Original Final Fantasy VII players: did you get the game new for PSX?

[FF7PlayerPoll]

I've been wondering for a while how many people played the original FF7. Journalists often say that 9.7 million people played it because those were the official sales figures, but that's based on faulty logic: not everyone who played the game bought it new on the PSX.

Piracy was rampant back then. Second-hand sales were huge. People borrowed and rented games, swapped them with friends, shared them and got them as hand-me-downs from siblings and cousins.

The game was also ported to other platforms, including PC, and the PC version was heavily pirated. ROM sites suggest that it's one of the most commonly emulated PSX games.

For my part, I'm one of the 9.7 million: my dad bought it for me when it was new. But I'm really interested to see how the sales figures compare to the actual number of players.

(I'll be asking this on a few different forums. My apologies if it comes off as spammy.)

 

[Erotic Materia]

Kind of? My dad won it from a Mt. Dew bottle cap. So... that probably doesn't help.

 

[FF7PlayerPoll]

Kind of? My dad won it from a Mt. Dew bottle cap. So... that probably doesn't help.

Counts as new imo. Unless your dad played it himself; then it's second-hand.

The game was bought specifically for the contest winner.

 

[Sprites]

I got FF7 as christmas present from my mum waaay back in 1997 brand new, still have it, still works. God bless that woman for unknowing introducing me to that series.

 

[Jairus]

My brother bought me a new copy for my birthday after he and my mom convinced me to let him trade in the N64 I'd gotten for Christmas for a PS1. I've never regretted that decision.

 

[AllGoodInMyHood]

It was December 1997, it was cold (unlike these days) and I was 12, running like there's no tomorrow to post office to pick up the game. I remember that white protective envelope, the moment when I've seen the cover for the first time... I'll remember it all even on my dying bed.

 

[Rydeen]

I played my brother's copy, which was an original copy (as opposed to the "Greatest Hits" version).

 

[Tetsujin]

I did get an original first-hand copy together with my PS1.

My brother got the game before me and his interestingly is a somewhat rare promotional copy. I think they just handed that one out at some event or expo or whatever.

 

[Ite]

I still have the black label! It was technically my half-brother’s but he bought it day 1. I was very anti-nerd in the 90s, didn’t get straightened out til playing that black label in January ‘01.

 

[ForceStealer]

Got it for my birthday in '98. Greatest Hits version

 

[Teioh]

My brother swindled the parents into buying it after a mysterious orange stain appeared in the booklet of the game he had borrowed from a friend. Swapped the booklets and what do you know, got a brand new game out of it.

I remember it all vividly because I was the one being blamed for that stain

 

[Lex]

My uncle gave me my black label copy in 1997 because he didn't "get" it. Didn't have a memory card for ages after that though (he gave me that too), so it took a long long time before I first got out of Midgar

 

[Clean Cut Chaos]

I borrowed it from a friend then never gave it back. Then I borrowed the strategy guide from another friend, and never gave it back.

I lost the game later so I bought my own copy. The strategy guide was horrible, so I let my little bro have it before I went off to college.

Then he lost that.

*cough*

 

[ForceStealer]

So you're that friend

 

[Clean Cut Chaos]

Can I borrow your soul? I'll give it back tomorrow.

 

[Dee]

My first experience with the game was at a friend's house, so it wasn't mine. Then I bought it in college, freshman year, and beat it then. So around 2004 is when I completed the entire game, though I had played a lot of it in 1997 (just never beat it). I bought it from a used game store and I've had it ever since.

 

[LNK]

I bought the greatest hits, after I beat 9 (that was my first Final Fantasy) I later bought a black label that ended up having a missprint on the back

 

[Ite]

I bought the greatest hits, after I beat 9 (that was my first Final Fantasy) I later bought a black label that ended up having a missprint on the back

“With Vivi Landscapes”?

 

[LNK]

“With Vivi Landscapes”?

What were those?

 

[LNK]

“With Vivi Landscapes”?

 

[Ite]

Haha that’s great! Well you know what they say. I over Es, spells Masterpiece.

“Who bumped into the printer!?”
*Yoichi Wada scurries away” “Please be excited!”

 

[Vortigern]

After my unorthodox discovery of and introduction to the FF series, I snagged a Greatest Hits version of FF7, no idea when that became available compared to the original version but I'm guessing this would have been late 1997 or fall 1998. I distinctly remember playing FFL3 on the gameboy during a Fourth of July fireworks event.

 

[Glaurung]

Got an original version for PC. That's where I played it, with the infamous Spanish translation. Much later my family snagged an English version PSX disc, from where all the iso images for the numerous emulators around home come and I could finally enter into the international FFVII meme knowledge.

I also purchased the PS3 version for 7€ some years ago , but right now I'm playing it yet again on my Android tablet with a Bluetooth controller via the ePSX emulator (best 3€ I ever spent). I reached the post bombing mission yesterday, btw.

Obsessed? Naaaaaaah...

 

[Fangu]

My first experience was a bootleg hack for the PSP, but I've bought the game digitally at least twice since then

 

[pxp]

Yar, got and played the original PSX version in November 1997 when I was 12 years old! ??