Snes Playstation prototype story

[aikainnet]

http://www.vg247.com/2015/07/03/snes-playstation-rare-console/

[+save2600]

Looks like one hell of a console! Love the multitude of a/v outputs also. Too bad Nintendo flaked out and burned Sony like they did. I followed the progress of the Nintendo "Playstation" BITD and was really looking forward to the system. Even saw mockups of the CD add-on that accessed the bottom expansion port and sat under the SNES. Such a wasted opportunity, specially considering how well Sony has fared since. Nobody knows that better than Nintendo themselves.

 

Business is business, but incredibly odd that Nintendo would dis a fellow Japanese company in the manner that they did. I'm no expert in Japanese culture, but seems to me that was an exceptionally dishonorable thing to do, going "Dutch" like that.

 

And then nothing. Zero mass/optical media at all, right when the timing was perfect for it. What a debacle back then!

[Algus]

And in the most glorious fashion possible, Sony enacted a revenge so sweet that Nintendo will probably never recover from it.

 

At least they're, you know, cult favorites now.

[CatPix]

It is said that Nintendo found out that the contract with Sony left too much rights for Sony on the games that would have been released on the CD add-on. As they would have released Zelda and Mario on it, they would have lost control of both universe too much for them. Or so it is said.

 

Or maybe Sony was delaying the add-on too much; we know that Nintendo wanted a CD add-on because Sega had one, and NEC had one.

 

On the other hand, the CD-i had been press released in 1990 and sales opened for professionnals (units would ship in late 90/early 91) so they had a system ready to work.

[Eltigro]

Short video of it...

 

[Scotterpop]

It's also my understanding that Nintendo's decision to screw them on this venture was because of Sony's ridiculous demands concerning royalties and stakes in Nintendo's IPs. I'm not saying that what Nintendo did was excusable, but apparently Sony was just as shrewd as they were back then. But man, what a come-uppance Sony dealt them with the PS1 & 2! It's very cool to see some pics of this uber-rare console. This thing definitely belongs in a museum because of its historical significance to gaming.

[mehguy]

He should plug that cart into a super famicom and see what is on there. Maybe some sort of an early build for a super nintendo game?

 

If you guys wanna know more of the "Nintendo Play station", Go watch the first half of this vid:

 

Edited July 3, 2015 by mehguy

[TheObscureGamer]

Wonder how much did would sell for?. Knowing the hard on's that Nintendo and Sony fanboys are getting right now I can tell you it is gonna go for over 20K and sadly thats too much for me(sub 10K would have been fine).

Edited July 3, 2015 by TheObscureGamer

[jhd]

Does it actually work -- or at least boot to a BIOS screen (like the PSX)?

 

ETA: It looks like there is no power supply or video cables.

Edited July 3, 2015 by jhd

[TheObscureGamer]

Does it actually work -- or at least boot to a BIOS screen (like the PSX)?

 

ETA: It looks like there is no power supply or video cables.

The guy is(from what I've read) not that much of a gamer and he is not even responding to questions or anything. With the 3D technology we have now and such. I wouldn't be surprised that it is a fake, although I hope it's not. We will know for sure if it is fake if he says he lost it, someone stole it, it fell and broke, or he can't find the adapter and never buys one that works. I wonder why he has not responded to much stuff. If I was in possession of a sure 30K in my hands, I would have brought an ac adapter the second I found it. I'm not hating on the guy, not at all, I just want pics on the insides and more importantly the console coming on...

[CatPix]

Yep, especially since it looks nothing complex.

7.5V? you can feed it 9V. And maybe just the Sony PSone PSU would be enough for it.

Video? it's all standard vdeo out, and the SNES video cable should work as well.

This console could boot in a matter of minutes.

[+save2600]

Doubt it's a fake, unless someone really went out of their way AND took the time to age/yellow part of the console. The Nintendo multi-out connector on top of all the standard a/v outs is a wee bit suspicious though. Why incorporate both?

[CatPix]

Multi AV/out for RGB for better display for Sony and nintendo officials, to please Nintendo? and standard output for quick testing and demonstrations?

 

The first models of Playstation had RCA out and the Sony A/V out with composite too.

 

The Neo Geo CD have RCA, S-Video and RGB out as well on separate output (but true, there is no composite on the RVB out - yet there is all options)

 

I don't think it so suspicious.

Edited July 4, 2015 by CatPix

[omegadot]

While neat I can't imagine spending any real money on something like this. It's a great novelty but I don't see much of a use for it. I hope it ends up in a museum setting.

[mehguy]

My god, most of the cables used on that unit are standard anyways. Could be so easy to hook up. I really curious to see whats on that machine and the cart. I really hope the buyer of that machine boots it up, it MUST turn on. Could be awhile until we see another one of these pop up.

Edited July 4, 2015 by mehguy

[cimerians]

Nintendo hooks up with Phillips. Still scratching head on that one. Oh well it birthed the PS1 which brought me back to consoles.

 

[Scotterpop]

Nintendo hooks up with Phillips. Still scratching head on that one. Oh well it birthed the PS1 which brought me back to consoles.

 

Haha, yes! I also had very little interest in gaming until the PS1 came along. But right after I saw one in person and played it, I went to the mall and maxed out my Sears credit card on it (hey, it was the only credit card I had at the time!). It was the first console I ever bought brand new for myself so it will always be fondly remembered.

[CatPix]

Nintendo hooks up with Phillips. Still scratching head on that one.

Well looking at the past, it does make sense.

Philips (and Thomson) created the Laservision, that was later "adopted" by the Japanese Pioneer who made it a great success in Japan and (to a lesser extent) in the USA as the Laserdisc.

Philips, with Sony and Hitachi, created the CD.

It only made sense for Nintendo to ask directly to Sony to create the CD based add-on. But something went wrogn in the licencing part of the CD based games, and Nintendo had to seek another one to make this CD add-on.

And precisely in 1990, Philips announced the CD-i (all claims that the CD-i is an avorted SNES add-on are wrong; according to Philips, the CD-i was defined as early as 1986, but the hardware of the time was simply too expensive to make it possible). Nintendo saw a possibility to have a ready-made add-on for the SNES, from someone who was behind the CD technology and even if being European, was recognized in Japan.

[cimerians]

Well looking at the past, it does make sense.

Philips (and Thomson) created the Laservision, that was later "adopted" by the Japanese Pioneer who made it a great success in Japan and (to a lesser extent) in the USA as the Laserdisc.

Philips, with Sony and Hitachi, created the CD.

It only made sense for Nintendo to ask directly to Sony to create the CD based add-on. But something went wrogn in the licencing part of the CD based games, and Nintendo had to seek another one to make this CD add-on.

And precisely in 1990, Philips announced the CD-i (all claims that the CD-i is an avorted SNES add-on are wrong; according to Philips, the CD-i was defined as early as 1986, but the hardware of the time was simply too expensive to make it possible). Nintendo saw a possibility to have a ready-made add-on for the SNES, from someone who was behind the CD technology and even if being European, was recognized in Japan.

 

Nintendo scraps it and sticks with cartridges. Still scratching head on that one.

[cimerians]

It was the first console I ever bought brand new for myself so it will always be fondly remembered.

 

Same here, I was in my mid-20's and had my own money and I saw a friend play Resident Evil on it and had to have one.

 

Played a lot of SNES in the early 90's but the whole NES vs Sega thing really got tiresome and I stopped playing, besides I was into all the cool PC games at the time (DOOM, Wolfenstein etc) and it just seemed like console games were way too "kiddy" at that point in my life.

 

Resident Evil and the PS1 changed all that.

[CatPix]

Nintendo scraps it and sticks with cartridges. Still scratching head on that one.

You're not the only one!

Officially, they scrapped it fro the same reason they planned to make it : other CD-add ons of the era (the Mega CD and CD-ROM² units were mostly gimmicky (a bit less in Japan for the PC engine CD-ROM but still not a threath enough).

 

Maybe (that's just my idea) also connecting the CD-i and the Super Nintendo proved too hard or even infeasible, or making a cut down version of it was impossible, which would have made this CD add-on the most expensive of all (price for a CD-i in 1992 : 700$).

 

For the N64, they explained that they didn't want the CD loading times.

I think that they just expected to retain the same success than before, that the PS1 would be a flop, and so they would compete mostly, if not only, with Sega on having a system that could play the same games.... but with no loading times.

It's likely also that they expected to control the market, as making carts was more expensive than CD, they probably hoped to keep unhautorized games away from the N64. Which worked. In some way.

[MrMaddog]

 

Same here, I was in my mid-20's and had my own money and I saw a friend play Resident Evil on it and had to have one.

 

Played a lot of SNES in the early 90's but the whole NES vs Sega thing really got tiresome and I stopped playing, besides I was into all the cool PC games at the time (DOOM, Wolfenstein etc) and it just seemed like console games were way too "kiddy" at that point in my life.

 

Resident Evil and the PS1 changed all that.

 

For me it was Final Fantasy VII... I played a demo of it at a store and some by-stander thought I was playing a fighting game. Between that and the retro arcade collections I had to have that.

 

Yeah Nintendo really screwed themselves over this. They could have at least had some agreement where they split the 3rd party licensing royalties while keeping their own with their respective 1st party games. But the Big N would rather screw over a bigger Japanese company and got burned big time.

[7800fan]

Can one still get plastic today that would turn piss-yellow under sun in short time?

 

or maybe it's just quicker to get dull yellow paint and spray over the fake console?

[Gabriel]

The odd plastic yellowing seems suspicious to me too. Everything looks pristine except for the panel where the controllers are?

 

I'm pretty sure I've seen KO controllers like that with Sony and Playstation on them. It's also very convenient that nothing can be demoed on it due to a missing power cable. That's some textbook "untested" ebay stuff there.

 

The device looks very haphazardly put together, matching with the story of it being a prototype. That's why it seems odd that it is marked up with branding and other text like a final model.

[CatPix]

If that model was "almost completed" then it was maybe a demo prototype - that is, the internals were defined, and they were now on a design prototype.

This also explain the load of A/V output - being a design proto, that was almost done, they had to be able to display it on the go, or so.

Odd yellowing is common on consoles of that era. Never seen a Super Nintendo with one grey shell down and a piss yellow upper shell?

 

On the other hand, the lack of testing depite a very common AC and AV is suspicious indeed. It's not like there would be nothing to display - all CD based machines have a boot up screen.

Edited July 7, 2015 by CatPix