On 29 Sept 1995, Sony released the PlayStation in the UK. Little did we know at the time, but it would go on to change the face of gaming as we knew it. So let’s celebrate it! 25 years is a good birthday to host a month long party for. So the whole month of September is going to be a celebration of all things to do with Sony’s original grey box. See below for the intro video to the month…
The intro to that video is somewhat special. It was burnt to a PlayStation format disc – and would have been run from the disc if it weren’t for the fact the HDMI upscaler used in the studio has a large on-screen display that lingers entirely too long. Everything from the game-play on was edited in afterwards but the opening was ripped from the PS1 disc I had burned. You can see the disc working (and the on-screen display) in the video below:
And if that’s not enough, how about a download link? If your PS1 is chipped (or you have a working disc swap method) you can download the .iso file I made, burn it to a blank CD, and run it in your own console. Bear in mind, this works best on an original (modified) console that’s able to run NTSC video (as I used the NTSC dimensions as it was quicker and easier to do that than work out a PAL equivalent that the PS1 could cope with). So PAL TVs may show a black & white image, even though it’s technically a PAL disc. I guess that warning works both ways – make sure your TV can handle a PAL signal if running outside of the PAL areas. If running in an emulator, don’t enable the bios display as the twinkles on the licence screen may loop in the background forever.
Click the below link to download the .iso file:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OprFUl38rZcLTln8RP6E61J2EHRlB5M4/view?usp=sharing
The video file is designed to loop until you press Start, whereupon everything stops and you’ll need to reset your console/emulator to restart proceedings. If you have the correct tools, you can also rip the .str file from the disc for your viewing pleasure (like I did to include it in the main video).
If I get the time, I might make a video explaining how I made the disc, but it would not have been possible without LameGuy64 who wrote the code and offered help in the PSXDev forums to those who came before me, and whose problems I learned from when compiling the code myself. Other thanks must go to the other members of the PSXDev forums who made tools and resources to help make creating homebrew PS1 discs a reality – this silly little project would not have been possible without their indirect help.
Stay tuned to TigerTails Gaming, both here and on YouTube, as there is going to be a bit more content coming out over the next month. The usual Friday livestreams have already been planned out and will feature some linked PlayStation titles (2 player games, using 2 consoles networked together with the link cable), as well the first live video in the Mystery Game series. I actually played the game that will be featured to ensure the disc worked, and I had quite a bit of fun with it – what Xavier will make of it remains to be seen. There will also be a new video every Tuesday featuring some videos that I have scripted and recorded. Xavier has also scripted a video which will hopefully be released in time. He will also be doing some Saturday livestreams, and there may also be additional mid-week streams too. So there’s lots of PS1 fun to look out for and enjoy.
Do not underestimate the power of PlayStation.
