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Super NES CD-ROM
Unreleased video game media format and device From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Super NES CD-ROM[1][a] (commonly abbreviated as SNES CD) was a proposed optical disc platform for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System[b] developed circa 1988–1991 involving Nintendo and Sony, with Philips joining later. The collaborations produced two related but unrealised CD-ROM projects: a CD drive add‑on for the Super NES and a Sony‑branded, Super NES-compatible standalone video game console called the PlayStation[c]. Both designs were intended to use CD‑based media for larger and more advanced games, Redbook audio and full-motion video. Negotiations collapsed in 1991; Nintendo then licensed some of its franchises to Philips for games on the CD-i, while Sony repurposed its prototype work into the PlayStation console released in 1994. Neither Super NES-based CD product was released, but the negotiations and prototypes influenced early‑1990s console strategy and Sony’s entry into the games market.
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Background and market context
Developed during the fourth generation of video games, the SNES CD initiative responded to a wider industry shift toward optical media in the late 1980s and early 1990s. CD‑based formats offered substantially greater storage capacity than cartridges, native audio CD playback and the potential for full‑motion video and richer audio; these advantages were already being exploited by contemporary CD add‑ons such as NEC's PC‑Engine CD-ROM²/TurboGrafx-CD and Sega’s Mega‑CD/Sega CD. Nintendo sought to combine cartridge‑based backward compatibility and existing SNES hardware with the advantages of CD media. Sony, who had already collaborated with Nintendo on the SNES audio subsystem, entered negotiations to bring its optical‑disc and consumer‑electronics expertise to the project.
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History
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Sony engineer Ken Kutaragi became interested in video game development after observing his daughter play games on Nintendo's Famicom video game console. Without full corporate approval, Kutaragi secretly designed the S-SMP audio chip for Nintendo’s upcoming Super NES console. At the time, Sony was uninterested in the video game business, so most of his superiors did not approve of the project, but Kutaragi received support from Sony executive Norio Ohga, who allowed the project to proceed.[4]
Encouraged by the collaboration, and convinced that CD-ROMs (which Sony had co-developed with Philips) would eventually supplant cartridges, Kutaragi proposed a CD-ROM drive for the Super NES. Although Nintendo was initially skeptical, concerned about the slow load times of CD-ROM drives of the time, it permitted Sony to begin development after Kutaragi claimed the drive would be used for multimedia purposes rather than games.[4] Development began in late 1988. The resulting project was a Sony-branded console called the PlayStation, designed to support both Super NES cartridges and a new CD-based format known as the Super Disc.
Contemporaneous plans for the Super NES CD-ROM peripheral reportedly included the integration of Argonaut Software's Super FX graphics co-processor to provide 3D acceleration. Jez San of Argonaut recalled that Nintendo and Sony initially intended for the CD add-on to incorporate the Super FX chip, which would have allowed the peripheral to run 3D graphics; San said the chip was discussed as part of early technical proposals during Super NES CD-ROM negotiations.[5]
Under Sony's proposed agreement, the company would retain control over the Super Disc format and its software licensing, as well as reap the exclusive benefits from music and movie content on the platform—areas where Sony was aggressively expanding.[6][7][8] Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi found the terms unacceptable. He was already wary of Sony who had demanded game developers to use its expensive, proprietary audio tools for the S-SMP audio chip. He was also concerned by Sony’s growing influence across music, film, and software. Yamauchi began to suspect that Nintendo was being used to advance Sony's ambitions of launching its own console. He soon began seeking an alternative partner.[8]
Turning to one of Sony's main rivals, Philips, Yamauchi dispatched Nintendo of America president Minoru Arakawa and executive Howard Lincoln to the Netherlands to negotiate a more favorable deal. As chronicled by David Sheff in his book Game Over, "[The Philips deal] was meant to do two things at once: give Nintendo back its stranglehold on software and gracefully f--k Sony."[8] Nintendo's intent to go with Phillips for the CD-ROM add-on was publicly announced two days before Consumer Electronics Show in a May 1991 Seattle Times news report.[9]
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At the Consumer Electronics Show in June 1991, Sony publicly unveiled its hybrid SNES-compatible console, the PlayStation, which supported both cartridge and CDs.[6] The next day, Nintendo revealed its partnership with Philips at the show, which came as a surprise to the audience.[10]
Negotiations between Nintendo and Sony continued, and during this period, two to three hundred PlayStation prototypes were produced,[11][12] with software development underway. In 1992, the companies reached a deal allowing Sony to produce SNES-compatible hardware, while Nintendo retained control and profit over the games. However, the strained relationship between the two firms had already taken its toll. Although Sony executives still believed that partnering with the more experienced Nintendo was the safer path, Kutaragi ultimately persuaded the company to abandon the Super NES CD-ROM and instead pursue development of a standalone console for the next-generation of video games, which would become the PlayStation in 1994.[13][14] This new console dropped compatibility with the SNES and had more powerful hardware specifications than any other consoles available at the time.
Meanwhile, Nintendo’s partnership with Philips led to the development of a different CD-ROM add-on for the Super NES, which had additional hardware such as a 32-bit coprocessor and supported a new CD format based on CD-ROM XA technology known as the Nintendo Disc (ND). However, before a single prototype could be made, Nintendo had reportedly canceled the project quietly as late as the summer of 1993.[15]
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Proposed devices
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Sony PlayStation (SFX-100)
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The PlayStation[d] was a proposed standalone console that used its own proprietary CD-ROM format designed and solely licensed by Sony known as the Super Disc[16] while retaining compatibility with Super NES Game Paks via an included cartridge slot.[17][18][19]
Prototypes
At least 200 to 300 units of the SNES-based PlayStation were produced[20] until they were scrapped in favor of the next-generation PlayStation project. All of these units bear the model number SFX-100. As of 2025[update], there have been two known examples of these units in existence.
In April 2009, an image of a Sony PlayStation prototype was surfaced by Edge magazine in their printed and online article about the original PlayStation's history, showing what the unit would have looked like.[6] Years later, it was reported in July 2015 that one of the original Sony PlayStation prototypes had been found. This prototype was reportedly abandoned by former Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Ólafur Jóhann Ólafsson during his time at Advanta.[21] A former Advanta worker, Terry Diebold, acquired the device as part of a lot during Advanta's 2009 bankruptcy auction. As shown in Benjamin Heckendorn's tear-down video of the unit in 2016, the prototype featured two Super NES controller ports, a cartridge slot, a tray-loading dual-speed CD-ROM drive, RCA composite jacks, S-Video, RFU DC OUT (similar to the PlayStation SCPH-1001), a proprietary multi-out AV output port (the same one featured on the Super NES, Nintendo 64, and GameCube), headphone jack on the front, a serial port labelled "NEXT" (probably for debugging), and one expansion port under the unit.[22][23] The system was later confirmed as operational and plays Super Famicom cartridges as well as its included test cartridge, although the audio output and CD drive were non-functional. The unit was also missing its original power supply as Diebold likely never received the original one when he got ahold of it during the Advanta bankruptcy auction, and so the system could not be powered on without it. To remedy this issue for the time being, a third-party power supply was used.[19] It came with a Sony/PlayStation-branded version of the standard Super Famicom controller (model number SHVC-005).[24]
Some groups have attempted to develop homebrew software for the console such as Super Boss Gaiden, as there were no known games to use the CD drive.[25] In March 2016, retro-gaming website RetroCollect reported that it (and influential members of online emulation communities) had received (from an anonymous source) a functional disc boot ROM for the SNES-based PlayStation.[26]
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Diebold gave the unit to hardware hacker Benjamin Heckendorn in 2016, to examine its contents. In doing this, he posted a tear-down video of the system that same year, which also included some technical specifications of the prototype that he published and compared it to the other two CD-based add-ons released for the TurboGrafx-16 and Sega Genesis. He said that the system would have probably been as powerful as a standard Super NES, but not as powerful as the Sega CD.[22][23] Heckendorn later identified faults in several on-board components which he subsequently replaced in 2017, resulting in fixing the audio and CD drive issues indirectly. To also fully resolve the missing power supply issue, Heckendorn created a custom power supply for the unit based on the original PlayStation and subsequently replaced the original power connector of the unit with the one salvaged out of a Sony Walkman to ensure that it would be powered on without the need for its original power supply. Heckendorn then showed Super Famicom (and SNES games via an adapter) working on the system and also showed audio CDs working on the system as there were no known game CDs, but affirmed that homebrew games worked.[27][28]
This prototype was auctioned by Diebold in February 2020, with an initial price of US$15,000, but the auction quickly exceeded $350,000 within two days.[29][30] It was sold for $360,000 to Greg McLemore, an entrepreneur and founder of Pets.com, who has a large collection of other video game hardware and plans to establish a permanent museum for this type of hardware.[31][32]
In March 2025, another prototype unit was found to be in Kutaragi's possession, appearing identical to that of the first known prototype unit that was discovered nearly ten years prior.[33]
Super NES CD-ROM System
The Super NES CD-ROM System[e] was a proposed CD-ROM add-on for the Super NES co-produced by Nintendo and Philips that can accept CDs while also providing some additional hardware functionality to expand upon the capabilities of the Super NES. It was developed as a result of a partnership between the two companies that occurred alongside the ongoing development of Sony's standalone SNES-based PlayStation console and the Super Disc CD-ROM format.
As with most other CD-based add-ons, it can play CD-based games as well as audio CDs via its own built-in CD drive. The add-on was designed to be used only in conjunction with a Super NES console, and attaches to the expansion port on the bottom of the main system. Unlike other CD-ROM based add-ons (and virtually most optical disc-based game consoles since), the add-on does not use a tray loading or top loading drive and instead uses a cartridge-based caddy loading drive that can accept discs placed in enclosed caddy cases. This was designed to protect the discs from damage, and was similar to that of early CD-ROM drives used in contemporary computers of the time[34] such as certain pre-1994 Macintosh computers with built-in CD drives. The add-on's CD drive would operate at both single (1x) and double (2x) speeds,[34] with the faster speed (2x) being primarily used for CD-based games while the slower speed (1x) was presumably only used for audio CDs.[17] CD-based games for the add-on would use a new CD-ROM format known as the Nintendo Disc (ND), which was developed separately from Sony's Super Disc format and was based on CD-ROM XA;[2][17] the ND format games would also be compatible with CD-i-based hardware.[34]
Because Nintendo was convinced that using CD-ROM technology with a 16-bit processor would not provide consumers with significantly enhanced and unique games, they decided to incorporate a new 32-bit RISC processor into the add-on,[35][2][17] which was reported by some analysts to be an NEC V810 clocked at 21.47727MHz.[36] This new 32-bit CPU, known as the SCCP, was to be included inside a dedicated system cartridge that contains the extra hardware dedicated for the add-on such as additional RAM, ROM, and an additional coprocessor called "HANDS" (Hyper Advanced Nintendo Data Transfer System), a custom chip based around a single 65C02 8-bit processor clocked at 4.295 MHz. HANDS primarily acts as a decoder for the add-on's CD-ROM drive, but also enhances the SNES's sound capabilities with up to four channels of audio, complimenting with the add-on's CD audio as well as the Super NES' eight-channel S-SMP audio system.[17] The system cartridge was required to run the CD-ROM add-on itself, similar in nature to the Famicom Disk System of the preceding NES (Famicom). To combat piracy, the add-on would have added a number of copy-protection measures to prevent the use of illicit copies and burned backups of ND format games.[34][17]
The technical specifications of the Super NES CD-ROM System add-on were reported as early as 1992 by Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) before publishing its specs in its March 1993 issue,[34] which were echoed in an issue of Electronic Games published in April 1993.[17] The 1993 EGM and EG issues also showed concept art for the proposed add-on unit, with the EGM issue showing the Super Famicom design and the EG issue showing the North American Super NES design. Before a single prototype could be made, however, Nintendo quietly cancelled the project a few years into the concept phase, which was reported as late as the summer of 1993.[15]
Comparison
The following table below is based on Benjamin Heckendorn's specs comparison of the first known prototype unit of Sony's jointly produced SNES-based PlayStation console as shown on July 2016.[22] The specs of the proposed Nintendo and Philips developed Super NES CD-ROM System add-on published by Electronic Gaming Monthly and Electronic Games in 1993 are also included on this table below.
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Legacy
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After the original contract with Sony failed, Nintendo continued its partnership with Philips. This contract provisioned Philips with the right to feature Nintendo's characters in a few games for its CD-i multimedia device, but never resulted in a CD-ROM add-on for the Super NES due to it being silently cancelled by Nintendo. The Nintendo-themed CD-i games were very poorly received, and the CD-i is considered a commercial failure.[37] Years later, the Nintendo-themed CD-i games have gained a cult following on the internet due to its usage in various internet memes and parodies in the 2000s, eventually engraving them into the early modern internet culture. The hand-drawn cutscenes of some Nintendo-themed CD-i games in particular were a common source of material for memes, parodies, and the like at the time.
After Nintendo left the project, Sony then continued to work on the project on their own, eventually being reworked into a standalone console that exclusively used CDs instead of cartridges and had more powerful hardware than any other consoles available at the time. It was around this time that Sony entered into a brief short-lived partnership with Sega under the agreement that both companies would share all costs and risk for the new CD-ROM drive (and ultimately the next generation console). Sega would cancel the partnership, however, claiming that Sony knew little of the industry at the time,[38] and resumed development on what would eventually become the Sega Saturn. Kutaragi however became emboldened enough from his experiences working with both Nintendo and Sega, and Sony resumed development of their own console for the next generation after leaving both companies.
The main game in development for the SNES CD platform launch was Square's Secret of Mana, whose planned content was cut down to the size suitable for cartridge and released on that medium instead.[39][40] None of the additional hardware used in the Nintendo and Philips Super NES CD-ROM add-on project ever came to fruition, however the CPU of the proposed add-on, the NEC V810, did eventually make its way into at least two other video game products: NEC and Hudson Soft's PC-FX game console released exclusively in Japan in December 1994, as well as Nintendo's own Virtual Boy 3D stereoscopic game console released in July 1995 in Japan and August 1995 in North America.
Sony released the PlayStation in December 1994 in Japan and September 1995 in North America and Europe, and soon became a major success worldwide. This next-generation CD-based console successfully competed against other CD-based consoles such as the Sega Saturn, the 3DO, and PC-FX, as well as Nintendo's cartridge-based Nintendo 64, making it a console leader. Sony had sold three times as many PlayStation consoles compared to the Nintendo 64 and the Sega Saturn in the mid-to-late 1990s, establishing Sony as a major player in the video game industry.
The broken partnership with Sony has often been cited as a mistake by Nintendo, effectively creating a formidable rival in the video game market as a consequence of Sony's and Kutaragi's shrewd determination to break into the market. Journalists have argued that if Nintendo had never broken the deal, its position may have been further undermined by Sony.[41][13] Nintendo, still convinced of the faster load times and stronger anti-piracy measures of the cartridge format, did not produce an optical disc-based console until the release of the GameCube in 2001.[14]
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See also
- Atari Jaguar CD
- Panasonic M2, initially announced as an add-on chip for the 3DO
- Satellaview
- Sega CD, a CD-ROM attachment for the Genesis
- TurboGrafx-16, the first video game console with a CD-ROM drive attachment
- Voicer-kun, an IR transmitter for the Super Famicom used to provide CD audio from an external CD player
- Super Famicom Naizou TV SF1, a Super Famicom and television combination that is a follow-up to the Sharp C1
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Notes
- Also known as the Super Nintendo, Super NES and SNES, and as the Super Famicom (SFC) in Japan
- Also known as the Play Station, PlayStation SFX-100 and sometimes incorrectly referred to as the Nintendo PlayStation; not to be confused with the retail PlayStation console released in 1994.
- This device is often incorrectly referred to as the "Nintendo PlayStation" due to its incorporation of Nintendo-compatible hardware, however it was a Sony product, designed and manufactured by said company using SNES hardware licensed by Nintendo.
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References
External links
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