Fifteen years ago, the Sony PlayStation was born. Released at a time when Nintendo and SEGA owned the gaming market, the PlayStation was able to overcome the both. Sony was able to fend off competition from both the SEGA Saturn and Nintendo 64 which is no small feet.

Fifteen years ago, I purchased my very own PlayStation. I didn’t quite buy it at launch as I wasn’t too sure what to expect so I waited a few weeks before making the jump. I was amazed by how great the graphics were at the time. I spent hours with my friends playing games like Twisted Metal, Battle Arena Toshinden, Tekken, Street Fighter and the original Gran Turismo. Gran Turismo literally blew my mind when it first came out.

Sadly though, it wasn’t all fun and games for me. Like many other, my PlayStation suffered from an overheating problem with the laser (?) that caused it to skip and freeze after only 30 minutes of play. Some solutions called for me to play with the console upside-down but even that didn’t work after a while. Ever since then, I became very reluctant on buying another Sony PlayStation branded console. I even skipped out on the PS2.

That all changed however when the PlayStation 3 Slim came out for $299.99, the same exact price that I had purchased my original PlayStation for. With the PS3, I can say that I’m a fan again.

Happy belated 15th birthday PlayStation.