PSX hardware used to get direct feed images for magazines?

I was wondering, when you see direct feed images of PSX games in magazines, how did they do it? What hardware did they use to get the images? I've been messing with a beta which has features which enable you to control every aspect of the game and create a stable picture perfect enough for taking images, I presume this is what the build was used for, although I've never known what hardware was actually used. Can anyone shed some light on this subject?

 

Games could have had screenshot modes (various games on NES, SNES, and Genesis did I believe) or I guess it is possible in theory they could have had a digital output from the parallel or serial ports on the PS1 to a computer to get an exact RGB image. Maybe someone here has 1st hand knowledge.

 

Caetla.

If Caetla could do it, why not a official dev tool could not do it too ?

 

I would assume most magazines get their images from the so-called Press discs (discs that contain lots of high quality pictures ready for including in magazines and/or huge prints).
These generally come from either Sony (talking about PS) or the game developers... and they most likely create these using the official dev hardware (with which they can, for instance, pause the game at any time then access the video memory for dumping it... or probably some other easier method of getting the screenshots).

 

Exactly! Which raises the question, what hardware are we speaking about?

 

Well, for PS1, all licensed developers used the official development boards: DTL-H2000, DTL-H2500 or DTL-H2700 (these are the "base" cards; there are also other which provide additional functionality). These are ISA, PCI and ISA cards respectively which go in an existing computer (not sure if Sony sold pre-built computers with the dev hardware).
I would assume they used the debugging functionality of these to get a video memory dump... but can't say for sure.

Another option, but less practical, is connecting the console itself to a PC video capture card, but that's more like a DIY method for that time (nowadays you can do it much easier with an emulator)

 

Thanks! Hopefully someone who has experience with this aspect of development might know more details. What got me thinking is that some debug menus are so extensive you could literally use them to construct very creative scenes perfect for image capturing, features that aren't only limited to freezing the entire game but every single individual aspect of the game its self. It's almost as if this is what the function of the build was, to create scenes and capture still images, it got me thinking what else went in to that process.

 

The Xploder/Xplorer software for Win95 has a screen capture option.

 

IGN in the early 2000's mentioned they used a capture device I think it was called "GRABBY" or something. But I don't think that was for all uses.

 

Well, it is almost clear for disc-based consoles - if we take Sony they produce press kits since PS1, and every press kit has a disc with screens and logos. But what about cartridge-based consoles like Genesis or SNES? There was a lot of art and screens in EGM in 1992 or 1993. How did they get the images? Floppies from developers?

 

Many magazines actually took pictures of the TV screen in the early 90's.

 

This is evident on a lot of NES game box art if you look at the screen shots on the back.

 

I remember one time, around 1995 I believe, my dad came home with a black and white printout of a screenshot from Vectorman for the Genesis. I asked him how he got it, and he said the internet. I was pretty amazed by it - we didn't have internet access in our house at that point, but my dad had access at work. I remember the image being very clear, and I wonder exactly how it was captured. Now that it think about it, it looked like a direct screen grab - but my eyes were not finely attuned to such things at that age.