It was Christmas 1997, I was 13 and had been gifted a Playstation from my parents.
Most of my family had all been in on the noise that I was getting a really expensive new computer system and all clubbed in and bought me games.
The only game that I demanded was Doom, the others were all potentially the first title that someone picked up, was the cheapest, or whatever was billed as the biggest game that Christmas.
I actually ended up with 10 games that Christmas, which looking back, although I received literally nothing else, was spoilt rotten.
I have an older sister, who had a slightly older boyfriend, making them about 15 I suppose. My sister is pretty chill and would often come up after she'd got home from being out and relax by watching me play whatever the game I was playing.
One day, her boyfriend, popped up to say hi and was pawing over my new Playstation, he saw Resident Evil (which happened to be the Directors Cut) and asked me if I'd played it yet - I said no, it didn't seem interesting. He was well keen.
From then on we spent the next week camped up in the loft room playing it. There would often be six or seven of us up there, made up of my friends, my sister and her lot, all experiencing this game in such a involved fashion. Just watching me play, yet all feeling involved.
Funnily enough, I didn't actually know, or appreciate that I would need a memory card, neither did my parents so we were resigned to starting over every time we wanted to play it.
My father was fuming when I asked him for a memory card and refused blind after spending £400 on a new console and didn't want to hear my reason for asking for more. My legend sister took me into Romford and bought me a memory card from Thatz Entertainment, in Romford Arcade.
Such wonderfully happy times.
Regards the actual game, its great, I love it dearly. I've not gone back and played the original-original game since the PS1 era. I did play through the DS version - Deadly Silence in 2009 and the XBL HD remaster the week it was released in 2015, although both different in their own right to the original, it gave me what I wanted and I enjoyed them both. I didn't actually get around to finishing the XBL version though.
There is an awful lot to to be said about the game though once you know and expect the flow of exploration, puzzles and story. I find going back to it hard too get that invested in as much as other games I go back too and does seem rather simplistic maybe.
Although I think someone going to it for the first time would still find it challenging, captivating and enjoyable.
That Mansion, Tank Controls, ECG's and the Save Room music, make this most certainly one of the most important games I've ever played. Far from perfect maybe but certainly essential to me.
TWR : Moon. Light. Sonata.