I own a
PS3. Nothing remarkable there – that’s
me and about sixty-four million other people, then. When I’m not being terrible on some online
game or another, I like to go browsing through the Playstation Store. Like most people I do a little rooting around
for new DLC and perhaps some new game that might be good to have a look
at. This can make my poor hard drive
unhappy and my struggling bank account look nervous. Seriously, my bank account is a worried
entity, constantly sweating and sending me pathetically worded letters pleading
for me to stop spending money.
Much of the
time I don’t buy anything, but come away with some ideas for games I might want
to buy in the future and be awful at.
Sometimes, though, I feel a tiny bit disappointed. I get the feeling that there are games that
should be in the Playstation Store, but don’t make an appearance for one reason
or another. Old games. Though, not that old – my first computer was
a ZX Spectrum +2 and just about any game I might want from that era is easy to
get through emulators and such. The old
games I’m talking about are ones that I played on the PS One and Saturn back in
the heady days when I wasn’t crippled by poverty.
They do
have some PS One (and PS2) games in the store and my wife was very pleased to
get a hold of Theme Hospital a while back.
She got hours of fun out of that; it was great. Something bugged me, though. I’ve got Resident Evil: The Director’s Cut,
though it seems that the Saturn version of the game has been expunged from the
history books. There were lots of titles
that maybe should have been present, but there was no sign of them. Like someone had been blindfolded, spun
around in a room full of game titles and those they stumbled on were the games
chosen for the store.
I remember
getting quite excited when I saw that Golden Axe was available for purchase and
then almost cry-vomited when I discovered it was the crummy Mega Drive
version. I wanted the arcade version I
remember sucking my ten pences up like some kind of ten pence devourer when I
was ten or eleven or twelve! What’s
wrong with that? Why can’t we get
similar stuff to what’s on XBox Live Arcade, I cried through the few, errant,
chunks of eye-corn. I haven’t bought Golden
Axe, but I still felt cheated. How dare
they stop me in the desperate and intricate attempt to recreate my
childhood? No, I’m not going to buy an
XBox for that one thing, didn’t you read the first paragraph – I’m poor; it’s a
fucking miracle I have a PS3.
There’s no
R-Type, either. A game I possessed on
the Spectrum and then, some years later, when I had a PS One for a short
time. I’m not very good at it, but it’s
a fun little shooter and can whittle a few minutes of boredom. And it’s not an unpopular game. There are screeds of fond gamer memories
about the little blue starfighter that could.
Yet it’s not there. Sure, there
could be rights problems, but given the money Sony could make by making the game
available that’s something that could be recouped.
Then
there’s the little game, Dark Cloud, that I spent too many hours playing in
even more recent times. I don’t think it
would kill them to give this an airing on Playstation Store. If only just to salve my hurting nostalgia
bone.
A game that
might be less likely to turn up is Exhumed, an FPS in which you’re pitted
against aliens that formed the basis of ancient Egyptian mythology. There was a PS One version of this and I’m
sure it would be seen as a retro treat.
Though, I have to admit, I had the Saturn version of the game that was
considered far superior. What do you
reckon the chances are of that one appearing on Sony’s shop front? A clue: non-existent. That’s one I imagine trying to overcome
licensing wrangles wouldn’t be worth the effort. It’s nice to dream though.
And, really
that’s all this is, in the end, dream upon dream. There is money to be made in dusting down
these retro gems and many more on top of that, but it’s whether Sony, or anyone
else thinks the reward is enough that will determine if they are unearthed
again.
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