I was standing in line at my local computer retailer last Saturday, buying the RollerCoaster Tycoon Added Attractions pack actually, and two ugly chaps in front of me were having a whinge about the new low price of the PlayStation. One complained that he'd stumped up £199, which prompted his companion to retort, "That's nothing. I paid £300 for mine when it first came out. What a ******* rip-off that was."

Had the two not been considerably larger than me and in such an ill-tempered mood, I might have been tempted to mention that £299 for a PlayStation four years was a long way from being a rip-off. And yes, it may now only sell for £79, but that £299 console had probably brought heaps of pleasure into its ungrateful owner's life in the four years since its purchase. But I stayed silent...

It was this incident which prompted me to set the FG Time Machine to 1995 this week, to remind myself what the world was like when my Neanderthal acquaintance was clutching his bag of 300 £1 coins in his giant grip as he bought into interactive entertainment, PlayStation-style.

Four years ago this week the All Formats Top 20 Chart had five PlayStation titles (Tekken, Destruction Derby, WipeOut, Striker 96 and Ridge Racer) mixing it with the last starfighters from the previous generations: SWOS, Alien Breed 3D, Worms on Amiga; FIFA 96 and Micro Machines 2 on Mega Drive; and the likes of Killer Instinct and FIFA 96 (again) on SNES. It was clear that a baton was being metaphorically handed over, although there were those who chose not to see it.

Like Alan Sugar, for instance, the Chairman of Amstrad. Amstrad had just completed their first year of selling computers direct to the public via mail order, instead of going through retailers. Sugar chose to do this as he thought retailers demanded too much profit from the sale of a computer.