Playstation

Video Game console of the is a fifth generation, produced by Sony Computer Entertainment in the middle of the Années 1990. PlayStation original was the first machine of the PlayStation range, declined then with the Net Yaroze, the PSone (a version smaller and lighter than the original one), PocketStation, the PlayStation 2, the Slim PS2 (a lighter version of the PlayStation 2), the PlayStation Portable, PSX (in Japan only), and the PlayStation 3.

The May 18th 2004, is nearly ten years after its launching, Sony announced to have distributed 100 million consoles in the world. On the whole, nearly a billion PlayStation plays were distributed.

History

Development

The first designs of PlayStation go back to 1986. Nintendo had worked on the support of the Disquette S with the Famicom, but of the problems occurred. Its rewriteable magnetic nature could easily be unobtrusive (thus causing a consequent fall of durability), and the discs were exposed to the danger of the hacking. Consequently, when the details of the CDROM/XA (an extension of format CD-ROM which combines audio formats compressed and visual data, allowing them to reach it simultaneously) appeared, Nintendo was interested. The CDROM/XA was developed simultaneously by Sony and Philips. Nintendo asked at Sony to develop an additional module for CD-ROM, under the name of " SNES-CD". An agreement was signed, and work started. The choice of Sony by Nintendo was due to a person: Ken Kutaragi, the person who was going soon to be called " The Father of PlayStation" , which sold at Nintendo the processor Sony SPC-700 which allowed a synthesis of its ADPCM 8 channels in the Super Famicom/SNES, and the latter showed thanks to this processor of the impressive audio capacities for the time.

Sony planned also the development of a console under its own name but compatible with Nintendo, consistent in a system of leisure allowing to play Super Nintendo at the same time with the cartridges and as with a new format CD as Sony wanted to create. It would be the format used in discs SNES-CD, making it possible at Sony to integrate the market of the video game, with the detriment of the domination of Nintendo.

In 1989, the SNES-CD was about to be announced with THESE of the month of June. However, when Hiroshi Yamauchi read the original contract of 1988 between Sony and Nintendo, it realized that the last agreement granted at Sony the possession of all plays on format SNES-CD. Yamauchi was furious; considering the completely unacceptable contract, it secretly cancelled all the plans of association between Sony and Nintendo for the SNES-CD. Indeed, instead of announcing their association the day of THESE, the president of Nintendo Howard Lincoln is ridden on the scene and revealed that they were now in partnership with Philips, and that it was expected that all common work between Nintendo and Sony was going to be abandoned. Lincoln and Minoru Arakawa went to the head office of Philips to Europe, without informing Sony of them, and formed an alliance of a completely different nature: an alliance which would give the total capacity at Nintendo on its licenses on the machines of Philips.

The advertisement of THESE was a true shock. Not only it was an enormous surprise (Sony had just decided, the night before, of the name of the joint project under the mark " Play Station"), but that was perceived by much in the community of the Japanese businesses like a fatal treason: a Japanese company snobant another Japanese company in favor of a European firm was absolutely unthinkable.

After the collapse of the joint project, Sony thought of stopping research, but finally, the company decided to re-use all that had been developed in common with Nintendo to make a console with whole share of it. This decision justified Nintendo to continue Sony for rupture of Contrat in front of the federal court of the United States, and tried to obtain a prohibition of marketing Play Station, with as argumentation that Nintendo had the rights of the name. The federal judge finally refused prohibition. Thus, in October 1991, the first model of the news " Sony Play Station" was revealed; in theory, approximately 200 machines of this type were only produced.

With the end of the year 1992, Sony and Nintendo found an agreement so that the " Sony PlayStation" can have a specific connector industry for plays SNES, but Nintendo wanted to keep the rights of its plays to keep the profits resulting from their sales. However, at this time there, Sony realized that the technology of the SNES started to show its limits, and that the new generation of consoles was about to be born: work began beginning 1993 to renew the concept of the " Play Station" to target the new generation of software and hardware; consequently, port SNES was withdrawn, space between the two words was removed, and PlayStation had been born.

Launching

PlayStation was launched to the Japan the December 3rd 1994, the September 9th 1995 with the the United States, the September 29th 1995 in Europe, and Oceania in November 1995. In America, Sony benefitted from a successful launch with titles of all the kinds like Battle Arena Toshinden , Twisted Metal , Warhawk , Philosoma , Wipeout and Ridge Racer . Almost all the titles between Sony and Namco with launching gave place to continuations.

Introductory price in the United States: 299 $, a price reached by its successeur.
Introductory price in France: 2099 FF (320 €) .

Plays

The most known titles on PlayStation are especially Castlevania: Symphony off the Night , Crash landing Bandicoot , Final Fantasy , Gran Turismo , Metal GEAR Solid , Parasite Eve , Resident Evil , Silent Hill , Spyro the Dragon , Tony Hawk' S Pro Skater , Tekken , Tomb Raider , and Wipeout . The very last play produced on PlayStation was FIFA Football 2005 . In September 2006 concerned video, 7.902 titles left in the world (by counting the same plays left under a different name in another continent) with sales cumulated plays rising to 961 million units. The PlayStation logo was created by Manabu Sakamoto, which also drew the logo of the computers Sony VAIO .

Production

After more than eleven years of distribution, PlayStation was pleased to have one with longest times of production for a console of the industry of the video game. The March 23rd 2006, Sony announced the end of the production.

Alternatives

The first new version beginning 1996 was a revision of the first model, produced in answer of the complaints concerning the overheating of the consoles. Sony did not change the technical sides nor stylistics but just withdrew the Prise RCA after Japanese launching. The parallel Port (which was often unutilised by Sony) was also withdrawn to reduce the production costs. Sony also slightly improved the laser of reading.

Many players noticed that certain kinematics were omitted or that noises of rattling came from their PlayStation. The problem came from the ventilators badly placed, which caused overheatings in certain cases — the plastic inside the console became deformed very slightly and typed while clicking on the assemblies of the laser. The solution was to place the console in a fresh place and aired well, or then to put PlayStation in height. An easy way for the already affected consoles was to turn over PlayStation on the side or to back (so gravity mitigated the effects of the deformed interior), although some players changed the lid of PlayStation to make function a play.

This problem was often found on the PlayStation 2 of the first generations in the form of the very famous message “Error during the reading of the disc”. However, the problem of the PS2 is not caused in the majority of the cases by overheating — but by the short duration of life of certain lasers used in the first models, as well as the tendency of the PS2 to accumulate dust in its hull.

Sony thus sold a new named version " Dual Shock" , which included a lever with two analogical sticks and a function of vibration.

Another version was PlayStation blue (different from the usual consoles which was gray) which was only intended for the developers and the press. The following versions of this PlayStation were coloured in Contrairement green to the general opinion, the RAM was not 4 megabytes but many 2 megabytes standard. The console included an emulator CD-ROM connected to a PC. It was thus possible to make still function plays under development without the use of a regional code (which would be rejected by PlayStation normal, following the example pirated plays). Some of these consoles were put on sale on doubtful networks, at very high prices.

A white version was also produced to read VCD. The installation of a Modchip made it possible PlayStation to have advanced functionalities, and much of options were available. About the period of end-of-life of the console, almost no matter who could, with a simple welding, to carry out a modification of the console. These modifications made it possible to play plays NTSC on a console STAKE (thus to exceed the restriction of the regional code), or then to be able to play illegal copies of plays without problem. The Modchip S made it possible to play plays engraved on virgin CD-ROMs. That generated a wave of plays created with Compilateur S GNU, as well as the illegal reproduction of original plays. With the introduction of such devices, the console became very attractive at the same time with the eyes of the Programmeur S and with the eyes of the pirate .

The individuals who insisted to copy plays that they wanted to play as the original versions encountered several problems at the same time, considering the discs manufactured by Sony were not easily copiables. Not only the original discs Sony have a specific black color, but they also contained empty sectors of data which prohibited their copy. The console was supposed not to read the discs without this black color, and these voluntarily virgin spaces of memory. Sometimes, the discs with black face containing of the empty sectors were impossible to recopy with the usual software, and the copies were useless without modification of the console. The software of copies of CD profited from new functions like " To be unaware of the bad secteurs" , and combined with the modifications of consoles solved the problems, and allowed the general public to use all the wanted discs, as from the moment when the chip of modification was installed in their console.

Creation and the mass production of these chips at very low price, coupled with their facility of installation, marked truly the beginning of the hacking of the video games. In parallel, the engravers of CD-ROM became easily available.

Net Yaroze

A version of PlayStation named Net Yaroze was also produced. It was more expensive than first PlayStation, black instead of the usual gray, and most important is that it was delivered with tools and guides which made it possible a person to program plays and applications for PlayStation without having a complete continuation of developer, which was much more expensive (and which was available only to the certified developers). The Net Yaroze included not all tools of a complete continuation. It is impossible to use the functionality vibrator as well as the decoder MPEG. Net Yaroze was only PlayStation marketed not to be zonée.

PSone

The PSone (also PSOne , PS one , or PS1 ), launched in 2000, is PlayStation first of the smaller name (and redrawn). It is approximately a third smaller than her big sister (38 mm × 193 mm × 144 mm against 45 mm × 260 mm × 185 mm). It left in September 2000. Sony also left a screen LCD and an adapter cigar-lighter to use the console in the car. PSOne is entirely compatible with the plays of PlayStation. PlayStation is now shortened under the names " PS1" or " PSone" , although certain people still call it " PS" or " PSX". There were three differences between the " PSone" and the original one, the first being a new esthetics, the second a change of the interface of the welcome menu, and the third the addition of a protection against the Modchip S by changing the internal circuits and while returning the modchips of old unusable generations. PSOne does not integrate either any more the port series original into PlayStation, which made it possible several consoles to be connected for a play multijouor on several television sets, or for an external modchip (it is perhaps the reason of the removal of the port, unless they are not constraints concerning the size).

List models of PlayStation

August 1st

(1) The last figure depends on the area. The countries using the system STAKE (Europe, Australia and New Zealand) have the area " 2" , therefore the sold consoles have as a serial number for example, SCPH-9002. The countries using the system NTSC (Japan and America) have the numbers of area " 0" , " 1" and " 3" , and all the models ending in these numbers are models NTSC. (2) Texts of the buttons " Power" and " Open" are replaced by symbols.

Anecdotes

• the buttons " OK" and " Annuler" in the majority of the plays of Japanese origin are reversed in their American and European versions. In Japan, the button Rond ( maru , truth) is universally used like button OK, while the button Croix ( batsu , forgery) is used like the button to cancel. The American and European versions generally use the Croix button like button OK and the other buttons (Square, Rond, Triangle) to cancel. However, certain plays like Gran Turismo of Polyphony DIGITAL, Vagrant Story , Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy Tactics of Public garden Co. (now Public garden Enix), Metal GEAR Solid of Konami, does not have the reversed order of the buttons and thus has the original Japanese configuration. These Japanese configurations still apply to certain plays of the new consoles, like the PlayStation Portable and the PlayStation 2.

Successors

The first successor of PlayStation is the PlayStation 2, which is rétrocompatible with its predecessor, in the direction where it can read all the PlayStation plays almost. That was possible by integrating the majority of the components of first PlayStation in the second. Contrary to the emulator S on PC, PlayStation 2 contains the original processor of PlayStation, making it possible the plays to go exactly as on first PlayStation. For the plays PlayStation 2, this processor, called IOP , is used for the entries and the exits (the memory cards, the Lecteur DVD, the adapter network, and the Hard drive). Like its predecessor, the PlayStation 2 is based on components manufactured by Sony.

The new generation of PlayStation is known with the PlayStation 3, or PS3, and was launched in November 2006 with the the United States and the Japan, and the 23 March 2007 in Europe. Sony announced that the PlayStation plays and PlayStation 2 will be also rétrocompatibles on the PlayStation 3. The plays PlayStation 3 coming from Sony will not be zones, but the PlayStation plays and PlayStation 2 could be playable only on one console of the same territory.

The PlayStation Portable (officially PSP) is a portable Game console which left in December 2004 to the Japan, in March 2005 with the the United States and in September 2005 in Europe. In spite of the name, it is not compatible with the PlayStation plays; it can make turn only of the plays specifically developed for it on a support called UMD. However, with the conference " PlayStation Briefing" who was held the March 15th 2006 in Japan, there Sony announced its plan to be able to download plays PlayStation 1 and of being able to play on its PlayStation Portable. Sony hopes to be able to sell the totality of the PlayStation plays in a gradual way. However, fine December 2006, a special Firmware makes it possible to the users to convert their PlayStation plays with format PSP EBOOT.

The success of PlayStation is also one of the causes of the end of the support cartouche. Although it is not the first console to use a format of optical disk, it was the first success story , and was found in face-to-face discussion gaining against the last Game console of living room to use the support cartouche - the Nintendo 64. Nintendo waited a long time before using supports CD and DVD like support, by using arguments like longer times of loading and of the problems of durability.

Publicity

PlayStation was also able to generate an interest with single publicity campaigns. Many were publicities of launching being filled of mysterious contents with the result that the players sought their significance. The most famous countryside was nevertheless the countryside " E nos Lives" (in French " Enos saw "), and publicities " U R Not E " (in French " you are not E , and the " E" in " U R Not E " was always coloured in red (English red), to symbolize the word " ready" , and the " E nos" wanted to say " ready NR inth O F S eptember" , in French " Ready for on September 9th " , the American coming out date). Enos publicity can also be read with the phonetic noise of the " E" English replacing the " y" English (what gives red E , which after gives ready ). It is estimated that these publicities were an attempt to pass in addition to the suspicions of the public, in order to regard Sony as an unknown entity and ever seen on the market of the video game.

The American slogan of the PlayStation 3, " PLAY B 3 YOND" (" Beyond the play "), resembles the original slogan, because the 3 is red.

To celebrate the ten years of existence of PlayStation in 2005, Sony Italy created a Publicité showing an young man carrying a crown with peaks (the peaks were made of Triangle S, of Carré S, round S and cross, the symbols of the Manette S PlayStation), on its head. Publicity was accompanied by the message " Dieci anni di impassions " (In French " Ten years of passion "). This publicity, making think of film very discussed Mel Gibson the Passion of Christ , was received like an insult with the the Vatican. Sony presented its excuses and immediately stopped its diffusion.

Quality of manufacture

The Laser of the Lecteur CD integrated into the first units was built around a plastic plate which slipped on metal rails. With time, the friction caused an exit of the plate, often unequal. Sometimes, the plate was raised so much that the laser did not point CD directly any more and the discs could not be read any more. Sony solved the problem by changing metal used to make slide the plate.

A solution (only temporary) to solve the problem of the laser was to put PlayStation in an unusual position (on the side or with back). That put the plate perpendicular to CD, making it possible PlayStation to read the disc. Unfortunately, the friction continued to damage the plastic plate, and finally, PlayStation did not read any more the disc.

Certain units could not read the Cinématique S correctly, causing blockings ( freeze ) or omissions ( skip ). In extreme cases, PlayStation functioned correctly only when it was turned over.

Specifications

Principal processor

Chip with Architecture MIPS compatible R3000A (R3051) 32 bits RISC turning with 33,8688 MHz

The chip is manufactured by LSI Logic with technologies belonging to Silicon Graphics. The chip contains the Geometry Transformation Engine ( Moteur of transformation of geometry ) and the Data Decompression Engine ( Moteur of decompression of data ).

Functions:

• Computing power of 30 MIPS

• Band-width Bus to 132 Mbit/s
• Cache of instruction of 4 KB
• Mémoire hiding place of 1 KB (nonassociative, just 1024 bytes of SRAM)

Engine of transformation of geometry

This engine is included in the principal Processeur. That brings vectorial mathematical instructions used for the graphics 3D.

Functions:

• computing power of 66 MIPS;

• 360.000 Polygon S crudes a second;
• 180.000 Polygon S textured and lit a second.

Sony officially announced the account of the polygons with:

• 1,5 million Polygon S crudes a second;
• 500.000 Polygon S textured and lit a second.

These figures were given for a use under optimal conditions, and are thus unrealistic under normal conditions.

Engine of decompression of data

This engine is also integrated in the processor. It is charged to decompress the audio and video contents. The device can decode three macroblocs encodés in RLE of size 16×16, and can make turn a TCD like assembling a macrobloc of size 16×16 in RVB. The external data can be transferred via a Direct access with the memory. It is possible to rewrite a matrix in additional TCD and several parameters, however the internal instruction set MDEC forever documented.

Functions:

• compatibility with MJPEG and the files H.261;

• computing power of 80 MIPS;
• directly connected to the Bus of the processor.

Graphics processor

This chip is separated from the processor and takes care of all graphics in 2D, which include the transformations of the polygons 3D.

Functions:

• maximum of 16,7 million colors;

• resolutions of 256×224 with 640×480 pixels;
• frame adjustable buffer ;
• unlimited tables of consultation of color;
• maximum depth of color of 24 bits;
• maximum of 4000 sprites 8×8 pixels with scale and individual rotation;
• emulation of simultaneous funds (for the Run);
• flat shade or Gouraud, and texture-mapping.

Processor sound

Functions:

• can support the sources ADPCM to 24 channels and 44,1 Khz of Fréquence.

Memory

• principal RAM: 2 Mo;
• RAM video: 1 Mo;
• RAM sound: 512 KB;
• memory CD-ROM: 32 KB;
• system of calculation of the ROMANIAN: 512 KB;
• the memory cards PlayStation have 128 KB of space in a EEPROM.

Reader CD-ROM

Functions:

• double speed, with a speed of transfer of information of 300 ko/s;
• XA conforms to Mode 2;
• CD-DA (Audio Cd-DIGITAL).

See too

• List of plays PlayStation
• Net Yaroze
• List of plays to the launching of video game consoles

; References

• FAQ rec.games.video.sony

Simple: PlayStation Zh-yue: PlayStation

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