Nintendo PlayStation...so, apparently someone has one.

Back then? Probably Capcom. They made their own arcade hardware and also had incredible production/variety in those years. Imagine their take on the SNK/NEO GEO concept with a home equivalent. Or even a disc based console from them with Resident Evil, Street Fighter, and MM Legends as first party games.

Their ip, hardware experience, and production was arguably on par with both Nintendo and Sega from the 8-bit generation up until DC/GCN/PS2/Xbox era.

Good point, did capcom actually have a hardware division? Anyone like that in current day now?
 
No, I said 5k+, very different thing. And I also clarified with this being an offer from a museum with a non-permanent contract. Selling isn't the only option here, and honestly a straight sell would be a disappointment. Either way, Im rallying against sloppy, made up numbers (like 500k). I've had some pretty unique things come my way, which if I showed it people would say was worth thousands, meanwhile it is worth hundreds at best. The prototype market is very unique. Obviously this piece transcends the prototype market, but you would be surprised how little some things do sell for.

i want to see everything from this prototype. the motherboard, whats on the cart, whats on the disc, but i also think that what makes something legendary is how much it can go for.

i would have never thought of battle stadium unless this game went for more than a couple of thousand dollars. i mean the same situation happened a couple of times when games were withdrawn. have a look at little big planet. the original version 1.0 was withdrawn because of a muslim song on the disc. but it doesnt go for shitcakes on ebay.

i wonder analogueboy is doin since this wasnt update for the last few days...

this tension i cant anymore.
 
blUvOwB.jpg

haysus, I totally remember this article right down to the yellow bg
 
What's super weird about this thing is how little changed for the PSX. Sure all internals were re-done to be a new system, but the logo, basic design cues etc were all recycled as-is. They just added the horrible rainbow PS logo, added Virtual Boy handles to the SNES controller, and that was it really.

Back then? Probably Capcom. They made their own arcade hardware and also had incredible production/variety in those years. Imagine their take on the SNK/NEO GEO concept with a home equivalent. Or even a disc based console from them with Resident Evil, Street Fighter, and MM Legends as first party games.

Their ip, hardware experience, and production was arguably on par with both Nintendo and Sega from the 8-bit generation up until DC/GCN/PS2/Xbox era.
And Konami. Maybe Namco.

But Nintendo were a much bigger company than any of them already by the late 80s, including Sega. With their risky Famicom they created the new industry in Japan, and re-grew it from scratch in the US, and even with Konami's amazing output in quality and quantity (they make 30+ great games a year at their best) Nintendo had already collected much more resources by then. Nintendo were a great partner for most of those companies too, they helped Konami create Ultra/Palcom to release more games on the NES 'without breaking the rules', promoted lots of their games in their official publications and bundled them (e.g. Turtles), and Capcom's highest selling game remains Street Fighter II SNES to this day.

Interestingly, where would Sega of Japan have been if they simply signed on as a Famicom developer instead of releasing five consoles between 1983 and 1988? A bunch of their games ended up on other platforms anyway with someone else collecting the cash (Shinobi, After Burner etc), and the Famicom allowed Konami and Capcom and Namco to thrive at home alongside their arcade businesses.
 
How did I miss this thread? Interesting find. I really want to see a tear down of this machine.

edit: an s-video port on a console from 1992? something doesn't compute here.

S-Video wasn't uncommon for higher end TV's from 1992. My parents had a Panasonic 32inch TV from 1991 with an S-Video connection on the back. The SNES even had its own proprietary S-Video connector. I don't think it would be crazy for Sony to have one on the back of their prototype systems.

The SVHS cable that was officially sold by Nintendo:

8EC31135-C73F-0C99-6415E3E877684957.jpg


It was basically just an S-Video cable under a different name.
 
Back then? Probably Capcom. They made their own arcade hardware and also had incredible production/variety in those years. Imagine their take on the SNK/NEO GEO concept with a home equivalent. Or even a disc based console from them with Resident Evil, Street Fighter, and MM Legends as first party games.

Their ip, hardware experience, and production was arguably on par with both Nintendo and Sega from the 8-bit generation up until DC/GCN/PS2/Xbox era.

Have I got a surprise for you
 
How did I miss this thread? Interesting find. I really want to see a tear down of this machine.



S-Video wasn't uncommon for higher end TV's from 1992. My parents had a Panasonic 32inch TV from 1991 with an S-Video connection on the back. The SNES even had its own proprietary S-Video connector. I don't think it would be crazy for Sony to have one on the back of their prototype systems.

The SVHS cable that was officially sold by Nintendo:

8EC31135-C73F-0C99-6415E3E877684957.jpg


It was basically just an S-Video cable under a different name.

I bought those exact cables for my launch SNES, cause my Dad had a Trinitron. It was a beautiful thing. And kept on using them with my N64 then my GCN, and still using to this day with my current retro setup. Great build quality.

TtjRQxb.jpg
 
What's super weird about this thing is how little changed for the PSX. Sure all internals were re-done to be a new system, but the logo, basic design cues etc were all recycled as-is. They just added the horrible rainbow PS logo, added Virtual Boy handles to the SNES controller, and that was it really.

The handles werent a sure thing. See my prototype controller, which was used for a while :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MldZbtkc0GE
 
Neat video. It looks like it uses a male DE-9 connector. Which is the same pinout used for many old school microcomputers and classic home consoles like the Atari 2600 and Sega Genesis. http://segaretro.org/DE-9

Yep, the end connector wasnt finished so all early controllers for the PSX use it, even the controllers that look more final. A breakout box was made that allowed for final controllers once they were ready.
 
What's super weird about this thing is how little changed for the PSX. Sure all internals were re-done to be a new system, but the logo, basic design cues etc were all recycled as-is. They just added the horrible rainbow PS logo, added Virtual Boy handles to the SNES controller, and that was it really.

Uh...? L/R2? Those weren't on the Super Famicom.

Also L/R3 but those came after launch, granted. I mean, yeah. They recycled stuff but I wouldn't say it was simply "oh they just put their CD stuff in a bigger/wider box and called it a day!" They had to redo the logo and everything.
 
Are you kidding me? The required power input is written right there on the back. I mean, I understand not wanting to fry the thing, but the information is there. :\

Has anyone theorized what the "NEXT" port would be used for as pictured above? Havent read the entire thread yet :p
At first glance, it looks like a Saturn controller port with an extra piece of plastic shoved in there.
 
Are you kidding me? The required power input is written right there on the back. I mean, I understand not wanting to fry the thing, but the information is there. :\

There is more to consider when it comes to electronics that have not been powered on in potentially more than a decade than just getting the right plug. Particularly when this could be the only one of those electronics and unclear what sort of certification it went under as far as electrical standards.
 
Are you kidding me? The required power input is written right there on the back. I mean, I understand not wanting to fry the thing, but the information is there. :\


At first glance, it looks like a Saturn controller port with an extra piece of plastic shoved in there.

Back in the old days Sony and everyone else liked to have ports to link together different pieces of electronics, so I'd guess it was meant to hookup with a Sony stereo or receiver or whatnot. Probably not actually planned for a specific peripheral given the device itself was a prototype.
 
This observation makes me feel like its a hoax. That next slot looks like a standard hdmi zommed in

They went through aaaall the trouble of casting a perfect replica and had it worn down so good it even matches the plastic coloring of an old SNES, but then decided to fuck up by including an HDMI port. Yeah no.
 
My guess is it was probably like the serial I/O port in the original Playstation:



Or maybe it plugged into a NeXT Cube for debugging? NeXT machines were quite commonly used for game development in the early '90's.

Looking into it for an article, lttp obviously but I'm doing more of a what if scenario. I'll post it here once everything is finished if anyone is interested in reading the scrawled drivel of a wannabe journo
 
Looking into it for an article, lttp obviously but I'm doing more of a what if scenario. I'll post it here once everything is finished if anyone is interested in reading the scrawled drivel of a wannabe journo


Will be interested in reading it.

It is interesting that the lineout configuration on the back is nearly identical to the PS1. Red, White and Yellow RCA connectors are all in the same place as well as the RFU DC Out. The multi-out on the SNES Play Station is the same one that is on the SNES, N64 and Nintendo Game Cube. But Sony made their own variant of the multi-out port for the PlayStation 1. Serial I/O matches with the NEXT connector (though the ports are still different) and the AC is in the same place for both units.

The only thing that is different is the separate S-Video connector and the lack of parallel I/O port.


Nevermind keep forgetting Nintendo put that on the bottom and it has that port already

The EXT port on the bottom of the SNES was used for the Satellaview on the Japanese Super Famicom. Clearly they left it there for that since this was a hybrid SNES/ CD system.
 
Will be interested in reading it.

It is interesting that the lineout configuration on the back is nearly identical to the PS1. Red, White and Yellow RCA connectors are all in the same place as well as the RFU DC Out. The multi-out on the SNES Play Station is the same one that is on the SNES, N64 and Nintendo Game Cube. But Sony made their own variant of the multi-out port for the PlayStation 1. Serial I/O matches with the NEXT connector (though the ports are still different) and the AC is in the same place for both units.

The only thing that is different is the separate S-Video connector and the lack of parallel I/O port.




The EXT port on the bottom of the SNES was used for the Satellaview on the Japanese Super Famicom. Clearly they left it there for that since this was a hybrid SNES/ CD system.

Thanks I'll definitely include bits in the article speculations excerpt :) I saw the ext port too and was like yep Satellaview.
 
Yeah, doing a rough size comparison, it doesn't look like an HDMI port at all:
qAm2b4l.jpg


As someone else said, it looks like a Sega Saturn controller port:
Kpuovj5.jpg
Haha yeah, it looks size wise a lot like the Saturn controller ports. I'm guessing the next name is just some project name before they found out what the output/input port was named. Wonder if it's for a screen, controller or link cable?!
 
Could it be used as some dev-station hook up since this was a prototype sent out for developers to make games on? USB was not that fast or common back then.

You guys should know Sony by now (and most others really). They always overdesign just in case they need it.

Very true.
 
You guys should know Sony by now (and most others really). They always overdesign just in case they need it.

Could it be used as some dev-station hook up since this was a prototype sent out for developers to make games on? USB was not that fast or common back then.

No evidence of that. If it was truly owned by Olaf, then it would be an internal prototype, not something sent to developers.
 
No evidence of that. If it was truly owned by Olaf, then it would be an internal prototype, not something sent to developers.

There were some saying they sent out 200 of these to various developers to experiment with games, then requested them back for most to be destroyed when the contract was terminated with Nintendo.
 
Amazed people are doubting this, it looks just like the original shots back in the day.

And peeps didn't know about svideo? The snes had composite, svhs and rgb scary well before this - this is genuine or the most impressive fake of all time
 
The thing was left in an attic all these years, with who-knows-what pressed against it in the box at odd angles. It's very likely that it could be unevenly aged on the exterior, and even more likely that the internals are corroded as fuck, meaning that he should NOT under ANY circumstances try to power it up until an expert opens the hood.

Auction it to a museum or uber-wealthy collector so that it can be properly preserved (what's left of it) and for god's sake stop casually tossing it around like a random hunk of plastic that isn't potentially worth millions.

Yeah, it scared me when he was just casually holding and turning it. He doesn't realize what he is holding. Could be worth millions and just being casually tossed around like a toy.

The history of this thing is odd. I never knew any of these functional prototypes were manufactured. Was that known around these parts?

Mind will be blown if it can actually play a game.
 
The history of this thing is odd. I never knew any of these functional prototypes were manufactured. Was that known around these parts?
It was shown a few times, many UK mags had shots, functional prototypes are always built, this was unlikely to be its final form.
 
Could it be used as some dev-station hook up since this was a prototype sent out for developers to make games on? USB was not that fast or common back then.

USB wasn't really a thing until 1995, this device was made somewhere between 1992 and 1993, so it could be some sort of dev station hook up.


You guys should know Sony by now (and most others really). They always overdesign just in case they need it.

One dead give away that this is made by Sony is that it has an RFU DC OUT port on the back of it. Which as far as I know, is a proprietary connector that was made by Sony and only used in their devices throughout the '90's . I know I have seen these connection ports on Sony Handicams before, and the original Playstation has one too.
 
It was shown a few times, many UK mags had shots, functional prototypes are always built, this was unlikely to be its final form.

Actually, I'm convinced this was it's final form.

The most common official prototype we've seen seems to have been an earlier design.

In the one that was found, the controls at the front of the console are more simplified, the controller and console consistently say "PlayStation" instead of "PLAY STATION" on the other controller and "PlayStation" on the console with rainbow lettering. It also no longer has the big link thing that goes into the cartridge port, which I take to mean that they made that mechanism internal.

Also, it seems to make sense that Olaf would hold onto it and keep it in his office if it was a final product. He's probably seen a lot of prototypes in his time (maybe even earlier Nintendo CD/PS prototypes) but kept this one because it's a nice conversation piece to talk about what might have been and how it looked in its final form.
 
Dude, what has come of this?! Why hasn't this been put in the hands of your Mike Mikas and Steve Lins?!!

Not sure last I heard they had "some talks" whatever that means, personally I'm hoping he donates it but I completely understand if the father needs money, its his to own even if its more significant historically.


SPEAKING OF
(SHAMELESS PLUG)

As I mentioned earlier in the thread, I've been writing a piece on the Nintendo PlayStation, and though a week late its finally published thought Id post it here to see if anyone was interested in reading it would be my fellow gaffers!
Its looooong but I tried to give not only a a complete history but compose the most comprehensive Nintendo PlayStation article on the web, let me know if I accomplished or missed anything!

Read it right here at my site: biyabyte.com

EDIT: Thanks to your gys theories on the EXT port btw!
 
I like the CD controls on the top of the unit. I'd have surely used that as my CD player in the 90s. Having to use the PS1 controller was janky.

I think the Sega CD-X has that too? Maybe the Turbo CD add on...?
 
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