Jump to content

Prototype SNES PlayStation Found In The Wild


The Scientist

Recommended Posts

After all these years a prototype from the Sony/Nintendo collaboration has finally surfaced.

 

For those unfamiliar with the backstory, Nintendo and Sony were collaborating on a Super Nintendo CD System manufactured by Sony. A SNES-CD peripheral would be sold by Nintendo that would an add-on to the system, analogous to what Sega-CD was to Genesis. An all-in-one system that played both SNES cartridges and CDs in one system, a la TurboDuo, would be made by Sony and would be called the PlayStation. It would have played SNES/SFC cartridges, plus CD games with improved capabilities. Needless to say the collaboration didn't work out and Sony went it alone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photos of the dev unit have existed for years but nobody has found an actual unit until now. A guy has been posting photos saying his dad had it in a box of junk left behind by a co-worker.

 

 

post-45-0-43620800-1435956728_thumb.jpg

 

 

post-45-0-10814100-1435956734_thumb.jpg

 

 

post-45-0-31413800-1435956737_thumb.jpg

 

 

post-45-0-51665600-1435956827_thumb.jpg

 

 

post-45-0-92406700-1435956743_thumb.jpg

 

 

post-45-0-62098300-1435956747_thumb.jpg

 

 

post-45-0-58694400-1435956750_thumb.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

NintendoLife has more on the story here: http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2015/07/prototype_snes_playstation_found_in_the_wild_unicorn_and_big_foot_expected_next

 

 

Before Sony entered the home console arena it worked with Nintendo on a CD-ROM drive for the SNES. The aim was to eventually release a combined console - called the PlayStation - which would play SNES carts and SNES CD-ROM games.

 

Of course, this never came to pass - at the 1991 CES Sony officially announced the system, only to discover that at the same event Nintendo confirmed that it was working with rival Philips instead. It was one of the most infamous double-crosses in video game history, but Sony would have its revenge by creating the stand-alone PlayStation system, a best-selling console which would end Nintendo's dominance of the industry and establish the brand for years to come.

 

Images of the SNES PlayStation have been around for years, but it was thought that no consoles actually existed in the wild. That has been proven incorrect today, as someone has posted images of a prototype machine - complete with trademark SNES yellowing on the lower part of the casing.

 

The poster says that he got the machine from his father:

 

"My dad worked for a company, apparently one of the guys he used to work with, I think his name was Olaf, used to work at Nintendo and when my dads company went bankrupt, my dad found it in a box of "junk" he was supposed to throw out."

 

The "Olaf" he is talking about could be Olaf Olafsson, who was president and chief executive officer of Sony Interactive Entertainment, Inc. at the time of the PlayStation. He was intimately involved with the Nintendo deal and the final PlayStation console which would launch in 1994.

 

It is not known if the unit can actually power up, or what is contained on the cart and CD which come with it.

 

 

 

More on the history of the project: http://www.pushsquare.com/news/2012/08/feature_the_making_of_the_sony_playstation

 

 

 

The initial agreement between the two firms was that Sony would produce a CD-ROM expansion for the existing SNES hardware and would have licence to produce games for that system. Later, it was supposed, Sony would be permitted to produce its own all-in-one machine – dubbed PlayStation – which would play both SNES carts and CD-ROM games.

 

The format used by the SNES-based version of the PlayStation was called “Super Disc” and Sony made sure that it held the sole international licensing rights – in other words, it would profit handsomely from every single SNES CD-ROM title that was sold.

 

It was a match made in heaven; Sony would instantly gain a potentially massive installed base of users overnight as the SNES was a dead cert to sell millions of units. SNES users would upgrade to the new CD-ROM add-on when they knew that Nintendo’s cutting-edge games would be coming to it, and Sony would make money on each software sale.

 

What’s more, once the all-in-one PlayStation was launched, Sony would gain even more in the way of profits and become a key player in the video game industry. The man behind this audacious scheme was Ken Kutaragi, the engineer also responsible for producing the aforementioned SNES sound chip.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Anyone else having thoughts on what could be on that cart and CD that is with this thing!?  I can't help but get excited on what it could be.  Maybe an unreleased title? A quick gameplay demo of a Nintendo license..a tech demo? Something crazy like the beginning of a project with Square?..yeah Final Fantasy that has to be on there.  ;)  :D

 

I can't wait for this thing to get powered up and played with!

I'm on Instagram! @AtariToday

Link to comment
Share on other sites

still wondering what game is on that cart................

Brian Matherne - owner/curator of "The MOST comprehensive list of Atari VCS/2600 homebrews ever compiled." http://tiny.cc/Atari2600Homebrew

author of "The Atari 2600 Homebrew Companion" book series available on Amazon! www.amazon.com/author/brianmatherne

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Remember when Nintendo and Sony put out that hybrid SNES? Oh wait, that didn't happen because the deal fell through, and the machine was never produced. Or was it?

 

630x.jpg

 

 

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2015/11/snes_playstation_prototype_gets_turned_on_opened_up

Brian Matherne - owner/curator of "The MOST comprehensive list of Atari VCS/2600 homebrews ever compiled." http://tiny.cc/Atari2600Homebrew

author of "The Atari 2600 Homebrew Companion" book series available on Amazon! www.amazon.com/author/brianmatherne

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Brian Matherne - owner/curator of "The MOST comprehensive list of Atari VCS/2600 homebrews ever compiled." http://tiny.cc/Atari2600Homebrew

author of "The Atari 2600 Homebrew Companion" book series available on Amazon! www.amazon.com/author/brianmatherne

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm going to say that the cart most likely has the drivers and other software for the CD drive to operate as intended.  It wouldn't be anything uncommon in Japan considering that the PC Engine, which this console was most likely suppose to compete with, required a Super CD Card to operate the CD attachment it received.  I am curious, however, at what type of discs you could use?  Since it does carry the PlayStation logo and emblem if it could, in fact, possibly read PlayStation discs.  It can obviously use music discs since it has a separate volume control and headphone jack.  Some kind of music player might also be on that cartridge with no label.  It is something that the owners of this very rare and interesting console would have to find out or contact Sony for more information.  Someone there might be able to shed some light on this.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ben Heck conducted an extensive teardown of the canceled Nintendo PlayStation system this week and gave us a good idea of what it was made of. Ben found a mix of Nintendo and Sony hardware in the prototype, along with several third-party components. The Nintendo PlayStation contains a CD drive and Super Nintendo cartridge bay. Ben suspects that the Nintendo PlayStation wouldn't have done very well had it been released. Although it had a much faster CD drive than the Sega CD and TurboDuo, the Nintendo PlaysStation wasn't any more powerful than the cartridge-only Super Nintendo. Here's a look at Ben Heck's teardown of the Nintendo PlayStation:

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...