Do you remember a little while back, the discovery of what is thought to be the world's only known surviving Nintendo PlayStation, well it has sold at auction in the US for $360,000 USD ($548,000) AUD.,
It had a starting bid of $30,000 USD.
It seems a small price to pay for possibly the rarest piece of gaming memorabillia in the world and even when you consider the price includes a 20 per cent "buyers premium" fee it still seems like a bargain to me.
In the early 1990s, Nintendo partnered with Sony to develop a new CD-ROM peripheral for the wildly popular Super Nintendo Entertainment System.
The SNES CD-ROM adaptor, called the PlayStation, would stack on top of existing SNES consoles, and Sony planned to release a standalone version of the console as well. However, the relationship soured and Sony ultimately decided to ditch Nintendo and launch the PlayStation on its own – a decision that would completely change the course of the video game industry.
While the final product never hit store shelves, Sony reportedly manufactured about 200 Nintendo PlayStation prototypes and this is thought to be the only surviving unit in the world.
When Sony Entertainment's CEO, Olaf Olafsson left to join Advanta Corporation, he took the Nintendo PlayStation with him. After Advanta filed for bankruptcy in 1999, they began gathering everything up in their corporate office to sell at auction. The Nintendo PlayStation prototype was grouped together with some miscellaneous items and boxed up ready for one lucky bidder who snapped it up for the ridiculous amount of $75 USD.
The console can load standard Super Famicom cartridges as well as a "data cartridge" for compatible CD ROMs, too. Unfortunately, it doesn’t play PlayStation games.
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