Tag Archives: CD-ROM

Rapid Reload, PlayStation

Called Gunner’s Heaven in its native Japan, Rapid Reload is a run-and-gun scrolling shooter with amazing 2D graphics, massive amounts of destruction, and lots of tough boss battles. It was developed by Media.Vision and published by Sony.

Rapid Reload was first released for the PlayStation in 1995 and made an immediate impression with gamers, predominantly because of the action-packed gameplay and the sheer amount of on-screen carnage. Outside of arcades, little had been seen on this scale before – at least in terms of the amount of stuff going on on-screen. You only have to play the first level to know what you’ve got in store when you play Rapid Reload.

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Sony PlayStation Special

The Sony PlayStation was the first machine in the PlayStation series of video game consoles and it came out in Japan first, in 1994, and in 1995 everywhere else. It is widely seen as being the console that changed gaming forever; the console that marked the transition from cartridge-based console gaming to CD-ROM based games, and also the console that ushered in a new era of 3D gaming. It was also the console that made Sony a major player in the video game business.

Over its eleven-year lifespan 7,918 individual games were released for the PlayStation, accumulating just under a billion sales overall. The console itself became the first to sell over 100 million units.

This week I’m going to be featuring screenshots from a number of my favourite PlayStation games. Some you might have heard of (or even played), others you might never have seen before. One thing is for sure, though: interest in the original PlayStation is still going strong, some 27 years after its initial release. And that’s because these great games endure, and because emulation has breathed new life into the format.

Oh, and if you’re wondering what the blue PlayStation is: that is a development PlayStation – used by developers to create and test the games themselves. The photos are of my very own console, taken by myself, specifically for this blog.

Here’s a full list of what was published:

Rapid Reload
Kula World
No One Can Stop Mr. Domino!
Ganbare Goemon: Uchuu Kaizoku Akogingu
Devil Dice
Revelations: Persona
Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss
Pepsiman
Metal Gear Solid
Ridge Racer
Croc: Legend of the Gobbos
Strider 2
Jumping Flash!
Vib-Ribbon

Enjoy,
The King of Grabs

More: Sony PlayStation on Wikipedia

Legend of Mana, PlayStation

Legend of Mana is the fourth game in the Mana series. It was once again directed by Koichi Ishii and was published by Square on CD-ROM for the PlayStation only in 1999.

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Penn & Teller’s Smoke and Mirrors, Sega CD

Penn & Teller’s Smoke and Mirrors is a “legendary” game that never came out…

Originally planned for a 1995 release on the Sega CD, Smoke and Mirrors was due to be published by Absolute Entertainment but they went out of business before the game’s release and it therefore sank without a trace.

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Snatcher, Sega CD

Snatcher is a cyberpunk graphic adventure game created by Hideo Koijima (and his team) and released by Konami for the Sega CD in 1988. It is held in high regard by those who’ve played it.

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Sonic CD, Sega CD

Released exclusively for the Sega CD in 1993, Sonic CD is arguably the best game in the entire Sonic the Hedgehog series. It came out between Sonic 2 and Sonic 3.

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HeroQuest II: Legacy of Sorasil, Amiga CD32

HeroQuest II: Legacy of Sorasil was developed and published by Gremlin Interactive in 1994. It is an isometric, level-grinding adventure based on the Milton Bradley board game, with simple, console-like controls and surprisingly absorbing gameplay.

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Zool, Amiga CD32

Gremlin‘s Zool appeared on virtually every (capable) platform, back in the early ’90s when it was first released. And – having originated on the Amiga – porting it to the CD32 seemed like a no-brainer.

Which it was, and the CD32 conversion – in my opinion – is arguably the best version of Zool, outside of the SNES version. 🙂

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Superfrog, Amiga CD32

Superfrog is an Amiga-based platform game, developed by Team 17 and first published in 1993, although this CD32 conversion followed later, in 1994.

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Base Jumpers, Amiga CD32

Developed by Shadow Software and published by Rasputin Software in 1995, Base Jumpers is an interesting platform game where the aim is to climb to the top of a succession of tall buildings in order to launch yourself from the top of them and parachute down to safety.

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