Did you know that...? 30 curiosities of PS1 for the 30th anniversary of PlayStation

Since PlayStation will be celebrating the 30th anniversary (December 3) of its first console, PS1 (also known as PS or PSOne depending on the model), we wanted to take a look at its timeline to bring you some of the most significant curiosities of the brand. Or in other words, did you know that...

PlayStation would not exist without Nintendo

The origin of PlayStation goes back to Nintendo itself. Before launching its console, Sony collaborated with the big N, but the so-called greatest betrayal in the history of video games led to the birth of PS1.

There is an exclusive black PS1 for development

There is a version of PlayStation called Net Yaroze. It is black and comes with several tools and pre-installed programs for programming and deg games. It was a for the development kit.

An MGS boss forced you to change the controller slot

Hideo Kojima had the brilliant idea of creating a boss, Psycho Mantis, capable of reading our minds. He was able to foresee our every move, and to defeat him more easily we had to switch the Dual Analog to the controller slot 2.

It was the first console to introduce external memory

Unlike many other old consoles and those of its generation, our game data was stored on its external memory medium: the Memory Card.

He dared to his console where no one else did

Sony opted to its console in ways never before seen in the industry. It reached agreements with various festivals, nightclubs and even raves to open areas where there were demonstrations of its games and/or different advertising posters.

It launched official add-ons as peculiar as a 'portable' screen

PS One, one of the different versions of PlayStation, had a very special peripheral: a small LCD screen that could be connected directly to the console. It is considered one of the first portable (not strictly speaking) consoles from the brand.

More than 15 attempts to get it right

The logo design was created by Manabu Sakamoto, who also designed the VAIO logo. He made many attempts.

One of the best-selling consoles

PS1 was the first console to sur the 100 million units sold mark and today it remains one of the most outstanding in this regard.

The startup sound is not just decorative

The startup sound is programmed to coincide with the hardware and disk check; if there are problems, the sound is distorted.

Buttons have meaning

The design of PlayStation follows a very interesting logic. Instead of continuing with the tradition of buttons, it used a code. The circle meant "yes", the cross was "no", the triangle symbolised "point of view or camera" and the square was a "piece of paper or map", as its creators revealed in an interview with Famitsu.

Bestseller

The best-selling PS1 game is Gran Turismo with around 11 million units.

The color of CD-ROMs

The back of the CD-ROMs was black not for aesthetics, but as a system to prevent games from being pirated and the console from reading them.

The first real pet

It was not the first, but it was the most famous. Crash Bandicoot is a franchise that was born externally to Sony, but it did so well that it ended up becoming its official mascot. PlayStation ended up buying its creators, the studio Naughty Dog, in 2001.

Many rare peripherals

PlayStation has some of the weirdest unofficial peripherals on the market, from a Pachinko controller to a train control .

The idea for PS1 came from...

The father of PlayStation, Ken Kutaragi, came up with the idea of working on a console after watching his daughter play with a Famicom

... and they almost fired its creator

Kutaragi was almost fired after it was discovered that he had secretly started working on the console. In the end, the project was approved and he kept his job.

The first games

At launch, there were eight games available. Far from what one might expect, at first there were two mahjong games, a train simulator, a driving simulator and a version of Galaxian, among others.

Their first study

The first video game development studio that Sony bought was Psygnosis in 1993.

A golden console

In 2003, Sony invited the creator of Minecraft as a VIP to its E3 conference by sending him a golden PS One.

Additional functions

The first controllers had neither joysticks nor vibration. These were added later and the controller changed its name from Dual Digital to Dial Analog, and then to Dual Shock (although this is said to be really just the name of the joysticks as such. It depends on who you ask and the perspective).

Demos were key

It was one of the first companies to launch discs with demos of different games as a promotion.

PAL and NTSC

The games were physically region-locked, so you couldn't use CD-ROMs from Europe in an American console, for example. They just wouldn't work.

The impossible game

There is a game that is impossible to complete and its home is Europe. The PAL version of Digimon World came with a bug that made it impossible to complete the game.

Compatibility

Although it may seem strange, this console was already compatible with keyboard and mouse, but it needed special adapters or peripherals with a specific output.

Watch out, it's deceiving

Although it may look flat or 2D, the PS1 logo is actually three-dimensional.

The last one

The last game released for PS1 came out in 2006

A little-known trick

Something that very few people know is that the PS1 had a secret function. If you pressed all four shoulder buttons at once, you could restore saved games that you had accidentally deleted.

A VR attempt

PS1 tried to get into virtual reality in its very early days with a device called Glastron. It was quite archaic and did quite poorly, so it was quickly abandoned.

Also with music

It was one of the first consoles to be able to play music.

The densest

The two games with the most CDs in their box were Riven and Tokimeki Memorial 2, both with 5 CDs.