation 2.
Needless to say we all rushed off to the other side of the shopping centre and after “waiting anxiously” behind the other 5 people in the line at the Target counter I received my very first Playstation, at a 10% discount too! However, since the console cost everything I had I did not have enough to buy a game, even with the discount.
I got home and managed to get everything hooked up to the TV where I proceeded to play the demo disc that came with the console over and over again. I must have played the demo level of SSX over a 100 times before I managed to beg or “borrow” enough cash off my parents and sister to get the full game, one the the few that was out a launch.
Ever since than I’ve owned Playstations.
“What? What is it?”
“Looks like blood!”
“I hope this is not Chris’ blood!”
The dialogue was corny, the graphics looked like someone had coloured in an Etch-a-Sketch, and damned if I could get past that bit where the roof repeatedly turned Agent Valentine (the Master of Unlocking) into a Jill Sandwich. All the same, I was hooked on Resident Evil like Jared Leto was hooked on heroin in Requiem for a Dream. Of course, I didn’t actually own the console; I had to rent it (meaning my mum had to rent it) off an enterprising older kid from up the road who’d imported a Playstation from the US. This led to feverish evenings with me and one other guy, Bobbish, yeah that was his name, brave enough to endure the rigours of Resident Evil and the whiplash of Wip3out. Meanwhile the rest of our friends looked onwards as equally s**t scared as they were envious. People like to claim that video games influence kids to be violent. Well, while other teenagers were out getting in real fights, I was channelling my substantial teenage angst into beating the pulp out of virtual bullies everywhere from the slums of Midgar to the hull of Metal Gear.
Those juvenile nights spent watching polygon characters over-flailing their arms and spewing forth hilariously bad dialogue (“Mankind ill needs a saviour such as you!”) has led to a lifetime of nocturnal button tapping that continues to this day. I’ve toppled colossi, decimated the Greek pantheon, rolled up the universe to impress my (virtual) dad, and run rampant through the streets of San Andreas. Some might call this time wasting; others might say I should have taken up a wholesome hobby like coin collecting or landscape painting. I say a big screw you to those guys. Video games have brought me innumerable hours of fun, a host of friends, and an unhealthy appreciation for the twilight hours. And you know what? I owe it to those early nights at the age of eleven creeping through the hallways of the Resident Evil mansion hanging out with Barry and his red vest. I wouldn’t trade those experiences for a bucket full of lobster and a paid holiday to Belize. I haven’t dipped my little hobbit toes into the enticing world of PS4 yet, but when I do I can’t imagine a better way to do it than on a limited edition PS4 bearing the off-grey 90s colour way that first introduced me to the world of gaming. Bring on the Resident Evil remake! Might even have to give old-mate Bobbish a call…
My first experience of a PlayStation was my family knowing I was getting a PlayStation off my dad (my parents were divorced) and everyone giving me games for Christmas even though I wasn’t seeing my dad until the afternoon. My uncle even gave me a burnt copy of WWE Raw (I think that was the name of it) and a note saying he would pay to get it chipped.
After that I kept getting games off family that were pirated but because I could chop and change I never got to enjoy a game because I would just change games if I was struggling. That has taught me to now research game options and only buying games I know I will enjoy and playing them all the way through. I’ve done that since ps2 and through to the xbox 360 and then xbox one.
I now condone pirating not because it’s wrong but because it damages your own enjoyment.
I was very young, but my first experience is watching my cousins play final fantasy 8. That is still my favourite final fantasy till this day.
I was a die hard SEGA fan, I was ever since I saw just how amazing the Master System looked compared to my Commodore 64 games, and without any loading! So I snapped up all their systems from then on. Supporting them to the fullest. I had a Saturn collection I loved.
One day, a childhood friend drops by with his PlayStation. All he has at this stage is the demo disc, with Toshinden being the only 2 player game on there. He said it was crap, and that Tekken was way better and he wished he had that. But we got hours of fun out of the Toshinden demo, so I always found that funny. Since much later when he had Tekken, we never played it as much as we did a that demo of Toshinden. This was my first taste of the new Playstation. I won’t lie, I really liked it. But I’d stay loyal to my more expensive Saturn.
That is until… Final Fantasy VII hits. The ads were constant and intense. I knew the Saturn was in trouble as soon as I saw that. There wasn’t anything on the Saturn that could compare to the cinematic masterpiece that was being shown. My friend from earlier gets it of course, and after seeing it in person also, I had to have it. So I sold off all those SEGA systems, except the Saturn I now pitied, and got a Playstation for myself along with Final Fantasy VII. Of course, over time I got lots of other games for the Playstation, and the rest is history.
That was the 1st and last Playstation I ever had. After SEGA bailed from the console war I shifted over to PC gaming. That’s why I really love the look of this grey PS4. It’s been many years since I had a PlayStation, and I could think of no better way to own another one than to have one that commemorates the original one I had and loved so long ago.
I was a Nintendo fan until I was one day challenged by my friend to play PES4. After I lost in the second half of extra time, I got my PS2 to practice and have never looked back since!
The first playstation I brought was in 1998 for my birthday. My dad looked at me as if there was something wrong with me. Kept telling me I should study. He was very old school. I showed him Ridge Racer. He wasn’t impressed but for me it was magical. When Gran Tursimo came out, I was hooked. Dad was right, I should have studied more.
My first real solid memory of the Playstation was when I borrowed FF7 from my friend to play on my brothers PSX. I had not played games for a long time, having cut my teeth on an Atari 2600 as a kid, and moved on the MegaDrive.
Booting up into that game I had no idea what to expect, but as George Takei would say, Oh My! This system gave me an experience I had never known possible, the investment I put into that game was immense, I broke the clock, it was stuck on 99 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds, and I was still playing, wandering the world.
From those humble beginnings, I have since been a dedicated gamer, having owned each of the Playstation consoles, including the portables.
I would love to own one of the 20th Anniversary PS4’s!
When my brother and I were kids our parents scraped by on next to no money to feed and clothe us, so new toys and gadgets, books and VHS tapes were extremely rare. There were a large number of times that they didn’t eat in order to feed us. But one year, when my brother was 11 and I was 9, our parents bought us a PS1. It was the only present we received and it came with Crash Bandicoot and Spyro. My brother and I were not close at all, and even know it’s a long time between conversations. But that PS1 bought us together, we watched each other play, we took turns to beat every level 100% on Crash Bandicoot and he deleted my 99% Spyro save file to spite me at one point.
Never in our lives have we been close or in the same room for a long period of time and enjoyed it. There were arguments sure, about time limits, when we could play, volume and ‘accidentally’ tripping over the others controller cord while playing Gran Turismo, but they were times that we shared. I’d love this because he now has two daughters, and they live in a similarly tight budget home. I want them to experience the fun we had, as both his daughters love going to Nan and Pops to play the now old PS1 that still works. The memories made and experiences we had, the bond that we still shared at Christmas, talking about CTR, Crash 2 and all the iterations of Spyro down to Skylanders.
The experiences and fun that the system can provide can cross generations and I’d hope to give this special edition to him to show my gratitude and respect despite distance and time.
My story begins when I played on my cousin’s PS3 in the holidays a while ago. It was so amazing how fun it was, but I couldn’t experience this myself at home because my parents recently bought a Wii for me. The Wii was great, but the Play Station stayed on my mind.
When the PS4 came out, my heart was set on claiming one for myself. I begun to save up my money with my brother, and in around March 2014 we were ready to purchase. We looked every where to find the cheapest PS4, finally finding a discounted PS4 at Costco. It was $70 off, who couldn’t resist that. We go to the cash register, ask to acquire one from the storage area, and after 20 minutes, the manager arrives. I could already tell this wasn’t going well. He apologizes sincerely, telling us that they have ran out of stock, and my heart sinks. We spend another 20 minutes waiting while my Dad and the manager are making sure that when we return in a few days that we will be able to purchase a PS4.
A few days later we arrive, and the PS4 was waiting for us. The person at the cash register asked us if we wanted a game. Those few days ago we had spotted Fifa 14, and we wanted it. We go to look at the game section… to see that Fifa 14 wasn’t there, but Fifa Brazil World Cup edition was there. That’s not what we wanted.
We go home and set the PS4 up, and once done, we had no games.
If sciencejayz has the best story it should be awarded to his brother
PlayStation 4 was my first PlayStation – a present from my parents on Christmas Eve of 2014 (yes, an early Christmas present).
I was so eager to set the thing up that I literally tore the box in half to open it. I threw the contents out (the cables, not the console) and wired it up to my TV. I turned it on, dancing to the ‘ping’ it made, I set up my network connection and installed the hour-long updates.
My mum said I would be allowed to play after I had done my chores. I raced through all twelve of them and slumped back onto my couch like a potato (a couch potato). I inserted the Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare disc (another early Christmas present) and to no surprise was faced with more updates. Seriously?!?
And then in turns out the update won’t install. I’m being told to sign in to PSN again. So I put in my credentials – but with no success. What’s going on?!? Over and over again I tried, but my attempts were futile. I hopped onto my laptop to search for some answers, and-
What’s this? A hacker group called ‘Lizard Squad’ has hacked PSN? And Xbox Live? Are you kidding me? Little did I know this saga would continue for three days…
Worst Christmas EVER. (Jks – I had a wonderful time with friends and family!)
On a cold Monday morning 6am, I woke to hear the fire crackling and the drinks being made, it was my sweet 16th birthday, as I entered the lounge I felt a woof of warmth over my heart, I saw a big box.. What could it be I thought? Could it really be a PlayStation that I’ve only wanted since they were invented? Surely not…
But to my happiness it was.. As I shook with nerves and excitement my dad plugged it in and turned it on.. I asked what games I had to what he replied ” I thought the games were on it already I didn’t know you had to buy them separate.. My heart sunk.. Although my heart was so appreciative I just laughed and said thank you so much I love it.. Waited for 2 weeks and then got my first sonic game, although I didn’t get it all at once and couldn’t play I t all day long, the long awaited 14 sleeps was worth every second from the fun, joy and laughter I got out of playing it with my big brother.. It made us bond and become closer as strange as that may sound.. Thanks PlayStation, making kids and adults happy since you released… Xoxo
I was promised the future. Here I was, my 14-year-old self, finally ready to spend my parents’ hard-earned money towards what they were referring to as a toy. I even got over the funny name, PlayStation with hopes that that would name the new console something better. My mum clutched her handbag tightly as she avoided the walls of games. I’ve readied myself for months, with gaming magazines preaching the demise of the old generation of consoles and touting the new generation of games with strange names like Battle Arena Toshinden.
My mum checked for the tenth time. “Are you sure this is the one?” she asked. “Not the SEGA Saturn?” I nodded my head slightly, careful not to trigger any reactions that may make her clamp her purse for good that day. I was only allowed one game and I knew exactly which one. Tekken. I clocked in endless hours on it, getting intimate with the smooth curves of the PlayStation controller. Even today, close friends share memories of the intense bouts and memorable characters. It remained a favourite until the sequel was released.
My first memorable Playstation experience was cruising down the highway on a sort of morbid road trip in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Stealing trains, flying in a jetpack and trying to find the elusive “urban legends” described on game forums across SA’s gigantic open world map. Any time I hear a song from the soundtrack on the radio or on TV, I’m immediately taken back to my teenage years.
It twas the Christmas of 1998, I was only a youngin around that time but my brother and I knew what we wanted then and there, not a 6 Volt Ride-On Batmobile, or the latest Barbie Super Talking Answering Machine Telephone, we wanted a brand-spanking new shiny PlayStation! With two dual shock controllers of course!
I thought to myself, how were we ever going to get one? Alas, I was much too young for a job and I had insufficient funds in my piggy bank but that didn’t dampen our Christmas spirits. Then it came to me! I’ve got to contact Santa, it’s the only way!
In a nanosecond, I connected our 28.8K modem to the internet and ‘Asked Jeeves’ how I could contact Santa about obtaining this glorious PlayStation. With my limited English skills, I typed up one of my best Christmas letters to Santa. As I clicked the send button, my stomach exploded with butterflies. Just the thought of having dual shock controllers got me giddy with excitement.
On the eve, I laid out under the tree, two Arnotts Scotch Fingers coated in chocolate (Who doesn’t like Scotch Fingers?!), a couple of carrots for the reindeer’s and a glass of the finest full cream Pura milk you’ll ever see. I hoped it was enough to entice Santa to let us have our ultimate wish without fattening him up too much.
I went to bed clutching my teddy, hoping I could hear footsteps or a door creaking open to catch Santa, but no, I had to be fresh and ready for a full day of Christmas festivities.
Finally! The day we’ve all been waiting for! I leaped out of bed in my light blue ‘Blast Off’ pajamas, sprinted across the hallway to my brothers room, grabbed his arms and shook his body like a Polaroid picture! “Wake up! Wake up!” I screamed at him. We scurried down the stairs, skid along the tiles and there it was!
Under the tree was a tightly wrapped square box with a Christmas bow on top. As we ripped the paper down the side and exposed the original grey cardboard my eyes instantly lit up. It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.
As we connected the PlayStation to the TV, turned it on and listened to the start-up sequence, I knew I was in love. The deep swell of bass followed by a glistening wave of goodness flowed over my ears. Still to this day the nostalgia gives me shivers down my spine. Santa luckily blessed us and delivered an additional controller with Tekken 3 included.
I thank Playstation to this day, which brought my brother and I so much joy throughout the years, even when he spams the X button with Eddy Gordo’s Capoeira acrobatic kicks and you can never find a counter attack against it. I still love the pleasure it gave to us.
Thank-you Sony PlayStation.
I got home from school to find my dad home early setting up our brand new playstation on the TV! I was so excited! The first game I played was Porsche Challenge, because I loved Porsches so much. It was amazing, I couldn’t beleive how real it looked! I think my dad and I say there playing for the rest of the night that first day. Best day ever
My playstation story took place at about 14 years of age. I’d never owned a console before and, after seeing the ps2 in action at a friend’s place, I desperately wanted one. Something about watching him play Final Fantasy 10 and knowing that I could also finally play Final Fantasy 7 if I got a ps2 (this was when backwards compatibility was cool) really made me itch. To scratch that itch I only had to convince one person: dad. I basically bombarded him with an advertising campaign for the ps2 and why we should get one. Wherever dad went there was a not-so-subtle reminder that he should buy a ps2. The most prominent piece of advertising being a huge poster saying “We should get a ps2 because…” which appeared all around the house, e.g the back of the toilet door or rolled up in the leg of his work pants so that he’d come across it in the morning before work. I worked both the gaming and the DVD player angle as well because I knew we needed a new DVD player.
Eventually dad got one right around the birthdays of my sister and me, which are two weeks apart. We were both stoked and took it in turns to play through segments of Final Fantasy 10 (because the ps2 pack came in a combo with the game), watching each other play, and learning for when we played that part ourselves. Then we got Tekken Tag Tournament and the three of us would stay up late playing Tekken Bowl. The ps2 didn’t get used much for dvds…
I have always been a PC gamer growing up. In fact my first experience with a playstation didn’t come until I was 15, but it was certainly a memorable one. We had a school excursion to the snow coming up and my mates and I are were talking abut how much fun it would be to take a console with us to play in the common room when we get back from the slopes, one dude stepped up and smuggled in his playstation 2. We had some epic Tekken tournements with crowds of about 100 kids crammed into the common room cheering us on. There was alot on the line as well, with the loosers having to do stupid things like naked snow angels out in the powder. We thought the fun was over though when one of our teachers came into see what all the commotion was about, but to our surprise they saw what we were playing and declared themselves the king of tekken and took up the controller, I just happened to be playing at the time and decided to make the game abit more interesting. The looser had to read a poem about the winners brilliance in front of everyone at dinner the next night. Luckily I was able to button mash (I had no idea what i was doing) my way to a 3 game victory. The crowd went nuts and it was hilarious to see my teacher swearing and getting so worked up over a game. To his credit he read the poem titled “A Linc worth fighting for” the next night. It is my fondest memory of high school and it was all due to the playstation.
Since the original NES came out when I was about 7yrs old, my household was exclusively Nintendo for many years. The original Playstation was the first non Nintendo console I ever owned. I was a massive fan of Van Damme growing up, I remember playing the Street Fighter Movie Game in arcades around the time the movie came out and was keen to see it hit a home console just like Mortal Kombat and SFII had done (yeah the SF movie wasn’t great but I did enjoy the game).
Of course the N64 wasn’t too far away and was the main upcoming system on my radar but I had read in a magazine that this arcade game I really wanted to play at home was going to be released on a brand new system by Sony called the Playstation. As expensive as the console was compared to the Nintendo and Sega alternatives, I spent several months saving money from my after school part time job and managed to buy it in 1996. Though the Playstation port of the Street Fighter Movie game wasn’t anywhere near as good as the arcade, the console opened me up to a new world of soon to be classics like Wipeout, Worms and Tekken to name a few. I am probably one of the few people on the planet that could draw a positive experience out of the Street Fighter movie as it inadvertently expanded my gaming horizons beyond Nintendo 🙂 Thank You Street Fighter game of the movie of the game.
Wow, my first Playstation experience. I’m going way back to recall this now, and I still remember it so fondly.
It was Christmas time back in South Africa(1995ish) and I had been dropping blatant hints to my dad about wanting a “Playstation”. He kept saying “What’s wrong with your Nintendo”, I kept saying “everything”. The 25th fast approached and I’d already found where he was keeping the prezzies and it was safe to say I was getting a rugby ball, boots and some lego. Fantastic!
Christmas morning came and I dragged my feet like I was walking to a firing squad. I attempted to fake surprise as I opened the ball, boots and lego but deep down I was mourning like i’d lost a mate.
As we finished up cleaning the wrapping paper dad handed me a smallish wraped box and said he had forgotten to put it under the tree. I literally though, “oh footy socks”. As I opened the box…a frikin playstation controller(the pre-dualshock kind). I absolutely lost it. Dad was having a great chuckle and said something like “I see you didn’t find all your presents”.
He pulled out the main box from a cupboard in the kitchen and I proceeded to hurry to the TV to set it up. I remember playing the original demo for the next few months because the games were so expensive. Lets just say I got awesome at Tekken 2 and Wipeout!
And that was my memorable first experience. My first actual game ended up being Duke Nukem haha It was a time to kick ass and chew bubble gum then!
I recall getting into an argument with my father when I was very young as I refused to leave the PlayStation Kiosk, I found Spyro the Dragon so damn mesmerizing. So I hatched a plan I purchased Spyro with my pocket money then spent the next 6 weeks moping I had a game with nothing to play it on until my Dad caved and got me a PSone.
I was little, don’t even remember how old I was, but I was still living overseas at the time. I wasn’t much of a gamer yet due to being so young, but my dad was, and had brought home the original Playstation. I think it was actually mainly for DDR because he had also bought a dance mat and it was a fun way for the family to get some exercise in. This was followed by Time Crisis, for which he had also bought two light guns for. Along with them were countless games that I can’t even remember them all, but I will always have fond memories of the original Metal Slug, Ace Combat and Ridge Racer among others.
I guess I’ve become the gamer I am now thanks to my dad, and coincidentally we have stayed with the Sony camp ever since, eventually owning a PSP, PS2 and a PS3. I’ve actually set up the old consoles again on an old CRT TV recently, and everything was still perfectly functional leading to some fun parties involving plenty of Time Crisis nostalgia.
I had no idea what the date was. I had no idea what the time was. I can’t remember where exactly in London I was. But the memory is still fresh in my mind, like it happened yesterday. We were walking down some kind of street mall. It was night, but it was very bright. The bubbly orange lights filled the air, the happy chatter filling you up with a happy sense of contentment. But the true feeling of happiness, the true excitement, comes not from this wonderfully romanticized idea of what I remember, but it came from what we had just bought. For of course, we had just bought ourselves a PlayStation, and a handful of games. My dad was carrying the PlayStation that they bought in a sale of some kind. My brother and I were too young/weak to carry the PlayStation, so we squabbled over who could hold the games. Of course, my brother won, because he was older and probably made some false promise about letting me do something but always reneged on said promise. But it did not matter, as the most exciting thing of all was that we now owned our very own gaming console. But more importantly, we now owned Crash Bandicoot.
We ran to the TV and begged our dad to hurry and set up the PlayStation and the TV. We entered the house, running around like maniacs. But within minutes, we came to a sudden stop and carefully opened the box. You could’ve probably mistaken us from someone in the bomb squad; we were so careful in opening the PlayStation box we didn’t want to break anything. I grew impatient, and started flipping through our game catalogue. There was Firestorm: Thunderhawk 2, The Need For Speed (Yes, the very first one EA made), Olympic Soccer, Alien Trilogy (in hindsight, not the best game to buy a 5 & 8 year old), Tunnel B1 and the piece-de-resistance, Crash Bandicoot. I looked at them all. I was all so fascinated by them. I couldn’t tell what was going to be better, was it the racing one with really realistic graphics? Would it be the scary alien monster looking game? Would it be the helicopter game, letting me fly around and do anything I wanted? Didn’t matter, time was up. The PlayStation was set up, and for the first time, the PlayStation booted up.
Such a wonderful sound that I’ll never forget. It was the sound of the future, of games, of excitement! Naturally my brother chose the first game because he always won these arguments; the aspiring pilot (and he actually is one now) wanted to right away play Firestorm: Thunderhawk 2. I didn’t really care, I just wanted to see it play games! So in it went. And we were amazed. I distinctly remember not being able to play it, so I’d sit next to him, plugin the second controller and pretend that I was playing anyway.
As the time flew by for my brother, I was going increasingly impatient, frustrated by my lack of playing and wanting to play. But we decided we should put in another game, instead of letting me play this, so we can see what all the games are like. It was my turn to choose.
I looked at the games. The cover on Alien Trilogy looked stupid, so I didn’t feel like playing that (in fact, to this day, I think it’s safe to say that Alien Trilogy is still on my pile of shame). There were five games left to choose from, and I didn’t know which to go with. So I did what any 5 year old would do: choose the biggest, because it must be the best. If you remember back, PS1 games were sometimes in multi disc cases, to include a demo disc. Both Crash and Firestorm were in this, and thus, they were bigger than the other games.
So Crash it was, and I was in love.
The game loaded up. A funky tune starts playing. I saw the Sony logo. I saw the universal logo. I saw the Naughty Dog logo. A thing runs up to the scream and yells, and we yell back (in excitement). For I was completely blown away. The animal on the screen was moving around so naturally. The sand on the beach was so grainy, the trees so vivid and clear. The water was so fluid and clear, it was amazing. And then I got into it, and wow, what a game. We played for hours, taking turns everytime each of us died.
And that was my first PlayStation experience.
I first played the Playstation back in 1996, i was about 12, my family couldn’t afford to buy one outright but we hired one from the video shop. We hired out Need for Speed, Twisted Metal and Crash Bandicoot i think. I was so incredibly mesmerized by the video cut-scenes running off the disc, it felt like such a huge jump in graphics from the SNES and Mega-Drive back then. Jump to around 2 years later and I ended up getting an N64 for Christmas. As fun and amazing as that system was, around a year later I decided to trade in the N64 and around 5 games and 4 controllers for a brand new Dual Shock Playstation (which had just come out). The first game I ended up buying for it was Final Fantasy VII. I sunk so many hours into that game it was insane, same with 8 and 9 later on. I also spend way too many hours making tunes with Music 2000. I still to this day play classic PSOne games on my PS3. Childhood successful 🙂
My favourite Playstation memory was definitely the first time I played a Ps1.
I was an 11yr old kid from the NSW beaches taken for my first north qld holiday to see an uncle who was a park ranger in cairns nation park. Dream trip for an overactive me, first rain forest, this cabin house was raised in the trees like something from a Tarzan movie, trees, zip lines and river – amazing. But that the last I remember of location, or my excitement of any outdoor adventure. we got there late one afternoon and as adults do, I got bumped in favour of either bourbon or wine. My uncle handed me a controller I’d never seen before and asked if I liked video games. Tv was turned on, and wipeout was booted up. I remember being astonished at the graphics and the sound. There’s no way I’d played anything other than Mario or maybe duck hunt before back then – there wasnt the wealth that those areas would have now back in the early 90s. If your friend had a console, there’s a good chance he /she didn’t have anymore that the game that came with it, NES kids had Mario, Sega kids had Alex Kidd. I sat cross legged on a hardwood timber floor for the rest of the night playing that one game (I think it’s all he had anyway, but it wouldn’t have mattered). I remember sleeping in front of the tv, waking up, going again. Come first, beat the level, unlock the next racer. Instantly addicted. 20years later I’ve had every console and still stuck with racers and sports game nearly exclusively. At work I write programs for robots and machinery, something that I explain to my kids these days as just playing a big video game. There’s no doubt that one day is where it all started and pretty great for me to look back on and think where it’s led to.
Growing up with Crohns Disease i spent long periods of time stuck indoors in my room flaring, everything becomes repetitive and its hard to be happy. Ill never forget one day as a young kid growing up we didnt have much money, i was flaring and my grandparents surprised me with a brand new Playstation 1! I thought i had died and gone to heaven, i remember not sleeping that night and the next playing Crash Bandicoot and Abes Odyssey 24/7. By the time i could come to terms with the fact that i now actually owned a PS1 i realised i had nearly forgot i was flaring… and that i had just found a great escape to another world i could go to when this one wasnt so kind. I have been a Playstation nut ever since and Crohns being a life long disease i still use my PS3 as a way to escape and have fun with my friends when i literally cannot see them. Being Australian i didnt get the chance to purchase this edition of PS4, all i want is the chance to purchase one ive been saving for a PS4 all year and I’d love to have something that reminds me of my first experience and my great discovery. Good luck to everyone and i just wish Sony gave us a better chance at owning this console 🙁
I’ve been gaming since I was 6 with the Commodore 64 and got pretty much everything after that, (except Saturn, Sega 32x, and the almighty NES – yes, I know)
I used to collect the magazines as well, and on the cover of a Hyper was the PS1 console and was looking at the controller thinking it looked a little too plain (compared to the N64’s). Nevertheless I got it that Christmas, and it was one of the best decisions I made.
One of my favourite memories was during the first Tomb Raider, (and loving being a female heroine for a change). My perfect action/adventure game that I’d been waiting for.
As I explored the lost valley world for the first time, and as you feel the thumps on the ground a fricking T-Rex appears around the corner! My instincts kicked in and I SPRINTED FOR MY LIFE to the waterfall up ahead. Luckily my timing was on track by that level, and I managed to do a perfect jump with a dive into the water.
One of the best in-game moments I’ve ever had.
my very first experience with Playstation was when I was eight we had a family get together in my cousin’s place and there it was! “Playstation” (PS1).. played Crash Team Racing forever we had competitions all day and night! The morning after we played some good ol Raw is War WWF PS1 ohhh yeaahhhh…..
Dear Kotaku, I had always thought that the stories submitted previously had been made up until this happened to me oh so long ago ….
I had just finished work and was relaxing at the bar with a glass of wine when my then apprentice had suggested we continue the guzzling of fluid at his place. Not usually the one to be easily lead astray I was surprised to hear myself accept and before I knew it we were in his car and on our way to his place. Once inside he opened a very poor quality bottle of drain cleaner that he told me was wine and put on some soothing melodies made up of Tool and Faith No More and fired up the television. That now so familiar PlayStation boot sound was the next thing I recall, he reached across me and whispered very loudly, “YOU PLAYED TONY HAWKS??” and dropped the cover in my lap. A shiver went up my spine and once my throat had stopped burning from the wine enough that I could speak I replied “no, but I have always wanted to try” 😉
I watched as his fingers moved with grace across the controller, it was so exciting and before long it was my turn. I fumbled my way around at first but in no time at all I had learnt some special moves and tape locations and was feeling in control. I was lost, the sweat on the controller, the feeling of ecstasy as I found S.K.A.T.E and the relief of getting the secret tape. We played all the characters that night and before long the sun began to rise and with a sinking heart I looked across at him and said “I better head home”. Nothing more was said and I made the trip home and got a few hours’ sleep but always thinking of what we shared together that night.
I later woke and got ready for work, I left a little early that day so I could call past the shops before I started to pick up a little present for myself. Soon after getting to work my apprentice came wandering in to start, he looked at me and grinned. “How you feeling?” he asked.
“Bit tired and sore” I replied “but I could do it all again, I’ve just bought my own PS and THPS you up for another round tonight? My house this time”
The rest is for another story but let me finish by saying we still get together many years later and relive that night. New games and new hardware but old time memories.
Signed:
Old Player
My story actually begins with a Nintendo 64. As a child my older sister had a special Pokémon edition and she would always hog it and barely let me play. (On a side note, when told it had 64 bits I thought that meant it was physically made of 64 individual parts).
Since I barely got to play the N64 I wanted nothing more than to have a console of my own to play whenever I wanted. There was no sense buying another N64 and I heard about this magical other console I didn’t know much about. It would be better than my sister’s. I’d show her.
I didn’t beg my parents for the PlayStation; I decided to save my allowance from my household chores, even taking up more chores than usual, and saving in any way I could. So when I finally got the PlayStation it would be that much sweeter because I earned it myself.
After months and months of saving I was so excited when getting back from the store with the console and Croc: Legend of the Gobbos. Finally a console and games to call my own. It was sweeeeeet. I was amazed at the clever puzzles to save the cute furry balls from cages. I went on to get games such as Spyro and Crash Bandicoot, and I even let my sister play to see what she didn’t have (oh and I guess sharing is caring or whatever).
I moved onto the PS2 and 3, but I have also stuck with Nintendo to get the best of both worlds. Now I am a poor young adult and it is harder to save money for these things. Now I would very much like to win a PS4 instead of working hard to save for one.
And it would be just as sweet, if not sweeter.
Looking back as an adult, I realise how emotionally abusive my mother was. She wanted absolute control over everything I did. I wasn’t even allowed to read any books unless mum read them first – and she didn’t read much. I was allowed a small black and white TV in my room that could only barely pick up one of the three TV channels available (it was Tasmania). I had no stimulation aside from homework and keeping my mother happy. Dad would sneak me out at night to play PC games with him, but we eventually got caught. That was banned, and the PC was locked.
I constantly saved my money with the idea of getting a few books to sneak in. One day I spotted a PS1 at the local store. My jaw dropped. This was the thing, the escape I needed. I was anxious about ‘breaking the rules’ (not asking mum first) but I knew she would say no, and this…this was the thing that could bring me some joy in a pretty sad life.
The next day I came back into the store with an old schoolbag of mine. I bought that PS1 with ALL of my savings. I unboxed it then and there, and packed it into the schoolbag. It went into the cupboard for two months, while I saved up for a game. Two months later, I asked the game store guy for the best, longest game he had.
He handed me something called “Final Fantasy VII”.
I set up my PS1 in the middle of the night. I played that game until the break of dawn, and then turned it off and packed it up. I hadn’t even bought a memory card yet! I didn’t leave the Shinra Reactor for five weeks. I still played every night.
This was my rebellion. I had done this – alone – the first thing in my life that I did without begging for permission.
Eventually mum caught me and confiscated it. Dad stood up for me (he was jack of her at this stage) and he got it back to me. I remember him sitting down on the bed and watching me play. The next game I got was a golf game and a second controller – dad would come to my room and we would play for hours.
Now my wife and I unwind on Minecraft, I got my First Class Honours in Media studying morality engines (ME1/2, Fallout 3 and Fable), I have a great relationship with dad, and I write as a hobby due to the amazing stories the PS1 introduced me to.
I’ve missed out on the other generations as I’ve been studying, then a single income family raising a kid, then medical problems. But the PS1 set me on a good path for the rest of my life.
Come to think of it, I owe the PS1 and FF7 my current life.
Thank you, PlayStation (and Cloud!), you probably saved my life.
It was 1995 and I was serving my first year in the Marine Corps. My duty station was on Marine Air Control base Futenma on the island of Okinawa off the coast of Japan. I, like a lot of other people on here, had only known Nintendo and Atari systems ( I actually won a Atari 2600 system when I was in 1st grade). One of the other Marines in my squad had just bought the Playstation. I thought that it was one of the coolest things I had ever seen. It blew my mind to think of a game being played from a “CD” rather than a cartridge. How did it know how to do all of the….”stuff” that it did? The controller was something that was so different than any one was used to using. It was awesome to say the least, and I was never able to afford one of the first Playstations, but as soon as I was able to buy the newest Playstation 2, I did. I have bought the PS3 and now own the PS4. It’s funny to look back and see how far these systems have come as far as graphics and gameplay are concerned. I have enjoyed every minute of play time that I have had on all of my Playstations and I would absolutely LOVE to own a piece of that great heritage and history, even if I didn’t get to own an Original Playstation!
It was 1997, and I was 10 years old.
I had always been a keen gamer, having started out with an Atari 2600, then a NES, then a SNES. This being the early days of the World Wide Web, my gaming news came from various magazines I pestered my parents into buying from the newsagent. I remember keenly when I successfully badgered them into buying me a copy of the latest Official Australian PlayStation magazine, which just happened to include a long and extensive walkthrough for Final Fantasy VII. Not long after, we went on a long family holiday to visit my Grandparents, and I spent most of my time reading and re-reading that walkthrough, imagining myself exploring Midgar for real with Cloud and friends.
When we returned, I begged, pleaded, and pestered my parents for a PlayStation. I did house chores without being asked, didn’t argue with my brothers, cleaned up after myself – I was basically a model 10 year old. It paid off handsomely – come Christmas, a shiny new PlayStation was waiting for me under the tree! We still have a video recording of when I opened it, capturing my SQUEALS of delight for prosperity. I just about passed out when I opened a copy of Final Fantasy VII with it! Unfortunately, I didn’t receive a Memory Card, as neither my parents nor I knew that one was required for saving.
Cue my first ever playthrough of Final Fantasy VII – without a Memory Card. Thanks to my extensive knowledge, gained from the now well-worn walkthrough, I knew where to go, what battles to anticipate, how to power-level, the works. I had Cloud to level 21 before even leaving Midgar, level 3 limit breaks before the end of disc one, and most tier-3 elementals spells before reaching Junon on disc 2. At night, I would pause the game and take the disc out (so it wouldn’t keep me awake with the sound of the disc spinning).
Against all odd, I made it to the very end. Cue the fight with Sephiroth. The first stage goes well, and I advance onto Safer Sephiroth. As the chants of “One Winged Angel” began, I realised, with mild shock, I had forgotten to equip anyone with Ribbons.
Not long into the battle, Sephiroth casts Super Nova, which can cause Confusion. I held my breath as the attack landed – and witnessed in utter disbelief as Cloud started spinning, signifying he had been confused. My disbelief turned to apoplectic horror when I remembered I had just selected a Megalixer with Cloud… who then happily threw it at Sephiroth, restoring him completely.
Cloud then proceeded to wipe out my whole party with a single “Attack-All”. Game over. Thanks for playing. Heartbroken, I was ready to throw the PlayStation out the window. It didn’t deter me however, and not long afterwards I bought a Memory Card, and finally finished the game!
It was around the hear 2000, I was only 5 years old, but I had played a fair number of games, only computer games though. Growing I liked to spend my time playing classic Windows games like Ski Free, Chip’s Challenge, and even some CD games like Star Wars: Yoda’s Challenge, or Disney’s Tarzan, or the Toy Story 2 platformer. At that time I didn’t even know video game consoles existed, but I loved playing computer games, whether they were educational games or platformers. My siblings shared this interest, and my eldest sister, by that time 13, had heard a lot about video game consoles and had constantly requested my parents for one. My father was fine with the idea but my mother was worried it would distract her and the rest of us from our siblings so they made a deal: if she did good for her end of Primary School exams they would buy us one. She got straight As, and as promised my father bought us our first video game console: the Sony PlayStation. My sister even requested several games she had heard from her friends were great, as well as other games based on franchises we already loved from TV shows or movies we had watched.
The first games my parents got for us for our new system was Street Fighter EX 2+, Disney Hercules, and the game that, not kidding, had a huge impact on my life: Final Fantasy IX. Final Fantasy was a game my sister had heard a lot about and when we finally got it she was excited to play it, when my siblings and I asked her what was it she told us it was a very story-heavy game, like a story book, and asked us if we wanted to watch her play it to see the story. We agreed and we watched her play, and we were all just captivated by not just how beautiful the game looked, but the story completely enraptured us, especially me. I fell in love with the characters, the world, the soundtrack, it was greater than any movie or series I had ever seen. I had reading problems back then, reading a book even with pictures was a difficult thing, so when I saw this story I was happy to actually experience something without trouble or pain, even though it wasn’t voice acted my sister would always read out the words for us, so that solved that problem. I tried playing it myself, but I was so little I had trouble and eventually chose to watch rather than play it (though I would return and finally play it to finish myself a few years later). I’m not sure what happened, but every time my sister stopped playing, thus forcing us to wait until she was free enough to continue, my mind would keep wrapping around the story, coming up with theories and ideas as to what will happen next, how the characters must be feeling at that point in time. When the game finally ended with an ending that made me jump for joy, it actually kept me up at night, constantly thinking what happens to them now, what happens to these characters I was fully aware of were fictional, but I still wondered if their lives carried on what would happen? I kept thinking about it, creating my own arcs and enemies to keep the story alive in my head, coming with “fan-fiction” I guess.
Eventually my parents gave in to my sister’s wishes and bought Final Fantasy VII, VIII and Origins (I and II), VII and VIII were just as amazing, and Final Fantasy I became the first RPG I ever finished. And still I kept thinking about these games, these stories until ultimately I got frustrated in coming up with stories in existing worlds about existing characters, and it inspired me come up with my own. Using themes and ideas in stories from these Final Fantasies, and later from other games and, once I got over my reading difficulties, novels, I began crafting my own fictional worlds and stories. Creating all these stories became so much fun I wanted to make more, I wanted to learn more, and I found that stories in video games though not necessarily better, had potential in places books did not, and I would keep on trying out new games, learning their stories, their worlds. Games like Suikoden and Arc The Lad as well of course Final Fantasy kept me going throughout my years with the PlayStation. Now I’m a university student studying creative writing, aspiring to be a novelist, mainly focusing on Fantasy, and I find it a little funny how it was the PlayStation and Final Fantasy IX that has essentially directed me to my career choice.
I won my very first Playstation
It was 1996 and I was having a sleep-over at a friends house. We were up listening to Ugly Phil’s Hot 30 on the 2day FM station and decided to call in to try and win a prize. My friend Rita called from her fathers home office phone whilst I was trying my luck on their home phone.
After a few busy tones I finally got through and spoke to Ugly Phil and he explained that I had won a Playstation. I was gobsmacked and very excited, looking back now I’m sure I gave Ugly Phil a sore ear.
As a 12 year old at that time, this was the best thing that had ever happened to me EVER!!
First experience, my uncle got a playstation systeme, the very first one. I can’t remember well, I think he owned this game; Test Drive 5. What a game back in time haha!
Thought I’m not gonna talk about much about this. My real first experience was when I got hand on a used PS2 in 2003. 1 controller 2 games; Turok evolution and Soul Reaver 2. I didn’t need more to spend my entire next days playing . Then I put some money aside mowing my neighborhood grass for the summer before I could finally purchase a second controller, NHL 2003 and Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2!!!! Memories!!!
That’s my experience! I still possess ebery single games I’ve own since then. Over 20 on PS2, a little more on the PS3. Yesterday I got this “Yellow light of death” killing my PS3 system. I was looking around for a new console and landed here! I went throught some stories (not all of course), there’s some real fan out there haha! I wish good luck to everyone and a happy new years.
My first time on the Playstation was when my kids got me playing SSX Tricky. Was doing snow jumps in my sleep for weeks! Then came Buzz and we were all addicted!
My memory is a bit rusty but here goes…
This story begins in 1995. I have been a gamer all my life and at the time my family had all the usually suspects; SNES, NES, SMS etc. Without the internet I only had magazines to go by and at the time I purchased Nintendo and Amiga magazines, so I wasn’t up to date on all the latest info. The Playstation release happened without my knowledge – the first I heard of it was from talk around school then eventually seeing them at the local video hire stores. With a retail price of around $750nzd, it was well out of the reach of mortal man.
It wasn’t until 1996 when I became a fresh immigrant to Australia that I got my first taste. I wound up in Morayfield, Queensland of all places where some family of mine had setup a business and wanted us to work for them. I was only fifteen at the time and the prospect of not having to go back to school and making big dollars in the outdoor furniture industry was appealing. The reality was practically slave labour as we didn’t get paid a cent for that year but our living costs were taken care of.
When sales were strong the boss (uncle) felt generous and said we could buy something of our choice up to a certain value, so naturally I wanted a games console. I knew the N64 was due for release and that was what I really wanted. The closest game store was in Caboolture and we had no car so I would take a two hour walk to the shopping centre every week to ask when the N64 would be released. I soon grew tired of this and had to settle for option B, the Playstation. Soon after, the company went bankrupt and I was back at school! That’s what happens when the boss spends all the company earnings.
So migration, slave labour and laziness lead me to my first Playstation experience, and I don’t regret it for a moment.
As a Single Mum of 4 children, I had to think very carefully of what I could buy for Christmas, that all the children could enjoy and that I could manage financially. After research I decided on a PS1 as this also allowed for me to become involved in Gameplay with my very competitive children. I also thought this was a better option than buying individual gifts for each child.
We started off with just 2 games and our addiction to PS soon became evident. For each Birthday (including mine) a new game would be chosen and if a relative asked the children what they would like for Christmas, it was always a PS game. We didn’t own a lot of games, due to finances, but this PS purchase was the best one I had ever made. The children were happy to play at home and not get into mischief on the streets, like some of their friends.
Our favourite games were as follows:
Worms Armageddon – this was totally addictive and such fun to go on a worm killing expedition. There was always plenty of family “we are not amused” cries when our worms were blown up.
Crash Bandicoot – the graphics were quite good for the time it was released in 1996, especially the temples, jungles and factories. The Gameplay was great – needing to find coloured gems, running away from boulders, riding hogs and plenty of enemies to defeat. This was such a fun game to play.
Alundra – this was our ultimate puzzle solving game with dragons and monsters also thrown in for added excitement. I especially became addicted to Alundra and would just HAVE to finish the game.
Mr Driller – this was so competitive – the children against each other or against Mum. Everyone was out to attain the highest scores, with the top scorer changing all the time. This is probably why this game was so addictive. Everyone wanted to gain the top spot.
Point Blank – I purchased the GunCon for a following Christmas present for all the children, which came along with Point Blank. I was initially hopeless at hitting the target, but soon got my eye in and the challenge was on. Look out kids, I’m coming to knock you off your perches.
Spider-Man – this was an all time favourite for everyone in the household. On some school days, I was even known to be swinging my way on the web to get the villains.
Final Fantasy VII – was a game that allowed us all (including myself) to become totally immersed into the fantasy and story. We really enjoyed the quality of the graphics.
To sum it all up, I loved sharing PS1 with my children and now I would love to share the same joy with my grandchildren.
My first Playstation experience was in 1998; my parents had traded in my old Megadrive for a Playstation for my birthday in June. The first games? Hercules and Crash Bandicoot. Thankfully, both of these games had the old passcodes for saving, which was a lifesaver considering how expensive Memory Cards were are the time. I remember attempting to play FFVII with my best friend without a memory card, leaving the console on overnight. All went well until we came against a “Haunted House” enemy, without equipping any materia. We wiped and I went straight out to use all my pocket money on a Memory Card. I now play FFVII at least once a year.
That beautiful start up sound that used to emit from the tv when the grey box was turned on will forever be fresh in mind.
Coming into my older brothers room, which was dark with the drapes drawn, being drawn by the sounds of popping and music. I walked into his room and saw him playing the original Crash Bandicoot on PlayStation One. It was love at first sight. I spend May hours in that dark room watching him play and eventually playing myself that year…and since 🙂
My first playstation…after not getting one for Christmas I finally saved up enough pocket money to get one months later…just in time to see my childhood friend that I hadn’t seen in about 3-4 years. We sat on the playstation for about 2 days playing the first SSX game over and over. Such a brilliantly wasted couple of days and a great way to spend it with a friend.
Damn you to the guy who robbed my house and stole some of our presents which included a ps1 console and spyro n crash bandicoot games that a aunt of mine got for us that christmas. Remeber going to school the following year straight gutted listening to most of my friends talking about their new games an then coming home seeing all the adverts on tv about the PS1 being on special at the warehouse an i remember begging my mum an dad to get it for me and my older brother haha which we never even got. Eventually got a PS1 from a good friend back at school who had got the new ps2 at the time. He handed all his games out to our friends an he gave me MEDIEVIL and said to me “by the your finish with this game, you will know how to handle thoose idiots that stole your christmas” haha that year my aunt got me Dragon ball gt , 40 winks and crash bandicoot lol best childhood ever playing those. Thanks to my good friend leyton for saving my childhood haha oh an to my aunty 🙂 played each game about a thousand times lol
my first experience with a Playstation was back in the early 1990’s cant remember exactly, i was actually looking to buy it for my 2 sons but i liked it that much i kept it as a family console,I’ll never forget playing games like “Wipeout”, “Tekken”, and “Battle Arena Toshinden” for the first time. A true classic, and like I say…A Game Changer. i had so much fun,sometimes losing track of time and the kids waiting to have a play of their favourite game I liked the fact that I would never run out of space and could transport my saved games to a friend’s house.The system was also surprisingly lightweight and compact compared to the Sega Saturn.With its massive selection of games, the Playstation was worn out by me and the kids.
It was a fine day in August-ish 1995 when my friends and I ditched school to head to the Melbourne CBD for some fun and games at the old Timezone on Bourke St, a fairly regular occurrence during my high school career.
Before the days of EB’s dominance of the speciality gaming market, one of the finest stores for computer gaming was Ozzie Discount Software, also on Bourke St, and on the way to Timezone from Flinders St station.
We were gamers, so we’d regularly check in to see the latest release games that we couldn’t afford and would probably pirate. On this fine afternoon, things were different though, on display… and coming soon, was the Sony PlayStation. Back in those days I’d read EGM and CVG so I knew about it and enthused to my friends about how I wanted one. Fortunately, the store was also running a promotion where you could win a PlayStation, 12 months of free Psygnosis games, a subscription to Hyper, and a ton of Jelly Belly jelly beans.
I knew I had to win this.
The competition was about getting the best time on Destruction Derby’s Total Destruction mode, you could only enter once but they would you practice a few times before you submitted your time, and the competition was running for about a month. Early in the competition, they monitored the gaming pretty closely, I played a few times, and managed to get a time I was pretty proud of, sometime over a minute. I submitted my score, and I was #1.
It was coming up to the release date of the PlayStation and the end of the competition, I was still on top, and then… someone beat my score, I was crushed, but I came up with a plan.
A couple of friends and I went back in to the store, by now they were a bit more lax on the monitoring, and the person on top had only beaten my score by a second or two. I played again, and I completely demolished the score of the person who had beaten me, at least 20 seconds over the score of the previous leader. Because they were no longer really watching who was playing, one of my friends went up to the person taking the scores and submitted my score with his name.
They called a few days later, I had won! I was ecstatic, my friend who had put his name down and I shared custody of that PlayStation for a year, before I took ownership. I still remember riding back home on the train after picking everything up, getting back home and playing Wipeout for the first time and being amazed at the graphics and the sheer speed of the game, compared to anything I had played before. and the joy of getting a new game every month, even though some of them were forgettable to most people.
TLDR; I cheated and won a PlayStation, and it was awesome.
I had my first playstation experience back in 1997 and it kind of turned tings around for me. My aunt bought the playstation for my cousin and wanted me to test it out to make sure that nothing was wrong with it before giving it to her son who lived in Vietnam back then. The only game she randomly picked was final fantasy 7 and I was hooked within minutes and I hated RPGs back then. I bragged about it the next day at school, like the playstation was mine and it was then me and my archenemy, now my best friend ever talk without ended up in a fight. He also had a copy of FF7 so we bonded quickly over that. Everyday during lunch time we went to his place to play, but every so often several guys from our class tagged along and we played Soul Blade where the loser has to do either 20 push-ups or 50 sit-ups… We did come back late for class every now and a few times we were so late we came back only to collect our backpacks… A week later my aunt asked me to pack the playstation so that she can take it with her to Vietnam. I think that was my first ever heart breaking moment, but seeing how much I loved the playstation and that my mom refuses to get me one because se thinks that gaming is not good and that we couldn’t really afford one, so my aunt ended up letting me keep that one and got a new one for her son. I thought it wasn’t right, so I insisted to buy it from here with all the money I had had in my piggy bank. She laughed and agreed to that, but it was only like 30 dollars in there… But at least I got to buy my first ever console. After that summer break my English teacher, who didn’t have any hopes for my Enlish was shocked on how much my improved, so I told her it was because of me always playing on my Playstation with a dictionary on my lap.
My PlayStation story isn’t quite so much about a console as it is about my Dad and the way games can help a family bond.
The story starts in 2003, I’m 8 and it’s Father’s Day and because we’re a family without a ton of money, our presents are simple and mostly homemade. I can still remember seeing my Dad’s face light up as he opened his “World’s Best Dad” mug filled with his favourite chocolate eclairs. We made Dad lunch and then he told me he had a surprise for me and my brothers. He told us to get in the car and he’d tell us where we were going when we got there. The car pulls up at Myer and I was confused. Dad walks us inside and tells us that he’s been saving for another present, he walks us to the electronics counter and starts asking the salesman about the PlayStation 2. My brothers and I can’t believe our ears, we knew Dad didn’t play video games so this could only mean one thing. WE WERE GETTING A PLAYSTATION 2! But that isn’t where the story ends. We got home and rushed as fast as we could to set it up. That Father’s Day my Dad decided that the thing he’d like most in the world would be to see his kids overjoyed with the thrill of a new toy and spend the day learning to play video games with us. That day taught me how to give of myself and what it really means to be part of a family.
I’m hoping that this isn’t the end of my PlayStation story, I hope that even though I’m older and I don’t live with him anymore, I can turn up at our old house with a brand new PlayStation to play with him and play like we did when I was 8 and he was (and still is) the World’s Best Dad.
My story is simple. My older cousin won a competition to some secret screening of this brand new game named ‘kill zone’ and invited me to come with her. Having never played a playstation, or been in a darker room with that many ‘gamers’ staring at something they probably hadn’t seen before……TWO GIRLS..hahaha. So my cousin and I enjoyed all the playing time, whilst the boys well….starred..
It was actually only about 10 years ago. The slightly geeky guy I was dating was really into gaming and I’m ashamed to admit I was silently rolling my eyes whenever he and his friends would have gaming nights. But at one point my’ girlfriendhood’ had reached a high enough status to get me invited to one of these nights, and thereafter I joined the Inner Hallow of Gaming Dudes and I never rolled my eyes again! That geeky guy is now my husband and we are training our children up on the art of sitting in the dark playing games!
My first Playstation experience was about taking gaming from the office to the living room. My house had the PC but most of my gaming time was at my friends house in front of the tiny spare TV. The thing is, we didn’t play against each other, we worked together to try and finish the longer titles. The games which stand out the most were Final Fantasy VII and Gran Turismo. Playing these games through set off an obsession which still continues.
Oh, and the back of the discs were black!
Edited
Will try and keep it short but it’s almost like a love story.
It was 2003 and I had just started dating. Around the time I was juggling uni, work, my girlfriend, friends and gaming on my beloved PS One. Things turned bad between my girlfriend and I then and we eventually broke up. I was an emotional wreck and it was affecting my life around me. My parents noticed this and had tried to cheer me up by getting me a PS2 for Christmas. This was the turning point as I had so many awesome games to play and having the interaction with my friends and some healthy competition. In a way, the PS2 helped me get over the break up and I started to focus better in uni and moved forward with my life.
Eventually, my girlfriend and I started to date again and we worked things out. Then another crossroad came up after finishing uni in 2008 and I moved to Canberra for work. I didn’t know how I would have coped with my girlfriend not being there. I’m not a very social guy and being in another city filled me with anxiety. And so she got me a PS3 to occupy myself for those lonely days and nights (Because she knows me so well and I love my games). So many fun moments were shared with my Canberra roommates with Singstar and Guitar hero and I owe it all to the PS3. I had managed to stay for another 2 years as I originally planned to stay for a few months. But then, the distance had made the heart grow fonder and so I moved back to Melbourne and married the same girl and we’re still together till this day.
Alas, the PS3 had died last year due to the Yellow light of death but I sat there in a moment in silence (and frustration) when it breathed its final breath and reminiscing the fun times we had including the ups and downs in my life the Playstation brand and I have been through. But most of all, the plethora of games I have sat down and thoroughly enjoyed to get me by through my daily life.
Here’s hoping for a PS4 to rekindle those great moments and to pass it on to my future children =)
Well when I was about 9 years old my parents got a divorce. I wasnt upset because I knew they both loved me a my siblings. So 1 year we had 2 christmas. First we had christmas at my mom house. We got clothes and shoes, you know the normal stuff. After we opened gifts at my mom’s we got ready to go over my dad’s. The whole ride there I’m thinking we are going to get more clothes and shoes you know, the normal stuff but Boy was I wrong, well we did get more clothes and shoes but the last gift over to the right stood a gift with my name and my siblings names on it so they pulled the gift out and we opened it and what do you know I see the word Play then we open the rest and saw the word station. We was so happy I think we stayed up all night playing Crash Bandicoot. I had a great Christmas. even though My parents was divorce they made christmas so special.
I find my Playstation origin story a little funny based on how naive I was and how it took one of the worst PSX games to prove to me the power of The Playstation.
At only 9 years old I thought my Super Nintendo was the pinnacle of gaming technology, that nothing could hold a candle to classics like Donkey Kong Country 2, Super Mario World or Mortal Kombat 3. When I heard of this new superior machine by a company called Sony I remember saying ‘It’ll never be as good as my Snes!’
I was not interested in the slightest, and even seeing the gameplay at a relatives house or a mates place didn’t assuage me. The graphics were good surely but the games looked boring and didn’t interest me.
Until that is the movie The Lost World: Jurassic Park and a tie in game were released. When I found out there was no tie in game for Snes I was furious but that fury turned to envy as I suddenly found myself wanting a Playstation so badly just to play this game.
My father knew I wanted a Playstation and The Lost World and thankfully Christmas was just around the corner.
I remember waking up extremely excited Christmas morning to this large wrapped box. Gleefully I unwrapped it and discovered this amazing looking box, The Playstation, unfortunately packaged with the very first Need For Speed.
I was grief stricken believing to have received this new amazing piece of technology, yet without the one game I wanted to play.
But suddenly my father handed me a small CD shaped box and said ‘This is a special present from Santa’. I fervently tore the paper off to discover my hopes and dreams. The Lost World: Jurassic Park The Game.
That afternoon was spent glued to the screen with my siblings, enjoying this gem of a game, that I soon discovered was critically panned by reviewers for awful gameplay mechanics, terrible platforming and having no sense of fun. But it didn’t matter. Because of that game months later I was introduced to much more high quality fare like Tomb Raider, Resident Evil and Metal Gear Solid; a whole new exciting world had opened up to me.
Now another three generations later The Playstation brand still continues to impress and I owe my journey all to that awful game which I still have, tucked away with my vast collection.
Playful music encompasses the lounge room; the Insomniac logo is placed high on top a mountain by a green monster; Spyro the Dragon enters the scene! Gliding to collect gems, head butting evil monsters and endless tactics to save the precious dragon eggs from the egg thief – my love of Playstation games begins, and continues to this day.
Play this in the background when reading my entry in the form of a song:
___________________________________________________________________________________________
All day, staring at the TV
Making friends with NPC’s in this town
All night, hearing voices telling me
That I should get some sleep
Because tomorrow I might beat this boss, somehow
Hold on
Feeling like I’m headed in the wrong direction
And I might need a guide
[Chorus]
But I’m not crazy, I just wanna exel
I know right now you can tell
But stay awhile and maybe then you’ll see
A Playstation side of me
I’m not crazy, I’m just a little rebel
I know no one will be spared,
But soon enough a high score you’ll see
That is no hyperbole
I’m upgrading materia in public
Riding Chocobos on the plain
And I know, I know Aku Aku has been protecting me
I can hear him whisper (Oomgaja!)
And it makes me think, there must be something wrong with me
Out of all the hours grinding
Somehow 5 hours gone from the day
[Chorus]
But I’m not crazy, I’m just a little compelled
To play right now can’t you tell
But stay awhile and maybe then you’ll see
A Sony side of me
I’m not crazy, I’m just like Michael
I know I’ll achieve greatness,
But soon enough you’re gonna play with me
Non-stop until 3
[Bridge]
I’ve been playing when I should sleep
Relive my, childhood, repeat
Yeah, I remember “take a break”
[Chorus]
But I’m not crazy, I’m just a little overwhelmed
To play right now cant you tell
But stay awhile and maybe then you’ll see
A Gamer’s side of me
I’m not crazy, I’m just a little idle
Without, a console to play
But soon enough I’ll get bored of the ps3
So give my childhood back to me
[Outro/Fade]
Yeah, give some bolts to me
Give Some eco to me
Well, I don’t wanna farewell
Give Some lives to me
Give my childhood to me
I don’t wanna farewell
I had just finished blasting the kids for spending all their time indoors on the games console when they gave me a turn, … and that was the last time I ever tackled the ironing again. I was hooked!
My most Influential Memories:
Completely owning my older cousins playing Wolverine in X-Men: Children of the Atom when they visited from Abu Dhabi.
Ahh the joys of button mashing. 😀
(And it was my first time even seeing a console let alone a Playstation!)
In fact we liked it so much they gave it to us.
My other memory was of playing Jak 2 in Harvey Norman. I ended up playing for more than 4 hours because it completely sucked me in. Could not put it down.
My last memory to share was playing Crash Bandicoot for the first time visiting a family friend. He swapped me Crash for Zelda:Oracle of Seasons which I was completely stuck on as a 6 year old.
Hours spent without even noticing! Never even realised it was a Playstation until years later!
All these memories contributed to the phantastically phenomenal experience when I finally got a Playstation Console of my own. (PS2)
Playstation – this Mum owes you a massive thank you – You taught my autistic son so many words thanks to subtitles and guides for his favourite games over the years. I purchased his first Playstation when he was 5 (1996) and have purchased every version since then. The very first Playstation even had a glass of milk poured into it by my left of centre kid – I just tipped it out, put it in the sun to dry out and it still worked!
Nick is typical of those with a mental illness (he has schizophrenia as an adult). He is very singularly focused and since he doesn’t have a circle of friends, games are his life. This isn’t meant to be a sob story, or sad, but proof that gaming consoles aren’t the big evil some make them out to be. The school system back in the day was not equipped to support kids like Nick, but with the help of family, the beach and Playstation he (and I) got through some pretty stressful times.
So unreservedly, I feel really grateful to Playstation – it allowed him to relax free from bullying, judgement and pressure and also he looked so darn cute as a five year old with his ‘focus gaming face’ on 🙂
So, my first experience with a playstation was in a local shopping centre competition. Playing Crash Bandicoot. I remember being so excited as I’d never played one before, all my friends had them and I was desperate for one for Christmas.
Mum was with me watching and as it was my first time ever I’ll admit I was no good. So bad that the shopping centre attendant gave me a lollipop and told me not to worry about it. Obviously not a high enough score to win but I wasn’t too concerned as I thought I’ll get better with practice.
The horror story comes next. Mum said to me, and I’ll never forget this even though she was trying to make me feel better about my bad performance, ” Oh well, guess it wouldn’t be a good idea to get you a playstation, at least you still have that old ATARI!”
So many memories for the three Playstation generation:
– Living in my happy 8-bit world until I went to Hong Kong in 1995 and my cousin had just bought a Japan version PS1. We spent a whole day playing Ridge Racer and this game called Parodius. I only remembered Ridge Racer because I played it in the arcade, and now I could play it on this little grey digital controller that had so many more buttons than the original NES that we still loved so. My high-school mind was blown.
– Picking up my PS2 on launch night at midnight from Doncaster EB Games and then going home and playing Tekken Tag, Dynasty Warriors 2, Timesplitters until dawn with three of my friends. I was the coolest kid on the street for nearly a year because I had the biggest collection of games, the largest TV, and I would lend my games out to friends. I got the ones I wanted back, the rejects (like ORPHEN!) disappeared into the ether (thank god).
– Saving for months to buy an 60gb PS3 from launch, putting a deposit down and having a party the night after I picked it up. One of my friends brought his plasma to try it out with – I said the PS3 doesn’t leave the house. The plasma stayed for a month :-p. He stayed for a month and a half. The PS3 became the defacto Blu-Ray player.
Since then I don’t play a tenth of what I used to games-wise, as I’m building a house. There’s a dark basement room with a white wall, a Full-HD projector and wiring specified for the PS4 that will live there. And I have a backlog of games (indie and mainstream) that I’m itching to try.
I saved up to buy my first PlayStation when I was only thirteen years old. I couldn’t afford a new one so decided to buy one from a friend of a friend. I was so excited when I had enough money and rushed home with my new purchase only to find it didn’t work! My mum was so angry at me for wasting all my hard earned savings and I was in tears. Never got my money back and mum refused to ever buy me one for Christmas or any birthdays. So it took me another 4 years to finally have my dream PlayStation.
My very first playstation experience was back in the good old days of the early 2000’s.
My older brother and I had just got our first playstation, and the two games we got were medievil and tomb raider. The only thing was we didn’t have a memory card, so every weekend, we would take shifts in playing either game, and when one person got tired that night, would hand over the controller to get some rest while the other one kept playing.
Was the best way to spend out weekend.
Wouldnt change it for the world 🙂
Here it goes, enjoy!
So when I was nine, I desperately wanted a PS2, like absolutely desperately. So I worked for two days on my mum’s portable coffee making machine at a festival in NSW.
I spent two days running around like a man on a mission to win this PS2. Mum couldn’t believe how hard I was working to get this damn thing, it was just shocking to see! I was an animal, delivering coffee’s, getting fresh milk and water, I wanted it badly.
So we finished up there, and headed home. I was just giddy and salivating at the idea of getting my hands on one of the controllers and I barely got any sleep that night.
Next morning, I jumped out of bed, got ready in five minutes flat, woke up Mum, screaming it’s time over and over again. She says she’ll go out and get it and I have to stay at home.
After five minutes of arguing, I relented, and waiting eagerly for her arrival with that beautiful black box.
Five excruciating hours later she came home, with a box wrapped up under her arm. I sprint faster than Usian Bolt to her and she hands it too me. I’m shaking, I can barely contain my self.
I rip it open and see…
A WII
A GODDAMN WII
WHAT HAVE YOU DONE MOTHER
I DID NOT ASK FOR THIS
YOU KNEW I WANTED A PLAYSTATION
HOW COULD YOU DO THIS
I MEAN YEAH YAY A WII BUT MUMMY
YOU KNEW…
you knew…
then comes the speech about accepting what I have, which really is very true, but that little bit inside of me that had hoped for a PS2 was dead.
I skulked back to my room, and decided that I should at least give it a go.
Then as i open the box, another box slides out…
ITS THE PS2
SHE GOT IT
SHE WAS JUST SCREWING WITH ME
OMGOMGOMGOMOGMOMGOGMOGMGOGMGOGMGOMG
I ran straight out to her and gave her the biggest hug on the planet, with little tears forming in my eyes.
This was the best day ever, I just couldn’t believe it.
I had one, finally. Now I could finally play ratchet and clank.
Life complete.
It was the night before christmas and all through the house
not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse
there I was a young innocent boy
looking forward to Christmas joy
I had proudly gone and said to santa
“A playstation please” a wish santa said “i’ll grant ya”
too excited to sleep i stayed up really late
looking at my digital clock as it clicked over the date
I raced downstairs one minute past midnight
giving my parents an almighty fright
there it was my name on a christmas box
next to dad’s present, a pair of sox
I opened it up, couldn’t contain my glee
A PlayStation, santa brought for me!
Harvey Norman, 1998. My 5 year old decides that when he’s grows up he wants to work in Harvey Norman so he can play Playstation all day on their demonstration consoles.
It was Tekken. BF loved it, thought he was awesome begged me to play against him. Having never played before he thought he was safe. The combos were too hard to figure out so I just hit the buttons as fast as I could and beat him haha 🙂
First time I laid eyes on a Playstation in stores…I was transfixed,
happy, excited…my emotions were so mixed.
Opened up a whole new world of entertainment,
the sky is the limit…thanks Sony, for your glorious invention!
I am publishing this on behalf of my son:
So being the youngest of 3 is pretty hard, but being the youngest of 3 where your older brother is autistic is even harder. My brother Mark was always different, I don’t remember ever being told that he was autistic or “special” I just knew him as my brother. I still did the average brother things to do; blame things on him, cry unfair or hard done by, but hey I was always paired together with my siblings; sharing rooms, sharing toys, etc.
I don’t remember much when i was really young but 2 memories stick out in my head.
The first being when I was maybe 2 or 3 years old, it was just Mark and I sitting in the front room this was Mark’s escape room. Mark was sitting maybe a metre from this small tv which had this green spot on the screen because we played around with magnets next to the tv. He just sat there on this black stool with the Playstation controller’s cord between his legs playing games such as Crash Bandicoot 1 and 3, Spyro 1 and 3 (don’t understand why we didn’t buy the seconds of these franchises), Hercules, Bug’s life, Spot the dot, rugrats, Crash team racing, Monsters Inc. I just remember watching him for hours progressing through these games and resetting just before the home stretch to finish these games and the next time he played these games his movements would be to the tee playing like a robot, never making an error unless it was on purpose to see Crash’s death animation or to see Crash’s face before he jumped on that warthog. All this without saving at all but little did I know this was his coping mechanism.
My second memory is of this off white controller with analog controls which I adopted as mine, I don’t know if it was even intended to be mine. I used to plug it in the second slot when my brother was playing but none of the controls worked when my brother played Crash Bandicoot, all except the start button. I used to press it mid jump so crash would freeze in midair and my brother found it hilarious just Crash being stuck. He always had a grin on his face in anticipation of when i would press it next.
Our original discs are scratched to bits due to how we treated them, we used to sit with fingers crossed we would make it past some loading screens where it froze. I think it’s cool to think Playstation was one of the first ways I communicated with my brother and it started our love for games.
This is my experience with Playstation.
James Davine
My first experience with a PlayStation was when I was little. I would go to vacation care during school holidays and they would have all the consoles set up. You would have to write your name down on a very long list if you wanted to play a game. So I wrote my name down just because I really wanted to play games with the big kids. My turn finally comes around and the PS1 was on so I grabbed the controller and starting play Croc, which by the way is still not easy. And I’m playing away and everyone is helping me and then my time is up. So I go home and tell my mum what I did for the day, she doesn’t seem overall interested. But a little way down the track my mum buys me a PS2 and I’m hooked. I remember playing Spyro and Crash all day every day, I remember getting Croc and still being bad at it, still bad at it to this day. But I love PlayStation
Japanese PlayStation Sugoi!
I have fond memories staying over at my mate’s place. In 1998 he came back from a trip to Japan returning with an original PlayStation and a ton of games. Most weekends I would dodge his dog biting my ankles at the front door and sit down with him in front of the TV.
We played through Final Fantasy VII and Metal Gear Solid in Japanese, despite limited translation from my friend the gameplay and graphics were captivating. We were both fiercely competitive and to break up long play sessions we played hundreds of matches of Street Fighter Zero 2, Bushido Blade and Puzzle Bobble 4.
One night in particular stands out, we were playing Resident Evil 2, on edge we were walking Leon down a hallway when SMASH! We jumped out of our skins and let out a girly scream when crows flew through a window. My mate’s dad was also scared by the event and promptly told us to turn it off and go to bed.
That week I bought the first console with my own hard earned cash, it was an original PlayStation with the DualShock controller and I have been playing through each new Sony console since.
I got my first playstation in 2004 because I wanted a dance mat. We had hours and hours of fun with it, at times I still hear ‘ Video killed the radio star’ in my head. I was pretty useless at it but Dad was worse and one day he fell back on our glass coffee table and shattered the thing. He ended up needing surgery on his arm, the dr’s said they spent hours picking the glass out so it was pretty bad. That was very memorable!
I am not sure if you would call this an experience, but here is how my first PlayStation experience all unravelled.
Monday 29th of November 2010, the day before flying back to Melbourne from Kuala Lumpur Malaysia, after several hours of browsing through countless stores, over eight levels of gadgets and electronics at Plaza Low Fat also known as Tech Mall, I was still umming and erring about whether I should get myself my first gaming console, my first PS3. True be told, I was undecided since the release of the PS3 back in March 2007. Anyhow, it was not until I came across, at the time, a limited edition Grand Tarismo Titanium Blue coloured console. At that very moment, I knew that it would be the right moment to own my first gaming console. Without any hesitation, I approached the store holder, pulled out my wallet and just when I was all ready to finalize the transaction, she looked up and said to me “as you are not from around here, I must warn you that the console does not come with an “international warranty.” My mind paused for short moment and ultimately ended up having to leave behind the console but walked away with a controller and four PS3 games being Grand Tarismo, Need for Speed High Stakes and NBA Live 2011. I was out of time and had to make my way to the airport, ready to fly back home.
Home sweet home, the day after coming back without the limited edition Grand Tarismo PS3, I was shattered but none the less checked myself into my local Harvey Norman store and purchased my very first PS3 Gaming console, one HDMI cable and two Sony PS Move controllers to go with the items purchased back at Tech Mall.
Again, I don’t know if you would call that a “PlayStation” experience, but the whole journey of going through to seek and own my first console, my first PlayStation, that is my first PlayStation Experience. Still a very happy owner of my first PlayStatioin 3 console ^_^
The very first time I played Playstation was when I got a PS2 as a gift, along with Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. That game is still amazing.
It was during the Playstation / Nintendo 64 / Sega Saturn console war of around 1996-2000 that I encountered the Playstation. After choosing the Mario Machine as my champion I was quite content with my moustachioed plumber and green hat wearing hero of time but sometimes felt that I was missing out on something. Specifically those games like Tekken which weren’t coming to Nintendo’s console.
While I did manage occasional jaunts on the Playstation in stores or on my brother’s console, I never got to seriously play the thing. Nintendo kept me busy at times, Banjo Kazooie was pretty good at keeping me occupied, but I still had an inkling for what Sony had to offer. Then one fateful day I managed to win a bunch of playstation games in a magazine competition, one of them being Spyro the Dragon.
Forming a shaky alliance with my brother to play my new games on his console, I saw that Sony could offer just as much fun as Nintendo, sometimes just in a different way. I needed a Playstation of my own, and as luck would have it, Sony released the miniaturised PSOne console which I snapped up quickly. Thus my time with the Playstation began!
Nowadays I enjoy a nice balance between Nintendo and Sony. I did have a short affair with Xbox last generation because of the initial PS3 price, but I came crawling back to Sony after going through multiple hardware failures – plus I found that I preferred the Playstation exclusives over Xbox.
THE END
I’ve been a nerd gamer for a long time … my first virginal foray into the cyber world was playing “PONG” on the Atari at the age of 10, I thought I was in heaven and oh so techno.
How quickly thing progressed from there with multiple upgrades and new consoles coming and going. My mum was disappointed that her only daughter was more interested in electronics than Barbie!
I bought my first Playstation 2 many years ago now but I still remember it like yesterday, I fell in love with the graphics, audio and concepts from day one. I was obsessed with “Ratchet & Clank” and “Jak & Daxster”. I would play for hours … I just had to get the next precursor orb.
I of course have a Playstation 3 and log many hours still in front of the TV trying to save the next universe or win the next world war even at the ripe old age of 46 … still to the amazement of my mum, however I guess she gets that Barbie was never going to make it into my toybox.
I’d kill for this Playstation 4 … and when I mean kill, I’m sure I can find many foes who need taking out like Carver from the Walking Dead or Bloody Mary for Wolf Among Us. Hook me up Kotaku!
When I was younger, about 5 years old; I didn’t know what exactly a ‘PlayStation’ was. I was told about it but it was because my brothers friend had one, one that I never saw.
End of that year (2001), my brother and I got a large box under the Christmas tree for the both of us. I didn’t have a clue what it was.
Unwrapped the box and there was a PlayStation 2 and the soon to be one of my favourite games of all time there; Spyro the Dragon.
The only games I played prior to the PlayStation 2 were on the PC and were at the standard of Solitaire and Minesweeper. You could imagine my reaction when I first played Spyro.
Large 3D worlds; quirky, memorable, funny characters; fascinating worlds. This was the game that got me into gaming. Everything about it was brilliant. The secrets to be discovered, the places to explore.
I was like that child that nagged to their parents about what they wanted, except, I was telling them how much I loved the game instead.
Spyro and PS2 are nostalgia for me. There are other examples of course (Spyro 2, etc.) but I can still remember opening the box on that day with the biggest smile on my face…. does anyone have a time machine so I can go back?
It was 1995.
A warm October day – and something drew me away from my typical card-trading shenanigans.
It was a place called Intencity – a virtual reality wonderland.
It was Parramatta Westfield and it was 11am.
I wore Kepper pants, a torn KORN shirt and Converse shoes. Blonding Cream in my fringe.
Out of my left pocket, you could spy a Sony Discman – probably playing Alanis Morisette’s Jagged Little Pill – repeat button “On”.
At Intencity I virtually boxed.
At Intencity I virtually golfed.
At Intencity I played Street Fighter Zero. It looked great. It cost a lot more than SF2 in the old milk bar. But Blanka was nowhere to be seen! – my usual “bash Low-Punch and electrocute everything strategy”, was for nought.
The Killer Instinct and Cruisin’ USA cabinets brandished the “Ultra 64” logo – my mates and I could not wait to see when that new Nintendo console was going to hit. Ultra64. Dumb name. Hope they change it!
I drove futuristic cars in a virtual reality death race called “Red Planet”.
I fought against 9 of my school mates in “Battlemech” virtual reality pods.
I came 1st. Boo Ya!
It was wicked. It was over-the-top. It was EXPENSIVE.
But damn, it was fun.
Alas, my money was spent. It was time to go.
As I walked to the exit, there was an Intencity “merchandise store” to my left.
It was lit up with neons and fluorescence.
In the middle of this space was a grey console unit. Not a soul near it.
I knew it was the PlayStation. Hyper Magazine had told me so.
But my hopes were riding on the Ultra64 breaking new ground when it arrived.
Sony’s offering really didn’t interest me.
But I approached the console.
It was shrouded in a secure plastic case.
It had a demo disc running Destruction Derby.
I took hold of the controller – it was bolted to the case.
The D-pad was…WEIRD! What the hell, man?
Triangle, Circle, Square, Cross? WHAT? It felt so….alien?
But I played. And I played. And I played.
For over an hour I played the same oval track – “The Bowl”
The graphics. The physics. The wreckage. The smoke.
Responsive controls and a comfortable controller.
20 cars on-screen at once. At speed, beating the living snot out of each other!
I was sold!
It’s funny now to look back on all this. Intencity was FULL. But the PS Booth was EMPTY.
PlayStation had not yet arrived, and just didn’t have the brand recognition .
I didn’t end up picking up the PlayStation till late 1996.
But as it sat alongside my Ultra…*ahem* Nintendo64 by 1997, I quickly realised how far we’d come.
And how that quiet little Playstation booth would become something much, much more – it’s success ultimately contributing to the demise of the 90s virtual wonderland that once promoted it…
My first Playstation experience is actually one of my earliest memories in my life.
There’s a bit of back story here. The year was 1997. I was around 6 years old. At this point in my life, I had only been exposed to family friendly games. We had a Gameboy, and the only other game console I played was my cousin’s SNES. Now, my father wasn’t the sort of man to let me out when I was young. He very rarely let me go to sleepovers and parties. But for some reason, he let me go over to this girl’s house. Now this girl, I apparently had a crush on. My dad told me that I wouldn’t stop talking about her. So for some reason, this girl had invited me over for a play date and my father for some reason let me go to said girls house. Now for my first Playstation experience.
I arrived at this girl’s house and was invited into the living room. She sat me down, and went into the kitchen to get some snacks and drinks with her mother. While they were in there, her older brother walks into the room. He asks “Hey do you wanna play a game?” And I said yes. What I did not expect was him to crank out that glorious grey machine that I’d only heard of. He opens the cover, inserts The Mortal Kombat Trilogy.
Now the moment he turned on the Playstation is the clearest memory of that day. He turned it on, and I heard that mystical start-up sound for the very first time. That sound filled me with a sense of wonderment and excitement. He handed me a controller and I looked at it confused for a bit. Then I understood. It had symbols instead of letters. There were four shoulder buttons which at the time I thought was unnecessary. But we played a match. I chose Raiden cos I liked his hat. He chose Scorpion. Anyway, suffice to say, he defeated me flawlessly because I was too distracted about how violent and cool the game was.
At this point, the girl comes back in the room with a bowl of chips and a soft drink but I’m too distracted with the game. Soon after a few matches, the brother’s friend comes over. He’s there to play Mortal Kombat. So the girl asks me if we want to go to her room, but I say no. Suffice to say, me and her sat there watching her brother and his friend play Mortal Kombat for the rest of my time there. I was so distracted by my first magical Playstation experience that I completely ignored this girl I liked.
Way back in 1997 our mum placed a present under the Christmas tree for my brother and I. Just a rectangular box… but we instantly knew, we’d had our hearts set on it the entire year, even though it was wrapped perfectly, we knew. We unwrapped the gift and inside – the PS1, two controllers, Fifa 97, and a demo disk. We lost it! Too good to be true! We couldn’t believe how lucky we were! We played Fifa/demos for months together, we absolutely loved it, and now, nearly 20 years later, we’re still playing together. Yeah, the games have changed, they don’t give you demo disks with consoles anymore, but now, even though my brother is in Brisbane and I’m in Sydney, we can still play Fifa together, and that’s awesome.
Hi everyone,
My story starts the same as many others before me…
In a time where money didn’t exsist for my younger counterpart I had to rely on getting
one for christmas. (still to this day it is my favorite present)
As everyone could imagine I was very happy with the gift, a PSone to share with my younger brother. We didn’t just get the console though, we also got some games! However what we didn’t get was a memory card.
So for a few months (possibly a year) we had to do without one, until i had completed enough quests(chores for my parents!) to have earned one.
I still to this day remember the days when it was my turn for the PSone, having to start the games from the very begining each time.
This is when I got good at games, I would get as far as i could on each attempt never growning tired of replaying the same levels.
Eventually I would reach a new area in a game it would feel like like I was playing a brand new game as well as giving me a great feeling of acomplishment (far greater than any trophy or acheivements these days)
I have a lot to thank Playstation for now, it has moulded me into the adult i am today an i hope it does the same for others.
Never have I had a more entertaining teacher!
Sorry for the long story everyone, thankyou for reading this and the best of luck to everyone else on the site.
See ya!
As a young mother of two rambunctious kids in the early 1990s, I built a gaming PC to help keep them entertained with plenty of educational and classic shooting games. One day, a neighbour brought over their brand-new PlayStation console with some games for my young son and daughter to try. These games were Final Fantasy VII and Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee. Never before had we seen my kids so enthralled in a gaming experience, nor seen such amazing graphics and storytelling. Everything I knew about gaming had changed. It wasn’t long until we had our own PlayStation collection which grew and grew and grew. We even had to get my Father his very own PlayStation for his birthday -the whole family was converted!
We were truly PlayStation devoted as it evolved through the years. Sometimes as a parent, you learned that you had to let your kids pull all-nighters to avenge their fallen comrades and save the planet (or let them wait until nightfall to play Resident Evil lol). My kids made awesome tag-team game completionists and when my youngest daughter was finally welcomed into the world, we were sure to involve her on the PlayStation journey. Soon, she too was mourning Aeris’s death and saving all 99 Mudokons. Sadly, on returning home one night, we found the house ransacked and no game or console was spared. My kids were absolutely devastated, my youngest was particularly heartbroken.
Ever since I have spent most of my time trying to find copies to replace those taken -it’s almost become an obsession! I search high and low all over Australia and Europe but all the effort is worth it when I see how excited they get whenever I’ve managed to find one of our favourites. Just now over Christmas we completed Bust-a-Groove again and are now moving onto Soul Blade while I’m trying to get time to play through Klonoa: Door to Phantomile and the Kingdom Hearts –HD 1.5 Remix. I hope one day that I can share our humble PlayStation collection with my own grandkids (and totally whoop them in Tekken lol) because the family that games together stays together!
It was the nineties and I liked to have fun, heck my CD collection was second to
none.
I liked my time on the couch and had gamed a little before, unfortunately there is only so much you can do on a Commodore 64!
An Omega, Sega and Nintendo did follow, but with just a run, kick and punch button life still felt a little hollow!
I was working at Pizza Hut and saving every dollar, kind of had to as I wasn’t the best scholar!
I knew what I wanted and the PS one was it, to be honest it really did make the Sega look a little shit!
So it was finally mine and the void was filled, even if to tune it to my 51cm you had to be skilled!
Ridge Racer was fun to race a mate but it was Resident Evil that kept me up late!
Playstation had definitely changed my life for good, if you didn’t have a PS1 you would have never understood!
Take me back to my glory days, this limited edition PS4 would make me happy in so many ways!
Let me preface this by saying, I know you won’t believe me.
I couldn’t make it up though. The playstation gods would bleed me.
So here’s my story, 1!….2!…….3!
For my teenage life and a few more years I was isolated living in a religious cult.
My super hero was a guy named Jack, my father’s best friend who broke my sister and I out in 1995.
I was then 24 years old and had been starved of technology, resorting to drawing my own ideas of what fun I could have on the outside.
I’d no sooner showered and had a good meal after we travelled a thousand or so miles to Jack’s place in outback South Australia, before he introduced me to the playstation and I was hooked!
Battle Arena Toshinden, Warhawk, Air Combat, Philosoma, Ridge Racer and Rayman to name a few and i just zoned out.
From thereon it was toasted sandwiches, playstation and sleep taking up the days until Mum and Dad arrived.
Playstation is awesome and always will be the best memory of those times, and your 20th Anniversary Playstation marks our 20 year anniversary of being away from that sick joint this year too!
I actually won my first playstation! I worked at a music store, and there was a competition of who could get the highest pre order deposits for Destiny’s Child Survivor Album… A very hard sell, but I was the winner in all of WA with over 140 pre orders in 6 weeks. Hard work but I was determined! I’d love to win a second!
Thanks for the comp, thinking on this made me remember memories of past gaming glories. 😀
Tl’dr version of story, first played with a Playstation in hospital.
Ok, so my history with the Playstation has, well, lets call it an interesting start. More so since the story itself is set in a hospital, which is actually where I first had the chance to play with a Playstation. BUT to understand the event some more, I’ll have to go back and say what happened.
The year, 1997, a year when musicians took the time to write hit songs with the name “Tubthumping” or “Song 2”. A year when The Fifth Element, MIB and Titanic became the films everyone had to see. 1997, a year in which I took one of those minor big steps in life where you discover you no longer are the big kid anymore when I started year 7 in high school.
Now, the year in question was minor enough, pretty much filled with the normal stuff you would expect to happen at high school (it helps when you have one of those oh so common names, and hence everyone just uses your old nick name [hint, current username]). Everything would have gone as you expect until the day I went on a school excursion to the La Perouse museum. For those who are unaware, this is something the French built as a gift to Australia for the bicentenary, and it honours the first meeting between white settlers and the French on Australian soil. I would say it is worth a look, great bit of Australian history that is over looked, more so since the ending to his story is so tragic. Regardless, back on track.
So yeah, went to the location as part of the school group, and made to do the normal type of stuff that you expect to happen on these type of things. Until we went over to the Monument they have there.
A few thing;
If you have never seen the monument, this is what it looks like. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/La_Perouse_3.JPG
Those things on the top? They are steel pikes, and are not that small.
That stone the whole thing is made of? Sandstone with some form of treatment on it.
So long story short, we had to find the name of some French ship which left a marker on the monument. Stand type of stuff really. The problem was that it was on the far side of the monument (this view shows you how high that is http://laperouse.info/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/monument.JPG), which meant it was almost impossible to see for most kids, and hence lead to them climbing the sides of the monument to look for the name of the ship. For those thinking this is going to end poorly, do know that I asked the teacher and the national parks guide if it was ok to climb up so as to get the ships name, the guide gave the ok and told the teacher there shouldn’t be anything to worry about.
Well to cut part of a long story short, I slipped on a puddle of water on the wall and fell. Got no recollection of what happened next, at least until I came to thinking it strange I was feeling so fine, well other than the fact that my right arm looked to be stuck between the spikes, which is why I figured the smart idea was to pull my arm free, even after I worked out that the only way to move it is to pull it up and out of the gap (protip, NEVER DO THIS EVER!!!!). Things still felt fine when I started to walk and noticed my arm felt almost dead to me,
AND this is about the point where my brain started to catch up with what had happened then. Namely, that I had fallen on one of the spikes near my right elbow and had done some pretty impressive damage to the area (not going to say, but do know that the skilled surgeons at the Sydney Children’s Hospital saved my arm, which I still have to this day).
So how does this relate to Playstation? Well, in the recovery area of the ward someone set up a tv and a Playstation, something I discovered via a few other kids in the place who had been there playing about with it. I watched them play it a few times, since this was the first time I had ever seen something like this, and after a little while, figured I might brave it to try my hand (literally, I could only play with my left hand then, since, you know). After working it out for a bit, I was able to understand how the controller worked and gave a few games a go, which quickly lead to me discovering that the only games I could play 10 hours after an operation like that had been racers, which I found I could play half well at the time, even worked out how to corner without crashing too many times. While it might have taken me many a year before I finally picked up a Playstation for myself, this memory is something that has always stuck with me about it.
My touching PlayStation experience was assisting my friends autistic son with epilepsy with his first ever car racing game. His face lit up like a full moon does on a star lit night. I cried with happiness and fulfilment as he kept his concentration up for fourty minutes with no hiccup and had an absolute ball. Very special moment we shared.
First of all, good luck to all entries!
A little bit of relevant background info. I grew up on Nintendo. It all started with a NES, then a SNES and then an N64 and the titles that were released on the N64 were some of the most amazing and influential moments of my gaming life. It was for that reason that I had built up this incredible sense of loyalty to Nintendo and whilst all my other friends had a PS1, I had the N64, when others had the PS2, I had the Gamecube and while I thought this ‘fanboyism’ was a good thing at the time, over the years it became abundantly clear that all it had done is taken away some incredible gaming moments.
So I decided to change that with the upcoming console era of the Xbox 360 and PS3 and I was hoping to catch up on the enormous back-log. Turns out, life happened and due to financial reasons my efforts were severely hindered.
It’s 2013. Things had stabilized and I was now financially in a position to invest and catch up on quality gaming. I was implored by a close friend to invest in a PS Vita & a game called Persona 4:Golden. So I saved up some cash and purchased the P4:G Vita bundle. Some could consider this as an experience in and of itself but to me it wasn’t the real experience.
What I consider the most incredible and very first Playstation experience are the events that followed. I purchase the console and game on the 11/04/13. I begin playing the game and what do you know, P4:Golden starts off on the 11/04/11. It was an incredible coincidence. And so after an hour or two, I started to get into it. I was warned of a slow start but I knew it would build up. And so I would take my VITA back and forth on my daily commune to Uni. It was the perfect way to enjoy some gaming on the go, something I couldn’t do before.
Due to the workload, my playtime took a hike and so I would only play it when I could. This took over a year. Towards the end I was so involved with the characters and the story that I just had to finish it. And so after many hours of leveling up and boss battles, I finished P4:G and stood there amazed. One reason why, was the game itself, what a journey it was but the second reason was because of one incredible coincidence. P4:G concludes on the 20/3/2012 (In-Game). Time for the final save. Turns out, I finished with 70h 00mins of playtime and finished it on the 20/3/2014. I started when P4:G began and finished the exact same day (albeit different year) as P4:G Concludes! One unforgettable moment all due to the fact I took the plunge, broke through petty fanboyism and invested in a Playstation console. That is my Playstation experience.
ahhhh, hope I’m not too late, but oh man, my first playstation experience was filled with elements of betrayal…
Growing up overseas in a small town in a developing nation, video games were not common nor easy to acquire. When I was 13, the rich kid of the town boasted that he wanted to buy the Playstation One… but his parents were too strict to allow such a thing.
So being the “good friend” that I was, I suggested he buy it but put it in my house for safekeeping. He can then “borrow” it from time to time, tricking his parents into thinking it belonged to me.
The plan was set and executed. It worked out great…until rich kid accidentally told his other friend about our plan. This other guy now wants a piece of the pie, and actually threatened to tell on us unless he has his time with the playstation! So we had no choice but to include the blackmailer into our little scheme.
Things were going alright for a few months until blackmailer wanted to take the playstation with him on a family holiday. We would not allow it. So blackmailer carried out his master plan…
He went to rich kid’s house (who had the playstation at the time) and demanded “his” playstation back, in front of the parents. It was checkmate. Rich kid had no choice but to give up the playstation, and his parents even told him to never borrow it again.
Blackmailer still needed me though. His own parents thought the playstation belonged to me. Once, when handing the playstation to me he said in our native language “take good care of our machine ok, or I will have to take it off you permanently”. He was only a year older than me, but man was he a bully…
Throughout all this, rich kid was of course still fuming. He would come over to my house to play when it was my turn to have the console, and encourages me to never hand the playstation back to blackmailer. I said I couldn’t do that yet, I wanted to bide my time ( In truth, I was equal parts scared and content with the current arrangement). We had a few fights about it…
Then after awhile, out of the blue, I got a call from blackmailer’s mum, asking me to answer her truthfully…who owns the playstation? In a panic, I said I did. Next thing I know, the playstation never came back to my hands… and the blackmailer and his family moved!
Rich kid also hated me after that…
But was it worth it for the time I spent playing crash bandicoot, final fantasy vii and metal gear solid?
I’d like to think so…
I’d essentially bought a glossy black PS3 as a Blu-ray player to replace an ageing DVD machine rather than as a games console. Prior to its arrival, my previous sustained period of gaming took place in arcades on 1980’s machines such as Phoenix and Pleiades so the visual experience upon seeing the PS3’s welcome screen for the first time was an epiphany for the eyes; akin to waking after a cataract operation and seeing the world in Jimi Hendrix-like technicolour! In retrospect, it was lucidity allied to annoyance at not having made the switch to this new-fangled technology earlier.
Some days after my purchase of the Sony I was laid low with a virus and needed to take a few days off work. Given that I’m self-employed, such occurrences were and are pretty rare because if I don’t work I don’t get paid!
I can still recall sliding that first game into the machine: Cars. I’ve always had a special interest in the Disney Pixar movies because I have family in Bristol, England where the incredible Nick Park and the Ardman Animations crew is based. If a Wallace and Gromit PS3 game had existed back then I’d have been one of the first to buy it!
Providence was on my side because I found the PS3 controller’s buttons intuitively laid out and their use was clearly explained in the game which, even for a rookie, was not prohibitively difficult.
I lapped up every detail of Radiator Springs from the gorgeously rendered sweeping vistas to the minutiae of a character’s exhaust pipe. The minutes blurred into hours and taking a toilet break or putting the kettle on was carefully rostered only after I had completed either a level or had reached a natural break in the game whereby Lightning could sit idling on the side of the road.
Such an all-consuming and compelling experience over those two days (or were they weeks?) was a revelation and whilst I have added dozens upon dozens of titles to that solitary first game I still nostalgically return to it on occasions which allows me those fleeting sensations we may sometimes feel for moments in our childhood. It is both comforting and invigorating and I for one will hold on with all my might to any vestige of my formative years for youth is not a time of life but a state of mind. Sony, I thank you.
In 1999, I went camping with friends and came home,
My brother was bored and moaned!
So they got him a Playstation to play,
He was entertained for all those days!
I then came back,
And gee, in Tekken I was attacked!!
My first PlayStation experience it is synonymous with arcades, fighting games and tournaments. I’ve always loved going to arcades, before immigrating to Australia in 1997 that is all the video game entertainment I experienced. I still loved going to arcades (the old happy days and capital funland) and playing Mortal Kombat, Street fighter and most notably (for me that is) Tekken, as I was a big fan of action movies and martial arts growing up on the mean streets of Canberra, lol! What little money I had ran out pretty quick on those machines, always hated when that happened. Once I discovered the existence of game consoles, my mind was blown away, I was in heaven! I knew I Had to have one.
Money was tight in the household, so we could not afford it. After about 1 ½ years of saving money (seriously), we finally bought a Sony PlayStation 1. It was 1999, I still remember bringing the box home, couldn’t wait to open it. It felt exhilarating just to touch it. Holding the controller in my hand felt natural, it was shaped and easy to use. Putting a disc in the console and turning it on for the first time, game screen pop up was epic. What followed was a lot of fighting with the siblings as to who should play first, because there was only one controller. Being the younger one I was always last. Which was not cool with me! I Had to borrow a second controller from a friend to play, thankfully!
The only game we got with the PlayStation was Tekken 2, which was awesome! We had epic tournaments that day, while also playing the game without a memory card and trying to unlock everything. My most memorable moment was wiping that smile off my older brothers face who thought he was a hot shot at Tekken, I had to bring him back to reality. I used the skills that I honed in the arcades to defeat him several times until he learned who the real boss is. To this day I still remind him of this time.
I loved that game, until I left it out of its case and my sister stepped on and broke it. I felt like crying at the time! She is still remembered for that to this day in our house. I purchased a pre-owned copy of Tekken 2 a few years later, but it just wasn’t the same. To make matters worse my mum, without anybody knowing gave away the PlayStation along with the games we had to a family friend, why mum, why?! This was after I got the PlayStation 2 though, but I fully intended on keeping it to relive the good times.
As a kid, I saved my paper round earnings for almost 12 moths so I could go out and buy a PS1 with the Game Spyro the Dragon, that was almost 17 years ago and now my kids would LOVE to play with the PS4
I remember a long time ago, when tensions within my family had finally reached their climax, and my dad left for Australia with my older brother (by seven years) with no warning whatsoever.
I was four years old at the time.
Eight years later, after visiting my dad for the umpteenth time, I realised I had given up hope somewhere along the line of ever seeing my brother again, who had left the house to pursue his own ambitions.
One fateful day, my father had a serious business trip that he could not afford to miss, and as leaving an 11 year old alone in the house for four days was not the brightest idea, he decided he would call my brother, who was basically the final hope he had left.
Miraculously, my brother who basically cut off contact from the entire family replied and decided he would take care of me.
As soon as my dad left, I could feel the building tension in the room; as we had not seen each other for such a substantial length of time. Although we may have had the same blood running through our veins, we were essentially strangers residing in the same house.
Eventually, my brother could not take any more of the awkwardness, and left the room to go exploring around the house; which he had never set foot in before. After what seemed like an eternity, he finally returned with a small grin on his face, and in his hands was a Playstation 1 that looked like it had served in both world wars.
We both recalled memories of our past of when we were together, and how he would get extremely pissed off returning from school as I was always messing around on his Final Fantasy VII game with no clue as to what I was doing.
Lo and behold, in the disc slot was the same game; untouched since it was brought into the country. We loaded up the game, and found the palpable tension in the room to be no longer present; as we both decided that we would finish the game before dad came back as a challenge.
One oddly specific detail I recall from the deep recesses of my mind was that my brother decided to mess with me by naming all the party members “Sephiroth”. He said that watching my face scrunched up as my 11 year old brain short-circuited trying to figure out why Sephiroth was trying so hard to kill himself was hilarious.
The four days that we spent playing Final Fantasy VII was the greatest bonding time I could’ve asked for, as the severed relationship we had that was merely hanging by a thread was repaired and strengthened. The fact that a dusty machine was the key in bringing me and my brother back together was truly astonishing, and to this day I see it as a blessing as nothing can break the bond we to this day share.
One day, in the year 1996, I was a 6-year-old little boy visiting my 8-year-old cousin’s home.
When I was there, I saw my cousin’s 16-year-old older brother just started playing on a new grey console that I’ve never seen before, the original Sony PlayStation, and the game he was playing was the first Resident Evil.
The opening cinematic caught my attention because it’s the first time I saw something like this on a game console. It looked like it was showing feature film.
When the scene with the first zombie appeared on screen, it was so scary to me that I hid behind of the living room chairs, my head on the floor and I plugged my ears with my fingers. I was quite a scary-cat when I was young.
After around a minute, I came out from behind the chair and see that the zombie is already gone and my older cousin continues playing Resident Evil.
I watched him as he played the game. There were many scary things in it but I can’t seem to leave the living room because, despite the game being quite scary, it was quite interesting. The giant snake is the one monster I remember most vividly from Resident Evil.
My older cousin then suddenly tossed the controller to me when a zombie showed up and told me to play it. I panicked because I don’t know how to controls work and my character got eaten by a zombie.
Since then I grew to love the PlayStation consoles. They offered many memorable gaming experiences that I couldn’t get elsewhere, even after eighteen and a half years to this day, and I doubt I ever will.
The original PlayStation (PSX for the purists) felt like nothing short of a revolution.
My cousin was the first in my family to get one, and I remember being completely enchanted. We spent hours playing the long-forgotten platformer, Pandemonium. I remember being blown away by its title sequence, seeing game characters brought to a new cinematic life on-screen. I was even transfixed by the 3D elements of the platform game itself, watching my character run on a spiral staircase was like witnessing voodoo.
We soon moved on to the original Tekken, and that solidified my allegiance to Sony console gaming forever. Watching Kazuya Mishima snuff out a candle with a punch was more symbolic than I realised at the time; free time as I knew it was extinguished as well.
It was Christmas 1998 that my sister and I were asked what we would like for Christmas. Our Dad had started a new job and gave us a choice of almost anything we wanted.
We decided after playing our cousins Playstation; that is what we wanted. We were allowed 1 game with the console so not remembering the game I just said to get the one with the skeleton in it. This was our first new console after having our Sega Mega Drive for many years.
Luckily, dad and mum had bought the last Playstation available (at Kmart) albeit with a busted box and to my utter excitement, MediEvil (the game I was really keen to play).
On Christmas day my sister and I were estatic. We still had an old CRT but had a VCR player. Little did we know that the trusty RF cable didn’t come with the console and something called an AV setting was required. Luckily the VCR had an AV port which could be selected.
Being the most savvy of our family I struggled to get the console to work but to no avail. Dejected, we thought the console might be broken (considering the box was a little smashed up) but contacted our cousin who owned the console before us and asked for their help. Unfortunately he was busy on Christmas and had to visit his Grandpa on Boxing day but he said he might be able to visit Boxing day evening.
At around 8pm on Boxing day my Aunty dropped him off and through his superior knowledge of this new AV setting and getting it working through the VCR, was able to get the Playstation functional. After many hugs and excited fist pumps the first 3D game we had ever played was enjoyed. MediEvil and the included demo disc were figuratively played to death.
Thus was the start of many hours spent with my sister bonding over the games we tried to and many times struggled to finish.
I was on a cruise with my sister when I was 21. I saw a PS1 for sale in a shop on board and just had to have it lol…
My mate got a PS1 for his birthday, the very next weekend I slept over at his place. He was one of those lucky kids with a TV and console in his bedroom. Even more lucky was his room was situated far away from the parents, so we didn’t have to worry about the occasional scream from a closely contested fight.
We were about 15 or 16, we weren’t really avid gamers but we were massive comic book nerds and he had acquired Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter or something similar to that. We also weren’t really drinkers but got stuck into a few too many of his older sisters tequila stash. Needless to say our night was a blurry and heady mix of beverages and console gaming.
We both spewed. The next morning we awoke there was the distinct smell of puke in the air.
We searched high and low but couldn’t locate its source. We quizzed each other “No, I definitely spewed in the toilet” was both our responses, my friend adding the additional “I remember opening up the lid”. We both sort of suspected each other of being the person responsible for the phantom barf, but didn’t have the evidence. After we opened some windows the urge to battle once again arose in us. We turned the PS1 on but nothing . . . We turned it on an off again. Still nohing. Checked the cables etc – nada. Just then he hits the button to open up the “lid” and we spy a small neatly formed perfect sick pile sits in the CD shaped crevice.
Later it would dawn on us that my friend must have been so drunk he thought the playstation was a toilet. Or he didn’t, and was just to drunk to give a crap. Either way I will never forget my first night of gaming on the beloved console. Even better, he took it to a shop and got it repaired. It actually worked too! And continued to, till the day he packed it away and upgraded to a next gen. No word of a lie.
My first Playstation experience was went I was 20. I had started dating a guy and he had one. We always had an Atari (Classic!!) and I didn’t know how to use it. I must of done something right – 10 years later, we’re still together and we now have a Playstation3
Dear Kotaku,
I was doing homework.
Then it was if I had suddenly woken up to the magical world of Kotaku.
(funny how that happens)
The articles, the videos!
A world of mystery and wonder awaited me.
And then I found this competition, and realised that I have not yet had a Playstation experience,
So Kotaku,
Win me a PS4 if you will.
Drink off milk on Sunday night, suffer violent diarrhoea Monday morning, get two days off school for Playstation. #WhoDaresWins #TotallyWorthIt
I fought my husband thick and thin playstation I was going to win.
I raced my car around the bend I was on a mission until the end.
The kids didn’t have a chance because mum and dad were in a trance.
We played all night, not about to end the fight
Playstation became our new imagination.
Forty something we may be but put us in a game and we become three.
Love the fun, Love the thrill, Im out for the kill.
Playstation champ title mum does hold, Or so the story is told.
My family wasn’t exactly well off to begin with, so after my stepdad passed away the only thing I owned of any value was a SNES handed down to me by a distant aunt, which I had to give up to a garage sale to help my Mum pay funeral fees. This was particularly difficult as video games were my only real source of entertainment, I had friends but few and far between, and I wasn’t athletically-inclined by any means.
I wasn’t long without my precious console, however, before I heard a knock on the door at around 4pm one Monday. Mum got up and opened the door to a courier, holding a cardboard package with my late stepdad’s name attached. She signed for it and promptly placed it on the floor, inspecting the label. Something on that label must have clued her in to what was inside, as she let out a slight gasp, and looked right at me – tears forming in the corners of her eyes. She slid the box over to me, and whispered, “open it”.
With only a momentary pause for thought, I tore into the box. Almost immediately recognising what was inside, I shrieked with a mixture of shock and glee. Inside this unassuming brown package was a glossy, grey cardboard rectangle with a powerful looking logo that read “Sony Playstation”.
I freed the futuristic-looking box from its shipping confines, recoiling a little as a CD case flew out from the back corner, falling to the floor. I immediately recognised it as a copy of Spyro the Dragon, serving to add immensely to my current feeling of pure elation.
Also inside was a note explaining the contents of the parcel, addressed from our local petrol station. It was a prize, awarded out of a raffle drawn two weeks prior, and entered a few weeks before that – by my stepdad.
Hardly swayed by the fact that a memory card wasn’t provided, I spent almost that entire night playing Spyro, and the next two nights following, never turning the console off lest I lose my progress. Upon finishing the game, as the credits rolled, I stopped and let soak the events prior.
My stepdad was poor, and couldn’t afford to give me everything I wanted, but one of the last things he ever did when he was alive – was make a Playstation fan out of me.
After waiting for what seemed like an eternity of nagging my Mum to get me a PSone, she finally caved succumbed to the pressure and my 1999 Christmas was complete. It came with Croc: Legend of the Gobbos and I procured Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee as soon as I could. I still remember the grip of the original controller free of the joysticks and dualshock, as I played through games that still remain amongst my favourites.
Turning the playstation on for the first time, I heard that chime that would herald the beginning of many gaming sessions thereafter brought Croc’s title screen to my family’s analog television. A pseudo-jazz midi track grooved along as I drooled at the graphics of my first game. The inherent fun and distinctively terrible camera angles of that generation of games became a staple of my childhood and I have remained a Sony enthusiast ever since. The Sony Playstation brought into the gaming world and has kept me entertained, bringing through childhood to adulthood.
Edit: Just realized I actually posted this too late because of Daylight savings, as Queensland doesn’t have it… sorry about that.
Gah! I’ve been travelling & only just got back!! Is it too late to chip in?
My first experience with a playstation cost me the chance to shed my virginity several years earlier than when I finally managed to convince a girl to get nekkid with me. I was 15 and crashing at a mates place to share in his shiny new PS2. He’d crashed several hours earlier & meantime I was totally and utterly engrossed in Shadow of the Colossus. His older sister came home from a party fairly drunk and decided she was going to initiate me in the ways of woman. After trying several times to get my attention, even to the point of undoing her shirt, and getting no response from me beyond an occasional grunt, she gave up in disgust & tottered off to bed.
She only divulged this fact to me several years later & no she didn’t give me the opportunity to retroactively take her up on it.
Still, it was Shadow of the Colossus so I’m sure you all understand…..
How many did australia get?
Well I grew up always wanting a PlayStation but my parents never got me one. So I was the kid that would come over and play someone else’s playstation and freak out with all the games .. As I got older I bought the playstation 1 when PlayStation 2 was out then the PlayStation 2 when the 3 was out .. But this time I pre ordered to make sure I had it first .. And I did but due to having a family member that is drug dependant he took it while I was at work and swapped it for what ever he smoked in his lungs .. I was upset at first but more so disappointed only because he knew how excited I was to have it and now nothing ..
That’s my story and it actually happen on 24th of January 2015
Wow ok, story time. My father has had a crazy interesting life and is one of those people that tells these incredible stories where you are left wondering if any of it is true. If he wasn’t my father, and I didn’t know the other people around at the time, I wouldn’t believe a word. To set the scene for this particular story, dad is in his mid 30’s, travelled the world and was always getting himself into various situations, some fun, some not. At this point in his life, he finds himself jumping feet first onto the first ship that will take him out of a US port and out of the country. He had in fact, just bartered his way out of jail, after having a run in with some local mobsters who had paid off the local cops to put him in jail until their boss got into town (this is mid 70’s btw). He boarded the ship with the clothes on his back, a handful of dollars and an old ham radio.
He then discovers the ship is heading to Japan, much to his alarm as the mobsters had ‘connections’ there. While he is on the ship, he uses the ham radio to send out a message out asking for help from anyone that will answer. Eventually, a Japanese man replies, who happens to be studying English. They converse for a while and he finally says he can stay at his place while he sorts everything out. Fast forward a decade until I was born, and that is how my god father is a Japanese Buddhist monk living in Tokyo!
How does this relate to a PlayStation? Well! My parents where reasonably strict on encouraging me to play sport and do ‘outdoors’ stuff (even though mum was an IT Teacher!), so computer games and the like were a definite no no when I was young. Then, around my 10th birthday, Bucky my Japanese monk god father, sends me a package. Much to my parents horror it is a PlayStation. I was CRAZY stoked, and I knew my parents couldn’t take it off me without offending Bucky, so I was golden.
I had my first Playstation experience at a friend’s place; my family couldn’t afford one, so I was very excited. We curled up on the floor in front of the screen (a whopping 48cm) and popped in the only game she had for it at the time – Crash Bandicoot. And I fell in love.
You see, up to that point, I had only been gaming on a Commodore 64 that belonged to my brother. 5 1/4″ floppy discs, tapes, etc, etc. To put a disc in, close the lid and then see those graphics and game play start instantly? I was blown away. I needed a Playstation in my life.
Long story short, I spent every possibly waking moment playing Crash Bandicoot at Kylie’s place and my mother noticed. She asked why, I rhapsodized about the Playstation. Two months later, I received a second hand SNES for my birthday. Thanks, mum!
(Although I did get the Blaster cannon with the six game cartridge too, so it wasn’t a total loss.)