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A Look At the Rare Hybrid Console Built By Sony and Nintendo

Posted by Soulskill on from the not-a-case-of-hybrid-vigor dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Long before Sony and Nintendo were rivals, the two companies were partners for a brief time. In 1988 the duo started work on SNES-CD, a video game media format that was supposed to augment the cartridge-based SNES by adding support for higher-capacity CDs. In 1991 at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Sony introduced the "Play Station" (yes, with a space) but it never saw the light of day. Now, more than two decades later, Imgur user DanDiebold has uploaded images of the unreleased console. This particular model (about 200 Play Station prototypes were created) confirms that the system was supposed to be compatible with existing SNES titles as well as titles to be released in the SNES-CD format. In other words, it would have been the world's first hybrid console: game developers and gamers alike would be able to use both SNES cartridges and CDs. If you want to learn more about this particular prototype, check out the following thread on Assembler Games.

2 of 37 comments (clear)

  1. Year Typo? by shadowknot · · Score: 3, Insightful

    In 1998 the duo started work on SNES-CD, a video game media format that was supposed to augment the cartridge-based SNES by adding support for higher-capacity CDs. In 1991 at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Sony introduced the "Play Station" (yes, with a space) but it never saw the light of day.

    I think the first year should read "1988" no?

  2. The story about it being fake is fake. by Cowclops · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The message board post saying it was a fake was a fake. It was in French and they were joking about how they're so good at making repros that its theirs and its a fake. Except they were joking.

    This doesn't prove its real, but I wouldn't be quite so quick to jump to the conclusion that its a fake.

    The guy who has it seems to be worried about plugging into the "7.6V" power input, but its pretty obvious that a 7.5V psone power supply will run it just fine.

    In cases like this, skepticism is to be expected, but the "proof" that its "fake" was an admitted joke, so lets roll it back to "maybe fake" instead of "definitely fake" until more info comes out.