PlayStation (console)

I'm sure you can help them sort it out, Dunban. ― Fiora, Xenoblade Chronicles

This article is about first video game console released by Sony. You may be looking for digital video recorder with the same name as the console's codename..

PlayStation Never Underestimate the Power of PlayStation. Developer: Sony Computer Entertainment Release Date: Original JP: December 3, 1994 NA: September 9, 1995 EU: September 29, 1995 AU: November 15, 1995 PS One JP: July 7, 2000 NA: September 19, 2000 EU: September 29, 2000 Successor: PlayStation 2 Competitors: 3DO Interactive Multiplayer Atari Jaguar Sega 32X PC-FX Sega Saturn Nintendo 64 Dreamcast Generation: Fifth generation

The PlayStation (PS1) is Sony's first video game console and competed against the Nintendo 64 and the Sega Saturn, and was released in 1994. It was succeeded by the PlayStation 2 in 2000 and was discontinued in 2006. It is the best selling home console of the fifth generation.

Origins

Nintendo and Sony had a partnership to work on a CD add-on for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, but disputes ended the partnership. Nintendo went on to work with Philips on the concept and that produced the CD-i.

Sony, on the other hand, kept the technology they had developed and after being turned down by Sega of Japan, they decided to release the add-on as a standalone console, which would become the PlayStation.

Why It Rocks

1. Over 7,000 titles were released for the system!
2. It can play audio CDs. Many audiophiles claim a specific model (the SCPH-100x) is one of the best CD players ever made.
3. Helped in the major shift of 2D gaming to 3D gaming, along with the Nintendo 64.
4. While it was not the first game console to use CDs, it was the first to do so successfully and made CD use popular. Discs are now the standard game format for home consoles.
5. While the Nintendo 64 introduced analog sticks, the PlayStation DualShock controller was the one that set the standard for future consoles' analog stick usage with the use of two separate analog sticks on the controller rather than one and on top of that it wasn't bad like the N64 analog stick..
6. A huge number of role-playing games and platformer titles.
7. It was very easy to develop for, thus gaining very strong third-party support, and later smaller homebrew support too.
8. A smaller model called the PSOne was also released, which is a great option if you don't have much space.
9. A large number of very good games (some of which were the beginning of franchises) including:
   • Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VIII, & IX
   • Resident Evil
   • The Legend of Dragoon
   • Tekken (1994), Tekken 2, and Tekken 3
   • Parasite Eve'
   • Tomb Raider (1996), Tomb Raider II and Tomb Raider III
   • Rayman
   • Gokujō Parodius! ~Kako no Eikō o Motomete,
   • Jikkyō Oshaberi Parodius ~forever with me~
   • Sexy Parodius
   • Gran Turismo 1 & Gran Turismo 2
   • Tony Hawk's Pro Skater and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2
   • Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee, and its sequel, Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus.
   • Metal Gear Solid
   • Pac-Man World
   • Crash Bandicoot, Cortex Strikes Back, and Warped
   • Spyro the Dragon, Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage, and Spyro: Year of the Dragon
   • PaRappa the Rapper
   • MediEvil
   • Twisted Metal
   • Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
   • Namco Museum
   • Mega Man X4 and X5
   • Klonoa: Door to Phantomile
10. Many of its games are also available to download for relatively cheap from the PlayStation Store on the PlayStation 3 (which is backwards compatible) and PlayStation Vita.
11. A DualShock 2 controller can work on this console.
12. The PS One model has a screen add-on, which adds more portability and saves you from having to buy a TV.
13. Unlike the other controllers, which had their buttons called either by numbers (1, 2, 3, 4,) or letters (A, B, C, D, X, Y & Z), the PlayStation's Dualshock controller uses geometric shapes (Δ, O, X, & ロ), a format that's unique and exclusive to the PlayStation consoles even today.
14. PS1 games use black CD-ROMs, which is a good and easy way to tell if a PS1 disc is real or pirated.
15. Due to PS1 discs being CDs, you can insert the disc in any CD player and listen to the soundtrack normally.

Bad Qualities

1. Games that predate the DualShock must be played entirely with the D-pad or controllers that have no analog sticks in the first place.
2. The PS One model lacks the reset button from the original models.
3. Games from franchises such as Final Fantasy, Parasite Eve, Metal Gear Solid, and Resident Evil now tend to sell for ridiculously expensive prices upwards of $50, even for well used discs.
4. There are only two controller ports despite many games supporting four players. You need a Multitap to be able to plug four controllers in.
   • If you want to play multiplayer games like Doom (1993) or Command & Conquer: Red Alert, you need a link cable to hook up 2 PS1s together and 2 TVs as these games do not use split-screen.
5. Memory cards only hold 128 KB (15 blocks for save files) of memory, and some games even take up two cards.
6. The early models from the launch SCPH-1000 to SCPH-5000 are notorious for skipping FMVs due to a poorly designed laser assembly. This was fixed beginning with the SCPH-5500.
7. The laser can get damaged easily over time and depending on the model, replacements can be pretty expensive.
8. Dust can easily get into the disc tray.

Reception

With more than 100 million units sold worldwide, the PlayStation was the most popular and successful console of the fifth generation of gaming. It is also considered the console that made CD based gaming popular which is the norm now, despite not being the first console to use CDs, but it was the first to do so successfully.

YouTuber AlphaOmegaSin owns nearly every RPG on the system and claims he became a fan of the genre because of the PlayStation. Caddicarus focuses almost exclusively on this system as it was his first console growing up.

A picture of Sony's 1970's prototype console.

Sony's prototype console from the 1970s

Sony, the creator of the console, originally had plans to release an older game console back in the 1970s (Yes, the same decade the Atari 2600 came out!). Although it was displayed at Tokyo around 2004 or 2005, there is little knowledge about this unnamed prototype. It would use cards to play games and has no controller ports. It's spectulated that instead of using controllers, the console instead has buttons on itself, the red ones being for answers (こたえ/Kotae) and the blue one for proceeding (すすめ/Susume). There is also a wheel on the side of the console that would be used for scrolling vertically. So this supposedly would've been a console designed for quiz games. The console would use motion graphics for the games.

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