It's 1988 and a historical agreement for partnership is about to be made between two giant names in the electronic industry, Sony and Nintendo. The idea being; to create a new add-on CD ROM technology for the upcoming SNES. Nintendo got the bright idea after closely watching the release of SEGA's new SEGA CD.
Deciding they needed to compete with these new, larger, better graphical games, Nintendo turns to a Sony engineer named Ken Kutaragi. Ken had just helped Nintendo develop a sound chip for the SNES and now Nintendo wanted to take it a step further after being amazed by the chip.
Ken Kutaragi, who would eventually become known as "The father of the PlayStation," realized the potential of video games after watching his daughter play Nintendo one day in the late 80s. At this time Sony executives had no interest in the gaming industry telling Ken, "We are NOT a toy company!" So when Nintendo expressed a need for someone to help them produce a new sound chip, Ken enthusiastically rose to the occasion.
Ken began working with Nintendo in complete secrecy while still being employed at Sony. Something that would surely get him fired if they only found out. However, Sony did find out and it made executives furious. Ken went and pleaded with Sony's CEO Norio Ohga and with his help was able to push the project to completion and even keep his job.
So with the new agreement in 1988 signed, Sony and Nintendo began their relationship. Ken immediately went to work designing the CPU himself that would be the main heart of the newly christened Play Station.
With the technology completed, Ken was finally ready and excited to announce their relationship with Nintendo. However Nintendo was growing increasingly nervous after realizing the extent of the contract which stated Sony retains all rights and profit from their separate add-on CD ROM technology. The moment Sony announced their relationship to the public, Nintendo quietly backed out and announced they would be working with Philips instead.
Nintendo's last minute decision to back out infuriated Ken who went straight to Norio's office and blurted out, "we just got blindsided, backstabbed by Nintendo who just betrayed our agreement." Now feeling the betrayal himself Ohga says, "that's it, do it." In other words he had just given Ken the green light to go ahead and build the rest of the system themselves in revenge to stomp Nintendo out.
For a brief moment Sony entertained the idea of working with SEGA to promote the system and even proposed their idea to the CEO of SEGA who took the idea to the board, but their response was, "what does Sony know about the gaming industry?!?"
Indeed Sony had no credibility in the industry whatsoever other than the fact they had built a name for themselves in electronics. Sony would have to undertake the project alone and rely solely on the Sony name.
So Sony takes the gamble and finishes the 32-bit system now renamed the PlayStation. Sony was able to keep that name legally by removing the space between the two words just to spite Nintendo. However everyone thought the name was ridiculous and would never catch on.
Sony had to then find and gather game developers to develop the software and at first game designers were weary of working on completely different grounds than they were used to. However after being shown the systems capabilities, everyone wanted to know what else it could do and game developers jumped on board.
It's 1993 and Sony announces their upcoming release of the PlayStation. Sony spent millions on it's marketing campaign and made sure the world knew that they had entered the market as yet another major contender in the world of gaming.
The PlayStation was released on December 3rd, 1994 in Japan and 9 months later in America. It revolutionized the gaming industry and it would never be the same again. It helped to introduce the world to 3D gaming worlds that would allow us to get immersed in, in our home instead of just in the arcade.
It was the first console to sell more than 100 million units. Today the PlayStation fan base is absolutely immense and the first system is highly sought after by retro gamers and collectors alike. The game library is HUGE and prices for them as well as the unit only continue to climb.
I love the original PlayStation and it will always be my favorite system other than the original Atari 2600. I was given a choice by my parents in November 1996 as to which console I wanted for Christmas. I could have either PlayStation or Nintendo 64. Both were still new at the time and I decided to rent both systems for a week to see which I liked better. I wonder if you can even rent systems anymore lol, this was at my local Blockbuster back in the day. Of course back then I was a young teen and was completely oblivious to the war between Nintendo and Sony.
I was just making an honest decision and I chose PlayStation and of course if I had to do it all over, I would still make the same decision. I played Pilot Wings 64 for about 4 hrs and Mario World for a few as well, but when I got to Twisted Metal on the PlayStation, my friend and I played it for over 24 hrs straight so my decision came quite easily after that lol.
Not to mention the controllers just seemed to meld with your hands and were, and still are, absolutely the most perfect design ever. Which is why they don't change it and no one else can top it.
Hopefully I will always have a PS1 in my life because it truly is a monumental system. Now I know the 2 and 3 both have backward capability, but they lack the original hardware, making them only emulators that don't always play the games correctly. Besides there's no charm like the original which was built out of pure experiment and love.
I have the original as well as a brand new, never opened PSone to back me up incase my original ever breaks, but she's still going strong. I play it very often, especially in the colder months. There are so many good games, but they really are harder to come by for a decent price.
Where the Tomb Raider series began.....and the rest is history.
Highly Recommended
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Received broken item
The item I ordered came on time however it’s broken so guess a waste of $69.00 also came poorly packaged bought an new cord ps works good just faulty power cord still had to dish out additional funds to make work but at least console is in great condition
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