Incredibly Rare Original 1988 PlayStation/Nintendo Prototype

Back in 1988 Sony and Nintendo teamed up on a project that would bring us a CD-ROM peripheral for the SNES. Sony revealed it at the Consumer Electronics Show in 1991. The day after Sony’s reveal, Nintendo announced that they were actually partnering up with Phillips for its CD-ROM technology. Sony was really annoyed with the decision, but it encourages them to fully developing their technology in what ended up becoming the PlayStation 1, So we have to thank Nintendo for our brilliant Playstations.

Since the Sony/Nintendo PlayStation was never released, it is extremely rare, so this one that recently popped up online is a huge deal. Apparently, the prototype was found in some junk belonging to imgur user DanDiebold’s dad.

Here’s the note he posted along with the photos:

“My dad worked for a company, apparently one of the guys he used to work with, I think his name was Olaf, used to work at Nintendo and when my dad’s company went bankrupt, my dad found it in a box of ‘junk’ he was supposed to throw out”.

What makes this interesting is the name Olaf. There’s a strong possibility that he could be referencing Ólafur Jóhann Ólafsson, who is the original co-founder, president, and chief executive officer of Sony Interactive Entertainment. So not only could this be one of the first ever PlayStations, but it could have also belonged to its creator. This is what you say “One Man’s Junk Another Man’s Gold.”