So I was thinking about the Playstation tonight and I’ve got this weird relationship with it. When I think about me and gaming, I don’t think abut the Playstation I instead think about iconic systems like the NES, Genesis, and Super NES. I even think about some systems I never owned like the TG16 or Neo Geo. When the Playstation first came out I rejected it for a few reasons. I thought it was too expensive. I was used to game systems that were $200 or less. It came out in 1995 and I wasn’t really into gaming much anymore. I was in high school and interested in other things. Lastly I didn’t really care for the polygon graphics. Which is kinda strange since one of my favorite movies back then was The Lawnmower Man and it had polygon graphics all over it and I loved that. But I think I had been a bit spoiled by renting the Sega CD a couple times and playing FMV (full motion video) games like Night Trap. So I had this idea in my head that CD based games would all go in that direction. Actual video based video games. Which I thought was cool. But the Playstation didn’t really do that or have games like that. At least as far as I know. So for those reasons I wasn’t really into it.

That said, in 1999 I did buy one. They had dropped the price that year to $99 and by then I had warmed up to it enough. I think I had played Gran Turismo at my friend Dan’s house or something and thought it was cool. So I bought one. If I remember right it was kind of a spur of the moment purchase at an Electronic Boutique (or maybe EB Games) at Lakeside mall. Pretty sure I bought Gran Turismo used at the time as well. I know I bought Soul Reaver. Again, also I think used.
I played it a bit over the years, especially after buying Street Fighter II for it sometime later, but I was never big into it.
I still have it and I’m pretty sure it still works, even 24 years later.

And then there is the PS2. I’ve bought three PS2s for two different girlfriends over the last twenty three years, but have never owned a PS2 myself. Lol.
My girlfriend still has the second PS2 I bought her, and we know it still works because she was playing it the other night. So that’s cool.

Then in early 2017 I bought myself a PS4 Slim (got it March 7th), which is the first game system I had bought for myself since that original Playstation in 1999. I also bought it with an Amazon gift card I had gotten from work as part of my ten year anniversary there.

Strangely enough I own more games for the PS4 than I have for any other system in my life. I’ve also played it far more than I have the original Playstation, and have finished all five of the Uncharted games on it.

Briefly we also had a PS3 in the house which my friend Dan (same Dan as Gran Turismo on PS1) had given over, but it didn’t work because it needed a new hard drive and we never got around to that. We ended up throwing it out when we moved. Which I kind of regret. But neither of us had ever owned any PS3 games. Plus the better games were already being remastered and rereleased for PS4 anyway. Like the Uncharted games. So it didn’t make sense to buy them for the PS3.

Apparently the PS3 is an even better media player than the PS4, but oh well, we have a smart TV for that kind of stuff anyway.

Still, at one point we had all the Playstations (before the PS5 came out), which is strange and the reason I say I have a weird relationship with Playstation is because it’s been around, fairly consistently, and even though I really like my PS4, I don’t feel like I’m as emotionally or mentally connected to the Playstation brand overall. I don’t think of the Playstation when thinking of gaming in my life. I think there is still part of my mind that exists in 1995 mode where I kind of reject the brand. Yet there it is, and there is a story connected to getting each one of the systems. Yet if you asked me about the Nintendos or Genesis of my youth, the best story I could tell you is that I got them as a Christmas or birthday gift. Not all that interesting.

But I think what it is, is that I remember playing the Nintendos and Genesis as a kid with my friends. Or even just solo. All the good times that were had. Which is far more important than just having a story about getting the systems. Whereas I don’t have the same fond memories playing any of the Playstations. Except for my PS4 and that is recent, so there is no nostalgia there. Not yet anyway. Makes sense though. I barely played the original Playstation, I only ever bought other people the PS2, I don’t remember ever even playing it, and we didn’t have a working PS3. So the PS4 is the only one I’ve spent any serious time with and it was recently within the last six years and mostly playing solo. I think this explains why my relationship with Playstation is not as emotionally connected, despite it being around as a brand in my gaming life fairly consistently. I was a kid with the other systems. I played them for days with my friends. We would have sleepovers all weekend long sometimes where we would be playing NES games and watching movies and stuff. If the Playstation had come out in 1989 or even 1991 when the SNES did, at the same price as those systems, or had my friends and I been five years younger, I probably would have had a different relationship with the Playstation brand. Yet it’s still been around most of my life. I think I was even at the CES in Chicago where Sony announced the Playstation for the SNES in 1991. The only time I ever went to CES. Pretty sure it was that year. So this brand has kept coming up in my life, it’s been there, it’s been around, I’ve owned or bought most of the systems, but yet I still just don’t think of that brand when I think of me and gaming. I guess I just find that kind of strange, but I guess I also know why. Maybe that will change in the future.