The recent announcement by Sony stating they were reviving the PocketStation via an app for the PSVita instantly got me excited. I remembered the little memory card/Tamagotchi hybrid. I knew I had one. I wasn’t sure where it was but I just knew I wouldn’t have gotten rid of it. Lo and behold, while cleaning my “man cave”, I found it! Now the question was, would my PocketStation still work?

PocketStation Packaging. Pretty Catchy, eh?

Originally released in Japan on February 23rd 1999, the awesomely strange little device was never officially released in the United States. I happened to find one on the shelf of our local video game store (EB Games, I think). At the time I wasn’t sure what it was I had stumbled upon. I knew I needed a new memory card for my PS1. Well here was a nifty little device that was not only a memory card but also said I could use it to play “extra” content in certain games. Among those listed was Final Fantasy VIII. Well it couldn’t be any more perfect! I was working through that installment in the Final Fantasy series anyway. Besides, how cool would it be to access additional content my friend’s wouldn’t know about or have access to? So I ponied up the cash and walked out of the store with my brand new PocketStation.

When I got home I remember thinking how cool this little egg-shaped device was. It actually greeted me the first time I turned it on. I pulled the plastic tab from the battery compartment and a small voice squawked “Hello!”. How f’ing cool was this thing?! I took a moment to look over the instructions…which were in Japanese. Well…damn. Not to be discouraged, I decided it was going to be more fun to figure it out as I went. I plugged in my new memory card/handheld system into the a Playstation console and fired up Final Fantasy VIII. After several attempts, I figured out how to access the “bonus” content of the game. The screen said loading and I felt a bit like Indiana Jones waiting to heft that little golden demon monkey idol off the pedestal. After an eternity (really just a few minutes of anxious impatience), it was done! I had done it! The super secret bonus Final Fantasy content was mine!!!! [insert maniacal laughter here]

Sony Pocketstation

You can imagine my surprise when that content turned out to be a digi-pet. Although it was a Chocobo digi-pet, which was awesome in its own right, I had never latched onto the Tamagotchi craze that blew through the U.S. in the late 90s. I was, however, willing to give it a go since it WAS after all my own digital chocobo. That is when things got bad. I murdered I don’t know how many innocent Chocobos! Apparently I am a horrible Tamagotchi master. After months of effort and an investigation by the digi-cops (one of my Chocobos was a famous lounge singer), I gave up on the gaming side of my PocketStation and used it as a fancy memory card. Eventually it found its way into my gaming collection as a sweet piece of memorabilia. And there it has stayed, until now.

Sony teased an announcement and then finally came clean about their plans for the PocketStation name. While this new iteration won’t be a physical piece of hardware, I am excited about it all the same. It is an app for the Playstation Vita. A sweet little stand alone program that will let you play all the “bonus” content included on the original PS1 discs. Out of curiosity, I hunted mine down. (O.k. so I had to clean my room to find it. Don’t judge!) I was shocked to find that the battery hadn’t corroded and even more so when the device powered up when I put a new battery in it. Double win right there!

Will the new PocketStation app see release here in the states? I certainly hope so. Yes it was a gimmick. No it didn’t add very much to the experience of playing those PS1 games that were compatible. It was, however, a unique marketing device and something that a vast majority of the U.S. Playstation audience missed out on the first go around. What could it hurt to release it globally? From where I sit, not much.

Hopefully, I’ll be a better Chocobo farmer this time around…