The PS1 Nostalgia Thread

[Merzbow]

Wasn't Nitro the exact same game as Thunder?

I had WCW vs The World which was fine but I think I was put off by most of the wrestlers being "fake", I could tell who a couple were meant to be.

WrestleMania: The Arcade Game was still my fav at that point.

[gmoney]

WWF War Zone was the PS game that got me back into wrestling. It's not very good looking back, but I thought it was amazing at the time. I devoured every magazine previewing WWF Attitude for months, but by the time it came around I'd been playing WCW/NWO Revenge on the N64 and it was pretty shit in comparison. My prayers of a WWF version of Revenge were answered by the AKI Gods later that year. 

I really wanted WCW vs The World, but could never find it anywhere. I've still never played it. 

[air_raid]

15 minutes ago, Merzbow said:

Wasn't Nitro the exact same game as Thunder?

I had WCW vs The World which was fine but I think I was put off by most of the wrestlers being "fake", I could tell who a couple were meant to be.

Yes, Thunder was an identical engine with an updated roster. Both were shit.

I loved vs The World to death and I loved all the fake wrestlers. I can even tell you today without checking that Wu Fang was Musawa, Habanero (LOL) was Hayabusa, Abispa was Jushin Liger, Mukluk was Power Warrior, LETHAL was Road Warrior Hawk and The Turk was Vaders moves although looked nothing like him. Also found it weird that The Unknown was part of the "WCW" roster even though he was a badly disguised Super Delfin, The Giant was actually Andre rather than, you know, The Giant, DDP was in the opening video but not the game itself, and Jeff Jarrett wore two tone stripper tights I never saw him wear for real.

But as my first exposure to THAT grappling system, I was hooked and loved recreating Hayabusa vs Liger, Sabu vs Sasuke, Musawa vs Kawada etc with the really generous selection of bonus knock offs once I got bored of the "real" wrestlers.

Edited August 9, 2022 by air_raid

[Carbomb]

16 hours ago, Nexus said:

It also led to me falling in love with Final Fantasy IX; the game I have completed most often and enjoyed the most, and I've been a Playstation boy for life - PS1 all thr way through to the PS5, along with a PSP. Never got the Vita, though. 

Back in 1999/2000, I was working on QA for Japanese builds for what was then Squaresoft Europe. My name's in the end credits of FFIX, Vagrant Story (one of my favourite games ever), and (I think) Parasite Eve 2.

15 hours ago, TildeGuy~! said:

I had a chipped PlayStation growing up so I was lucky enough to run down to the market on a Sunday morning to pick up 3 games for a fiver, most of them were shit but I didn’t know any better.

I got my PS chipped too, although it was mainly so I could play VCDs on it that I would buy from the import A/V shops in Chinatown.

Man, those were some great days: I got the chip but also the VCD player add-on that plugged in the back of the PSX (as opposed to the later, smaller PS1) at one of those funky computer fairs you could go to around London in the late 90s and early 2000s. You could find all sorts of tech at those events, some of which were definitely in a legal grey area, like the VCD player/chip. It was the closest I ever got to feeling like I was in some cyberpunk sci-fi tech bazaar.

[Wideload90]

1 hour ago, air_raid said:

I take massive exception to this. Compared to vs the World, it was a dogshit button basher.

It was the first game - obviously there's better ones but for the first wrestling game, it was glorious. Nothing quite like having your player taunt on the character select screen. Also, for a gaming novice, Nitro was ideal. 

[air_raid]

Just now, Wideload90 said:

It was the first game -

That's twice you've said that, and it's still wrong. WCW vs The World was first. Which made Nitro an even bigger disappointment as the quality was inferior to the predecessor rather than improving on it.

[SuperBacon]

15 minutes ago, Carbomb said:

those funky computer fairs you could go to around London in the late 90s and early 2000s

I used to drag my Dad around those ones at Earl's Court/Olympia every year. 

And I made him buy me Power Move Pro Wrestling at one. Can't remember if it was any good, but the characters were hilariously shit.

[Accident Prone]

I think even with truck loads of nostalgia and rose-tinted glasses, Nitro and Thunder were not only incredibly shit but also massive downgrades from WCW vs The World. Every wrestler had the same set of moves with tiny variants where flippy lads did a 'rana instead of a big slam, and it just looked like arse. It gets a lot of ironic love these days due to the little roster videos and the YMCA dance, but they're both massive turds.

Attitude and War Zone are almost unplayable these days too, but at least they're built with some degree of merit, ingenuity and presentation. I poured HOURS into Attitude, and then even more into the Dreamcast version, and I feel justified in that despite never wanting to touch that sack o'shite again.

However I do NOT feel justified with all the time I spent unlocking all the characters in Nitro and Thunder. Yuck.

Edited August 9, 2022 by Accident Prone

[Merzbow]

I rented Power Move, one of the many shit games I'm glad I didn't buy first.

Unlike Krazy Ivan which was finished in a single sitting, couldn't have been longer than two hours and it was over. I think we actually got our money back on that one. Lone Soldier was another early mistake, utter garbage that went back to Electronics Boutique asap to be swapped for Worms.

[Carbomb]

12 minutes ago, SuperBacon said:

I used to drag my Dad around those ones at Earl's Court/Olympia every year. 

And I made him buy me Power Move Pro Wrestling at one. Can't remember if it was any good, but the characters were hilariously shit.

Ah, that's one of the more grandiose "official" ones. I liked going to the monthly one that was around the Tottenham Court Road area, had different venues - one month might be the TUC centre, another would be the event space on Store Street. Was proper grimy and "underground". A lot like the internet at the time, when it was still the Wild West, with GeoCities and whatnot.

I've still got my copy of WcW vs. The World, and I have to admit I didn't get to grips with it - I remember everybody talking about all the different moves you could do for each character, but it didn't seem like you could do more than about six or seven, so I clearly didn't understand the system. Found it rather difficult to play, too - I'm sure if I'd stuck with it, I'd have eventually enjoyed it, but I also had SmackDown and SmackDown 2, so I didn't really feel the need.

Just now, Merzbow said:

Unlike Krazy Ivan which was finished in a single sitting, couldn't have been longer than two hours and it was over. I think we actually got our money back on that one. Lone Soldier was another early mistake, utter garbage that went back to Electronics Boutique asap to be swapped for Worms.

I loved Krazy Ivan! But then that was mainly because of the time I entered a competition to win a MegaCD and a copy of the game in the Mirror's gaming supplement, and won the runner-up prize of a Krazy Ivan t-shirt - the only time I ever won anything in any send-off competition ever.

I enjoyed the game, but it was mainly for the cut scenes, which they put some proper effort into with the filming and the actors. They made it quite funny. The game itself was a little repetitive.

Edited August 9, 2022 by Carbomb

[The Gaffer]

WWF Attitude was definitely my No Mercy, as a Nintendo free household growing up. 

Plus it had this.

 

[pitseleh]

This is a cracking thread. I've recently brought a Retroid Pocket 2+ and I've mostly been using it to play PS1 games. It's a cracking bit of kit. It's a gaming handheld that can play any game up until the Dreamcast era. I definitely recommend picking one of them up if you want an easy way to revisit some of these games on the go. 

Glad I'm not the only one who loves Kula World here. I had a demo of it on a demo disc and I completely forgot about it's existence until a few years back. I downloaded a ROM of it and it holds up extremely well. It is a totally addictive puzzle game with a breezy aesthetic. One of those games that starts out simple, but gets unforgivingly tough as the game progresses.

The port of Doom to the PS1 was the only console Doom port worth playing as it did something different to the half-baked versions of the game that you would find on the 3DO and the SNES. You got the majority of the levels from the first two games, but you also got a selection of PS1 exclusive levels as well. The industrial metal soundtrack was replaced with a eerie ambient soundtrack and you also got some lighting effect not found on the PC release. 

Another FPS on the PS1 that I have fond memories of is Medal Of Honor. Enough people have gone on about how innovative Goldeneye for the N64 was, but not enough people give the MOH series credit for what it did for the FPS genre on consoles.  It might look a bit janky now and the controls take a while to get used to, but this game made you feel like a WWII fighter. The enemies react realistically and the soaring soundtrack and the pre-missions briefing videos complete the package.

I don't think I would have became a wrestling fan if it wasn't for WWF Attitude. It doesn't play well now, but it captured the spirit of that era perfectly. All the wrestlers are fully voice-acted, complete with catchphrases and multiple ring attires. The customization was insane for it's time. It even had create-an-arena a decade before the WWE games made that a regular feature. It made me want to check out wrestling. I can still put on a quick stable match every now and then, even if the game's engine hasn't aged well. 

Speaking of wrestling games, the best wrestling game on the PS1 was a Japan-only game with a title that translates roughly to AJPW: King's Soul. It plays like a 3D Fire Pro game, utilizing timing-based grapple mechanics. There's not much in the way for customization, but the gameplay holds up incredibly well. It's quite a looker as well, with the models of the wrestlers looking quite realistic.  

23 hours ago, FelatioLips said:

A longstanding opinion I've held over the years is that Tekken 2 is the best 3D fighter on the PS1 but that's because I never owned Tekken 3 or could ever get a ROM to work so my memories of it are getting smashed in by Eddie Gordo by my mate's brother. Having finally gotten Tekken 3 to work I can confirm that it's way better than 2 on everything except soundtrack. Tekken 2, 3 and Soul Blade will likely show up in my reviews in the near future.

I would argue the PS1 has aged way better than the PS2, but I'll concede on the SNES. PS2 had some great games and I have some top memories of it, but it's definitely where gaming steered into the yearly sports releases and endless sequels so now when I go back to play it, there's only really a handful of games I'm keen on like Timesplitters, FFX and GTA. The rest of them are series I never got into like God of War and Devil May Cry.

Count me in as another guy who prefers Tekken 2 over 3. I always liked that 2 made you beat the game with every primary character if you wanted to unlock everyone. It forced you to learn the in's and out's of every character. Trying to beat the arcade with Jun was no small feat! On 3, you could just spam your way through the arcade with Eddy Gordo 9 times to unlock everyone. 

When I say the PS1 hasn't aged well, I'm most referring to to how some of the early 3D games. They look pretty ugly when you compare them to vibrant 2D games from the previous generation and the controls can be hit or miss. Some games can be very ropey to play now. I wouldn't expect anyone to get too much out of games like Resident Evil if they didn't have any nostalgia for them as the tank controls have caused the game to age like a fine milk. 

[Merzbow]

The PS1 aesthetic is pretty popular right now, for a few years there have been more and more indie devs using that primitive style of 3D along with shaders and texture warping to make some really cool games.

The best known is probably the Bloodborne PSX demo which is being followed up with Bloodborne Kart using the same art style.

 

[Carbomb]

The difference between the early games and the later ones is definitely very visible. Deathtrap Dungeon was an early one, and there's lots of dithering, jagged edges, jerky movement, and so on, whereas Vagrant Story looks smooth as hell.  Obviously, this is mostly to do with programmers getting to grips with the technology and the interface over the years, and getting the most out of it.

[Hannibal Scorch]

2 hours ago, pitseleh said:

 

Speaking of wrestling games, the best wrestling game on the PS1 was a Japan-only game with a title that translates roughly to AJPW: King's Soul. It plays like a 3D Fire Pro game, utilizing timing-based grapple mechanics. There's not much in the way for customization, but the gameplay holds up incredibly well. It's quite a looker as well, with the models of the wrestlers looking quite realistic.  

 

AKA Zen-Nippon Pro Wrestling: Ouja no Kon as I have just found out. It looks like a slicker version of WCW Revenge. I would definitely like to track it down. Especially after playing WCW Thunder last night and it was god awful.