Wobbly Polygons

An ad for Project ZERO with rendered rolls of film and unrolled negatives, on which are game screenshots.

"... All that stands between you and certain death is an antique camera..."

Now this is a cool and clever ad for Project Zero aka Zero/Fatal Frame.

A crt screenie of a watery background ad polygon sealife, with Gran Turismo's demo represented by a starfish and gold wibblywobbly text

A seahorse for Tekken 3

A manta ray-ish credature for MediEvil

A hammer head shark for Kula World, dancing on its fins stood up

Demo 1 in 1997 asks what species of fish and associated watery invertebrate best represent Gran Turismo, MediEvil, Kula World, and Tekken 3.

The title screen for t RAKUGAKI SHOWTIME with pencil/crayon drawn characters with chibi anime flair and some stick figure/emoji aesthetics that look like they've been cut out of a sketch book page with little white borders around them

A gameplay snap showing a brawl between two characters smacking into one another with cut-out motion trails.

Another shot with three papercraft characters in a grassy forest

Three characters, two with goofy round glasses and baggy pants, surge toward another bandana sporting character leaning back to throw

What do you get if you combine dodgeball with arena brawling and Treasure silliness? You get RAKUGAKI SHOWTIME; a wild-and-wonderful Japanese-only game for the PSX with a distinct papercraft and crayon aesthetic. It's SO much fun.

A crt tv screenie of the Spider-Man title screen with ol' Spidey himself swinging away over a night-time city

A gameplay snap of early Spidey in his track pants, balaclava, and spiderman hoodie, standing on a ledge by the towering skyscrapers of NYC.

Swinging toward and between the 'scrapers on a web thread connected to who knows what.

Though it would be bettered by its sequel two years later, 2002's Spider-Man from Treyarch gave fans a taste of web-swinging on a scale not seen before.

The PS2 version is still impressive looking today.

A crt TV screenie of fighting the Alien Queen in Alien Trilogy, with its moody lighting and green glow from a first-person perspective.

"Get Away from Her, you BITCH!" 🔥

A photo of the small news article from our copy of the EGM "Sony Details 32-bit PS-X!" Sony of the Japan officially announced their new 32-Bit game system, codenamed, PS-X last month. Here are the specs to date: Price - Under $480 Main CPU - R3000A 32-Bit Secondary CPUs - multiple DSPs and co-processors RAM 'More than 3DO' Plus more details about full frame video at 60 fps and 16.77m colours

The MKII themed cover of EGM Jan 1994 with a headline at the top about the PS-X specs unveiling and also NEC's PC-FX.

Almost two years earlier (Dec 1993/Jan 1994) than the release of the PlayStation in the US 30 years ago today: EGM's first unveiling of some juicy snippets of the Sony PS-X following its official announcement in Japan.

The PlayStation Can Produce Mind-Boggling Amounts of Bouncing Metal Frogs.

📺: PlayStation Developer's Demo Disc, 1995, given with preorders.

Same here!

Yeah! Def potential for one.

It did, yeah, was released on PC first a year earlier.

Another snap of a different player character making an audio log as he stands by a similar arch airlock and lots of intricately detailed pipework and computer terminals, giving the base a lived-in industrial look.

I love how rich with detail the Martian base where MG:R takes place. There's so much to look at with its pre-rendered backgrounds that wouldn't come across half as well with polygonal ones.

A crt tv photo of gameplay under composite of a brassy-looking metal plated room under eerie red light with a space suit hung up on the wall and one of the playable characters stood by an arched door. Seen through fixed perspective ala Resident Evil

When some of the nicest pre-rendered backgrounds on the PlayStation meet polygons and gothic near-future sci-fi horror.

A late release and ambitious title with three switchable characters.

Stay Alone... Stay Alive.

📺: Martian Gothic: Reunification, Creative Reality/Coyote Developments, 2001

Damp and dreary outside, going to cosy up with the first disc I ever put in a PlayStation.

xD You're welcome!

Fancy a drive on wobbly polygon highways this Saturday? Grab a truck and then go wild decorating it once you have the coin in your pocket, all while hurling insults at your rival in an effort to take them down.

📺: Bakusou Dekotora Densetsu: Art Truck Battle, 1998

And as someone commented, handy for playing lRPGs while having a hand free to eat pizza xD

Ooh, yeah, that shape doesn't look exactly comfortable.

The dpad is very nice to use too for navigating menus too, so there's another bonus. Mostly about comfort, button placement, and that.

The x and o buttons are placed on the top underside where your index finger naturally rests when holding it, so it's actually quite comfortable to press those. Same with the triggers being at the bottom for games that use them for camera controls. I've played FFT with mine and that came in handy.

xD

A photo of our copy of Crime Crackers's sticker sheet with logo, PlayStation, and character stickers

Memory card and console stickers 💜 We've got a few Japanese import games that included them. They're things I remember mainly appearing as magazine freebies here in the UK, and usually a lot less cutesy.

A photo of my hand partly in view holding up our ASCII Grip, the one-hand use vertical Wiimote-like controller with a rounded end and buttons arranged around it.

The ASCII Connection - For RPG lovers everywhere. 💜

Marketed primarily for playing RPGs, the ASCII Grip also has accessibility benefits.

A photo of an official Sony periphs pamphlet from our copy of Crash 3. Shows a G-Con45 light gun, multitap, and the Dual Shock grey controller.

Lots of cool memory card colours and four different colours of non-DS pads.

Official Peripherals on Parade.

That delicious Cherry Red memory card <3 And I have the black, white, and smoke grey controllers. Always feels a little weird having non-Dual Shock pads in different colours other than the grey.

Oh, aha, it was a typo yeah, PC.

Aha, it really does! Kingsley's is what I immediately thought of when Tunic was released.

Death by Stereo has been rattling around my head for not far off thirty years now.

Originally an Acorn Archimedes game, then 3DO, then finally to PO, PS1, and Saturn.

📺: Star Fighter/Star Fighter 3000, Fednet Software, 1996 (PS1 version)

The colourful loading screen for Kingsley's Adventure with the young adventurous anthro fox brandishing sword and shield as he surges forward toward the viewer

The title screen with a polygonal castle

A gameplay snap with Kingsley conversing with a Goose. There's an Animal Crossing quality to the character designs and the talking sounds they all make

A close up of Kingsley's polygon foxness

Just a lil' fox on a lil' adventure. 🦊⚔️

Psynosis's charming Zelda-alike ARPG adventure starring a kingdom of anthropomorphic animals who all talk like Animal Crossing characters. Which only makes them even cuter to interact with!

From the GamesMaster magazine Xmas 1997 VHS special: some sweet looking back at the hits of the year and those still to come in '98. 🔥

Soul food for the PSX-loving heart. <3

A snap from GameFan magazine's 8-page FFVII feature with screenies and artwork, plus the exciting news that Squaresoft planned to release twenty titles on PSX before the end of 1997.

May 1996's GameFan - sizzling with excitement as Squaresoft and Sony's firming relationship promises to bear a bumper crop of fruit. Twenty games on the way!

There have been quite a few space combat games, but they tend to be third-person ones these days and blend in open-world/space trading or rogue-like elements. Things like Everspace 2 or Chorus.

Purely mission based in the Wing Commander/Freespace style are far rarer now.