Rare PlayStation Prototype Created By Nintendo and Sony Discovered In Box Of Junk

A long-lost PlayStation prototype made as part of a collaboration between Nintendo and Sony has been discovered.

The two tech companies worked together on a CD-ROM peripheral for Nintendo’s SNES back in the late ‘80s.

It was first revealed in 1991, though Nintendo subsequently decided to partner with Philips instead, fearing that the collaboration would give Sony too much control.

Eventually, Sony decided to make its own console, and the PlayStation 1 was born.

The prototype was never actually released, so remaining hardware is extremely rare. Only 200 are thought to have been made, and none of them have been been procured by private collectors before.

Images of the long-lost console were posted on image hosting site Imgur by Dan Diebold and were first shared on Reddit, though the original post is currently unavailable due to the recent drama on the bulletin site caused by the firing of a key employee.

An explanation originally posted with the photos reads:

”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 dads company went bankrupt, my dad found it in a box of ‘junk’ he was supposed to throw out”.

Gamers have speculated that the Olaf mentioned could well be Olaf Olafsson, the former president and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment.