October 8, 2016
Timeless Thoughts: my grey console
Timeless Thoughts is a monthly link up hosted by Georgie and Tara, where bloggers write about something from their past – it could be an item, a place, an event – anything that evokes a trip down memory lane. Timeless Thoughts is held on the first Saturday of the month, and runs for two weeks.
I’ve been meaning to join this link up for months now but I would always miss it or didn’t have any ideas to write about. After spending some of my Saturday doing the usual – cleaning up my room, organising to-do’s for next week, going to the gym, watching Friends; I decided to play a video game namely, Beyond Good and Evil on my Xbox 360.
A friend of my recently alerted me of the sequel which I’ve been waiting for for years so I’m so excited about it! But it may require me to finally dip into buying a next generation console which I’m hesitant to do. Mainly because I don’t play as often as I did before, but with that said, my gamer self will always be there! (And will always win, so come Black Friday I’ll probably go in for the purchase!)
Anyway, as I was playing today I was reminded of the first game I ever played as a child on my first ever console – the PlayStation. I remember getting up most mornings and just pushing the open button just to close the lid and hear the satisfying click. I did get told off by my dad who said I will break it if I kept doing that. It did eventually break but because of another reason, I’ll get onto later…
The first game I played on my grey console was Fighting Force.
I’ve had conversations with my gamer friends before about the game and nobody ever seems to know of it, let me know if you have! My dad introduced me to the game (it was his favourite at the time) and we used to spend hours completing the missions together.
I could never complete the game myself (until I replayed it when I was older *cough*) because it got a lot harder closer to the end and I always chose Mace Daniels who didn’t have as strong moves as the buff character my dad used to play as (Ben “Smasher” Jackson)!
It was a lot of fun, I still have the disc somewhere in my room but it doesn’t work anymore. This is where the story of my PlayStation comes to an end.
A few years after I completed the game, I kept re-playing as I mentioned before, trying out different routes and what not, collecting points, kicking butt, being just an overall badass when I soloed it through… when one day, the disc just stopped working. It had a lot of scratches on it probably from my obsession of looking at the discs and showing it to friends with my bare hands when they came over (the disc itself, not even the cover).
Being young and silly, I thought it was my console that was broken.
I vividly remember opening the disc tray continuously, removing the memory cards and controllers repeatedly, switching it on and off… It just didn’t work when I tried to play FF, so being quite young and silly and frustrated at this point because all I wanted to do was play, I remember getting on top of the console and jumping and stamping on it.
Yeah, I know.
With other factors such as being a heavy child and with the console being quite old, the next time I tried to put it on it didn’t work anymore. I did “leave” it for a while to “sort itself out” but it was dead and so was I, inside at least and of course, when my dad found out… Haha!
I do miss my grey old PlayStation and PS1 games like Fighting Force, I did end up getting a PlayStation 2 that Christmas along with Ratchet and Clank (one of the best games I’ve ever played and one of the few games I completed to 100%) where I then invested all my time as a teenager into loving and caring for so it turned out well. But you know what they say about first love…
Wait, what do they say about first love?
Questions: What was your first console? (if you had one) Have you heard of any of the games I mentioned in this post before?
Leave a comment
Georgie
I don’t think I remember what my first console was since I sort of went backwards. I think we had a PS2 then I actually went and played the older games on Nintendo 64 and PS1 because I really got into the retro stuff.
I feel so sorry for your younger self that you were so frustrated! I would have felt that way too though. ? There have been times I was playing a game and shit just froze and it would make me so angry. I only cared about my game. LOL. And the thought of losing progress was a HORRIBLE thought.
I actually haven’t heard of the games you mentioned. I used to play a lot of GTA and some car racing games but that was pretty much it. And the old retro arcade games. There was one I played with a wizard but I don’t remember the name. I would write down all the cheat codes for all the levels just in case I never progressed to the level I wanted again. 😛
Michelle
OMG, I love the original Playstation. Had one for years until my little brother broke mine. I loved it so much and so many great games started and just went awesome on that console. Boy, do I miss it now.
Kya
This is a great post. I loved my first playstation and seeing that image of the grey beauty brings back a lot of memories. I adored the Spice Girls game, and I think I got it when I got the console. I also loved Spyro. I used to play that all the time. 😀
Amy
I think my first console was either a Dreamcast or something even older. My dad used to buy them for the family to play, so I’m not sure if that counts as mine!
I’ve never played either of those games, but they sound really great. I could not cope with the graphics now though – definitely love my shiny PS4 games.
I was reluctant to get a new console – I stuck to the ps2 and GameCube for years, but when Batman: Arkham Knight came out I just had to. I’ll cry when the PS5 comes out though!
Rezina
I’m not a huge gamer but my first console was also a PlayStation! Or it might have been a Nintendo? But I definitely had one of those when I was growing up! I remember my friend owned a Sega so me and my sister would go over to their house to play games, haha.
And omg at your story. I feel for the child you. I can just imagine the frustration of your game not working! I actually don’t remember what happened to ours but I think we just stopped playing with it eventually.
Thanks for sharing your timeless thoughts!
Carolynne
Ah the good old PlayStation. I still have one of those lying around somewhere. The game(s) that I would play over and over were the Crash Bandicoot ones. Loved them so much! My first consol was a Nintendo, waaaaaaaay back in the day. It was also pretty awesome 🙂
Maroon Caludin
Ah, Playstation. It had a lot of awesome games. I remember being obsessed with Final Fantasy VII forever. Plus there was Suikoden, and the Lunar games. I remember there was a trick if the Lunar 2 one didn’t want to play (they claimed cause it was so full) and you flipped the system over. Don’t remember if it worked too well for me.
Clare
I remember playing super mario when i was very young and a couple of other video games too but I was never really into it. Me and my sister used to play it together with my father too, ah those were good times! Me and my sisters would also fight over it too lol. This post brings back great memories. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Cat
My first console was the original NES! I never owned the first Playstation, but in college, I bought the PS2 to catch up on all the RPGs I was missing out on 🙂 During the PS1 generation, I had a N64 instead. I don’t think I’ve heard of Fighting Force though!
Aw, your poor Playstation! I can’t believe you stomped on it, haha. I think all of my old consoles are still working, even the NES, which surprises me. That thing was so flaky!
I keep holding off on the latest generation of consoles. I think it’s because so many games are available on PC too, so I don’t have a good reason to get the console. I’m waiting for an exclusive game to convince me to buy one of them!
Nancy
Oh man, I remember those oldschool consoles and video game graphics! Whenever I finish my games, I would replay it because my parents didn’t have money to buy anything else XD. Hearing about how you stomped over the console as a kid made me laugh a bit. I remembered when those consoles had cartridges that have you blow into it!
I haven’t heard of the games you played before. I think my first console is the Nintendo Entertainment System! ~Such memories~