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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.

15 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 Junta · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I will say that Saturn/PS1/N64 represented a very awkward phase (emulation has done a lot to salvage the bad parts though).

      SNES/Genesis represented nearly the pinnacle of 2D gaming. So much better than the NES/SMS.

      The '3D' craze caused gaming to go mostly 3D before things were necessarily ready. There are some great PS1 2D games (Wild Arms... mostly, Symphony of the Night), but there was a rush to do 3D and it looked in many ways uglier than the SNES generation in the attempt.

      Not only graphically, but control/gameplay/camera angle wise, the industry was very awkward in sorting out this whole 3D things.

      Later PS1 games did much better job and PS2 games were pretty unambiguous about having the hang of 3D, but early PS1 games and many N64 games were less pleasant than their 2D predecessors on many fronts.

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    4. 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.

    5. Re:Too bad early 3D paged poorly by yodleboy · · Score: 2

      I see the nostalgic charm in 2D consoles where you expect simple, flat graphics. They really don't age that badly. 3D on the other hand...I've tried to go back and play some old PC games from GoG and it's too painful to deal with the primitive 3D. It's just too obvious and really overshadows the rest of the game, no matter how good.

  2. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 2

    Or it's trash.

  3. Re:Smaller CD reader? by pecosdave · · Score: 2

    UMD drive perhaps?

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  4. Re:Odds are you can get all the same stuff for $10 by pecosdave · · Score: 2

    Every Playstation since the original plays PS1 disks, and even the PSP can play PS1 games if you rip them and put them on the system correctly.

    Even the PS3 systems that don't support PS2 games will play PS1 games.

    Sony to their credit, has taken care of the PS1, much better than they did the systems that came after.

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  5. Look at their cookie policy... sheesh! by Tomahawk · · Score: 2

    The cookie policy basically says that if you don't want all of these tracking cookies to be active while using the site, you need to disable cookies in your browser. Most sites have an opt-out toggle somewhere. But polygon.com seem to be happy enough to get you to change your browser settings in order to achieve this.

    Idiots.

    Has anyone got a site with a better cookie policy?

  6. From the inside.. by Xnet+Project · · Score: 2

    Would love to do a teardown of this device and compare it to an Arduino or Raspberry Pi.

  7. Re:Let's hope it's nothing like what Nintendo did by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Now, a business-minded person would Nintendo shorted the market to create more demand; of course in Nintendo's case, it was only to create hysteria as they never produced more to meet that demand.

    One of the most bizarre Christmas product releases I've ever seen.

    They did re-release more of the NES classic earlier this year. You should be able to find one close to you. Every time I check stores lately there's some in stock.

  8. Re:Thank you Sony for going USB. by pecosdave · · Score: 2

    Sony to their credit put a barrel plug on the PSP
    Anyone can make a barrel plug - in addition they used mini USB which can also be supplied by anyone and they did it on the same unit. That's a far cry from those funky connectors Nintendo did - open standards versus proprietary.

    You also conveniently omit where they used a non-standard power connector on the original Vita.
    I did omit that, but I also addressed it when I said (I don't have the rest for comment) If you would like to send me a Vita I would still like to have one and will include it in future comments.

    As for the part where you bash me for not bashing the memory stick I did say:
    Sony - notorious for lock-in and incompatibility,

    Every single thing you called me out for was addressed in my original post.

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  9. Only 5 games out of 20 announced? by Comboman · · Score: 2

    The fact that they only announced 5 out of the 20 games is concerning. It probably means they are still negotiating with third-party suppliers. While Nintendo, Sega or Atari can fill a retro console with desirable first-party titles, Sony's reliance on third-party games is a real disadvantage (as it will be for Microsoft when they inevitably bring out the mini retro Xbox in a couple of years).

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  10. Re: Classic Is Back! by lord_mike · · Score: 2

    I'd definitely buy the Altair Classic, especially if it has a working front panel.