Fans develop first-ever game for prototype 'Nintendo PlayStation'

By Danny Cowan Published July 12, 2016

Months after a one-of-a-kind “Nintendo PlayStation” console was discovered and restored to working condition, diehard SNES fans have crafted a homebrew game compatible with Nintendo’s unreleased SNES CD-ROM peripheral.

Developed by German coders “Chrono Moogle” and “Dieter Lazer,” Super Boss Gaiden has been confirmed to interface with prototype Nintendo PlayStation hardware via emulation, making it the first-ever game to take advantage of SNES CD-ROM technology.

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Satirizing the recent public unveiling of the Nintendo PlayStation, Super Boss Gaiden puts players in control of a Sony executive sent into a violent rage after learning that unlicensed software has been created for the scrapped SNES CD-ROM add-on. Players spend the next several levels beating up everyone and everything in their way as they attempt to track down those responsible for the Nintendo PlayStation’s current wave of popularity.

Super Boss Gaiden is available as a free download that includes both ROM and SuperDisc versions of the game. The ROM edition is playable using stock Super NES emulators and on original SNES hardware using aftermarket flash cartridges. The SuperDisc version can be burned to CD-R and booted with no$sns, which is thus far the only software emulator to feature Nintendo PlayStation support via a recently dumped BIOS file.

Players expecting a vastly superior CD-ROM experience may be disappointed, however, as Super Boss Gaiden‘s ROM and SuperDisc versions are largely identical. After examining the Nintendo PlayStation in detail following its discovery, hardware experts found that the peripheral would not have had a significant impact on SNES game development beyond increased storage capacity.

Regardless, Super Boss Gaiden offers a fascinating glimpse at what SNES CD-ROM games may have looked like, had the peripheral entered production. Given that hardware emulation is already stable enough to support fully fledged games, it’s likely that more Nintendo PlayStation homebrew releases will follow in the future.

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