PlayStation & PSone

Hello, and welcome to RGUK,

First post of the year. I know it has been a long time since I have posted anything, so here is a little treat...

The PlayStation, known as PS1, PSone and PSX, however PSX is a completely different console altogether. Now, as you know I love the grey box that produces great gameplay, great sound effects, even the later models featured SoundScope, now that is a nice feature, however I never really played with that much... For this post I will refer PlayStation as PS1 for short. As you may know the PS1 was released as part of the fifth generation video games consoles genre, and was against other known video games consoles such as, Nintendo 64 and the Sega Saturn and even the 3DO, however we know that was not as big of a success as the PS1, and N64 and Sega Saturn. Some people has tried to compare the PS1 against Sega Dreamcast for graphics, lets just say that the Dreamcast at the time was far more capable of throwing more at your screen then the PS1, the discs held more data for storage, it was a console that really was more for competiting against the PS2 more than the PS1.

As for myself I miss the times where you could pick up a Crash Bandicoot: Crash Team Racing from your local rental place, and shove the black shiny disc into your console and away you go, unless you brought the game, then you had more time to complete it, lets me say this you needed the extra time to complete it, as the game offered extra's where you could collect gems, C, T, R letters, race against the time, collecting those boxes with 1, 2 and 3 on them, which froze the time for that length of time for example, you got the 1 box, it would freeze the time for 1 second, the more you got the faster you time, and the better the reward you got. To be honest it was a fun game, and going against a second player even today was fun. Crash Bandicoot 3 well that was harder and probably the most hardest game of the series to complete, as you know I like to go the long way round and go and find the extra's and hidden stuff, by the way you do need the running shoes for a particular timed event, I shall not say anything else as it's down to you to find that one hehe. Unless you get stuck of course then I am here... The gameplay I still find amazing, I love the Crash series, Toca series, Spyro, Metal Gear Solid, and oh my Wipeout was better on the PS1 compared to Sega Saturn, it had a smoother frame rate, even the graphics was a tad better. The reason why Wipeout did better on PS1, was due to the developers being able to work out everything on it, the Saturn was harder to develop games on it due to the hardware setup, as the Saturn has 2 x cpu's where as the PS1 has one to code for making it easier to develop and release games for.

Later on, the video games looked better, for example compare Ridge Racer Revolution and Ridge Racer Type 4, the graphics were different completely, however the engine it uses was pretty much the game, okay it does offer more options like different car classes and more cars to choose from. When I first played the game I wanted Grip, now when I play the game I am after more drift, so that I can get round those tight corners quicker, well it seems faster when I do that, I do not have a preference as such as longs I can play my Ridge Racer Type 4 then I am happy.

When the PSone came out in 2000 it was exciting at the time, even though it was the same console, but smaller and lacking the great port for cheat cartridges, it was different. The console to me has a thin lid, I like the spring release on the Eject that it misses, ah well, can't have it all hehe. It still has the 2 memory card slots, and 2 controller ports, multi AV on the back, and 1x socket for the adapter, now this is different, it uses an external power supply instead of the in built one, maybe that is a good thing I don't know, because I never had a console fail on the power supply not yet anyway with the PS1, usually it is the laser that seems to fail with me. The PSone does seem to have a better laser, does read CD-R discs better, no need to turn it up side down to play any games, just insert disc and shut the lid and away you go.

The PS1 was a huge success, it sold over 100 million units, making it the first video games console to reach that goal. It packed a lot of fun, infact you could take it with you, especially if you had the screen and the tiny PSone console, then you are definitely all set.

As usual here is the specs below:

CPU: 33.8688 MHz MIPS R3000A
RAM: 2MB and 1MB VRAM (Video Memory)
Graphics: 1MB, 3D Geometry Engine with 2D rotation, scaling, transparency, fading and 3D mapping & shading. Produces, 360,000 polygons per second, 4,000 sprites, on top of that 14.7 million colours. Resolution: 640x480 (max resolution: 740x480)
Sound: 16-bit 24 channel PCM, Sample Memory: 512kb, Sampling Frequency: 44.1khz
Operating System ROM:  512kb
Disc Drive: 2 times CD-Rom Speed
External Storage: 128kb storage (memory card) = 15 blocks
Models before SCPH-9000 had the I/O port (parallel)
Also is pretty eco-friendly? compared to today's consoles, uses only 10W were as the PS2 uses 79W

So there we have it a true classic, well not as classic as Sega Mega Drive maybe, but still a pretty good machine with true classics.

A quick list of what games you should look for:

Toca Touring Car
Metal Gear Solid & Special Missions
Spyro series
Crash Bandicoot (1, 2, 3, CTR and Bash)
Croc
Tombi!
F1 97
Demo 1 (one of my many favorites demo disc)
Overboard
Tarzan
Tekken 3
Thunderhawk II
Music 2000 (only if you like to make some music or noise :P )
Micro Machines V3
Speed Freaks
Monopoly
Duke Nuken
Doom
Theme Park
Theme Hospital (maybe better on PC for some people)
Medievil
Tomb Raider

Oh my the list goes, I have a very large collection, and still find more for some reason it is one of my main consoles to choose from. I don't even own the latest, I did do, but am not as interested, for some reason I find it a tad ahead of me, I am retro and it is what I can play best.

Okay it does lack a lot of features that the younger generation would want, but it is still an excellent machine for it's price, these can be found cheap when you have a good look around, maybe between £5-£10 if you find the one you want. My advice if you want to play some imports or CD-R discs, go for a later model, not the earlier one's as you find that they do not play as well, unless you fit a new laser, they can be found cheap and are not hard to install honest, 2 wires, one ribbon, and 1 normal plug cable, be careful though the ribbon cables can break easily, also look at the back of the laser for the model of the laser and don't forget to remember the ps1 model, looking at the back of the machine may not help at all times, so make sure you know what it is like searching on google images for the PlayStation PCB (main board) as sometimes people swap over the boards, if shall one fails, just in case have a search if you laser plays up, if not find another ps1, who knows it may be chipped too, in that case you can back up your games and keep the originals looking its best.

So there you have it a little treat, I will be back soon, and this time I will be publishing a lot more, due to machine upgrades and more stock, I am now able to produce much more content for the blog.

Thank you for being patient, and I am sorry for the delays in the posting, I did have a lot going on, and I also did suffer a hard drive crash, then I was not well, blah blah blah, I won't bore you with my details, I like to keep you all happy with some nice retro news. So in the mean time I do thank you for coming back to RGUK, and thank you for visiting and huge welcome to any new visitors, remember to bookmark RGUK. RGUK blog will load well on smartphones, and tablets too, so if you on the move, out and about, and want to pass the time, have a quick read and remember Retro Gamez UK.

Thank you, be safe and keep warm!

Best Wishes,
RGUK