One weekend changed the games industry forever, even if it was just in my bedroom.
The weather was typically unsettled in May 1994.
Anyway, that’s not important.
We’d come inside to a cafe area as it had started to rain.
That wasn’t the case in Sussex where I grew up.
Of course, I had no money so no way to play this Holy Grail of arcade games.
Oh, but I watched it, my lime green shellsuit reflecting back at me.
All the while the screen taunted me with INSERT COIN(S).
My humour will forever be wasted on people, I pondered before coming up with a plan.
I was determined to play Virtua Fighter, so I set my sights on a Sega Saturn.
They are not a new thing.
Growing up you were clearly either a Sega kid or a Nintendo kid.
In the UK, at least in my memory, Sega dominated.
We had other things, too, of course.
Then you had the rich kids who owned a Mega Drive and a SNES.
Early in 1995 Mean Machines Sega ran a review of Saturn Virtua Fighter.
I must have read that review a hundred times or more.
At that point we knew the Saturn was coming to the UK that year, but not exactly when.
and the internet didn’t exist.
I didn’t have 349.99.
I cut out and filled in the order form, anyway.
Positive thinking and all that.
I put the order form inside an addressed envelope and stored it in one of my drawers.
dropped by with something for me and my brother.
We opened the box as eagerly as any 12-year-olds would, fighting over who could look in first.
Inside was a loose PlayStation and a boxed copy of Ridge Racer.
I couldn’t believe my eyes.
I’d read about the PlayStation in CVG magazine, but I didn’t know it was out.
In fact it hadn’t been released in the UK yet.
Blockbuster had some in to rent out and we’d got to have a go just before.
Or at least that’s what we were told.
It’s fair to say that Ridge Racer blew us away.
Even the PlayStation game cases were cool.
Our house was crowded in those days.
Seeing these first proper 3D console games back in the mid-90s was such an incredible experience.
How foolish I was to think that was near photorealism.
Of course, the PlayStation and Saturn, with Ridge Racer and Virtua Fighter, would never be bettered.
I’d seen the light.
I bought a new issue of CVG the next day.
289 for a PlayStation and a second controller.
Ridge Racer on top and it was still cheaper than a Saturn.
I turned away from my Mega Drive/Mega CD stack, but I could feel its stare.
‘Sony PlayStation’ I wrote on the Special Reserve order form.
‘Ridge Racer’ I added.
And that was that.
