The Original PlayStation
If you are relatively new to retro gaming you may be unaware that Sony and Nintendo once were working closely together on a console that was going to add CD capabilities to the Super Nintendo. It would have been an add-on console to the Super Nintendo that was meant to improve it’s specifications as well and give the SNES the ability to run games from CD much like the Mega CD for the Sega Mega Drive. However the two video game giants had a falling out and the deal was dropped by Nintendo who infamously made a deal with Philips instead. That deal didn’t work out either and Philips got game rights out of it which resulted in 3 Zelda games and a Mario game being developed for the Philips CD-i. Sony ended up going solo in the home video game console industry and released the Sony PlayStation that we know and love. Nintendo didn’t end up releasing a new console until the Nintendo 64. However if things went the other way then things would have been very different. This prototype is a representation of what the reality could have been if history went differently.
The MSF-1 PlayStation Prototype
While Nintendo and Sony were working together the first PlayStation went through a few different variations and some of these resulted in various kinds of prototype consoles, some of which have surfaced on auction websites. The original variation was the MSF-1 and there is only one unit known to exist in the world. One of the prototypes of a later version sold for $300,000 in 2020. It’s likely that the original version, the MSF-1, is worth even more than that. The original PlayStation has been donated to the National Videogame Museum is Frisco, Texas in the United States preserved for all to see. The images you see in this article are the actual MSF-1 PlayStation unit that has been preserved by the museum. Many rare pieces of video game history end up in private collections never to be seen by the public. It’s a real win for video game preservation and for documenting the history of video games that this artifact will remain under the care of the National Videogame Museum. It’s just unfortunate that it’s in the United States so it’s likely that many people including myself will never have the opportunity to see it in person.
Relevant Links
- The National Videogame Museum [https://thenvm.org/] Official website of the National Videogame Museum
