The first incarnation of the PlayStation, nicknamed the Nintendo PlayStation to distinguish it from the 1994 console of the same name, is a prototype developed by Sony in collaboration with Nintendo.
It was designed as hybrid console, compatible with Nintendo's Super NES cartridges as well as Sony's new CD-based Super Disc format. The console ultimately went unreleased.
Production[]
In 1988, Sony began development of the CD based add-on to the Super Nintendo. The two companies in early development were friends and got along very well. Hundreds of prototypes were made and tested and the future of Sony and Nintendo seemed like a bright future.
The Argument[]
Sony wanted to control licensing for the CD version of games for the Super Nintendo's disk format. Nintendo tried to work a way around this problem, but of course Sony refused.
The Alternative[]
The alternative was that to have Nintendo control the profits and licensing for the Playstation.
The Betrayal[]
Nintendo found out that Sony was planning to backstab them by obtaining most and/or all the profits and leaving Nintendo next to nothing. Nintendo president Yamauchi-San sent a few higher ups to Europe with Phillips, Sony's arch nemesis. When Phillips got the offer from Nintendo, they immediately said yes. And it was Nintendo so of course they'd say yes.
The Reveal of the Playstation and Nintendo's Betrayal Announcement[]
In June 1991, Sony went to the Consumer Electronics Show to announce their partnership with Nintendo and said that they were developing a new console add-on to the Super NES, the PlayStation. A lot of People really liked the idea. Nintendo had their press conference the next day. When journalists and others asked about the PlayStation add-on, Nintendo said that the Super Disk was being developed by Phillips, not Sony. The president of Sony (At the time) Norio Ohga was really mad but didn't show it.
The Playstation[]
That's when Sony decided to just make their own console, the PlayStation. And if Nintendo didn't cancel the CD-ROM add-on, the PlayStation would probably have never come out.
The Big Surprise[]
In 2015, a YouTube channel called Dieb0ldly uploaded a video of the Nintendo PlayStation Prototype. The console looks pretty similar to some of the other Nintendo systems. But it said PlayStation on it. Terry would buy a bunch of boxes at an auction. When he took them home, he and his son looked through them finding it and a bunch of CDs and socks. So, they sent it to Ben Heck to get it fixed. As of then he finally fixed it to only be able to play Audio CDs and SNES games.
Games and Accessories[]
The Nintendo Playstation is capable of playing most SNES Games. When Ben Hack was working on it, there was a Demo Game on the console. It was broken but the developer came to fix it. The demo can now be played once you get the chance to play on the console. The Nintendo Playstation comes with its own controller which looks very similar to the SNES controller, but the color is different. And instead of a Nintendo logo, it says Sony Playstation. Also, SNES controllers work on the console.
At auction[]
Long after the Playstation's 20th century fate had been sealed, a prototype of the machine was sold at auction for US$360,000 in 2020. It therefore became the most expensive item of video game memorabilia ever publicly sold, according to Kotaku. Its owner-at-auction said that he had been privately offered $1.2M for the device.[1] It was unclear why he had passed on that substantially greater offer.
Gallery[]
