Sony recently announced that they will end production of new game disc from 2028. As one would expect, there has been quite the backlash when it comes to this announcement. Some have spoken to the change of face, since Sony had previously hanged shade on Microsoft for some of its anti-consumer policies on the XBOX platform. But mostly, people are really pissed that we are stepping more into “you own nothing” stage of capitalism.
Recently, I have been getting more into “retro gaming”. To be honest, it feels weird even calling it that though. I am looking at PlayStation and PlayStation 2 era games. But I guess for many, that would be retro. I think I was already seeing the writing on the wall with the industry, and I wanted to see how I could enjoy some old games again, including the ones that I may have never played.
Now you might be reading this and thinking, “but I got rid of my PlayStation One, 20 years ago”. While you could find the hardware again, I acknowledge this isn’t always achievable. Sometimes the hardware can be really expensive, or there is a hardware fault which may not be easy to fix. For those of you who were in high school in the mid 2000’s, remember how everyone would play Nintendo 64 on their computer?
Maybe it was just my school, but nerdy and gaming kids all seemed to play 64 and GameBoy Advanced games on their laptops. Emulation. It was great fun back then. Emulation is still around today, and if you still happened to have your old PlayStation discs around but don’t have a console, it is a great way to get to enjoy the past again. A past with no in game purchases, no day one updates and no license validation.
DuckStation is what I have been using for PlayStation One era games. I’ve found it to work real well. Ape Escape for example I’ve had trouble with in the past. My husband had bought it for me once close to 10 years ago, and it wouldn’t run properly on PlayStation 2 or in an emulator. It would always be stuck on the menu. But I’ve had it working absolutely fine in DuckStation.
You can download DuckStation here 👉 https://duckstation.org/
You will need a ROM(BIOS) to be able to run games in DuckStation. DuckStation doesn’t provide them for legal reasons. You can Google how to get one.
In terms of games, you can rip a game into a file, but DuckStation does let you load direct from disc. This is when you will need a disc drive, which yea, isn’t even standard anymore. You can purchase a DVD/Blu-ray USB drive from a lot of retailers, and this will work fine.
Controller wise, I found DuckStation worked fine with a XBOX controller. So I just connected mine via USB.
It is worth noting, DuckStation appears to be very lite weight. I’ve been playing it on my Surface Pro “12 which uses an ARM based chipset. It works well. So don’t worry, you shouldn’t need some crazy gaming rig.
So what have I been playing? Well I have played a view games, I’ve just started to play the Phantom Menace, which has a bit of nostalgia for me. This was a game we used to rent from the VIDEO2000 store in my childhood suburb.
You already know I have been playing some Ape Escape and that has been fun! As a kid I use to play the demo all the time and always wanted the full game. Guess I had to wait till adulthood for that.
I should mention homebrew. Happened to stumble apon a port of Sonic The Hedgehog. So you know I had to check that out. A bit special since the first PlayStation never had any Sonic games. We would need to wait until the PlayStation 2 and Sonic Heros for that to be a thing.
Sonic XA is a short game, and just a little bit of fun. Just a handful of levels, so great for just killing a bit of time.
I haven’t even touched on PlayStation 2 yet, but maybe that is for another post in the future.
While the current situation with the industry obviously sucks, at least we have our past that we can still enjoy. I don’t think this is something that Sony can really take away from us. So rather than focusing on something that we can’t directly change, lets focus our enjoyment somewhere else. Maybe then, Sony will start to change its tune.
A note from Matthew Cullis
Something to think about here. Companies like Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony are huge. When it comes to video games, the market is quite centralised. There has been three big plays for quite a while now, but what has changed is how the product is consumed and obtained.
We used to purchase physical games from a range of different retail stores. But the industry has changing the form of the games, and at the same time, squeezing and pushing out the retailers. Since I am in Australia, those of you in the same country as me would have noticed how over years EB Games for example has continually had to adapt and change their stores in response.
Think about the next game you are going to play. If you can, avoid purchasing digitally. If you hold a subscription, think about cancelling it, or lowering the tier.
As “consumers”, we have been part of this story. We have helped to contribute to this problem out of convenience, and now it will really bite us in the ass. The industry isn’t going to just change for us, we will have to help it to change.
For me, the way I will be fighting the system for now is enjoying some older games, and I encourage you to do the same.
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