PLAYSTATION4

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History of Playstation

PlayStation (often abbreviated PS, PSone or PS1, and informally as the PSX) is a 32-bit video game console of the fifth generation that was first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in December 1994.

The PlayStation was the first of the ubiquitous PlayStation series of console and hand-held game devices, which has included successor consoles and upgrades including the Net Yaroze (a special black PS with tools and instructions to program PS games and applications), PS one (a smaller version of the original), PocketStation (a handheld which enhances PS games and acts as a memory card), PlayStation 2, a revised, slimline PS2, PlayStation Portable (a handheld gaming console), a revised "PSP slim & lite", PSX (Japan only; a media center, DVR and DVD recorder based on the PS2), and PlayStation 3 (20GB, 40GB, 60GB, & 80GB). By March 31, 2005, the PlayStation and PS one had shipped a combined total of 102.49 million units, becoming the first video game console to reach the 100 million mark.

According to the book "Game Over", by David Scheff, the first conceptions of the PlayStation date back to 1986. Nintendo had been attempting to work with disc technology since the Famicom, but the medium had problems. Its rewritable magnetic nature could be easily erased (thus leading to a lack of durability), and the discs were a copyright infringement danger. Consequently, when details of CDROM/XA (an extension of the CD-ROM format that combines compressed audio, visual and computer data, allowing all to be accessed simultaneously) came out, Nintendo was interested. CD-ROM/XA was being simultaneously developed by Sony and Phillips. Nintendo approached Sony to develop a CD-ROM add-on, tentatively titled the "SNES-CD". A contract was signed, and work began. Nintendo's choice of Sony was due to a prior dealing: Ken Kutaragi, the person who would later be dubbed "The Father of PlayStation", was the individual who had sold Nintendo on using the Sony SPC-700 processor for use as the eight-channel ADPCM sound synthesis set in the Super Famicom/SNES console through an impressive demonstration of the processor's capabilities.

Sony also planned to develop another, Nintendo compatible, Sony-branded console, but one which would be more of a home entertainment system playing both Super Nintendo cartridges and a new CD format which Sony would design. This was also to be the format used in SNES-CD discs, giving a large degree of control to Sony despite Nintendo's leading position in the video gaming market.

The DualShock controller.The SNES-CD was to be announced at the June 1991 Consumer Electronics Show (CES). However, when Hiroshi Yamauchi read the original 1988 contract between Sony and Nintendo, he realized that the earlier agreement essentially handed Sony complete control over any and all titles written on the SNES CD-ROM format. Yamauchi decided that the contract was totally unacceptable and he secretly canceled all plans for the joint Nintendo-Sony SNES CD attachment. Instead of announcing a partnership between Sony and Nintendo, at 9 a.m. the day of the CES, Nintendo chairman Howard Lincoln stepped onto the stage and revealed that Nintendo was now allied with Philips, and Nintendo was planning on abandoning all the previous work Nintendo and Sony had accomplished. Lincoln and Minoru Arakawa had, unbeknown to Sony, flown to Philips headquarters in Europe and formed an alliance of a decidedly different nature—one that would give Nintendo total control over its licenses on Philips machines.

After the collapse of the joint project, Sony considered halting their research, but ultimately the company decided to use what they had developed so far and make it into a complete, stand alone console. As a result, Nintendo filed 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 and, in October 1991, the first incarnation of the new Sony PlayStation was revealed. However, it is theorized that only 200 or so of these machines were ever produced.

PlayStation Memory CardBy the end of 1992, Sony and Nintendo reached a deal whereby the "Sony Play Station" would still have a port for SNES games, but Nintendo would own the rights and receive the bulk of the profits from the games, and the SNES would continue to use the Sony-designed audio chip. However, Sony decided in early 1993 to begin reworking the "Play Station" concept to target a new generation of hardware and software. As part of this process the SNES cartridge port was dropped and the space between the names was removed.

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Prologue B.P. (Before PlayStation)
Before the release of the PlayStation, Sony had never held a large portion of the videogames market. It had made a few forays into the computer side of things, most notably in its involvement with the failed MSX chip in the early 80's, but it wasn't until the advent of CD-ROM technology that Sony could claim any market share. A joint venture with the Dutch company Philips had yielded the CD-ROM/XA, an extension of the CD-ROM format that combined compressed audio, and visual and computer data and allowed both to be accessed simultaneously with the aid of extra hardware. By the late 80's, CD-ROM technology was being assimilated, albeit slowly, into the home computer market, and Sony was right there along side it. But they wanted a bigger piece of the pie.

1988 Sony Enters The Arena
By 1988, the gaming world was firmly gripped in Nintendo's 8-bit fist. Sega had yet to make a proper showing, and Sony, although hungry for some action, hadn't made any moves of its own. Yet.
Sony's first foray into the gaming market came in 1988, when it embarked on a deal with Nintendo to develop a CD-ROM drive for the Super NES, not scheduled to be released for another 18 months. This was Sony's chance to finally get involved in the home videogame market. What better way to enter that arena than on the coat-tails of the world's biggest gaming company?

Using the same Super Disc technology as the proposed SNES drive, Sony began development on what was to eventually become the PlayStaion. Initially called the Super Disc, it was supposed to be able to play both SNES cartridges and CD-ROMs, of which Sony was to be the "sole worldwide licenser," as stated in the contract. Nintendo was now to be at the mercy of Sony, who could manufacture their own CDs, play SNES carts, and play Sony CDs. Needless to say, Nintendo began to get worried.
 

1991 Multimedia Comes Home
1991 saw the commercial release of the multimedia machine in the form of Philips' CD-I, which had initially been developed jointly by both Philips and Sony until mounting conflicts resulted in a parting of ways. Multimedia, with the current rise of the CD-ROM, was seen as the next big thing. And although the CD-I was too expensive for the mass market, its arrival cemented the CD-ROM as a medium for entertainment beyond the computer.

June 1991 Treachery At The 11th Hour
In June of 1991, at the Chicago CES (Consumer Electronics Show), Sony officially announced the Play Station (space intentional). The Play Station would have a port to play Super Nintendo cartridges, as well as a CD-ROM drive that would play Sony Super Discs. The machine would be able to play videogames as well as other forms of interactive entertainment, as was considered important at the time.
Sony intended to draw on its family of companies, including Sony Music and Columbia Pictures, to develop software. Olaf Olafsson, then chief of Sony Electronic Publishing, was seen on the set of Hook, Steven Spielberg's new Peter Pan movie, presumably deciding how the movie could be worked into a game for the fledgling Play Station. In Fortune magazine, Olafsson was quoted as saying "The video-game business...will be much more interesting (than when it was cartridge based). By owning a studio, we can get involved right from the beginning, during the writing of the movie."

By this point, Nintendo had had just about all it could take. On top of the deal signed in 1988, Sony had also contributed the main audio chip to the cartridge-based Super NES. The Ken Kutaragi-designed chip was a key element to the system, but was designed in such a way as to make effective development possible only with Sony's expensive development tools. Sony had also retained all rights to the chip, which further exaserbated Nintendo.

The day after Sony announced its plans to begin work on the Play Station, Nintendo made an announcement of its own. Instead of confirming its alliance with Sony, as everyone expected, Nintendo announced it was working with Philips, Sony's longtime rivals, on the SNES CD-ROM drive. Sony was understandably furious.

Because of their contract-breaking actions, Nintendo not only faced legal repercussions from Sony, but could also experience a serious backlash from the Japanese business community. Nintendo had broken the unwritten law that a company shouldn't turn against a reigning Japanese company in favor of a foreign one.

However, Nintendo managed to escape without a penalty. Because of their mutual involvement, it would be in the best interests of both companies to maintain friendly relations. Sony, after all, was planning a port for SNES carts, and Nintendo was still using the Sony audio chip.


1992 The Smoke Clears
By the end of 1992, most of the storm had blown over. Despite a deal penned between Sega, one of Nintendo's biggest competitors, and Sony, whereby Sony would produce software for the proposed Sega Multimedia Entertainment System, negotiations were reached with Nintendo. In October of 1992, it was announced that the two companies' CD-ROM players would be compatible. The software licensing for the proposed 32-bit machines was awarded to Nintendo, with Sony receiving only minimal licensing royalties. Nintendo had won this battle, but hadn't won the war. Not by a long shot.
The first Play Station never made it out of the factories. Apparently, about 200 were produced, and some software even made it to development. For whatever reason, whether it was because of the tough licensing deal with Nintendo, or the predicted passing of masked ROM (cartridge-based) technology, Sony scrapped its prototype. Steve Race, Sony Computer Entertainment Of America's (SCEA) then CEO, stated, "Since the deal with Nintendo didn't come to fruition we decided to put games on a back burner and wait for the next category. Generally, the gaming industry has a seven-year product life-cycle, so we bided our time until we could get in on the next cycle."

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1993 The Next Cycle
After returning to the drawing boards, Sony revealed the PS-X, or PlayStation-X. Gone was the original cartridge port, as were the plans for multimedia. Apparently, Sony had visited 3DO when Trip Hawkins was selling his hardware and had come away unimpressed, saying it was "nothing new." The PS-X was to be a dedicated game-machine, pure and simple. Steve Race said in Next Generation magazine, "We designed the PlayStation to be the best game player we could possibly make. Games really are multimedia, no matter what we want to call it. The conclusion is that the PlayStation is a multimedia machine that is positioned as the ultimate game player."
Key to Sony's battle plan was the implementation of 3D into its graphics capabilities, a move that many felt was critical to any kind of future success. At the core of the PlayStation's 3D prowess was the R3000 processor, operating at 33 Mhz and 30 MIPS (millions of instructions per second). While this may seem fairly average for a RISC CPU, it's the PlayStation's supplementary custom hardware, designed by Ken Kutaragi (who had previously designed the key audio chip for the SNES), that provides the real power. The CPU relies heavily on Kutaragi's VLSI (very large scale integration) chip to provide the speed necessary to process complex 3D graphics quickly.

The CPU is backed up by the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit), which takes care of all the data from the CPU and passes the results to the 1024K of dual-ported VRAM, which stores the current frame buffer and allows the picture to be displayed on-screen. Part of this picture involves adding special effects such as transparency and fog, something that the PlayStation excels at. This was to be the most impressive display of hardware the home gaming world had ever seen


1994 Third Party Round Up
There was no doubt that Sony could deliver the hardware. After all, Sony was one of the world's largest manufacturers of electronics. There was no denying though, that Sony was extremely green when it came to videogames. And no one knew it better than Sony.
Not wanting to end up like Atari or 3DO, Sony set about rounding up third party developers, assembling an impressive 250 developing parties in Japan alone. Sony also knew it had to gain the support of the millions of arcade-going gamers if it was to succeed. The involvement of Namco, Konami, and Williams helped ensure Sony would be able to compete with the arcade-savvy Sega on its own turf. Namco's Ridge Racer was the natural choice to be the flagship launch game, and Williams' Mortal Kombat III, previously promised to Nintendo for their Ultra 64, could be tested in the arcades using the new PS-X board.

Perhaps Sony's most controversial acquisition was the purchase of Psygnosis, a relatively unknown European developer, for $48 million. Sony needed a strong in-house development team, and Psygnosis' Lemmings seemed to point at good things. While the purchase confused many at the time, prompting vocal outcries from naysayers and competitors alike, Psygnosis has since proven them all wrong. Sony Interactive Entertainment, as Psygnosis was renamed, has been responsible for some of the PlayStation's best games, including WipeOut and Destruction Derby.

Sony's acquisition of Psygnosis yielded another fruit as well: the development system. SN Systems, co-owned by Andy Beveridge and Martin Day, had been publishing its development software through Psygnosis under the PSY-Q moniker. Sony originally had been planning on using expensive, Japanese MIPS R4000-based machines that would be connected to the prototype PS-X box. Having become accustomed to developing on the PC, Psygnosis gave Beveridge and Day first crack at creating a PlayStation development system that would work with a standard PC.

The two men worked through Christmas and New Year's, around the clock, eventually completing the GNU-C compiler and the source-level debugger. Psygnosis quickly arranged a meeting for SN and Sony at the Winter CES in Las Vegas, 1994. Fortunately, Sony liked the PSY-Q alternative and decided to work with SN Systems on cendensing the software onto two PC-compatible cards. Thus, an afordable and, more importantly, universally compatible PlayStation development station was born.

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December 3, 1994 We Have Lift Off
On December 3, 1994, the PlayStation was finally released in Japan, one week after the Sega Saturn. The initial retail cost was 37,000 yen, or about $387. Software available at launch included King's Field, Crime Crackers, and Namco's Ridge Racer, the PlayStation's first certifiable killer app. It was met with long lines across Japan, and was hailed by Sony as their most important product since the WalkMan in the late 1970's.
Also available at launch were a host of peripherals, including: a memory card to save high scores and games; a link cable, whereby you could connect two PlayStations and two TVs and play against a friend; a mouse with pad for PC ports; an RFU Adaptor; an S-Video Adaptor; and a Multitap Unit. Third party peripherals were also available, including Namco's Negcon.

The look of the PlayStation was dramatically different than the Saturn, which was beige (in Japan), bulky, and somewhat clumsy looking. In contrast, the PlayStation was slim, sleek, and gray, with a revolutionary controller that was years ahead of the Saturn's SNES-like pad. The new PSX joypad provided unheardof control by adding two more buttons on the shoulder, making a total of eight buttons. The two extended grips also added a new element of control. Ken Kutaragi realized the importance of control when dealing with 3 Dimensional game worlds. "We probably spent as much time on the joypad's development as the body of the machine. Sony's boss showed special interest in achieving the final version so it has his seal of approval." To Sony's delight, the PlayStation sold more than 300,000 units in the first 30 days. The Saturn claimed to have sold 400,000, but research has shown that number to be misleading. The PSX sold through (to customers) 97% of its stock, while many Saturns were still sitting on the shelves. These misleading numbers were to be quoted by Sega on many occasions, and continued even after the US launch.


1995 Setting Up House
By mid-1995, Sony had set its sights firmly on the United States. Sony Computer Entertainment of America was created and housed in Foster City, California, in the heart of Silicon Valley. Steve Race, formerly of Atari, was appointed as president and CEO of the new branch of Sony.
The accumulation of third party developers continued apace, with over 100 licenses in the US and 270 licenses in Japan secured. Steve Race said, "We've allowed people to come in and to play on the PlayStation - and at a much more reasonable cost than has been done in the old days with Nintendo and Sega." Sony's development strategy had paid off, with over 700 development units having been shipped out worldwide.


May 11, 1995 Victory At E3
The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) was held in Los Angeles from May 11 to 13, 1995, and was the United State's first real look at the PlayStation. Sony made a huge impression at the show with their (rumored) $4 million booth and surprise appearance by Michael Jackson. The PSX was definitely the highlight of the show, besting Sega's Saturn and Nintendo's laughable Virtual Boy.
The launch software was also displayed, with WipeOut and Namco's Tekken and Ridge Racer drawing the most praise. Sony also announced the unit would not be bundled with Ridge Racer, as was previously assumed.

Overall, Sony made a very formidable showing at E3. They had already proven themselves in Japan and were close on Sega's heels. Over the course of the next year they would overtake Sega and conquer Japan as their own. Now they were poised to do the same in America.


September 9, 1995 You Are Not Ready
The PlayStation launched in the United States on September 9, 1995 to instant success. Although it retailed for $299, that was still $100 less than the Sega Saturn. Over 100,000 units were already presold at launch, and 17 games were available. Stores reported sell-outs across the country, and sold out of many games and peripherals as well, including second controllers and memory cards.
Sony's initial marketing strategy seemed to be aimed at an older audience than the traditional 8-16 year old demographic of the past. With the tag line "U R Not E" (the "E" being red) and a rumored $40 million to spend on launch marketing, Sony swiftly positioned itself as the market leader. To further cement their audience demographic, Sony sponsored the 1995 MTV Music Awards.


Epilogue What A Year
By the US launch, Sony had sold over one million PlayStations in Japan alone. Since the US launch, as of late 1996, the PlayStation has sold over 7 million units worldwide, with close to two million of those being in the US alone. In May of 1996, Sony dropped the price of the PlayStation to $199, making it even more attractive to buy.
Like Japan, America and Europe embraced the PlayStation as their next-gen console of choice. The demographic of PlayStation owners has fallen in years steadily from twenty-somethings to the younger age bracket so coveted by Nintendo. In fact, many former Nintendo loyalists, tired of waiting for the Nintendo 64 to be released, bought PlayStations and are now happier for it. With close to 200 games available by Christmas 1996, it's easy to see why. This really is the ultimate gaming console!

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Launch
The PlayStation was launched in Japan on December 3, 1994, North America on September 9, 1995, Europe on September 29, 1995, and Oceania in November 1995. The launch price in the American market was US$299 (a price point later used by its successor, the PlayStation 2), and Sony enjoyed a very successful launch with titles of almost every genre, including Battle Arena Toshinden, Twisted Metal, Warhawk, Philosoma, and Ridge Racer. Almost all of Sony's and Namco's launch titles went on to spawn numerous sequels.[citation needed]

The PlayStation was also able to generate interest with a unique series of advertising campaigns. Many of the ads released at the time of launch were full of ambiguous content which had many gamers rabidly debating their meanings. The most well-known launch ads include the "Enos Lives" campaign, and the "U R Not e" ads (the "e" in "U R Not e" was always colored in red, to symbolize the word "ready", and the "Enos" meant "ready Ninth Of September", the U.S. launch date). The Enos ad could also be read as Sony written backward with phonetic sound of "E" replacing the "y". It is believed that these ads were an attempt to play off the gaming public's suspicion towards Sony as an unknown, untested entity in the video game market. The PlayStation 3 slogan, "PLAY B3YOND", resembles this slogan, as the 3 is red.

The PlayStation logo was designed by Ryan Harrington,[citation needed] who also designed the logo for Sony's VAIO computer products.


Titles
As of September 30, 2007, 7,978 software titles have been released worldwide (counting games released in multiple regions as separate titles).As of March 31, 2007, the cumulative software shipment was at 962 million units. The very last game for the system was FIFA Football 2005.

The OK and Cancel buttons on most of the Japanese PlayStation games are reversed in their North American and European releases. In Japan, the button (maru, right) is universally used as the OK button, while the button (batsu, wrong) is used as the Cancel one. North American and European releases have the button or the buttons as the OK button, while the or the buttons are used as the Cancel ones. However, a few games such as Squaresoft's Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy VII, and Final Fantasy Tactics, and Konami's Metal Gear Solid, have the buttons remain in the same Japanese configuration in their North American and European releases. These Japanese button layouts still apply to other PlayStation consoles, such as the PlayStation Portable (PSP), PlayStation 2 and the PlayStation 3. This is because in the early years Sony America (SCEA), Sony Europe (SCEE) and Sony Japan (SCEJ) had different development and testing documents (TRCs) for their respective territories.


Production run
Lasting over 11 years, the PlayStation enjoyed one of the longest production runs in the video game industry. On March 23, 2006, Sony announced the end of production.


Variants
Developer's kit PlayStationThe PlayStation went through a number of variants during its production run, each accompanied by a change in the part number. From an external perspective, the most notable change was the gradual reduction in the number of external connectors on the unit. This started very early on—the original Japanese launch units (SCPH-1000) had an S-Video port, which was removed on the next release. This also led to the strange situation where the US and European launch units had the same part number series (SCPH-100x) as the Japanese launch units, but had different hardware (Rev. C silicon and no S-Video port)—they were the same as the Japanese SCPH-3000, so for consistency should have been SCPH-3001 and SCPH-3002 (this numbering was used for the Yaroze machines, which were based on the same hardware and numbered DTL-H3000, DTL-H3001, and DTL-H3002). This series of machines had a reputation for CD drive problems—the optical pickup sled was made of thermoplastic, and eventually developed wear spots that moved the laser into a position where it was no longer parallel with the CD surface—a modification was made that replaced the sled with a die-cast one with hard nylon inserts, which corrected the problem.

With the release of the next series (SCPH-500x), the numbers moved back into sync. A number of changes were made to the unit internally (CD drive relocated, shielding simplified, PSU wiring simplified) and the RCA jacks and RFU power connectors were removed from the rear panel. This series also contained the SCPH-550x and SCPH-555x units, but these appear to have been bundle changes rather than actual hardware revisions.

These were followed by the SCPH-700x and SCHP-750x series—they are externally identical to the SCPH-500x machines, but have internal changes made to reduce manufacturing costs (for example, the system RAM went from 4 chips to 1, and the CD controller went from 3 chips to 1).

The final revision to the original PlayStation was the SCPH-900x series—these had the same hardware as the SCPH-750x machines with the exception of the removal of the parallel port and a slight reduction in the size of the PCB. The removal of the parallel port was probably partly because no official add-on had ever been released for it, and partly because it was being used to connect cheat cartridges that could be used to defeat the copy prevention.

The PS one was based on substantially the same hardware as the SCPH-750x and 900x, but had the serial port removed, the controller / memory card ports moved to the main PCB and the power supply replaced with a DC-DC converter that was also on the main PCB.

With the early units, many gamers experienced skipping full-motion video or dreaded physical "ticking" noises coming from their PlayStations. The problem appears to have come from poorly placed vents leading to overheating in some environments—the plastic moldings inside the console would warp very slightly and create knock-on effects with the laser assembly. The solution was to ensure the console was sat on a surface which dissipated heat efficiently in a well vented area, or raise the unit up slightly by propping something at its edges. A common fix for already affected consoles was to turn the PlayStation sideways or upside-down (thereby using gravity to cancel the effects of the warped interior) although some gamers smacked the lid of the PlayStation to make a game load or work.

Sony then released a version dubbed "Dual Shock", which included a controller with 2 analog sticks and a built in force-feedback feature.

Another version that was colored blue (as opposed to regular console units that were grey in color) was available to game developers and select press. Later versions of this were colored green—on a technical level, these units were almost identical to the retail units, but had a different CD controller in them that did not require the region code found on all pressed disks, since they were intended to be used with CD-R media for debugging. This also allowed the use of discs from different regions, but this was not officially supported; different debug stations existed for each region. The two different color cases were not cosmetic—the original blue debug station (DTL-H100x, DTL-H110x) contained "Revision B" silicon, the same as the early retail units (these units had silicon errata that needed software workarounds), the green units (DTL-H120x) had Rev. C hardware. As part of the required tests, the user had to test the title on both. Contrary to popular belief, the RAM was the same as the retail units at 2 MB. The firmware was nearly identical—the only significant change was that debug printf()s got sent to the serial port if the title didn't open it for communications—this used a DTL-H3050 serial cable (the same as the one used for the Yaroze).

A white version was also produced that had the ability to play VCDs—this was only sold in Asia, since that format never really caught on anywhere else. From a developer perspective, the white PSX could be treated exactly like any other NTSC:J PlayStation.

The PS1 with a model number of SCPH-1001 has been reported to be a very good sounding compact disc player rivaling audiophile CD players from high end audio manufacturers.


Hacks
A number of these units appeared on the secondary market and were popular because they would run games from any region and CD-R copies, which tended to result in them commanding high prices. All the blue units tend to have CD problems, but the DTL-H110x units (with an external PSU block) are significantly more reliable than the original DTL-H100x ones.


"Chipped" consoles
The installation of a modchip allowed the PlayStation's capabilities to be expanded, and several options were made available. By the end of the system's life cycle almost anyone with minimal soldering experience was able to realize the modification of the console. Such a modification allowed the playing of games from other regions, such as PAL titles on a NTSC console, or allowed the ability to play copies of original games without restriction. Modchips allow the playing of games recorded on a regular CD-R. This created a wave of games developed without official approval using free GNU compiler tools, as well as the reproduction of original discs. With the introduction of such devices the console was very attractive to programmers and illegal copiers alike.

Anyone seeking to create copies of games that would work correctly faced several issues at the time, as the discs that were produced by Sony were designed to be difficult to copy — and impossible to copy on recordable media. Discs were manufactured with a black-colored plastic, transparent only to the infrared radiation used by the CD-ROM drive's laser. This was found to offer little protection. Additionally, the discs were mastered with a specific wobble in the lead-in area. This wobble encodes a four-character sequence which is checked by the CD-ROM drive's controller chip. The drive will only accept the disc if the code is correct. This string varies depending on the region of the disk—"SCEI" for NTSC:J machines, "SCEA" for NTSC:U/C machines, "SCEE" for PAL machines and "SCEW" for the Net Yaroze. Since the tracking pattern is pressed into the disc at the time of manufacture, this cannot be reproduced on a CD-R recorder. Some companies (notably Datel) did manage to produce discs that booted on unmodified retail units, but this required special equipment and can only be done with "pressed" discs. However, inexpensive modchips were created that simply injected the code to the appropriate connections to the controller chip, which provided an easy way of bypassing these measures. The other issue is that most PC drives used Mode 1 or Mode 2/Form 1 (2048 bytes/sector) and the PSX uses a mixed-mode format with most data in Mode 2/Form 1 and streaming audio/video data in Mode 2/Form 2, which most CD-R drives at the time could not handle well. Newer drives were able to correctly handle these variations.

The creation and mass-production of these inexpensive modchips, coupled with their ease of installation, marked the beginning of widespread console videogame copyright infringement. Coincidentally, CD-ROM burners were made available around this time. Prior to the PlayStation, the reproduction of copyrighted material for gaming consoles was restricted to either enthusiasts with exceptional technical ability, or others that had access to CD manufacturers. With this console, amateurs could replicate anything Sony was producing for a mere fraction of the MSRP.


Net Yaroze
A version of the PlayStation called the Net Yaroze was also produced. It was more expensive than the original PlayStation, colored 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. Programmers were also limited by the 2 MB of total game space that Net Yaroze allowed. That means the entire game had to be crammed into the 2 MB of system RAM. The amount of space may seem small, but games like Ridge Racer ran entirely from the system RAM (except for the streamed music tracks). It was unique in that it was the only officially retailed Sony PlayStation with no regional lockout; it would play games from any territory. It would not however play CDR discs, so it was not possible to create self-booting Yaroze games without a modified Playstation.
 

PS one
The PS one (also PSone, PSOne, or PS1), launched in 2000, is Sony's smaller (and redesigned) version of its PlayStation video game console. The PS one is about one-half times smaller than the original PlayStation (38 mm × 193 mm × 144 mm versus 45 mm × 260 mm × 185 mm). It was released in July 7, 2000,[13] and went on to outsell all other consoles—including Sony's own brand-new PlayStation 2—throughout the remainder of the year. Sony also released a small LCD screen and an adaptor to power the unit for use in cars. The PS one is fully compatible with all PlayStation software. The PlayStation is now officially abbreviated as the "PS1" or "PS one." There were three differences between the "PS one" and the original, the first one being cosmetic change to the console, the second one was the home menu's Graphical User Interface, and the third being added protection against the mod-chip by changing the internal layout and making previous-generation mod-chip devices unusable. The PS one also lacks the original PlayStation's parallel and serial ports. The serial port allowed multiple consoles to be connected for multiplayer or for connecting a console to debugging software. The parallel port could be used for development, an external cheat cartridge or a mod-chip, which may have been why it was removed,[citation needed] although size constraints are most likely to blame.


Successors

PlayStation 2Sony's successor to the PlayStation is the PlayStation 2, which is backward compatible with its predecessor in 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 a 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 hard drive). Like its predecessor, the PlayStation 2 is based on hardware developed by Sony themselves.

The third generation of the PlayStation is known as the PlayStation 3, or PS3, and was launched on November 11, 2006 in Japan, November 17, 2006 in North America, and March 23, 2007 in Europe. The PlayStation 3 is backward compatible with nearly all games that were originally made for PlayStation 1. In PAL territories and later shipments in North America and Japan, however, the PlayStation 3 lacks some of the backwards compatibility hardware and so supports significantly fewer PlayStation 2 games. However, the list of compatible games is being increased via software emulation. PS3 games will not be region-locked, but PlayStation 1 and 2 games still only play on a PS3 console from the same territory.

The PlayStation Portable (officially 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 the UMD format. Nevertheless, at the PlayStation Briefing conference on March 15, 2006 in Japan, Sony revealed plans for PlayStation 1 games to be downloaded and playable on the PSP through emulation. Sony hopes to release nearly all PlayStation 1 games on a gradual basis; however, as of late December 2006, a custom firmware release allows users to play PS1 image files converted into the PSP's EBOOT format.


Legacy
The success of the PlayStation is widely believed to have influenced the demise of the cartridge-based home console. While not the first system to utilize an optical disc format, it was the first success story, and ended up going head-to-head with the last major home console to rely on proprietary cartridges—the Nintendo 64.

Nintendo was very public about its skepticism toward using CDs and DVDs to store games, citing longer load times and durability issues. It was widely speculated that the company was even more concerned with copyright infringement, given its substantial reliance on licensing and exclusive titles for its revenue.

The increasing complexity of games (in content, graphics, and sound) pushed cartridges to their storage limits and this fact began to turn off third party developers. Also, CDs were appealing to publishers due to the fact that they could be produced at a significantly lower cost and offered more flexibility (it was easy to change production to meet demand). In turn, they were able to pass the lower costs onto consumers. One major industry disadvantage of CDs was illegal copying due to the advent of CD burners and mod chips. However, this ironically became a selling point of the PlayStation. The PlayStation's production was discontinued on March 23, 2006.


Advertisement controversy
To celebrate the ten-year anniversary of the PlayStation in 2005, Sony Italy released an advertisement portraying a young man wearing a crown of thorns (the thorns being made of , , and symbols, the labels on the buttons of PlayStation controllers), on his head. The ad was captioned with "Dieci anni di passione" (in English, this translates to "Ten years of passion"). The ad, assumed to be a takeoff of Mel Gibson's 2004 movie The Passion of the Christ, was met with outrage from the Vatican. Sony apologized and removed the advertisement.


Quality of construction
The first batch of PlayStations used a KSM-440AAM laser unit whose case and all movable parts were completely made out of plastic. Over time, friction caused the plastic tray to wear out—usually unevenly. The placement of the laser unit close to the power supply accelerated wear because of the additional heat, which made the plastic even more vulnerable to friction. Eventually, the tray would become so worn that the laser no longer pointed directly at the CD and games would no longer load. Sony eventually fixed the problem by making the tray out of die-cast metal and placing the laser unit farther away from the power supply on later models of the PlayStation.

A common, but temporary, fix to the laser problem was to tip the PlayStation on its side. This made the tray "hang" perpendicular to the CD, allowing the PlayStation to read the disc. Unfortunately, friction would continue to wear down the plastic tray and, eventually, the PlayStation would not read the disc.

Some units, particularly the early 100x models, would be unable to play FMV or music correctly, resulting in skipping or freezing. In more extreme cases the PlayStation would only work correctly when used upside down.
 

PS4 SPY