When you’re young, 5 years is a long time. By 1998 I was 13 and in the 8th grade. Gaming wise I had gotten a SNES a year beforehand, in 1997, from a friend of the family (as SNES consoles were relatively cheap by this time) since my Genesis had long ago been broken, and let’s face it – the NES. which I still was playing, by the late 90’s wasn’t interesting to much of anyone. I had expressed interest in getting a new Nintendo system, and while I expected it to be a Nintendo 64 when I saw the wrapped gift, I was still very happy to get the Super Nintendo Entertainment System instead – by this time I had discovered that a few local used game stores existed, which allowed me a good opportunity to get games for somewhat cheap.
That sorted the early part of 1998, but I was still behind. This was a 16-bit system in the late
Never think for a second I don’t appreciate the money spent on these machines, and the effort put into getting these machines in time for the holidays. Sure, they may have been a little past their prime in many cases – 1994, I believe, was the year I got a game gear, and I mentioned 1997 was the year I got the SNES, but I still appreciated the fact I could play these games. Still, I wanted something current. A Saturn. A Nintendo 64. A PlayStation. One of the new big 3 32-bit machines!
Enter Christmas 1998. At this time my mom was dating a man who would try his best to get me to not hate him. Remember, I was 13. I was beginning to enter that angry, angst-filled teen phase, so for me to at all being open to the idea of this guy entering my life was a bit of a mixed bag. Yeah, he would buy me things, which was cool, but I still didn’t like my life being disrupted as it was.
Apparently as things would go he figured one of the best ways to make me not as hostile to him would be to buy me something major, and for Christmas of 1998 that gift was a Sony PlayStation.
I can’t recall if the console was at my house, or if it was at his apartment – I want to think the latter, as I would spend Christmas night at his apartment. Why else would I be over there if not to get and play the console, and play I did.
I actually don’t actually recall the experience of unwrapping the console. Funny how that’s a memory I forget with damn near all of these consoles – the actual unwrapping of them. I still remember the excitement of realizing I had gotten X or Y console, though, and maybe that’s the important thing – remembering that what my family and the like did to make me happy worked.
What I do remember distinctly is this was the “Dual Shock” package – a PlayStation 7000 series console (7501 to be precise, I believe) that came with a demo disc of games, many of which supported the vibration and analog features of the Dual Shock controller. A rather perfect way to enter the PlayStation family, if you ask me.
I didn’t have any games for the PlayStation of my own – I had the demo disc that came with the console, and I had a borrowed copy of Final Fantasy 7 that I couldn’t keep but could play all I wanted over the next day or so. I didn’t have a Memory Card so I couldn’t save, which made putting too much effort into the game somewhat pointless, so I focused primarily on the demo disc. I wasn’t very good at Final Fantasy 7 at that time anyway so no loss on my end.
As I said above, I think I stayed the night over there playing the demo disc that came with the console. In fact, I think it was a solid week where that’s all I had for the console – that one Demo Disc! I recall spending hours off and on playing it, going back to the Super Nintendo when I got bored, but always coming back.
Sometime in the next
That game was Tales of Destiny, a game which would become one of my favorites games ever.
I would stay up that night playing it nonstop. I must have put in at least 10 hours into the game steady, it was an incredible experience and while playing Final Fantasy 7 back on Christmas day as my first PlayStation experience (that wasn’t a public demo) was cool, this was something that felt unique to me – like I was playing a hidden gem among so many oh so typical games. That would turn out to be true, but that’s not the point here. The point is that tail end of December me playing the game all night, nonstop.
Then came a problem — I didn’t have a Memory card still. I needed some way to save the game. I wasn’t about to play all that over and over again — this is a game that takes easily 50+ hours to complete so a memory card was absolutely critical. So, out we went to get one.
I remember it had snowed pretty heavily, a rare treat down here in Memphis. Incidentally, the opening of Tales of Destiny is in a snowy area, so it was oddly fitting. Neat. What I didn’t expect was to be out and about for 5 hours before we would go buy that memory card.
Yeah, I don’t recall all the details as the whole event rather pissed me off and somewhat ruined the positive impression the PlayStation itself had made. I just wanted to get the memory card, go back to the apartment, save the game, and the play some more. He could have done whatever he wanted to and left me there, but nope – 5 hours out wondering why the hell we’re out doing stuff I can’t even remember!
Sometime in January or very early February I would finish Tales of Destiny. It was awesome. I’d, of course, amass a nice collection of PlayStation games. I’d spend 1998 and 1999 gaming at home, and going to friends places to play – Summer of 1999 was spent nonstop playing anything and everything he and I had, including every Demo Disc we could get our hands on. It was far more fun than it sounds, trying out random games and finding some that were just too absurd to be ignored. That’s another story entirely, but that first year is part of why the original PlayStation is one of my favorite consoles ever.
Much like the Sega Genesis story yesterday, this one doesn’t end on the best notes. By 2000 that PlayStation would break (I got mad during Street Fighter Alpha 3 and hit the console, I won’t lie about that. Don’t punch your PlayStations, kids) but I’d get a PSOne soon following that (thanks Mom!) and be able to continue gaming. Surprisingly that console would last me well through 2001, 2002, and into 2003 – all through high school – until some unpleasantness hit me. That console, and quite a bit of other stuff I own, was stolen Summer 2003.
To say that was a dark point in my life would be an understatement, but I’m not going to focus on that here – only share that the eventual end of my PS1 days came about quite suddenly just shy of 5 years from when I got the console to begin with. The PS1 was my go-to system through high school, alongside SNES, and a later Sega Genesis I would buy in about 2001. It was a pretty fun time up until, well, you know.
By this time I was 18, and high school was over. Legal adult or not my family still wanted to (and even now still) get me something good, and Christmas of 2003 – the tail end to what would be one of the most unpleasant years of my life, would be capped off with the last of the big 3 Christmas gifts.
It’s crazy to think, though, that me getting that PlayStation was 20 years ago… and that it was only 5 years after I got the Genesis in 1993. It feels like so much longer between those events…
You can read Part 1 here, and Part 3 here!