PS1 Appreciation Thread

[ianinthefuture]

In case you haven't seen it and you have some spare money, the MemCard Pro is out and it's pretty brilliant. Needs at least one thing updating - which is coming - but it's already made memory cards redundant.

 

In short it's a PS1 memory card that uses an SD card for storage, and has smart doohickery behind the scenes to link the cards it creates on the SD to specific games. At least if you're using an XStation/PSIO/Mode or whatever. Even without those things it's just an effectively unlimited memory card, I think my £4 16GB micro SD amounts to about 125,000 cards or something.

 

It is £60 though. Well made (OLED screen!) and worth it if you have the money and want it. But £60.

[Alexlotl]

The main appeal for me is being able to back saves up or download them from the net and put them on a real card (e.g. see the Barrett and Yuffie dates in FF7, which I actually did with a Dex Drive back in the day!). But I'd have thought that could easily have been an XStation feature, although if they're in cahoots with 8bitmods, it might be one we'll never see.

 

Not sure I'll bother, TBH.

[Vimster]

43 minutes ago, ianinthefuture said:

In case you haven't seen it and you have some spare money, the MemCard Pro is out and it's pretty brilliant. Needs at least one thing updating - which is coming - but it's already made memory cards redundant.

 

In short it's a PS1 memory card that uses an SD card for storage, and has smart doohickery behind the scenes to link the cards it creates on the SD to specific games. At least if you're using an XStation/PSIO/Mode or whatever. Even without those things it's just an effectively unlimited memory card, I think my £4 16GB micro SD amounts to about 125,000 cards or something.

 

It is £60 though. Well made (OLED screen!) and worth it if you have the money and want it. But £60.

I'd definitely take a PS2 version of that. 

[fat flatulent git]

Anyone know if the Mario Andretti games got Japanese releases?  Either on PS or Saturn?

[ianinthefuture]

23 minutes ago, Vimster said:

I'd definitely take a PS2 version of that. 

This one works on PS2!*

*for PS1 games, ahem

But yeah, one will probably pop up at some point, but I don't think there's as much demand given you can do virtual memory cards already via OPL. Would be good for non-filthy pirates, mind.

[bplus]

I may have asked this before, but can anyonr recommend arcade racers? recently finished rr type 4 (bit short so I'm thinking maybe I didn't actually finish it). Gone through the 3 PS1 wipeout games. Rage racer seems quite good. Ridge Racer one and revolution are good too.

 

I'm starting to become convinced that racers are somehow mindful and help deal with work stress.

[MikeBeaver]

6 minutes ago, bplus said:

I may have asked this before, but can anyonr recommend arcade racers? recently finished rr type 4 (bit short so I'm thinking maybe I didn't actually finish it). Gone through the 3 PS1 wipeout games. Rage racer seems quite good. Ridge Racer one and revolution are good too.

 

I'm starting to become convinced that racers are somehow mindful and help deal with work stress.

I quite like "Burning Road" well, I liked it at the time, not played it since then mind, it might actually be shit 😛

[bplus]

12 minutes ago, MikeBeaver said:

I quite like "Burning Road" well, I liked it at the time, not played it since then mind, it might actually be shit 😛

That looks great! Never heard of it. Really fast looking, nothing like that on N64 (i had an N64 back in the day, no PS1)

[mash]

6 hours ago, bplus said:

That looks great! Never heard of it. Really fast looking, nothing like that on N64 (i had an N64 back in the day, no PS1)

i remember this game. Blatant rip off of Daytona USA. Technically better than Saturn Daytona, but the gameplay was nowhere near as good. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Goemon]

If you’re a talking about rip offs of arcade racers you can’t go wrong with Rally De Africa

 

 

[SeanR]

Was Total Drivin' good? I think Total Drivin' was good.

 

 

[geldra]

I picked up an OG ps1 recently but I’ve not got any (PAL) games to test with. But, am I right in thinking that if it plays CDs ok, then it’ll read games fine? 
 

[Parappa]

On 12/09/2021 at 08:44, SeanR said:

Was Total Drivin' good? I think Total Drivin' was good.

 

 

Yes! Didnt the same team then do the Max Power game? 

[MikeBeaver]

53 minutes ago, geldra said:

I picked up an OG ps1 recently but I’ve not got any (PAL) games to test with. But, am I right in thinking that if it plays CDs ok, then it’ll read games fine? 
 

Erm... not sure, but pick up a Tony Hawk's game and get " Tony Hax" installed to a memory card, then you can play games from anywhere.

[nakamura]

55 minutes ago, Parappa said:

Yes! Didnt the same team then do the Max Power game? 

Yes.

 

Rapid Racer

Tokyo Highway Battle

Rage Racer

Porsche Challenge

Rally De Africa 

Gran Turismo (arcade mode is fun!)

Burning road 

Racing Groovy 

Touge Max 2 

 

PS1 had lots of good racers. 

 

 

 

[Parappa]

Just having a look into some PS1 mods for emulation and stumbled across this guys site

 

https://cookieplmonster.github.io/mods/#

 

Its a goldmine of mods for various formats but just look at these! (running in Duckstation)

 

 

[Arctic Feather]

Did anyone else pick up the Retro Fighters Defender controller? I thought it would be great to have a wireless controller with a decent d-pad, but I'm a bit disappointed. The d-pad doesn't feel great and it keep registering diagonals that I didn't press.  Still need to test the analogue sticks a bit more, but I definitely use the d-pad a lot more.

[Yasawas]

Is the Spyro series particularly good? I'm in the mood for a 3D platformer and with the collection being cheap on Switch am torn between that and replaying Banjo or giving Yooka Laylee another shot (I realise the latter may be a bad idea anyway but that's a separate thread). At the time I completely ignored them since the PS1 seemed to be burdened with a number of 3D platformers that either seemed to be aimed at kids or just plain bad, and having played Super Mario 64 only the best was good enough for me.

[SeanR]

He’s a quadruped, massive turning circle, collect diamonds in gourad-shaded castle-y nightmare.

 

might as well play Ty, or Kao, or Croc, or Crash, or Gex3D…

[ScouserInExile]

Left field suggestion: Jersey Devil.

 

I think it reviewed poorly, but I remember really enjoying writing the official guide. 

[Droo]

Does anyone know a reputable source for repro box art / manuals? 

 

I have some disc only games like rapid reload which it would be nice to have a box for, but there's not a hope I'm paying hundreds of quid for a replacement full copy!

[Ninja Doctor]

Etsy seems to be your best bet. 

[MikeBeaver]

5 hours ago, Droo said:

Does anyone know a reputable source for repro box art / manuals? 

 

I have some disc only games like rapid reload which it would be nice to have a box for, but there's not a hope I'm paying hundreds of quid for a replacement full copy!

I've got an original front for Rapid Reload, not sure if I have the rear, list what you need and I'll go through the box of covers / manuals.

[SeanR]

Bubsy 3D or Cool Spot!

[Droo]

1 hour ago, MikeBeaver said:

I've got an original front for Rapid Reload, not sure if I have the rear, list what you need and I'll go through the box of covers / manuals.

Pm’d

[gossi the dog]

On 01/10/2022 at 17:29, Yasawas said:

Is the Spyro series particularly good? I'm in the mood for a 3D platformer and with the collection being cheap on Switch am torn between that and replaying Banjo or giving Yooka Laylee another shot (I realise the latter may be a bad idea anyway but that's a separate thread). At the time I completely ignored them since the PS1 seemed to be burdened with a number of 3D platformers that either seemed to be aimed at kids or just plain bad, and having played Super Mario 64 only the best was good enough for me.

 

Ape Escape?

[megamixer]

On 01/10/2022 at 16:29, Yasawas said:

Is the Spyro series particularly good? I'm in the mood for a 3D platformer and with the collection being cheap on Switch am torn between that and replaying Banjo or giving Yooka Laylee another shot (I realise the latter may be a bad idea anyway but that's a separate thread). At the time I completely ignored them since the PS1 seemed to be burdened with a number of 3D platformers that either seemed to be aimed at kids or just plain bad, and having played Super Mario 64 only the best was good enough for me.

I love the Spyro series but I did play them as they came out, when they were new, so I'm not sure how thye would look to fresh, unbiased eyes today.

 

However, I will say that they are utterly charming platformers with fantastic music. Graphically I think they have aged quite well, and the the control is very good. While they were definitely created as a reaction to the popularity of SM64 and the 3D platformer revolution in general, they have their own identity and are certainly not just terrible copycats. The original is my personal favourite but Spyro 2 is arguably the best as it adds swimming and ladder climbing, and just a bit more to do in general. The homeworld music is absolutely beautiful too (especially Autumn Plains - I could listen to that on repeat forever...). The third game (Year of the Dragon) is more of the same but just felt a bit overblown to me like Insomniac were trying too hard to keep it fresh. There are multiple characters to play as, which is cool, but a few irritations such as music tracks being re-used rather than all unique to each level as was the case with Spyro 1 + 2. I still play it through, however, if I'm revisiting the series as I do every few years or so.

 

Don't bother with any of the games after the PS1 trilogy. Insomniac were no longer involved, the quality is all over the place, and they are nothing like the gameplay of the classics. Enter the Dragonfly on PS2/Gamecube is particularly terrible as it was rushed out for Christmas, is full of glitches, and tries to mimic the PS1 games but comes off as utterly soulless and completely forgettable.

 

The Remastered Trilogy is very excellent however. It is literally the exact same games in modern graphics and is completely authentic. The new music is highly faithful but you can use the original music anyway. As somebody who played the originals in period - and probably has rose-tinted vision of them - I still highly recommend the remasters.

[bplus]

This is a coincidence. Was downloading a spyro rom as my 3 year old daughter likes dragons and dinosaurs and I thought she might like playing about with spyro. I sort of ended up down a strange rabbit hole of reading about mark cerney and the playstation..anyway back to spyro. I watched a video of 3 and cringed at the skateboard bit, thinking this is early 2000 post tony hawk probably.  So my best bet is spyro 2 then?

[Junker]

Which PS1 games had Christmas themes or levels?

[SeanR]

13 hours ago, Junker said:

Which PS1 games had Christmas themes or levels?

die hard trilogy