You mentioned Final Fantasy IX, if you are concerned about how well some of these older games are aging. Get FF9. It's very well made and came out late in the PS1 lifecycle, taking advantage of everything the system had to offer(to make an RPG). Though I didn't like it as much as 7 or 8, it is great in its own regard and pretty much just under tied with those titles.
As for action games? Go with jumping flash, can't recommend that game enough.
You could always time a good PS Plus month subscription. In the US there is Silent Hill for free this past week. In the past I've collected all 3 Crash Bandicoot games and the racing game, all 3 Siphon Filters, FF5, all 3 Resident Evils, and a few others over the course of a year. A ton of non-psone titles too, Shaft 2, Shift 2, Tomb Raider...you know what there are way too many games they give out for free with plus. With minis I'm probably pushing 100 games from Plus for free.
Before the PS3 everyone was nice to me :(
