Wikipedia
The PlayStation (Japanese language Japanese: !プレイӟ 3;テーシ 519;ン)? is a video game console of the 32-bit era, first produced by Sony Computer Entertainment in the mid 1990s. The original PlayStation was the first of the PlayStation series of console and hand-held game devices, which has included successor machines including the PSone (a smaller version of the original), PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, and the forthcoming PlayStation 3. As of June 2005 the PlayStation and PSone us.playstation.com - shipped a total of 100 million units
History - Nintendo asked Sony to develop a CD-ROM add-on called "PlayStation" for the SNES. However after Sony revealed that they were developing it, Nintendo instead went to Philips. This caused Sony to consider abandoning their research, however instead they used what they had developed so far and make it into a full blown console. This led to Nintendo filing a lawsuit claiming breach of contract and attempted, in U.S. 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.The PlayStation was launched in Japan on December 3, 1994, United StatesUSA on September 9, 1995 and Europe on September 29, 1995. In America, Sony enjoyed a very successful launch with titles of almost every genre including ''Battle Arena ToshindenToshinden, Twisted Metal, Warhawk (video game)Warhawk'', and ''Ridge Racer''. Almost all of Sony's and Namco's launch titles went on to produce numerous sequels. The console was extremely popular, spawning the so-called "''PlayStation Generation''". Among many other games, the PlayStation is well known for the ''Tomb Raider'', ''Final Fantasy'', ''Resident Evil'', ''Tekken'', ''wipEout'', ''Gran Turismo (game)Gran Turismo'', ''Crash Bandicoot'', ''Spyro'', and ''Metal Gear Solid'' series of games. As of 18 May 2004, Sony has shipped 100 million PlayStation and PS one consoles throughout the world. As of March 2004, there were 7,300 software titles available with cumulative software shipment of 949 million. The PlayStation logo was designed by Manabu Sakamoto, who also designed the logo for Sony's VAIO computer products.On November 30, 1999, the Italian eurodance band Eiffel 65 released an album entitled Europop. Track #6 is a song dedicated to the PlayStation, entitled My Console. Written by the band's DJ Gabry Ponte, the song mentions ''Tekken'', ''Metal Gear Solid'', ''Resident Evil'', ''Gran Turismo'', ''Omega Boost'', ''Bloody Roar'' and ''X-Files'', in that order. Although this part is somewhat difficult to understand, they also refer to ''Ridge Racer'' and ''Odd World'', seconds before spelling out the word "PlayStation."
Variants - ]] screen and a DualShock controller]]Sony produced a redesigned version of the original console, called the "PS One", in a smaller (and more ergonomic) case which was introduced in September 2000. The original PlayStation was abbreviated in Japan to "PS" and was often abbreviated as "PSX" by American gamers, as this was Sony's internal code name for the system while it was under development. This led to some confusion in 2003, when Sony introduced a PS2-derived system in Japan actually called the PSX_%28DVR%29PSX. The PlayStation is now officially abbreviated as the "PS1" or "PS one," although many people still abbreviate it "PS" or "PSX". There are no hardware differences between the "PS One" and the original, except for a cosmetic change to the console.A version of the PlayStation called the Net Yaroze was also produced. It was more expensive than the original PlayStation, coloured black instead of the usual gray, and most importantly, came with tools and instructions that allowed a user to be able to program PlayStation games and applications without the need for a full developer suite, which cost many times the amount of a PlayStation and was only available to approved video game developers. Naturally, the Net Yaroze lacked many of the features the full developer suite provided. It was unique in that it was the only officially retailed Sony PlayStation with no regional lockout; it would play games from any territory.Another version that was colored blue (as opposed to regular console units that were gray in color) was available to game developers and select press. It had double the main Random Access MemoryRAM size (4 Megabytes instead of 2 Megabytes) and a CD-ROM emulator board connected to a IBM PC compatiblePC. It was also able to run in-development games which lacked region coding (which would be rejected by a normal PlayStation as though they were pirate copies). A few of these units eventually appeared for sale through somewhat dubious channels at high prices.The installation of a modchip allows PlayStation's capabilities to be expanded. This allows unauthorized copies of games to be played, but it also allows the playing of games from other regions, such as PAL titles on a NTSC console. Since modchipmodchips allow playing games recorded on a regular CD-ROM, it created a wave of games developed without official Sony approval, using free GNU compiler tools.
Successors - Sony Computer EntertainmentSony's successor to the PlayStation is the PlayStation 2, which is backward compatible with its predecessor, in the sense that it can play almost every PlayStation game. This was done by embedding the most important parts of the PS one inside the PlayStation 2 design. Unlike emulators that run on the PC, the Playstation 2 actually contains the original Playstation processor, allowing games to run exactly as they do on the Playstation. For Playstation 2 games this processor, called the IOP, is used for input and output (memory cards, DVD drive, network, and harddrive). Like its predecessor, the PlayStation 2 is based on hardware developed by Sony themselves.The next generation of the PlayStation is known as PlayStation 3, or PS3, and due to be launched in 2006. Sony has stated the PS3 will also be backward compatible with all games that were originally made for PlayStation as well as PlayStation 2.The PlayStation Portable (abbreviated PSP) is a handheld game console first released in late 2004. Despite the name, it is not compatible with PlayStation games; it only runs games developed specifically for the PSP on Universal Media Disc.The success of the Playstation (which uses CD ROMs) most likely lead to the eventual demise of cartridge based home gaming consoles. Nintendo abandoned cartridge technology on TV consoles after the Nintendo 64.
Criticism - On the tenth anniversary of the Playstation, Sony Italy released an ad which outraged the Vatican. An ad showed a man, which seems to be Jesus, smiling towards the camera, wearing a Crown of Thorns made of the Playstation button symbols (Square, X, O, Triangle). At the bottom, it said (in Italian): "Ten Years of Passion." This outraged the Vatican. After the incident, Sony decided to take back all the ads and discontinue the printing.Many consumers also were not happy that the Playstation's laser track, which allowed the laser to move back and forth as it looked for data off the cd, would burn out easily if used extensively over time. This caused many people to start experiencing longer loading times, and other loading problems. Users remedied this by flipping the Playstation up vertically, making the laser access data from the opposite track. Although this proved a temporary solution, the opposite track too would burn out, which usually meant it had to be replaced. Several consumers were forced to buy multiple Playstations to replace broken ones due to this problem.
Screenshots - !I mage:PSX_Ridge_Racer.png ''Ridge Racer''
Namco !(1994)Image:PSX_Wipeout.png!''wipEout''
Sony/Psyg nosis? !(1995)Image:PSX_Tekken_2.jpg'' TekkenTekken 2''
Namco !(1996)Image:PSX_Tomb_Raider.pn g''Tomb Raider''
Eidos (1996)Image:PSX_Madden NFL 99.jpg''Madden NFLMadden NFL 99''
EA Sports !(1998)Image:PSX_Metal_Gear_Sol id.png''Metal Gear Solid''
Konami !(1998)Image:FinalFantasyVII-Co mbat.jpg''Final Fantasy VII''
Square Co., Ltd.Squaresoft !(1997)Image:PSX_Gran_Turismo_2 .png''Gran TurismoGran Turismo 2''
Sony (1999)Image:Tekken.jpg''Tekken''
Namco !(1996)
Specifications -
Main CPU - ]]MIPS_architectureMIPS R3000A-compatible (R3051) 32bit RISC chip running at 33.8688 MHzThe chip is manufactured by LSI Logic Corp. with technology licensed from Silicon GraphicsSGI. The chip also contains the Geometry Transformation Engine and the Data Decompression Engine.Features: Operating Performance of 30 million instructions per secondMIPS Bus Bandwidth 132 Mbit/s Instruction Cache 4 kB Data Cache 1 kB (non associative, just 1024 bytes of mapped fast Static Random Access MemorySRAM)
Geometry Transformation Engine - This engine is inside the main Central processing unitCPU chip. It gives it additional (vector-)math instructions used for the 3D graphics.Features: Operating Performance of 66 million instructions per secondMIPS 360,000 Flat-Shaded Polygons per second 180,000 texture mapped and light-sourced polygons per secondSony originally gave the polygon count as: 1.5 million flat-shaded polygons per second 500,000 texture mapped and light-sourced polygons per secondThese figures were given as a ballpark figure for performance under optimal circumstances, and so are unrealistic under normal usage.
Data Decompression Engine - This engine is also inside the main CPU. It is responsible for decompressing images and video. Documented device mode is to read three RLE-encoded 16×16 macroblocks, run IDCT and assemble a single 16×16 RGB macroblock. Output data may be transferred directly to GPU via DMA. It is possible to overwrite IDCT matrix and some additional parameters, however MDEC internal instruction set was never documented.Features: Compatible with MPEG-1 and H.261 files Operating Performance of 80 million instructions per secondMIPS Directly connected to CPU Bus
Graphics Processing Unit - This chip is separate to the CPU and handles all the 2D Graphics processing, which includes the transformed 3D polygons.Features: Maximum of 16.7 Million Colours Resolutions from 256×224 to 640×480 Adjustable frame buffer Unlimited Colour Lookup Tables Maximum of 4000 8×8 pixel sprite (computer science)sprites with individual scaling and rotation Emulation of simultaneous backgrounds (for parallax scrolling) flat shadingFlat or Gouraud shading, and texture mapping
Sound Processing Unit - Features: Can handle ADPCM sources with up to 24 channels and up to 44.1 kilohertzkHz sampling rate Could perform digital effects including:* Pitch (music)Pitch Modulation* Envelope* Looping* Digital Reverb Could handle up to 512 Mbit of sampled waveforms Supports MIDI instruments PC file name format: !PlayStation_Sound_Format .PSF
Memory - Main Random_Access_MemoryRAM: 2 Megabytes (4 Megabytes on "Blue" development console) Video Random_Access_MemoryRAM: 1 Megabyte Sound Random_Access_MemoryRAM: 512 Kilobytes CD-Rom Buffer: 32 Kilobytes Operating System Read_Only_MemoryROM: 512 Kilobytes PlayStation Memory Cards have 128 Kilobytes of space in an EEPROM
CD-ROM - Features: Originally Single Speed, later replaced with a Two Speed drive, with a maximum data throughput of 300 KB/s XA Compliant
See also - Dedicated video game consoles List of PlayStation gamesSonyNintendo 64PlayStation 2PlayStation Sound Format32-bit eraPocketStationPlayStation 3PlayStation Portable
External links - retro-style.co.uk - Online Playstation Game frequency guide kontek.net - Unofficial Sony PlayStation FAQ by James Dunford gameinfowire.com - Game Infowire story on 100 million shipments vidgames.com - PS Galleria Oldest PlayStation fan-siteplaystation-racing.co.uk - Playstation-Racing - A fan site dedicated to the racing game genre on the PlayStation !ConsolesCategory:PlayStationCa tegory:Sony? consolesCategory:PlayStation 1 !peripheralsCategory:Fifth-gene ration? video game !consolesda:PlayStationde:PlayS tationel:PlayStationes:PlaySta tioneo:Sony? !PlayStationfr:PlayStationgl:Pl ayStationhr:PlayStationid:Play Stationit:PlayStationnl:PlaySt ationja:プレイステーシ㠃§ãƒ³no:PlayStationpl:Sony? !PlayStationpt:PlayStationru:Pl ayStationsimple:PlayStationfi: PlayStationsv:Playstationth:๠€à¸žà¸¥à¸¢à¹Œà¸ªà¹€à¸•à¸Šà¸±à¹ ˆà¸™zh:PlayStation
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The official site for North America.
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SCEA
Official portal for PlayStation developer/publisher support, Net Yaroze, and Psygnosis Online.
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http://www.absolute-playstation.com/
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