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The Nintendo PlayStation Prototype is for sale


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21 hours ago, Sign Collector Guy said:

Had the funniest  interaction with the owner of this thing at Midwest Gaming Classic this year. He had it on display and letting people play it at the official after party at the hotel. Had it sitting in a high traffic area where people were going to and from the bar to get drinks. People were partying etc and bringing their drinks around it. I pick up the controller to play and go to reset the system and he went ape shit on me. "Do you know what that is!!!!" and so on. Bit my damn head off. lol. If I had a piece of historical hardware I thought was worth a million dollars that would be the last place I would have it on display. It was pretty much a rave environment. haha

@Foochie776 was there with me I believe and so was @K.Thrower

Ah yes. I remember that party, Deniz was there too. Lol

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10 hours ago, Tanooki said:

I thought Ben Heck repaired the disc drive and had it play audio given there are no prototype game CDs floating around to test it.  There is a set of videos on youtube from a few years ago that show the entire tear down, discovery and repair steps taken.

I didn't take the time to dig up the video, but you're right, he did totally, finally, repair the optical drive.  Here's an article that talks briefly about it, but also mentions something I recall from the video--that Ben Heck tested one or two homebrews people had put together quickly based on the specs released for the CD part of the system, which worked without issue.  IIRC, he ended up taking parts from a similar CD player or CD-ROM that Sony had made about the same time and was able to get it fully functional by swapping out parts from a working donor drive/player into the prototype.

With that said, I've honestly always thought the story behind this was a little fishy.  The guy just happened to find it, in all places, amidst a bunch of random dishes that he thought was all he was bidding on?  In this interview he discusses packing the boxes himself and knowing what was in them all, so honestly, to me, it sounds like he packed it up and put it among the lot of dishes so that nobody else would know what it was and he'd be able to get it for little to nothing, then milk it for as much as possible.  It's a neat piece of history, but based on the crowd funding attempts for a coffee table book about it, etc., it's clear that the guy who found it and his son were really only focused on what fame and money the thing could bring to them versus any real concern for the community, the real history behind it, etc.

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Romi: Do you have any solid evidence of that or just something of the bs rumor mill?  That's sickening if that's the case and that others colluded in on it.

Bronty: I'd agree and you'll get no argument out of me.  Just because someone can buy doesn't mean they will, and even if they did, odds are unless they're some charitable deep pocketed saint they'd want to see the gold at the other end of the rainbow to get something back ahead out of it when they're over it.

 

Good, I thought I remembered that drive was fixed but I just didn't feel the need to go digging to re-check the videos out as it was done over time and not all at once.  And yes that old story was and is kind of convenient and your guess could very well be true as I think being honest here, people in general would pull a stunt like that if they knew what they had and if that is the case, there you go.  I thought they were nice at the show I got to play it a bit at, and it was kind of a dream thing because my best friend going back to high school had a cool story around another (same) of those units which did in fact have some stuff on disc for it he was unable to try before his buddy moved.  That and well we all knew of it if you read the old NP mag and others in the earlier 90s.  I'm sure the current owner's kindness is self motivated like you said and I'd be kind of shocked if it wasn't.

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20 hours ago, Romiked2689 said:

That was only to get shown so he could get paid don’t be blind to him acting like he was doing that for the community. I’ve heard thru the grapevine there are more of these and that terry Debold asked them not show it until he’s done with the limelight... 

If that were true the silence would be mutually beneficial if terry sets precedent with a good sized sale

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5 hours ago, Tanooki said:

Romi: Do you have any solid evidence of that or just something of the bs rumor mill?  That's sickening if that's the case and that others colluded in on it.

@Tanooki I don’t have the evidence personally no but, the person that told me about it wouldn’t lie to me. I’ll bring it back up again with him and see if I can find it. 
 

 I will say this I know for a fact that snes cd rom would not be the only one made. There would also be some sorta build line before that came about also. So I’m assuming there’s an earlier version. 

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They had in that thing at a local tapes expo a few years ago. They just had a handful of super famicom tapes to go with it, nothing exclusive. So in my eyes there's nothing special about it. Literally no different than a hyperkin console to me.

I get that it's a prototype or whatever and maybe the only one, so someone with more money than common sense will scoop it up for far more money than they should have spent on it. 3 million? I doubt it. But with all the forced hype with stuff recently I'm sure it will sell sky high.

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4 hours ago, Romiked2689 said:

I will say this I know for a fact that snes cd rom would not be the only one made. There would also be some sorta build line before that came about also. So I’m assuming there’s an earlier version. 

I agree.  The amount of polish on the system that's come to light is representative of a "beta" or "release candidate" product, seeing as the hardware was already nailed down to a point where it was fully functional, the plastics were completely molded, etc.  For true prototypes, you normally see a lot of bodge wires, stuff done on project boards (fixes implemented during R&D if not the whole unit), "mock up" cases which are either just project boxes with some art applied by hand or something that's been hand-made (molded in clay, carved out of foam, etc.) that wouldn't actually hold a system.  With the board inside being as polished as it was, everything fitting together well, the cases being molded and not showing any issues, this most likely was part of a small test run done to get final approval from all the bigwigs, after which they'd have made more on the line they'd already set up and started pushing them out to a slightly wider audience to do more internal stress testing, bug checking, etc., before putting them in boxes and shipping them out the door to the public.  Honestly, the only things that are missing at this point are the mock up box art/designs which most likely existed and an example of any disc based software (or combo cart + disc based software) that might have existed.

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3 minutes ago, Deadeye said:

“We turned down 1.2 million from someone in Norway,” Diebold said. He said that after paying taxes on that amount, splitting the remainder 50-50 with his son, and paying off all his outstanding debts, he would “pretty much end up with nothing.”

Hopefully Terry isn't going to debtor's prison if this doesn't meet his expectations.

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Administrator · Posted
4 minutes ago, DefaultGen said:

“We turned down 1.2 million from someone in Norway,” Diebold said. He said that after paying taxes on that amount, splitting the remainder 50-50 with his son, and paying off all his outstanding debts, he would “pretty much end up with nothing.”

Hopefully Terry isn't going to debtor's prison if this doesn't meet his expectations.

I was typing up something similar but decided to trash it cuz I didn't feel like getting into it.

I have to assume he's talking about a mortgage or something to that effect.

Boohoo, selling the item you bought at an auction and didn't even realize at the time was so rare will maybe ONLY pay off your mortgage, on top of giving your son a huge head start in life, but maybe not much more. Boo fuckin' hoo.

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47 minutes ago, Gloves said:

I was typing up something similar but decided to trash it cuz I didn't feel like getting into it.

I have to assume he's talking about a mortgage or something to that effect.

Boohoo, selling the item you bought at an auction and didn't even realize at the time was so rare will maybe ONLY pay off your mortgage, on top of giving your son a huge head start in life, but maybe not much more. Boo fuckin' hoo.

Seriously, someone get that man a tiny violin.

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2 hours ago, PineappleLawnchair said:

Is there even any games for this thing? Like, even theoretically, only game i can come up with is the 7th Guest demo,  and Secret of Mana, but who knows if it ever actually made it to prototyping.

 

No cds were made to be played with it. It can only do nstj carts it looks from pictures 

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On the subject here is the article that had me obsessed with the CD add on for SNES. I actually called Nintendo and asked them when it was coming out. The Sega CD was another system I eventually got and recall getting it from Kay Bee toy store in a local shopping mall. The CD-Rom hype back in the day was real for me!! 

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Edited by Sign Collector Guy
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Well, I would assume the $50k-100k numbers to be accurate, but all it takes it two people with deep pockets to make the prices soar out of control.  This is a hot item, and if he really did get an offer for $1.2m, then all there needs to be is one other buyer potentially willing to compete with those buyers.

But, I don't know.  It feels fishy.  Forget the attitude of the guy that owns it, I'd personally put this on my top 5 most rare, and "awesome" items list, and considering that many people feel that way, I could see the sale price being surprising.  Not +$1m surprising, but more than $100k.

I also can't believe this guys attitude. "I'll have no money... once I pay off my house!"  Um, yeah, cause equity isn't a thing.  Plus, if you have a $2,500/mo mortgage and you pay it off, you just gained $2,500 a month in expendable income and let me tell you, that could buy me a LOT of video games.  His mortgage could even be higher than that, but $2,500 makes the point. Even if he splits the money with his kid and after taxes he pockets $250k-300k, which he pays off his house, that's a lot of money to just throw out a "boo hoo on me" story.  No one's going to feel sorry for you unless you're, like, $1m in medical debt from cancer treatment or something.

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On 11/12/2019 at 4:45 AM, Romiked2689 said:

Okay why is she the codirector then?

Well, she knows her shit. I saw her in a panel a year or so ago and she goes deep into some really obscure stuff. She's also been helping out Frank, I think since he started the foundation. I know back in May during the Game Informer Archive backup, she was there the entire time. I mean, I went up and put in a week of work. She was there for all five weeks with Frank. For free, volunteering. We all were.

https://www.gameinformer.com/2019/05/13/happening-now-an-archaeological-dig-at-game-informer

https://gamehistory.org/kelsey-lewin-codirector/

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44 minutes ago, Ferris Bueller said:

Well, she knows her shit. I saw her in a panel a year or so ago and she goes deep into some really obscure stuff. She's also been helping out Frank, I think since he started the foundation. I know back in May during the Game Informer Archive backup, she was there the entire time. I mean, I went up and put in a week of work. She was there for all five weeks with Frank. For free, volunteering. We all were.

https://www.gameinformer.com/2019/05/13/happening-now-an-archaeological-dig-at-game-informer

https://gamehistory.org/kelsey-lewin-codirector/

Must be nice to have free time uggh why did I have kids and a job 😞 

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8 hours ago, PineappleLawnchair said:

Is there even any games for this thing? Like, even theoretically, only game i can come up with is the 7th Guest demo,  and Secret of Mana, but who knows if it ever actually made it to prototyping.

 

Nothing official. There is at least 1 homebrew cd game that came about after they figured out how to emulate the hardware.

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