The world’s only known Nintendo PlayStation could be yours — for over $ 15,000, Ars Technica

                                                             Comes with everything seen here.                                                                                                        Heritage Auctions                                                      

                                                             We don’t suggest buying this incredibly expensive device and then hooking it up to a TV, but if you feel so inclined, here’s confirmation that it works the same as a Super Famicom.                                                                                                        Heritage Auctions                                                                   

                                                             A detailed zoom on the back of the RAM cartridge, which is required to get the CD-ROM unit to work. (Even with this plugged in, it doesn’t really work as intended.)                                                                                                        Heritage Auctions                                                                   

                                                             Say “hello!” to the Nintendo PlayStation, as seen at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo.                                                                                                        Sam Machkovech                                                                   

                                                             Original owner Terry Diebold pointed out that the Nintendo PlayStation controller’s jack had a Sony logo printed into it …                                                                                                        Sam Machkovech                                                                   

                                                             … even though the controller itself has a Nintendo logo printed into it.                                                                                                        Sam Machkovech                                                                   

                                                             Let’s put the RAM cartridge in, then.                                                                                                        Sam Machkovech                                                                   

                                                                                            Nope. No dice. This is the best error message that the Diebolds and Ben Heck found after hacking away at the system’s components for some time.                                                                                                        Sam Machkovech                                                                                                                    Note the colored boxes on the corners of the Super Disc start-up screen. Those are the same as the Super Famicom’s iconic four-color spread.                                                                                                        Sam Machkovech                                                                                                                    Thanks to laser diode issues, this continues to be the only error message seen upon placing a CD into the Nintendo PlayStation.                                                                                                        Sam Machkovech                                                                                                                    Top of the system. The Diebolds would have to carve into the top of the unit to get American cartridges to fit, but the cartridges do work.                                                                                                        Sam Machkovech                                                                                                                                                        Buttons.                                                                                                        Sam Machkovech                                                      ( , the fabled “Nintendo PlayStation” turned out to be a real thing , discovered in an estate sale of all places. After a whirlwind, five-year world tour, this incredibly rare, one-of-a-kind device’s handlers have had enough — they are putting it up for sale. As of press time, the Heritage Auctions listing is up to a bid of $ , , with 591 days to go. An enclosed photo gallery confirms that this is indeed the same Nintendo PlayStation that (I was lucky to go hands-on with in , complete with ugly-yet-expected yellowing of its exterior plastic body (owing to its flame-retardant materials’ oxidization over time). We’ve written a lot about this Nintendo PlayStation over the years, and for good reason. As the only known version of this hardware in existence, it’s the gaming world’s rarest console, if not the rarest item altogether. There’s also the added romance of it representing the (final) cooperation between Nintendo and Sony before their plans for a Super Nintendo CD-ROM system fell apart over licensing deals. (Sony previously built the incredible, sample-based sound system built into every SNES console.) I encourage anyone unfamiliar with this Nintendo PlayStation system to review our previous coverage . Yet this week’s new auction listing manages to unearth some information we’ve never printed in an Ars article: its detailed origin story. Before now, we’d only heard pieces of its backstory. As the listing states: At one time, this particular unit was owned by the founder, first president, and first chief executive officer of Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. Olaf Olafsson. Olaf eventually left Sony to join Advanta Corporation, and became its president in . A little over a year later, Olaf left Advanta to join Time Warner — but he left his Nintendo PlayStation prototype behind at Advanta. Roughly around this time, Advanta filed for bankruptcy and began gathering up everything in their corporate office to sell at auction. As the story goes, the Nintendo PlayStation prototype was grouped together with some miscellaneous items that [were] boxed up with a group lot, the contents of which were veiled. A nice Easter egg for the winning bidder, indeed! The listing also claims an exact production count of prototype Nintendo PlayStation consoles, along with the allegation that the other 653 have yet to be discovered. (By the end of this auction’s bidding war, it might be cheaper to investigate thousands of other estate sales and storage units in hopes of another discovery than to place the winning bid.) Missing from the description is the exact working state of the Nintendo PlayStation. In good news, it will load standard Super Famicom cartridges with no trouble, and its included “data cartridge” will communicate with the system in an effort to boot compatible CD-ROMs. However, despite efforts to beat the system into true CD-loading shape, even prestigious hackers like Ben Heck couldn’t pull it off Anyone interested in placing a bid shouldn’t expect to code and boot prototype software

via this console’s working CD-ROM drive. And, yes, allow me to beat the comment section to uttering this classic Indiana Jones quote: it belongs in a museum. In the gaming sector, we know of a few .          (Listing image by) Heritage Auctions                                         

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