Do you know all of these PlayStation facts?

The PlayStation brand has been around for 20 years now (makes you feel old, right?) but there are still so many things most gamers don’t know about it.

For example: why were the PS1 discs black? Why did the PS2’s boot screen have those block towers? And why did the designers choose shapes for button differentiation?

Well, here are the answers.

Black Discs

One of the most noticeable features of the PlayStation 1 was its black game discs. No one else had it, and seeing one for the first time left you mesmerised. Why were they black though?

According to my research, there was no reason, it was just a design feature.

PlayStation 2 Boot Screen

Remember all those blocks that appeared on the boot screen before you launched a game? Well, the number of blocks that appeared were linked to how many save games you had on your memory card at the time.

I wish I could go back and take notice of this.

What do the PlayStation controller symbols mean?

When the designers sat down to put the original PlayStation controller together, Sony’s Teiyu Goto decided that he wanted the symbols on the buttons to mean something.

The circle and X button were meant to represent yes and no, the square button a document or a map, and the triangle button to be seen as a symbol for a point of view.

These initial concepts still have an influence on how PlayStation products are designed.

The only 5 disc PS1 game was RIVEN

Back in the days of the PS1, three discs for a single title was pretty common. Some games, like Final Fantasy 8, had four discs. Five discs, though, was very rare, and only ever happened once in the case of RIVEN.

The main reason for this was to accommodate the videos that played after you finished every area. Today, the game could probably fit on your iPhone.

Spider-Man Font?

The original design of the PS3 was influenced by the Spider-Man movies that were popular at the time. Sony used the same font used in the movie titles to design the PlayStation 3 logo (Ed’s note: I knew it looked familiar), but dropped it in 2009 with the introduction of the PS3 Slim.

This was due to the box art and marketing requirements, which were affected by the new console’s smaller size.

PlayStation 3

The PlayStation Mascot died before he was born

Polygon man was the first PlayStation mascot. A purple headed, evil-looking creature, it did not impress Sony’s Ken Kutaragi at all when he saw it for the first time. The mascot was promptly scrapped and it never saw the light of day in the US.

You can, however, battle against him as the final boss in the PlayStation Battle Royale.