Console Special No.2: Sony PlayStation

[JaySevenZero]

“Do Not Underestimate The Power of PlayStation”

Leon is joined by Jay, Karl and Tony for the second of our single format console special podcasts. Sony entered the videogames hardware market in the mid-1990s and made a massive splash with its debut system, the PlayStation. The panel shares their memories of this heady time when massive CD storage, 'real' audio, CG via FMV and thousands of textured polygons moving at hitherto unprecedented lick became available - and affordable - in the home. We also delve into the machine's massive library of classics (and stinkers), as well as airing some fond recollections provided by the Cane and Rinse community.

This console special was edited by Jay Taylor.

You can only can get this special right now by supporting our Patreon for just 75p or $1 a month, but remember that in addition to the special you also get access to our exclusive Patreon monthly podcast and get the regular Cane and Rinse podcast a week early too!

[ToQi]

Electronics Boutique in Harrow... Resident Evil, WipEout, and Soul Blade... not a bad start to my relationship with the PlayStation family, which persists to this day. Games had come so far in terms of design and tech, but there were still evident limitations, like the puny draw distance in Tenchu and G-Police; loading times in Riven and Street Fight Alpha 2; and the crunky 3D of so many titles.

But, above all, there were the console's landmark games that I'll never forget: ISS Pro, Gran Turismo, Metal Gear Solid, Tomb Raider, Ridge Racer Type 4, Resident Evil 2, Tekken 3... and the horizon-broadening blockbuster that changed it all for me and many others — Final Fantasy VII. A great console, and a golden age of developers defining the qualities of series that would persist to today.

[kintaris]

The arrival of Sony's PlayStation in my life will be forever seared into my memory - Christmas Day in Dubai, in a time before the state had been properly gentrified by billionaires. My family and I had been flown out by the bank my Dad worked for, and we hadn't seen him for several months. Christmas in a cold white apartment with 40-degree heat wilting a tiny plastic Christmas tree on a balcony overlooking a silent swimming pool. The city ground to a standstill as Ramadan began. Venturing into the streets felt like exploring a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

My Dad was trying to reconnect to sons that really hadn't seen him all that much recently, and were now spending Christmas in the most un-Christmassy way possible. So he went big. I remember South Park plushies and Simpsons books, I remember a giant 3D foam puzzle of the Millennium Falcon... and I remember the PlayStation, this little light grey piece of plastic somehow containing the vibrant chaos of Crash Bandicoot.

I still remember the first time the traditional side-scrolling platformer twisted around. Crash was running TOWARDS the screen, with a boulder crashing along behind him - and it wasn't the pixelly quasi-3D of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and 3's bonus stages, it felt like something much more real and intense. The new perspective blew my tiny mind, much like those early cinema-goers fleeing from a film of an oncoming train. I beat the game within a couple of days, and we celebrated my success in an otherwise empty restaurant, attempting to eat a cake that I'd get for free if I finished it myself. The entire waiting staff stood around the table staring at me with interest, and probably no small amount of hunger given that they and everyone else in the city was in the middle of a religious fast.

The next day I personally haggled with an electronics salesman for a copy of Command & Conquer. He had no idea what it was, only that I desperately wanted it. I walked out with it for less than £2 in today's money - not bad for a ten-year-old I thought. Meanwhile my brother had found an unexploded grenade in the parking lot and terrified the life out of my mother. We argued over who had had the most productive day while fighting over the controller as we took on the menacing Brotherhood of Nod.

I don't really remember the day I bought any other console, but the utterly bizarre circumstances around which I received my PlayStation will stay with me forever.

[Suits]

The arrival of Sony's PlayStation in my life will be forever seared into my memory....

Cool post man.

[JaySevenZero]

Stellar post Kintaris, exactly the kind of thing we want for these shows too!

[Spacefarer]

My memories of the PlayStation are, unfortunately, a bit more vague than Kintaris' recollections. I'll have a go, though.

I probably got mine quite late on. Considering the games I had for it (which we'll get onto), I'd say it was around 2001-02...by which point, the PS2 was at large.

My first encounter with the system was at my friend's house, where we played a variety of games: amongst them were Crash Team Racing, Tony Hawk's Skateboarding, and some corny vehicular combat game called Grudge Warriors. Up until that point, I'd been a proud member of the PC Master Race, but this rinky-dink grey box had manage to sway me.
Crash Team Racing was the standout from that lot, so, naturally, I had to have a PlayStation of my own. Obviously Jazz Jackrabbit 2 wasn't pushing the right buttons any more...plus, my dad was probably fed up of me constantly destroying his computer. If I was going to break something, I might as well break my own thing, right?

I was enamoured by the packaging. I remember spending ages staring at the back of the box, drinking in all the screenshots of the various games that were available on launch. (Side note: not sure why I was looking at the box instead of, y'know, playing it...)
Being about six years old, and being used to shareware discs containing tons of games, I assumed that they all came with the system - not so. The games I remember getting with it were WipEout 2097; Gran Turismo 2; Battletanx: Global Assault; Tomb Raider; Grand Theft Auto...and the one I played almost exclusively, Crash Bandicoot.

The orange marsupial practically replaced my favourite green bunny at that point. I loved Crash. I spent hours upon hours playing it in my parents' bedroom - evidently, I wasn't allowed to use the big telly downstairs, so I used my mum's postage-stamp-sized CRT which wouldn't work unless a specifically-shaped splinter of wood was jammed into the power switch. Didn't matter. I played it. Aaaaaaand...I never got very far in it. But I'll save that story 'til the eventual Crash Bandicoot episode.

Later on, I ended up with all the other Crash games. My dad took me and my brother to a second-hand shop - possibly Computer Exchange - and that's when I got my own copy of CTR, as well as Lego Racers, an old PC favourite of mine. My brother walked away with Crash 3, and the obsession began again. I didn't end up getting Crash 2 until 2008, as a reward for earning a black belt in karate. In and amongst all this, I played various other games when I went to my cousin's house: games such as GTA 2, Vigilante 8, V2000, and probably some sports and racing games, too. He also played some of my games when he came over here, and showed me how to play Tomb Raider. I didn't end up playing it because I didn't like blood very much back then.

That's not to say I stopped playing PC, by the way. Just played less of it.

Somewhere in this trainwreck of a timeline, there's a Spyro-shaped hole. Spyro: Year of the Dragon was another of my favourites, and remains so alongside Crash. I also picked up the first Spyro game somewhere along the line, and while I played a decent amount of it...it's the sort of series you really need to play in order. Playing the third one first just meant I was a bit disappointed with the first. Again, I didn't get the second one until very recently, when my mum got it me for my birthday a few years back.

And that's not even getting onto the wonderful demo discs. These probably didn't last too long once I started getting a decent library of proper games, but they're an interesting and nostalgic curio that deserve a second look. I distinctly remember seeing a couple of games that I really wanted to play: Tombi 2, and Team Buddies. Both quite obscure games, to the point that when I asked my mum for Tombi 2, my brother thought I was on about Tomb Raider. The disc only had a video for the former, but for the latter there was - gasp! - a playable demo! I got a lot out of that demo, which is a surprise because nobody would play with me. Team Buddies commands some not-insubstantial prices these days, but compared to Tombi's market value, it's mere chump change.

So, all in all, I had a ton of fun with the PlayStation. I got a lot out of it, and its wibbly polygons and blocky textures are still charming to this day. It's given me some wonderful memories, introduced me to some of my absolute favourite games and characters ever, and I continue to find new awesome games for it even now. Heck, in 2010 I bought a game on Steam, one that I'd previously played (and couldn't get past the second screen of) at someone's house. That game was Abe's Oddysee, and again, it's one of my all-time classics. As of this year, I'm slowly working my way through Symphony of the Night, which Benj Edwards - of Retronauts fame - claims is the greatest game ever made.

It can't beat Doom II, but it can surely try.

Geez, so much for vague...

[rob25X]

Two words come to my mind... Ridge Racer!

Although the PS1 had a huge library of classics nothing stood out for me throughout the consoles life quite like Ridge Racer. 1995-2000 the original game was rarely out of my console.

As a young boy in the months before the PS1's release I could not stay away from the arcade cabinet. When I finally got my PlayStation with Ridge Racer I was amazed. It was incredible to see such a stunning looking game on a home console.


There were many great racers on PS1 (for example WipEout 2097) and although there were many Ridge sequels that added more to the formula, the simplicity and arcade perfect experience of the first game could not be beaten.

My other standout memories of PS1 would be the console start up sound, the great controller design, Resident Evil, Final Fantasy VII and many other amazing games.

[Spacefarer]

the console start up sound

Mate, that sound will always be nostalgic to me. Though the DS is a close second...!

[Jobobonobo]

Like the Mega Drive, I never owned the original Playstation but was introduced to it through friends. I still remember vividly when I first encountered this sexy new generation of 3D graphics. My friend had a Formula one game and Tekken and I was blown away. They also had a demo disc where you could play around with a 3D model of a T rex and a manta ray which truly showed off the power of this little grey box. This was the future.

For me, it was truly the demo discs that I remember most vividly about the PS1. My friend would buy the Official Playstation Magazine every month with its free demo disc full of delights. This is what introduced me to some truly fun and unique titles such as Parappa the Rapper, Kula World, Rival Schools, Klonoa and Tombi! I also saw the value of demos in that they also were a pre emptive warning for games that were less than stellar such as the abysmal Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker.

It cannot be underestimated the effects the PS1 had on gaming as a whole. For one thing, it made videogames a lot more appealing to the general public as its huge variety of titles made sure no matter what your tastes; the Playstation was the console for you. Among this variety of titles were titles such as Resident Evil, Tenchu, Grand Theft Auto, Tomb Raider and many more that showed that games were growing up and that they were no longer the domain of kids and/or nerdy introverts. Also of note was that genres that were considered niche fully entered the mainstream such as survival horror, stealth and especially noteworthy, the JRPG. Before Final Fantasy VII, Europe had little contact with the JRPG and if it was not for its success, it is likely that European gamers would still consider them a bizarre little curiosity and would remain stuck in the dark ages where these games would never bless our shores.

Aside from messing around with demos, my go to titles for me and my friends were the Tekken series, Ape Escape, Driver, Time Crisis, Gran Turismo and the Crash Bandicoot series. The third dimension truly expanded the possibilities of what games could do and laid the groundwork for new gameplay styles and more immersive worlds. The influence the PS1 had on the industry was undeniable and can still be felt to this day. While the magic of the graphics has diminished over time in this era of 4K HD, many games on the system still hold up wonderfully and I would happily recommend them to anyone who learns to adjust their eyes to those blocky polygons. Me personally, while certain games such as Tomb Raider have aged dramatically graphics-wise, other titles such as Parappa the Rapper and Ape Escape are still quite pleasant to look at. I find that the less realistic the graphics in this era, the better they hold up which is an observation that can be equally applied to the N64. While the Mega Drive was what nurtured my love of videogames, it was the PS1 with its 3D graphics and new gameplay that this enabled that convinced me that games were to have a great and exciting future and to stick around for the ride.

[Flabyo]

The PlayStation existing is the reason my career happened at all, so I’ll probably have something to say here, I just need some time to think about how to phrase it.

[Magical_Isopod]

(This post will likely be a work in progress until September because I will likely remember a ton about this thing over the next few weeks, but here goes ...)

Following from my commentary on the Sega Genesis is a little difficult, because the timing of events at this stage of my life is a little hazy. I got my Genesis at Christmas 1995, and my parents had divorced by Summer 1997. We had a Genesis at home, and a Super Nintendo at our Dad's place, whom my brother and I would stay with every other weekend.

For Christmas of 1998 or 99 - I'm not exactly certain - we got a PlayStation. But with no games! My brother, whose birthday fell on the 22nd, would receive Crash Bandicoot from our uncle. I would receive a copy of NHL Faceoff '97 at some point during that Christmas break, but I honestly can't remember where it came from. It just sort of appeared one day - either my dad or his girlfriend at the time must have noticed I didn't have a game to play on the new gaming machine. Although Faceoff does not survive the passage of time, I do remember having great fun manipulating the free agent system in the game to ensure my favourite team was stacked with all-star players while other teams were simply unable to complete.

That first year, we would pick up one of my all-time favourite PS1 compilations - The Raiden Project. My dad had actually played Raiden in the arcades, and when he saw a used copy for $5, he just had to have it. My only other SHMUP to that point had been Thunder Force II, which I could never advance in. So in a sense, The Raiden Project would serve as my introduction to SHMUPs. This version of Raiden II in particular persists today as one of my personal favourite games.

We also had a PlayStation Underground Jampack demo disc that we played for tens of hours. I could tell you the contents from memory: It had playable demos of Tomba!, Einhander, Jersey Devil, Tekken 3, Duke Nukem: A Time To Kill and an import preview of Tail Concerto. That demo disc was played more than some of the full games we owned, we absolutely scoured every inch of those demos. And fast forward to now, I've owned every single of one those games - though Einhander is the only one that remains in my collection... I'll come back to that one.

The next few years saw my brother and I owning copies of JetMoto 2, Biofreaks, NHL Faceoff 99, and other things presumably fished from a bargain bin. Little wonder the demo disc got so much play, really.

But one particular year was a major turning point for my life in gaming. For that Christmas, my brother and I were each given $100 to visit Toys R Us and buy *whatever we wanted*, so long as we stayed on budget. After much discussion, we both decided to get 1 PlayStation game from the $20 or less bin, 1 Game Boy game, and 1 deck of Pokémon cards.
I went with Mega Man Legends, he went with Final Fantasy VII. I had been a Mega Man fanboy since a very young age, having played X at my cousins' house. My brother, being younger, picked Final Fantasy VII for no other reason than he'd seen it in a magazine ad and "it had more games in it", citing the larger box. We knew nothing about RPGs, but came out with two of them. These two games in particular were stories I daydreamed about for months, or maybe years. They were very, very special to me. Still are, really.

Fast forward to my teenaged years, when I finally had expendable income - PS1 games like Final Fantasies 4, 5, 6 and 8, Chrono Cross, Resident Evil 2 and 3, Metal Gear Solid, Mega Man X4 through 6, Dino Crisis, and many, many more would enter my life for the first time. And most of these were well into the PS2's lifespan - I'd beaten Kingdom Hearts, which by that point had seen a Greatest Hits release, before I had bought most of these games.

One distinct memory I have of the PlayStation is the sheer rarity of some of the best games. I remember hunting high and low for copies of Tomba!, Einhander, The Misadventures of Tron Bonne, Valkyrie Profile, and more... And let me tell you, in Sarnia, Ontario, you were never going to see these games in person. And if you did, it was at a flea market, for ludicrous prices, even back then. By this point in my life, I had very discerning tastes about video games - I knew what I wanted, but not always where to find it. So being the clueless teen I was, I put all these ludicrously rare games on my Christmas list... And my mom actually found one of them.
Listen, my mom is a great person. She will always try to make me and my brother happy, even if it means giving a hand-written list of obscure Japanese PS1 games to a store clerk and asking which they have in stock. And because she is who she is, I own a mint condition copy of Einhander, which she gleaned for the exorbitant price of $7.99. Because I doubt it will ever be featured in a full episode itself, I really want to highlight: Einhander is a masterpiece, and a game that every game developer ought to play if they want a crash course on how to use music and sound design effectively to create something mind-blowing. I have studied this game for hours, watching how incredibly a game from 1998 integrates sound and motion so perfectly to create these amazing emotional climaxes, especially before each boss fight. In my mind, it has not been matched since. Einhander is a very special PS1 title that does not get nearly enough love, but I'm telling you, it is every bit as essential as Crash and FF7.

I am now 28, and still finding new PS1 games to add to my curated collection. On my backlog, I currently have D, Front Mission 3, Lunar 2, and digital versions of Suikoden II and the Misadventures of Tron Bonne. My brother also sent me a copy of Raiden DX from Japan, where he now lives and works, but I have not yet figured out a way to play it.

Just a few short months ago, my friend and I played through Metal Gear Solid together. We were both impressed at how incredible that game *sounds*. There's something about the PS1 and early CD gaming in general that is still really impressive today, and I hope it might be clarified in this podcast... The PS1 could deliver this really clean CD audio that doesn't really resemble modern games. It almost feels like CD sound was new, so developers played with it in really interesting ways. You wouldn't have background score, you'd have a distinct soundtrack. You'd have these sound effects that felt designed to make full use of contemporary surround sound systems. Games today generally feel very "flat" in their audio presentation - like everything is in this very narrow band of sound. On the PlayStation, it felt like sound was much more of a priority, and it's not nostalgia speaking. Some games have these incredibly "full" soundscapes that I've really only seen in early CD-based games. Playing certain 20 year old PlayStation titles on my modern sound system still sounds bloody incredible, and I really wish I had the technical know-how to better explain. Whatever the PS1 does with sound, I love it. I love the Sega CD and Turbo Duo for the same reason.

I also want to briefly mention the mod chip and the culture surrounding it at the time. Most kids I knew had a modded PS1. A lot of game and computer stores would install it, but would not sell it - they'd usually direct you to a sketchy shop in the city, or a website from which you could obtain one. When the slimmer PSOne came out, everyone knew this "secret trick" where you could play burned games by spinning the disc with your hand before starting the console... And it actually worked. Kinda. Some of the time. I recall mod chips also being unreliable - some would kill your console, some just wouldn't play burned games, it was this really bizarre time in gaming history where computer technology felt like this underground black market of secret hacks and dubious tech. Kinda cool, in hindsight. You gotta know a guy who knows a guy, but everyone can get a mod chip.

I'll leave it there for now. Might add or revise... Gimme some feedback if you like, folks.

[duskvstweak]

I was a Nintendo fan starting at the NES and the Nintendo 64 was like the second coming in my life. My love for the system made me somewhat of a toxic fanboy, as I slowly taught myself to hate other video game console. My main target? The Playstation. The conversations at school somehow always became Sony vs. Nintendo, and, coming from a house that could barely afford one console, the Playstation was simply not in the cards. So, I learned to turn any ignorance or jealousy I had into rage.

When I was a teenager, I finally was able to get my own job and earn my own paycheck. At the time, the Gamecube was not connecting with me and I wasn't sure I wanted to spend money on it, a strange feeling for a Nintendo fan. However, I had a friend who needed some cash for new games and he was offering to sell his Playstation One, with Final Fantasy IX, for $100. Fighting back the existential crisis, I took him up on his offer.

The Playstation was a cool system, more mature and matching my teenage sensibilities. I don't think I would have appreciated it's adult-skewing games as a kid, which fueled my snobby attitude growing up. But, as a teen who could buy his own games, titles like Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy IX, Dino Crisis and Chrono Cross seemed like a whole new world to me.

Looking back, I feel like I missed out on something, a maturing period of gaming. I wouldn't want to trade my Nintendo 64 memories for anything, but I wish I had Playstation ones to go along with them. Yes, I bought one and played great games, but I was very late to the party and all my friends were into the PS2 and XBox. I've gone and still go back to play many of the games I've missed on the system, but it's 90s attitude, coolness and maturity are something I can only relate to from other's stories.

[MykiBamBam]

Growing up, my Dad had an independent music/game shop and due to him dealing only in Sega, so did I. Having had the OG Master System and Mega Drive, I eagerly waited for the Sega Saturn and soaked up all the info on it through various magazines of the time. I was convinced this new "PlayStation" was a stupid waste of time and in the time of brand mascots, it had a Bandicoot? What's a Bandicoot? Rubbish! I wanted Arcade perfect Virtua Fighter.

My Saturn never arrived due to my Dad's shop shutting but we both kept interest in the Saturn and I was convinced it was the better console. 2D Games esp Capcom fighters were better! Take that Playstation! But, I didn't want 2D fighters, I wanted 3D. The arcade perfect games, just weren't. Something was wrong with Sega. Where was Sonic? This Bandicoot guy actually looked great...it was bright and colourful, just like my hero Sonic. There was a racing game called WipEout literally from the future and Twisted Metal, a game for adults maybe? A giant robot Rabbit for reasons unknown apart from to blow my mind. Playing an early demo disc had me convinced...I wanted a PlayStation. Could I possibly swear in front of my Dad?

Turns out I could but it wasn't until August 1997 I got one with Tomb Raider. I spoke to my "cool" friend who had a chipped PlayStation and he said it was a good idea after further convincing me by showing me Resident Evil. However, I came unstuck in my local Game...did I want a memory card? My Dad said No for it was upselling and just a money grabbing trick. Two weeks of only playing the first few levels quickly convinced us otherwise.

I loved my PlayStation and I was convinced it would never get better. My cousin's also had one and sharing games meant, for the time, I'd play games I wasn't allowed or copy a save file to progress when I got stuck. Without them I would have never finished FF7. Gran Turismo WAS real life although I was a Ridge/Rage Racer boy.

So many of today's great (and not so great) franchises started on PS1 and the introduction of the Duel Shock which hasn't really changed in design in 20 years is and was revolutionary. Memories of wires crossing my room to hook it up to my 14inch CRT esp when Time Crisis with G-Con came out are fond ones and the start up music runs deep. I even got into trouble after convincing my elderly Nan and to buy me a copy of Official PlayStation Magazine because it had an RE2 demo on it. I miss demo disks as they provided hours of fun when funds for games weren't always available.

I'd say it was PlayStation's fault I love games. I always liked them and Sonic 2 is still my favourite but with the PlayStation, it was real or even hyper real in some cases and it blew everything, including the long forgotten Saturn out of the water. Arguably, there hasn't been a large of a jump since and with my rose tinted glasses on, Gran Turismo of PS1 looks just as good as on PS4 and that stupid Bandicoot was just as bright and as colourful as he is now in 4k HDR on my X Box One X

[BlueWeaselBreath]

I’d like to offer a contemporaneous perspective of the Playstation from someone who was there but never got into the console. I never owned a Playstation, probably because I was never as attracted to it as I was the NES or the 16-bit consoles, and it spurred my hiatus from console gaming for two entire generations, through the the PSX and PS2/Xbox, and I didn’t come back to consoles til my now-wife, then girlfriend, got an Xbox360. For years, I’ve been trying to put my finger on what it was about the Playstation that didn’t strike my fancy.

I was nine, going on ten, when the Playstation launched, and I was still very much into 16-bit gaming, having recently gotten a used SNES, which would tide me over for at least another five years. I loved the SNES gameplay, visuals, and sound (and still do), and for better or worse, the Playstation really changed all that up. In retrospect, I think my lack of enthusiasm for the PSX was due to two factors: the graphical style and the branding of the console.

I think 16-bit pixel art is one of the best looking styles from gaming history, and I loved the relatively bright colors of the SNES (on my NTSC system at least — from what I’ve heard on Cane & Rinse, PAL colors were kind of washed out and drab on titles like Super Mario World). From the initial screenshots of PSX games to the time I tried one out in a Toys R Us (RIP), I’ve always thought the PSX graphics were unattractive. The 3D polygonal graphics, which were the most ballyhooed at the time, looked jagged and smeary to me — I think history has borne me out on this one; I found them almost as hard to look at back then as modern gamers do now. I know there were some 2D sprite games available too, but I didn’t see too many of them advertised at the time. Symphony of the Night, which is, of course, beautiful, never came across quite as well in the tiny dark screenshots I saw as it would’ve on a screen, and that game was the only one I was very interested in at the time. Later, I would come to be envious of the JRPG exclusives that proliferated on the system, but by then, I had already decided that the PSX wasn’t for me, due to the second thing that turned me off the system: the branding.

The Playstation’s image and advertising was intentionally aimed at an older gamer than the Nintendo systems had been. It had a sophisticated, sleek, monochromatic look to it, and the ads and many of the games always seemed designed to appeal to gamers five or six years older than me. For whatever reason, I felt like I was one demographic bracket too young for the system, like Sony wanted to market to kids just a bit more mature than I.

So in the end, I feel like I was both too young and too old for the Playstation when it came out. Had I been younger, I may have been more dazzled by the graphics or by the Crash Bandicoots and whatnot. Had I been older, I would have felt like the PSX was aimed at my demographic and would have gotten more into it. It’s always made me sad, looking back, because so many of the terrific seminal games of that era, like Metal Gear Solid and Resident Evil, are so badly dated that I think I may have trouble going back and experiencing them now. It’s funny how this era of gaming seems to have aged worse than the previous generation, sort of like how some of Wings’ output sounds more dated than the Beatles (don’t get me wrong, I freakin’ love Wings, but “Helen Wheels” is not exactly timeless). Anyway, the only PSX game I have ever gone back and played was Symphony of the Night, and I do plan to try out some of the JRPGs one day, especially sprite-based ones like Suikoden, but for me, I’m afraid that PSX is a lost generation.

[Alex79uk]

Hey, has this show been recorded yet? I kept meaning to post and forgetting!

[ratsoalbion]

Yes, it’s been in the can for a few days, but as with the monthly show we’re running a little behind.

[Stanshall]

Bugger. I completely forgot to post and had so much to say, truly profound formative experiences, I'd never felt this way about games before the PlayStation and those days were some of the happiest of my teenage years, wonderful times with my brothers when we really needed them. Looking forward to the show, of course, nevertheless, I loved the Mega Drive episode and I never even had one.