Twenty years ago, an exciting new games console began appearing in nightclub chillout rooms, subversive TV ads and cutting-edge style magazines. Keith Stuart and Steve Boxer on how Sony raided the underground to create the PlayStation generation
The room was painted black and cut off from the rest of the club down a short, darkened staircase. Approaching the doorway, you could just make out a row of flickering screens, but as you stepped in it was suddenly clear what was going on. This was the Ministry of Sound, the citadel of the mid-90s clubbing boom – and here was a room full of people playing on Sony PlayStation consoles.
Launched in Japan on 3 December 1994, the PlayStation revolutionalised the video-games industry. At the time, veteran manufacturers like Nintendo and Sega fought over the family and male-teen markets with consoles that looked like consoles had always looked, and games that played like games had always played. With its advanced 32-bit processor and accelerated graphics hardware, the PlayStation was designed specifically to generate real-time 3D visuals, moving away from the painted backgrounds of previous generations. The look and language of game design changed for ever.
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by Keith Stuart and Steve Boxer via Electronic music | The Guardian
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