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PlayStation (Games) Sony

Sony Announces PlayStation Classic, a $100 Mini PS1 (polygon.com) 130

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
Sony announced Wednesday that it will release the PlayStation Classic micro console on December 3. It will cost $100 and come with 20 built-in games. From a report: Like Nintendo's NES Classic and SNES Classic, the PlayStation Classic will come packed with a list of beloved hits from the system's original library. There will be 20 games in all, but Sony only announced five of them today: Final Fantasy 7, Jumping Flash, R4: Ridge Racer Type 4, Tekken 3 and Wild Arms. "All of the pre-loaded games will be playable in their original format," the company said in an announcement post on the PlayStation Blog. Sony plans to launch the PlayStation Classic worldwide on Dec. 3 -- the 24th anniversary of the PlayStation's release. (The PS1 debuted in Japan on Dec. 3, 1994, and Sony didn't bring it to the West until September 1995.) The retro console will retail for $99.99 in the U.S., 89.99 pound in the U.K., 99.99 euro in Europe and 9,980 yen in Japan. For that price, customers will get the system and two controllers. The gamepads are full-size replicas of the PS1's original controller, not the DualShock, so they and don't include analog sticks or vibration. As you can see in the gallery above, the gamepads are wired USB devices that plug into the console in the same spot as the original system's controller ports.
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Sony Announces PlayStation Classic, a $100 Mini PS1 More

Sony Announces PlayStation Classic, a $100 Mini PS1

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  • Too bad early 3D paged poorly (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Dwedit ( 232252 ) on Wednesday September 19, 2018 @10:06AM (#57341496) Homepage

    Too bad early-generation 3D graphics have aged very poorly. Especially how the original Playstation doesn't even have perspective-correct texture mapping, everything warps and warbles as it moves on the screen.

    • Re:Too bad early 3D paged poorly (Score:4, Insightful)

      by JoeyRox ( 2711699 ) on Wednesday September 19, 2018 @10:11AM (#57341546)
      Poor graphics are part of the charm of these "classic" systems :)

      • Poor graphics are part of the charm of these "classic" systems :)

        Personally, I don't want super realistic graphics in my games.

        I am content to get through my day without encountering pools of blood, thanks very much.

        • The issues I have with that era of early 3D is not so much the graphics. It is the early 3D controls. Very painful.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Tarlus ( 1000874 )

          But poorly textured, pixelated pools of blood are perfectly fine.

          It's not that PS1 era 3D graphics aren't super realistic, it's that they just flat-out look bad. The 8 and 16 bit era put out some games that still look appealing today. Much of the indie community finds success by creating modern games with the look and feel of old 2D games. I don't think I've seen a modern take on low-poly, low-res textured 3D graphics.

      • Re:Too bad early 3D paged poorly (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Junta ( 36770 ) on Wednesday September 19, 2018 @11:15AM (#57341986)

        I will say that Saturn/PS1/N64 represented a very awkward phase (emulation has done a lot to salvage the bad parts though).

        SNES/Genesis represented nearly the pinnacle of 2D gaming. So much better than the NES/SMS.

        The '3D' craze caused gaming to go mostly 3D before things were necessarily ready. There are some great PS1 2D games (Wild Arms... mostly, Symphony of the Night), but there was a rush to do 3D and it looked in many ways uglier than the SNES generation in the attempt.

        Not only graphically, but control/gameplay/camera angle wise, the industry was very awkward in sorting out this whole 3D things.

        Later PS1 games did much better job and PS2 games were pretty unambiguous about having the hang of 3D, but early PS1 games and many N64 games were less pleasant than their 2D predecessors on many fronts.

        • Re:Too bad early 3D paged poorly (Score:4, Insightful)

          by thevirtualcat ( 1071504 ) on Wednesday September 19, 2018 @11:28AM (#57342084)

          This.

          Making a pixel art game today invites comparisons to SNES and Genesis in reviews. Things like "I felt like I could be playing this on my SNES" are (generally) considered compliments.

          Making a 3D game today, if anything, invites "look how far we've come since N64 and PS1" in reviews. Things like "I felt like I was playing an N64 game" is not something people generally aspire to.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by tepples ( 727027 )

            Making a pixel art game today invites comparisons to SNES and Genesis in reviews. Things like "I felt like I could be playing this on my SNES" are (generally) considered compliments.

            Is the compliment specifically that a game looks and feels like the fourth gen (Genesis and Super NES), not the third (NES and Master System)? Because some 2010s pixel art games, such as Lizard [rainwarrior.itch.io] and The Curse of Possum Hollow [steampowered.com], can also be purchased on an NES cartridge.

            (Disclosure: I contributed to Curse.)

            • Not at all. That's just the one I see come up the most.

              I actually had Octopath Traveler in mind when I made the post. (And while it is a pixel art game that uses styling that's obviously meant to invoke comparisons to 16-bit JRPGs, it is very obviously NOT a 16-bit JRPG.)

        • like Final Fantasy 8/9, Chrono Cross, Ape Escape, Mario 64, Tekken 3, Gran Tourismo and Panzer Dragoon the 32 bit gen holds up well.

          The trouble I see is folks comparing Bubsy 3D to Mario World. To be fair it was easier to make something at least playable in 2D (Bubsy is still more tolerable than it's 3D counter part). But go spend some time with Hard Nova, Shaq Fu, Fantasia, Awesome Possum or, god help us, Mondu's Fight Palace. The 8-bit era was even worse (LJN X-Men anyone?).

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Junta ( 36770 )

            Yeah, Parasite Eve/Final Fantasy 8 was where PS1 games (graphically) hit their stride. Of course note that those were sparing use of 3D against 2D backgrounds mostly.

            I personally feel like Mario 64 was clumsy camera and control wise still. A fun game, but clearly they weren't comfortable with the camera. Graphically the N64 was well served by the precision and the texture mapping so it doesn't suffer some PS1 problems, but the 3D stuff wasn't a slam dunk there either.

        • SNES/Genesis represented nearly the pinnacle of 2D gaming. So much better than the NES/SMS.

          Neo-Geo was the pinnacle of 2D gaming. Miles ahead of the SNES/Genesis.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          There were some great 2D games for that generation. Castlevania on the PS1, and numerous titles on the Saturn like Street Fighter Alpha 2, X-Men vs. Street Fighter, Guardian Heroes, Radiant Silvergun... Even the N64 had Bangai-O, although the Dreamcast version was better.

          Unfortunately they will likely only bring 3D stuff to the new machine. I guess Tekken wasn't bad.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Nope, the poor graphics are why these systems were shit even when they were new. The first acceptable 3D console was the Dreamcast. The mid 90s were a dark age of console gaming, but fortunately the PC was strong then.

      • I see the nostalgic charm in 2D consoles where you expect simple, flat graphics. They really don't age that badly. 3D on the other hand...I've tried to go back and play some old PC games from GoG and it's too painful to deal with the primitive 3D. It's just too obvious and really overshadows the rest of the game, no matter how good.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Ranbot ( 2648297 )

          I see the nostalgic charm in 2D consoles where you expect simple, flat graphics. They really don't age that badly. 3D on the other hand...I've tried to go back and play some old PC games from GoG and it's too painful to deal with the primitive 3D. It's just too obvious and really overshadows the rest of the game, no matter how good.

          Agreed. Looking back at some of the late-90s early 00s "3D" games can be painful. It's telling that the popular late-90's games with those ugly blocky 3D models that were popular enough to be re-released are usually done so with huge graphic make-overs (e.g. Resident Evil, FFVII), but popular old sprite-based games are often re-released with little to no changes.

    • Re:Too bad early 3D paged poorly (Score:4, Insightful)

      by UnknownSoldier ( 67820 ) on Wednesday September 19, 2018 @10:32AM (#57341700)

      Agreed! When I worked on one PS1 game the two graphics guy had to sub-divide triangles like crazy so that the affine texture mapper wasn't producing "swimming" / shimmering textures like crazy. The worst offenders were vertical and horizontal polygons relative to the camera's DOF (Direction of Flight).

      Wonder if THPS (Tony Hawk Pro Skater) will be available? Normally I hate sports games but that was an absolute blast! Wasn't there a port of Diablo 1 to the PSX available as well?

      Note: The PSX was the code name Sony and us devs called the PS1. So many std C lib funds were outright broken the first year, but I digress.

      • Wasn't there a port of Diablo 1 to the PSX available as well?

        Yes, there was, first time I ever played it was on the PS1.

      • Wasn't there a port of Diablo 1 to the PSX available as well?

        Yes, but it isn't even on PSN. I figured someone would get around to bringing it to PSN to celebrate the Anniversary, but no. Probably because the rights are murky since the console port was done by Climax Entertainment under contract to Virgin, and the game was originally published by Electronic Arts.

        And for those who wonder how it plays, it pretty much plays like all the Diablo clones it inspired on the PS2. Just turn on combo buttons, and use "Relative" controls.

      • There is absolutely a Diablo port--its loaded in my PS1 right now (thought it hasn't been played in a few years).

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Junta ( 36770 )

      The emulators have actually added precision and perspective-correct texture mapping:
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

      So the geometry is still simple (but what complexity is there is better preserved at distance thanks to the added precision) and the textures are still simple (though xbr scaling does an admirable job of upscaling them), but resolution, geometry instability, and texture warping can all be improved on modern stack.

      Question is whether Sony is availing itself of these advances or not.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      So what, at least half of this shit is better than the pay-to-win and loot-box gambling we have now.
      My kids even remarked on this.
      Many times they prefer my "old games that don't look too good" emulated games.
      They like the Mario games, Sonic, Buble bobble, Tetris, Ice climbers etc etc.

    • It's not about the graphics.

      It's about the gameplay and the storyline. When companies sacrifice either of those for a "OH MY GOD LOOK AT HOW NICE AND SHINY MY GAME IS!!!1111....." the game usually sucks. There are very few exceptions to this rule.

  • The best USB controls I found for emulating NES/SNES games for my kids where the cheap Logitech USB controls that were blatant knock-offs of the original PS1 controls. I avoided the "Dual Shock" knock-offs because some emulators insisted on using that analog stick if it was present.

    The NES mini and the SNES mini have caught my attention, but dammit - USB would have been nice. I understand the desire to make them Wii compatible, but they could have made the Wii USB compatible had they wanted to. Nintendo

    • Cynically, I imagine that this was not done out of the kindness of their hearts but as a cost saving measure as whatever off the shelf board they are building around came with USB ports.

  • Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (Score:3)

    by xxxJonBoyxxx ( 565205 ) on Wednesday September 19, 2018 @10:20AM (#57341600)
    Or it's trash.

  • You can probably buy a used PSX and all those games for a hundred bucks, and then you can play actual discs. Playstation discs are still everywhere for a song. Granted, then you have to deal with load times, but if you cared about that you'd probably already have downloaded an emulator and the ISOs.

    • Every Playstation since the original plays PS1 disks, and even the PSP can play PS1 games if you rip them and put them on the system correctly.

      Even the PS3 systems that don't support PS2 games will play PS1 games.

      Sony to their credit, has taken care of the PS1, much better than they did the systems that came after.

    • It'd be nice if they'd just sell the same software package (at a reasonable price for two decade old games), but on Steam. I neither need nor want an extra device sitting around when my PC can do the same job just as well. It's an all around waste to have a console specifically for 20 games that could be much more simply done on a pre-existing machine.

      Of course, IMO two decade old games should be in the public domain anyway by now, so emulate away.

  • If it's anything like the last retro console -- NES Classic Edition -- Sony will produce about 10,000 units and create mass hysteria for it.

    Now, a business-minded person would Nintendo shorted the market to create more demand; of course in Nintendo's case, it was only to create hysteria as they never produced more to meet that demand.

    One of the most bizarre Christmas product releases I've ever seen.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Now, a business-minded person would Nintendo shorted the market to create more demand; of course in Nintendo's case, it was only to create hysteria as they never produced more to meet that demand.

      One of the most bizarre Christmas product releases I've ever seen.

      They did re-release more of the NES classic earlier this year. You should be able to find one close to you. [brickseek.com] Every time I check stores lately there's some in stock.

  • Look at their cookie policy... sheesh! (Score:3)

    by Tomahawk ( 1343 ) on Wednesday September 19, 2018 @11:05AM (#57341922) Homepage

    The cookie policy basically says that if you don't want all of these tracking cookies to be active while using the site, you need to disable cookies in your browser. Most sites have an opt-out toggle somewhere. But polygon.com seem to be happy enough to get you to change your browser settings in order to achieve this.

    Idiots.

    Has anyone got a site with a better cookie policy?

  • On other systems, Shang Tsung could morph instantly into any other character. On the Playstation you could as well -- except for the whole game freezing 3-4 seconds mid-fight while the CD loaded each new character. LAME. Putting it all in RAM will make Shang Tsung playable as it was meant to be in 1995. My little brother's pussy Kung Lao will finally feel the wrath of this fully functional Mortal Kombat! Muhahaha...

    Well - Assuming Mortal Kombat 3 (or MK Trilogy) gets onto the system, of course.

    • On the N64 Mortal Kombat Trilogy Shang Tsung was playable, but if you won a match while morphed into another character the game would freeze nearly every time. I think I had the first version, I hope there was a revision after that....

  • Would love to do a teardown of this device and compare it to an Arduino or Raspberry Pi.

  • It came out fairly late in the life of the Playstation, so not all that many people are familiar with it, but it's just a great racing game. Arguably the best game in the Ridge Racer series. It's...sublime. And the soundtrack is fantastic (and I usually don't care about soundtracks).

    If nothing else, get this to play that game if you haven't already. There's just something about it that feels great, even now. And the graphics actually hold-up - it almost looks like an early PS2 game.

  • That's nice and all, but what I would really kill for is an updated PS2 that could read old PS2 discs, maybe be able to use PS4 controllers so you can swap between systems. I can't be the only one with a set of old PS2 discs I am reluctant to get rid of but I can't use anymore...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tepples ( 727027 )

      That'd be the SCPH-90000 series. A lot of enthusiasts unload them after discovering that 90000 can't run FreeMcBoot.

      • Yep I know about the Slim but I am thinking something even more compact, and improved in other ways - maybe even a really compact PS2 that supported Blu-Ray playback, had improved outputs, and some graphical improvement for PS2 games along with supporting translation for PS3/PS4 controllers to work with the system.

        That's all probably more effort that Sony wants to put into revisiting a PS2 though.

        • maybe even a really compact PS2 that supported Blu-Ray playback, had improved outputs, and some graphical improvement for PS2 games along with supporting translation for PS3/PS4 controllers to work with the system.

          Except for the "compact" part, Sony made those....they called them early-model PS3's. Everyone complained about the price they had to charge because of the additional PS2 chips in them.

    • If you're in the US, what you want is a CECHA/CECHB/CECHE FAT model PS3. Those will play the PS2 discs, and you can use a DualShock4 with them.

      The easiest way to identify the CECHA/CECHE models is the chrome, 4 USB ports and the built in card reader under the flip up door.

      You can even buy a gizmo that lets the PS3 read your PS2 memory cards so you can transfer your PS2 (and PS1) saves to the virtual internal cards on the PS3.

      Caveats:

      The CECHB model doesn't have WiFi, only Ethernet.
      The CECHE's PS2 compatibi

      • I actually had one of those (including the memory card converter) but the motherboard died and I basically could find no-one to fix it (I seem to remember sending it into a repair place, and having them tell me they couldn't fix it and it would be $80 to send it back so yeah), I think those models ran really hot.

        I don't just want to be able to run PS2 titles, I want one in a super-compact form that could be made now, easily silent and with lots of storage. It would be great to be able to load discs you own

        • but the motherboard died and I basically could find no-one to fix it (I seem to remember sending it into a repair place, and having them tell me they couldn't fix it and it would be $80 to send it back so yeah),

          Ouch. Mine started having graphics issues a few years back, sent it in to Sony, they fixed it right up, sent it back. It's been flawless ever since.

          I think those models ran really hot.

          They did and do, CECHA/CECHB models in particular. Keep them well ventilated and off the floor.

      • forgot another caveat:

        PS3's don't have the standard PS1/PS2 control ports so if you want to play any PSone game with PSone mouse support with the mouse, no dice. You can still play them with the standard controls though. Or if you want to use the giant flightstick-ish analog joystick with Mechwarrior 2, Ace Combat or Colony Wars...you're out of luck.

  • The NES has a cartridge system that is fiddly to get working as it ages and its graphics output is limited to coax or composite, both of which look terrible on a modern flatscreen tv. If you still have your NES, it's kind of useless. The Playstation has discs that still work and s-video output which is good enough for the level of graphics that it has. This is to say nothing of the fact that the only reason the discs can't be played in the current generation console is because Sony decided not to do this

    • And considering how easy it is to find a used/refurbished PSone/PS2/PS3 that can play ALL the Psone games. Heck, you might even find new PS3's still in some stores.

      Heck, even a PSP, Vita, or PStv would let you play more PSone games.

  • The PStv being that failure of a micro-console that's basically a screenless Vita. Like the Vita it has access to PSN so you can just buy a bunch of PSone classics, play them with an actual DualShock3/4. And also play a bunch of PSP and Vita games.

    Sadly, PStv's have gone up in price...I got mine for $29 new at Wal-Mart, but you can't get one for that now.

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]änder

    One of the best side-scrolling shooter game ever made.

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