Return of the Nintend Playstation Superdisc
March 11, 2020 10:24 PM Subscribe
The semi-mythical Nintendo Playstation/SNES-CD prototype (previously, 2015) was more than confirmed (Engadget, 2015), it was broken down and rebuilt in 2016, then made fully operational in 2017 (YouTube x3) by Benjamin Heckendorn (Wikipedia), aka Ben Heck (official site). The system was recently auctioned off and won by Greg McLemore, vintage video game collector and Pets.com founder (Polygon, 2020).
I hope it ends up in a video game/technology museum rather than some dude's mansion/yacht. Being a prototype, it's probably not much fun as a game console, but fascinating as a historical artefact.
posted by acb at 6:45 AM on March 12, 2020
posted by acb at 6:45 AM on March 12, 2020
Are there any games for it, though?
Yup, just blow into the cartrid... oh wait.
posted by Fizz at 6:53 AM on March 12, 2020
Yup, just blow into the cartrid... oh wait.
posted by Fizz at 6:53 AM on March 12, 2020
Yeah, that's what's always sort of struck me about it. I mean, it has a certain interest in being an industrial prototype and you could maybe figure out what Ninty and Sony were thinking at the time from the hardware they were planning on putting into it, but unless if it came with a cartridge with some early developer's developer demos (like the Net Yaroze eventually did, say), ech?
posted by Kyol at 6:57 AM on March 12, 2020
posted by Kyol at 6:57 AM on March 12, 2020
Are there any games for it, though?
Actually, yes! It's homebrew and 15 minutes long, but still...??
posted by Monster_Zero at 8:22 AM on March 12, 2020 [1 favorite]
Actually, yes! It's homebrew and 15 minutes long, but still...??
posted by Monster_Zero at 8:22 AM on March 12, 2020 [1 favorite]
Are there any games for it, though?
There was a debugging cartridge -- labeled "For demo" in Japanese -- that came with the prototype but it couldn't detect the CD drive when they first found it.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:49 AM on March 12, 2020
There was a debugging cartridge -- labeled "For demo" in Japanese -- that came with the prototype but it couldn't detect the CD drive when they first found it.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:49 AM on March 12, 2020
I hope it ends up in a video game/technology museum rather than some dude's mansion/yacht.
One of the links indicates the buyer has or had loaned it to a museum.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 9:04 AM on March 12, 2020 [1 favorite]
One of the links indicates the buyer has or had loaned it to a museum.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 9:04 AM on March 12, 2020 [1 favorite]
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posted by scruss at 5:38 AM on March 12, 2020 [1 favorite]