"The Sony Play Station One"

The PlayStation (プレイステーション, officially abbreviated as PS; unofficially referred to as the PSX or PS1) is a 32-bit fifth generation game console first released by Sonly Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, 1994.

The PlayStation was the first of the Play Station series of consoles and handheld game devices. Upgrades and variants include the Net Yazore and the Play Station One, with the PlayStation2 being the console's successor. The PlayStation was the first "computer entertainment platform" to ship 100 million units, which it had reached 9 years and 6 months after its initial launch. Sony ceased production of the PlayStation on March 23, 2006, eleven years after it was released.


DEVELOPMENT


The first conceptions of the PlayStation date back to 1986. Nintendo had been attempting to work with disc-based technology since the Famicom, but the medium had problems. The Famicom Disk System's rewritable magnetic discs could be easily erased (thus leading to a lack of durability), and they lacked any sort of copy protection, thus were vulnerable to piracy. Consequently, when details of CDROM/XA (which had neither of those problems) were released to the public, Nintendo was interested. Simultaneously developed by Sony and Philips, CD-ROM/XA was an extension of the CD-ROM format that combines compressed audio, visual, and computer data, allowing all to be accessed simultaneously. Nintendo approached Sony to develop a CD-ROM add-on, tentatively titled the "SNES-CD". A contract was signed, and work began. Nintendo's choice of Sony was due to a prior dealing: Ken Kutaragi, the person who would later be dubbed "The Father of the PlayStation", was the individual who had sold Nintendo on using the Sony SPC-700 processor for use as the eight-channel ADPCM sound set in the Super Famicom\SNES console through an impressive demonstration of the processor's capabilities.

                                                     The DualShock controller.


The SNES-CD was to be announced at the May 1991 Consumer Electronics Show (CES). However, when Nintendo's Hiroshi Yamauchi read the original 1988 contract between Sony and Nintendo, he realized that the earlier agreement essentially handed Sony complete control over any and all titles written on the SNES CD-ROM format. Yamauchi decided that the contract was totally unacceptable and he secretly canceled all plans for the joint Nintendo-Sony SNES CD attachment. Instead of announcing a partnership between Sony and Nintendo, at 9 a.m. the day of the CES, Nintendo chairman Howard Lincoln stepped onto the stage and revealed that Nintendo was now allied with Philips, and Nintendo was planning on abandoning all the previous work Nintendo and Sony had accomplished. Lincoln and Minoru Arakawa had, unbeknownst to Sony, flown to Philips headquarters in Europe and formed an alliance of a decidedly different nature—one that would give Nintendo total control over its licenses on Philips machines.

After the collapse of the joint project, Sony considered halting their research, but ultimately the company decided to use what they had developed so far and make it into a complete, stand-alone console. As a result, Nintendo filed a lawsuit claiming breach of contract and attempted, in US federal court, to obtain an injunction against the release of the PlayStation, on the grounds that Nintendo owned the name. The federal judge presiding over the case denied the injunction and, in October 1991, the first incarnation of the new PlayStation was revealed. However, it is theorized that only 200 or so of these machines were ever produced.

                                PlayStation Memory Card.

By the end of 1992, Sony and Nintendo reached a deal whereby the "Play Station" would still have a port for SNES games, but Nintendo would own the rights and receive the bulk of the profits from the games, and the SNES would continue to use the Sony-designed audio chip. However, Sony decided in early 1993 to begin reworking the "Play Station" concept to target a new generation of hardware and software. As part of this process the SNES cartridge port was dropped and the space between the names "Play Station" was removed becoming "PlayStation", thereby ending Nintendo's involvement with the project.

LAUNCH

The PlayStation was launched in Japan on December 3, 1994, North America on September 9, 1995, Europe on September 29, 1995, and Oceania on November 15, 1995. The launch price in the American market was US$299 and Sony enjoyed a very successful launch with titles of almost every genre, including Battle Arena Toshinden, Doom, Warhawk, Air Combat, Philosoma, and Ridge Racer. Almost all of Sony's and Namco's launch titles went on to spawn numerous sequels.




TITLES

As of September 30, 2007, a total of 7,918 software titles have been released worldwide (counting games released in multiple regions as separate titles). As of March 31, 2007, the cumulative software shipment was at 962 million units. The very last game for the system released in the United States was FIFA Football 2005. However, it can be noted that on 07/26/07 in Japan and 03/18/08 in the US, Metal Gear Solid: The Essential Collection was released, which contained new printings of the game Metal Gear Solid in the original PlayStation format.

The OK and Cancel buttons on most of the Japanese PlayStation games are reversed in their North American and European releases. In Japan, the  button (maru, right) is used as the OK button, while the  button (batsu, wrong) is used as Cancel. North American and European releases have the  button or the  buttons as the OK button, while either the  or the  button is used as Cancel (some titles like Xenogears used the  button for cancelling actions and selections, along with the PlayStation 2 system browser and the XrossMedia Bar on the PlayStation 3 and the PSP). However, a few games, such as Square's Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy VII (which used the  button as cancel) and Final Fantasy Tactics, Namco's Ridge Racer Type 4, and Konami's Metal Gear Solid, have the buttons remain in the same Japanese configurational layout. Some other games, like the Japanese version of Gran Turismo, had used different controls that are similar to North American games. These Japanese button layouts still apply to other PlayStation consoles. This is because in the early years Sony America (SCEA), Sony Europe (SCEE), and Sony Japan (SCEJ) had different development and testing documents (TRCs) for their respective territories.

PROS

• Wide array of games
• Good graphics
• Cheap
• Portable ( Not as portable as the PSP though )

CONS

• The graphics is pretty much lower that the other Sony Play Station family branch.
• Needs a T.V. set to display videos
• Obsolete ( Due to many console following the Play Station One)

WHAT SCORE CAN I GIVE THIS?


I think I can give it a 7 out of 10 mainly because although this console is paced away by time the Graphics and Game play provided by the PSOne is still solid.