Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. Videos

YouTube engineer Ben Heck breaks down the fabled 'Nintendo PlayStation'

Danny Cowan
By
Ben Heck's Nintendo-Playstation Prototype Pt 1 Teardown
Hardware engineer and YouTube personality Ben Heck examines the inner workings of the Nintendo PlayStation in the latest episode of his web series The Ben Heck Show, which details the scrapped Super NES add-on’s specifications and capabilities as part of a comprehensive teardown.
Recommended Videos

Heck additionally announced plans to restore the hardware to working condition, potentially bringing the lost peripheral to life for the first time since it was initially announced more than 20 years ago.

Related

Long thought lost to history and intercompany non-disclosure agreements, Sony’s original PlayStation was designed as a CD-ROM add-on for Nintendo’s 16-bit Super NES console. While plans for a public release were eventually canceled, a working prototype of the peripheral was recently discovered at a bankruptcy auction. Its new owners have since taken the unit on a worldwide tour in the hopes of finding out more about their discovery.

Heck’s examination reveals that the unearthed prototype was likely cobbled together using multiple shell casings, and video output was provided by a unique RF connection in addition to a standard A/V out port featured on retail Super NES, Nintendo 64, and GameCube units. Among other revelations, Heck found that CD-ROM data would have been loaded into RAM stored on an attached cartridge, which also handled regional lockout.

Specs-wise, Heck wasn’t impressed.

“Even if the system had come to fruition, it probably would have had [the same graphic capabilities] as the Super Nintendo,” Heck concludes. “Aside from corporate politics, it’s quite possible that one of the reasons this didn’t come to market is because it probably wouldn’t have been any better than the Sega CD, and possibly even a little worse.”

Heck notes that the discovered prototype is nonfunctional in its current state, and does not read or initialize inserted disc media. Heck will attempt to restore the console to working condition in a follow-up episode, in the hopes of eventually getting it to read an audio CD.

To date, no examples of disc-based Nintendo PlayStation games have surfaced in the collecting community, but a pair of enterprising programmers recently created Super Boss Gaiden, a SNES homebrew game that takes advantage of CD-ROM storage media. While the game functions in a Nintendo PlayStation-compatible emulator, it remains to be seen whether it is compatible with the actual Nintendo PlayStation hardware prototype.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Danny Cowan
Danny Cowan
Contributor
Danny’s passion for video games was ignited upon his first encounter with Nintendo’s Duck Hunt, and years later, he still…
How to turn off the DualSense controller speaker on PS5
PS5 Dual Sense controller on a dark background.

There are a lot of creative features integrated into the PlayStation 5's DualSense controller, including a small speaker that is often used to add a layer of immersion in certain games. However, if you're annoyed by this speaker's interruptions — or if you're just trying to cut down on noise while folks are sleeping, perhaps — you can actually disable this feature altogether. Here's how to turn off the DualSense controller speaker on your PS5.

Read more
How to sign up for the Hades 2 playtest
Melinoe fighting in a dark forest.

We first saw Hades 2 last year when it was announced, but it has yet to receive a release date. We know it will first be coming to early access, just like the first game, but the only timeframe we have is the second quarter of 2024. It appears that Supergiant might be closing in on that date, however, as you can now sign up for the first playtest and experience the game even before it comes to early access. This technical test is a said to be a major step toward early access to resolve any technical problems before a wider audience can play. Here's how you can sign up to be part of a small team selected to play the game before anyone else.

Read more
The best Fallout 4 mods
Everyone's Best Friend

The Fallout games, at least since Fallout 3, have been absolutely massive games in both scale and popularity. The post-nuclear-war setting is rife with interesting stories to experience and monsters to kill. Fallout 4 was the last single-player entry in the series before Fallout 76 took the game into a persistent multiplayer experience. A large appeal of these games is how you are able to actually role-play and immerse yourself in the game world, which isn't so easy with other players jumping around in their underwear. Thanks to mods, it has never been a better time to revisit the last "pure" Fallout game.

Just like Skyrim, Fallout 4 mods are incredibly popular. Some are inspired to fix the numerous bugs and glitches Bethesda games have become famous for, while others look to add new features. As open and dynamic as the base game is, mods just open the door to an almost endless supply of tools you can use to extend the life of your game. With so many mods available, it can be a little overwhelming to know where to start. We've sorted through all the best Fallout 4 mods out there and came up with the best ones you should install before stepping out of the vault once again.
Full Dialogue Interface

Read more