Modder gets original Sony-Nintendo PlayStation prototype fully working

Console mod Benjamin Heckendorn has managed to get a prototype of the Sony-Nintendo PlayStation working again. The console is able to run games and audio CDs from the CD player.

The console prototype sat in someone’s attic for years, until photos of another prototype appeared on the internet in 2015. The owner of the console, who hadn’t realized its rarity before, announced that he also had one, but it was broken. This brought him into contact with Heckendorn, who offered to repair the console. In July 2016, he shared a video of him taking the console apart

Within a week, Heckendorn managed to get the console up and running again and run SNES cartridges on it. He also managed to repair the CD player, but could not use it yet. After all, no games for the prototype have ever been released and although the machine is in principle capable of playing audio CDs, it did not work either due to problems with the intended dac.

Three quarters of a year later, Heckendorn has managed to solve the problems with dac, which makes it possible to play audio CDs. He has also managed to burn a homebrew game for an emulator to a CD and start it up with the console. The console is now fully functional again.

The console is the result of a collaboration between Nintendo and Sony to create an expansion for the SNES console that would allow the console to play CDs. There would also be a separate console that would be able to play the CDs without expansion, called the ‘Play Station’. The console never appeared due to mutual licensing disputes. Sony has continued the development independently of Nintendo from which the current PlayStation consoles emerged.