100 Best Moments of PlayStation

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Has it really been ten years? Yup, it really has as this month PlayStation, the machine that made gaming cool celebrated its tenth anniversary in fine style. Our good friends PSW were naturally very excited by this and have compiled this exhaustive list which features the 100 killer moments from PlayStation history. Take it away boys!

100) PLAYSTATION LAUNCHES IN JAPAN
Hello world! After five years of development that's way too boring to go into, PlayStation arrives in Japan on December 3, 1994. And what a queue! The launch batch sold out on day one, with fantastic arcade driving game Ridge Racer the new system's must-buy. PlayStation is labelled Sony's most important product since the Walkman in the late 1970s. Whoever said that was right.

99) ONE MILLION UNITS SOLD IN JAPAN
By May 1995, over one million PlayStations had been sold in Japan, cementing its place in history and ensuring the Japanese would make lots of games for it. Sony executives have a massive knees-up and probably award themselves huge pay rises.

98) PLAYSTATION LAUNCHES IN THE USA
September 9, 1995, and PlayStation arrives in America. Over 100,000 PlayStations are sold in the first two days of launch.

97) PLAYSTATION LAUNCHES IN THE UK!
Yeah, leave us till last as usual. This is a pattern we've seen a lot of over the last decade, with us Europeans always seeing hot games and PlayStation hardware last. Still it didn't put us off back then - on September 29, 1995, PlayStation launched here, costing 299 quid, which in 1995 was an awful lot of money. The launch games were Battle Arena Toshinden, Moto Toon GP and Ridge Racer - everyone bought Ridge Racer.

96) WIPEOUT LAUNCHES IN THE UK
No, it wasn't a launch game. WipEout was actually part of the second wave of games, designed to be bought once everyone had got bored of Ridge Racer. It's this sort of clever, strategic planning that's got Sony where it is today!

95) S.A.P.S. TAKE TO THE TV
Remember the Society Against PlayStation? This series of adverts, that featured boffins warning us of the dangers of PlayStation, launched what would be the first of many impressive, controversial yet never dull TV ad campaigns for Sony. This one was kind of rubbish, but did the job - and its "never underestimate the power of PlayStation" tagline entered the public vocabulary.

94) LOADS MORE ELSEWHERE
By January 1996, PlayStation's worldwide availability makes it a global phenomenon, shifting 3.4 million units globally - some 518,000 of those in Europe.

93) RESIDENT EVIL COMES OUT
There was a time survival horror didn't exist, and characters didn't rotate on the spot and combine herbs to stay alive. We don't know how society existed without the S.T.A.R.S heroes, who swiftly built one of PlayStation's most important franchises. We'll be getting part five on PS3 next year.

92) PRICE DROP!
May, 1996. Sony isn't just a genius console manufacturer - it's a generous, kindly charity too. Sony Europe hacks the price of a PlayStation down from 299 quid to 199 quid, out of the kindness of its own heart!

91) NINE MILLION... AND COUNTING
October, 1996. Sony says it has shipped nine million PSones around the world in little over a year. Think of all the extra electricity they must be using.

90) TOMB RAIDER BREAKS BOUNDARIES
The angular Lara Croft was a captivating hero, a public superstar and, yes, quite sexy for someone made out of triangular lumps of colour. A series of gradually less impressive sequels follow Lara's breakout first game, but there was always something about her. She and PlayStation are like 'that'. Her latest adventure will hit PS2 early next year.

89) PRICE DROP!
After seeing off Sega's Saturn console, Sony comes over even more generous and hacks PlayStation's price down from 199 quid to 129 quid. History records this as the best bargain of the last millennium.

88) BUILDING MORE
In May of 1997 everything is going right. PlayStation is affordable and has the finest line-up of games any console has ever had. Sony increases PlayStation production and there's already 19 million out there by now.

87) 'SHAPES' AD CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED
Weird, and no doubt internally described as 'edgy', the Shapes adverts ruled TV during 1997, placing the Square, Circle, Triangle and X symbols into Greek restaurants, taxis and kitchens. Secretly, we loved it.

86) FINAL FANTASY VII 'CROSSES OVER '
Weird, this. No one ever really went crazy over these story-driven Japanese adventures until the release of Final Fantasy VII on November 17, 1997. Having already sold 3.5 million copies in Japan, no one's sure how well the adventure series will do over here in car-driving-game-land.

85) FINAL FANTASY VII DOES RATHER WELL
It sells 500,000 copies in Europe inside a month. Whoever it was at Sony Europe who decided to take the risk gives themselves a massive pay ris

84) KOOKY GAME WINS AWARD
November, 1997. The people's video game awards show gives a 'Golden Joystick' to Parappa The Rapper, declaring it the Best Original Game. And it was, and still is, an alltime classic, mixing up music, rapping and weird cartoon dog. Probably.

83) THEY ARE EVERYWHERE
January, 1998. At least 400 PlayStation games are now available to buy in Europe, with a bewildering 1,150 out in Japan. 200 million PlayStation games have now been sold worldwide.

82) POCKETSTATION RELEASED IN JAPAN
The PocketStation comes out in Japan. Released exclusively in Japan on January 23, 1998, it features an LCD display, sound, a real-time clock, and infrared capability. It also serves as a standard PSone memory card and looks rather cool.

81) BUT NOT IN THE UK
Well, it was a bit of a stupid novelty item anyhow. We probably would've said it was brilliant for a few weeks, then gone off it.

80) PLAYSTATION ENTERS EVERYDAY LANGUAGE
This is how you know when you've really arrived. After little more than two years on sale, 'playing PlayStation' replaces 'playing Nintendo' as the generic phrase used for all 'computer games' when someone old needs to talk about them. We feel strangely proud.

79) DUAL SHOCK ARRIVES
Was it really three years after PlayStation arrived that we got the twiddly-sticks version? In 1998 the Dual Shock anded, and boy did it make a difference when playing Gran Turismo 2. Well done, wobbly stick thing.

78) PRICE DROP!
September, 1997. Now you get even more for your money, as Sony launches a PlayStation 'value pack' containing a console, two controllers and a memory card - all for an embarrassingly cheap 129!

77) NEW TOMB RAIDER
In September of 1997, Sony did a deal to keep Lara Croft exclusively on PlayStation for the near future. As a result, if you want to play the year's biggest game - Tomb Raider II - you need a PlayStation. Everyone not already in possession of one goes out and gets one.

76) PRICE DROP!
Now it's August, 1998, and a PlayStation is a mere 99 - with the world-beating Dual Shock controller in the package too.

75) SONY RELEASES AIBO
And we STILL can't afford one. Stupid inflationary pay rises.

74) DOUBLE LIFE ADS HIT UK
At the end of 1998 Sony tells us that we're all lead a double life through its superpretentious new TV ads. By day you're this, by night you're something else, thanks to PlayStation. Stupid, moody, memorable.

73) EMOTION ENGINE MADNESS BEGINS
On the 2nd of March 1999, Sony announces it's made something called an 'Emotion Engine' to put in its forthcoming PlayStation2. Everyone sort of laughs, expecting PS2 to be a disaster. It isn't.

72) NELL MCANDREW IS LARA CROFT
Of all the models hired to pretend to be Lara at promo events, Nell remains our favourite. Although, of course, we wouldn't kick Lara Weller, Lucy Clarkson or that Dutch one out of bed for farting. We're nice like that.

71) PRICE DROP!
August, 1999 and it's a mere 79.99 GBP, putting it within reach of all but the poorest of pikeys.

70) 20 MILLION PSONES SOLD
In Europe alone by September 1999! Three months later and it's a whopping 25 million!

69) PSW LAUNCHES!
Issue one arrived just in time for Christmas 2000. It's the size of a phone directory and has a free memory card on the front. Everyone says it's great.

68) ANNUAL WRESTLE-OFFS BEGIN
We write our first review of a SmackDown! game, a happy trend that will continue right up to, well, this issue. It's beautiful. Even before Stacy Keibler, we were mad for WWE.

67) LIFE-SIZE LARA POSTER
Money was literally no object for PSW in the early days. Free memory cards, DVDs, posters, glossy brochures - we even used to all spend at least 6 a day on really posh lunches. And who can ever forget PSW 16's Resident Evil fully functioning shotgun! The pinnacle of our cash-blowing promotional strategy was PSW 2's life-sized poster of the then Lara Croft model Lara Weller. .

66) MENTAL WEALTH ADS , 1999
Remember Fi-Fi? With the head? Was she real or computer-generated? She was real; half Kate Moss and half onion, and she ranted obscure, meaningless trash, but captured the mood nicely. The last, great PlayStation ad campaign before they went too far with all that 'third place' nonsense.

65) FI-FI'S WORDS IN FULL :
"Let me tell you what bugs me of the human endeavour. I've never been a human in question, have you? Mankind went to the moon. I don't even know where Grimsby is. Forget progress by proxy, land on your own moon. It's no longer about what they can achieve, out there on your behalf, but what we can experience up here and of our own time. And it's called mental wealth." Say what?

64) PLAYSTATION 2 COMES OUT IN JAPAN
Ahh, so this is what the Emotion Engine was for. On March 4, 2000, PS2 arrived in Sony's home country. It goes down rather well, and by the end of the month 1.4 million have been sold. It's going to be a success which means we're not all going to lose our jobs and have to move back to mum and dad's house! Yes!

63) DAVID JAMES BLAMES PLAYSTATION
For him being a bit useless. But this was years ago - what's your excuse these days, you ball-fumbling cock? The disaster-prone keeper alleges playing too much FIFA has somehow impaired his skills, but people in the know think his problems are more deeprooted - he's got olive oil on his gloves, lead in his legs and can't catch for toffee.

62) WORLD FALLS FOR PUBLICITY LIES
Someone comes up with the idea of telling newspapers that PlayStation2 is so powerful that Saddam Hussein is going to use a few of them to control missiles and blow us all up. The press falls for it, and the biggest video game lie of all time gets printed everywhere.

61) PLAYSTATION SPONSORS EURO 2000 TOURNAMENT
Everyone gets free trips out to Belgium and Holland, to enjoy England's disastrous group stage flop, thanks to losing their third match 3-2 to a handy Romanian side full of experienced international journeymen. Sony's still happy though - around 225 million viewers watched each game across the world. Who won? Who cares (France).

60) PS2 UK PREORDERING BEGINS
Sony thinks up some sort of ludicrous scheme whereby you have to fill in a form and hand it to your local game shop to reserve a PS2 at launch. And even then you're not guaranteed to get one, thanks to massive global demand. It doesn't go down very well. But you've got one now, right?

59) PS2 MISSION TO CONQUER THE WORLD BEGINS
PlayStation2 launches in America. An amazing 500,000 machines sell in the first few days. Sony pours itself a large drink.

58) WE GET BETTER GAMES
After criticism of the slightly duff launch line-up overseas, news breaks that we're getting newer, better and 'anti-aliased' Tekken Tag, and our version of fireworkbased puzzle game Fantavision will have a two-player mode and more backgrounds! And did anyone ever buy Fantavision? Did they bollocks! All that effort, wasted.

57) WE GET 33 PLAYSTATION2 GAMES
Compared to the first PlayStation's three launch games, PS2's 33 initial releases is truly phenomenal. Everyone still only buys Ridge Racer 5, but we decide TimeSplitters is the best of the first few games - and will love the 'Splidders for ever more.

56) MORE METAL GEAR SOLID 2 NEWS
The game causes such a stir at games show E3 that the trailer is released on DVD in Japan. Still no sign of the game actually coming out, though.

55) CHRIS DEERING SPOTTED DANCING I N A LEATHER JACKET
This man is the president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe - and he knows just how to get down and party.

54) PSW 11 ARRIVES WITH A FREE DVD
And didn't THIS change the whole world of magazines. The first games mag - or any mag at all - to offer a free DVD every month, and for a stupidly generous 2.99, PSW 11 shall go down in history. At least, with us.

53) PRICE DROP!
September 28, 2001 - PS2 comes down from 299 GBP to 199 GBP and positions itself as a slightly more affordable super-console. Just in time for the arrival of Gran Turismo 3, too. It really is like Sony has had some sort of cunning advance plan.

52) GT3 GETS 10/10
Just in time for the 199 GBP price cut too. Yet more evidence that Sony isn't just cobbling this together and does indeed
have some sort of plan.

51) SEGA STOPS MAKING GAMES MACHINES
Poor old Sega. PlayStation killed off the Sega Saturn in 1998, then PS2 killed off Dreamcast a few years later. And if Sega was still making consoles, PS3 would've killed that off next year too.

50) SEGA STARTS MAKING PS2 GAMES
Sega's CRUSHING DEFEAT is our gain, as a move into software sees PS2 cherry pick the best Sega games. A ropey version of Crazy Taxi is first, but quality soon picks up with the astounding Virtua Fighter 4.

49) FINAL FANTASY MOVIE A FLOP
Because it was rubbish. But of far more interest was a nude image of the film's star Aki Ross, leaked onto the web by
a foolish designer as part of his online CV! You can see everything, due to the developers deciding to design the characters naked and then add clothes later.

48) PS2 ON WATCHDOG JAN 2001
As reported in PSW 14. The paranoid TV show claims that "24 percent of PS2s never worked at all" and goes completely bananas on Sony over a few wonky disc trays.

47) PLAYSTATION MOVES ASIDE
With sales of PS2 rocketing, the PlayStation gets a smaller, rounder and cuter makeover (known as the PSone) as it re-positions itself solely as a cheapo console for kids. A sad move, but one that would ultimately see the console's life extended - it's still available today.

46) MORE ON METAL GEAR SOLID 2
New we're up to PSW15, and do yet another feature on MGS2. Surely it'll be out soon?

45) WE ALL GET OBSESSED ABOUT A GIRL CALLED JENNY
This photo doesn't do her justice. Honestly. She had a job which meant she had to come to our office every once in a while. She was a ray of sunshine into our dark lives. Now she's gone. Not dead, just working somewhere else. Jesus, what sort of animals do you think we are?

44) ANGELINA JOLIE LOOKS GOOD AS LARA
The lippy superstar is incredibly hot in the Lara costume, but the movie Lara Croft: Tomb Raider is shamefully poor - and the shower scene doesn't go nearly far enough to save it. Tomb Raider reaches an all-time low, but incredibly, worse was still to come for poor old Lara...

43) GRAND THEFT AUTO III ACCIDENTALLY CHANGES THE WORLD
A seemingly average drivingand- shooting game captures the imagination of the video gaming world, thanks to a pick-up-and-play feel that has never been seen before. We give it 9/10 and four pages. Thank God we didn't say it was rubbish.

42) SEPTEMBER 11 THROWS MGS2 RELEASE IN DOUBT
The American catastrophe makes terrorbased MGS2 look a little shaky, with rumours the game may have to be axed. It isn't, but is still a long way from arriving.

41) OTHER GAMES AFFECTED IN THE POST 9/11 FALLOUT
"We've taken the decision to delay the release of 'Dropship' until January 2002 for a number of reasons, most notably as a mark of respect for what's happened over the last few days" says Sony, chickening out of releasing its latest terror-war game.

40) METAL GEAR SOLID 2 REALLY GENUINELY NEARLY READY ! HONEST !
PSW 23, November 2001. It's still coming, and we still haven't lost interest, especially as rumours that the entire game is not set on that green ship are confirmed - and there's an even bigger surprise in it too...

39)"MISS PSW" LAUNCHED
And the entries are... mixed. The eventual winner was a lovely northern lass from Grimsby, who Richard Melville may or may not have engaged in "TXT SEX" with for a brief period of time.

38)YOU ARE COOL AND SEXY!
And you've got great hair, a girlfriend, and a really lovely flat fitted out exclusively from IKEA. This is how Sony sees you, courtesy of some media-friendly promotional photos.

37) BMX XXX
Acclaim launches an extreme BMX game, where your reward is unlocking rubbish video footage of strippers not even taking everything off. It was disgraceful (the way the office copy disappeared).

36) LINUX FAILS TO CHANGE WORLD
In 2002 Linux was big news. Well, big news among male computer programmers, so Sony took the peculiar move of making a Linux upgrade kit available for PS2. We never bothered with it and we severely doubt you ever did either.

35)PS6 IN 'BIO-TECHNOLOGY' SHOCK!
"Maybe the PlayStation 6 or 7 will be based on biotechnology" says Sony Computer Entertainment's Chief Technical Officer, Shinichi Okamoto. And that's all the excuse we needed to print a brain in a jar.

34) METAL GEAR SOLID 2 REVIEWED!
In PSW24, back in January of 2002. We are actually shocked by the shock of the shock revelation, and give it 9/10 moaning slightly that it's too short.

33) METAL GEAR SOLID 2 ACTUALLY COMES OUT!
March 8, 2002! It's a weird coming of age thing that marks the closing of a chapter of our lives. The team has a hug, and remembers happier days.

32)MGS2 SHIFTS 350,000 PS2S
After the wait, the hype and several different kinds of furore over the result, Sony finally packs Metal Gear Solid 2 in with PS2 and sells another 350,000 consoles in Europe alone.

31) GAMES GET CHEAPER
When PlayStation first came out, you'd pay 40 quid for everything, with the odd cheeky 45-er thrown in. Not any more - aggressive competition from the internet hacked down game prices, with even the triple-A new releases available for 30 or so if you shop around. And if you wait a few months, you're able to get most stuff for 20 or less. Rip-off Britain? Not any more.

30) PRICE DROP!
PSone drops to only 49 GBP on May 18 2002. The machine that once cost 300 GBP is now only 50 GBP, signalling that the end - or at least the bargain bin - is approaching.

29) THE RESIDENT EVIL MOVIE IS KIND OF ALL RIGHT
Although there's a big chance we only liked it because of Milla Jovovich, especially that bit at the end when you can see EVERYTHING when she gets off the table in the hospital.

28) WOMEN IN PS2 FACTORY HAVE TO STAY LATE TO MAKE MORE CONSOLES
A woman in a factory (below) had to work double shifts because you want a PS2. Did you think of that? Did you? She has a husband and a small child who miss her like crazy. You're SO selfish!

27) OH! WE'RE GOING TO IBIZA !
Flush with success, Sony chucks money at Ibiza 'super club' Space, dumping PS2 pods into the club's 'chillout areas'. Trippy music games Rez, Frequency and Space Channel 5 are the obvious choices for pill-addled clubbers to play.

26) THE PLAYSTATION EXPERIENCE
A whole event all about PlayStation! It took place at the end of August in 2002, offering punters a whole exhibition centre full of PS2 stuff to play. They did it again in 2003 and 2004. Then stopped. It was probably a bit of a headache to organise.

25) PLAYSTATION DRIVES MAN TO CRIME
In what we at PSW call a 'slow news month', PSW 21 features the story of 33-year-old Shane McMaster. He tried to pay for three PlayStations using a stolen cheque, then, when apprehended, ate the cheque. The silly arse.

24) MEN START CRYING OVER ICO
Yeah, it was good, but pull yourself together man! Words like 'haunting' and 'magical' just aren't supposed to be used in game reviews.

23)WE TAKE APART A PSX
It's a PS2 inside a shiny white box, with a hard drive and loads of media and network connectivity options. Do you now how much we paid to get one of these from Japan? The funniest part is that it's set up for Japanese TV, so most of the top-end features - TV guides, hard-drive recording, network upgrades - don't work here.

22)PSX DOESN'T COME OUT OVER HERE
And we don't blame them. It was complicated, and you can do everything it does on your PS2 and PC already.

21)PRICE DROP!
Now they're giving it away! PS2 is slashed to 169 GBP on August 29, 2002. There really was no need as everyone was buying it anyway. That's just Sony being really generous again. God love 'em.

20) SONY MAKES A BLUE PS2
Or 'Aqua' as Sony calls it. It's this sort of genius that has kept Sony at the top for a decade. We advise you not to buy a PS3 until they make them in magenta.

19) NETWORK GAMING COMES TO PS2
Sony's broadband gaming service launched in June 2003. Socom: US Navy Seals and Twisted Metal Black Online are surprise hits, as network gaming slowly takes off.

18) THE NEW TOMB RAIDER GAME IS "RUBBISH"
That's 2003's Angel of Darkness, a game so duff and unfinished that Lara often died thanks to graphical glitches that let her fall through the scenery. We laugh at it and give it a rubbish score, as other magazines toe the line and say it's good. Once again, PSW is the shining beacon of truth.

17)SLIMLINE PS2 ANNOUNCED
It's like a PlayStation2, only about one third of the size and with a built-in Ethernet socket for online gaming. Everyone rather likes it, so much that...

16)PS2 STOCK SHORTAGES TRIGGER EBAY MADNESS
Christmas 2004 and it all got a bit nasty, as demand for Sony's smaller and sexier PS2 reached fever pitch. A Russian oil tanker got stuck in the Suez Canal, stopping the PS2s from getting to the UK. Parents panicked, and eBay hawks cashed in by selling the console for twice its value.

15) GTA : SAN ANDREAS TRIGGERS STOCK SHORTAGES
eBay madness goes into overdrive. We manage to sell a copy of San Andreas for 45, having only paid 32.99 for it on the high street!

14) THE SECOND RESIDENT EVIL MOVIE IS RUBBISH
And so the balance is restored. Resident Evil Apocalypse undoes all the good work of the first Resi movie by being, well, about eight different kinds of shit.

13) ROONEY GETS FIFA 2004
Why? Because he only gets paid about 40 grand a week and obviously needs charity. Poor little potato-faced angry fella.

12) MODCHIPS BANNED
Sony finally manages to make 'chipping' of its console to play pirated games illegal by winning a test case.

11) WAVING MADE COOL
Thanks to EyeToy, which everyone thought was the stupidest idea of all time - until they actually had a go on it. Suddenly mundane household chores like cleaning the windows becomes fun entertainment for all the family
and, better still, it's popular with girls!

10) WAVING REALLY I S POPULAR WITH THE LADIES!
Honestly, ever since we got ourselves sorted out with EyeToy's we've been beating the girls off with assorted sticks.

9) SINGSTAR IS ALSO QUITE POPULAR WITH GIRLS !
Crikey. Back in 1995 if you told hot girls you were into video games, they'd laugh and walk off. Now they make excuses to come round to your house - and they bring a bottle of wine so one thing can lead to another thing when you're finished.

8) GRAN TURISMO 4 COMES OUT
Everyone buys it, but still no one's actually managed to complete everything in it.

7) BIG QUEUES IN JAPAN FOR PSP LAUNCH
December 12, 2004. The Japanese people like a good queue, so they made a bloody huge one to get hold of a PSP at launch. Snapping up PSPs like they were hot, made out of cake AND going out of fashion, another piece of
PlayStation history unfolds.

6) PS2 REACHES 90 MILLION GLOBAL SALES
That's quite a lot. If you piled them all up it would be a big pile. Like, as tall as all the Manhatten skyscrapers stacked on top of each other! Or something.

5) THE SATIN SILVER SLIMLINE PLAYSTATION2
This hit the shops on May 13, 2005, and the shops are still wincing from the impact.

4) PLAYSTATION PORTABLE LAUNCHES IN THE UK
You must remember this, it was only the other month. Sony sold 185,000 of them. You really ought to have one of them.

3) AND EVERYONE STARTS BUYING MEMORY STICKS
Sony Memory Sticks, that is. PlayStation Sticks, they'll be called in a few years, you mark our words. How big is yours? Bet ours is bigger. The rubbish 32MB one PSP comes with is useless - we've gone totally custom and are packing 1GB of hot Sandisk action in our PSP. Suddenly even mothers start asking where's cheap TO BUY Memory Sticks from.

2) PORN COMES OUT ON UMD
Great news, because as we all know, all technology is driven by one primal urge - can you get rude stuff on it? And the answer, for PSP, is 'yes' - it's obviously going to catch on and be a huge success.

1) PLAYSTATION3 GETS A BIT CLOSER
Present day. And so it continues. Here's to another ten years, here's to more Gran Turismos, more clever adverts and - yes! - another wait of several years for a new Metal Gear Solid game. It's been fun, and it's going to get a whole lot better. Have you seen how real the games look? Take a look at Killzone on the DVD and be amazed. Here's to the future!

PSW Staff