SNES-CD

The Super NES CD-ROM (commonly abbreviated as SNES CD) was a series of unreleased devices developed in the early 1990s that would have added CD-ROM capabilities to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The project was conceived as an add-on device for the Super NES as well as a dedicated all-in-one unit, all of which would support playback of CDs. Games would also be stored on the medium, using two distinct formats based on CD-ROM.

Nintendo collaborated with Sony to develop the project, which led to the development of an all-in-one unit known as the PlayStation that was capable of playing both Super NES cartridges and a new CD-based format named the ''Super Disc''. The two companies worked on the project until Nintendo collaborated with Sony's competitor, Philips, to work on the project as well, with that particular partnership leading to the development of an add-on for the Super NES that can accept CDs and used a different format for storing games on a CD-ROM. Ultimately, both projects fell short due to licensing disputes over the Nintendo and Sony collaboration as well as Nintendo silently canceling the proposed add-on device for their partnership with Philips.

The fallout of these cancellations had lasting consequences for Nintendo, Sony and Philips. After Nintendo left the partnership with Sony in favor of Philips, Sony continued to develop the project on their own, which led to the development of a brand-new console for the next generation of video game consoles that became known as the PlayStation in 1994, with the new console solidifying Sony's place in the video game industry. On the other hand, Philips was gained the rights to use a few of Nintendo's properties in their games for the CD-i platform after Nintendo silently cancelled the jointly produced add-on under their partnership midway through its development before a single prototype was even made; the Nintendo-themed CD-i games were poorly received and the CD-i as a whole was considered a failure.

After leaving both partnerships, Nintendo would not revisit the concept of optical disc-based media for their consoles again until 2001 with the release of the GameCube that year, which was the successor to its cartridge-based Nintendo 64.

History

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.

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. 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''.

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. 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.

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'', " he Philips dealwas meant to do two things at once: give Nintendo back its stranglehold on software and gracefully f--k Sony."

At the Consumer Electronics Show in June 1991, Sony publicly unveiled its hybrid SNES-compatible console, the ''PlayStation'', which supported both cartridge and CDs. The following day, Nintendo revealed its partnership with Philips at the show, which surprised the audience, including Sony.

Negotiations between Nintendo and Sony continued, and during this period, two to three hundred PlayStation prototypes were produced, 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 next-generation console, the PlayStation, which would later become a smash hit upon its initial release in Japan in late 1994.

Meanwhile, Nintendo’s partnership with Philips led to development of a different CD-ROM add-on for the Super NES, which included additional hardware such as a 32-bit coprocessor and supported a new CD format known as the ''Nintendo Disc'' (ND), based on CD-ROM XA technology. However, the add-on was quietly canceled before a prototype was even produced, with the cancellation being reported as late as the summer of 1993.

Super NES CD-ROM System

The Super NES CD-ROM System was a proposed CD-ROM add-on for the Super NES co-produced by Nintendo and Philips as a result of a partnership between the two companies that occurred alongside the ongoing development of Sony's SNES-based PlayStation standalone console and the Super Disc CD-ROM format.

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, which were echoed in an issue of ''Electronic Games'' published in April 1993. The add-on would have featured additional hardware that would expand the capabilities of the Super NES alongside supporting CDs. Games released on CDs would have used a new CD-ROM format separate from that of Sony's Super Disc format known as the Nintendo Disc (ND), which was based on CD-ROM XA. Games for the ND format would also be compatible with CD-i-based hardware. The add-on's CD drive (or "ND drive" as it was known) is a cartridge-based caddy loading drive instead of a tray loading or top loading drive as found on other CD-ROM add-ons (as well as virtually most optical disc-based game consoles), which can accept discs placed in standard caddy cases. The caddy loading mechanism of the CD drive was designed to protect the discs from damage, and is similar to that found on early CD-ROM drives used in contemporary computers of the time such as certain pre-1994 Macintosh models with built-in CD drives. The CD drive would also operate at both single (1x) and double (2x) speeds. The drive would primarily operate at double speed (2x) for games, with the slower speed (1x) being presumably used only for audio CDs.

As Nintendo was convinced that CD-ROM technology based on a 16-bit processor would not provide consumers with significantly enhanced and unique games, they decided to incorporate a new 32-bit RISC processor clocked at 21.47727MHz, which was reported to be an NEC V810 according to some analysts. The new 32-bit CPU, known as the SCCP, would be included inside a dedicated system cartridge that is required to run the add-on itself, which contains the extra hardware that is dedicated for the add-on such as additional ROM, RAM, and another coprocessor that acts as a decoder for the CD-ROM called "HANDS" (Hyper Advanced Nintendo Data Transfer System). HANDS is a custom chip based around a single 65C02 8-bit processor clocked at 4.295 MHz, and would have also enhanced the SNES's sound capabilities, generating up to four channels of audio from the HANDS chip, which would complement with the CD audio of the add-on unit as well as the stock eight-channel audio of the SNES. The add-on would have also provided a number of copy-protection measures to prevent the use of burned backups of ND format games.

The add-on was quietly cancelled by Nintendo a few years into the concept phase, and no physical prototypes were ever produced before the project was cancelled.

Sony PlayStation SFX-100

The PlayStation (with model number "SFX-100") was a standalone console that would use its own proprietary CD-ROM format designed and solely licensed by Sony known as the Super Disc, while retaining compatibility with SNES game paks via an included cartridge slot.

Prototypes

At least 200 to 300 units of the PlayStation SFX-100 prototype were produced before development of the units were scrapped in favor of the next-generation PlayStation project. Only two known examples of the prototype are confirmed to exist .

In July 2015, it was reported 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. A former Advanta worker, Terry Diebold, acquired the device as part of a lot during Advanta's 2009 bankruptcy auction. 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 missing its original power supply, however (Diebold likely never received the original one during his time at Advanta), and so he used a third-party power supply to power it. This prototype came with a Sony/PlayStation-branded version of the standard Super Famicom controller (model number SHVC-005).

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. 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 PlayStation SFX-100.

Diebold had given the unit to hardware hacker Benjamin Heckendorn, to examine around 2016. He also posted a tear-down video of the system that same year.
Heckendorn also published some technical specifications of the prototype in his teardown video on July 2016, and compared the specs of the device to the other two CD-based add-ons for the TurboGrafx-16 (PC Engine) and Sega Genesis (Sega Mega Drive). Heckendorn said the system would have probably been as powerful as a standard Super NES, but not as powerful as the Sega CD. The standalone unit features two Super NES controller ports, a cartridge slot, a 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. 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 get around the missing power supply issue, Heckendorn created a custom power supply based on the original PlayStation's power supply along with replacing the original power connector of the system with the one from a Sony Walkman to ensure that it would be powered on without the need for its original power supply. Heckendorn 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.

This prototype was auctioned by Diebold in February 2020, with an initial price of , but the auction quickly exceeded within two days. It was sold for 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.

In March 2025, another prototype unit was found to be in Kutaragi's possession, identical to that of the first known prototype unit which was discovered ten years prior.

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, which was shown on July 2016. Note that 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 is also included on the table below.

Legacy

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 (which slightly tarnished Nintendo's brand reputation), and the CD-i is considered a commercial failure. Years later, the cutscenes from the Nintendo-themed CD-i games became popular and were used in internet memes within the modern internet culture in the mid 2000s.

Meanwhile, a tentative reconciliation in late 1992 gave better terms to Nintendo for game royalties while allowing Sony royalties for all other software and the rights to produce SNES-compatible hardware, such as the PlayStation. Sony then pursued their ambitions to launch their own video game console and continued developing the PlayStation, dropping compatibility with the SNES and resulting in more powerful hardware specifications. Sony also entered a 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; the company then continued its development on what would eventually become the Sega Saturn. Kutaragi however became emboldened enough from his experiences working with Nintendo and Sega that Sony could go it alone from scratch, and so broke away from both companies in order to develop their own next generation console.

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. 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: the Japan-only PC-FX game console made by NEC and Hudson Soft and released in December 1994, as well as Nintendo's own Virtual Boy tabletop portable game console released in July 1995 in Japan and August 1995 in North America.

Sony released the PlayStation in Japan in December 1994 and instantly became a worldwide success when it was released overseas in 1995. 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, establishing Sony as a major player in the video game industry.

The broken partnership with Sony has been often 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. 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.

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

Notes

References

External links

*

{{PlayStation (console)

1990s in video gaming
CD-ROM-based consoles
Fifth-generation video game consoles
Home video game consoles
PlayStation (brand)
PlayStation (console)
Sony consoles
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
Vaporware game consoles
Video game console add-ons