Nintendo Play Station Proto of Dubious Quality

eh. what an update...

 

That picture is the same one I linked on page 1. Unless I'm missing something?

 

Yes, those 2 photos are .001% different. *lies*

 

There were two Sony SNES-CD games in development and they were functional. Fortezza, a space shooter and Hook. Hook SNES-CD eventually migrated over to the Sega CD (cartridge hook w/CD music and FMV)

 

Utter rubbish, IMHO. Too many dodgy bits and bobs wrong with it to be official. Where's the PS family logo, I heard that's been around since day 1 of the PlayStation project......

 

I think it is definitely real, it fits with the design style of Sony's products at the time very sober and with lines.

We've only seen the tip of the iceberg on the Sony/Nintendo relationship plus who would go in so much trouble to build such a good fake???

I'm sure both parties shared a lot of IP at the type and discussed a lot of different ventures at the time this is just the result of one of them.

SAbre

 

a sony-branded SNES it might be, but a SNES-CD ?nowhere near, not by a long-shot.

 

elaborate please, PM or nudge me on msn ;-)

 

I don't know how you can all say it's fake.

It's been said earlier, if it was a Nintendo logo instead of a Sony logo - you would all believe it.

Time will tell I guess.
Though, I've seen nastier protos.

 

We say it because we can

a list of reasons can be found in previous pages, and based on those, it is more probable than not that it is unrelated to PSX development.

Whether or not it is a SNES variant is still a question, yet gives rise to doubts due to things like the double power-supply, the lack of stereo RCA audio-out etc.

the only possible scenario for it to be PSX related is for this to have been a dev-kit.

ie: there is no CD drive because it uses disk emulation hand-in-hand with a host machine. The existence of the SNES cart. slot would then be justified for reasons of completness of the kit

 

Other reasons why it may not be a fake.

If they wanted to test the MSF-1 CD prototype unit on the SFC then the on/off switch would be in the wrong place, having it on the front would help a lot.

Again there was a lot of talk of Sony making a SFC unit as part of their agreement with Nintendo and it would make sense, they make a CD-i unit in 1992 when they agreed the Green Book standard back in 1986 then let Philips go their own way and they were the biggest company (in terms of sales, I can't back this up at the moment but the only other company would have been Matsushita (Panasonic...)) with the MSX in Japan.

So it doesn't have stereo output, the Megadrive didn't but it had a Stereo headphone socket, although it does have a Sony RF connector (Video + Audio + Power) interface as well as a weird hidden socket behind the unknown phono connector, which maybe might be the the extra audio connector....

The Quality is too good to be a casemod and apart from dick waving rights and a possible high price on Ebay what possible reason would someone have to make such a decent casemod with so many extra bits.

The Veroboard visible looks bad but it could be a quick mod to get the machine working with the Super SFC CD / MSF-1 interface or something else to fix a pre production problem? I mean the Sinclair Spectrum issue 1 had a 74LS00 chip soldered over the ULA to fix a problem that wasn't noticed until after they made hundreds of units...

Seems too good to be a fake, but who knows, if it turns up on Ebay in a few months then maybe it'll be found out. Be nice to see the internals...

 

I've been looking at that so-called Sony/Nintendo proto for a while and watching what other people posted.

Of course, I don't know one way or the other, but asked for my opinion I would be dubious. Someone asked "why would someone bother to make such a good fake", the obvious answer being that they could pass it off as the real deal, generate interest and speculation then auction it off. If they are found out, they still have the cash in their pocket and frankly they may not care whether their reputation in the community was damaged or not. Seems far fetched, but on the other hand.

Sony never do things by half. I've never seen anything produced by Sony that didn't adhere to strict design terms & accuracy. If it was put together by Sony then it was their part-time janitor sneaking into the workshops at night and fiddling with a CAD tool!

Obvious things such as the unused holes at the back, the fact the PSU insert has what appears to be knife & heat damage, the cheap finish, the fact that none of the colours match (white button for power, but everything else is in black/grey?)

The text is cluttered and on such a proto completely pointless. Look at the design protos for the Xbox for example. The facade didn't have all the text that finally appeared on the retail and clearly, considering the crappy appearance at the rear this was a "work in progress". I.e. why have details such as "insert famicom cart only" type text if you haven't even identified the model or the input functions to the rear? It's just not like Sony at all. They would hardly do one without the other imo.

The lines around the base of the unit seem like a deliberate attempt by someone to nod at the design of the PS2, which was actually based on the scrapped Atari Falcon console and not earlier revisions of Sony PS units.

I don't know about the Sony logo, but the Play Station looks dubious too. Again, like a wholly obvious nod. I.e. Sony hadn't at this stage even agreed on it being the Playstation therefore it must be early. As someone pointed out, Sony had Playstation and PSx in mind from the off! Sony are also very tight with the font usage. Logo aside, most other details appear in the same font. Not so here.

Build quality of Sony material back in the 1980's was pretty solid. Simple mistakes such as the raised eject button and the sunken reset button seem to be glaring issues that Sony, even at an early stage would have corrected and suggest to me that the internal motherboard was never meant to actually fit this particular case otherwise the buttons would be flush mounted.

It looks like shit, I truly hope it isn't a genuine Sony design and thank god that it never came to pass as I don't think I could have become quite so enchanted with that box by comparison with the final Sony PS1 design which in my opinion was excellent.

Well, there we have it. Hardly based on honed technical knowledge, but definately from years of dealing with Sony as a customer and retailer back in the day. It looks "wrong". If it is genuine you can all have a laugh at my expense. ;-)

 

Incorrect, in the same way they played with controller designs for ages, so too did they with PS logos. There was an issue of Edge magazine years ago filled with various logo designs.

Another good point.

 

Where's the eject button?

 

I think Parris makes a lot of good points and I'd have to agree with him that it's probably a fake.

I'd also like to say that I don't think it's of to high a quality to be a case mod. Since when was there any quality of case mod that was to high in quality to be considered. We've all seen some crazy stuff and it's not to hard to do a professional looking job if you take your time and plan things out with the right tools. What reason is there for modding anything? We do it because it's fun, because it's different and because in a way you prove to yourself that you can make your own ideas a reality and perhaps your ideas are one step above those of an original manufacturer.

JackAz, how can anyone say anything at this point? Its obviously all just speculation. How could you say it's not fake. For all we know it's just a photoshop effort.

 

See the original image posted on page 1 and you'll see a massive biscuit sized black button marked "EJECT" in the middle of the muddle. ;-)

 

I do not beleive its fake nor do i beleive its real, Untill anyone gets more information i won't decide if its real or not.

It could be that someone wanted to see if they could take a snes and make it into a snes cd design or if it were real and from sony it maybe that its a very very early test design to see how the combined unit electronics might be size wise or something like that??

 

Take a close look at the dust on the black buttons. The edges where it has been wiped/cleared are not natural. Examination of the writing looks photoshopped.

Also look closely at the way the controller ports sit in the wholes made for them, the perspective is slightly off and their quality falters in comparison to real life ;-)

The white button on the front looks out of perspective as does the audio control.

I have a feeling that this box is actually something else entirely with some extras photoshopped onto it and some holes cut into the back.

Just a guess and hopefully I'm wrong.

EDIT: Hmm didn't realise the writing was to be seen in the reverse photo, would take some serious editing to make that look authentic.

 

Fair enough, but regarding your last point. If it really were at the "does this thing work" stage, then I am sure Sony wouldn't have been arsed to stick it into a shoddy case, cut the wrong holes and have writing on it in certain places and not in others.

I reserve judgement, but if I were offered it for £10 I'd take it just for a poke about inside. If someone were trying to pass it off as "an original early proto design", I'd be dubious. Shame we can't have the lid taken off...

 

Just wonder why if your going to show any pics you don't explore the said proto? I understand how some say "Well it's the right of the owner do to as they may" You know, I agree BUT if your going to go as far as have an website post a questionable pic (and the risk that site owner is taking w/ his rep) then I think you've opened the door to prove what you actually have. I mean at this point this thread about this pic has caused more questions than answers.