A Video Game Collection

Here’s my tricked-out yellow PlayStation (I’ve got a thing for nasty yellow game systems, I guess) - no, it’s not in “original” condition, but I’m not too concerned about that. There are around 50 million of these things in the world and if I ever want to preserve the original system I’m confident I won’t have much of a problem finding another one.

I actually replaced the case on this while it was still a current system. I like it better this way - grey consoles never did anything for me. I don’t know when the “bland is better” mentality first gripped the console design community (if there is such a thing), but I decided to put a stop to it with this case replacement. I do believe this is probably one of the only surviving PlayStations in this color - a quick Ebay search for “orange PlayStation” or “yellow PlayStation” turns up zero results.

The controller is simply a green Sony Dual Shock controller (you’ll note I also have a thing for green and yellow color combinations). It is not the original controller that came with the system - that would be this one:

Yeah, this is an old PlayStation. No Dual Shock! Still works great, though.

Couple kinda neat things about my PSX - nothing mind-blowing, nothing too rare, but kinda neat, I think. For one, just check out the power LED in the dark:

How cool is that?

Second, it’s not only one of the older and now less-common models with the parallel port (for use with “game enhancers” like the Pro Action Replay - Sony banished this port in later models for that reason), my replacement case actually came with a cover for it (some didn’t) and I’m probably one of the few people in the world that didn’t lose it!

My case also came with a little divot for the PlayStation logo emblem. It took me a while to figure this out, but I finally did, and I actually managed to pry my PS emblem out of my original PlayStation lid without damaging it and then glue it to the new lid:

Most people with these replacement cases just have a little hole there, which obviously doesn’t look very good. It ain’t a real PlayStation without the PS logo.

I like my PlayStation, but it’s probably not a system I’ll ever need to play again. For one, the PS2 is backward-compatible. For another, almost every good PlayStation game has a newer, better sequel on the PS2 or another console. I guess it’s possible that people will be nostalgic for the original PlayStation one day as they are now for the Atari 2600 (despite having many of the same issues), but I sort of doubt it. The 2600 was a special case, as it was the first truly widespread, mass-market system. The PlayStation was just a popular system in the middle of the continuing timeline of game consoles. Mine will probably stay in the closet until my future grandkids decide to take it, and the rest of my collection, on the Antiques Roadshow

On that note, one more pic of the system itself for the road:

Buy PlayStation hardware and games on eBay