iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Wobbly Polygons @polywobble.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

Tested on humans since 1997. The Platinum range: friend of the cash-strapped, though not always that popular now with collectors. 📖:PLAY March/April 1998

A double-page ad for the Platinum range from PLAY Magazine Easter 1998's issue with an old lady leaning over and rgrinning with fluffy animal toys pegged on a washing line with the 'Tested on humans' tagline and a horrifying face with the face button symbols for features.

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Wobbly Polygons @polywobble.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

"... All that stands between you and certain death is an antique camera..." Now this is a cool and clever ad for Project Zero aka Zero/Fatal Frame.

An ad for Project ZERO with rendered rolls of film and unrolled negatives, on which are game screenshots.

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Wobbly Polygons @polywobble.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

Demo 1 in 1997 asks what species of fish and associated watery invertebrate best represent Gran Turismo, MediEvil, Kula World, and Tekken 3.

A crt screenie of a watery background ad polygon sealife, with Gran Turismo's demo represented by a starfish and gold wibblywobbly text

A hammer head shark for Kula World, dancing on its fins stood up

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Wobbly Polygons @polywobble.bsky.social · 03/10/2025

What do you get if you combine dodgeball with arena brawling and Treasure silliness? You get RAKUGAKI SHOWTIME; a wild-and-wonderful Japanese-only game for the PSX with a distinct papercraft and crayon aesthetic. It's SO much fun.

The title screen for t RAKUGAKI SHOWTIME with pencil/crayon drawn characters with chibi anime flair and some stick figure/emoji aesthetics that look like they've been cut out of a sketch book page with little white borders around them

A gameplay snap showing a brawl between two characters smacking into one another with cut-out motion trails.

Another shot with three papercraft characters in a grassy forest

Three characters, two with goofy round glasses and baggy pants, surge toward another bandana sporting character leaning back to throw

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Wobbly Polygons @polywobble.bsky.social · 18/09/2025

Though it would be bettered by its sequel two years later, 2002's Spider-Man from Treyarch gave fans a taste of web-swinging on a scale not seen before. The PS2 version is still impressive looking today.

A crt tv screenie of the Spider-Man title screen with ol' Spidey himself swinging away over a night-time city

A gameplay snap of early Spidey in his track pants, balaclava, and spiderman hoodie, standing on a ledge by the towering skyscrapers of NYC.

Swinging toward and between the 'scrapers on a web thread connected to who knows what.

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Wobbly Polygons @polywobble.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

"Get Away from Her, you BITCH!" 🔥

A crt TV screenie of fighting the Alien Queen in Alien Trilogy, with its moody lighting and green glow from a first-person perspective.

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Wobbly Polygons @polywobble.bsky.social · 09/09/2025

Almost two years earlier (Dec 1993/Jan 1994) than the release of the PlayStation in the US 30 years ago today: EGM's first unveiling of some juicy snippets of the Sony PS-X following its official announcement in Japan.

A photo of the small news article from our copy of the EGM "Sony Details 32-bit PS-X!"

Sony of the Japan officially announced their new 32-Bit game system, codenamed, PS-X last month. Here are the specs to date:

Price - Under $480
Main CPU - R3000A 32-Bit
Secondary CPUs - multiple DSPs and co-processors
RAM 'More than 3DO'

Plus more details about full frame video at 60 fps and 16.77m colours

The MKII themed cover of EGM Jan 1994 with a headline at the top about the PS-X specs unveiling and also NEC's PC-FX.

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Wobbly Polygons @polywobble.bsky.social · 09/09/2025

The PlayStation Can Produce Mind-Boggling Amounts of Bouncing Metal Frogs. 📺: PlayStation Developer's Demo Disc, 1995, given with preorders.

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Wobbly Polygons @polywobble.bsky.social · 08/09/2025

I love how rich with detail the Martian base where MG:R takes place. There's so much to look at with its pre-rendered backgrounds that wouldn't come across half as well with polygonal ones.

Another snap of a different player character making an audio log as he stands by a similar arch airlock and lots of intricately detailed pipework and computer terminals, giving the base a lived-in industrial look.

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Wobbly Polygons @polywobble.bsky.social · 08/09/2025

When some of the nicest pre-rendered backgrounds on the PlayStation meet polygons and gothic near-future sci-fi horror. A late release and ambitious title with three switchable characters. Stay Alone... Stay Alive. 📺: Martian Gothic: Reunification, Creative Reality/Coyote Developments, 2001

A crt tv photo of gameplay under composite of a brassy-looking metal plated room under eerie red light with a space suit hung up on the wall and one of the playable characters stood by an arched door. Seen through fixed perspective ala Resident Evil

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Wobbly Polygons @polywobble.bsky.social · 07/09/2025

Damp and dreary outside, going to cosy up with the first disc I ever put in a PlayStation.

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Wobbly Polygons @polywobble.bsky.social · 06/09/2025

Fancy a drive on wobbly polygon highways this Saturday? Grab a truck and then go wild decorating it once you have the coin in your pocket, all while hurling insults at your rival in an effort to take them down. 📺: Bakusou Dekotora Densetsu: Art Truck Battle, 1998

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Wobbly Polygons @polywobble.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

Memory card and console stickers 💜 We've got a few Japanese import games that included them. They're things I remember mainly appearing as magazine freebies here in the UK, and usually a lot less cutesy.

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Wobbly Polygons @polywobble.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

The ASCII Connection - For RPG lovers everywhere. 💜 Marketed primarily for playing RPGs, the ASCII Grip also has accessibility benefits.

A photo of my hand partly in view holding up our ASCII Grip, the one-hand use vertical Wiimote-like controller with a rounded end and buttons arranged around it.

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Wobbly Polygons @polywobble.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

Official Peripherals on Parade. That delicious Cherry Red memory card <3 And I have the black, white, and smoke grey controllers. Always feels a little weird having non-Dual Shock pads in different colours other than the grey.

A photo of an official Sony periphs pamphlet from our copy of Crash 3. Shows a G-Con45 light gun, multitap, and the Dual Shock grey controller.

Lots of cool memory card colours and four different colours of non-DS pads.

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Wobbly Polygons @polywobble.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

Death by Stereo has been rattling around my head for not far off thirty years now. Originally an Acorn Archimedes game, then 3DO, then finally to PO, PS1, and Saturn. 📺: Star Fighter/Star Fighter 3000, Fednet Software, 1996 (PS1 version)

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Wobbly Polygons @polywobble.bsky.social · 29/08/2025

Just a lil' fox on a lil' adventure. 🦊⚔️ Psynosis's charming Zelda-alike ARPG adventure starring a kingdom of anthropomorphic animals who all talk like Animal Crossing characters. Which only makes them even cuter to interact with!

The colourful loading screen for Kingsley's Adventure with the young adventurous anthro fox brandishing sword and shield as he surges forward toward the viewer

The title screen with a polygonal castle

A gameplay snap with Kingsley conversing with a Goose. There's an Animal Crossing quality to the character designs and the talking sounds they all make

A close up of Kingsley's polygon foxness

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Wobbly Polygons @polywobble.bsky.social · 24/08/2025

From the GamesMaster magazine Xmas 1997 VHS special: some sweet looking back at the hits of the year and those still to come in '98. 🔥 Soul food for the PSX-loving heart. <3

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Wobbly Polygons @polywobble.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

"Nine planets. One sun. Hunger, poverty, decay. We turned on one another... This was the world I was born into." One of the best intros of its era. 📺: Colony Wars: Vengeance, Psygnosis, 1998

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Wobbly Polygons @polywobble.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

"Square's Sexy New RPG/Thriller Reviewed Inside" 🔥 They award Parasite Eve 4/5, with the cons being no puzzles and poor animation.

A snap of the cover of OPMUS Issue 12 with renders of Eve and Aya on the cover and a cool close-up of half of Aya Brea's face on half the cover.

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Wobbly Polygons @polywobble.bsky.social · 17/08/2025

Yeah! Very much intended to be the console's mascot in Japan. And you also had 'Polygon Man' as the first stab at one outside of Japan.

A promo for the PlayStation and playing Ridge Racer at a show booth with a spikey purple head in the middle of hypnotic circles

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Wobbly Polygons @polywobble.bsky.social · 17/08/2025

Cool sci-fi locations, cool mix of psionic powers and weapons, and cheesy live-action cutscenes? This all blended together into the reason why Insomniac Games' Disruptor was one of my favourite FPS games.

A screenie from a demo of Disruptor on one of OPMUK's demo discs, of an aerostat station with smooth gold and chrome glass and metal structure (if you're a Warframe player like me, you might feel its a bit orokin too!) with chunky robots being blasted by psi powers of energy blue-white lightning while a shoulder mounted rocket launcher stands at the ready,

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Wobbly Polygons @polywobble.bsky.social · 17/08/2025

Breezy Sunday afternoon PS1 Euro demo disc vibes. Tune in, space out.

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Wobbly Polygons @polywobble.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

Apache helicopters on the wobbly polygon horizon - GUNSHIP! An earlier release for PSX, Gunship is a solid and full-featured port of Gunship 2000 for Amiga and DOS (with a bit of the CD32 version thrown in) that swaps filled polygon battlefields for texture-mapped ones.

One of the FMV cutscenes that sporadically play using old footage of Apache gunships banking over a coastline forest

The title screen for Gunship that uses the PlayStation's hi-res mode (as do most of its menus) that are a little bit painful to look at on crt tvs.

A gameplay snap showing the cockpit view and green texture-mapped landcape

A snap of the waypoint map with primary and secondary objectives to complete.

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Wobbly Polygons @polywobble.bsky.social · 05/08/2025

Where did you go for some space combat action on the early PlayStation? You went to Starblade Alpha, a March '95 remake of the 1991 Namco arcade game. Strap yourself in as a gunner FX-01 Geosword and save the galaxy!

A snap showing the streamed FMV-ey rendered background and the first-person on-rails shooting gameplay.

More spacey shooting with a rendered enemy ship in the crosshairs over a blue world

OA snap of one of the big battleships in chrome and grey plating in orbit of the cresting blue planet

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Wobbly Polygons @polywobble.bsky.social · 05/08/2025

The Wobbly Polyon Airforce on Parade ✈️ 📺: Ace Combat 2, Nanco, 1997

A CRT screenie of a 3D polygonal F4 Phantom in jungle camo livery with various stats and a buy price.

A CRT screenie of a 3D polygonal F-117A stealth fighter in blue-black livery with yellow markings.

A CRT screenie of a 3D polygonal Su-35 in greyish blue-white camo livery with its own stats displayed.

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Wobbly Polygons @polywobble.bsky.social · 11/07/2025

What a cute little welcoming bit of CRT+PS2 pixel art <3 The landing page for a Neocities site I've just been having a poke around in. cosmic-kiko.neocities.org

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Wobbly Polygons @polywobble.bsky.social · 07/07/2025

"Final Fantasy VII is hundreds of levels long." - GAME, 1997. It's quite cute to see them still describing games like this to emphasise just how big it is.

A snap of a GAME brochure with FF7 for £44.99 and describing it as "The ultimate role-playing adventure with hundreds of levels and hours of gameplay."

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Wobbly Polygons @polywobble.bsky.social · 07/07/2025

Happy 25th birthday, Final Fantasy IX <3 Still my favourite of the PS1 Final Fantasy games.

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Wobbly Polygons @polywobble.bsky.social · 06/07/2025

Blistering speed and Y2K cyber-vibes in an early racing game for PS2 and third in its series. 📺: Extreme-G3/XGIII: Extreme G Racing, Acclaim Studios Cheltenham, 2001

A CRT TV screenie of a third-person cyberpunk racing game with a sci-fi metropolis beneath a red sky and with a chequered section of track ahead and spotlight gantries on either side.

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Wobbly Polygons @polywobble.bsky.social · 27/06/2025

Charitable PSX games! The Help Charity compilation, released in 1998 with proceeds going to children's charities, bundled together a few disparate games from 1996. These days, it's a cheap way of picking up Myst and Broken Sword for PS1 - the first versions of them I played.

A photo of the 3-game compilation with a mosiac style cover of all three game loogos

The back of the case shows screenies of the game and some review blurb.

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Wobbly Polygons @polywobble.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

The key to the magic kingdom. Even though I haven't followed Kingdom Hearts past the second game, the first game is such powerful nostalgia. <3

The cover of Official US PlayStation magazine with its Kingdom Hearts artwork and headline. Also, GTA Vice City revealed!

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Wobbly Polygons @polywobble.bsky.social · 22/06/2025

14 seconds of pure awesomeness and anticipation with the Konami logo that has the most nostalgic punch to it for me. <3

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Wobbly Polygons @polywobble.bsky.social · 22/06/2025

I'll get some 1998 PIZZA-POWERED PlayStation demo disc action in for this week's #ScanlineSunday! Metal Gear Solid, Crash Bandicoot: Warped, Tomb Raider III, MediEvil? You're gonna be in for a great pizza night. 📺: Bush 14" inch VCR combi (RGB SCART)

A photo of the title screren with cool neon dual shock wireframe pads in the background and game logos around the central game preview window. Plus some Pizza Hut blurb at the bottom and the names of their hottest pizzas.

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Wobbly Polygons @polywobble.bsky.social · 21/06/2025

Preview '99 - the upcoming stars of the last year of the old millennium, as drawn by Marvel and Dark Horse comics artist Art Adams for a banger PSM cover. 💜

Jan 1999's PSM cover with Chun Li, a Racoon Police zombie, Squal, and Raziel posed on the cover - plus Pocket Station, the first games!

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Wobbly Polygons @polywobble.bsky.social · 19/06/2025

"Let's Go Online!" - The Starter Kit! Imagining a PC-98 and Net Yaroze next to one another makes me shiver. 🥵

An ad for the DTL-3000 Net Yaroze online starter kit with a photograph of the charcoal grey homebrew dev PS1 and two pads against a stark, classy white background.

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Wobbly Polygons @polywobble.bsky.social · 19/06/2025

"If you don't lose your head, someone else might..." A grisly ad for a game with, admittedly, copious amounts of gushing pixel blood - Vandal Hearts!

A magazine ad with a skull skewered on a sword blade and game screenies and blurb below.

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Wobbly Polygons @polywobble.bsky.social · 17/06/2025

September 30th, 1995. The PlayStation is out in the UK! Across the country, bleary-eyed folks fresh out of bed tapped into Teletext and Digitiser the next morning, greeted by Violet Berlin and their appraisal of Sony's new wonderbox.

The main menu page for Digitiser with its cool teletext artwork of a blue mohwaked dude with shades, and 6 categories of text. Playstation assessed, plus an old game - Colony for the Spectrum. Retro nostalgia in the mid 90s!

Violet Berlin's appraisal: "The battle lines are drawn in the same: two huge organisations, vying for world domination, each armed with the very latest in hardware. No quest will be given. But enough about Command & Conquer, I want to talk about the superconsoles, but mainly the PlayStation.

A bit talking about critique of a lack of game bundled with the PS1, only a demo disc, and that the price difference when you buy a mem card and game between the PS and Saturn diminishes.

The verdict! Sega, Nintendo, and 3DO have a fight on their hands.

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Wobbly Polygons @polywobble.bsky.social · 16/06/2025

Carpgs, tactical mechs, STGs, even Final Fantasy; what weren't late 90s Square turning their hand at? Well, chalk up one more genre they took under their wing via developer Positron: music tube shooters! Internal Section runs at 640x480 at a silky smooth 60fps and comes highly recommended.

The minimalisticc tutle scren with I S spelled out in rounded dots and a single a tube, with 1999 Square/positron at the bottom

Internal Sections hella cool stylized net-technical aesthetic UI with cyberpunk elements and the different stage types

A gameplay snap captured via GBS-C and our PS1 of the virtual reality-themed tube tunnels, all glowing circuitry and grid lines and splintered triangles with an abstract player ship that changes shape with the Chinese Zodiac named weapon you use (rat, dragon, monkey, etc)

Another gameplay snap showing polyonal letter banners circling around with OK >>> on them

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Wobbly Polygons @polywobble.bsky.social · 14/06/2025

Take me down to Racing Lagoon City, where the streets wobble and the polygons are pretty 🎶 The joy of driving around a wee isometric Yokohama as the millennium turns. 📺: Racing Lagoon, Square, 1999

A crt tv screenie under RGB Scart of model railway-esque depiction of an isometric Yokohama with a road network, buildings, and trucks and other vehicles traveling around at night.

Looking up and across at an overpass an orange taxi cab drives by the lower road and a white truck can be seen on the overpass.

South Yokohama... A glittering city of polygons at night

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Wobbly Polygons @polywobble.bsky.social · 14/06/2025

RSOD - though thankfully just a wipe of the disc needed. Still spooky tho!

Pleasse insert PlayStation format disc - white text on an ominous gradient red grid pattern background on a crt tv.

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Wobbly Polygons @polywobble.bsky.social · 10/06/2025

Come fly with me, let's fly away 🎶 Namco takes their nascent arcade flight series to new heights in '97.

A CRT TV snap of one of the last levels in Ace Combat 2 with an F22 over a night time metropolis.

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Wobbly Polygons @polywobble.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

Rebus, aka Legend of Kartia, aka Kartia: Word of Fate, aka the non-Final Fantasy game from Atlus that Yoshitaka Amano did character artwork and illustrations for during a time when he was exclusively doing them for SquareSoft.

A photo of the included mini art book for the Japanese release we have with illustrations of the main cast, this one being blonde-haired Toxa Classico.

A snap of the contents of Rebus's manuals, pamphlets, and and other goodies.

Another snap of the art book and Amano artwork

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Wobbly Polygons @polywobble.bsky.social · 07/06/2025

C'mon, get your body movin' to the beat 🎶 The arcade dancing sensation made its way to the PSX to get your dancing fingers and feet movin' and groovin' 📺: Dance Dance Revolution, Bemani/Konami, 1999

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Wobbly Polygons @polywobble.bsky.social · 06/06/2025

*whistles* 🎶 Making a splash in GameFan in 1997 - Wild Arms!

Left page of a coloiurful preview feature in GameFan magazine with a mix of character illustrations, screenies, and blocks of text

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Wobbly Polygons @polywobble.bsky.social · 06/06/2025

This is a cut-down version of the 1996 Demo One, featuring some neat demos of Tekken 2, Wipeout 2097, Monster Trucks, Destruction Derby, and Crash Bandicoot.

The trippy, chrome, green, and orange sliding biorganic panels of the demo selector

More psychedelic presentation on the main menu with rotating circles and logos

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Wobbly Polygons @polywobble.bsky.social · 06/06/2025

The bonus treat in some PS1 games: a demo disc! Lovely Autumn/Winter Releases of '96. 💜

A photo of the PAL double case release of Crash Bandicoot

Inside the case to show the vibrantly busy disc artwork and manual

And a photo of the black and silver Autumn/Christmas releases disc

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Wobbly Polygons @polywobble.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

"It's real, it's dangerous, and you're gonna love it..." 📺: UK Wipeout Fusion commercial, 2002.

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Wobbly Polygons @polywobble.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

Some more lovely FFVII GameFan eye-candy. It's one of my favourite mags for lovely, clear screenies in abundance.

Another page of the feature with an array of game screenies, text blurb, and a photo of Hiroshi Kawai, a SIGGRAPH demo designer

More big screenies with dramatic snaps of Midgar and pre-rendered enviros

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