Blockbuster Playstation Challenge
- By Admin --
- 2016-08-08 21:22:43
Product ID: SCED-00877 9676027 Release Date: 1997 Barcode:
Publisher: SCEE/Blockbuster Developer:
Regional Info: PAL - UK -
System: Ps1 Disc Colour: Black Exclusive To: Blockbuster Video
Click Here to View Larger Images.
Used in Blockbuster video stores for qualifying rounds of the 1997 Blockbuster Playstation Challenge.
Disc contents contain a single lap race in the Ps1 game Rage Racer.
Event took place in stores during July 21st and August 3rd, and the final took place on the 27th August.
Entrants were required to finish the lap within a set time, and those with the fastest lap for each store won entry into the finals placed in london and held at the Sports Cafe near Covent Gardens. Finals were covered on Newsround and Sky News, and featured guests such as Dominic Diamond from the hit 90s tv show Gamesmaster, and the 90s female adult sensation known as Jo Guest. Entrants were required to play this time on the newly released game Crash Bandicoot 2.
Winner was Aaron Nole, and extended info on the event has been supplied by 3rd place winner Stuart Morrison. The winner collected a copy of Crash Bandicoot 2, and a trip to San Fransico. He later appeared on an episode during the final series of Gamesmaster.
Using the disc in a file reader will show left over menus and images from other demo discs. An image displaying the Prince's Trust fund is found, though the blockbuster discs had nothing to do with the organisation. A strange image of a man with a morphed head can be found. No explanation can be found for this one so far. Its assumed its a developer from SCEE.
Its unknown how many of these discs are in circulation. They were never handed out to the public, and at the time of production Blockbuster had over 600 UK stores alone. Though, we can only find a handfull of stores that actually ran the contest, and very little to none info exists of this disc, or event online. At the time of promotion, the web was still young, and therefore it was not even advertised on Blockbusters own website.
Its said that an average of 50 entrants per store had entered, with 1 from each participating store going through to the finals. A total of 28 players are said to of been in the final.
Event is said to be featured or mentioned in Playstation Plus, OPM and C&VG; magazines, and may have possibly been in other EMAP publications at that time.
This is by far one of the hardest things ive (Shlim) researched so far. With very little info on the web finding anything about it seemed impossible. A detailed look at the disc and its contents were displayed on DigitPress, but other than that nothing existed at all about the actual event. After a few months of casual research i finally sat down for 3 weeks of constant investigation which led me through thousands of websites until i finally discovered the name of a contestant, Stuart Morrison. After a couple more weeks trying to find some form of web prescence of Stuart i finally found contact info for him. Mail was sent, and Stuart replied giving us more info than we ever dreamed, including news footage from Newsround and Sky News.
Still a lot more info is needed on the event, so if anyone knows anything we dont, please let us know.
https://youtu.be/PcetYai1A60 (sky news footage)
https://youtu.be/-uSWCl_g4jQ (Newsround footage)
Publisher: SCEE/Blockbuster Developer:
Regional Info: PAL - UK -
System: Ps1 Disc Colour: Black Exclusive To: Blockbuster Video
Click Here to View Larger Images.
Used in Blockbuster video stores for qualifying rounds of the 1997 Blockbuster Playstation Challenge.
Disc contents contain a single lap race in the Ps1 game Rage Racer.
Event took place in stores during July 21st and August 3rd, and the final took place on the 27th August.
Entrants were required to finish the lap within a set time, and those with the fastest lap for each store won entry into the finals placed in london and held at the Sports Cafe near Covent Gardens. Finals were covered on Newsround and Sky News, and featured guests such as Dominic Diamond from the hit 90s tv show Gamesmaster, and the 90s female adult sensation known as Jo Guest. Entrants were required to play this time on the newly released game Crash Bandicoot 2.
Winner was Aaron Nole, and extended info on the event has been supplied by 3rd place winner Stuart Morrison. The winner collected a copy of Crash Bandicoot 2, and a trip to San Fransico. He later appeared on an episode during the final series of Gamesmaster.
Using the disc in a file reader will show left over menus and images from other demo discs. An image displaying the Prince's Trust fund is found, though the blockbuster discs had nothing to do with the organisation. A strange image of a man with a morphed head can be found. No explanation can be found for this one so far. Its assumed its a developer from SCEE.
Its unknown how many of these discs are in circulation. They were never handed out to the public, and at the time of production Blockbuster had over 600 UK stores alone. Though, we can only find a handfull of stores that actually ran the contest, and very little to none info exists of this disc, or event online. At the time of promotion, the web was still young, and therefore it was not even advertised on Blockbusters own website.
Its said that an average of 50 entrants per store had entered, with 1 from each participating store going through to the finals. A total of 28 players are said to of been in the final.
Event is said to be featured or mentioned in Playstation Plus, OPM and C&VG; magazines, and may have possibly been in other EMAP publications at that time.
This is by far one of the hardest things ive (Shlim) researched so far. With very little info on the web finding anything about it seemed impossible. A detailed look at the disc and its contents were displayed on DigitPress, but other than that nothing existed at all about the actual event. After a few months of casual research i finally sat down for 3 weeks of constant investigation which led me through thousands of websites until i finally discovered the name of a contestant, Stuart Morrison. After a couple more weeks trying to find some form of web prescence of Stuart i finally found contact info for him. Mail was sent, and Stuart replied giving us more info than we ever dreamed, including news footage from Newsround and Sky News.
Still a lot more info is needed on the event, so if anyone knows anything we dont, please let us know.
REFERENCES:
http://forum.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?108698-Blockbuster-Playstation-Challenge-1997https://youtu.be/PcetYai1A60 (sky news footage)
https://youtu.be/-uSWCl_g4jQ (Newsround footage)
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