J.R. MacReady

"For years, I've lived a double life. In the day, I do my job I ride the bus, roll up my sleeves with the hoi polloi. But at night, I live a life of exhilaration, of missed heartbeats and adrenalin. And, if the truth be known, a life of dubious virtue. I won't deny it I've been engaged in violence, even indulged in it. I've maimed and killed adversaries and not merely in self-defence. I've exhibited disregard for life, limb and property, and savoured every moment. You may not think it, to look at me, but I have commanded armies and conquered worlds. And though in achieving these things I've set morality aside, I have no regrets. For though I've led a double life, at least I can say: I've lived..,"


The PlayStation (abbreviated PS, PSone, PS1, or PSX due to its internal code name PlayStation eXperimental) is a 32-bit fifth generation video game console released by Sony Computer Entertainment in December 1994.

The PlayStation was the first of the ubiquitous PlayStation series of console and handheld game devices. which was first created and released in Japan. Successor consoles and upgrades include the Net Yaroze, PS one, PSX, PocketStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, and the PlayStation 3. On March 31, 2005, the PlayStation and PS one reached a combined total of 102.49 million units shipped, becoming the first video game console to reach the 100 million mark. As of July 20, 2008, the PlayStation has sold 102 million units. Sony ceased production of the PlayStation on March 23, 2006, over 11 years after it was first produced.

History
The second conceptions of the PlayStation date back to 1986 in Japan where it was created. Nintendo had been attempting to work with disc technology since the Famicom, but the medium had problems. Its rewritable magnetic nature could be easily erased (thus leading to a lack of durability), and the discs were a copyright infringement danger. Consequently, when details of CDROM/XA (an extension of the CD-ROM format that combines compressed audio, visual and computer data, allowing all to be accessed simultaneously) came out, Nintendo was interested. CD-ROM/XA was being simultaneously developed by Sony and Philips. Nintendo approached Sony to develop a CD-ROM add-on, tentatively titled the "SNES-CD". A contract was signed, and work began. Nintendo's choice of Sony was due to a prior dealing: Ken Kutaragi, the person who would later be dubbed "The Father of PlayStation", was the individual who had sold Nintendo on using the Sony SPC-700 processor for use as the eight-channel ADPCM sound synthesis set in the Super Famicom/SNES console through an impressive demonstration of the processor's capabilities.

Sony also planned to develop a robot SNES/SFamicom compatible, Sony-branded console, but one which would be more of a home entertainment system playing both Super Nintendo cartridges and a new CD format which Sony would design. This was also to be the format used in SNES-CD discs, giving a large degree of control to Sony despite Nintendo's leading position in the video gaming market.

The SNES-CD was to be announced at the June 1991 Consumer Electronics Show (CES). However, when Hiroshi Yamauchi read the original 1988 contract between Sony and Nintendo, he realized that the earlier agreement essentially handed Sony complete control over any and all titles written on the SNES CD-ROM format. Yamauchi decided that the contract was totally unacceptable and he secretly canceled all plans for the joint Nintendo-Sony SNES CD attachment. Instead of announcing a partnership between Sony and Nintendo, at 9 a.m. the day of the CES, Nintendo chairman Howard Lincoln stepped onto the stage and revealed that Nintendo was now allied with Philips, and Nintendo was planning on abandoning all the previous work Nintendo and Sony had accomplished. Lincoln and Minoru Arakawa had, unbeknownst to Sony, flown to Philips headquarters in Europe and formed an alliance of a decidedly different nature—one that would give Nintendo total control over its licenses on Philips machines.

After the collapse of the joint project, Sony considered halting their research, but ultimately the company decided to use what they had developed so far and make it into a complete, stand alone console. As a result, Nintendo filed a lawsuit claiming breach of contract and attempted, in U.S. federal court, to obtain an injunction against the release of the PlayStation, on the grounds that Nintendo owned the name. The federal judge presiding over the case denied the injunction and, in October 1991, the first incarnation of the new Sony Play Station was revealed. However, it is theorized that only 200 or so of these machines were ever produced.

By the end of 1992, Sony and Nintendo reached a deal whereby the "Sony Play Station" would still have a port for SNES games, but Nintendo would own the rights and receive the bulk of the profits from the games, and the SNES would continue to use the Sony-designed audio chip. However, Sony decided in early 1993 to begin reworking the "Play Station" concept to target a new generation of hardware and software. As part of this process the SNES cartridge port was dropped and the space between the names was removed, thereby ending Nintendo's involvement with the project.


Launch
The PlayStation was launched in Japan on December 3, 1994, North America on September 9, 1995, Europe on September 29, 1995, and Oceania in November 15, 1995. The launch price in the American market was US$299 (a price point later used by its successor, the PlayStation 2), and Sony enjoyed a very successful launch with titles of almost every genre, including Battle Arena Toshinden, Warhawk, Air Combat, and Philosoma, and Ridge Racer. Almost all of Sony's and Namco's launch titles went on to spawn numerous sequels.

The PlayStation was also able to generate interest with a unique series of advertising campaigns. Many of the ads released at the time of launch were full of ambiguous content which had many gamers rabidly debating their meanings. The most well-known launch ads include the "Enos Lives" campaign, and the "U R Not e" ads (the "e" in "U R Not e" was always colored in red, to symbolize the word "ready", and the "Enos" meant "ready Ninth Of September", the U.S. launch date). The Enos ad could also be read as Sony written backward with phonetic sound of "E" replacing the "y". It is believed that these ads were an attempt to play off the gaming public's suspicion towards Sony as an unknown, untested entity in the video game market. The PlayStation 3 slogan, "PLAY B3YOND", resembles this slogan, as the 3 is red.


Titles/Controls

See also: Chronology of PlayStation games and List of PlayStation 1 games

As of September 30, 2007, a total of 7,918 software titles have been released worldwide (counting games released in multiple regions as separate titles). As of March 31, 2007, the cumulative software shipment was at 962 million units. The very last game for the system released in the United States was FIFA Football 2005.

The OK and Cancel buttons on most of the Japanese PlayStation games are reversed in their North American and European releases. In Japan, the "O" button (maru, right) is used as the OK button, while the "X" button (batsu, wrong) is used as Cancel. North American and European releases have the "X" button or the "O" buttons as the OK button, while either the "Square" or the "Triangle" buttons are used as Cancel (some titles like Xenogears used the "O" button for cancelling actions and selections). However, a few games such as Squaresoft's Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy VII (although players could change the button configuration in-game in the North American and European releases, this brought up problems in certain situations), and Final Fantasy Tactics, Namco's Ridge Racer Type 4 and Konami's Metal Gear Solid, have the buttons remain in the same Japanese configurational layout. Some games like Japanese version of Gran Turismo had used different control similar to North American games. These Japanese button layouts still apply to other PlayStation consoles, such as the PlayStation Portable (PSP), PlayStation 2 and the PlayStation 3. This is because in the early years Sony America (SCEA), Sony Europe (SCEE) and Sony Japan (SCEJ) had different development and testing documents (TRCs) for their respective territories.

Production Run
Lasting over 11 years, the PlayStation enjoyed one of the longest production runs in the video game industry. On March 23, 2006, Sony announced the end of production. However, Duel Masters: Sempai Legends!, the last game for the PlayStation was released on September 29, 2006.

Summary of PlayStation models
The last digit of the PlayStation model number denotes the region in which it was sold:

• 0 is Japan (Japanese boot ROM, NTSC:J region, NTSC Video, 100V PSU)
• 1 is USA/Canada (English boot ROM, NTSC:U/C region, NTSC Video, 110V PSU)
• 2 is Europe/PAL (English boot ROM, PAL region, PAL Video, 220V PSU)
• 3 is Asia (Japanese boot ROM, NTSC:J region, NTSC video, 220V PSU)

Successors
Sony's successor to the PlayStation is the PlayStation 2, which is backward compatible with its predecessor in that it can play almost every PlayStation game. Unlike emulators that run on a PC, the PlayStation 2 actually contains the original PlayStation processor, allowing games to run exactly as they do on the PlayStation. For PlayStation 2 games this processor, called the IOP, is used for input and output (memory cards, DVD drive, network, and hard drive). Like its predecessor, the PlayStation 2 is based on hardware developed by Sony itself.

The third generation of the PlayStation known as the PlayStation 3 (abbreviated PS3), was launched on November 17, 2006 in Japan, November 17, 2006 in North America, and March 23, 2007 in Europe. The PlayStation 3 was initially backward compatible with all games that were originally made for the first PlayStation, but due to the removal of the PlayStation 2 chipset after the introduction of the 40 GB version, that capability is limited now to emulation. While PS3 games are not region-locked, PlayStation games still only play on a PS3 console from the same territory.

The PlayStation Portable (officially PSP) is a handheld game console first released in late 2004. The PSP is capable of playing PlayStation games downloaded via Sony's online store, and can also play any PlayStation game by using the PlayStation 3's remote play feature while the disc in the PlayStation 3. Sony hopes to release nearly all PlayStation games on a gradual basis.[18] It is also possible to convert original PlayStation disc images into executable binaries using freely available software. These games are then playable on PSPs that have been modified to run unsigned code.

Legacy
The success of the PlayStation is widely believed to have influenced the demise of the cartridge-based home console. While not the first system to utilize an optical disc format, it was the first success story, and ended up going head-to-head with the last major home console to rely on proprietary cartridges—the Nintendo 64.

Nintendo was very public about its skepticism toward using CDs and DVDs to store games, citing longer load times and durability issues. It was widely speculated that the company was even more concerned with copyright infringement, given its substantial reliance on licensing and exclusive titles for its revenue.

The increasing complexity of games (in content, graphics, and sound) pushed cartridges to their storage limits and this fact began to turn off third party developers. Also, CDs were appealing to publishers due to the fact that they could be produced at a significantly lower cost and offered more flexibility (it was easy to change production to meet demand). In turn, they were able to pass the lower costs onto consumers. One major industry disadvantage of CDs was illegal copying due to the advent of CD burners and mod chips.[citation needed] Despite this drawback for CDs, Sony still supported them over cartridges, and has helped bring the concept of using CDs as a storage device for video games. And while helping forward this idea, they have had great success with it: the PlayStation has sold over 100 million consoles worldwide. The PlayStation's production was discontinued on March 23, 2006.


Quality of construction
The first batch of PlayStations used a KSM-440AAM laser unit whose case and all movable parts were completely made out of plastic. Over time, friction caused the plastic tray to wear out—usually unevenly. The placement of the laser unit close to the power supply accelerated wear because of the additional heat, which made the plastic even more vulnerable to friction. Eventually, the tray would become so worn that the laser no longer pointed directly at the CD and games would no longer load. Sony eventually fixed the problem by making the tray out of die-cast metal and placing the laser unit farther away from the power supply on later models of the PlayStation. Some units, particularly the early 100x models, would be unable to play FMV or music correctly, resulting in skipping or freezing. In more extreme cases the PlayStation would only work correctly when turned onto its side or upside down.

goodbreakingbad

I always wanted a PS, never got one though.

J.R. MacReady

Wah ? Seriously, you never got a Playstation? Why ever not?

ride the lightning

I never got the original Playstation .. I have a PS2 and PS3

I was always a Nintendo64 girl!

Marki

we never had a orginal playstation. One of my friends did ive played it like once in my life but she had crash bandicoot i loved that game. Wish i had the chance to play playstation at the time.

goodbreakingbad

Mom only ever got me Nintendo systems. But it ended up being okay, 'cause I loved those so much, lol. But I thought PS' looked so cool.

ride the lightning

I remember playing Driver on Playstation

MrღMrsStinsbatskys

I never had PlayStation either but I have played it because my friends mother used to have it. I loved PlayStation it was fun.

J.R. MacReady

Yeah, were alot of fun. I remember loving to watch my brother play basketball and Soccer Games on it. I would laugh whenever he died playing Resident Evil (which scared the crap outta me) and he would kick me out right afterwards.

Has anyone ever played CTR (Crash Team Racing)?

Leo_Lover

I loved PlayStations they were so awesome, I was so addicted to playing games on them . My two favourite games being Crash Bandicoot & Spyro.

Drunk On You

I remember my friend was addicted to those two games.

Marki

i loved crash bandicoot i wish i had a ps1 but we only ever had a sega up until we got our ps2. Ive always though rachet and clank that was released on ps2 was very much like crash bandicoot.

Charmed Slayer Angel

My favorite console

Seriously...the games I own for it are: (And there are a lot!)

Resident Evil 1
Resident Evil: Directors Cut
Resident Evil 2
Resident Evil 3
Silent Hill
Gran Turismo
Tomb Raider I
Tomb Raider II
Tomb Raider III
Tomb Raider IV: The Last Revelation
Need For Speed: V-Rally
Need For Speed: High Stakes
Nascar 98
Metal Gear Solid: The VR Missions
Monopoly
Tenchu 2
Final Fantasy Tactics
Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy VIII
Spyro
Crash BandicootL Warped
Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3
Pac Man World
Syphon Filter
Syphon Filter II
Chrono Cross
Tekken 3
Grind Session
Spec Ops
Medal Of Honor
Apocalypse
Army Men: World At War
Army Men: 3-D
Grand Theft Auto I
Grand Theft Auto II
Andretti Racing
RC Revenge
The Mummy
ATV
Scooby Doo And The Cyber Chase
Star Wars Episode I: The Video Game
Alone In The Dark

angiecakes

playstation thread

im actually re getting all the games i had on ps1 so far i got crash bandicoot 2 and 3, spyro the dragon and digimon rumble arena

and they all work i still got my old ps1 memory card and it works still

resident evil scared the hell out of me

Marki

so are you playing that on a old ps1?