PlayStation

• • Manufacturer: Sony

  • Designer: Ken Kutaragi

  • Generation: 5th

  • Bits: 32-bit

  • Year Released:1994(Japan), 1995(USA)

  • Units sold: 102 million

  • Media: CD-ROM XA

  • Summary: The first of the PlayStation series of console.It set the bar high for the later PlayStations, achieving 300,000 copies of the console out of the stores in a month. Its production life lasted for eleven years after its release, which is only out-shined by the production life of the Atari 2600.

History

The workings of the PlayStation actually began in 1988, when Nintendo contracted Sony to create a CD-ROM drive for their system- the SNES. June of 1991 at the Chicago Consumer Electronics Show Sony revealed the PlayStation . At this point the PlayStation had the ability to not only play its own CD-ROMs buts also Nintendo's SNES cartridges, and along with them other forms of interactive entertainment media. Instead of confirming the collaborative efforts between Sony and themselves, Nintendo instead announces its partnership with Philips on a SNES CD-ROM. Due to their breach of contract, Nintendo suffers a lawsuit from Sony, but escapes unscathed. The original PlayStation prototype was scrapped. The cartridge system was rid of in the new design- that was dubbed the PlayStation-X- and the design began to focus on implementation of 3D graphics. In December of 1994 the PlayStation was released in Japan, selling more than 300,000 units within the first thirty days.

Hardware

The Console:

• CPU- (central processing unit) contains 33 MHz R3000 @ 30 MIPS, 66 MIPS Geometry Transfer Engine,the DMA controller, Sony's 80 MIPS proprietary MDEC video decompression hardware

• Operating System ROM

• GPU (Graphics Processing Unit)

• 2 MB DRAM

• 1 MB VRAM

• 16-bit sound processing unit

• 512K sound RAM

• CD Controller

• Digital Signal Processor

• 16-bit video digital audio converter

• Video encoder and decoder

The Controller:

The Joypad. The Joypad gave a new level of control to the player with its revolutionary four shoulder buttons (2 on each shoulder) that brought up the total of buttons up to eight, especially in comparison to the other SNES-like controllers of the time. Later, the Joypad was further developed into the predecessor of the current PlayStations' controllers: the DualShock series. The difference between the the old Joypad and the new Dualshock was the inclusion of the two analog joysticks that also acted as two additional buttons when pushed down.

External Hardware

• • 1 Mb memory cards- in a variety of colors

  • controller multitaps- allowed more controllers to be connected to the PlayStation than the console normal limit of two.

  • Cheating Disks - the most notable.

  • cable connectors

Notable Qualities

The PlayStation led to the end of the cartridge even though its prototype supported them itself. along with the Playstation's games, it was also able to run Audio CD's which led to one of its many untended design features- known as the "Swap Trick"

The PlayStation was what could be simple called an "evolving console." There was a constant revision of the console while it was in production: to create more powerful versions of the machine and to fix flaws in the older designs.

Notable Titles

The PlayStation was a host to many titles.

a few of the more notable ones:

• • Ace Combat

  • Armored Core

  • Crash Bandicoot

  • Digimon World

  • Driver

  • Final Fantasy VII

  • Grand Turismo

  • Grand Theft Auto

  • Medal of Honor

  • Megaman Legends

  • Metal Gear Solid

  • Need for Speed

  • Resident Evil

  • Ridge Racer

  • Silent Hill

  • Spider-Man

  • Spyro the Dragon

  • Tekken

  • Tenchu: Stealth Assassins

  • Tomb Raider

  • Twisted Metal

  • Xenogears

References

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bl_playstation.html

http://www.playstationmuseum.com/

http://psx.ign.com/articles/060/060188p1.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Sony_Greatest_Hits_games