they would.
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Nintendo PlayStation...so, apparently someone has one.
- Thread starter alr1ght
- Start date
they would.
Weltall Zero
Member
As evidenced by N64's overwhelming sales victory over the PSX, right?
BocoDragon
or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
Seems to me that those comparing the price to Stadium Events and NWC are a bit off base. The thing with those titles is that there are lots of people who have been collecting NES games for years and decades, and getting the rare carts represents completing a collection (and long term obsession).
This Nintendo Playstation certainly has great appeal... but it would appeal to a slightly different kind of collector. The history minded collector, rather than the "collect em all" NES collector (which is a more populist goal implied by the very common habit of 'starting an NES collection' - getting them all ends up being the implicit goal for many)
Not to say that it couldn't fetch more .... just to say that I think the price of rare NES carts tells you nothing.
This Nintendo Playstation certainly has great appeal... but it would appeal to a slightly different kind of collector. The history minded collector, rather than the "collect em all" NES collector (which is a more populist goal implied by the very common habit of 'starting an NES collection' - getting them all ends up being the implicit goal for many)
Not to say that it couldn't fetch more .... just to say that I think the price of rare NES carts tells you nothing.
As evidenced by the fact Nintendo are still in the video games business.
Theonik
Member
And pretty much irrelevant in the home console market.
Candeldandel
Member
That's pretty cool. Still love that color scheme, lol
Retrocore9
Banned
The owner of this item, one of the holy grails of prototypes, needs to treat it as such.
Most likely even if non-functioning the system can be resurrected. There's a forum called assemblergames which deals in prototypes. He needs to go there and get in touch with someone who can specifically get this thing working which is absolutely possible. Also they can help him use retrobright and getting it looking good as new.
The fact he is going to go to a random retro game store to try and get it working or "have them look at it" is like saying your going to take the Ark of the Covenant down to Hardcore Pawn in Detroit and have them look it over.
Most likely even if non-functioning the system can be resurrected. There's a forum called assemblergames which deals in prototypes. He needs to go there and get in touch with someone who can specifically get this thing working which is absolutely possible. Also they can help him use retrobright and getting it looking good as new.
The fact he is going to go to a random retro game store to try and get it working or "have them look at it" is like saying your going to take the Ark of the Covenant down to Hardcore Pawn in Detroit and have them look it over.
Interceptor
Banned
According to this logic Wiis hardware was outstanding. A brave position on GAF.
PdotMichael
Banned
It was indeed outstanding. Pretty sure, that's also the general opinion about the Wii here.
Not really.
The SNES CPU was a joke and cartridge with extra chips were expensive and basically exclusive for first party games and the elitist circle of third party developers - same story with the larger cartridges.
NormalFish
Banned
Hardware isn't just processing power.
jts
...hate me...
Just like not all SNES suffered from the yellowing, sometimes even individual SNES units were made from both parts unaffected and affected by that issue.
Case in point:
So it's pretty much the same I'd wager.
In retrospect, that was a horrible decision that alienated third party developers and consumers due to the higher cost of carts.
lifeexpectancy
Member
The ignorance of so many of the comments on that Youtube video is quite astounding, even by internet and Youtube standards. Unbelievable.
Talking about copy protection: it looks like the prototype has a standard CD-ROM tray but wasn't it supposed to use CDs encased in 'caddies' (like Sony's UMD format)?
Anyway, I imagine if the guy gets it powered on that CD tray is going to be stuck firm and probably won't even pop open. Can't see the mechanisms inside holding up so well after 20 years collecting dust. So many variables to consider, the likelihood of this thing working without a hitch seems like it wouldn't be very high...
Anyway, I imagine if the guy gets it powered on that CD tray is going to be stuck firm and probably won't even pop open. Can't see the mechanisms inside holding up so well after 20 years collecting dust. So many variables to consider, the likelihood of this thing working without a hitch seems like it wouldn't be very high...
JordanN
Banned
The disparity though between SNES and its competitors was way more level though.
The SNES could still pass off as a legitimate 16-bit system, just with half the frame rate and crappy business politics. Compare that to future trainwrecks like the N64, that marked Nintendo systems being 10 years behind everyone else.
MidgarBlowedUp
Member
I'm thinking the same thing.
At the very least, I would imagine one might need a 100 Volt step down converter if the unit was designed to work in Japan. I certainly wouldn't dare plug it into any kind of power source without someone that knows what they are doing at least looking at it first. I'd have every chip, circuit board, resistor, capacitor, and everything documented and schematized with high res photos and everything.
Damn thing needs to be reverse engineered and emulated.
Tarin02543
Member
I watched his youtube video and think that he does not really understand how significant this find is. He's tossing it around with his hands as if it's just like any other old snes.
This needs to be looked at by professionals.
4MB is a very atypical rom size for N64 (the only game I can think to use a 4MB rom is Dr. Mario 64).
Whenever you think it was a bad move or a good move you need to consider the context of that move.
Too often I read "lol N64 with a CD drive would have won" which is a stupid statement which don't consider the consequences.
In retrospect it lead to us getting to play Ocarina of Time, Perfect Dark, and eventually two Super Mario Galaxy games.
Worth it.
D.Lo
Member
Yeah. The story is a bit strange too. Oh well some millionaire will buy it.
You really don't understand what you'e talking about at all do you.
The SNES had the best graphics of the generation despite a slow CPU, the N64 was significantly more powerful than the Playstation (3X CPU and 4X and faster RAM), and the Gamecube was more powerful than the PS2.
Exactly. The third parties leaving element was the killer, and there were a variety of reasons for that. Capcom was already behaving badly for not too much reason at that time, releasing 'Special Championship Edition' of SF2 to get around a paid SF2 Turbo exclusivity is one example. Then Japanese developers became obsessed with CD, even when it wasn't the best choice (e.g. 2D fighting games with lost frames and slow-ass load times)
It was an interesting time for Nintendo too. The N64 still made them a lot of money, and in the west actually outsold the PS1 for a while, but the PS1 was this weird phenomenon, a massively backloaded sales curve. It picked up in its 3rd/4th years on the market after a slow start. And had this huge surge in its 5th year with stuff like Tony Hawk. Compared to the N64 which sold extremely well and burnt out in its 4th year.
Nintendo also refocused on pushing a new handheld property that became the second biggest franchise of all time.
Apparently fresh plastic is mixed up with a recipe, a half bag of this here dry powder, one cup of this liquid, two cups of this other liquid, then stir for 30 seconds... but the third-world laborers in the factories aren't that big on quality control. If you dump 60% of one bag into one batch of plastic, and the remaining 40% into another batch, or maybe you stir one batch harder than you stirred another, it doesn't really make any difference because the plastic turns out fine and defects only start to appear a few decades later.
The yellow comes from fire retardant escaping the plastic and moving to the surface. If the plastic yellows quickly, then maybe the mixture was imperfect (causing the plastic to break down and let go of the retardant), or maybe they accidentally put in too much retardant at the factory. If the plastic yellows slowly, then maybe the mixture was better, or maybe they just forgot to put fire retardant into that batch.
The system is yellowing unevenly because it's individual parts were poured from different buckets of plastic. It happens to all electronics. And eventually the white parts will catch up to the yellow ones.
Projectjustice
Banned
Wow what a treasure to find these days. I remember being a kid waiting for this to come out. I would buy all the magazines to get all thr information on gaming add on. I was so disappointed when it was canceled.
Has he made a video with this thing powered on yet?
Has he made a video with this thing powered on yet?
D.Lo
Member
Nintendo consoles were made in Japan until the Wii. So were all PS1s. Nothing to do with 'lazy third world labourers'. It was Sega and NEC who farmed their console manufacturing out to the lowest bidder around the globe.
To some extent, but not necessarily, and in this case it seems pretty unlikely two console panels of a 200 hundred console run came from different batches.
It's also exposure to UV light and heat that activates the yellowing. It seems likely to me this sat on something warm (like a monitor) which accelerated the yellowing of the bottom half. Also the left controller port has had a controller in it over this period, hence the patches of less-yellowed around the controller.
Theonik
Member
The yellowing is the result of a chemical reaction with oxygen and bromine compounds used in the fire retardant. It is accelerated by UV light and heat, different batches, and different operating and storage conditions will affect the rate of the deterioration.
There were some breakthroughs in restoration a few years back using hydrogen peroxide in a compound.
http://www.retr0bright.com/
But like I said before the long term effects were disputed at the time and I haven't heard much since. Using it and then using some kind of sealant to prevent contact with Oxygen should be a near permanent solution though.
ABS yellowing is pretty dangerous to preservation. Not just cosmetically but the reaction creates cavities in the compound that makes it brittle.
The problem is if I joke around, people then take it the wrong way. There is a time for joking, but I am extremely serious when I say that I've seen the effects of rampant speculation damage preservation efforts and inflate what the person thinks they can get for it, which can cause all sorts of issues including institutions not bothering. I guarantee right now they have all the major gaming press and then some willing to bring him into the studio to figure this all out, sadly they know no better. And I admit that I am not the ideal person either, despite handling many prototypes (some of which Ive shared, many of which I haven't), but there are very few people that even remotely have experience hah.
Yep. While there are cases of prototypes going for a lot of money (not 500k, not even 100k, and not even 20k really), that is rare. I've picked up an unreleased game for $35 that had sat for some time, it's not impossible
I assume you are talking about internals; because every other aspect of the Wii hardware was a big reason why it took over the world.
There is supposedly a disk with it. Personally, I would dump that first.
7DollarHagane
Banned
People always forget that this Nintendo PlayStation was in development years before the actual PlayStation and has little to do with the psx we know other than the name and cd storage.
This device was meant to compete with the sega cd and add motion video and cd sound capabilities to the snes.
When you think about what the sega cd did for sega and other "multimedia" consoles like 3do and laseractive it probably was the right choice to stick with the super Nintendo hardware alone and carts for it.
The decision to go with carts for n64 is a decision made years after that was a mistake, but not related to the Sony deal in any real way.
When Nintendo was making decisions about "project reality" in early 1993, systems with cd storage were mostly using it for awful fmv games and nice cd sound. These systems were also not doing much for sales.
With Nintendo choosing between an easily copied, low durability media they don't control vs a difficult to copy, proprietary, durable cartridge format and seeing what cd games had to offer in the early 90s their decision seems at least a little more reasonable, if not short sighted.
Akhe
Member
That escalated quickly...
CamHostage
Member
"If there's one thing you should learn from this, it's steal from work!" --Jason Scott, Internet Archive
http://gamasutra.com/view/news/238156/Saving_video_game_history_begins_right_now.php
That's from an EGM article about the later Phillips version of the CD-ROM add-on. The caddies were to be enclosed (like UMD or MiniDisc) and would have a small portion of data RAM to store game saves and copy protection. Also, the drive was to connect to the SNES through a corded cartridge dongle. Though I remember this EGM article, I'm not sure what the date is on this image, and also it is not clear when/where this info was given out or what is from Nintendo versus artist rendering. I don't believe the previous Sony SNES version concept/prototype was ever shown?
That ^ was the Nintendo Disc system co-developed with Phillips *and* Sony, at least officially anyway. Dunno if Sony actually worked on it though. I wonder if any games / demos had been developed to take advantage of the 32-Bit RISC co-processor CPU, something the earlier Nintendo Play Station lacked.
It's really interesting.
If anyone remembers, the early specifications for the Sega Genesis CD unit did not have an extra 68000 CPU. It was more like a PCE/TG-16 CD or SuperCD with some RAM. It didn't have the ASIC chip that handled scaling and rotation either. The early specs listed were in another issue I don't have.
It's really interesting.
If anyone remembers, the early specifications for the Sega Genesis CD unit did not have an extra 68000 CPU. It was more like a PCE/TG-16 CD or SuperCD with some RAM. It didn't have the ASIC chip that handled scaling and rotation either. The early specs listed were in another issue I don't have.
CrunchyFrog
Member
Incredible, this is like the holy grail of gaming hardware prototypes.
#itbelongsinamuseum
#itbelongsinamuseum
The right call was possibly the worst business decision Nintendo ever made?
As for the find, pretty amazing stuff, I love little gems of history like this.
Imagine if current products still yellowed, give it twenty years and people will be going crazy for some old original iPhone.
iPhones do yellow...
why is there no new info?
why are so many assholes shittalking on assemblergames (gamesquest1)?
this sucks and pretty much scared that dude away.
i hope he didnt fry this holy grail. also i hope there will be some new info about this system.
btw. just wanted to dump a picture i had on my old computer:
why are so many assholes shittalking on assemblergames (gamesquest1)?
this sucks and pretty much scared that dude away.
i hope he didnt fry this holy grail. also i hope there will be some new info about this system.
btw. just wanted to dump a picture i had on my old computer:
NoFaceNico
Member
There's a guy with the username "Brian" on the assemblergames who says he used to work alongside Olaf. Pretty interesting posts. Apparently there are probably a few more units out there, and at least one still with Sony.
Some of those assemblergames posts from other users are just full of WTF.
Now, wouldn't that be some head fuckery.
Edit: also, we've seen some official hardware pics with minor variations but someone's found a pic of the exact same unit this guy found:
[caveat - I last posted here under user name Jet-X. Shut email addy down years ago, so reregistered after article today hence new user post. But I've been here before and even sent prototype games to Assembler)
Wanted to chime in on a few things. I worked at Sony Imagesoft in the early SNES days when Olaf was head of the company. I also saved one of the development systems for the SNES from the garbage (this one specifically, covered in a previous thread on Assembler years ago; http://playstationmuseum.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/SNESCD-Proto1.jpg ). It now resides with a friend of mine who is still at Sony.
I believe this unit is real. Few notes for discussion purposes:
1. Olaf had one sitting in his office, which was in NY (and explains the find on the east coast of the subject of this thread). Now, it wasn't until years after Imagesoft was morphed into Sony Interactive Studios, moved to San Francisco from Los Angeles (and Olaf being pushed out of Sony) as well as New York being shut down that I learned Olaf had a working prototype.
2. There were two internal titles that were developed, but only about half way before canned. Those titles were "Hook" which was eventually released on SNES cartridge, and Sega CD (outside of graphics, was representative of what the SNES CD/Playstation version would have been), and "Forteza". Forteza was a rail-based space shooter with CG pre rendered FMV backgrounds. Forteza was not released on any platform.
3. I've seen people cite yellowing of plastic as suspicious. As a model collector, I have rare models never displayed but stored in their boxes that have yellowed. Yellowing of plastic is not always light or heat driven.
4. Regarding cartridges being exposed for access to the EEPROM chips, at Sony Imagesoft we never assembled them in cartridges unless going out to press or other display. Internally we used the chips on bare cartridge circuit boards (also other platforms too).
5. There are at least two more Playstation units intact, at Sony Japan.
I would love to see this unit working, and willing to connect the owner to an engineer that would get the unit working who is with Sony and has all the proper connections to restore it as necessary to working condition (and no, there is no more tooling for cases laying around). But I'm sure he's inundated with emails and requests - reach out to me if interested.
Now, if I could just get my former boss to dig up the VHS tape of Forteza, we could make this discussion more interesting
Some of those assemblergames posts from other users are just full of WTF.
Could the NEXT port be a Sega Saturn controller port?
Now, wouldn't that be some head fuckery.
Edit: also, we've seen some official hardware pics with minor variations but someone's found a pic of the exact same unit this guy found:
Tribes of Trusty
Member
It says it is an artist mock-up on the bottom. Still close to the prototype at hand.btw. just wanted to dump a picture i had on my old computer:
BocoDragon
or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
Dat old school EGM shade.
Btw Sushi-X thinks RPGs suck too.
Btw Sushi-X thinks RPGs suck too.
KillerMan91
Member
If you mean by west US and Europe no it didn't. N64 did well in US but was absolutely demolished in Europe from the beginning of generation (N64 did around 7 million in PAL regions, PS1 did over 40 million). Also hard to say did N64 make Nintendo a lot of profit as GameBoy and Pokemon were printing money at the same time.
At least they mention all the versions of SNES CD, and in the right order.
Sounds like something right out of Nintendo's PR book.
senor_flojo
Banned
CD-I had an s-video port, and is from the same era