Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/02/12/pretty-great-deal-on-the-plays.html
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Metal Gear Solid and Syphon Filter? Nice.
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I’m trying to figure out why I’m tempted to buy this when I still have my original ps1 and a ton of games.
Though if this had Wipeout XL on it I would have already bought it.
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Nice, I paid $99.99 for it. But with the advantage that I got to play it on my birthday.
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It should be noted this is a “mini” version of the playstation. Not the Playstation classic.
You can’t drop a playstation CD in it.
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Contrary to earlier console generations, the first generation of 3D console graphics, while it was alright at the time, couldn’t have aged any more terrible. No thanks.
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Overall, perhaps, but I think there are plenty of outstanding examples. The Spyro the Dragon games, for instance, remain gorgeous.
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It’s true that at the end of its life cycle, some developers (and art directors) managed to get decent looking graphics out of the PS1.
2D pixel graphics from earlier former games generations often still look great today, because the technology available set clear boundaries which required elegant ways to work within them to achieve great effect.
Early 3D graphics on the other hand in principle required the same artistic approach as later 3D graphics, but without the technology to deliver on the artistic concept. Everything that is possible today with the same artistic approach will always look much better than anything back then ever could. Hence why there are “remastered” versions of old games that feature the same game with the same graphics in higher resolutions and frame rates, with nicer textures.
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Considering that the emulation on this is reportedly terrible - including but not limited to running 50Hz PAL games at 60Hz, leading to very noticeable and unavoidable judder, as it’s effectively skipping every sixth frame - I would stay away, no matter the price. Get a cheap USB controller and emulate the games on hardware you already own.
Ditto. I have the redesigned, compact PSOne and so many games that I no longer play, but the game hoarder in me is tingling.
(edit) and now that I’ve read some of the reviews, my tingle is subsiding. Even if I could hack it and add ROMs to it, I would have to find the ROMs, and I’m not sure I’m that committed to emulating old games anymore. Although the hardware would be nice… blast.
Twisted Metal for life! Some wretchedly good times playing that, and the first sequel (World Tour) with pals.
Damn that Sweeth Tooth guy…
True. But $40 (down from $100) for the hardware, and two USB controllers, isn’t bad. And as @jlw said, it’s apparently crazy easy to hack. My guess is, that price drop is a sign it’s about to be phased out. I hate myself a bit for it, but I went ahead and got it.
Everything was designed for CRTs and looked much better on them. LCDs are too sharp with poorer contrast and took away a lot of the magic.
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cough Atari 2600 /cough
To be fair, the earlier generations of a thing tend to look crude in comparison with the thing even five years removed. It’s too easy to compare SNES titles with PS1 3D gfx—the SNES was a much more mature platform for its time vs. early 3D in games (which should probably also include Myst and Riven—either of which looked amazing for the time, and still do).
A lot of the early 3D titles did go through a similarly crude phase, but I also think Sony PS1 games for the time are struggling against limitations the N64 just didn’t have: the 3D was nearly an afterthought for a device originally designed around supporting the SNES, rather than a next generation platform. Frankly, that’s even more amazing (not to detract from the difficulty of doing N64 games, but there’s an inherent advantage to designing on an SGI chipset with twice the RAM—shipped—as a PlayStation).
And @localhost is right: even the squintier 3D titles benefit from a CRT over LCD display.
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