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| Articles: The PlayStation is Dead |
Posted by
Comedian on Thursday, August 26, 2004 - 04:07 AM PST
Recently my Playstation one began to fail. As of the writing of this articl, it is completely defunct. The laser-reader is dead, and the motor for the spinner is dying rapidly. It seems more poignant and respectful to let it die than try and preserve it.
The PlayStation became a generational change, in my limited perspective. You don't see geeks anymore; they have new words for technophiles that sound more respectful and help to better characterize the citizens of the digital age. I watched the PlayStation come on the scene and suddenly everyone wanted a video game system. As a catalyst, the PlayStation succeeded in far more facets than just integration of the geek community.
For a while there was a clear line between the Atari/SNES players and the rest of the world. VGA/EGA video cards and King's Quest and Super Mario was a language and mythology of a pragmatic and divided community. The internet was bringing people together, but the plateau of gamers still made the super-geek-stereotype a clearly outlined figure on the horizon.
We had a PlayStation hooked up to a projector in the video store in the small mountain town where I grew up; when the owners were out we'd turn off the lights in the store, sit in front of the projector and play Resident Evil in all its bloody, heart-stopping glory. And it wasn't just geeks who played it, not with how that game was. The kids who liked horror movies showed up, the violent militia-types liked the idea of a zombie being cut in half with a 12-gauge shotgun. the game played like a good thriller movie. We'd sit there, kids from eight to twenty, and eat popcorn and yell at the person holding the controller.
Sports games came into being then; platform racers became interactive, and with better control than computer keyboards and mice afforded. Something about a handheld controller, the gestalt of the interaction with the machine itself. And it was different and good.
I see MTV hocking PS2 now, and remember when the stoners and punks and yuppies, all of us, sat and played rounds of Tenchu. The path for the invasion of Asian culture, on the level we see today, is probably the fault of video games. Tenchu was a gory game where you played the ninja of japanese myth, hiding in shadows and guting unsuspecting enemies. This was open floodgate for the coming tides of Asian culture that are becoming more commonplace by the day. We didn't subscribe as extensively to it as the kids now; sure, we had the Manga movies, but the comic books and children's action shows weren't around for us.
If I turn on the TV now it's a culture of games and dreamlike animation. In the college dorms, we connect over the phone lines three X-Boxes and played "Halo" in massive games: the chinese marine, the disenfranchised athletes, the psychology majors and international studies liberals. It became so much more widespread than when I was a kid.
My PlayStation is failing. It's eight years old. I look at the stack of games I have for it, and remember lethargy and wasting time. They were the sunny days of my summers and winters, the claim of my atrophy their domain enveloped.
At least I can still beat most of the kids at the games.
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| The PlayStation is Dead | Login/Create an account | 12 Comments |
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Re: The PlayStation is Dead
by Moinlen_Drigenu (-)
on Aug 26, 2004 - 05:01 AM
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I hear you. Yes the old days were memorable, there's nothing like a pixalised game to keep the heart racing. I think my PS is in the shed somewhere...it still was humming when I played it last.
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Re: The PlayStation is Dead
by MystryssRavynDarque (MystryssRavynHI@wmconnect.com)
on Aug 26, 2004 - 09:26 AM
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http://kauai.vibechild.com/~amanda/
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Quite symbolic, don't you think. Perhaps this means it is time to give up childhood things and move into what is considered adulthood. Though some of us can never grow up, and we enjoy a good video game every now and then.
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Re: The PlayStation is Dead
by bettie_x (strangersangel@hotmail.com)
on Aug 26, 2004 - 08:22 PM
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http://bettie_x.tripod.com/
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Video games have indeed become universal to all, and it's kind of wierd to see two totally different people with practically NOTHING in common but the air they breathe go on for hours over a video game. A friend of mine in gradeschool had duke nukem on her tandy 2K (ie: all dos operating, big as a house, OOOLD SCHOOOL BABY) and she was the coolest nerd in class. Now you're a nerd if you DON'T have a game system.
All I can say is the best day of my life was when I found the activision game disks for PS. The games I rented for my atari when I was a kid, the ones where the hero is an orange box, and the monsters are red, sometimes FLASHING, boxes. I actually bought my dad a PS for xmas and the activision disk that had River Raid on it. He'd play it for HOURS when we were kids, and my dad wasn't a video game guy at all. I've never seen him so excited :)
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Re: The PlayStation is Dead
by Domkitten (saradevil@saradevil.com)
on Sep 01, 2004 - 02:34 AM
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http://www.saradevil.com
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Although I've played many a game system I still can't get myself to by anything better than a nintendo. Not a 64, not even the new version with the top loading feature.
No, I had an old school, blow on the cartridge, jiggle it from now till sunday, and pray to god that maybe the teeth would like up the right way and the game will work now without putting funny lines in duckhunt.
Man those were the days of tetris and metroid. Games that were so beautiful, so classic, and so wonderful to play. I still remember speaking fluenty supermario2.
Nintendo was very cool, not quite as cool as my old colicovision, but still pretty cool.
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Re: The PlayStation is Dead
by W0rmW00d (allchaka@hotmail.com)
on Sep 18, 2004 - 05:57 PM
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the pain of a dying playstation is indeed a truly sad thing to behold. my ps2 is dying, probably from overwork and i also preserve my playstation in the hope that it will one day rise again, the strange clunking will stop and the old dear will spout nightmarish zombies, sleek racing machines and maybe, just maybe, a strange tronlike tank which shoots little triangles.
i will swear to my grave that it just needs to cool down a bit, its been on all night and the motor must be hot.
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Re: The PlayStation is Dead
by forigner (fatmanbob1223@yahoo.com)
on Oct 10, 2004 - 08:40 PM
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http://groups.msn.com/wastedyouthpoetry
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The playstation, america's real favorite past time. I've had mine only 5 years. I remember the good 'ol days of SNES i still play mine its sweeeet. But let's all take a moment to remember the ps one's, ps2's, NES, atari (pong!!), and sega. Because now we have xbox. *sigh*
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Re: The PlayStation is Dead
by pale-face (-)
on Oct 14, 2004 - 11:35 AM
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Yes the play station is dying, and in many cases dead, but I still love mine. I play it when I can and leave it be otherwise. I think it's a shame that technology has grown so fast and encouraged kids to stay indoors more and more each day. pity. o well. enjoy it when you can… and it wont be for long.
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