An Unplayable PlayStation 1 Game Has Finally Come To PS5 After 29 Years

2 hours ago 12

Published Jul 24, 2026, 6:00 PM EDT

Kyle Gratton is an editor and writer based out of Kansas City. He received a bachelor's degree, dual majoring in English and History with a minor in Film and Media Studies, and has been a senior staff writer and reviewer for Screen Rant's Gaming section since 2021, with roles in editorial, and various freelance projects.

A terminal Midwesterner who graduated from the University of Kansas, Kyle also has knowledge and interest in literature, film, film adaptions of literature, and history.

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Gaming wasn't as ubiquitous worldwide in 1997 as it is today. A game releasing in one region wasn't guaranteed to make it to another, which still happens now, but to a much lesser degree. The original PlayStation saw plenty of games that never received wider release outside its home market in Japan, but one has made a return 29 years after it first launched, with a belated landing on PS5.

Most of the marquee PlayStation games that were originally sequestered in the Japanese market have long since made their worldwide debut. Even big-name franchises like Final Fantasy still took months; fans in North America had to wait eight months to get their hands on the iconic Final Fantasy 7. Timed exclusives are still a regular occurrence in the PS5 era, but most localizations have a rather quick turnaround.

Customers in the aisle of and outside a convenience store, viewed from a top-down perspective.

Nearly three decades after it first released for the PlayStation, The Conveni has come to PlayStation 5. It's an early management simulation game, putting you in charge of a convenience store. You arrange your entire store, select the employees that will help customers, try to out-strategize rivals, and hope it doesn't all come collapsing down. It's available now on the PlayStation Store for $11.99 (you can also play it on Nintendo Switch 2), but this re-release has sadly not been translated; it's the original version in Japanese.

The Conveni coming back is part of the Console Archives line of re-releases. Hamster Corporation has re-released Human's 1997 original intact in an effort to preserve the classic console game and make it more widely available. The PS5 description notes that "The options menu and manual are available in Japanese, English, French, German, and Spanish," but the rest of the game doesn't appear to have translations.

The Conveni spawned numerous sequels, on later PlayStation platforms as well as Xbox, Nintendo, and Sega hardware, but even with a handful of installments, the series never grew beyond its home market in Japan. Its newest entry is Conveni Dream, released on the Nintendo 3DS in 2014. It's a bit of a bummer that the Console Archives re-release can't be easily played if you don't know how to read Japanese, but it is in line with the preservation program's previous efforts.

Most of the Console Archives re-releases are rather obscure, the most recognizable among them probably being two Ninja Gaiden games, the first two NES sequels, Ninja Gaiden 2: The Dark Sword of Chaos and Ninja Gaiden 3: The Ancient Ship of Doom. The Conveni benefits from a few choice Console Archives updates, like save states and the ability to rewind your gameplay, so it's not the exact same experience as it was on the PlayStation, but it's much more amenable 29 years later on the PS5.