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Sony Announces PlayStation Classic, a $100 Mini PS1 (polygon.com)

Posted by msmash on from the how-about-that dept.

Sony announced Wednesday that it will release the PlayStation Classic micro console on December 3. It will cost $100 and come with 20 built-in games. From a report: Like Nintendo's NES Classic and SNES Classic, the PlayStation Classic will come packed with a list of beloved hits from the system's original library. There will be 20 games in all, but Sony only announced five of them today: Final Fantasy 7, Jumping Flash, R4: Ridge Racer Type 4, Tekken 3 and Wild Arms. "All of the pre-loaded games will be playable in their original format," the company said in an announcement post on the PlayStation Blog. Sony plans to launch the PlayStation Classic worldwide on Dec. 3 -- the 24th anniversary of the PlayStation's release. (The PS1 debuted in Japan on Dec. 3, 1994, and Sony didn't bring it to the West until September 1995.) The retro console will retail for $99.99 in the U.S., 89.99 pound in the U.K., 99.99 euro in Europe and 9,980 yen in Japan. For that price, customers will get the system and two controllers. The gamepads are full-size replicas of the PS1's original controller, not the DualShock, so they and don't include analog sticks or vibration. As you can see in the gallery above, the gamepads are wired USB devices that plug into the console in the same spot as the original system's controller ports.

4 of 130 comments (clear)

  1. Too bad early 3D paged poorly by Dwedit · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Too bad early-generation 3D graphics have aged very poorly. Especially how the original Playstation doesn't even have perspective-correct texture mapping, everything warps and warbles as it moves on the screen.

    1. Re:Too bad early 3D paged poorly by JoeyRox · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Poor graphics are part of the charm of these "classic" systems :)

    2. Re:Too bad early 3D paged poorly by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Agreed! When I worked on one PS1 game the two graphics guy had to sub-divide triangles like crazy so that the affine texture mapper wasn't producing "swimming" / shimmering textures like crazy. The worst offenders were vertical and horizontal polygons relative to the camera's DOF (Direction of Flight).

      Wonder if THPS (Tony Hawk Pro Skater) will be available? Normally I hate sports games but that was an absolute blast! Wasn't there a port of Diablo 1 to the PSX available as well?

      Note: The PSX was the code name Sony and us devs called the PS1. So many std C lib funds were outright broken the first year, but I digress.

    3. Re:Too bad early 3D paged poorly by thevirtualcat · · Score: 3, Insightful

      This.

      Making a pixel art game today invites comparisons to SNES and Genesis in reviews. Things like "I felt like I could be playing this on my SNES" are (generally) considered compliments.

      Making a 3D game today, if anything, invites "look how far we've come since N64 and PS1" in reviews. Things like "I felt like I was playing an N64 game" is not something people generally aspire to.