Retro's holy grail: Sony's Nintendo PlayStation prototype acquired by the National Video Game Museum
A rare console relic lost to history has finally resurfaced and been acquired by the National Video Game Museum (NVM) in Frisco, Texas, giving retro enthusiasts a closer look at one of the biggest “what ifs” in long-lost video game history. A few days ago, NVM announced that it had obtained the earliest-known iteration of the rare Nintendo PlayStation project, the Sony MSF-1.
NVM shared the news on X and proudly stated:
“BREAKING NEWS: The NVM has acquired the mythical Nintendo PlayStation! This Sony MSF-1 is the OLDEST known existing Nintendo PlayStation hardware artifact and is the original development system for Sony’s planned Super Nintendo CD attachment. It is the ONLY known unit. One of the biggest ‘what ifs’ of all time now lives here at the NVM!”
The Sony MSF-1 was originally in the hands of Sony’s ImageSoft team in Santa Monica. The add-on plugs directly into an SNES cartridge slot. Furthermore, a pass-through port on the top of the add-on allowed developers to use regular SNES carts while also testing CD-based games.
Given its prototype nature, the Sony MSF-1 is a chunky white development unit, the only one in existence, and it shows the first steps Sony took toward creating a CD add-on for the Super Nintendo. Unlike later consumer prototypes sold in past auctions, the MSF-1 appears to have been designed entirely for functional and development purposes.
For context, Sony partnered with Nintendo to create a CD-ROM add-on for the SNES. Ultimately, the deal never went through, leaving Sony to become Nintendo’s fiercest rival.
Sony announced the partnership at CES on June 1, 1991. However, Nintendo went behind Sony’s back and, the very next morning, announced that it was partnering with Philips for the SNES CD-ROM project instead.
At the time, Sony President Norio Ohga considered suing Nintendo but ultimately decided to build his own console. That’s when Sony engineer Ken Kutaragi stepped into the picture and convinced Sony executives to make the leap to 3D graphics over 2D home consoles.
This eventually led to the release of the Sony PlayStation on 3 December 1994, which went on to outsell its direct competitor, Nintendo’s Nintendo 64.
The Sony MSF-1 resurfacing right around the time of the Sony PlayStation 2’s 26th anniversary seems quite uncanny. It just goes to show how far Sony has risen since its fallout with Nintendo.
In 2020, a later-iteration Nintendo PlayStation prototype sold at Heritage Auctions for $360,000. It was reported to be one of the last remaining Nintendo PlayStation prototypes, among the alleged 200 units destroyed after the fallout between Sony and Nintendo.
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