DF Retro: Sony PlayStation Revisited - Every Launch Game Tested - Part 3: Europe

Watch Part 1 - The Japanese Launch: • DF Retro: Sony PlaySta...
Watch Part 2 - The North American Launch: • DF Retro: Sony PlaySta...
John Linneman and Audi Sorlie conclude their retrospective of the Sony PlayStation launch, the story, the history, the games - with every launch title re-tested and compared against competing versions. And this time, it's Europe under the microscope.
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00:00:00 Chapter 5: To a New World (Launching PlayStation in Europe)
00:07:25 Chapter 6: Your European PAL (European launch games)
00:10:00 Wipeout
00:17:24 Air Combat
00:19:36 Rapid Reload/Gunner's Heaven
00:27:39 Novastorm
00:34:19 Jumping Flash!
00:40:50 Lemmings 3D
00:45:20 Conclusion
00:47:07 Credits
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[@anthonybradley1555]

the dinosaur with richard leadbetter's voice was hilarious, truly funny.

[@explodingrabbit51]

Richard voice "phenomenal stuff"

[@skonaz]

Its radical!

[@neqaa1]

Indeed 😭😂

[@MrStrangermoon]

diansours was great but is any game ever used even. ı dont remember thaat kinda graphics on dino crisis and lost world game. when you look at jurassic park rampart game its not like that. basilcy it was like unreal 5 showcase never used in real game.

[@seanw1783]

@@MrStrangermoon well it was a standalone dinosaur, so you could do more with it when not trying to cram it into a full game. Tomb Raider 1 had T-Rex models, but they were also much lower quality

[@DenkyManner]

PSX UK launch feels like it was drenched in Ecstasy. Club scene, start of 'Cool Britannia', jungle music, Prodigy, GamesMaster becoming more subversive. Meanwhile I had a Saturn.

[@override7486]

Ouch.

[@RetroGamesBoy78]

Me too! I still own my original Saturn and all my games which can't be said about my PS1 as I swapped it for a Motorbike! The Saturn and PS1 are pretty evenly matched, but Sony were masters of marketing and getting 3rd parties on board with the PS1, Sega on the other hand could hardly put a foot right promoting the Saturn and weren't so friendly with 3rd party developers, ruining the US launch killed any chance of the Saturn competing with Sony's machine.

[@adamfrancissmith5511]

I once met Tim Wright (Cold Storage) and he told me that when 3D Lemmings came out, every game store in Liverpool stopped accepting it as a trade-in because pretty much every Psygnosis employee immediately tried to sell the free copies they were given.

[@pferreira1983]

PC version was the best.

[@Ish0tJR]

3:42 LOL!, No 90s rave footage would be complete without the Dimitri finds out meme :)

[@alexsilva28]

🤚 🤪🖐️

[@jcdentonmale]

Очень плохая музыка, мэм.

[@dwah1986]

So much nostalgia for this whole era here in the UK. Special mention to the golden era of gaming magazines of which Rich Leadbetter was a HUGE part :)

[@hcsnake]

Same here in Poland man, these and the ps2 days were literally the golden age. We also had a few gaming magazines, some of them still exist but they’re just not the same nowadays. Obviously I like the new video games very much as well, but those times are always gonna be just special in some way.

[@RazgulTheKind]

Completely agree with both of you. It's absolutely nostalgia related for me but there's something about the PS1 to PS2 era that was so exciting.

[@Unexpecter]

38:02 Except music in level 1? Are you kidding me? That's absolutely the best track in the game!

[@markandisobel]

so right

[@alwaysasleep]

yeah I came to say this as well. haha. It's absolutely fantastic.

[@MagisterHamid]

I agree! It’s the best track in the game together with the boss music track!

[@Jambobist]

I remember they had Playstations set up in nightclubs, got a lot of non-gamers interested and gave the console a veneer of cool that appealed to the younger market too. I got a Saturn which definitely wasn't cool but I loved it anyway :)

[@roberto1519]

The Saturn cool, it just didn't have much time for nightclubs, it was too busy hooked to my TV while I played Tomb Raider, Resident Evil, Shining Force III, Grandia, X-Men vs Street Fighter, KOF95,96,97 and many, many more!

[@regalriker3266]

This was a thoroughly comprehensive and enjoyable series for someone who had an N64. This threw up so many old, random and forgotten memories of playing PS1 at friends' houses. Great work.

[@metfan4l]

So many fond memories of this time... looking back I'm really glad though I was too young to notice any of those PAL conversion issues. Kind of mindblowing how it was ever considered acceptable to just slow everything down, border it and call it a day.

[@youuuuuuuuuuutube]

This issue had existed for many more years prior to the PlayStation, I remember it on 16-bit computers and consoles. In fact, in 2D it's even more difficult to handle this.

[@MrStrangermoon]

its not was issue for me. ı only remember hard time for sonic 1 under water level bcouse it was 2 times slow and that level already so hard. other than that playing after burner , sparkster, sonic 2 and 3 on pal ı was thinking this so fast. like john says it help little slow in some games like after burner bcouse the game so fast. also eu sega boxes was way cooler than usa in mega drive and saturn. ı still chose just for box eu versions.

[@mortalwombat5324]

I always thought Tekken 3 was meant to run so slowly, until I saw a Video of the NTSC-version...it was like a different game

[@Tempora158]

They didn't slow anything down and they didn't border anything; the NTSC developers literally did nothing to their games which is what caused these problems on PAL displays. They took their low resolution rendered output (designed for a matching low resolution display) and displayed it on a higher resolution display as-is, so that's the reason for the borders. The game speed is tied directly to the framerate in those old game engines, so when the games lost up to 10FPS on a PAL display, the game just runs slower.

[@pferreira1983]

Never had a problem with Sonic the Hedgehog. I thought the game was amazing. The game however that felt far too slow was Golden Axe.

[@JustinCardiff]

Bought it on release date with Ridge Racer and Wipeout. I also enrolled at university that same day. Cant believe it’s over 25 years ago!

[@inceptional]

WipEout was easily one of thee standout launch games for the PlayStation, and probably my favourite title on the console in the early days.

[@odinsplaygrounds]

I'll take mid 90s Playstation straight into my veins.

[@zachsteiner]

Hey let me get a hit too man

[@alexsilva28]

Love the aesthetic of the games, the console and the marketing of it. It's so appealing to me

[@churibman]

Rich must be the coolest boss ever

[@suspectizm]

Playstation's Europe Release was such a good time to be alive ...

[@leoz96]

Wipeout!! Love that you mentioned the graphic design of that game, the presentation is still amazing

[@you2be839]

Yes it still is, the kind of dystopian future featured in the intros of the first two games and most of the tracks is what sold WipEout in the first place back then, along with the soundtrack, obviously. I really liked the atmosphere the game conveyed... and it even had weather elements, something that is absent in the more recent games, and it's kind of surprising!! It's also a pity that no one seems interested in taking the franchise back to its original roots for this console gen!...

[@JackBandicootsBunker]

That graphic design was so influential it even inspired the recent Formula 1 redesign.

[@VexAcer]

Funnily enough you could say the UI design of the Wipeout games did predict the future in the way of how minimalist flat graphic designs are used nowadays. The menu designs for Wipeout 3 still look pretty modern.

[@winj3r]

I still remember seing that tech demo with the dinossaur, for the first time. It was trully amazing for the time.

[@sparky2481]

🤯

[@TheManOnTheHill]

The European PlayStation launch was truly amazing.

[@unbearifiedbear1885]

Oh man that Demo 1 intro.. its '98, I'm 13 again and life is *great* ❤❤❤

[@modestyblaise4167]

36:40 I’m struggling to remove Aloy Leadbetter from my head. 🙀

[@Gehab]

Can we please get a DR Retro episode on Richard Leadbetter and his uneven frame pacing? Besides that though, he's without a doubt a classic masterpiece.

[@klodek14]

Thanks guys, this was a great retrospective. Ps1 is still my favorite console of all time. Some people say early 3d aged badly, but I have a real soft spot for it. I love 2d games as well, but wobbly polygons with pixelated textures in low res are my kink.

[@montygill2835]

This whole problem with PAL version's of consoles didn't go away until 2005 with the arrival of HD TV's, before this our games were 17.5 % slower,black borders on top and bottom of the screen,and if you use a RGB cable,the screen would slightly shift to the left 😟

[@BobBobOnYouTube]

Good times.

[@azazelleblack]

@@AfterBurnerTeirusu Err, no. The differences between NTSC and PAL were generally built into the hardware of the system, and even on later systems that supported digital output, VERY few-if any-games in this period had any options of the sort. I started gaming in gen2 (pre-NES) and I can't recall having seen more than one or two games with NTSC/PAL selectors.

[@SamSamShine]

Just the unoptimized game were 17.5% slower not all games

[@pixeljauntvr7774]

Seem to recall playing Pal 60hz on Dreamcast with a CRT.

[@musicismypassion7686]

@@azazelleblack your wrong dude I am able to play ntsc games on my pal ps2 at full speed using swap magic and pal 60htz crt tv. Just to prove it to you I play a lot of classic rhythm games like pop'n, guitar freaks and ddr (I even have original arcade style controllers and metal dance mat bought from djdao). there is no input delay and the songs never go out of sync to the arrows. My 6th gen consoles and below are still set up next to my hd and 4k systems. I can tell you right now that pal hardware is capable of running 60htz games at full speed

[@wile123456]

That manta ray scene is so well made in how it uses clever small fish sprites that feel fully 3D

[@liquidgeorge]

Europe really was the place to be with regards to the hip, changing zeitgeist of the early-mid 90's.

[@TheChromanoise]

Lol.

[@SoloNerfherder]

I hope we get the same treatment for the SEGA Saturn, Dreamcast, and other console launches in different territories. Also, I used to love reading SEGA Saturn Magazine, which Rich Leadbetter worked on.

[@dan_perry]

The 32 bit era was truly the "wild west" of gaming...I really miss the innovation of the time.

[@kristoferstoll587]

The thing I will remember most abut this series Digital Foundry are doing (which is great btw...) is the story about how his Dad bought him a book about Manta Rays for Christmas because he though his son was actually really interested in them due to the demo he liked to play... That gave me feels!

[@McdonaldeS1986]

I got my playstation in 97 for Xmas! Got crash, Porsche challange and steering wheel and destruction Derby 2 then a week later I got resident evil and it was RE that changed everything for me I was 11

[@ADHDxGaming00]

I got my PlayStation for my 11th birthday with Porsche Challenge and it blew me away haha! I was too scared to play resident evil back then so I used to watch my cousin play it at his house! Ahhh memories!

[@McdonaldeS1986]

@@ADHDxGaming00 yesssss mate well chuffed, the memories indeed my man

[@Shezmen88]

The "about Rich" part. X'D

[@SystemBD]

The Tinder profile at 36:38 ? Yeah, it's amazing.

[@alexsilva28]

Alloy Rich is bae

[@stefanherbst9980]

The Feature about Wipeout was so great. I was a great Fan of the Game, with ist fantastic Soundtrack.

[@kharlopena7512]

Y'all talking about 50 and 25 fps unadjusted games while I was playing Perfect Dark on the N64 at 8 frames per second and not noticing 💀💀💀

[@easyDoes1T85]

I remember when my boy got it. I told him it looked like trash and he kicked me out his house😂😂😂

[@perpetualcollapse]

I didn’t notice low frame rates back then and I still don’t lol

[@steel5897]

I had both, and back then to me the N64 was the system with the cleanest image, but choppy performance. PS1 had much more consistent performance, but the aliased, unstable image always stood out to me as looking bad. Back when consoles were actually different!

[@Essu_]

@@steel5897 Clean is...a stretch. N64 games even back then looked like they had a thick layer of vaseline slapped over them.

[@squibbly_mcgrink7689]

@@Essu_ the N64 had (mediocre naturally by today's standard) anti aliasing "smeared on" every game AFIK.

[@Djungelurban]

The PAL 50hz vs NTSC 60hz conversation had the opposite problem too. For example, for a game like Destruction Derby you end up with a game that's almost unplayable. These are supposed to be bulky stock cars but you swishing around like it's NASCAR on tracks that definitely aren't made to those kinds of speeds. Destruction Derby 1 and 2 should ONLY be played in PAL format.

[@unbearifiedbear1885]

Yeah tbh it was more a question of optimisation than any overt shortcoming in the format.. certain titles you'd never even know and some (as you mentioned; DD) actually look and run better on PAL

[@VariantAEC]

Yes I recall DD being trash in the US. I don't even recall Psygnosis being behind it and that's probably for the best because at the time I played most of their games on various PCs.

[@pferreira1983]

Like Zool. 😊

[@KaijuBoy31]

Absolutely loving all the little jokes and stuff on DF. The T-Rex was phenomenal. Honestly, it's amazing how DF has grown. It's gone from a place I used to come just to find out the frame-rate of the latest games, to a place I come for the people involved. Brill video.

[@erubalu]

lol the PAL verison of sonic is how i remember playing it and the "correct" version for me

[@manuelcruz8905]

36:40 When the museum tour just turns into a savage roast

[@ToadyEN]

“How’s your Manta ray book son” 😳

[@TheTakamas]

Great work, really enjoyed all 3 Episodes. Thank you so much for this wondeful retrospective on the legendary Playstation.

[@ms.bunniesarecute2287]

Jumping flash absolutely blew my 10 year old mind when it released back in the day

[@Aragorn7884]

*THANK YOU* for this series of vids!

[@AutomotiveCNC]

From next week we are going to watch the "SEGA Saturn Revisited" documentary series.

[@mcrazza]

What an excellent 3-part series! Well done John and Audi! Thanks for bringing back the mid-90s memories of PS1. :)

[@shigsgaming]

Very much enjoyed this series. Thanks for putting it together!

[@carlobighouse5434]

Lovely docuseries. You guys at DF are killing it lately. Thank you so much

[@startedtech]

Hell yeah! Great way to spend Sunday morning.

[@kingotime8977]

Nice to see, that Richard also has a part in this video and DF Retro in general!

[@gilpiper3564]

I had no idea about the history leading up to Jumping Flash! One of my favorites, if not favorite early PS1 titles.

[@brunofmachado]

That was thoroughly enjoyable, thank you very much for such a fun, entertaining series. This episode in particular reminded me a lot of what Tim Rogers has been doing lately, and that's great in my book.

[@xen0bear]

This whole project was amazing! Thank you for making this :)

[@BeyondEntertainment_]

Amazing! Phenomenal work, guys!

[@JeremyRiedel]

Good to see Richard getting involved in DF Retro. Keep up the great retro/vintage content guys! Nice work.

[@segat-800]

I remember this era very well and with Richard Leadbetter as the editor of the Sega Saturn Magazine. It sucked being a Sega fan back then lol. But I did enjoy the games a heck of a lot.

[@zachsteiner]

I have been thoroughly enjoying these episodes. Love all the humor y’all have been putting into these.

[@jjgarcia8291]

One day while in high school I walked into a KB toy store and for the first time saw the Playstation in person. It was running Battle Arena Toshinden on demo and I was simply dumbfounded. I searched for wires running to a larger, more powerful machine. I just couldn't comprehend something so small creating graphics like that.

[@splitshock]

I was GLAD to Witness Demo1! OH, YEAH! That Thing Blew Me Away!!! Glad you mentioned IT, guys!!! 👍👏👏👏😁

[@JamesScholes]

This video reeks of 90s nostalgia... And I love it! Thanks for taking me back and re-awakening my memories of these awesome times - appreciate it.

[@tyrannus8914]

Wow, this really brings back some memories. I remember when it launched here. At the local mall there was a demo booth running a demo disc. I would often find an excuse to go there just to get a chance to play for a few minutes or to get a glimpse while others were playing. Wipeout, Destruction Derby, Loaded and Toshinden are the games I remember the most. I wanted so badly to get a PS but I was a kid and what limited money I had I was saving up for the N64. I was happy with my choice in the end, but I also feel that I missed out on a lot.

[@waveplay3978]

Ahh the nostalgia of the PS1 era. I was 9 when I got my PS1 (my first ever console) and I vividly remember the T-Rex, being wowed by Wipeout and Battle Arena Toshinden. Then discovering RPGs with FF7 and playing a TON of FIFA 98, France 98, FIFA 99 on it. Metal Gear Solid was the most mindblowing thing of all time, and I shit myself in Resident Evil. It's all to do with my age of course, but those days were magical. Every game was fun in some way and I didn't think critically about games as I do now. I just let the games entertain me. Nothing is better than discovering games at that age.

[@tigrisrgn4062]

the music is always on point with these videos!

[@markwebster4996]

We NEED Dino 🦖 Richard on every episode of DF Retro!

[@mrbowie5408]

I remember the Playstation being in raves, Wipeout was the game of choice and it was a great way to bring yourself up after a little downer. Edit: also demo discs are nothing new but something very old! I miss demo discs.

[@Mr_Waffle.]

Fantastic series! I was only a kid during this time so I didn’t know the full details going on, it’s great to find out all this stuff years later. Hoping for more consoles to be covered!!!

[@kratosgow5010]

I can never get enough of PS1, but I would love to see also a Sega Saturn Retrospective.

[@charoleawood]

38:02 But I love that bit of music from Jumping Flash, it's wonderful

[@AnthonyRiddle]

Bravo!!! Bravo!!! What a great series. I think you've outdone yourselves. Very educational and entertaining

[@evnthomusic4218]

Fantastic watch, thank you!

[@MizfitZer0]

Being from the uk i might be biased but i believe we absolutely got the best ps1 launch overall. The number of games we got and the quality of them just blows the other countries launched out the water imo. It was just an amazing experience to live through as a kid. The whole presentation of the system and the adverts and of course the packed in demo 1, it was just phenomenal and nothing has ever come close to that feeling to this day

[@Ziggurat1]

I've been looking forward to this episode for a while!

[@SoumyadeepChanda]

34:53 'The genre was still having problem making the jump' I see what you did there :D

[@martinevans1206]

If a game was created for the PAL PlayStation first, it didn't need to be 'optimised'; so therefore Wipeout would have been optimised for the NTSC market.

[@bertplus]

These are all so good. Thanks for all your hard work.

[@mortalwombat5324]

Honestly, these 3 Videos were incredible, thank you

[@MrElliot1210]

Oh yeah, my computing teacher knew the guy who made Lemmings. I think they went to the same college course.

[@DDSlawson]

This Retro series is an insanely impressive project. Huge congratulations to the DF team for this. I'm from the UK and learning more about the PAL vs NTSC stuff is fascinating.

[@WickedRibbon]

Thanks for putting together such a wonderful trilogy!

[@beswick1985]

I have really enjoy this series. A well done and thank you to Jon and Audi for all three videos. 👍

[@Lord_Deimos]

The demo 1 disc that came with the Playstation is all kinds of nostalgia.

[@user-kg7tc5qu3q]

3:43 ОЧЕНЬ ПЛОХАЯ МУЗЫКА 😂

[@ivansidorov6464]

вот уж где не ожидал увидеть

[@BaJIeHTuHbi4]

Направление? Какое направление?

[@Deep_wolf]

Аахахаха, какого черта?

[@september_eleven]

Внезапно!)))

[@justanotheryoutubechannel]

I love the bagpipe song in Jumping Flash!

[@AutomotiveCNC]

"Rapis reload" also takes HUGE inspiration from "Alien soldier", which is the most impressive title from "Treasure" on the SEGA Mega drive.

[@JGRICH61]

Jumping Flash... remember renting that for a weekend. Played it non-stop, absolutely loved the 3D world and movement. Pure nostalgia gold. Thanks for that.

[@mikem2253]

Great video DF! Jumping Flash- my childhood right there. These videos really bring forward how far gaming has come and how consumers really are spoiled by the consoles that are out today.

[@gmbai]

A masterpiece of DF Retro. Thank you so much for this!

[@elrolomonger2827]

Awesome job guys!.. kudos for you all...

[@Gorkab]

Stupendous work!

[@kubev]

While I'm sure there are comparatively few games like this, Novastorm is an excellent example of a game that was clearly designed around being played on a PAL system, and it's always irritating to me when many people blindly assume that the NTSC version of some older games is automatically the best way to play. It'd be interesting to know just how many games that didn't review particularly well in other regions fared much better in Europe because of reduced game play speeds. I'm not expecting this number to be high, but I know more games like this exist.

[@lilhanhan]

Ah, 3D Lemmings... Back in the day, our household owned it for around a hour before my parents got frustrated with it and returned it! Oddly enough I think we swapped it for the Lemmings spinoff, The Adventure of Lomax, which I still love to this day.

[@gz1842]

Such a good content ! Thanks guyz

[@Fake_Blood]

Excellent soundtrack in this episode.

[@SpontaneousWeasel]

Back in the early nineties I remember begging my mum to buy me a Sega Saturn. Then after trying a PlayStation at my brother's friends house and trying crash bandicoot and Doom I was blown away! I couldn't believe how much the sound had improved from the 16 bit days and his friend had even plugged the PS1 into his Sony hifi using the audio out phonos on the PS1. As soon as I got my playstation, I plugged it into a hifi and would also regularly use it as a cd player (my hifi only had cassette, radio and aux). Great memories - thanks for another great df retro guys ✌️

[@SpitFireX85]

Thanks for editing the Patreon video down to these episodes for us

[@aeron5162]

I appreciate these DFRetro videos. So interesting. I hope this means other similar series are coming as well! (Saturn, 3DO, etc.) The half-gen 3d consoles before we get to the playstation, N64, and Saturn are so interesting.

[@recklesflam1ngo968]

Europe/PAL: Aka the region where we get screwed over with game releases (I first learnt of this when I got a reproduction copy of Chrono Trigger for my PAL SNES a few years back lol)

[@DanielAyy]

And game perfomance.

[@sparky2481]

50hz my ass😅🤣

[@MisterCasket]

Back then I just didn't knew about the differences. And I cannot remember reading in game mags about framerate performances. Well, unless they would say 'it runs like shit'.

[@sparky2481]

@@MisterCasket its not about fps its about refresh rate...Pal=50hz Ntsc=60hz and it runs like shit

[@pronstorestiffi]

@@MisterCasket 100%. As a kid who played Master System, Amiga 500, PS1 ect. It was just the norm. When you have nothing to compare it to, it did not matter. That said i would never go back to that. Even today owning a highrefresh monitor 60 feels bad at times.

[@jacobsoper4708]

Psygnosis designed the PC-based development kits used by most PS1 developers, which was a huge boon for Sony's third party developer relations. However, Psygnosis defied Sony and continued to release games on other platforms despite being owned by Sony, and this led Sony to become so angry with them they literally tried to sell them off at one point, but eventually resorted to clipping their wings in 1999 by restructuring them into SCE Studio Liverpool.

[@martinevans1206]

This makes a lot of sense!

[@matuzaato]

Just outstanding content!

[@Katsudon96]

the T-rex showed up...MEMORIES, Still own the Demo in its purple sleeve which still works on my Aussie PS1(the Demo1 Disc has Hercules, Abe, Overboard and various other game demos). used to turn on the radio to to the music FM channel then control the Trex's mouth and lip sync the Vocals of the song playing... i was a very bored child. (this was 2001 when i was 5)

[@videogameobsession]

"Hear it Now, Play it Later" USA PSX demo was pretty cool. Love that dino!

[@JimParshall]

I loved Wipeout and, yes, the soundtrack was awesome.

[@yusepbcn]

Wipeout IS the reason I sold my SNES and Mega drive. I entered the store , played the demo disk and run to my house to pick the 2 consoles to sell them to the store and pick the PSX . I was young and i lacked money... But wipeout ...it really blown my mind.

[@WalrusFPGA]

Nice work on this one John & Audi! Both entertaining and informative from start to finish- my favorite kind of video. Found that rare diamond-in-the-rough scenario when a PAL game is actually superior in some ways. Gonna have to try the Sega CD version of Novastorm now also. Rare that something turned out better than other systems on that platform, even if it wasn't the best version perhaps.

[@mcgillaz3672]

This is great stuff....my first couple titles back in the day were Descent, Philosoma, Total Eclipse Turbo, Time Commando, and Air Combat.