a few more pages on the SNES CD-ROM

Sorry, feel free to remove/edit/whatever. I just wanted to post a cleaned up image.

 

I m skeptical about the above picture depicting the SNES-CD. There's nothing SNES-CD about it, just happens to have a prototype PSX controller NEXT to it.

with the deals nintendo made at the time, the SNES-CD wouldn't have prototype PSX controllers, but standard SNES controllers and variants.

the little cut-out on the top looks like something that would print receipts it is actually the LCD screen's place, just like a discman. (?)

additionally, as with all these "snes-cd" units, there's no clear indication of what the unit's purpose actually is, even for a prototype. (!)

Firstly, a SNES-CD devkit would have used CD emulation like all CD-based console development kits, irrespective of an actual CD drive, hence requiring some sort of SCSI-like connection to a host computer.

Also, "Play/Pause", "FF(fast forward)" "FR(Fast rewind)" and "Stop" are typical of music and video players - the SNES-CD had proprietary Nintendo CD's in an enclosure, and was never intended to playback media like movies or music.

I m surprised no one has bothered cross-checking the picture with the known facts about the unit, it just doesn't add up.

PS: it looks like someone's attempt at inter-species marriage between a Super Famicom and a regular audio CD player

PS II: The triangular "Start" button on the controller, found on all PS controllers is a design direction that was adopted when Sony was developing their own Play Station afaik.

 

the answer to your doubt might be in the older pages i wrote a nice article for the wiki about this, and there are pictures of a gaming expo showing how the proto was supposed to be plugged on a SNES.

BTW remember that it is a prototype made by pulsetec. the make working protos of optical discs storage, so it would not be their work to add scsi connectors and such... also there was more than just one snes cd, for saying so.

concerning the hole, probably some kind of cart was supposed to plug there. it was announced that it would have used such a cvart for region locking and game saving

 

The original story behind that unit is that the owner got those out of a dumpster (I can't remember if he knew they were being thrown out or it was luck). Even if that is a prototype of the SNES add-on that controller is not for that device. It was for the Playstation's very first development hardware after Sony decided to go it alone. Having it in that photo has only caused confusion.

 

I have one of these controllers, which I got from a programmer who said it was for the SNES CD prototype.

Plus, wasn't it concluded in the following thread that it was indeed for the SNES CD although it may have been kept for the PS development:

http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16751&page=4

 

Spent hours looking on my backups, but wasn't able to find the pictures with the other logo designs... :banghead: OH:

This is what i managed to find over the internet:




The logos again



This pic shows a different controller design



Edited: Seems that the book "Digital Dreams: The Work of the Sony Design Center" has a full chapter about the PlayStation.

 

controller reminds me something but what

http://cgi.ebay.com/Sony-Playstatio...yZ139971QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

hehe

 

Now this screams fake. I hope i'm wrong.

 

Does it? It looks as genuine to me as anything I have seen so far.

 

Looks like the early RISC based (used for initial development before the giant boxes came out) Sony NEWStation. Been so long since I've seen one, so I can't verify.

(UPDATE) - yep, a Sony NEWS station, RISC based. Similar photos here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_NEWS

 

It looks more like a System 11 to me.

 

it certainly looks NEWS-derived, but I m not sure why there are controller ports in the front and a rainbow of AV outputs, from RGB to S-video, in the back - at least the description/pictures of the NEWS in the link seems to be somewhat different to the pictures in the auction. Is it possible that, being a MIPS based system, these were modified as non-final devkits?

 

It says on the auction Model Number DTL-H505 PS-X (Code Name) Target Box can't read the label on the back of the unit need higher res pics.

Looks pretty legit to me, would like to know what's on the hard drive if any...:nod:

 

screw the hard-drive, i want to see what's inside this bad boy

 

The dtl-h505 target box on ebay is obviously an early ps-x devkit, it connects to a PC with a special scsi card (model number dtl-s510b)

 

Auction closed.

 

And the world never knew...

I saved the auction pictures on my Flickr for those who them:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sabre470/

 

yeah, I saved them as well while they were fresh. I was actually very tempted to pay the load and have it, alas it wasn't meant to be.

 

Same here, but he wouldn't ship to the UK...

 

It is a modified NEWS station, and IIRC it did connect to a PC. But it was so long ago, and the NEWS based units were very, very early DEV kits as are the controllers. Generally (again, IIRC) only premium developers/publishers very early on got the NEWS station variants.