1997 Flashback: Video Games

Athena

Athena

The original one-eyed chicklet
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Black Thorn
One thing you probably won't associate 1997 with, or at least not many of us, is actually an excellent year for video games. Not only does the almighty Nintendo 64 debut, with an arsenal of some of the greatest games of all time, but Pooh's Grand Adventure is released for not one, not two... not even three consoles..... but five! I mean, we all know Pooh is big business but in 1997, Pooh was massive!

January 31 Final Fantasy VII - PS1
February 10 Mario Kart 64 - N64
February 28 Turok: Dinosaur Hunter - N64
February 28 Blast Corps - N64
February 28 Independence Day - PS1
March 3 Fallout - PC (EU)
March 20 Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - Sega Saturn
March 20 Tekken 3 - Arcade
March 20 Mega Man 8 - PS1, Saturn (March 25)
March 26 Vandal Hearts - PS1
March 30 The Last Express - PC
April 27 Dungeon Keeper - PC
April 30 Star Wars: X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter - PC
May 31 MDK - PC
June 20 Final Fantasy Tactics (Japan) - PS1
July 1 Star Fox 64 - N64
July 4 Jane's 688(I) Hunter/Killer - PC
July 30 Carmageddon - PC
August 1 Mega Man X4 1999 - Sega Saturn/PS1
August 1 Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin - PS1/ Sega Saturn/SNES/N64/Game Boy
August 25 GoldenEye 007 - N64
August 31 Hexen II - PC
September 19 Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee - PC/PS1
September 24 Ultima Online - PC
September 29 Croc: Legend of the Gobbos - PS1
September 30 Fallout - PC (North America)
September 30 Total Annihilation - PC
September 30 Poy Poy - PS1
October Grand Theft Auto - PC
October 9 Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II - PC
October 15 Age of Empires - PC
October 15 Mortal Kombat 4 - Arcade
October 28 Shipwreckers - PC/PS1
October 29 Riven - PC/Sega Saturn
October 31 Colony Wars - PS1
October 31 The Curse of Monkey Island - PC
October 31 Zork: Grand Inquisitor - PC
October 31 PaRappa the Rapper - PS1
November 1 Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back - PS1
November 1 Shock Troopers - Neo Geo
November 18 Tomb Raider II - PC/PS1
November 24 Diddy Kong Racing - N64
November 25 Myth: The Fallen Lords - PC
November 30 Wing Commander: Prophecy - PC
November 30 One - PS1
December 6 Quake II - PC/PS1
December 18 Mega Man Legends (Japan) - PS1
December 21 Yoshi's Story - N64
December 23 Gran Turismo - PS1
December 31 Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero - N64

Hardware
March 1 — The Nintendo 64 is released in Europe and Australia
October 20 — Nintendo releases a smaller redesigned version of the SNES, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (Model SNS-101) in North America.
Sony releases PlayStation development software for PC
Tiger Electronics releases the Game.com
Sega announce that the Sega Mega Drive (Genesis) has been discontinued.
Sega Game Gear discontinued.
 
Back when I was a gamer!

Athena said:
January 31 Final Fantasy VII - PS1
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I hate this game. My brother was hooked and so were some of my mates but it was so dull. They'd play for hours and nothing would happen.
Athena said:
August 25 GoldenEye 007 - N64
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Classic. Will probably be remembered as the greatest first person shooter.
Athena said:
October Grand Theft Auto - PC
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I had this on the PS1. OK so I was at least 7 years to young but it was awesome and I've not killed anyone yet.
Athena said:
December 23 Gran Turismo - PS1
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Another classic. The Mitsubishi on this game was amazing. Just hugged the road.
 
Tomb Raider II !!! My dad has played every Tomb Raider game made so far, the year it comes out. It's my dad and I's thing actually - we play Tomb Raider together. I grew up with Lara. I used to pretend that my Barbies were smart archaeologists 😛
 
I've never been a big gamer, but I've always been into Nintendo, so for me N64 was all about 007 Goldeneye. That game was badass, I played it for years. Also Mario Kart is awesome! Lol
 
I was never much of a gamer but my brother had a Playstation and I remember him playing Gran Turismo
 
I have very fond memories of these games. It was a good year for it! I still have a load of gaming mags from 97. They are very quaint.
 
I was a massive console gamer in 1997 . I had a Japanese import N64 in 1996 and a modified PS1 . So I had Japanese copies of everything , stupidly early . This is all pre-internet as well . I travelled all over London meeting shady contacts to buy games and gametat ...for years 😀 .

When Buffy first aired in the US , I was moderately obsessed with Namcos Rage Racer (Ridge Racer 3) on PS1 ....but I had a good chunk of that list in 1997 . When Buffy first aired in the UK I would have been totally obsessed with the newly released Gran Turismo on PS1 . Tuning cars in Japanese was a struggle 😀
 
By the way , I still have that PS1 , those import games and the memory cards for Rage Racer , Gran Turismo 1 (Jap and UK ) , Parappa The Rapper and others .

Most of my other gaming tat from 1997-2004 is long gone but those are keepsakes .
 
I still have a Playstation too, but it's not my original one. I sold that way back, but I found a pristine mk1 example with a parallel port a couple of years ago, so I bought it along with a few classic games: Gran Turismo, Soul Reaver and Tekken 2.
 
From that list I mostly remember playing a lot of Dungeon Keeper.
But also the many sequels. Hexen II, Tomb Raider II, Quake II.
Carmageddon was another I had to try and see what all the fuss was about.

Can't find the game I played most in 1997 though. That was Need for Speed II.
Some guy had setup a website where you could submit your times and I spent hours after hours racing trying to be "World Champion" which I also finally manage to be for a week or so.
It was the first time I had "internet friends". A few of us from that site used the email each other tricks and tips and just general chatting. Great times. 🙂

/SK
 
I mean I am guessing this would have be a prime year for gaming. Chances are I was playing more Football or Wrestling based games at the time. The late 90s were probably the last of the golden years for video games IMO. I barely touch the things nowadays.
 
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