Ultra-rare Sony PlayStation SNES standalone console spotted & photographed

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http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...otted-pictured

Ultra-rare Sony PlayStation SNES console spotted, pictured
What might have been.

By Tom Phillips

A prototype Sony PlayStation SNES - an ultra-rare piece of gaming history - has been discovered and photographed.

The console, never released to the public, only exists in early prototype form.

Only a couple of hundred were known to be manufactured, the result of early plans for Nintendo and Sony to team-up on a version of the Super Nintendo Entertainment system with a CD-ROM drive.

But the plans fell through - famously, Nintendo opted to partner with Philips instead. And while that deal faltered, Sony continued with the development of its CD-compatible PlayStation as a separate device.


The photographs below show the console prototype with its CD-ROM drive, plus ports for both SNES cartridges and controllers.

Each pad is labelled with the Sony PlayStation branding on the front, but with a Nintendo Super Famicom Controller logo on the back.

The images appeared on Reddit yesterday (thanks, Nintendo Life). The user claimed that the console was discovered in a box of items received from a friend of his father who used to work at Nintendo around the time that the Nintendo-Sony deal was being discussed.

Here it is, in all its yellowing glory: