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technically
superior SNES. A key strategy was to be the release of a hardware addon
to exploit still-fledgling CD-ROM technology. Fearing that the Mega
CD could bury the SNES for good, Nintendo readied its counterstrike.
The groundwork had already been laid with an agreement made with Sony
in 1988, to produce a CD-ROM drive for the SNES - a project started
well before Nintendo's console was launched in November 1990.
Sony
had long been watching the videogames industry, and Nintendo in particular.
It was already working with Nintendo on a sound chip for the SNES,
and rumour has it that the company was so impressed with the kyoto
giant's Game Boy that one Sony R&D team believed they should have
made themselves. When approached by Nintendo to play a more significant
role in the videogaming industry, the opportunity to grab a piece of
the action without taking any of the risks seemed too good to pass
up.
The
technology that united the two companies was Sony and Philip's CD-ROM/XA,
an advanced CD-ROM format that could interweave compressed audio, visual
and computer data. But Sony's ambitions didn't end with creating a
mere peripheral. In addition to producing a neat SNES-styled CD drive
to sit under the SNES, the Nintendo deal allowed Sony to make a Sony-branded
standalone console, which could play new CD-ROM software and even video
CD movies - a market that Nintendo wanted no part in.
It
would also utilise SNES cartridges. A proprietary format, Super Disc,
was to be at the heart of Nintendo's CD-ROM drive.
But
it was all to end in tears. For a |
start,
Nintendo had run-ins with Sony over the design of its legendary SNES
sound chip (designed by Ken Kutaragi who would later create the PlayStation
chipset). Sony had retained all rights to programming the chip, enabling
the company to command large fees from NCL and its developers. On a
more general level Nintendo felt that it was gradually becoming an
accessory to the ambitions of a rival videogaming concern, sensing
that its core market was under attack and needing desperate measures.
It took them.
On
the first day of the 1991 Chicago CES show, Sony announced the PlayStation
and confirmed its working relationship with Nintendo. The news was
a press sensation. Bizarrely, on the second day of the show, Nintendo
announced it was partnering up with Phillips instead. Understandably,
Sony was furious.
After
much legal wrangling, Nintendo finally extracted itself from the Sony
agreement unscathed. Between 1991 and 1992, the two companies, together
with Phillips, worked on various deals to enable Sony's PlayStation
to run SNES CD-ROMs. But the hardware never got past the prototype
stage and the add-on project was scrapped. All that remains today of
those early PlayStations are deep wounds and a couple of hundred protoypes
gathering dust. And, of course, its descendent - the true PlayStation.
Sega
Scuppered?
After
getting so close to the market, Sony wasn't going about to give up
easily. Without I6bit ties holding them back, ken Kutaragi and his
team spent the next |
 These early protoype sketches show how Sony's design team arrived at the finished production model. The console's creator. Ken Kutaragi, claims most time was spent refining the design of the joypad. Multiple mock-ups were made (top) |
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November
1993
After
buying Psygnosis, Sony announced the existence of its PS-X project
and formed SCE. Edge's artistic impression (right) was a far
cry from the final design.
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December
1993
A
secret conference in London allows UK developers a glimpse of an
early version of the legendary dinosaur demo (right). Edge spills
the beans..
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March
1994
Sony
delivers PS-X development tools to key developers including Capcom,
Konami and Namco. Early 'demos' such as Labyrinth (right)
are shown on Japanese TV.
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