10th June 2004, 10:11 AM
Ah yes I remember the whole RAM thing. Thanks to Sony listing the system specs right on the box with the PS1, I found out the system had a grand total of 2 MB for RAM, and 1 MB of special video RAM. What with carts having a fast load time anyway, and the PS1 having a 2x speed CD-ROM, they REALLY had to learn how to use that RAM effectively, and did they ever, eventually. While lots of games suffered from horrible load times, some such as Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, managed to load what would normally be massive amounts of images into that small area with no loading, the system just being busy playing back the red book audio tracks. Even when the system did have to load new images, it only took a small amount of time. MGS and the later FF games also managed to really optimize the whole thing. Amazing how well they managed to use that piddly amount of RAM really...
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)