• SNES PlayStation Prototype Gets Turned On, Opened Up
    30 replies, posted
[IMG]http://images.nintendolife.com/news/2015/11/snes_playstation_prototype_gets_turned_on_opened_up/attachment/1/original.jpg[/IMG] [QUOTE]Earlier this year, [URL="http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2015/07/prototype_snes_playstation_found_in_the_wild_unicorn_and_big_foot_expected_next"]a prototype SNES PlayStation was discovered[/URL] in the wild and caused quite a stir among fans and collectors alike. The system - which was [URL="http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2015/07/feature_what_if_the_snes_playstation_had_actually_happened"]supposed to be start of a beautiful friendship between Nintendo and Sony[/URL] but the former left the latter at the altar - never saw release and what images existed were believed to be little more than case mock-ups. However, the prototype system was [I]very[/I] real, and even came with a cartridge which suggested that the internals were functional. At the time of discovery many skeptics stated their belief that it was nothing more then a very clever hoax, and the fact that it was never shown working seemed to support this claim. Fast forward to the present, and the time for being a naysayer is finally at an end. Dan Diebold and his Father Terry took the unit to the Retro.HK Expo to show it off, and at the same time booted up the machine and played some games on it (not SNES CD games obviously, as none were ever made). As has already been revealed, Terry at one time worked for Advanta Corporation - the company at which former Sony Interactive Entertainment boss Olaf Olafsson was CEO. When the firm went bust in 2009, Terry bid on some of the firm's items, paying $75 for some cups and saucers. These items arrived alongside the console itself - presumably left at Advanta by Olafsson - which was placed in storage, with its new owner not realising its potential worth, until son Dan decided to post some photos online this year. Interestingly, the years of being in storage have not impacted the console's ability to power on - it boots up and shows a "Super Disc" BIOS screen, and can play standard SNES games. Sadly, the cartridge discovered with the system appears to be faulty. [/QUOTE] [url]http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2015/11/snes_playstation_prototype_gets_turned_on_opened_up[/url]
wonder what the state of the game industry would look like if this partnership had taken off
Finally. I was worried this would disappear into the ether, especially after he decided to take it to Hong Kong for some reason (probably $$$) instead of one of the many retro gaming experts in the US who were much closer. I'm glad they want to get it documented and put in a museum. Retrocollect says that the internals are pretty much just an SNES with a CD-ROM drive rather than having any kind of major hardware enhancements, and that the cartridge just contains the CD-ROM BIOS. It's very fascinating; this means that this is basically the CD-ROM attachment they were planning for the SNES but in this prototype it's built into the system itself. Games released on disc for this would be enhanced by way of having far more storage space for high-quality assets and larger games. If this idea had been seen through, one of the major things we would likely see is SNES games with CD-quality audio, which is actually something the homebrew community has achieved via flashcart recently (look up MSU-1 enhanced audio). The SNES was capable of some really cool stuff; it was just hindered by cartridge space restrictions.
[QUOTE=Shugo;49063447]Finally. I was worried this would disappear into the ether, especially after he decided to take it to Hong Kong for some reason (probably $$$) instead of one of the many retro gaming experts in the US who were much closer. I'm glad they want to get it documented and put in a museum. Retrocollect says that the internals are pretty much just an SNES with a CD-ROM drive rather than having any kind of major hardware enhancements, and that the cartridge just contains the CD-ROM BIOS. It's very fascinating; this means that this is basically the CD-ROM attachment they were planning for the SNES but in this prototype it's built into the system itself. Games released on disc for this would be enhanced by way of having far more storage space for high-quality assets and larger games. If this idea had been seen through, one of the major things we would likely see is SNES games with CD-quality audio, which is actually something the homebrew community has achieved via flashcart recently (look up MSU-1 enhanced audio). The SNES was capable of some really cool stuff; it was just hindered by cartridge space restrictions.[/QUOTE] Diddo for the N64, except it affected it even more. Shame the N64DD never caught on.
[QUOTE=Dr. Evilcop;49063477]Diddo for the N64, except it affected it even more. Shame the N64DD never caught on.[/QUOTE] Yeah, it seems like Nintendo was always trying to break away from cartridges. FDS, Super Disc, 64DD. I think discs could have caught on and replaced cartridges much earlier if they had seen the Super Disc project through and then built their next console based on discs. They really fucked up when they parted ways with Sony. The PlayStation as we know it today would have never ended up a huge competitor. It's so weird to think about. The way it would've likely worked out is that Nintendo and Sony would produce the Super Disc add-on for the regular SFC/SNES, while Sony would also manufacture their own SNES+SD combo system, aka the "Play Station". Much like how Nintendo let Sharp make their own Famicom+FDS combo system (the Twin Famicom). You would need either the Super Disc add-on or a PlayStation to play Super Disc games.
Imagine Metal Gear Solid for this, seeing the Metal Gear Solid series as a Nintendo franchise would be so awesome
[QUOTE=Mio Akiyama;49063642]Imagine Metal Gear Solid for this, seeing the Metal Gear Solid series as a Nintendo franchise would be so awesome[/QUOTE] This isn't the "PlayStation" you know, though. It's just an SNES with a disc drive. Metal Gear Solid likely would've ended up a Nintendo 64 game if Nintendo and Sony had stayed together. The Nintendo 64 also probably would've used discs if the Super CD was successful.
[QUOTE=Mio Akiyama;49063642]Imagine Metal Gear Solid for this, seeing the Metal Gear Solid series as a Nintendo franchise would be so awesome[/QUOTE] Yeah uh, wrong console buddy. This is a SNES with a disc add-on, it isn't the hardware that ended up in the Sony PlayStation we know today. [editline]6th November 2015[/editline] [QUOTE=Shugo;49063524]Yeah, it seems like Nintendo was always trying to break away from cartridges. FDS, Super Disc, 64DD. I think discs could have caught on and replaced cartridges much earlier if they had seen the Super Disc project through and then built their next console based on discs. They really fucked up when they parted ways with Sony. The PlayStation as we know it today would have never ended up a huge competitor. It's so weird to think about. The way it would've likely worked out is that Nintendo and Sony would produce the Super Disc add-on for the regular SFC/SNES, while Sony would also manufacture their own SNES+SD combo system, aka the "PlayStation". Much like how Nintendo let Sharp make their own Famicom+FDS combo system (the Twin Famicom). You would need either the Super Disc add-on or a PlayStation to play Super Disc games.[/QUOTE] Honestly Nintendo should have just negotiated a better licensing deal with Sony; that's what made Nintendo drop out of the deal, no? They got uncomfortable with giving Sony the right to publish games for their platform and whatnot.
[QUOTE=Dr. Evilcop;49063961]Yeah uh, wrong console buddy. This is a SNES with a disc add-on, it isn't the hardware that ended up in the Sony PlayStation we know today. [editline]6th November 2015[/editline] Honestly Nintendo should have just negotiated a better licensing deal with Sony; that's what made Nintendo drop out of the deal, no? They got uncomfortable with giving Sony the right to publish games for their platform and whatnot.[/QUOTE] Yeah, someone at Nintendo fucked up and gave Sony too much power over the console, games, and royalties. Especially the royalties, I think Sony was going to get all or a large part of the cd game sales.
It reminds me of an alternate universe version of the Sega CD/Genesis. They probably would have been dueling like crazy if they had coexisted.
[QUOTE=Dr. Evilcop;49063961] Honestly Nintendo should have just negotiated a better licensing deal with Sony; that's what made Nintendo drop out of the deal, no? They got uncomfortable with giving Sony the right to publish games for their platform and whatnot.[/QUOTE] Nintendo being too hesitant to use CDs for games because they were concerned with piracy so stuck to more expensive cartridges was also a huge factor in this not pulling through, and also why afterwards the PS beat the N64
[QUOTE=Shugo;49063668]This isn't the "PlayStation" you know, though. It's just an SNES with a disc drive. Metal Gear Solid likely would've ended up a Nintendo 64 game if Nintendo and Sony had stayed together. The Nintendo 64 also probably would've used discs if the Super CD was successful.[/QUOTE] Actually Kojima wanted to develop Metal Gear 3 on the 3DO, but was convinced not to after seeing the PlayStation's 3D graphics. So either Metal Gear would have remained an obscure franchise, or MGS would have been a lot less ground-breaking had it been on N64.
[QUOTE=Steele92;49064223]Nintendo being too hesitant to use CDs for games because they were concerned with piracy so stuck to more expensive cartridges was also a huge factor in this not pulling through, and also why afterwards the PS beat the N64[/QUOTE] To be fair, easy piracy was a significant factor in the death of the Dreamcast. But you're right, cartridges put a huge damper on the N64. At least with the SNES, cartridges gave it a huge advantage in one area - the SNES was designed with the ability to use a coprocessor present in the cart; StarFox, Yoshi's Island, and DooM for SNES used the SuperFX chip, for example. Plus, most consoles at the time used carts anyway, so CDs weren't as big of a threat. As far as I'm aware, only a few N64 games had special hardware in the cart, and I don't think any had a coprocessor or anything like that. They went with the RAM expansion slot for the console instead.
thank goodness the nintendo-sony deal failed, now we have more competition thanks to that.
[QUOTE=Steele92;49064223]Nintendo being too hesitant to use CDs for games because they were concerned with piracy so stuck to more expensive cartridges was also a huge factor in this not pulling through, and also why afterwards the PS beat the N64[/QUOTE] I remember back in the day some N64 games costing £50-60. It was crazy. To be fair, I had a cheat cartridge which let me play copied games on my PS1. We had loads of pirated games :v: [editline]7th November 2015[/editline] I say it quite a lot but people complain about the price of console games these days, but I really don't think the price has actually risen that much with the huge increase in price for game development. In real terms the price of games really hasn't gone up much I don't think. Granted the market is massive now, games regularly sell in the millions but still Nobody had many N64 games because they cost so much
At least it works, that's good.
[QUOTE=Dr. Evilcop;49065060]To be fair, easy piracy was a significant factor in the death of the Dreamcast. But you're right, cartridges put a huge damper on the N64. At least with the SNES, cartridges gave it a huge advantage in one area - the SNES was designed with the ability to use a coprocessor present in the cart; StarFox, Yoshi's Island, and DooM for SNES used the SuperFX chip, for example. Plus, most consoles at the time used carts anyway, so CDs weren't as big of a threat. As far as I'm aware, only a few N64 games had special hardware in the cart, and I don't think any had a coprocessor or anything like that. They went with the RAM expansion slot for the console instead.[/QUOTE] But piracy is also the reason people are still developing games for the dreamcast today
I've been waiting for this news! Like others are saying, I'm glad the guy didn't fuck off. He seemed like a flight risk.
[QUOTE=ZeroTimesCookie;49065035]Actually Kojima wanted to develop Metal Gear 3 on the 3DO, but was convinced not to after seeing the PlayStation's 3D graphics. So either Metal Gear would have remained an obscure franchise, or MGS would have been a lot less ground-breaking had it been on N64.[/QUOTE] From what I've read, the decline of the 3DO was actually the biggest factor in moving development to the PlayStation. I think if the PlayStation as we know it didn't exist, MG3/MGS would've ended up either on the Sega Saturn or Nintendo 64, and the N64 could've ended up using discs instead of cartridges if the Super Disc took off.
I like the cartridges. Those are some sturdy ass motherfuckers. Really fast loading too. I really wish consoles these days would make a return to cartridges, not in the traditional sense of course but rather in the form of flash memory. It's gotten cheap enough that I don't think it would really affect the price too badly.
Oh god, it really is the holy grail!
[QUOTE=Mio Akiyama;49066916]But piracy is also the reason people are still developing games for the dreamcast today[/QUOTE] Fat lotta good that did SEGA [editline]7th November 2015[/editline] [QUOTE=DropDeadTed;49068514]I like the cartridges. Those are some sturdy ass motherfuckers. Really fast loading too. I really wish consoles these days would make a return to cartridges, not in the traditional sense of course but rather in the form of flash memory. It's gotten cheap enough that I don't think it would really affect the price too badly.[/QUOTE] Handhelds still distribute games via cart or flash memory.
The awful part about SNES-CD it could've also ended up like Sega did with it: FMV-based games, which really have better places in arcades much like Dragon's Lair. It's fun though, seeing this gem still existing out there. Had it succeeded we'd have those characters scrapped from Smash Bros. including Snake and Lucas, though Ness (or Ninten) would be closed away until Brawl… but what if Final Fantasy characters were also officially in Smash?
[QUOTE=BenjaminTennison;49068957]It's fun though, seeing this gem still existing out there. Had it succeeded we'd have those characters scrapped from Smash Bros. including Snake and Lucas, though Ness (or Ninten) would be closed away until Brawl… but what if Final Fantasy characters were also officially in Smash?[/QUOTE] 1) Sony doesn't own Konami or Square. Blame Konami's decisions for Snake's lack of return, he'd be absent either way if they acted the same as now in that alternative timeline. 2) Final Fantasy and Metal Gear both appeared on Nintendo systems before Sony systems, anyway, by nearly 10 years each. 3) How was Lucas, a Nintendo-owned character who first appeared on the [i]Game Boy Advance[/i] (or a cancelled N64 game if you really want to push it), related to this whatsoever? [QUOTE=Dr. Evilcop;49063961]Honestly Nintendo should have just negotiated a better licensing deal with Sony; that's what made Nintendo drop out of the deal, no? They got uncomfortable with giving Sony the right to publish games for their platform and whatnot.[/QUOTE] The story is supposed to be that Sony was going to get 100% of distribution revenue from discs and Nintendo noticed this after the deal was signed. Once they realized this, they tried to negotiate it and Sony did not, causing Nintendo to bail and attempt the same thing with Philips . . . . the infamous CD-i . . . . and the spectacular failure of this system made them not go with discs on the Nintendo 64, which was a pretty big mistake because the media format bogs down a lot of the Nintendo 64's ability with the only tradeoff being very-situationally-used rapid loading and unloading of contents and a sturdier media. The system theoretically has better hardware for FMV-playing than the PlayStation but it's used so little that no one can tell.
[QUOTE=BenjaminTennison;49068957]The awful part about SNES-CD it could've also ended up like Sega did with it: FMV-based games, which really have better places in arcades much like Dragon's Lair. It's fun though, seeing this gem still existing out there. Had it succeeded we'd have those characters scrapped from Smash Bros. including Snake and Lucas, though Ness (or Ninten) would be closed away until Brawl… but what if Final Fantasy characters were also officially in Smash?[/QUOTE] what the fuck are you rambling about
[quote]Yeah, it seems like Nintendo was always trying to break away from cartridges. FDS, Super Disc, 64DD. I think discs could have caught on and replaced cartridges much earlier if they had seen the Super Disc project through and then built their next console based on discs. They really fucked up when they parted ways with Sony. The PlayStation as we know it today would have never ended up a huge competitor. It's so weird to think about. The way it would've likely worked out is that Nintendo and Sony would produce the Super Disc add-on for the regular SFC/SNES, while Sony would also manufacture their own SNES+SD combo system, aka the "Play Station". Much like how Nintendo let Sharp make their own Famicom+FDS combo system (the Twin Famicom). You would need either the Super Disc add-on or a PlayStation to play Super Disc games. [/quote] Just about every console in the 90's had a disk-based "backup" module you could get out of China. They basically ripped the cartridge to a disk...which by strikingly odd chance wasn't locked in any way and could be [i]accidentially[/i] distributed around. [t]https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bf/Professor-SF-Attached.jpg[/t][t]http://modthis.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/dsc02684.jpg[/t] [t]http://nintendoagemedia.com/_usermedia/attachments/DSC018531.JPG[/t][t]http://www.gamesniped.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/sega-dreamcast-zip-drive-prototype-2.jpg[/t] [sp]Okay, not so much the Dreamcast one but I can't find a decent pic of the one for the Sega Master.[/sp] If game producers learned anything about distributing on disks in the 80's, it was that the amount of piracy that was possible could of completely ruined them.
The SNES was [B]severely[/B] limited by cartridge size. This is what this console would have been capable of had it released: [media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AKSoDFUSKA[/media]
[QUOTE=elowin;49069791]what the fuck are you rambling about[/QUOTE] Sega CD got some bad rep because many of its games consisted of games mainly utilizing FMV capabilities, starting with Night Trap. In Lucas' case, I really mean we could've had the characters that were meant to be included in the first place: the villainous trio Bowser, Dedede, and Mewtwo in Smash 64, then... there's also Ganondorf, so Nintendo could have gotten more time to work with Melee and potentially make him [I]not[/I] a clone of Falcon. [SP]I'm sorry, I don't have many things specifically about this MOTHER 3 boy. Nintendo basically ran into trouble during the 90's and as a result had less time on their hands.[/SP] ...But the best possibility might be if Brawl actually did very good instead of nosediving.
[QUOTE=pentium;49070310]Just about every console in the 90's had a disk-based "backup" module you could get out of China. They basically ripped the cartridge to a disk...which by strikingly odd chance wasn't locked in any way and could be [i]accidentially[/i] distributed around. If game producers learned anything about distributing on disks in the 80's, it was that the amount of piracy that was possible could of completely ruined them.[/QUOTE] I'm talking about optical media ([B]discs[/B]), not magnetic media ([B]disks[/B]). And as the PlayStation we know today proves, going with discs could've been a huge success for Nintendo. Actually, Nintendo [I]was[/I] worried about piracy with the Famicom Disk System. The entire reason FDS disks [URL="http://static.giantbomb.com/uploads/original/0/4527/1751015-1.jpg"]have "NINTENDO" embedded into their design[/URL] is because the FDS reader would physically clamp into the letter slots, thus stopping pirates from making their own disks since they couldn't print "NINTENDO" on them. ....[URL="https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4021/4386061242_3c38e2b352_o.jpg"]it didn't actually end up stopping pirates[/URL], though. :v:
[QUOTE=1/4 Life;49070536]The SNES was [B]severely[/B] limited by cartridge size. This is what this console would have been capable of had it released: [media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AKSoDFUSKA[/media][/QUOTE] This is super cool.
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.