5 ms·

18 months after discovery, the “Nintendo PlayStation” is finally working

121 points by AdmiralAsshat 10y ago

Frenchgeek 10y ago
So first update the emulator then next step, house a raspberry pi in a reproducted shell and create your own nintendo playstation hardware?
- sudojudo 10y ago
  Isn't the point of this to get the existing hardware to work? Also, how is a Raspberry Pi (hardware) going to be reproduced in a shell (software)? I must be misunderstanding something here.
  - positr0n 10y ago
    I took it to mean a plastic shell around the pi (hence "housed") to make it look like the real deal.
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
ianai 10y ago
I don't really feel too emotionally tied to this as a museum piece. A museum piece is something like a Mona Lisa or a piece of he moon. Something that's not a consumer item and symbolizes the apex or formation of something. This is more of an engineering prototype. It's very interesting as a technical specimen. But archeologists aren't going to use it in 5000 years to understand contemporary (to now) culture. Having said that, total nerd out. I wish I had that level of technical chop.
- mrrsm 10y ago
  Doesn't this have some relevance to nintendo and sony and their history. I feel like sony wouldn't be where it is right now without that partnership gone bad.
  - ianai 10y ago
    It has a ton of history in that context. But ultimately history is concerned about larger swaths of people than the design choices of two firms.
    - chc 10y ago
      The Mona Lisa is a painting by one person of another person at the behest of another person. That's a total of probably three people directly concerned, and it was most likely a commercial transaction. A piece's relevance doesn't come from how many people were involved in its creation or intended use, or whether it was meant to make the creator money.
      - ianai 10y ago
        Sure, but the Mona Lisa gained notoriety for other reasons. My point with these comments isn't to exactly win people over to this idea. This is an idea I felt like 'fleshing out' with a conversation on HN. I'm not entirely sold on it myself. I can't shake this feeling that not every engineering example needs to be preserved for the ages.
        chc 10y ago
        Sure, but insofar as the video game industry is an interesting cultural topic for our age (which I think it is), Nintendo and Sony are probably the most important players in its history, and this prototype represents a pivotal moment for both of them.
- highwind 10y ago
  Being a consumer product and a museum (art) piece is not mutually exclusive. Lot of classical music and classical paintings were commissioned with a price to be "consumed". > But archeologists aren't going to use it in 5000 years to understand contemporary (to now) culture. Why not? While that particular hardware on its own might not explain the culture but knowing what people consumed as an entertainment and what people tried to invent for entertainment seems like a important thing to know to understand a culture. (This logic can be applied to classical music/painting)
- pbhjpbhj 10y ago
  >"A museum piece is something like a Mona Lisa or a piece of he moon. Something that's not a consumer item and symbolizes the apex or formation of something." // Marcel Duchamp wants a word with you about a fountain.
- sotojuan 10y ago
  Most museum art pieces were consumer items for the rich. How many Old Master paintings are the Louvre or the Met are NOT commission paintings for a wealthy aristocrat or church?
partycoder 10y ago
My favorite canceled Nintendo project is Star Fox 2. A team of developers got a prerelease ROM which was rather unstable, patched all the issues, translated it into English, and now it is fully playable from start to end on any emulator supporting the Super FX chip. I have to say it was better than Star Fox 64 considering the limitations of the Super Famicom. You can watch a video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGqLwiVxTKY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGqLwiVxTKY
- nobodyorother 10y ago
  Apparently there's a second, completed, ROM that was never released. It contains features the leaked ROM doesn't, at least according to the folks who worked on SF-Zero, who played it as research.
  - partycoder 10y ago
    Nice. That's what I like about this comments section, you always learn something new. Star Fox 2 has some interesting additions: it seems more fast paced than the first one, the ship can transform in certain levels (in Star Fox 64 a different vehicle would be deployed to the level rather than transform), there's Star Wolf and some new crew members that make some appearances in Star Fox 64.
- AdmiralAsshat 10y ago
  Many of the features from the scrapped sequel made their way into other entries. Star Fox Command (DS) expanded on the quasi-strategy elements of SF2 with the grid overworld and nonlinear level progression. And the Walker mech from SF2 finally appeared in Star Fox Zero. FWIW, I played the patched ROM and it was pretty damn enjoyable. It's a pity they didn't release it, because it feels different enough from Star Fox 64 that I don't think it would have encroached on the other's release.
frik 10y ago
Super NES CD-ROM System lead to Playstation 1 and Nintendo 64 after the split. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_NES_CD-ROM https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_NES_CD-ROM
- nerfhammer 10y ago
  What's interesting about this device and the story behind it is how Nintendo accidentally helped create one of their biggest competitors.
  - goldenkey 10y ago
    Despite them being classically competitors, I'd say the relationship between Nintendo and the rest of the gaming market (MS/Sony) is mutualistic. The entire market might be a fraction of its size today if Nintendo didn't gain competitors to create a much more appetizing gaming world.
    - frik 10y ago
      Not really, consoles are just one category. With the open PC hardware PC gaming gained traction with Wing Commander in 1992/93. And before that home computers like C64/Amiga/etc were popular. Only since 2002/03 PC games and console games and since 2010 also tablet games are developed on PC and ported to several platforms. Nowadays PC not only means DOS or now Windows but also macOS, Linux and SteamOS. It will be interesting to watch how Windows 10 effects the PC gaming world, now that Windows 10 S forbids all non-store apps, preventing Steam and GoG. As there is only one Win10 only game at the moment, there is still very little reason not to just stay with Win7 or 8, a much more stable and privacy aware system, if you ask the educated users. On consoles PS4 is going very strong with Pro, VR and a lot of exclusive console games, and the second best sales are from Nintendo also with several exclusive console games. They others have a very small world wide marketshare and little exclusive games.
bhhaskin 10y ago
That is pretty amazing. Programmers where able to create games for hardware that never had any games created for it.
korethr 10y ago
I read the wikipedia article on the SNES CD-ROM System, and one thing I'm not sure of is whether any new capabilies are brought to the platform besides the expanded capacity of CDs vs the cartridges, or the ability to play CD audio. The Sega-CD brought additional graphical capability to the Sega Genesis. It'd be really nifty if this did similar. The Sega CD brought the Genesis' capability closer to the SNES. Wouldn't it be cool if this brought the SNES' capability closer to the Neo Geo? That could make for some very tasty homebrew games. I wonder, would it be useful to have the higan developers to get their hands on this thing?

121 points by AdmiralAsshat 10y ago

So first update the emulator then next step, house a raspberry pi in a reproducted shell and create your own nintendo playstation hardware?

sudojudo 10y ago
Isn't the point of this to get the existing hardware to work? Also, how is a Raspberry Pi (hardware) going to be reproduced in a shell (software)? I must be misunderstanding something here.
- positr0n 10y ago
  I took it to mean a plastic shell around the pi (hence "housed") to make it look like the real deal.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]

ianai 10y ago

I don't really feel too emotionally tied to this as a museum piece. A museum piece is something like a Mona Lisa or a piece of he moon. Something that's not a consumer item and symbolizes the apex or formation of something. This is more of an engineering prototype. It's very interesting as a technical specimen. But archeologists aren't going to use it in 5000 years to understand contemporary (to now) culture. Having said that, total nerd out. I wish I had that level of technical chop.

mrrsm 10y ago
Doesn't this have some relevance to nintendo and sony and their history. I feel like sony wouldn't be where it is right now without that partnership gone bad.
- ianai 10y ago
  It has a ton of history in that context. But ultimately history is concerned about larger swaths of people than the design choices of two firms.
  - chc 10y ago
    The Mona Lisa is a painting by one person of another person at the behest of another person. That's a total of probably three people directly concerned, and it was most likely a commercial transaction. A piece's relevance doesn't come from how many people were involved in its creation or intended use, or whether it was meant to make the creator money.
    - ianai 10y ago
      Sure, but the Mona Lisa gained notoriety for other reasons. My point with these comments isn't to exactly win people over to this idea. This is an idea I felt like 'fleshing out' with a conversation on HN. I'm not entirely sold on it myself. I can't shake this feeling that not every engineering example needs to be preserved for the ages.
      - chc 10y ago
        Sure, but insofar as the video game industry is an interesting cultural topic for our age (which I think it is), Nintendo and Sony are probably the most important players in its history, and this prototype represents a pivotal moment for both of them.
highwind 10y ago
Being a consumer product and a museum (art) piece is not mutually exclusive. Lot of classical music and classical paintings were commissioned with a price to be "consumed". > But archeologists aren't going to use it in 5000 years to understand contemporary (to now) culture. Why not? While that particular hardware on its own might not explain the culture but knowing what people consumed as an entertainment and what people tried to invent for entertainment seems like a important thing to know to understand a culture. (This logic can be applied to classical music/painting)
pbhjpbhj 10y ago
>"A museum piece is something like a Mona Lisa or a piece of he moon. Something that's not a consumer item and symbolizes the apex or formation of something." // Marcel Duchamp wants a word with you about a fountain.
sotojuan 10y ago
Most museum art pieces were consumer items for the rich. How many Old Master paintings are the Louvre or the Met are NOT commission paintings for a wealthy aristocrat or church?

partycoder 10y ago

My favorite canceled Nintendo project is Star Fox 2. A team of developers got a prerelease ROM which was rather unstable, patched all the issues, translated it into English, and now it is fully playable from start to end on any emulator supporting the Super FX chip. I have to say it was better than Star Fox 64 considering the limitations of the Super Famicom. You can watch a video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGqLwiVxTKY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGqLwiVxTKY

nobodyorother 10y ago
Apparently there's a second, completed, ROM that was never released. It contains features the leaked ROM doesn't, at least according to the folks who worked on SF-Zero, who played it as research.
- partycoder 10y ago
  Nice. That's what I like about this comments section, you always learn something new. Star Fox 2 has some interesting additions: it seems more fast paced than the first one, the ship can transform in certain levels (in Star Fox 64 a different vehicle would be deployed to the level rather than transform), there's Star Wolf and some new crew members that make some appearances in Star Fox 64.
AdmiralAsshat 10y ago
Many of the features from the scrapped sequel made their way into other entries. Star Fox Command (DS) expanded on the quasi-strategy elements of SF2 with the grid overworld and nonlinear level progression. And the Walker mech from SF2 finally appeared in Star Fox Zero. FWIW, I played the patched ROM and it was pretty damn enjoyable. It's a pity they didn't release it, because it feels different enough from Star Fox 64 that I don't think it would have encroached on the other's release.

frik 10y ago

Super NES CD-ROM System lead to Playstation 1 and Nintendo 64 after the split. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_NES_CD-ROM https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_NES_CD-ROM

nerfhammer 10y ago
What's interesting about this device and the story behind it is how Nintendo accidentally helped create one of their biggest competitors.
- goldenkey 10y ago
  Despite them being classically competitors, I'd say the relationship between Nintendo and the rest of the gaming market (MS/Sony) is mutualistic. The entire market might be a fraction of its size today if Nintendo didn't gain competitors to create a much more appetizing gaming world.
  - frik 10y ago
    Not really, consoles are just one category. With the open PC hardware PC gaming gained traction with Wing Commander in 1992/93. And before that home computers like C64/Amiga/etc were popular. Only since 2002/03 PC games and console games and since 2010 also tablet games are developed on PC and ported to several platforms. Nowadays PC not only means DOS or now Windows but also macOS, Linux and SteamOS. It will be interesting to watch how Windows 10 effects the PC gaming world, now that Windows 10 S forbids all non-store apps, preventing Steam and GoG. As there is only one Win10 only game at the moment, there is still very little reason not to just stay with Win7 or 8, a much more stable and privacy aware system, if you ask the educated users. On consoles PS4 is going very strong with Pro, VR and a lot of exclusive console games, and the second best sales are from Nintendo also with several exclusive console games. They others have a very small world wide marketshare and little exclusive games.

bhhaskin 10y ago

That is pretty amazing. Programmers where able to create games for hardware that never had any games created for it.

korethr 10y ago

I read the wikipedia article on the SNES CD-ROM System, and one thing I'm not sure of is whether any new capabilies are brought to the platform besides the expanded capacity of CDs vs the cartridges, or the ability to play CD audio. The Sega-CD brought additional graphical capability to the Sega Genesis. It'd be really nifty if this did similar. The Sega CD brought the Genesis' capability closer to the SNES. Wouldn't it be cool if this brought the SNES' capability closer to the Neo Geo? That could make for some very tasty homebrew games. I wonder, would it be useful to have the higan developers to get their hands on this thing?