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https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1200px_psx_console_wcontroller.png
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The original PlayStation (top)note  and the redesigned PS one model (bottom)
"ENOS Lives: U R Not E" note 

In short, Nintendo overlooked the fine print on a contract with Sony by Hiroshi Yamauchi, then-president of Nintendo. The contract gave Sony all profits for a potential CD-ROM add-on for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System that was being developed by Ken Kutaragi. Yamauchi didn't like the deal, so he went with Phillips to develop a different CD-ROM add-on for the SNES, a deal which also imploded and caused Nintendo to spurn optical media for several years, as well as spawning the four games based on Mario and Zelda on the Philips CD-i.

Feeling insulted by Nintendo's actions (Because Nintendo chose to make the announcement in front of a public audience at CES, where the Sony CEO and Ken Kutaragi were also at)note , Sony moved on to attempting to woo the other hot video game company of the time: Sega. They sent Sony Electronic Publishing president Olaf Olafsson and Sony Corporation of America president Micky Schulhof to meet with Sega of America president Tom Kalinske, with the logic that both companies had a common enemy in Nintendo. The proposal of partnering with Sony intrigued Kalinske, who met up with Kutaragi, similarly bullish over the concept. The hardware, which both companies agreed had to be CD-based, would likely be sold at a loss, and the partnership could mean Sega and Sony splitting the losses. Kalinske then brought the idea to the attention of his Japanese counterpart Hayao Nakayama and the Sega Board of Directors, who promptly shot it down, claiming "That's a stupid idea, Sony doesn't know how to make hardware. They don't know how to make software either. Why would we want to do this?" note  Being rudely rejected by the industry's biggest names left Sony reluctant to get into gaming, but simply giving up would have compounded the humiliation; Sony had to get into gaming to reclaim its honor.

Thus, the PlayStation as we know it was conceived when Sony reworked their fancy CD drive for the SNES and the technical specs from their project with Sega into their own full-fledged video game console. Developers were getting excited by 3D gaming, so Kutaragi designed the system with that in mind and also made sure it was easy to develop for so programmers could get their 3D system right out the gate. Sony's developer license had a "come one, come all" approach with very lax censorship policies, which meant that if you could develop a game, you could put it on the PlayStation. This lead to games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill, horror titles for mature audiences that Nintendo and Sega would not have published at the time. Sony also had a fairly generous US$10 licensing fee; since PlayStation games sold for about US$50, this was lower than the industry standard 30% (which would have been $15).note  Thus began two generations of PlayStation dominance. The hardware was also adopted (often in modified form) for numerous Arcade Games by major companies such as Namco, Capcom, 8ing/Raizing, Taito, and Tecmo. This had the benefit of making arcade ports easier since they could actually be ports rather than total conversions (essentially remaking the game from the ground up for drastically different hardware) or Reformulated Games, which had previously been the norm.

In Japan, the PlayStation had a smooth start, but the pickup was still slower than a new console from the established brands. The platform was also initially unpopular for RPG titles, as it did not have any released for it despite debuting in Japan in 1994. The previous-gen Super Famicom was still the most popular system to release RPGs for by this point, as Enix chose to release Star Ocean on that system instead of the PlayStation, as did Namco with Tales of Phantasianote  It wasn't until the deafeningly loud positive response for Square Soft's ground-breaking Final Fantasy VII that other major RPG developers were finally convinced to get on board.

While it had always a success in North America, with a solid launch line-up and the $299 price announced at E3 1995 as a response to the Saturn's $399,note  it had a bit of a slow start. Sony hired Bernie Stolar as head of Sony Computer Entertainment America, the arm responsible for licensing content and developers for the PlayStation in North America. Stolar's policies, specifically his "Five-Star Policy" that he used to prevent 2D games and JRPG localization releases from being released in North America, held back the system while prioritizing sports titles. However, the Japanese arm caught on, and following Stolar's removal, the PlayStation really began to take a foothold in the US with the release of killer apps like Resident Evil, Tomb Raider, the aforementioned Final Fantasy VII, and Metal Gear Solid.

Much of the PlayStation's success can be attributed to the actions of its competitors. The Sega Saturn left a lot to be desired thanks to its hardware being difficult to program for, plus Sega was making many poor decisions at the time (including, but not limited to, launching the Saturn four months early in America, leaving early adopters with nothing but its six launch titles to play for several months, and bringing the aforementioned Bernie Stolar aboard to institute the same anti-2D policies after Sony laid him off) that caused the console to flounder outside of Japan. While the Nintendo 64 was a more powerful machine and managed to outsell the PS1 in North America initially, its potential was bottlenecked by Nintendo's decision to stick with cartridges, which were more expensive to produce than CDs and had significantly less storage space. It also came to market nearly two years after the PlayStation, giving Sony a substantial head start. All of this, combined with the low licensing requirements mentioned previously, lead to the PlayStation being the console of choice for third-party developers, giving it a massive and diverse library of nearly 8,000 games, compared to the Saturn having just over 1,000 and the N64 not even getting 400.

Although the PlayStation is now often referred to as the "PS1" in order to differentiate it from its long line of successors, only the smaller, redesigned version of the original console, which was released late in its lifespan in 2000, is officially known as the "PS one" and was titled as such to avoid confusion between the original PlayStation model and its successor, the PlayStation 2. Despite this, written discussion of the console typically uses "PS one" to specifically denote the redesigned models and "PS1" to refer to the PlayStation console in general. That said, Sony has kept the "PS one" designation for its downloadable "PS one Classics" line. Don't confuse it with the latter-day PSX video device, even though it was common before the announcement of the PS2 to abbreviate the original PlayStation as "PSX", referring to its original codename "PlayStation X".note  However, referring to the console as "PSX" isn't unheard of.

While it was acclaimed for introducing many to 3D consoles and harboring a large library that mostly took full advantage of CD media, the console had some infamous hardware issues. Many games had Loads and Loads of Loading that sometimes reached two minutes, and the console was prone to overheating, which was a huge problem when early models put the optical lens right next to the power supply (it would be moved to a less dangerous position in later revisions). The first batches even had a reputation for CD drive problems, as the fully plastic tray moved the laser into a position where it was no longer parallel with the CD surface over time. However, none of this stopped the PlayStation from becoming the highest-selling home video game console in the world at the time. Aside from the inevitable deluge of '90s kids with fond memories of Sony's 32-bit bombshell, the PlayStation also lives on among the audiophile community due to its sound quality allegedly being significantly better than many dedicated CD players.

In September 2018, Sony announced their own miniature Plug 'n' Play Game console: the PlayStation Classic, in an attempt to ride off Nintendo's runaway success with their similarly named mini-consoles. It was released on December 3, 2018 (exactly 24 years after the original PlayStation's release in Japan), and contained 20 built-in games.Western List (exclusives in bold) Japanese List (exclusives in bold)  While many had high hopes that it would be a worthy competitor to Nintendo's offerings, the final product was met with disappointment from critics and fans, who considered its game selection questionable at best, even considering the licensing issues for some of the more popular titles. The console also came with the original joystick-less controllers as well, making some games way more difficult to play than intended, and despite the fact that the PlayStation had been readily emulated for over two decades, the console was plagued with performance issues and inaccuracies (so much so that the NES Classic is considered a better PS1 emulator), and even more puzzling, some games had the inferior PAL versions included instead (likely due to the multilingual support that would make it easier to sell units worldwide). Not only did this mean that owners had to put up with the lower 50 Hz refresh rate, it also didn't play well with 60 Hz displays, as it introduced a lot of microstutter. Finally, the console was considered quite lacking in the feature department, with a bare-bones UI and no graphical filtering options or save states. It used an open-source emulator one could readily install on a PC or Raspberry Pi without having to buy an official device (which is hilariously ironic considering Sony's history of suppressing unofficial emulators like Bleem). Word spread of the device's cheap quality very quickly, and retailers had so much trouble selling it that its price was slashed mere weeks after its launch from USD $99 to USD $59, and even that wasn't enough to get rid of the mountains of unsold stock that retailers were stuck with. Much of the problems with the device have been attributed to it having been Christmas Rushed.

Specifications:

Processors

  • A MIPS R3000-A 32-bit RISC CPU at 33.8688 MHz.
  • A Vector Unit called the "Geometry Transformation Engine", built inside the CPU.
  • A GPU. Although the CPU/GTE rotates and translates the polygons, the GPU rasterizes and shades them.

Memory

  • 2 MB main Random Access Memory and 1 MB Video RAM. Bandwidth has a maximum of 130 MB.
  • 512 KB of SRAM memory for sound with BBR compression.
  • 32 KB CD buffer, used for commonly-accessed sectors of the disk.
  • 128 KB (or 15-"block"note ) Memory Cards.
  • Games came on standard CD-ROMs, holding up to 650MB each. They are easily identifiable by their iconic black backs, supposedly as an anti-piracy measure (and while this isn't true, it does make counterfeit games harder to produce). As the system's life progressed and the size and complexity of video games increased, companies began releasing their games on two discs, and a handful (23 in total) came on three or more. The largest game by total file size is the five-disc Tokimeki Memorial 2, at approximately 2.18GB.
    • Optical drive is rated for 2x speeds for a read bandwidth of 2.4Mb/s.
    • Supported the following formats:
      • PlayStation Format CD-ROM
      • CD-DA
      • Video CD (SCPH-5903 only, this model was only released in Southeast Asian countries. Other models require a 3rd party "Movie Card" add-on)note 

Graphics

  • Theoretical polygon count is 1,000,000... but that's assuming the processor is making nothing else, so it isn't helpful. In real-time games, the count would be around 100,000 to 120,000. A few games reached 150,000 polygons a second, which comes out to around 3,500 polygons per frame at 30 fps. As a comparison, this is about 1% of what the PS3 can push.
  • But polygon count is only part of it:
    • The graphics processor is a strictly 2D affair with no concept of depth. All 3D math has to be handled and converted into 2D graphics by the CPU.
    • Textures could be high quality for the time if they were programmed correctly, and could have quite a bit of detail. Unfortunately, the system lacked filtering for the textures, which meant that high-contrast textures would look blocky up close.
    • Nor was it able to do texture mapping well; due to the use of affine texture mapping (no accounting for perspective or depth), textures generally appear to warp if placed on triangles because the graphics processor does not process depth information, which is required to properly apply a texture map to a triangle. Textures applied only to quadrilaterals are correctly processed because the locations of a quadrilateral's corners provide enough information to properly texture it, unlike triangles. Some developers came up with tricks to minimize these effects, but it was just something that PlayStation owners got used to. This was made worse because most 3D modeling tools are based on triangles as their only primitives, so converting objects to use quadrilaterals instead of triangles to make texture mapping more smooth meant extra work.
    • The graphics processor can perform Gouraud shading on triangles where the lighting and color assigned to a non-textured triangle's vertices are smoothly blended throughout the triangle. If the triangle has a texture map, only the lighting can be smoothly blended through a triangle. Unfortunately, the graphics processor can only apply flat shading to a quadrilateral, meaning that a quadrilateral without a texture has one color and amount of light throughout it, and a textured quadrilateral has one shade of light applied throughout the whole shape. Developers were forced to choose good shading or good texture mapping, but not both.
    • Furthermore, because the graphics processor does not process depth at all, it requires the CPU to sort polygons from the back to the front, the order that the processor draws them in. Since no perfect system to do so can exist, especially if some polygons go through others, objects that are behind other opaque objects are sometimes shown when they should be hidden.
    • Finally, despite both the vector unit and rasterizer working with fixed-point mathematics (not as good as an FPU, but much better than nothing), only integers can be passed between the two with no Z-buffer in place, leading to the Line Boil-esque movement of polygons that typify PlayStation graphics. Watch any slow-moving object and you'll notice how the polygons seem to "snap" to each new position, rather than moving smoothly.
  • The "Motion Decoder", a hardware decompressor for JPEG-like image data. This can be used for still images, but its main purpose is to decode a video format similar to Motion JPEG. This made it feasible to mix FMV and polygon graphics, although most games only used it for cutscenes. By contrast, the Sega Saturn and Nintendo 64 used software decoding for FMV (though the Saturn had two CPUs and an optional hardware MPEG decoder for White Book video, while the N64's typically 8-64 Mb carts mostly precluded the use of FMVs).
  • The system supports standard composite cables, S-video cables, and an RF Modulator for coaxial, all via the AV Multi Out port. However, very early models also had regular composite ports (with the very first model also including an S-video port) like a VCR, which was considered very unique as most consoles used proprietary AV ports. These AV Direct Out ports allegedly delivered superior audio quality than the AV Multi Out ports, making the early models popular among audiophiles for use as CD players. The AV Direct Out ports were removed starting with the SCPH-55XX revision.

Peripherals

  • DualShock: Since the PlayStation was developed as a 3D system from the start, having three-dimensional control in its games would be vital, so the original PlayStation controller design featured not one, but two pairs of shoulder buttons for three-dimensional movement. Eventually, in 1997, Sony responded to the Nintendo 64's analog controller and rumble feature by incorporating force feedback and dual analog sticks into the controller. This controller design would later serve as the basis of all Sony first-party gamepad controllers, ranging from the PlayStation 2's DualShock 2 (with analog pressure-sensitive face buttons) to the PS3's Sixaxis and DualShock 3 (the former added motion-sensing abilities at the cost of force feedback and the latter brought rumble back while still using the motion sensor).
    • In the US, Nintendo attempted to sue Sony for adding vibration and analog capabilities to the controller, but lost the case because using a different set of technology to produce the same result didn't violate its patents. Later, in 2002, California technology corporation Immersion successfully sued Sony and Microsoft on the same charge, winning in 2006 because the DualShock violated their patents (Immersion would later partner with Nintendo to develop the "HD Rumble" technology used in the Nintendo Switch).
    • Dual Analog: Actually preceding the DualShock, the Dual Analog controller shared the same button placement as its successors, but distinguished itself with its longer grips, concave sticks, ridged shoulder buttons, and an additional compatibility setting for games that supported the little-known analog joystick note . It also lacked rumble outside of Japan.
  • Link Cable: A peripheral allowing for playing games with multiplayer modes without the need of Split Screen. However, it has two issues: 1) a set of two TVs, two PlayStation consoles, and two copies of the game are required, and 2) the cable isn't compatible with the redesigned PS one. About 30 games are compatible with the Link Cable, among which are the Armored Core series, the Wipeout series, TOCA 2 Touring Cars, and Final Doom.
  • Multitap: Allowed for four controllers to be connected to a single port, as the system otherwise only offered two-player support. Note the use of the word "port", as there was no limitation on using two of these, so the system theoretically could have up to eight controllers connected to it. Unfortunately, due to the barrier to being able to use more than two controllers in place, the console wasn't close to the multiplayer behemoth its main competitor was, in addition to the fact its weaker specs made it less practical to implement. Nonetheless, a small handful of games did support it.
  • Net Yaroze: Sony's gift to bedroom programmers all over the world, the Net Yaroze (Yaroze being Gratuitous Japanese for "let's do it") was a one-of-a-kind development kit marketed to computer hobbyists as a chance to create their own PlayStation games. The $750 package included a special region-free black PlayStation console, manuals, instruction books, and software to get users started, although users had to supply their own computers and programming skills to create software for it. Usually, these games could be submitted to Sony to be published on the demo discs of the Official PlayStation Magazine. While most of the games produced with the Net Yaroze were fairly amateurish clones of commercial games such as Doom, Puzzle Bobble, and Pac-Man (one Doom clone going so far as to hang a lampshade on it by calling itself Clone), some of them were surprisingly ambitious (such as the Zelda-like RPG Terra Incognita). Although future Sony consoles have not featured similar in-depth homebrew options, it's possible to run distributions of Linux on both the PlayStation 2 and, until a firmware update released after the redesigned model, the PlayStation 3, and the demo disc that comes with the PlayStation 2 features a YABasic programming tool.
  • PlayStation Mouse: A peripheral designed for games with mouse-friendly (or required) interfaces, such as Real-Time Strategy games (Command & Conquer series), Point & Click Adventure games (Broken Sword, Clock Tower, Discworld), or FPS games (Final Doom, Quake II). About 50 games, a number of which being Japan exclusive, are compatible with the PlayStation Mouse. A Tokimeki Memorial-themed mouse◊ was issued as one of the goods of the Tokimeki Memorial 1 Limited Edition Box.
  • PocketStation: Sony's first handheld gaming system, despite it not even being its own console. Instead, it was sold as a memory card peripheral with a Tamagotchi-like design, similar to the VMU of the later Sega Dreamcast (though the VMU actually came first). It featured a small monochrome screen, a directional pad, and an action button, which could be used to play small minigames transferred to the system from its parent console. The system itself never saw release outside of Japan, but some globally-released PocketStation-compatible games retained their compatibility with the system, including Final Fantasy VIII, where the PocketStation game Chocobo World was included as a bonus in the PC port. On the original game, Chocobo World could still be played if you had imported a PocketStation from Japan.
  • SCPH-131 LCD Screen: A small, speaker-equipped LCD screen for the PS one. Released as a bundle with the PS one model, the screen attaches to the back of the console via two large bolts (typically screwed on with a coin), making the PS one semi-portable if you can commandeer a power outlet (e.g. a car adaptor). The screen also had ports in the back to allow for full AV pass-through to a television, meaning the screen could remain attached indefinitely.

Games/Series:

    open/close all folders 

    A-D 

    E-H 

    I-L 

    M-P 

    Q-T 

    U-Z 

The PlayStation provides examples of:

  • Advertising Campaigns: "U R Not E" (with the "e" colored red - thus, "You are not ready"). It was big the first couple years of the console's life.
  • Awesome, but Impractical: The PS1 came with a cord that lets you play two-player multiplayer. Sounds awesome, right? Well, no, at least not when you go into how much effort is needed. If you happen to have two TVs, two PS1s, two controllers, and two copies of the same game, then you get to play two-player multiplayer. Despite the fact that the PS1 came with a port for a second controller already.
  • Blipvert: Some of those early "U R Not E" ads had images on the screen for only a couple frames. The intro sequences on the first few Interactive CD Samplers had cheat codes flash on the screen that were impossible to read without recording the footage with a VCR and pausing it.
  • Boring, but Practical: Graphically, the system is built more for speed and ease of development than polygonal accuracy or 2D sprite capabilities (see also Jack of All Stats below for more).
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: The DualShock controller design has become such an iconic piece of the product lineup that the original joystick-less Playstation controller looks bizarre by comparison. However, the use of the right stick for camera control didn't become standardized until the next generation, so even later-day games on the system (for example, all three Spyro the Dragon games) often map camera control to dedicated buttons while the right stick does nothing.
  • Easter Egg:
    • One of the cool things about the system was that in many games that used Red Book/Compact Disc Digital Audio, it loaded the level data into the RAM, allowing the laser to read the soundtrack data on the CD. So, if you pop open the CD lid, take the game disc out, and insert a music CD, you can play the game with different music (at least, until the next time the game has to load more game data). Believe it or not, that was pretty nifty at the time. Vib-Ribbon in particular turned this unintended trick into a full-on gameplay feature, allowing the player to create custom levels simply by swapping out the game disc for a music CD (though track one will always be unplayable, as the Vib Ribbon disc uses that for game data, which translates extremely poorly when converted to audio).
    • The Interactive CD Samplers had this; if you pressed the shoulder buttons on certain tiles, they would have three-button codes on the backside when they flipped. Insert the code and you would get a static screen of codes, or a hidden video or playable demo.
  • FMV: A staple of many PS1 games, especially early on. FMV had existed before on the Sega CD and CD-i, but the PS1 was the first console to successfully do so in a manner comparable to actual home videocassettes, thanks to its higher processing power.
  • Jack of All Stats: Of the three 5th generation consoles, the PlayStation was the easiest to develop for but the least specialized, lacking the hardware 2D capabilities of the Sega Saturn or the hardware Z-buffering or floating point unit of the Nintendo 64, or the RAM expandability of either. It instead just did 2D and 3D competently enough to get the job done for either type.
  • Magazines: Had a number of official and unofficial magazines dedicated to just the PlayStation throughout its peak years. Also, Sony itself produced PlayStation Underground, a quarterly "magazine" that was a double disc with playable demos, as well as non-interactive items like interviews, behind-the-scenes/making-of videos, tips and tricks, cheat codes, and save file downloads.
  • Mascot: Unlike its more traditional competitors, the PlayStation didn't have a first-party mascot. Instead it adopted a number of third-party mascots as certain games became smash successes — chiefly Crash Bandicoot, Lara Croft and Sweet Tooth.
  • No Export for You: Inevitable, given how massive the console's library was. Tons of titles from Japan never saw the light of day in America, although PlayStation Underground subscribers got a small sampling of a few of them, as they often included an Imports section with playable demos on their discs.
  • Overcrank: Used to provide the system startup sound of all things: the PS1 simply runs three different sound clips (a saw wave, windchimes, and a reversed recording of breaking glass) at an incredibly slow speed, leading to the booming, elegiac tune that has since become a hallmark of the console's identity. Additionally, the samples are slightly detuned between sound channels and run through the console's reverb processor, further enhancing the stereo image of the sound. Incidentally, these clips are also how the console ensures that it boots up and loads a disc properly; errors during either process cause the samples to play back improperly, which is what causes error sounds like "Personified Fear"*  and "Fearful Harmony"* .
  • Product Facelift: The system had over 20 models within its lifetime. Most of these use the same shell and are differentiated by their BIOS and components, the latter of which were altered to fix hardware issues and/or reduce manufacturing costs. The most drastic overhaul was the PS one (lowercase intended), which used a new, smaller casing and had exclusive access to an LCD screen add-on that made it semi-portable (contrary to popular belief, it did not introduce the grey tiled menu screen and reverb effects for the CD player; these were available on units sold in Europe from the very start). It was released around the launch of the PlayStation 2 to extend the life of the PlayStation.
  • Regional Bonus: Initially, the CD player's reverberation effects - and, by extension, the grey tile menu design as a whole - were features exclusive to earlier PlayStation models sold in PAL markets. It was only with the release of the PS one five years later that these features were brought over to Japan and America, albeit slightly modified.
  • Truncated Theme Tune: When playing a PlayStation game on a PlayStation 2, it omits the first part of the logo animation (with the Sony Computer Entertainment logo), and skips to the PlayStation logo note . Conversely, playing a non-NTSC-J game on earlier Japanese units (either by disc swap or mod chip) skips the PlayStation logo entirely note .
  • Video Game 3D Leap: The PlayStation was part of the generation where 3D graphics were brand new and everyone wanted to take advantage of the new tech. Sony's console famously hosted the 3D leaps of Final Fantasy (with Final Fantasy VII) and Metal Gear (with Metal Gear Solid), which went on to be hailed as some of the most influential games in history. The PlayStation also hosted the 3D leap of the Bubsy series with Bubsy 3D in Furbitten Planet, the chief example of a 3D leap gone wrong.

 
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Sony Playstation

One of the most iconic things from the Playstation console line is the original PSOne load-up screen.

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Vanity Plate

Alternative Title(s): Play Station 1, PS One

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Sony Playstation

One of the most iconic things from the Playstation console line is the original PSOne load-up screen.

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