Prototype Super Famicom / PlayStation console unearthed?

If you think these nuggets were the rarest of the rare, just take a look at the PlayStation / Super Famicom prototype pictured above. Back when Sony was reportedly looking to collaborate with Nintendo on a machine, this here device was supposedly the offspring of their collective imaginations, but over a decade later we're finally seeing dusty images of what could have been. Of course, there's no way of telling whether this shot is actually authentic, and Game-Rave certainly doesn't go out of its way to lend any further credibility to the situation, but feel free to click on through for a shot of the rear and take guesses as to how much it'll fetch on The Bay if real.

[Via NintendoWiiFanboy]

[NHAnimator @ Jun 8th 2007 8:46AM]

One thing we know for sure: Someone got paid for suggesting the name be changed from "PLAY STATION" TO "PLAYSTATION". Sweet work if you can get it.

[Nando @ Jun 8th 2007 8:55AM]

Neat!

[Manuel @ Jun 8th 2007 9:21AM]

I bet it has better games than the PS3

[L. Cyphre @ Jun 8th 2007 9:22AM]

zomg it's hueg liek xbox

[CarbonFree @ Jun 8th 2007 9:36AM]

Seriously, the watermarking is only an act of dickery. If you feel that you need to put your address on there, please don't make the stuff behind it obscured.

[Perrey Z. @ Jun 8th 2007 5:17PM]

Amen. That's just wrong and plain stupid.

[HyperHacker @ Jul 6th 2007 6:55PM]

Funny, I was about to post the same thing. They ruined the images by spooging all over them. :-(

[FaaR @ Jun 8th 2007 9:42AM]

This thing's the fakest fake that has been faked in a long good while.

Not only is the amateurish design and build quality an almost dead-sure giveaway, when you consider the playstation was supposed to be a CD-based peripheral that would connect to the expansion port on the underside of a super nintendo, you understand just how fraudulent that thing is.

I don't see where on that huge box the CD would go. Nor the super nintendo itself that it was destined to attach to I might add. This thing's completely bogus, and somewhere out there on the interwebs is a scammer laughing at all the people who fell for his scheme...

[Cap2501 @ Jun 8th 2007 11:04AM]

If you read the post it is implied that this was supposed to be a collaboration between sony and nintindo. I would assume this means pre-playstation (as we know it) and a more advanced superfamicom, or perhapes this was a predessor to the super-nintindo as we know it perhapes nintindo was considering letting sony build their hardware so they could focus on games. Without more information it is hard to know.

Furthermore since this product clearly never saw the light of day this would be an engineering prototype and those are almost always ugly as hell and unfinished. Usually larger than the final product too as they leave room to add hardware without needing a new case. So this would fit perfectly inline with that view.

My vote would be that it is real. That nintindo realized early on that it lacked the engineering prowess and the production resources to develop a truely powerfull console and their talents lay in creativity and game design so they were looking to work with other companies, who knows why that died but I feel they would be better if it didnt. I mean look at the market now the wii is succeeding due to nintindo's strengths of creativity and game design. Its hardware is crap, often accused to being a slightly tweaked gamecube which was crap hardware too compared to its competition. Imagine what nintindo could do with the hardware of the ps3, or even the ps2 for that matter.

[HyperHacker @ Jul 6th 2007 6:57PM]

nintindo?

[Bernhard @ Jun 8th 2007 9:49AM]

Hey, isn't that the combined video/audio socket for the composite cable used by the N64 at the back? I don't think they had it that far in development back then...

[Flying? @ Jun 8th 2007 9:58AM]

there was the same audio/video output on the Super Famicon and on the N64 ;);)

[Cory @ Jun 8th 2007 10:57AM]

The A/V port was on the SNES as well.

But, as FaaR said, the "Play Station" was supposed to be an add on to the Super Famicon/SNES (just like the HDD for the N64, that also never materialized). This thing is clearly supposed to be a standalone unit.

[Mark @ Jun 10th 2007 6:04AM]

A reasonable explanation for it being stand-alone despite the original add-on format would be that this was either (as others have said) a dev box, or this was Sony's proposal unit when they attempted to convince Nintendo to make separate console instead of an expansion.

[HyperHacker @ Jul 6th 2007 6:59PM]

Or they planned to have it connect to the bottom of the console by a wire.

BTW, they used the same connector on the SNES, N64 and Gamecube. I was disappointed when they changed it for Wii. It made things easier, being able to just swap one set of cables between systems.

[Jason @ Jun 8th 2007 9:53AM]

PLAY STATION = PHOTO SHOP

[Bernhard @ Jun 8th 2007 10:02AM]

Alright then, so where is the power button?

[panda @ Jun 8th 2007 10:08AM]

Well if you look at the first pic you can clearly see the outline for the door that pops up where you insert the Caddette Tape. LOL nice try.

[Christian @ Jun 8th 2007 10:18AM]

This should be keeping it real fake, old school style.

[Bob @ Jun 8th 2007 11:26AM]

Engadget, you should ask Ken or Kaz or Princess Peach or whoever was involved back then if this is legit. If it isn't you should tell them to send some REAL prototype pics. This sort of this is always fascinating.

[Faar @ Jun 8th 2007 11:28AM]

Cap2501;
Respectfully, not knowing how old you are and wether you were 'into' gaming back when the real Sony/Nintendo playstation was being developed, I can clearly state that I was (being in my 20s at the time). And there was never ever any talk about any 'more advanced super famicom' with regards to this device. The original playstation was most definitely supposed to have been a peripheral for the *original super famicom* with additional processors, memory and a CDROM drive. This thing shows no sign of having any CD drive whatsoever.

I don't buy the argument that it being an engineering prototype would explain away the obvious crappyness of the device in question. If it was an engineering prototype it wouldn't need SNES joypad ports and a cart slot on top for example since the final system was never supposed to have those things; it would fit in under a SNES, which already had a cart slot and joypad ports. Nor would it need video out at the back etc, again because the SNES would take care of that. AND, there's no trace of almost the whole point of the device; the CDROM drive!

Nor was there ever any talk at the time about Nintendo dumping hardware development over onto Sony to focus on games. That would have been a rather extraordinary development and WOULD have been discussed. Quite the opposite, the SNES (western name) was the most advanced 16-bit console at its launch, and in some aspects not bested even by the neo-geo. Nintendo had strong in-house design capabilities at the time.

No, the reason Nintendo dropped the playstation project wasn't because it lacked knowledge or resources, but rather because Nintendo management started worrying about their profit margins if it was to lose the hugely lucrative cartridge manufacturing aspect of console game making. CDs being so much cheaper to make, and easier to pirate as well...

[NexEstSalus @ Jun 8th 2007 4:53PM]

I think that when you said something about the two connecting, they immediately assumed SegaCD. The post does mention that it was a collaboration, not necessarily 'the' system you are referring to that actually was planend to dock with the SNES. But things like, well, the whole backside, make it obvious that it is fake. Even a rough prototype has some sort of fitting for the cable to mount through, and the board is just crammed in there from the look of things.

[MTheory @ Jun 8th 2007 11:50AM]

I'm going to have to side with Faar (even though he mispelled "Far") That thing you see at the top? That's not a cd player... it's a cassette player. Since when did we play games on cassettes? Ok maybe there WERE people who played games on cassettes but by the era of the SNES, we were on to bigger and better things.

The model isn't too far off for a prototupe. I think the dead give away is the power cable coming out the back. Why would you have a power cable AND an additional plug-in for power to the right of it?

[Quastor @ Jun 8th 2007 11:56AM]

While I don't have insider knowledge to know if this is truly real or not, it's not as easy to call a fake as most people here are.

If you brush up on your history of the Nintendo/Sony agreement, you'll realize this is potentially the first "Play Station." While the original agreement was for Sony to help develop a CD add-on to the Super Famicom, Nintendo quickly pulled out of that and it never happened. However, due to the botched agreement, Nintendo ended up licensing the rights to develop and sell hardware that would play Super Famicom games. Sony developed the first "Play Station" under this agreement, but quickly realized that there's no money to be made in hardware sales. All the money to be made is in the game - which Nintendo still controlled the rights to.

This is most likely a prototype of the Super Famicom "Play Station" before it was scrapped to start work on what would become the Playstation.

[Pete @ Jun 8th 2007 12:25PM]

If you blow the image up, it appears that the cassette load at the top is actually a cartridge port.. The lettering on it says "For cartridge with Super Famicom mark only" from what I can tell.

[mp4020 @ Jun 8th 2007 12:26PM]

Got to be fake. Doesn't look real. and do ya think they could have tried any harder to stick enough watermarks in there? My god.

[Jeff @ Jun 8th 2007 1:03PM]

I don't think you can definitively call this real or fake. If it is real, it definitely does not match any of the designs for the original PlayStation that we've seen before. You can see a couple of them here (one for the add-on, one for the standalone version): http://www.n-sider.com/articleview.php?articleid=279

It is possible that other prototypes were designed, or that this is an even earlier prototype than the one unveiled in Tokyo in 1991.

But some things don't look right to me with this. The logo, for example - the PlayStation logo pre-dates any known design of the system, going all the way back to the announcement of the deal with Nintendo. Why Sony would then put a plain type, un-trademarked "PLAY STATION" even on a prototype is beyond me. Also, the *entire point* of the Play Station project - both the add-on and standalone versions - was the CD drive. Sony never intended to produce any straight Famicom clones - the entire project, with and without Nintendo, was always based around the CD.

Read that article - I don't know if it's 100% accurate, but it's accurate as far as what I know of the situation and it has a lot of detail.

[GiovanniMcAdoo @ Jun 8th 2007 1:49PM]

Jeff

Sony only trademarked PlayStation after their lawsuit with Nintendo over the rights of the trademark of Play Station. Sony and Nintendo orignal concept was called the Play Station and i believe Nintendo holds right to that name forcing Sony to go with PlayStation with no space.

[Gordon @ Jun 8th 2007 3:12PM]

Why does this thing look so much like an N64??? Just look at it!

[roto @ Jun 8th 2007 4:01PM]

So, where does the "CD" part of this supposed peripheral fit in?

Nintendo and Sony tried partnering on a CD accessory to the Super Nintendo/Super Famicom, there was never any talk of anything but an add-on to the SNES.

If this were an "engineering prototype" for the "CD addon" or for that matter if this were an engineering prototype of a stand-alone unit (which, if you remember, Nintendo never agreed on)...WHERE IS THE CD MECHANISM?

There is no pop-top lid, and obviously no slot-loading mechanism. Where in that picture does anyone see that this is a "CD" unit?

A few commenters above mentioned that this looks like it has a Cassette tape port....odd, isn't it?

[heh @ Jun 8th 2007 4:13PM]

Stickers are really easy to make. Dremel's are really useful for cutting plastic. The proto-board in the rear-shot makes you wonder.

Anybody ever heard of "Ben Heckendorn"?
His site/forum is dedicated to making consoles portable, so how far off do you think it would be to say that some enterprising individual decided to stuff a "Super Famicom" into a Sony *gasp* Cassette player case?

And on that same "Game Rave" domain, you see this:
http://www.game-rave.com/psx/playstation_perfect_guide/snes_psx/index.html

Which is a more believable prototype (considering it has a DISC DRIVE).

FLAME ON

[o0adam0o @ Jun 8th 2007 4:14PM]

Good lawd!...some of u guys write too much....Make ur own blog.

[HYRO @ Jun 8th 2007 5:32PM]

nice alarm clock

[captain common sense @ Jun 8th 2007 6:33PM]

It's dusty.

Now why would this be?

If the image was taken by the manufacturer as a prototype image, the unit would be clean and spanking new.

If someone owns this thing and it in fact exists, they are well aware of the value and certainly wouldn't have it sitting around collecting dust.

Finally, if it's just a pic taken by someone several years ago, why is it just now surfacing?

We are all dumber for having seen this post.

[The ZeroCorpse @ Jun 8th 2007 6:44PM]

Total BS. The partnership between Sony and Nintendo never made it to prototype stage, and even if it had, the end product would not have had Sony's name on it. It would have been the same aesthetic as every Nintendo peripheral at the time. Easy-Bake Oven-styled plastic, bright colors, etc., with the Nintendo name on it.

This is some jerk's way to scam people.

[Pal @ Jun 9th 2007 12:20AM]

"Super Famicom" is proudly displayed but "Nintendo" is nowhere to be seen. I say fake. If this "Game Rave" wants to make a point, at least record some video footage of it in action, playing games.

[brandon @ Jun 9th 2007 2:57AM]

According to http://www.n-sider.com/articleview.php?articleid=279

Sony was developing its own device that would play SNES carts as well as their own CD based games BEFORE the SNES was even released. This may not have anything to do with the other project to develop a CD based add on. Maybe this item was just some initial tinkering to get the SNES support functional. Or it could still be a fake pic, the back of the "console" being so unclean does give me pause.

"In June of 1991, at the Chicago CES, Sony officially announced the Play Station (space intentional). As originally announced, the Play Station would have a port to play Super Nintendo cartridges, as well as a CD-ROM drive that would play 680 megabyte Sony Super Discs."

[thejedipunk @ Jun 9th 2007 3:25AM]

Even if this thing is real, the pictures are ruined by that watermark.

[Alex Yee @ Jun 10th 2007 10:51AM]

according to the somewhat reliable wikipedia. The reason the agreement was broken was because as well as making a cd add-on the contract also allowed Sony to make their own version marketed under their own name which they called Play Station. Nintendo didn'yt like the idea so pulled out of the agreement but the playstation was allowed to suport snes games but Sony decided to not put a snes cartriage slot in the final rendition.