As someone who grew up as a Nintendo kid, playing NES, SNES, and the Gameboy, I wasn’t sure if I’d want to make the switch to PlayStation. As anyone who was alive and gaming back then, your console brand is very similar to whether you have an Apple or Android phone today. You had one that you used, and you weren’t likely to switch.
But the PlayStation offered a huge advance in graphics and opened the door to so many new video game titles that it was hard to ignore.
For anyone else who made the jump, here are 19 pics (and some commercials at the need) that hopefully will be as nostalgic to you as it is to me.
1. “Kids today will never know the panic of running out of memory card space right before a boss fight. 8 MB felt infinite… until it didn’t.”
2. Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake playing Playstation 2.
It looks like they might be playing Summoner, but I can also see Red Faction and one other game in front of them.
3. “Buying the Playstation magazine just to get a demo disc.”
4. “The Mad Catz Playstation controller you’d never use yourself but give to player 2.”
5. Countless hours were spent playing Twisted Metal 2.
6. The original Playstation 3 that sold for $600.
7. Who remembers Driver (1999) for the original Playstation?
8. PlayStation Pizza Hut demo cd
9. The original Grand Theft Auto (1997) for PS1
10. PlayStation Magazine Issue 108 (March 2004)
11. “I booted up my Playstation 2 for the first time in a few years.”
12. “A group of guys outside Best Buy playing PS1 while waiting in line for the greatly anticipated PlayStation 2 in 2000.”
13. “On March 4, 1999, Sony hosted a highly anticipated event in Tokyo to unveil the PlayStation 2 (PS2). It was filled with excitement as Sony showcased the sleek and powerful console, emphasizing its groundbreaking feature at the time: playing DVDs.”
14. Remember those games that were so big that they came on multiple discs that you’d have to swap out as you played the game?
15. Unpacking a PS1 (1995)
16. Gameshark 2 for PlayStation 2
17. “PlayStation 1 on the weekend with friends”
18. An old Kay Bee toys PlayStation sale ad
19. 1996 Toys R Us ads for the original PlayStation
Related: Toys R Us Ad Insert From 11/26/95
