Real Saturn Chronicles Episode 5: Miss Croft returned! This time on Playstation!

It's been a while since I wrote some stuff about my past as a collector. So just bear with me, cause now it's time to continue what I already started. Previously, I've told you why and how I was able to buy my original PlayStation console (which I still own).

I was finally the proud owner of a Sony PlayStation console after the disappointment I felt when Sega decided to abandon its Saturn console in Europe to focus on Dreamcast. It was the summer of my 14th birthday :D

Playstation was the console I really needed. And the only reason why I originally wanted to buy it was just to play Tomb Raider II. I told that to a couple of friends and they said I was crazy for buying a particular gaming system just to play a single game. It was pretty obvious to me that I wouldn't play just one game and I'm pretty sure they thought the same. The main problem was... I already had a Sega Saturn. Back in those days, it was very unusual to find a kid my age with two different systems from the same generation. The few lucky kids who already had a current gen console either had a Sega Saturn or a Sony Playstation, but not both. Parents were not very fond of this idea either. If you had two systems from the same generation, many would be jealous of you and consider you rich. That's how it was.

Much like Saturn, as soon as I bought the Playstation I had to wait some time until I finally had one game to play. My nice parents would usually buy the console but not a single game. They always made me wait. Thankfully, this time I had a demo disc to play instead of looking at a spaceship floating in space while playing free music discs (I'm referring to what happened when I bought the Sega Saturn in the previous episode I wrote). 

After a few weeks waiting, Tomb Raider II was almost being released in Europe and I was literally dying to get my hands on that game. However, I knew that games would usually take much longer to arrive in Portugal and release dates over here were incredibly inaccurate. Knowing this, I still had to go to the store on release dates to see if the game I wanted was already available, even knowing the game wouldn't be there. I was a very impatient kid and I would usually come out of the store with a major disappointment. My parents used to go shopping many Fridays at night. When they were at the supermarket checkout line, I'd rush to the music store to check out the games. On that particular night, it was Tomb Raider II's European release date.

As usual, the store had nothing. The employee told me the game was expected to arrive next week on a certain day. On that certain day I went back to the store just to find out that the game would only be available some other day later. And this happened a few more times until I finally gave up waiting. Almost one month later my parents were at the checkout and my mother found strange that I still hadn't gone to the store. She asked me why and I replied with a hopeless voice: "it's no use... the game will never come out...". Ya know, childish stuff.... She eventually motivated me to go to the store. I walked in the store and the guy at the counter already knew me. I hopelessly asked: "The game is not here yet, right...". To my surprise, his reply was: Actually, it is!". I was overwhelmed!

Next day I immediately told a friend of mine that I had finally bought the game. His name was Angelo and he also had a PlayStation console and a ton of pirated games - something very common back in those days and one of the main reasons why most people over here in Portugal would prefer a PlayStation instead of other consoles. I survived all the pressure from friends who called me stupid for paying so much for a game that I could get for little money through piracy. I always loved to own the original copies of the games I've bought, so piracy was out of question. As I was talking to Angelo on the phone, he came up with some temporary bad news for me: "Cool, nice to know you already have the game, but do you have a memory card to save the game data?"

Needless to say, it was the first time I ever heard about such a thing. Even though I had my Saturn for a couple o years and knew about that expensive card called "Backup Memory", Saturn had an internal memory and I simply didn't know what that thing called "memory card" exactly was until he mentioned it to me for the first time. I figured I needed more cash to buy that thing if I wanted to play the game and save the game progress. For a brief moment I started to worry, but thankfully my friend Angelo ended the conversation saying something like: "Don't worry, I'll lend you a memory card if you lend me your game after you finish it. I'll take it to you tomorrow". PHEW!

And there I was, finally playing Tomb Raider II on my brand new Playstation system, Hell Yeah! Just a few months later I made the best decision of my life with another videogame I've randomly decided to buy. That one had such a huge impact on me and PlayStation became my favourite console soon after. But I will leave this for another post some time in the future!:D