Happy 20th Birthday, Playstation!

December 3rd, 1994 – the day the Earth got awesome.

That’s right, on this day 20 years ago, the Playstation was born. It was nearly a year later until the Playstation went on sale in North America and Europe, but 20 years ago today Sony introduced the world at large to the Playstation. We haven’t looked back a day since.

Firstly, fuck, the Playstation is 20 years old. I’m 25 next year, but that’s alright in people years – I’m still basically a teenager just cynical and constantly aware of death worrying about my hairline – but 20 years is ancient in technological years. Perhaps even more so with video games. As one commenter remarked; There are college sophomores younger than the PS1. F*ck.

To mark the occasion, the Japanese Playstation Twitter has been posting image comparisons of Playstation characters then to their up to date and modern counterparts. Here’s a few examples;

However, there was so much more, and I have so many fond memories of Playstation from my childhood. Whether it was finally getting one for Christmas, being immersed in the worlds of characters like Spyro the Dragon, Crash Bandicoot and Tekken, going over friends to play on theirs, having the same friends over to play on mine, buying Playstation magazines, playing demos, trying to convince my parents forever to let me have Grand Theft Auto (I got it and GTA London through secret school dealings, though they did get me GTA2), visiting a school friend’s dad’s house because he used to chip Playstations and copy games. Sorry Sony.

Don’t worry, we were still a generation that still climbed trees and shit, played knocker knocker ginger, generally got up to mischief, played with actual toys and went out-actual-doors. Hell, I spent most of my own time playing in my own imagination – I died so many dramatic deaths – but Playstation was definitely a big part of growing up, and it grew up with us too.

So here’s to you Playstation. Happy Fucking Birthday!

Shit. I don’t look forward to PS4 turning 20…