Editor's note: Michael celebrates the 15th birthday of the Sony PlayStation by recounting some of the highs and lows of the brand's lifespan. I think that I'll take Michael up on his suggestion of grabbing an old PS game and give it a whirl. I'm always in the mood for Final Fantasy Tactics. What PS game will you pull off the shelf -- or out of the garage -- to celebrate the console's birthday?

And don't miss this upcoming Monday's edition of Mobcast where the crew discuss their fondest PS1 memories. -Jason

Fifteen years ago in Japan, Sony released the PlayStation. That's a significant milestone, considering my first memory of the PlayStation was seeing it in EGM and saying, "Another disc based console? That won't last."

My game collection has more PlayStation-branded games than titles for other any other console.

This anniversary made me think about my history with the PlayStation brand and what it means to me. I realize that the effect that Sony's consoles have had on me might be shared by others, too. We may have had different games in our machines, and some of us may have had to flip our consoles or sideways to get them to work -- but we all have a connection to the PlayStation's legacy.

The PlayStation was the first console that I bought with my own money. One game inspired my purchase: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, which is still my favorite game (I had to give a chance to any game that resembled Super Metroid). Funny sidenote: I had no idea that you needed a memory card to save progress. The PlayStation was my first non-Nintendo console, and I was a neophyte to disc-based gaming.

On the negative side, I witnessed widespread pirating for the first time because of the PlayStation. The use of CD burners was growing, and since the PlayStation was such a hit at that time, it was the first time that a number of gamers played pirated games. You could play pirated CDs with a simple device hooked up to the console. Some gamers rented games and copied them. I'll admit that I was a pirate, but boy, did I have a bad selection: stuff like Who Wants To Be a Millionaire? and You Don't Know Jack.

Some people would rent games, copy then, and take them right back. I’ll admit, back then I had some copied games, but boy what a bad selection. I remember “You Don’t Know Jack” and “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?”

I was a pirate who liked to get his trivia on.

The PlayStation brand has also brought us great things. On the hardware side, the dual-stick controller is probably the most shining example of the PlayStation's positives, and it’s the first console that brought DVD to games -- and for some of us, into our homes.

A number of famous franchises first appeared on Sony's consoles, like Crash Bandicoot and Tony Hawk. Although neither of them have the appeal that they once had, they impacted gamers and games alike. Fast-forwarding to the present, the PlayStation's new blood includes Kratos and Nathan Drake.

The PlayStation’s success finally caused Nintendo to look at disc-based media for their own systems. As you may or may not recall, the PlayStation was intended to be an expansion to the Super NES. Nintendo moved on to the Philips CD-i instead. In essence, Nintendo helped create the brand that would dethrone their systems.

I could go on listing Sony's accomplishments: the smash success of the PlayStation 2, the way that PS was the first console to encourage many gamers to import games from Japan, and the world of the PlayStation Portable.

If it wasn't for the PlayStation's great selection of games, none of this would matter. It would take too much of Bitmob's server space to list all of Sony's milestones. Maybe we should celebrate the PlayStation's birthday by dusting off some old discs and play some of the title that helped get to the console to its 15th birthday.