The Playstation Appreciation Thread

[gamevet]

PSX, to me,is the best 90's game platform, 2nd to none. The sheer volume of quality titles and variety of genres covered back this up. Relatively inexpensive to collect for. There is no reason not to have a good PSX collection from a fun and enjoyability standpoint.

Yep!

The Saturn will go down as one of my all-time favorite consoles, but the Playstation library has so many great titles that it also ranks up there with my beloved Sega console. As much as it pains me to say it (with my love of the Saturn), the Playstation has one of the greatest library of games for any console. I love those old-school style RPGs, and the PS has a ton of them.

[Kamahl]

Crash Bandicoot 3 > Mario 64
Crash Team Racing > Mario Kart 64

[Barone]

I dont get why people write off alot of 3D PS1 games; yeah, sure, a few were ugly, especially some of the earlier titles, but later ones looked and played great. Terracon (EUR only) C-12, the MediEvil games, Pandemonium 1+2 (it's polygons dammit), the Crash games, Spyro games, Silent Hill, Metal Gear Solid, Driver 1 (again EUR only) + 2 and others still shine even to this day.

Maybe 'cause games that were hyped to death (like Tekken and Ridge Racer series) have some serious flaws in their graphics. Also, popular titles like Destruction Derby looks like ass IMO.

What are you talking about Barone?! Speed Punks doesn't have Mario, Crash or Sonic in it and it came out after the glorious PS2 saw Japanese launch. It obviously doesn't count even though, unlike Mario Kart 64, it has 3D characters. Too little too late in my book.

hehe
Speed Punks has far better looking tracks than Crash IMO, true 3D karts (unlike Mario Kart 64), 4P split screen mode, better graphics than Diddy Kong Racing but with steady 30 fps (unlike DKR), exclusive characters and tons of fun.

I just came into this thread to recommend Speed Punks! It is an impressive cart racer - like you said: polished.
This was one of those completely random finds. An ebay seller had some sealed PS1 games and I was looking through what they had listed and one stood out because I'd never seen or heard of it before. I did some brief research and found some high praise for Speed Punks, so I bought it. Brand new, $10 shipped back in 2009.
I'd completely grown tired of kart racing/battle games, but Speed Punks is perfectly fun to play. Great track design and it's especially nice to have an original game with original characters. I only wish I had 3 friends who'd be interested to try the 4-player races.

Again, we seem to agree about one more thing. Great!
I have friends, multitap (actually two of them), a lot of controllers, 29 inches CRT TV, SCART cable + SCART to component converter, a good stereo... Damn, I need to schedule a proper playing happy hour ASAP!!!
We used to have a great time playing Street Racer on the MD in 4P, I need to see how this one compares. It seems to be more fun due to the crazy weapons and items which can change the outcome of the race in the very last second (kinda reminds me Rock N' Roll Racing in such aspect).

Speed Punks then led me to Smurf Racer and I wanted to give that a try - though I also purchased a sealed copy of that, and I've just not yet gotten to opening it :P

Smur Racer! sucks, believe me. Take Muppet Race Mania instead, a much better game.

One of the best things about Playstation is that after years of actively collecting a library of games, it is completely likely you'll still stumble upon fun games you never even heard of.

Let me say it one more time (I always say it to sheath): PS1 has one of the most overhyped and, yet, the most overlooked library of all time.

along the lines of random finds, here's another that I simply found while browsing a Japanese sellers inventory.
I knew about the Choro-Q car racing games, and was never a big fan. And because I'd acquired the Sony Analog Joystick (SCPH-1110) I started looking for compatible games and discovered Choro-Q Jet Rainbow Wings - which ended up being a surprisingly fun game. Then when I saw Choro-Q Boat for $5, I thought "what the heck? this might be neat!"

And it's fantastic! So oddly peculiar with the Choro style models of every type of boat imaginable. Racing as a cargo ship is a bit more frustrating than fun. There is some language barrier for the timed mission based section of the game (where you unlock more boats if I'm not mistaken.) And the graphics and load times can be a little detracting, but the quirkiness of the whole thing just makes it fantastic. And it has some nice music.

Awesome stuff.
Choro-Q Jet Rainbow Wings is really cool. I never played Boat, I need to give it a try...
Have you played MaxRacer? It's compatible with the Analog Joystick as well.

thing i remember most from granstream saga were the extremley basic graphics ( no faces on the polygon models )

Well, uh, I think you might got a bad impression for the characters level of detail... Or maybe 'cause the textures are on the blurry side (N64 + expansion pack level IMO).
But, seriously, I find it very easy on the eyes.
The colors were nicely chosen (it seems to adopt a more realistic approach so it's not as colorful as the fantasy-ish games usually are, but all the scenarios look well represented), the 3D models are well detailed (the buildings look extremely solid), the art is simple but beautiful. Very solid graphics IMO. No noticeable warping, seaming, popup, etc... And it runs at 60 fps all the time.
To me, it looks more like a good looking Saturn game than a PS1 game for some reason... Maybe that's why I like its graphics.

The game is very short though.

Crash Bandicoot 3 > Mario 64
Crash Team Racing > Mario Kart 64

Soul Blade > Mace: The Dark Age
Speed Punks > Diddy Kong Racing




Another random find (real hardware footage but sorry for the stupid bumper camera, I hate it SO MUCH - why so many people use it in all Ridge Racer-esque games footage, WHY???), Racingroovy VS:


It's compatible with the NeGcon, has widescreen and link support. No local 2P mode, like Ridge Racer and Ridge Racer Revolution. 7 CPU cars (5 for the first RR, 11 for RR Revo).
It's far away from being any impressive for a 1997 game (it looks more like a 1995 title) but, seriously, It's a good arcade racer and I like the speed sensation it gives me.

[The Jackal]

Maybe 'cause games that were hyped to death (like Tekken and Ridge Racer series) have some serious flaws in their graphics. Also, popular titles like Destruction Derby looks like ass IMO.

I don't go by graphics though. Good gameplay is what I'm after, graphics are secondary to me.

[Barone]

I don't go by graphics though. Good gameplay is what I'm after, graphics are secondary to me.

I know, I didn't mean to suggest the opposite of what you said (sorry if it sounded like I was implying you were a graphics whore or something).
I was referring to the common complaint popping up from the average gamers nowadays when talking about the PS1 games, stuff like: "The graphics are broken", "This game looks like crap, low res sucks..." "The objects are falling apart all the time...".

[The Jackal]

I know, I didn't mean to suggest the opposite of what you said (sorry if it sounded like I was implying you were a graphics whore or something).
I was referring to the common complaint popping up from the average gamers nowadays when talking about the PS1 games, stuff like: "The graphics are broken", "This game looks like crap, low res sucks..." "The objects are falling apart all the time...".

Nah man, I didn't think that in the least. Just me rambling on like usual.

[KitsuneNight]

I know, I didn't mean to suggest the opposite of what you said (sorry if it sounded like I was implying you were a graphics whore or something).
I was referring to the common complaint popping up from the average gamers nowadays when talking about the PS1 games, stuff like: "The graphics are broken", "This game looks like crap, low res sucks..." "The objects are falling apart all the time...".

thing is though the graphics do have a tendency to break apart
the road under the cars in ray tracers seems to be coming apart at the seams
i dont remmeber it being that bad

a lot of ps 1 games have aged badly but there are still a lot that look glorious
driver looks flat these days though

[sheath]

[Barone]

thing is though the graphics do have a tendency to break apart
the road under the cars in ray tracers seems to be coming apart at the seams
i dont remmeber it being that bad

a lot of ps 1 games have aged badly but there are still a lot that look glorious
driver looks flat these days though

Lack of a z-buffer and other hardware limitations explain those problems. I'm OK with complaints about that, I'm not OK with the generalization some people seem to be committed to...
Ray Tracers tracks can fall off my TV screen if they want to; as long as the game keeps running fast as hell and playing so freakin' great like it does, I won't complain.

Well, to be honest, Driver 2 looked pretty bad IMO even back in those days (tons of warping, seaming and dark textures). The 2P frame rate is also below par, it might be dancing with the 15 fps or something around that and it's also limited to the bumper camera IIRC, it was awful (technically speaking).


@sheath
repped

[KitsuneNight]

well thats people for you
especially the ones raised on the ps 2

dont get me wrong i love ray tracers its a great ( if short ) game and wholly under apreciated
i just dont remember that the road warping was THAT bad

i remember playing driver 2 in 2002 on my ps 2 and thinking after botting it up : oh this is bad
it was also frustratingly hard even worse then driver 1
driver 1 these days is showing its age badly