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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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