Over 15 years ago the original PlayStation ushered in a new generation of talent.
Antstream, a retro streaming platform dedicated to arcade and old-school games, has added five Net Yaroze titles to its lineup.
In the 1980s, the hobbyist game development scene was absolutely thriving in the UK. Home computers like the ZX Spectrum, BBC Micro, and Commodore 64 all allowed their users to write custom code from scratch, in what was known as the Basic programming language.
As a result, each system had an incredibly dedicated audience of bedroom developers who were keen to hone their programming skills by creating computer games, copying them to cassette, and flogging their wares any which way they could.
It was a golden era of creativity and grassroots development that saw the rise of legendary software houses like Psygnosis and Ocean. Series like WipEout, Lemmings, and Colony Wars genuinely might never have seen the light of day were it not for this pioneering period.
Fast forward four decades to today, and independently-created video games are everywhere. With development tools like Unity being so easily accessible, and an almost limitless number of online storefronts, it’s never been easier to create and distribute vidja.
What a great history article hopefully Sony remembers these values. Remaster net yoroze maybe make something unique and new.
The original PlayStation's Net Yaroze games were basically liminal spaces, with these PS1 homemade games being creepy in their own right.
It's been a lot about Cerny lately. And he deserves it, don't get me wrong. But I'm so glad to read an article mentionning Shahid Ahmad. The guy is unknown to many people, and yet he has done so much to Sony, to the industry and to indie gaming. Awesome man, he deserves more recognition.
I remember Net Yaroze. It was a great incentive and unheard of, (at least by me) at the time, on a console level.
I had a game called Rocks and Gems which was basically a Boulderdash clone, but cos no one was making an actual Boulderdash game, and because it was on PSOne, not Commodore 64 it looked great.
Ahh memories. Before the internet, before the console wars, and when a troll was just an ugly guy that lived under a bridge.
Terra Incognita! Awesome soundtrack, hilarious translations and pretty fun to play. Net Yaroze was awesome. I have a demo disc still to this day with many games on it. Used to be one of my fave parts of getting a demo disc with my magazines.
Haunted Maze is still one of the funniest games I've ever played.
No matter how many times I see it... the matte black Net Yaroze PS1 still looks badass.