Favourite Playstation Games

Back in 1995 before PS4, PS3, PS2 and PSOne there was Playstation. Originally a joint project with Nintendo as a SNES-CD console, Sony's first entry into the video games console market, which at this point was known as the fifth generation, proved to be a massive success and the best selling console of this generation against so many other competitors.

Competitors like Panasonic 3DO, Amiga CD32, Atari Jaguar, Neo Geo CD, Sega Saturn, Nintendo 64, and that's just the systems I can remember. I'm sure there were many more.

The Playstation was by no means perfect. I remember many systems having the CD laser head warp with heat and then it became difficult to read the data from the discs, unless you turned the machine upside down and placed a bag of frozen peas or similar on top of it. Well that's what worked for me.

However, here are some key points which I feel ensured the Playstation was more of a success than any of the other consoles I've mentioned above.

1. 3rd party software developers were embraced.

2. CD storage and retrieval media used rather than cartridges.

3. Marketing Playstation to teens and young adults rather than families.

4. Released on time. N64 was too late. Sega Saturn was rushed.

I was lucky enough to be one of the people that chose the Playstation over the other consoles. Even though it was said to be less powerful, only 32bit, than the N64 and the Saturn, both 64bit, it just seemed to have a larger and more varied catalog of games available for it.

So here are my fifteen favourite original playstation titles. Please be aware that they are not necessarily the best games for the Playstation, some of their sequels are much better, but these games are definitely the most memorable for me. It may surprise you that there are no Final Fantasy or Metal Gear Solid games in the list but at the time I just never got to play them.

Retro Cartoons Quiz

I have many fond memories of the cartoons I used to watch when I was still at school. I was never really interested in movies at that age. In fact before leaving school I'd only seen a handful of movies ,like Tron, Raiders of the lost ark and First Blood, at the cinema. I wasn't really into Disney cartoons either. Well not as much as the Hannah Barbara and Filmation stuff.

Cartoon time back then was mainly Saturday mornings and an hour or so after school during the week. Kids nowadays have got a lot more time and choice to watch cartoons with a dozen or so devoted channels showing nothing but cartoons. I couldn't have even dreamed that when I was a kid.

Once I'd left school in 1985 I suddenly got into movies. There was only one decent local cinema open around this time called The Odean. However, a few years later this was boosted by two multiplex's called Showcase and UCI, with a whopping 21 cinema screens, that were built in the Derby in 1988. By that time the cartoons had been completely forgotten.

It seems like my golden age for cartoons was for about 10 years between 1975 and 1985. Obviously some older cartoons would fall into that category even though they started out before 1975 as they were repeated often.

So yet again it's time for a Retro Rekall Memory Test Quiz. Twenty six of the finest cartoons that pop into my mind when I reminisce about those Saturday mornings are shown below. Note, half of them started before the beginning of my cartoon golden age back in 1975, one is even from the forties. See how many you can recognise and put your answers in the comments. If you can guess all twenty six then you are a truly awesome retro cartoon quiz nerd. I won't bother giving the answers unless someone asks for them.

ZX Spectrum Loading Screens Quiz

During the early eighties on my first computer the ZX Spectrum games were, to begin with, not on CD, DVD, Hard disk or Rom Cartridge, they were loaded into the computer from audio cassette tapes.

Even though the games were as little as 8 kilobytes in size they still took an awful long time to load into the computer. Four or five minutes doesn't sound like a long time but it is when you are just sat there staring at the screen hoping the 'loading error' message doesn't pop up and also hoping you won't be driven insane by the flashing 'loading... please wait' message that adorned many early games.

To relieve the boredom programmers would record loading screen data at the start of the cassette which would display a pretty picture on your TV screen whilst you waited for the actual game to download. Nice....., until you realised this data in itself also took minutes to load into the computer in effect extending the waiting time even further, Yawn!!

But anyway, considering the limited capabilities of the Spectrum they still managed to create some unforgettable images that burned themselves into the memory as you were staring at them for so long every time you wanted to play a particular game.

So now for the geeky fun memory test part of this post. Below are twenty six cropped images from various loading screens. Some contain little clues as to their identity. See how many you can recognise and put your answers in the comments. If you can guess all twenty six then you are a truly awesome speecy loading screen quiz nerd. I'll give the answers in the next post a week or two from now. Good luck.

Runequest Fantasy RPG (1980's)

Runquest 2nd Edition Cover

It just happened one day in the early eighties for no apparent reason. I took the usual route home from school through the Chapelside precinct in Spondon, Derby and past the village model shop which had lots of Airfix model kits of aircraft, battleships, tanks, soldiers and other stuff to do with the military.

Where the model shop used to be back in the eighties.

But that day something a bit different caught my eye. on display in a cylindrical glass carousel were Model figures of all kinds of fantasy creatures. Dragons, skeletons, Elves, Dwarves, Goblins, Trolls and other things that I didn't even know the name of yet brought to life with some amazing artwork.

An impressive display.

I found out that people were using these models for their fantasy role playing games. I'd heard of Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) and had seen it introduced briefly on a kids tv show but i didn't really understand it. At the time I wasn't sure it was for me but seeing these amazing lead figures in all their glory pushed me into looking into it further. 

Various blister packs from Citadel Miniatures.