Those pictures are all from the same source. Where are they from? Some kind of book on the history of the Playstation? Anyone know?
The Deal Hey Guys, I'm Kevin Bryan, and I'm currently working on a book about the Sony Playstation for all of who are starting to collect for the system. I have the same photos, and received them from the same source as Jason; the source has requested that we not reveal his name or his position, and so we won't. This is a real Dev system (what was called the SNES CD). It hooked into the Super Famicom. There was software developed for it, including near complete games using licensed Sony properties (you may remember the big deal made by Card and Olafsson, among others, about being able to "go backstage" at movies when preparing the licensed games). It is from the US, as far as I know. The controller is not from this system - it's actually a Japanese prototype PS1 controller from after the Nintendo relationship. There were a number of prototypes made for controllers - first because Kutaragi didn't like the final controller design (the one we use today, which was designed by Teiyu Gotoh), and second, because SCEA didn't like the controller design (they had Jay Smith, the guy behind the Vectrex, design some mockups). If you have any further questions about this system, feel free to contact me (or I'm sure Jason would also answer your questions). Oh, and keep an eye out for the book; I'll announce it here when it's done!
(I've just read through the thread, so to answer a few more concerns): These pictures didn't come from "some guy". I am 100%, absoultely positive this is a real dev SNES CD - I've talked to the guy I got them from in person about them, and he is/was high enough up in the videogame world. This isn't from Joe Schmoe who started working at 989 in 2000. Also, if anyone knows their PSX stuff, it's Jason (the guy who runs game-rave). He owns every PSX title, period, and has been collecting for years. Really quite an amazing collection (and one of only two that I know about - of course we have both guys helping on info for the book )
It's really more targeted toward US PSX collectors. It will have a 10 or so page history of the system, a bunch of images from the PS era, a complete rarity/price guide with developer, publisher, SLUS, pack-ins, the works, writeups for 60 games/series of note, info on dev systems, cool peripherals, etc. The only real JAP content is two pages on "rare and expensive" Jap games, with stuff like MK2, Gaiaseed and the like.
The book sounds good, I look forward to it. It is a shame, though, that you won't be covering Japanese and European games in much depth. There's not a lot of info out there on PAL games, I certainly haven't seen a definitive list (unless you count the Playstation Magazine list, hmm), and collectors ALWAYS want to know more about Japanese stuff. You could sell loads of copies of a book JUST on Japanese Playstations, I should think! Anyway, welcome to the forum!
Some more !!! Hello, Please follow link for a bit more information on the SNES CD http://www.talkaboutgaming.com/group/rec.games.video.nintendo/messages/577973.html 90% of the images we already know except these ones are now complete: http://img51.exs.cx/img51/5776/earlypsx01.jpg http://img51.exs.cx/img51/9076/earlypsx02.jpg But the story of the SNESCD on one of the post is quite interesting. http://www.talkaboutgaming.com/group/rec.games.video.nintendo/messages/577981.html Cheers Sabre
What a load of ass - IIRC DVD Video didn't become commercially available until 1996, and I didn't hear about it till the year after. VCD was only just out around 1993/4 - maybe that's what they meant?
Although the introduction of DVD was around 1994 with the ideas of 2 formats (see here), this was before even the name Digital Video Disc (changed later to Versatile) was introduced. I think its a given, not just from that evidence but from the fact the PlayStation only has a CD reading capability, that they really meant VCD... although of course, VCD was introduced several years before. I think that reporter just had their wires crossed! PlayStation was never intended to play any movies out of the box, and indeed only unofficial VCD adapters exist (I believe). As for that hypothesis on the name, PLAYstation... well you PLAY games duh!
Nothing to do about the topic, but look at the concept for the disc. Doesn't that remind you of the PSP's disc?
No, not really. In the early years of CD-ROMs, the discs were often in caddys like that. It wasn't really until around 1994/5 when PC CD-ROM drives were available as we know them today. Also, the VCD format was only introduced in 1993, so it was still pretty new technology (therefore "cool") when the PlayStation was released.
Interesting, then that just about the first VCD player, the CD-i, was introduced in 1992! However, I don't know when the MPEG card was released. Actually, the CD-i format was created in 1985, but not for consumer use. That can be seen as a predecessor to VCD, really.
The CD-i is a bit more than a VCD player though (but the games aren't that good). Bear in mind that the first CD-i hardware didn't have the option of installing MPEG hardware, like the later models did (to play VCD in most models an additional card was required, I have one of those for sale btw ;-))
Umm, the first publically available player in the UK, the 210, did have the capability. However, there was CD-i technology since 1985, which was commercial only.
Well yes but when was the 210 released? I doubt it would be before the advent ( :smt042 ) of CD-i, otherwise there wouldn't be much point in the optional 9141 DV cartridge, which by the way, is even bigger than a US Saturn case :smt043 The first CD-i player, the 180, didn't have any option for MPEG. According to ICDiA it was released in 1988 though.
Could this 1988 CD-i player use game software?? It didnt come here until around 1993. All uk players had the option of the Mpeg card, the console version came pre stacked with it.
There really wasn't a true Cd-i player/console released in the 1980's...moreso it was the standard that was developed sort of like redbook and so forth. There was a review of early CD-ROM technology along with the various standards and libraries in a 1985 issue of Macworld. CD-I was mentioned as a standard that allowed some limited interactivity, but at that time was still in its infancy.
........ Dont take this as gospel but http://www.oneoffcd.com/info/historycd.cfm scroll down to view: "1987 Video CD format created. Allen Adkins of Optical Media International joins with SonoPress in Amsterdam and demonstrates a desktop system for pre-mastering CD's (Adkins and SonoPress, produced a replicated CD in less than 24-hours using this system). " OK only says the Video CD format was created, not massed produced discs, but either way, it shows that VCD was thought of before the 90's at least....
From every place I've seen on the net, the Video CD 1.1 standard (there doesn't seem to be a 1.0) only dates back to 1993 - see http://www.vcdimager.org/pub/vcdimager/manuals/0.7/vcdimager.html#SEC8 - this is from a manual for VCD authoring program, so I think this guy knows his stuff. Also, this suggests MPEG1 didn't become a proper standard until 1992/3. CD-i videos aren't the same standard as VCD, though they both are MPEG1 video, so maybe there's a bit of confusion historically between the two formats?
