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From a scrapped Nintendo partnership to hidden pirate code in a forgotten title, this deep dive uncovers surprising behind-the-scenes stories about Sony’s first console. Discover how CD adoption, prototype controllers, the iconic bootup sound, button mapping, memory card saves, odd peripherals like the Glasstron, Net Yaroze indie kits, rare midnight-blue systems, bizarre marketing stunts and even NASA's use helped define the PlayStation legacy.
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00:13Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking back at 30 years of the PS1 and how it not only
00:19became one of the best-selling and most respected consoles of all time, but also made Sony one of
00:25the biggest contenders in the console wars. Yes, friends, I'm talking about this. It may look like
00:32a harmless bagel toaster, but inside is a deadly donut. The Nintendo PlayStation. Hey, plumber boy,
00:39mustache man, your worst nightmare has arrived. Pack up your stuff. I got a little surprise for
00:45you here. Check it out. It's hard to believe we have Nintendo to thank for the PlayStation. If not
00:50for the big N's shady business practices, the future of Sony and PlayStation could have looked
00:55much different. Sony originally partnered with Nintendo to develop a disc-based console tentatively
01:00titled the Nintendo PlayStation, only for Nintendo to announce they had killed the deal and partnered
01:06with Philips instead. Sony, understandably enraged by this sudden change, even attempted to partner
01:11with Sega, only for Sega to also turn them down. Undeterred, Sony pressed forward with the PlayStation
01:17and due to its impressive processing power, as well as user-friendly CD-based technology,
01:22it easily dominated Nintendo and even likely led to Sega dropping out of the console wars.
01:28Nintendo, attempting to maintain a stranglehold on their business, inadvertently created their
01:33greatest challenger. How's that make you feel, buddy? You feel a little like your days are numbered?
01:37I'm gonna have to ask you to leave. You're hurting my elbow.
01:41Prototype Controllers. Like any new piece of technology making its first steps into a budding market,
01:46not only did the console itself go through a few changes, but the controller ended up being the
01:51one with the most revisions. Originally, Sony wanted something more akin to the SNES controller,
01:56but eventually settled on classic PS1 design with the additional shoulder buttons and the
02:01handlebar grips for more comfort when using the extra buttons. Some reports have the number of
02:06prototypes at over 200 potential designs, with the final one decided by then-Sony president and
02:12former pilot Norio Oga, who likened the grips to that of an airplane control wheel.
02:172D or 3D?
02:19Beyond the edge of reality lies a story of ultimate conquest, a story of war and friendship,
02:28a story of a love that can never be.
02:31Given this was the early days of 3D and gaming, Sony struggled with whether to make their new
02:35PlayStation focus on 2D or 3D gaming. While 2D was the dominant artistic style of the time,
02:42Sony was looking towards the future with their console, but was still unsure if the technology
02:46was ready for the leap to the new dimension. That is, however, until Sega released Virtua Fighter
02:51in arcades, and the prospects of 3D gaming became clear as Sony, and they decided to focus primarily
02:57on making the PlayStation the dominant powerhouse of the budding 3D gaming scene.
03:01We still could have done without Bubsy 3D, though.
03:04There's nothing keeping me on this level anymore! Let's blow this popsicle shit to him!
03:10The PlayStation logo.
03:11The now-iconic PlayStation logo is by far one of Sony's most recognizable brands,
03:17and much like everything else when designing the PlayStation, the logo itself went through
03:21a number of changes and iterations, each with the unique approach to the classic lettering
03:25PlayStation is known for today.
03:27Reportedly, there were roughly 20 variations of the design before the classic
03:31PlayStation logo we all know and love was settled on.
03:34What's more, is each of the four colors within the logo have their own meaning, representing
03:39brilliance, joy, passion, and excellence. The more you know.
03:43Cost-saving CDs.
03:56It's no secret that developing for cartridges was expensive, which is why Sony's approach
04:01to CDs was such a boom for developers. Not only was the cost significantly less, but the
04:07CDs themselves also had much more processing power and memory, allowing devs to develop bigger
04:12and more expansive games and worlds. Games like Final Fantasy VII initially started developments
04:17on Nintendo's N64, but moved to the PlayStation after being convinced by the additional power
04:23and performance. Not only did this allow more graphically demanding games to be created,
04:28but also significantly cut down on development time, allowing developers and publishers to bring
04:33their vision to life, and capitalize on current trends in half the time.
04:43The boot-up sound.
04:55The boot-up sound of the original PlayStation is so iconic, even simply hearing it can trigger
05:01lifelong nostalgic memories of some of the best gaming moments in the 90s, and nothing
05:05else even comes close. Original composer Takafumi Fujisawa created this incredible boot-up sound
05:12to create a sense of wonder and excitement at the prospect of entering a new world before
05:15the start of every game. Considering how beloved this sound is even today, and its synonymous
05:21nature with the PlayStation brand, we'd say he more than succeeded, and we wish all PlayStation
05:25games still started with this iconic track. Button mapping. With the design of the controller
05:31finally nailed down, Sony also wanted to make their buttons stand out from the competition.
05:36While they initially were looking to adapt something more akin to Sega Genesis' controller,
05:40they instead opted for something much more comfortable and easier to map numerous control
05:44schemes to. Even more interesting is that every one of the face buttons have individual meanings
05:50behind them. The triangle represents the player's viewpoint, the square refers to maps and menus,
05:55and the red circle signifies yes or continue, while the blue X represents no or cancel.
06:01The designations of circle and X were eventually changed in the west due to differing viewpoints
06:06on the symbols, but the overall design has remained relatively unchanged for 30 years.
06:11And no, we will never call the X button cross.
06:14When humanity conforms to a single truth, a truth based in technological progress and scientific method,
06:22they will be unstoppable.
06:23Motor Toon Grand Prix
06:32Sony didn't want to just create the PlayStation and let other developers craft their library.
06:36They wanted to have their hands in every aspect of the console and its rise to fame.
06:41Part of this included developing and publishing their own games,
06:44and their first release didn't make it out of Japan, but still showed great promise.
06:48Motor Toon Grand Prix was a pretty standard racing game,
06:51but with an old-school cartoon aesthetic that helped it stand out from the crowded genre.
06:56It did well enough to earn a sequel, but the developer, and particularly game director
07:00Kazunori Yamauchi, showed enough potential they were granted the opportunity to work on their
07:04dream project, which would eventually become Gran Turismo and one of the best-selling games
07:09on the PS1.
07:10Greatness from small beginnings.
07:16An Audiophile's Dream
07:18Not only was the PS1 revolutionary when it came to graphical power, but the CD technology
07:23inside the PS1, and with Sony's background and sound design, it's no surprise the PS1
07:28had an impressive audio output that many dedicated audiophiles still swear, even today, is one
07:34of the best CD players ever created.
07:36Considering at a time a solid, dedicated CD player could run anywhere between $200 to $1,000,
07:41the PS1 was not only a great console for gaming, but an affordable CD player with an incredible
07:47output paired with an equally capable sound system.
07:50Specifically, it was the earlier models that far outplayed the competition, which, ironically,
07:55were also typically manufactured by Sony themselves.
07:58Sony would even outprice themselves again when it came to DVD players with the PS2 and Blu-ray
08:03players with the PS3 later on down the line.
08:05Memory card save.
08:06The early days of saving games was a struggle, to say the least.
08:10Some games didn't have a save feature at all, or used convoluted password systems to allow
08:15players to pick up where they left off.
08:17Neither were optimal, but they got the job done, for better or worse.
08:21Although they weren't the first game console to make use of external storage, the PS1 had
08:25by far the most storage available to players with 128 kilobytes letting them save up to 15
08:31games per memory card.
08:32While this seems insignificant now, this simple improvement over the established formula led
08:38to a revolution for gamesaves going forward, and thank God, because the old password system
08:43was just beyond ridiculous.
08:44The longest development.
08:56Not only is the original Gran Turismo the best-selling game on the PS1, but it also had the longest
09:02development cycle of any PS1 game ever.
09:05While extended development times these days are nothing new, and the typical cycle is five
09:09to seven years at this point, back on the PS1, developers and publishers were routinely
09:14releasing new games or sequels with significant improvements year over year.
09:18The ambition of the game, alongside a small development team of only roughly 12 developers,
09:24led to a prolonged development for a team dedicated to making the most authentic racing sim of all
09:29time.
09:29Considering Gran Turismo sold almost 10 million copies and launched a highly respected racing
09:34series, it's safe to say Sony and Polyphony Digital's gamble paid off.
09:44A hated mascot.
09:46No match for the Bandicoot!
09:49Poetry in motion.
09:50You are not authorized to operate this equipment.
09:53Quiet or I'll crush you.
09:54While the PS1 doesn't officially have a mascot, if there was one gamers most associated with
09:59the console, it would have to be Crash Bandicoot.
10:02Crash would routinely appear in commercials calling out Nintendo and their famous plumber,
10:06but the godfather of PlayStation, Ken Kutaragi, hated the character and especially didn't
10:11like the Bandicoot representing the PS1, even in an unofficial capacity.
10:16Kutaragi wanted the PS1 to be a more mature style game system, and having a wide-eyed marsupial
10:21standing outside Nintendo headquarters taunting them felt inauthentic to his vision for the
10:26console.
10:26Thankfully, the rest of Sony had more appreciation for Crash, or else we could have ended up with
10:31Kutaragi's original vision for a mascot, Polygon Man.
10:34Yikes.
10:34Power is an illusion.
10:37Absolute power is a seamless illusion.
10:412-5 discs.
10:42Thank god you've returned.
10:45I need your help.
10:46Although the CD-based architecture of the PS1 allowed developers to create bigger and more
10:51detailed games than ever before, that doesn't mean their ambition could always be contained
10:55by a single disc.
10:57This became a growing issue as developers began to get more ambitious and unlock the full
11:01potential of the PS1 throughout the console's life cycle, especially with the Final Fantasy
11:06series utilizing four discs by the time of Final Fantasy VIII and Final Fantasy IX.
11:10And yet, there was still one game that went even further and required a whopping five discs.
11:16Riven, the sequel to Myst, and a staggering, for the time anyways, two gigabytes total in size.
11:24Much of that storage was used up by the game's many FMV sequences within the game that many other developers
11:29at the time used much more sparingly.
11:31If this all goes well, then I might be able to get you back to the place that you came
11:38from.
11:39Mystery Marketing.
11:40Here we have a normal, healthy young man.
11:43And here we have a fellow who's been experimenting with PlayStation for only a few minutes.
11:49Those bizarre PS3 commercials and somehow even stranger David Lynch PS2 ad weren't the first time Sony's marketing team took
11:57a bizarre approach to advertising their new hardware.
11:59With the PS1, Sony leaned heavily into what they perceived as gamers' competitive nature and released a series of odd
12:06commercials.
12:07Some with taglines such as,
12:09You are not ready, and a flurry of hidden messages for gamers to decipher.
12:13While most of the riddles ended up pointing to nothing more than the release date of the PS1,
12:17this bizarre marketing push worked in Sony's favor and remains a time capsule of 90s culture
12:22and the beginning of Sony's strange approach to advertising their consoles.
12:26Honestly, we miss this brand of advertising compared to the bland nothing of today.
12:31Also, bring back Kevin Butler, you cowards.
12:34So what's the job?
12:35Uh, VP First Person Shooter Relations.
12:40Hey.
12:41Nice to meet you.
12:42Son of a...
12:43E3 Mic Drop.
12:44After their disastrous dealings with Nintendo,
12:47Sony also had to make a significant impact on a skeptical public,
12:51debuting as a brand new console manufacturer in a market dominated by Atari, Nintendo, and Sega.
12:57While at the time, E3 wasn't the enormous media bonanza it would eventually become,
13:01it was still developers and publishers' best chance to get noticed,
13:05and after showcasing all the specs of their new console at E3 1995,
13:09Sony's Steve Race approached the podium and announced the PS1 price point in a pure mic drop moment
13:15by simply declaring...
13:16$299.
13:23...and walking off stage to an eruption of cheers from the audience.
13:27Not only was the delivery brilliant,
13:29but the $299 price point put them $100 cheaper than their nearest competition,
13:34the Sega Saturn.
13:35Price Wars.
13:36Sega wasn't the only ones upset about Sony's slime marketing to undercut the competition.
13:41After being almost wholly responsible for the gaming crash,
13:44Atari was struggling to reclaim its dominance in the gaming market,
13:48and suddenly some fresh, hip newcomer is going to come in and steal their thunder?
13:52Not on Atari's watch.
13:53Atari even went so far as to threaten to go to the International Trade Commission
13:57over Sony's competitive pricing model,
14:00claiming the only fair pricing for Sony's PlayStation would be $500,
14:03the same price the console initially launched for in Japan.
14:07It's unknown if these attempts to force the ITC to intervene gain any traction,
14:11but guess who's still a console juggernaut and who's not?
14:14Net-Yeroze.
14:16Believe it or not, the PS1 had something of an indie developer scene.
14:19The Net-Yeroze was a sleek black version of the PS1
14:22that was modeled after the dev kits that Sony had sent to developers and publishers,
14:26and allowed homegrown devs to bring their creations to life in the same way the big studios did.
14:31For $750, aspiring creators could order the Net-Yeroze through the mail,
14:36and Sony even offered support to some of these indie developers
14:38by putting their games on demo discs to get them into players' hands.
14:42Many now well-regarded developers got their start thanks to the Net-Yeroze,
14:46which in Japanese roughly translates to,
14:48let's do it together.
14:49Although primitive by today's standards,
14:51the Net-Yeroze is still an incredibly forward-thinking machine,
14:54and is incredibly rare due to its limited production.
14:57A worthy catalog.
14:59I've been waiting for you, solid snake.
15:04Now we'll see if the man can live up to the legend.
15:08Absolutely no one could accuse the PS1 of having a meager catalog of games,
15:13but few understand just how monumental the PS1's roster of games truly was.
15:17The PS1 offered games of every genre and for every age group,
15:21making it the ideal console for the entire family, no matter their age.
15:25With reportedly almost 1 billion with a capital B games shipped for the then-rookie console,
15:31the sheer number of options of games to play was staggering to say the least.
15:36While the true number is unknown,
15:38many speculate as many as 3,000 games were created and released for the PS1
15:43during its life cycle from the years 1994 to 2006.
15:46This number would only be surpassed by the PS1's successor, the PS2,
15:51with an equally eye-watering 4,300 games.
15:54Oh, your secret's safe with me.
15:58The rarest of rare.
16:00The Net-Yeroze isn't the only rare PS1 console Sony produced,
16:03and to celebrate the PlayStation selling 10 million units,
16:06Sony released the Midnight Blue edition of the console.
16:10This version of the console is so rare,
16:12only 100 of them were ever produced,
16:15making them highly sought-after collector's items.
16:17The consoles weren't the only ones to see limited releases either.
16:20The rarest game ever released for the PS1 was Elemental Gearbolt Assassin's Case Edition,
16:25which came with a game, a golden light gun, carrying case,
16:28and a special edition memory card.
16:30Reportedly, there were only 50 of these special editions ever produced.
16:34Sony would continue to use these limited edition PS1s for specific celebrations,
16:38and sent out golden PS1s as invitations to the E3 press conference in 2013.
16:44The original PSVR.
16:45Virtual reality might be the latest tech these days,
16:48but even after the utter failure of Nintendo's Virtua Boy,
16:52that didn't stop Sony from preemptively dipping their toes into the realms of VR.
16:56Released in 1996, the Glastron wasn't too dissimilar to the PSVR fans are familiar with today,
17:02but was only functional specifically with one game,
17:05MechWarrior 2.
17:05With the headset and attached earbuds,
17:08players could pilot their mech from the cockpit with the headset's primitive eye tracking,
17:12allowing them to more easily track their targets.
17:14Naturally, the headset didn't take off,
17:16and has become yet another relic in Sony's legacy of abandoned peripherals.
17:21Toys to Life.
17:25The Toys to Life craze might have peaked in the mid-2000s,
17:30but once again, Sony was ahead of the curve on the PS1.
17:33Long before Skylanders dominated the Toys to Life scene,
17:37the PS1 had ZXED Legend of Plasmalite,
17:40in which you could build variations of different robots using the included pieces,
17:44and the game would recognize whatever mech you built no matter how outrageous,
17:48and after plugging your creation into the game,
17:51you could then battle with your mechanized warrior.
17:53Like many of the PS1's odd peripherals,
17:56this one was ahead of its time and failed to find an audience,
17:59killing any possibility for a follow-up for decades.
18:02Apple Emulator
18:03Now, this is another game machine.
18:06It's the most popular game machine in the world.
18:10Wouldn't it be great if we could play some of those titles too?
18:14Emulators are fairly common these days,
18:16but back during the PS1,
18:18Sony was quite a bit stricter about who could play their games if it wasn't on their machine.
18:22During an Apple conference in 1999,
18:25Steve Jobs unveiled a PS1 emulator called the Virtual Game Station for the Mac,
18:30and understandably, Sony was not pleased with this development,
18:34and immediately filed a lawsuit against the emulator creator, Kinetix.
18:38While the ruling eventually ended in favor of Kinetix,
18:40Sony blocked Kinetix from selling their emulator while the lawsuit was ongoing,
18:44and ended up purchasing Virtual Game Station from Kinetix,
18:48and immediately shutting it down.
18:49But there you go, working just like on a PlayStation, same control, same title.
18:54Pirate Aliens
19:03Game developers have been hiding secrets in their games for years.
19:07Whether it was the hidden game credits in Adventure for the Atari 2600,
19:11or the cheeky devs who somehow hid the pilot episode of South Park within Tiger Woods' 99 PGA Golf Tour,
19:17there's no shortage of interesting or even game-breaking secrets.
19:21However, one that went overlooked for decades can be found in the often forgotten Alien Resurrection game for the PS1.
19:28Within the game, unintentionally or not,
19:30the devs included code that would allow players to play pirated games on their PS1 without the need for a
19:36mod chip,
19:36completely bypassing all of Sony's piracy measures.
19:39Sony's probably pretty happy this code went undiscovered for 23 years.
19:445, 4, 3, 2, 1.
19:53Internet ready.
19:58This is Snake.
19:59Colonel, can you hear me?
20:01Loud and clear.
20:02Internet connectivity on consoles might have still been a generation away,
20:06but Sony still found a way to allow players to connect online with the PS1,
20:10even in its most rudimentary form.
20:13Released only in Japan, using a special adapter,
20:16the PS1 could connect to a player's cell phone and could connect to the World Wide Web,
20:21and even download simple games from the internet to play on your phone.
20:24Likely due to the limited capabilities,
20:26and the obscurity of this specific usage for the PS1,
20:29it was discontinued rather abruptly,
20:31while the PS2 would be the first true PlayStation with online play capabilities.
20:36You can have regrets if you want to.
20:37It's only natural.
20:39But you can't keep attacking yourself for things that happened in the past.
20:43That road leads to madness.
20:46Believe me.
20:47Save your saves.
20:48There's nothing worse than accidentally deleting your beloved save file for your favorite game.
20:54Unlike today, where these saves can be recovered from the cloud,
20:57back in the days of the PS1, if you accidentally deleted your save,
21:01that was it, and it was gone forever.
21:03However, there was a hidden feature that would allow you to recover those lost saves,
21:08and it wasn't discovered until decades later.
21:10By holding down all four shoulder buttons,
21:12you can recover any recently deleted game saves.
21:15But if you turn off the console between deleting them and trying to recover them,
21:19they're still gone forever.
21:21PS1 to PS2.
21:30Despite the PS1 having one of the most extensive libraries in all of gaming,
21:35there were still a few games that were originally planned for the PlayStation,
21:38but whether due to the imminent release of the more powerful PS2 on the horizon,
21:42or the extended development time of some titles,
21:44a few planned PS1 games missed their original release and were rebuilt for the PS2.
21:49Two of the most notable are Onimusha Warlords,
21:53which was over 50% complete before development was scrapped and restarted for the PS2,
21:58with a similar situation befalling the masterpiece Ico as well.
22:01Ico began development for the PS1 in 1998,
22:04and while development was progressing smoothly,
22:07the team's vision grew,
22:09and their ambition necessitated the move to the more powerful PS2.
22:23Powering the Stars
22:24The PS1, once upon a time, was one of the most powerful consoles on the market
22:29and was so reliable that even NASA took notice.
22:33Despite the technology being dated at the time,
22:35NASA chose to use the PS1's CPU to power their Horizon space probe for Pluto in 2006,
22:41due to its processing power and reliability and sustainability after some important modifications.
22:47The PS1 might be a retro console today, celebrating its 30th birthday.
22:52Thanks to NASA and the Horizon probe,
22:54the PS1 will live on forever amongst the stars.
22:57Level of Detail
23:01Looks like I've got some things to do.
23:04The PS1 might have revolutionized 3D gaming,
23:07but that didn't mean the system still wasn't without its limitations.
23:11One such disadvantage was the draw distance of mini-games,
23:15which could lead to quite a lot of pop-in when the player was exploring larger worlds.
23:19Some devs got creative with solutions such as The Fog and Silent Hill,
23:23while other devs tackled the issue directly.
23:26Naturally, it was the wizards at Insomniac Games
23:29who developed a solution with their inventive Level of Detail system,
23:32which would render objects in the environment in higher detail the closer the player got to them.
23:37This eliminated the constant use of fog or other techniques to mask the system's technical limitations
23:42and create far more expansive and detailed worlds to immerse the player in.
23:47This technique is still being used even today to even greater effect thanks to the advancements in technology.
23:53How do you feel?
23:55I feel fired up, Bob.
23:57And I'm happy for the Dragon World, of course.
23:59102 million.
24:01That's right. This is no trick. It's true power.
24:05It goes without saying that the PS1 was an unprecedented success for Sony and for gamers.
24:11With a gaming library that still rivals anything today,
24:14a memorable marketing campaign,
24:16and some of the most inventive and highly regarded games and series of all time,
24:21the PS1 more than established its place as one of the best consoles of all time.
24:25The PS1 also managed the impossible,
24:28and for the time became the best-selling console of all time,
24:31managing to sell a staggering 102 million systems in its lifetime,
24:36completely dominating the competition with the N64 only selling 32 million systems,
24:41and the Sega Saturn ending its run only selling 9 million.
24:45Even today, the PS1 remains the sixth best-selling console of all time.
24:50Hey, will you guys keep it down?
24:52Hey, loosen up, kids! I'm on fire!
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25:13The end of an era.
25:15The PS1 had one of the longest life cycles of a console,
25:18debuting in 1994 and finally being discontinued in 2006.
25:23During that time, many developers continued to support the aging system
25:27despite the much more powerful PS2 dominating the market.
25:30While many of the games were nothing more than downgraded ports of PS2 games,
25:34there was still nonetheless a strong market for PS1 games well into the system's twilight years.
25:39The final game officially released for the PS1 after Sony announced its retirement in North America
25:44was FIFA 2005,
25:47because EA was determined to release their sports titles on anything that could run them.
25:51While the final game in Japan was a re-release of Capcom's classic arcade title Strider Hiryu.
25:56Rest easy now, PS1. Your work is finally complete.
26:11What's your favorite little-known fact about the PS1?
26:15Share your tidbits of knowledge in the comments.
26:17Did you enjoy this video?
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