Video games might have been considered to be somewhat childish back in the days. We gamers of course know a lot about this matter and might have a better point of view on the topic. What I am going to write you about in this blog post is how the large audience was thinking about video games.
With playing video games we basically went from games being considered to be some kinds of toys for small children. This was the popular way to think back in the early 1980s to maybe the middle of 1990s. The gaming console that actually made video games to be a seriously taken entertainment that was suitable also for adults was PlayStation 1. It was released in 1994. One the games that defined the new role video games was that game on this blog posts featured image. The game is Metal Gear Solid.
There were also many other good quality games that were released for PS1 when it was the most newest and most powerful gaming console on the markets. You can find a list using your favorite search engine but let me make a brief list of some of them right here. Games I want to include here are the first three Resident Evil games, first two Gran Turismo games, Final Fantasy series, Crash Bandicoot and Colin McRae Rally games. There are many others also that I haven’t included here.
The hardware was developing quickly. Suddenly it was possible to save your game. The optical CD-ROM discs could offer more space for a video game. It was possible to offer some tens of hours of playing time. This wasn’t the case with some earlier gaming consoles like Nintendo Entertainment System or Sega Mega Drive. However PS1 didn’t have a hard disk. It relied on memory cards that could be purchased for your PlayStation console. This was how PlayStation 2 also handled saving games. The capacity of a PS1 memory card was 1 MB while PS2 had 8 MB memory cards.
The graphics of video games were moving strongly towards three-dimensional environments. The graphical content was improving in quality while professionals tried to do their job while the technology was improving in a fast pace. This was also for me personally a period of time that I started to think about some day being able to make a video game by myself. This can tell you just how strongly I was beginning to have a this sort of feeling towards gaming. I wanted to be involved in some way.
For me a dream like making your own video game has been in my mind since those days. I was 14 years old when I bought my PS1 console. Exploring these games three-dimensional environments was a very fun thing to do. I was amazed how now also some persons that were over ten years older than me had an interest towards gaming. The shift from being considered as toys to being a seriously taken form of entertainment had begun.
For me playing video games has been a hobby. Programming a full game is a project that takes a lot of work. There are many easy to use tools available today. Today I am working in the field of information technology but making video games is not my current job. I have actually found some other ways to be involved. I know a bit about programming but I am not so confident in being a professional programmer today.
It can be a subject of debate if SNES or PS1 was the first console to have games that could be considered as serious entertainment also for adults. One console that is usually mentioned in this discussion is Sega’s last console Dreamcast. Dreamcast was more powerful than PS1. It was on the markets only for some years and then it was discontinued by Sega. It is a common matter to say that playing PS1 was like listening to rock while playing Dreamcast was like listening to jazz.