Final Fantasy VII, what a masterpiece and guess what… it seems to work flawlessly in what I tested here! I’ve been putting the PSIO prototype through its paces with different PlayStation games, and this one was particularly interesting to try. It’s a rather more involved game than some of the simpler titles I’ve tested so far.

I loaded the game on my SCPH-5502 PlayStation using PSIO prototype hardware 1.1 and software 1.1A. There’s no CD deck installed in this particular machine, so everything here is running through the prototype arrangement. The important question was whether Final Fantasy VII would actually load and let me play properly.

The opening sequence appeared without any major trouble, although for a moment I wondered whether the audio was missing. Thankfully there was sound after all. I then found myself following the characters around, getting into battles and trying to remember how the game actually worked. It’s been a while, and apparently I’ve forgotten quite a few things!

There was also a rather important technical question that needed answering. Does the P in PSIO stand for pizza? Probably not, but a ham and cheese pizza certainly helped the testing along. Nothing like a bit of dinner while an old PlayStation is doing its thing.

Once I got into the actual game, there was plenty of combat, a reactor to investigate and an escape sequence to survive. I managed to get myself into trouble with the battles and had to pay rather more attention to potions than I initially expected. I even decided that Cloud could do with a different name. Fox McCloud, anyone?

More importantly, the prototype continued running throughout the gameplay I recorded. I was able to move around, enter battles and progress through several parts of the opening game without encountering an obvious PSIO-related failure. That’s a very encouraging result for hardware that is still under development.

Please remember that this is a prototype device. These results apply to hardware 1.1 and software 1.1A, rather than later PSIO revisions or the final product. I tested a useful chunk of the beginning of Final Fantasy VII, not the entire game from start to finish.

You can hit up ps-io.com if you have any questions, since I am but a mere tester. I do not understand the technology behind this wonderful invention.

Prototype test conditions

  • PSIO hardware: 1.1
  • PSIO software: 1.1A
  • PlayStation: SCPH-5502
  • CD deck: removed

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