Snes cd add on

[seieienbu]

A friend of  mine linked me to this gallery here:

https://imgur.com/a/Ll9kS

There are a few interesting images of a snes cd.  I was always fascinated by the idea of that particular upgrade.  I liked my super nintendo but wished that it had the added capabilities of the additional storage space optical media would have provided.  FMV games would likely look much better with the snes' larger palette, might have gotten CD versions of RPGs that I had enjoyed, etc.

Anyway, I don't know what the deal is with these pictures but at the very least it looks intriguing.

[esteban]

A friend of  mine linked me to this gallery here:

https://imgur.com/a/Ll9kS

There are a few interesting images of a snes cd.  I was always fascinated by the idea of that particular upgrade.  I liked my super nintendo but wished that it had the added capabilities of the additional storage space optical media would have provided.  FMV games would likely look much better with the snes' larger palette, might have gotten CD versions of RPGs that I had enjoyed, etc.

Anyway, I don't know what the deal is with these pictures but at the very least it looks intriguing.

I have a dozen of those Famicom CD-ROM prototypes in my garage somewhere. I should pull them out and dust them off before dropping by them off at the Goodwill.

[ClodBusted]

The pictures look intriguing. Is there a source page other than the gallery? I can't shake the feeling somehow that somebody made this device up by combining yellowed Super Famicom and PC CD-ROM drive parts as well as prints of the PlayStation font.

[CrackTiger]

That looks like an early PSX unit if it is anything real. Sony was supposed to be using SFC pads during development, some early mockups looked more like this and there's no way that an all-in-one until was made with an outer shell during development of the aborted SNES add-on.

[BigusSchmuck]

That looks like an early PSX unit if it is anything real. Sony was supposed to be using SFC pads during development, some early mockups looked more like this and there's no way that an all-in-one until was made with an outer shell during development of the aborted SNES add-on.

Let alone get all yellowed. Dunno calling fake on this one unless someone says otherwise.

[CrackTiger]

If you google "PSX prototype", non-yellowed versions of this thing show up.

[BigusSchmuck]

Just cause I know some people are lazy:
http://www.maxconsole.com/maxcon_forums/threads/185727-Old-PlayStation-prototype-images-revealed!

[wilykat]

So that's why people kept asking for Nintendo Playstation back in the day when they were looking for games at Toys R Us.

[PunkCryborg]

http://pxlbbq.com/la-snes-cd-quand-nintendo-x-sony/

[CrackTiger]

Quality post from assembergames:

Wow this is beyond awesome.
This truly is some kind of holy grail for both PlayStation and Super Nintendo collectors.

[o.pwuaioc]

Quality post from assembergames:

Wow this is beyond awesome.
This truly is some kind of holy grail for both PlayStation and Super Nintendo collectors.

Assmember. First they wave their dicks at each other, hoping to attract a rival. Then, the one with the biggest dick sticks it up his or her own ass.

[BigusSchmuck]

I'll eat my words.

nintendolife.com/.../prototype_snes_playstation_found_in_the_wild_unicorn_and_big_foot_expected_next

There's a damn video of it as well.

[CrackTiger]

Quality post from assembergames:

Wow this is beyond awesome.
This truly is some kind of holy grail for both PlayStation and Super Nintendo collectors.

Assmember. First they wave their dicks at each other, hoping to attract a rival. Then, the one with the biggest dick sticks it up his or her own ass.

What is it with collectards and the phrase "holy grail"? They use it so often that it must be a new sarcastic slang meaning 'common and unremarkable'. Like all of the new levels beyond "mint" and "rare". The whole point of condition and rarity scales is that they have a fixed maximum. I now see more new terms beyond regular mint or rare than there are between (and including) 'poor' and 'rare' in traditional organized collecting scales.

[seieienbu]

Video was cool.  I hope to someday see a video of it in action, even if it's just playing a SFC cart.

What is it with collectards and the phrase "holy grail"? They use it so often that it must be a new sarcastic slang meaning 'common and unremarkable'. Like all of the new levels beyond "mint" and "rare". The whole point of condition and rarity scales is that they have a fixed maximum. I now see more new terms beyond regular mint or rare than there are between (and including) 'poor' and 'rare' in traditional organized collecting scales.

On the one hand, I agree with you.  The phrase "holy grail" gets thrown around far too often.  "Slightly more expensive than most things" could easily take the place of "holy grail" in a lot of circumstances.  On the other hand, little is more rare in a retro gaming hobby than an unreleased prototype with no models known to be in the hands of private collectors; I feel the usage is apt in this case.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/True-Lies-Sega-Game-Gear-NEW-SEALED-PRISTINE-VGA-90-HOLY-GRAIL-/151720788789?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2353438335

[Gentlegamer]

That looks like an early PSX unit if it is anything real. Sony was supposed to be using SFC pads during development, some early mockups looked more like this and there's no way that an all-in-one until was made with an outer shell during development of the aborted SNES add-on.

This makes the most sense, since "PlayStation" wasn't in use until development of Sony's proprietary system. "Play Station" was the name for the SNES CD-ROM combo unit.

Edit: it has a cart slot for SFC, so it would seem to be genuine.

[ClodBusted]

Some readworthy funny thoughts about the development + review of the PlayStation controller:
http://nfgworld.com/mb/thread/452-Sony-Playstation-Pad

[BigusSchmuck]

Wouldn't it be funny if it played Playstation1 games as well as Snes games? Though I doubt the specs are the same..

[xcrement5x]

Wouldn't it be funny if it played Playstation1 games as well as Snes games? Though I doubt the specs are the same..

If it's real I would bet it plays SNES games no problem, but I'm sure Sony drastically modified the design after leaving the Nintendo partnership.

[Gentlegamer]

Is there someone seriously thinking the Sony PlayStation had anything to do with the SNES internally?

The Play Station and PlayStation are completely different things.

[DragonmasterDan]

If it's real I would bet it plays SNES games no problem, but I'm sure Sony drastically modified the design after leaving the Nintendo partnership.

Complete redesign.

From when Nintendo and Sony split ways in early Summer of 1991 to December 1994 when the Playstation hit the market in Japan there was three and a half years of time passage while Sony developed their platform.

[BigusSchmuck]

If it's real I would bet it plays SNES games no problem, but I'm sure Sony drastically modified the design after leaving the Nintendo partnership.

Complete redesign.

From when Nintendo and Sony split ways in early Summer of 1991 to December 1994 when the Playstation hit the market in Japan there was three and a half years of time passage while Sony developed their platform.

Ah, a guy can wish :-)

[cr8zykuban0]

that thing does look awesome. kinda makes you imagine what could have been

[SparkyJLM]

I've always been fascinated by this time in game console history.

Check out the book Console Wars by Blake J. Harris for some really inside stories on what was happening behind the scenes in those days . . . especially how Sega of America and Sony America wanted to develop the PlayStation together after the Nintendo deal fell through, but their Japanese counterparts had other ideas, and how SGI first pitched their graphics technology to Sega of America, but SOJ didn't want any part of it . . . damn, just imagine if Sega had released the hardware that became N64 with a CD drive!!

It's a really great read, for anyone who only saw the stories in EGM and GamePro back then, or is interested in the "other" side of the gaming business.

[BigusSchmuck]

I've always been fascinated by this time in game console history.

Check out the book Console Wars by Blake J. Harris for some really inside stories on what was happening behind the scenes in those days . . . especially how Sega of America and Sony America wanted to develop the PlayStation together after the Nintendo deal fell through, but their Japanese counterparts had other ideas, and how SGI first pitched their graphics technology to Sega of America, but SOJ didn't want any part of it . . . damn, just imagine if Sega had released the hardware that became N64 with a CD drive!!

It's a really great read, for anyone who only saw the stories in EGM and GamePro back then, or is interested in the "other" side of the gaming business. 

I did read it, but no mention of the Turbo other than 32-bit Ironman or any other competitors at the time. Good read, but really needed to broaden the scope.

[SparkyJLM]

Yeah, it was really meant as a study of Sega's marketing against Nintendo, and specifically Tom Kalinske's time there, not a history of that period in videogames.  It just has some cool info on the SNES CD/Play Station. 

Have you read Leonard Herman's book, Ultimate History of Videogames?  It's been a while for me, but it really seemed to be "Atari, then Nintendo, then Sony" with Sega really only featured in the Mortal Kombat/Night Trap dustup and not much about anyone else.  But I did really enjoy that, too.

[GreatBlue Swirlof99]

Yeah, it was really meant as a study of Sega's marketing against Nintendo, and specifically Tom Kalinske's time there, not a history of that period in videogames.  It just has some cool info on the SNES CD/Play Station. 

Have you read Leonard Herman's book, Ultimate History of Videogames?  It's been a while for me, but it really seemed to be "Atari, then Nintendo, then Sony" with Sega really only featured in the Mortal Kombat/Night Trap dustup and not much about anyone else.  But I did really enjoy that, too.

Why do people forget what SEGA did for the industry, if it wasn't for SEGA it would still be the Nintendo liscencing problem And games devs would stop making games( not sure but look at the strategy Nintendo used) created the 3/7/13/15/18 ratings and gave a great generation worth of games when others didn't , sony sucks since Ps1 the games are getting worse and Microsoft is ok I guess but we need a breath of fresh air in gaming! Are there any SNESCD games game protos? PS: I think the SEGA CD is cool!

[ccovell]

Why do people forget what SEGA did for the industry, if it wasn't for SEGA it would still be the Nintendo liscencing problem And games devs would stop making games( not sure but look at the strategy Nintendo used) created the 3/7/13/15/18 ratings and gave a great generation worth of games when others didn't , sony sucks since Ps1 the games are getting worse and Microsoft is ok I guess but we need a breath of fresh air in gaming!...

Dude with that epic run-on, you need to take a breath of fresh air!  :-D

[GreatBlue Swirlof99]

Why do people forget what SEGA did for the industry, if it wasn't for SEGA it would still be the Nintendo liscencing problem And games devs would stop making games( not sure but look at the strategy Nintendo used) created the 3/7/13/15/18 ratings and gave a great generation worth of games when others didn't , sony sucks since Ps1 the games are getting worse and Microsoft is ok I guess but we need a breath of fresh air in gaming!...

Dude with that epic run-on, you need to take a breath of fresh air!  :-D

Yeah I know I'm really passionate and interested in SEGA :-D

[CrackTiger]

Yeah, it was really meant as a study of Sega's marketing against Nintendo, and specifically Tom Kalinske's time there, not a history of that period in videogames.  It just has some cool info on the SNES CD/Play Station. 

Have you read Leonard Herman's book, Ultimate History of Videogames?  It's been a while for me, but it really seemed to be "Atari, then Nintendo, then Sony" with Sega really only featured in the Mortal Kombat/Night Trap dustup and not much about anyone else.  But I did really enjoy that, too.

Why do people forget what SEGA did for the industry, if it wasn't for SEGA it would still be the Nintendo liscencing problem And games devs would stop making games( not sure but look at the strategy Nintendo used) created the 3/7/13/15/18 ratings and gave a great generation worth of games when others didn't , sony sucks since Ps1 the games are getting worse and Microsoft is ok I guess but we need a breath of fresh air in gaming! Are there any SNESCD games game protos? PS: I think the SEGA CD is cool!

The PC Engine was the first console to break Nintendo's monopoly. If it didn't, Sega would have proceeded differently. Sega has done a lot for the "industry", but so have so many other companies.

[esteban]

SEGA BROUGHT 'TUDE TO CONSOLES.

I am not sure I am grateful for that development.

But, without SEGA, I see marketing/branding of consoles playing out a bit differently on 90's.

FEKA!

[wildfruit]

I wasn't allowed super Nintendo as it was too expensive so.my parents got me a mega drive
Model 2,at that.
I was pleased. I remember the advert at the time featured the lost Viking. Bundle came with Robocop vs terminator and world of illusion. Both good games though polar opposites in difficulty.

[GreatBlue Swirlof99]

I wasn't allowed super Nintendo as it was too expensive so.my parents got me a mega drive
Model 2,at that.
I was pleased. I remember the advert at the time featured the lost Viking. Bundle came with Robocop vs terminator and world of illusion. Both good games though polar opposites in difficulty.

World of Illusion is wonderful and proves the Genesis can do good music that's not bass or rock!

[seieienbu]

SGI first pitched their graphics technology to Sega of America, but SOJ didn't want any part of it . . . damn, just imagine if Sega had released the hardware that became N64 with a CD drive!!

Ugh.  That console generation was too soon for 3D graphics.  I've said it before and I'll say it again.  I actively dislike just about every game on the N64 whereas I like many games on the Saturn.  I realize that having similar chipset to what the N64 ended up with likely wouldn't magically make all the cool 2D games that I enjoyed disappear but I have a nagging suspicion that there would be far fewer of them and way more garbage-ware 3D nonsense.  Gone would be the playable ports of CPS2 and Neo Geo arcade games and instead there would be the endless breadth of mediocre-to-bad 3d platformers with camera issues and lousy graphics.

If the Saturn had become N64 with CD and had no 2D games on it I likely would have the same feelings I have for the N64 as I do for the Saturn which I like.  Looking at the library it boggles my mind that N64 has as many fans as it does.

[CrackTiger]

Even if the alternate Saturn's 2D games existed in that alternate timeline, but with filtering, it would have ruinethe aesthetics and tainted the overall experience. We still got lots of great pixelart that generation. Filtering it would have contradicted the whole point of it.

[Dicer]

3D simply should have waited one more generation, the whole 32/64bit era was a blurry foggy janky low poly warping mess, and frankly 2d was the only thing that saved a good chunk of that generation, not saying there were not some brilliant 3D games for the time, but it's hard to go back, where I can play Atari on up skip 32 bit messes and pick gaming back up in the ps2/dc/gc/xbox era.

[BigusSchmuck]

http://www.engadget.com/2015/11/06/nintendo-playstation-is-real-and-it-works/
I'm a believer now.

[seieienbu]

http://www.engadget.com/2015/11/06/nintendo-playstation-is-real-and-it-works/
I'm a believer now.

I've read about this thing all over and it seems like everyone has a single dumb idea about what this machine is actually supposed to do.  I don't know why people (including the guy in the article) seem to believe that it would be able to play an actual Playstation CD.  Yeah, it's named the "Playstation" but it's not a PS1; it's a Super Nintendo with a CD ROM add on.

It would be neat to see how SNES games would handle the added space of a CD ROM;  FMV games with 256 onscreen colors from a palette of 32k colors sounds interesting enough to where I'd be curious enough to find out what the Nintendo version of Night Trap or Markie Mark's make my music video would look like to actually boot them both up once.  ...but I digress.  Can't play Sony PS1 games.

[SignOfZeta]

It's so much nicer looking that any game machine Sony ever made, or Nintendo.

The article seems to think they made 200 of these units. They link to an IGN article with no reference. Why would anyone assume they made so many prototypes? It does look pretty close to "retail", so maybe this deal was a lot further along that I thought it was when it collapsed?

[BigusSchmuck]

http://www.engadget.com/2015/11/06/nintendo-playstation-is-real-and-it-works/
I'm a believer now.

I've read about this thing all over and it seems like everyone has a single dumb idea about what this machine is actually supposed to do.  I don't know why people (including the guy in the article) seem to believe that it would be able to play an actual Playstation CD.  Yeah, it's named the "Playstation" but it's not a PS1; it's a Super Nintendo with a CD ROM add on.

It would be neat to see how SNES games would handle the added space of a CD ROM;  FMV games with 256 onscreen colors from a palette of 32k colors sounds interesting enough to where I'd be curious enough to find out what the Nintendo version of Night Trap or Markie Mark's make my music video would look like to actually boot them both up once.  ...but I digress.  Can't play Sony PS1 games.

Well... http://www.destructoid.com/super-road-blaster-the-impossible-laserdisc-to-snes-port-228189.phtml

Not exactly accurate if you take out the loading times, but you get the idea..

[CatPix]

3D simply should have waited one more generation, the whole 32/64bit era was a blurry foggy janky low poly warping mess, and frankly 2d was the only thing that saved a good chunk of that generation, not saying there were not some brilliant 3D games for the time, but it's hard to go back, where I can play Atari on up skip 32 bit messes and pick gaming back up in the ps2/dc/gc/xbox era.

You ahve to start somewhere, and reading it amuses me, when by the time consoles came out, PC games were already familiar with 3D games. Tho rarely textured ones.
Plus we all have our dislikes, and frankly I find that much of the later 3D that would come on mostly PC by the late 90's, and some ports on PS2 and early Dreamcast titles are creepy as fuck.


This face is not creepy to me.

However :

This is fucking uncanny valley eerie  especially when it's moving.

Best crew ever

All body members made of ballons.

Same goes for many things.
pentagonal car wheels in Driver 1 and 2  on PS1? Totally fine by me.
pentagonal car wheels in GTA San Andreas, in Max Payne? buggers me beyond reasonable.

[Nazi NecroPhile]

Not exactly accurate if you take out the loading times, but you get the idea..

Not just load times.  It'd look quite a bit worse due to ram size limits, low data streaming capabilities, and that rom won't even fit on a standard CD.

[DragonmasterDan]

It's so much nicer looking that any game machine Sony ever made, or Nintendo.

The article seems to think they made 200 of these units. They link to an IGN article with no reference. Why would anyone assume they made so many prototypes? It does look pretty close to "retail", so maybe this deal was a lot further along that I thought it was when it collapsed?

I think they're throwing the term "prototype" around a bit loosely.

There were lots of M2 prototype units in circulaton. Literally thousands. They were shown off at trade shows, some were handed out to third partys not even as dev kits but as debug units.

This thing may have been close to final and the term prototype might be better replaced with "non-finalized design for a functional production unit" but prototype is a single word that sounds cleaner even if it indicates a more primitive state of development than was actually the case.

[seieienbu]

Well... http://www.destructoid.com/super-road-blaster-the-impossible-laserdisc-to-snes-port-228189.phtml

Not exactly accurate if you take out the loading times, but you get the idea..

This right here?  That's Exactly what I'm talking about. 

[technozombie]

I want to see a disc with the uncut(and hopefully near complete) Secret of Mana pop up. With the Byuu's MSU1 chip it could totally be hacked to play on real hardware in SNES cd style.

[SignOfZeta]

Well... http://www.destructoid.com/super-road-blaster-the-impossible-laserdisc-to-snes-port-228189.phtml

Not exactly accurate if you take out the loading times, but you get the idea..

This right here?  That's Exactly what I'm talking about. 

I've played this. It's really awesome to see running.

[jperryss]

Well... http://www.destructoid.com/super-road-blaster-the-impossible-laserdisc-to-snes-port-228189.phtml

Not exactly accurate if you take out the loading times, but you get the idea..

This right here?  That's Exactly what I'm talking about. 

I've played this. It's really awesome to see running.

Thanks for sharing this. I just tried it out on my SD2SNES and I must agree, it's crazy to see running.

Just another thing (like flash carts) that would've made early 90s me wet his pants.

[SignOfZeta]

Any early 90s electronic engineer would shit his pants seeing the insides of that cart. That was scifi back then.

[Psycho Punch]

I just wish they dumped the BIOS cart and any microcontrollers/ROMS on the console board. You know the Konix Multisystem? There's a guy who's pretty much an unsung hero that managed to document everything from the failed console, found hardware protos, found the MAJORITY of games being built to run on it, and made all that stuff public with an emulator. Of a console that doesn't exist. Last Ninja 2 KONIX is playable, how mind blowing is that?

Come on even dumping the cart (relatively easy) would be a nice start, people pretty much confirmed that there was a game in the works for the CD addon only (Sony Imagesoft - Fortezza) plus all those games that were planned for it, and even if no software is ever found it deserves to be preserved as a very significant piece of videogame history. What better way to do that besides releasing ROM dumps on the internet?

[Supercom32]

Well not exactly the missing PS/SNES system you expect to see, but my SNES CD clone works rather well. I'll stick with it until more of the original prototype units pop-up 

[wilykat]

Didn't realize that original Wondermega looks ugly. It's like someone tried to marry a cheap ass CD player with a Duo shell.