Last time I left off with a tribute to my dad. This morning (it’s the 23rd as I write this, because I’m sane and don’t want to be writing over Christmas) I got a message from my mum that my step-dad had been taken into hospital. In all likelyhood by the time this post emerges from the bowels of WordPress he’ll have been released and will be resting up at home. Sadly given a few conditions he has his body can be very unpredictable, so he may end up being there for quite a while longer than that, but I hope not.
In reality my step-dad hasn’t had a huge impact on my gaming life. He does have an Xbox and on occassion I’ve played with him. He’s quite good at racing games, but then again he is a taxi driver. He also declared Sonic Riders to be bad, something that shows that at least he does have taste. I apologise for this completely off-topic intro, but given the circumstances and the tribute my dad got last time it only seemed fair.
With that slightly depressing start out of the way lets get on with this period of my life. We’ve had the Spectrum and Sega, so onto the third S – Sony. Like with the Master System I have no idea how a PlayStation came to be in the possession of my brother and I. All I know was I had one, and I had a reasonable amount of games for it. I know that I had Tekken 3 and Dino Crisis for sure, mostly because they’re currently littering the floor of my bedroom (probably under a thick strata of clothes).
Now here’s where my memory fails me a little. I certainly got either the PlayStation or PlayStation 2 for Christmas one year. I remember that it was pretty much the only thing me and my brother got that year, but we loved it to bits. I was almost certain it was the PS2, but I have a very strong memory of playing the demo version of Disney’s Hercules when I got. All we had was the bundled demo disk for quite some time, so it does seem likely that we got the PlayStation for Christmas.
I remember setting it up was quite an occasion, with the small figures of my brother and I surrounded by adults trying to connect it correctly to a TV. Once it was finally ready it was like the Ark of the Covenant opening, I’m almost certain that it started to glow faintly with some kind of holy light (although no-one’s face melted).
My memories of that Christmas are a little jumbled (probably because I think it was the first one after my parents seperated), but I do have strong memories of the PlayStation. One birthday I borrowed my friend’s copy of Tomb Raider III and played it late into the night. It was the first time my mum had ever let me stay up late (not that I hadn’t been up late before of course) and it was slightly surreal to have her encouraging my progress through the game.
I remember playing through the first disk of a pre-owned copy of Final Fantasy 7, switching to the second disk and then… nothing. The disk was too scratched to actually work, something that was obviously distressing. To this day I’ve never made my way through the classic. I had a similar experience with Metal Gear Solid, although I did actually finish that title some years later.
Eventually we moved on from the PlayStation to the PS2, and had my mind completely blown by Metal Gear Solid 2. I mean sure, the puddle reflections in Metal Gear Solid were impressive, but the way that guards reacted in MGS2 was amazing! They were almost like humans! And of course it looked completely real, there was no way that gaming could ever look any better than that.
The main reason that MGS2 sticks with me though is that it was the way I got through the death of a family friend. After hearing the news I was a little numb, and my dad asked me if there was anything I wanted. I replied that I just wanted to finish MGS2, turned away from his slightly incredulous face and worked my way through the last few hours of the game. Playing as a naked Raiden through the exceedingly surreal and fourth wall shattering section of the title may not seem the best therapy, but it worked well. I did finish the game that day, although I still don’t really understand the ending.
The PS2 served me well for quite some time, but when I moved away to Uni I took the GameCube I’d recently acquired with me (mostly so I could play Soul Calibur and Rogue Squadron), and let my brother keep the PS2 to play with. At that point I was going through a brief flirtation with PC gaming (I still contend that Battlefield 2 is the best multiplayer shooter ever made) anyway, so what did I need with that old console? I had my PC for real gaming and I had my GameCube to play about with casually. Of course six months after that an Xbox 360 appeared, but that’s a story for next time.
bunimomike
Hope you’re step-dad is doing okay, fella.
I recall how Sony stepped in from nowhere. This unbelievably cool looking brand with stunning adverts and great games.
For me, I’d fallen for Ridge Racer (in the arcades… remember them? :-)) and the dazzling graphics, gameplay and soundtrack that is Wipeout.
Sell my soul… carve the devil’s initials into my heart with a butter knife. I would’ve done anything for a PS1 but thankfully my student loan cleared and I used money instead. :-)
Fond memories.
ericzap
Not much I remember about the PS1. I remember my babysitter had one when I was about 8 and we would play some sort of Dragon Ball Z fighter as well as Twisted Metal (being 8, I promptly had nightmares about Sweet Tooth every night). Those were my best memories of my babysitter. She wasn’t very nice.
a inferior race
Hope your step-dad is getting/ got better.