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Rare Snaps Of PlayStation SNES Prototype Hint At What Could Have Been

Before breaking off and forming their own brand in the industry - a brand which would go on to grow exponentially over the course of four consoles and two handhelds - Sony built a prototype for Nintendo known as the PlayStation SNES in the early 90s, and today Reddit has unearthed a piece of video game history.

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Before breaking off and forming their own brand in the industry – a brand which would go on to grow exponentially over the course of four consoles and two handhelds – Sony built a prototype for Nintendo known as the PlayStation SNES in the early 90s, and today Reddit has unearthed a piece of video game history.

Never released to the public, only a couple of hundred were manufactured and were designed at the time to herald a partnership between both parties that produced a Super Nintendo Entertainment System with a CD-ROM to boot. Alas, history tells us that such a team-up never materialized, with The Big N opting to select Philips as a business partner. On the other end of the spectrum, Sony’s prototype would go on to become the original, steel-grey PlayStation we know and love.

As for the aforementioned prototype, it was believed that there were no units remaining in the world – making this a very rare find indeed. At the time of writing, Reddit is down due to a protest, but Nintendo Life managed to salvage some of the photographs, which showcase the PlayStation SNES in all of its yellowing glory. Underneath the original post on Reddit, the user detailed the story behind the relic.

“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… I have not had a chance to boot her up, I don’t have a power cable at the moment, but it seems like it’s a pretty common DC cable. I’ll have to get one and see how it goes.”

Though it never made it onto the production line, the PlayStation SNES represents a defining moment in the video game industry; one where Sony effectively took a different path from Nintendo and its cartridge-based MO and grew into a bona fide competitor.

Let us know what you think of the hardware that never was using the comments section below.