Car-booty Episode 5 - Aim for the head

George Romero is famous for his motion pictures depicting hordes of the long dead, and should I ever try to emulate his art form, I shall do so with Playstations instead of the walking deceased.

A good zombie flick starts with tension and anticipation, events slowly gain pace until the true gravity of the situation is upon the main protagonist... he/she is surrounded. Around every corner the funk of death is ever creeping closer... This weekend was certainly in keeping with the formula. The excitement and anticipation of the humongous car boots this weekend was met with hordes of unloved games...

My Playstation collection has been rapidly growing over the last month, and its with no effort on my part. 

Everywhere I turn there are armies of the un-played. The first generation Playstation kept Sony's first dabble in the console business going for a VERY long time, and as a net result, everyone and their Nanna's dog has one lurking in their cupboards/doghouse.

So why have they Risen from their dusty graves?


Graphics. We have become graphics whores. We expect visuals to be crisp & clear, locations to be perfectly rendered and our special effects in the same league as Pixar films. These games, unlike many sprite based games, have not aged well and as a result people see no reason to hold on to them.

Pictured: 2013.

Playstation revolutionized gaming, the console shipped with one of the first dedicated polygon engines and at the time the only system in the same league was the PC. I got my PS the year of release with a little help from my Mum and the local free-ads... y'know the big yellow papers where people sold shit before eBay. I had saved up £100 and was desperate to get one after renting one from the local wine/video shop with Loaded and Wipeout. The problem was they were closer to £200-£300 on the second hand market at the time however Mum came through and found a chap who was willing to take £120, which was an amazing bargain at the time... My most recent Playstation was £1.

In the mid 90's we had not experienced anything like it, however now its old hat, technology has moved on at a frighting pace and left the little trend setter looking haggard. This doesn't mean the games are bad though, and the platform in my opinion has games that were never actually improved by the 'Next-Gen' systems that have followed it. There are also titles/IPs that have died due to developers being devoured over the years by the bigger boys.

Keep wishing Anton.

With this in mind, the PS has many games you will never be able to own on other formats EVER due to licensing that is now 6ft under, so the hopes of getting remakes of many of the titles within the PS's HUGE library of games is getting less with every passing year.

I see it this way, 10 years from now the 'YOLO' generation are going to be hunting down their first games consoles along with games they haven't seen in decades, games that have never been remade, remixed or just re-released. The PS1 & PS2 are these consoles so if you have half a brain, grab them now while they are 50p.

To take us back to the theme of the article, think of the PS as a zombie... sure its fucking ugly, slow and limited in it abilities... but dammit when it was alive it was a trend setter, pushing the limits of technology and cooler than an Inuit's love spuds. Now the thousands of games in its history are roaming the earth in an unstoppable wave... And mark my words you may have your doubts they will catch up with you, but eventually they'll stumble into your home and eat up your space.

SpAaaaaAce....

... Whether you want them to or not.

~Anton.